Rarely is the blood trail from the culprit to the victim so apparent. This is why the recent uncovering of French oil company, TOTAL S.A real reason behind its recent halt of oil production in the Congo sheds a revelatory light on the repressive business model that pays dividends to their many shareholders, including American pensioners. Through a little investor relations magic, they repackage and sell the benefits of asphyxiating an aspiring African generation to portfolio managers as a steady oil dividend.
This transatlantic oppression is often facilitated, if not encouraged, by two immoral partners: irresponsible global corporations (i.e TOTAL SA (Nasdaq Symbol: TOT)) and repressive African presidents (like President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo who has ruled the country for over 32 years).
These two actors pair American retirees and aspiring congolese youth by mixing some investor relations with a little repressive governance. See below a recent picture taken on the morning of Friday, July 14 of Congolese General Jean Francois Ndenguet, National Police Force, arriving at TOTAL S.A headquarters in Pointe Noire, Congo to handle workers strike related to social grievances and Sunday’s rigged election.)
Here’s how the whitewashing of the crime goes down. Most of the atrocities in the Congo stem from the fact that the majority of the population, more than 2million youths, are politically suppressed and often oppressed. Despite their majority status, their voices do not rule. Like colonizers, Presidents get away with not being accountable to a majority of their population because they only need to keep a small repressive politico-military apparatus content in order to stay in power. A few immoral generals like General Francois Ndenguet (in the picture above) on payroll allows Presidents to keep their base of authority lean and controllable. Being accountable to the barrel of the gun is more manageable than being accountable to the ballot box. (See why dictators and even presidents like this model governance in youtube video rules for rulers below)
This is where irresponsible corporations come into play. These companies are agnostic when it comes to the moral legitimacy of the government that gives them opportunities to make profit. However, they do care about what is lean, controllable, and immoral, because these translate into profits. Massive profits. It is not a coincidence that many of these corporations anchor their business operations in countries where repressive governments hold sham elections. It’s important to note that repressive regimes rarely create wealth, they mostly extract it, as evidenced by the growing economic inequality numbers.
If portfolios managers who invest in these companies ( i.e TOTAL SA, Nasdaq Symbol: TOT) were honest with themselves, they’d admit that what they’re really offering pensioners is an opportunity to put one dollar into their investment fund and get two dollars and less stable world in return in the future.
So take a look at the countries with growing economic inequality. Find their most profitable corporations. Notice that these corporations directly benefit from the suppression of the local people. The more empowered the local population is to determine the course of its development the less profitable their venture will be in that country. Their profit equation is based on an atrocity dividend. They almost need atrocities to keep their costs low. This is the profit they include in their balance sheets and sell to the world’s investors. They repackage the atrocity dividends they receive into pure profit, which most retirement plans are in dire need of. If portfolio managers who invest in these companies ( i.e TOTAL SA, Nasdaq Symbol: TOT) were honest with themselves, they’d admit that what they’re really offering pensioners an opportunity to profit from creating an atrocity ridden and less stable world.
According Morningstar.com Franklin Templeton, T. Rowe Price and BlackRock fund managers are major holders of TOTAL S.A shares Repressive regimes make the world less stable because they are unsustainable. Either they commit genocide or incite a long overdue revolutions. Investing in a company that does business with repressive regimes is investing to make the world lead to those ends. Pensioners ( a list of pension funds invested with the above funds is forthcoming) should be wise to consider this trail before investing their retirement funds with the fund managers who are major holders of TOTAL SA. That’s if they care about the world they are leaving to their children.
Originally posted by APRES SASSOU on medium
Collectif Sassoufit 