Pull down your skirts: Africa

The most expensive piece of geography on earth!

Showing off the Lord’s Treasure: Isaiah 39

After the miraculous recovery of Hezekiah, the Lord was good and merciful to king Hezekiah and gave him 15 years more of life. It was up to Hezekiah if those years would be lived in wisdom and to the glory of God. Merodach- Baladan aspired to align the kingdom of Judah with the Babylonians against the Assyrians. In 2 Chronicles 32:27-29, Hezekiah was deeply worried about Assyria. Feeling honored by the embassy, he gladly welcomed the envoys of this arch-enemy of Assyria, without consulting the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, he showed them his vast treasures, his abundant supplies of food, and his military armaments. God had given Hezekiah great wealth, so the visitors were duly impressed.

Flattery got to Hezekiah, Judah was a lowly nation with little power, and Babylon was a superpower, so Hezekiah felt greatly honored. Proud foolishness on Hezekiah's part to want to impress ungodly men. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, "For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ". It is a glorious thing to live to serve men, but not live to please them. Lesson: What should Hezekiah have said to the envoys? The answer is plain: "Thank you for coming and thank Merodach-Baladan for his gift and invitation, but the fact is I have a divine promise to lean on, it has been confirmed personally in my return to health and cosmically in the sign of the sun. I cannot turn from faith in the promises of God. (Motyer) The prophet Isaiah questioned him though he knew to try to bring the king into a mindset of introspection to recognize the error in himself (which he did not).

Transparency Initiatives detrimental to economic emancipation

• A strong case for public disclosure of revenues from the extractive industries has been made by CAPITAL. Firstly, their observation is that since citizens do not directly bear the burden of taxation, they tend to be less demanding concerning the accountability of those spending the money. The assumption is that there are opportunities for abuse by those in power. There are various ongoing initiatives to promote transparency and accountability in the extractive sector, with different treatment of business confidentiality and government sovereignty issues. The extractive sector is just a fraction of the entire industry, why is it that such disclosure initiatives are not being driven for Agriculture, Tourism, and infrastructural development?
• Two well-known approaches are the “Publish What You Pay” (PWYP) campaign and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). International financial institutions (IFIs) are also actively involved in some transparency activities.
• PWYP is a civil society initiative launched by a coalition of non-governmental organizations in June 2002 that endorses a mandatory approach to revenue transparency, essentially focused on companies' disclosure obligations. PWYP calls for adjustments to existing company laws, accounting standards, and/or stock market listing rules to require the country-by-country breakdown of companies' payments to governments. Disclosure should be on an individual company basis.
• EITI was ironically launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, in September 2002. This was a multi-stakeholder process with unrealistic and manipulative expectations to keep track/monitor the growth potential of African governments by coaxing them to blindly open their skirts to the world. Multi-stakeholders in this case are companies and industry associations, institutional investors and IFIs, and civil society. It is initiatives like this that have prevented economic growth in Africa because any potential growth is thwarted by market manipulation before it is even realized. Seeds grow in the earth and sprout above the earth when the root system has stabilized below, Africa never stood a chance at growth with initiatives like the EITI and PWYP. By monitoring growth on a company basis, algorithms were formulated to forecast market boom, and control was completely rendered to CAPITAL.
• Stock markets, commodity markets, and foreign exchange markets have been operating on a feedback system from data and information generated from such initiatives. No wonder the most expensive piece of geography on earth still has the poorest economies on earth. Why should I tell you what I make from my resource? Do you tell me what you make on yours? How does my declaration help you stop corruption in my own house? Have you managed to stop corruption with the EITI and PWYP? It would be good to hear from a government that has achieved positive results from these initiatives.
• It is time for Africa to put down her skirts now…. Forget the funding leverage it has not benefitted us, cut out the influence of IFIs in the extractive industries. The World Bank Group (WBG), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have publicly endorsed EITI. Pull down your skirts! How do we plan to win with our opponent with us in the locker room? How do we strategize formation with the enemy sitting in our war room? Pull them skirts down to your feet, please.

Strategy

That you may march a thousand Li without tiring yourself is because you travel where there is no enemy. To be certain to take what you attack is to attack a place the enemy does not or cannot protect. To be certain to hold what you defend is to defend a place the enemy dares not or is not able to attack. Therefore, against those skilled in attack, the enemy does not know where to defend, and against the defense experts, the enemy does not know where to attack.

How subtle and insubstantial, that the expert leaves no trace. How divinely mysterious, that he is inaudible. Thus, he is the master of his enemy's fate. His offensive will be irresistible if he makes for his enemy's weak positions; he cannot be overtaken when he withdraws if he moves swiftly. When I wish to give battle, my enemy, even though protected by high walls and deep moats, cannot help but engage me, for I attack a position he must relieve. When I wish to avoid battle, I may defend myself simply by drawing a line on the ground; the enemy will be unable to attack me because I divert him from going where he wishes. If I can determine the enemy's dispositions while, at the same time, I conceal my own, then I can concentrate my forces and his must be divided. And if I concentrate while he divides, I can use my entire strength to attack a fraction of his. Therefore, I will be numerically superior. Then, if I can use many to strike few at the selected point, those I deal with will fall into hopeless straits. (Art of War chapter 6: Void and actuality)

Glory and honor to Yeshua our Christ who gives us wisdom and goes before us, may Holy Spirit never be taken away from us may we be delivered from Hezekiah’s mistake. Until next week God willing Shalom.