The Looting Machine By Tom Burgis

Introduction

The reporter of the Financial Times, Tom Burgis, revealed specific connections between the people who played an essential role in the destruction of African states. The primary writer purpose of writing the book was to explain the disease of the corruption spread in the region of Africa. Those malnourished innocent children and the crops destroyed by the looters were frequently discussed in the book. The book incorporates all the modern values and happenings like murder, assassinations, corporate sector influence, and surveillance of the hypocrites on the activities of associated people. Eyewitness analysis and statements are also part of the writing. Sure, do the people who were associated with the African states do the real stories that open the eyes of the reader regarding the malpractice? There are various case studies, and the evidence reveals the real findings of political relations among multiple states. The plundering of the natural resources of the African countries by the high-class corporations and the government is realistically unfolded.

Discussion

The looting machine is the name of the document, which was written by Tom Burgis, a reporter for the international newspaper. The word loot is explained as the sacking, plundering, grabbing, pillaging, and destroying of goods, materials, and things by using political or military force. In the broader sense, looting also covers actions like embezzlement and theft. These activities are also under the word of booty, such as war booty, industrial, and socio-political plunder (Burgis, 32). Sometimes, looting includes antiquities, as done by the various states from weak countries of the world. Removal of the Egyptian tombs that were later transported to the European tombs, as well as the contents associated with the history of Egypt. History reveals that numerous attacks by the powerful over weaker nations, such as African nations, also contributed to the grabbing of wealth and related precious material. In his book, the writer recognizes the foreign non-Chinese nationals operating in Africa as significant players in the diamond trade between Africa and other nations.

Beny Steinmetz, a man of Israeli nationality, was the healthy local person along with the Root, Brown, and Halliburton who influenced the process of sending highly valuable mines and diamonds to the associated nations. The international fund of the China and Queensway group runs through the book in the form of a thread. The small corporate trader group run by Sam Pa, who was a spy of the communist party of China, has monetized connections to loot the resources of the impoverished nation. China’s influence over poverty has two results, as observed by the author. The role of the Sam pa, a Chinese operator in the African region, and Senegal China have squirrel billions of dollars from Africa. They achieve their purpose of grabbing through the ill-gotten rights over resources and via shell companies in the region. In this, regarding a case of Senegal and China’s acquisition of oil license two fifty-six in Nigeria. The record of the permit was not audited, and there was no process of tendering done by the authorities. Later, the dispute among the members of the Queensway group reveals the actual story.

Other than these activities, the capitalistic plan of the group was not in a proper connection with the government of China. There are people inside the Chinese state organization who have contributed to fulfilling Sam Pa’s agenda (Burgis, 143). Those people who came previously from the West have accomplished their ideas and programs through the same means implied by the Israeli agent. Interestingly, the book has unfolded those multi-dimensional linkages, and the loopholes exploit the accounting whereby large companies are capable of escaping from the taxes and increasing their earning than the state where they were working. Brandishing reports of marketplace responsibility have contributed more than the propaganda that already existed to grab society. The investigation of BSGR regarding corporate destruction over the African continent is available on three continents: Europe, North America, and Africa. In detailing the research, the writer is convinced that financial support from international banks and related monetary organizations, without responsibility to the corporation of multinational areas, has also contributed to the destruction of impoverished regions. Newmont, a group of American nationals, has funds from these international financial organizations for processing a mine of gold in the area of Ghana, which has destroyed the lives of people by making the drinking water poisonous. The authorities have reported before that this processing will not enhance the livelihood of the impoverished nation of Ghana and serve nothing to grabber groups that came from the West. The lives of the anglers became sophisticated with the arrival of gold miners in their state.

The author has not provided any policy formulation techniques or any decision-based agenda that can influence his inclination for political or academic purposes. The circumstances are purely revised using an impartial approach for the primary purpose of unfolding the real plunders and looters of the African states. The author provides a significant place for the normative themes in assessing the sufferings of the Africans from oligarchies, smugglers, warlords, and companies near the environment of raw material locations. The writer has made a difference over the tractions of resources, shadowing of state keeping money away from the populace with general theories operating in the nations of Africa regarding the issues of corruption. Others in the region blame the elite African class and cronies’ decisions and policies as the sole contribution to the underdevelopment of Africa (Burgis, 159). These calculations show the logic of dependency phenomena as a tool for understanding the real conditions of non-development of the African people. The contentions of Smith also explain the factor that the decisions of the African elites unfolded by the author in his book, The Looting Machine.

A powerful African head of the state always requires cash to appease the masses and to influence the election process by illegal means. People of these kinds sell their valuable national assets to meet their elitist needs. They put the state under the shadow by rerouting the money to their packets. Scholars have argued that such barbarism has brought African nations to the ground where they cannot sustain even their primary needs. An example of rigging and influencing of the electoral process is available from the close friend of Joseph Kabila,, an influential politician of Congo, who got a lot of money and gave funding to the friend to buy elections and resources’ leading to his success. Between the years of two thousand twelve, the Progress Panel of Africa has examined over five dealings with Kabila’s friend, which estimates a two-billion-dollar loss to the state of Congo. Ironically, the state has the same amount of aid procured on humanitarian grounds from other wealthy organizations around the world. The Queensbury group has also damaged Guinea’s economy by supporting the junta by spending massive amounts to influence policy decisions.

One of the central themes of the book is the nature of relations between China and the African continent. The theory of dependency has a strong influence over the ties between the two states, as researchers argue that China is continuously colonizing their lands by grabbing their natural resources. Without any partiality, the writer of the book explains that individual acts of the Chinese state cannot reflect the behavior of the country, but evidence reveals that along with the West, China is equally damaging the African region. The author has chosen a journalistic style to describe the available literature on the engagement of China-Africa relationships. The strong argument is there in the elitist relation and the networks of both states with the purpose of avoiding taxes. They acquire billions of dollars in dealings for their corporations, but they have a significant influence on state decisions, which directly affect the lives of ordinary Africans (Burgis, 283-318). Each chapter of the book enhances the interest of the reader with thought-provoking stories about what has been done with this miserable continent by the property owners, smugglers, and cheaters. Even the question arises in the mind of the reader who will be responsible for the looting and havoc which spread across the continent of Africa. The writer, with such a difficult task, incorporates the fascinating calculations in the book, exciting events, and the approach he used to develop for the poor people of Africa.

Conclusions

To conclude the discussion, it is worth noting that the gems, metal, and rare earth mineral resources business was substantive in Africa, but the disastrous breakup of society is a continuation of part of Africa. The level of looting has accelerated, which has never happened before. Enhancement in the demands of natural African resources provided a handful of people to become rich, but the excessive number of people in the continent of Africa is fleecing. Other nations thought Africa was a drain of charity, but a deep look revealed another picture. Three hundred thirty-three billion exports of natural resources were calculated in two thousand ten, which was more than seven times the money Africa received as aid. Systematic looting is going on in the resource states of Africa.

Works Cited

Burgis, Tom. The looting machine: warlords, tycoons, smugglers and the systematic theft of Africa’s wealth. London: William Collins, 2015.