The 17-year-old Swede says it is under-reported that Africa is the continent worst hit by global warming.

In Stockholm, Greta Thunberg used video links to bring participants into the press conference of the  FridaysForFuture forum she established 18 months ago.

Participants include Ugandan activist Vanessa Natake who made the news last week by complaining about being cropped out of a group picture taken by an international agency at Davos featuring Thunberg.

She says being left out of the picture makes it more difficult for her to put pressure on leaders at home.

South African activist Ayakha Melithafa says it’s difficult to persuade her leaders to prioritise climate change because they are dealing with so many other socio-economic crises. 

Picture credit Time Magazine

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Motsepe remarks were made at dinner Trump hosted at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

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It’s axiomatic that the economic fortunes of South Africa and most other countries are inextricably linked to the United States.

So African Rainbow Mineral CEO Patrice Motsepe is correct in saying the success of the US is success for the rest of the world.

Whether or not the impeached and five-times bankrupt Donald Trump can take credit for US success is moot.

As is the question whether Motsepe is qualified to speak for Africa in expressing affection for the man who dismisses Africa as a shit hole.

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Essential for survival in Africa is being able to take the rough with the smooth.

So, after British Premier Boris Johnson told an investment conference in London that  a post-BREXIT Britain would be able to open its borders to Africa there was hardly a blink about US President  Donald Trump tipping off the Wall Street Journal in Davos that he is about to add four African countries to those subject to US travel bans.

Johnson believes the continent with some of the fastest growing economies in the world should be courted by Britain to make up on business it is losing by leaving the European Union.

Trump, by contrast believes there are redneck American votes to be won by adding Nigeria, Tanzania, Sudan and Eritrea to his list of majority-Muslim countries whose subjects find it increasingly difficult to visit the U.S.

Understandably this dichotomy from two of the continent’s oldest Western friends will drive many Africans even further behind the Great Wall of China.

Beijing’s burgeoning links with Africa are based on non-interference in the affairs of the countries with which they are doing business.

This is an extremely attractive quality among those African leaders who undemocratic, authoritarian and corrupt practices and human rights violations put them beyond the pale of traditional European partners.

A very strong message of support came from two of these this week.

France and German celebrated the anniversary of the signing of bilateral friendship treaties in 1963 and 2019 in an unprecedentedly novel way.

In South Africa, they exchanged ambassadors for the day.

German Ambassador Martin Schäffer and his French counterpart Aurèlien Lechevallier  gave an upbeat  media briefing about swapping desks for the day.

They said it was more than a  symbolic nod to the  reconciliation between the two engines of the European Union.

“Without German French reconciliation there could not have been a united Europe,” asserted Schäfer.

It was also a salutary lesson to African about the lasting value of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Both ambassadors noted this was particularly germane  to  South Africa with its troubled history.

The Franco-German example was particularly relevant at this time of commercial tension between the United State and China.

Africa needed a more robust, more united and stronger Europe to be a reliable partner.

“This is the right moment to show the convergence between Germany and France,” said Lechevallier.

“We are moving together with Africa creating investment and economic opportunities.

“There already are many French and German companies creating tens of thousands of jobs and we want South African companies to invest in France and Germany.

“Schäfer added: “It is a simple fact that Europe – and Germany and France are an integral part of that is by far Africa’s biggest read and investment partner.

“We do not come and make a quick buck.

“We come and we stay and we become corporate citizens.”

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The US President’s envoy to Harare has, meanwhile, spelled out how to end sanctions Washington slapped on Zimbabwe 16 years ago.

In New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Zimbabwe’s President  Emmerson Mnangagwa tells reporters he’s repeated his offer to his US counterpart Donald Trump of land at Victoria Falls to build a golf course.

He says he first made the offer at the Davos summit earlier this year.

Trump’s made no sign of taking it up.

However his ambassador to Harare Brian Nichols is adamant the new Zimbabwe administration is all talk and not action and US sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe for gross human rights violations and corruption  in 2002 will stay in place until there is a demonstrable change in in approach.  

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He’s being pressed by his continental peers to demand from his host a clear policy on Africa.

From the start of his presidency the US leader has trumpeted America first.

Few accepted that 15 months after coming to power, Donald Trump will continue to ignore the continent containing a quarter of the world’s population.

He met some African leaders on the sideline of the Davos conference in Switzerland this year.

But this was only days after  Trump’s foul-mouthed  dismissal of African countries .

He send his then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to the continent to apologize but sacked him before he could report on his safari.

The post Mr Buhari goes to Washington appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gates says by turning his back on Africa, Trump asks handing it to the competition.

The second richest man in the world has spent $12 billion fighting malaria and tuberculosis in Africa

Bill Gates says too much America first risks losing African stability and  goodwill.

While Trump looks away from Africa, countries like China are expanding their influence across the continent.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says Trump, who’s due in Davos today, will be stressing his American policy.

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