Earthworm<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@beverly_ochieng" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>beverly_ochieng</span></a></span> <- thank you for the interesting article! :anarchoheart3: </p><p>This exemplifies a lot: </p><p>Transnational corporations exploit the resources of the global south, sowing corruption and leaving (especially when environmental damage is taken into account) very little benefit for the local population.<br>The western-aligned African governments* help the mining corporations to continue with these practices. The corporations give them some crumbs, the administrations pass a small part of these crumbs to the population.<br>Then, because of underlying unresolved social problems (including poverty, corruption, lack of opportunities...), terrorist groups emerge and destabilize a region that is can well be denominated "the Canary in the Coalmine of climate change".<br>Western governments "help" the Mali by pimping up the military, because of a sad lack of recognition of the benefits of a healthy civil society. <br>Geopolitics and Imperialism lead to Russia-backed military coups.</p><p>I mean, I am sad that a the money goes to a military junta, but a nationalization of the benefits of mining activity is totally justified. The shareholders really don't need the money. The people of Mali do.</p><p>So, maybe it would have been a great idea to not push the exploitation to a point where the countries become unstable, just to earn some bucks for already rich owners of investment funds?</p><p>To put the 160 million $ that were paid to the government into perspective:<br>Resolut reported in 2023 a net profit after tax of 91 million $, the gold mine in Mali constituting approximately two thirds of their total activity. </p><p><a href="https://www.rml.com.au/investors/reports/annual-reports/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">rml.com.au/investors/reports/a</span><span class="invisible">nnual-reports/</span></a></p><p>* Note: Not that Russia or China treat these countries better than US or Europe, but also not much worse.</p><p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@newyorktimes" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>newyorktimes</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Mali" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Mali</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Africa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Africa</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Australia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Australia</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Mining" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Mining</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NaturalResources" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NaturalResources</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MilitaryCoup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MilitaryCoup</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Russia</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sahel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Sahel</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Gold" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gold</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Resolut" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Resolut</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NeoColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NeoColonialism</span></a></p>