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‘to behave ethically in terms of trade with Africa it could be achieved overnight it just takes a government and Tynwald to stop allowing us to be part of the exploitation of Africa it may make a difference’

That Manx Radio story got me thinking about our links as an Island with Africa. I’ve been interested in this topic since the late 1970s when I was a campaigner against apartheid and the white regime in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

The Isle of Man government is proud of its overseas aid record and keeps ‘plugging’ the digging of bore holes in Kenya or passing on a redundant fishery protection vessel to Sierra Leone etc. But when we are not involved in aid to Africa we can also be aiding rich Africans with their property purchases it seems.

According to this report (sourced from Manx Radio) an Angolan woman reputed to be worth £2 billion has just used IOM offshore interests to purchase a home.

Here’s the section from the finance uncovered.org story:

So what has the demonstrations by Irish Beef Farmers during late July and August got to do with the fate of the Amazon Rainforest. More to the point why are the Socialist Left in Ireland aligning themselves with the plight of small farmers?

Langouet in Brittany is just a small town of 600 people but its Major is in trouble for defying the central authorities. He’s banned pesticides and he and his fellow citizens are taking other unilateral steps to protect their environment.

Methane concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere are linked to fracking says Green News.ie. Fracking is controversial with opposition in Britain and Ireland to the practice. Now Green News posits a link to methane:

“Increasing methane concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere over the past decade is likely linked to emissions from the fracking industry, a new US study has found.

As the immanence of Brexit focuses concern on the possibility of a hard border in Ireland the inherent danger has become apparent with a sophisticated attack on the PSNI near Wattlebridge in Fermanagh.

Roads in the area were closed yesterday and RTE reports that as police and security forces were dealing with one device another exploded nearby. Apparently the initial device was a hoax.

Link here to a report by RTE:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0819/1069611-explosion-in-fermanagh/

As France gears up for the G7 in Biarritz in a few days time there is a demonstration tomorrow in Nantes over the arrest of an Italian (Vicenzo Vecchi) who took part in G8 demos almost two decades ago. The Breton news site 7seizh reports:

Darach Ó Séaghdha is an Irish writer, podcaster and Irish language activist. Interestingly his parents spoke to him English whilst they conversed in Gaelic. A sadly familiar root cause of Gaelic's demise. He is the author of " Motherfoclóir: Dispatches from a Not So Dead Language"which won the Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the 2017 Irish Book Awards.

The Irish Times has an article last week on the most mysterious and perhaps notorious of ‘the disappeared’ i.e. those people killed by the IRA during the troubles and buried surreptitiously:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/no-indication-robert-naira...

Whilst anger in communities around the North Irish Sea about pollution of nuclear waste from Sellafield is muted these days in France the parallel problem of the (smaller) reprocessing facility at Cap de la Hague in Normandy is still a focus of protest.

The Breton news site ‘7seizh’ reports (translation):

“Friday, August 16, the flagship Rainbow Warrior and Greenpeace activists left the port of Cherbourg early in the morning towards Cape Hague, one of the most nuclearized areas in the world.