But, y’see, Sigrid, the ‘Master Plan’ for ProSavana has now been leaked, and actually (and not surprisingly) it turns out that it’s just another massive land grab. Not a business venture? Oh, sorry, you’re right. It’s a government program designed to promote, accommodate, and take kickbacks from a multitude of business ventures. All at the expense of the peasants and small-holders in the region, of course, who will be stripped of their resources and pushed around like cattle.

So, no, Sigrid, it is you who is misguided. And barking up the wrong tree.

One of the problems (out of many) with your strain of tedious corporate cheerlead-ism is it doesn’t seem to take account of the lengthy track record of devastation these land grabs (yes, say it, Sigrid: *land* *grabs*) leave in their wake. And by the use of ostensibly benign language you think maybe you can pull the wool over peoples’ eyes one more time. But you’re not fooling anyone here. Really you’re not.

The folks over at GRAIN.org have been good enough to give the ProSavana ‘Master Plan’ a thorough looking-over. They have been analyzing these kinds of issues for 30 years now. I would encourage you, Sigrid, and anyone else interested, to read their entire article on the matter, but I’ll include a few choice bits in this forum:

“Civil society groups have finally seen a leaked copy of the most recent version of the Master Plan for the ProSAVANA programme, which is dated March 2013. The copy makes clear the project’s intentions and confirms that the governments of Japan, Brazil and Mozambique are secretly paving the way for a massive land grab in Northern Mozambique.”

“The proponents of the ProSAVANA programme have said repeatedly that this is a programme to support small farmers. But the Master Plan only considers how small farmers can support agribusiness.”

“The Master Plan, in its current form, would destroy peasant agriculture by wiping out farmer seed systems, local knowledge, local food cultures and traditional systems of land management. It will displace peasants from their lands or force them on to fixed parcels of land where they will be obliged to produce under contract production for corporations and to go into debt to pay for the seeds, fertilisers and pesticides required. The peasants that do get private land titles will be left at extreme risk of quickly losing their lands to corporations and big farmers.

It is telling that only one of the seven clusters in the Master Plan is aimed at small scale farmers and family food production. And this cluster only proposes the same old failed green revolution model of development. The Master Plan puts no real thought and energy into the needs and capacities of peasants in the Nacala Corridor.”

“Corporations are the big beneficiaries of this Master Plan.”

“Seeing the Master Plan only confirms our determination to stop the ProSAVANA programme and to support Mozambican peasants and people in their struggle for food sovereignty.”

http://rajpatel.org/2010/11/25/jesus-christ-must-have-had-mud-on-his-shoes
http://archive.is/FrIuB

He grew up a “God-fearing Hindu,” but now calls himself an “atheist Hindu,” even though, he said, “there are traditions in everything from liberation theology to Zen Buddhism that I find attractive.”

- Lauren Collins (Our Far-Flung Correspondents, “Are You the Messiah?,” The New Yorker, November 29, 2010, p. 34 – http://archive.is/AKzay)

1 JN 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

DAN 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

Specifically, my hopes of a Catholic Marxist tradition emerging in the Southern United States is woefully ungrounded in an analysis of history. Although New England was initially conceived as a Protesant anti-capitalist enclave, crossing my fingers for revolutionary Jesuits to spring from the Bible Belt is, well, a little too wishful.

http://rajpatel.org/2004/11/11/buddha-on-the-u-s-election/
http://archive.is/CA2BD

What Are Jesuits? What About Liberation Theology? A Papal Explainer.

More symbolically, liberation theology argues that God identifies with the oppressed, and that Christianity should take upon itself the lens of the poor. Both (liberation & black liberation) theologies are also often derided as “Marxist” by conservatives (remember Rev. Wright?: http://archive.is/g4tK0 – find [Ctrl+F]: “Marxist”)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/03/14/jesuits_and_liberation_theology_explainer_pope_francis_is_the_first_jesuit.html
http://archive.is/j7vVE

1828 edition of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language

Jesuitism JES’UITISM, n. The arts, principles and practices of the Jesuits.1. Cunning, deceit; hypocrisy; prevarication; deceptive practices to effect a purpose.

http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,jesuitism
http://archive.is/B5XfB

Latin America’s experience is very specific, relating to its history, to various circumstances at the level of governments, popular organizations, and sociological movements such as the theory of independence and liberation theology. Schools of thought have ‘blossomed’ and have led to the present situation.

http://www.share-international.org/magazine/old_issues/2009/2009-07.htm
http://archive.is/aR2C2 (find [Ctrl+F]: “liberation theology”)

PSA 53:4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

D.T. Suzuki: credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to the West.

http://www.azenlife-film.org/top.htm
http://archive.is/Krfk9

In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Erskine Lane, a Radcliffe graduate and Theosophist with multiple contacts with the Bahá’í Faith both in America and in Japan. Later Suzuki himself joined the Theosophical Society Adyar and was an active Theosophist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._T._Suzuki
http://archive.is/8M39v (find [Ctrl+F]: “Suzuki himself”)

The expressions of those shared occult interests are clear, even if those interests should not be “overemphasized”. First, Suzuki’s theosophical interests were expressed, for example, when he and Beatrice opened a Theosophical Lodge in Kyoto during the 1920s as well as in the pages of the periodical they co-edited.

http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2877
http://www.webcitation.org/6Cy4H5tnP (see p. 16/33)

“Suzuki presents a version of Zen that can be described as detraditionalized and essentialized. This resemblance is not coincidental, since Suzuki was also influenced by Western esotericism, and even joined the Theosophical Society.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._T._Suzuki
http://archive.is/8M39v (find [Ctrl+F]: “even joined”)

In a letter of September 1920 to the international secretary of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Jack Brinkley wrote that (secretary of the lodge) Captain B. Kon had to retire for personal reasons and that he had been elected to fill the vacancy. He also mentioned that the lodge had been reorganized to ensure there were enough officers to do the necessary work and enclosed a list of the officers which included Mr. T. Suzuki as President and Mrs. B. L. Suzuki on the Lodge Committee.

http://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/1254
http://archive.is/awEXH

1 JN 2:26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

1 TIM 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/121363629/THE-WEAPONS-OF-OUR-WARFARE

I seem to join the debate a bit late.

I am currently doing academic research on ProSavana, and I have completed my fieldresearch to Nampula were I spoke with a range of stakeholders (government, pro-savana workers, farmers, NGOs etc).

Raj, Garrett, bOa. I’m sorry (or rather we should be happy) to tell you that the above blog post is severely misguided.

ProSavana is by and large in accordance with Mozambique’s national agri strategy PEDSA. PEDSA allows for greater government intervention to direct the development of the agricultural sector (a change from the laissez faire policies that the World Bank used to push for in Moz). PEDSA calls for a focus on small-holders (which ProSavana does if you look at the various proposed projects) while encouraging private investment into the agricultural sector (which ProSavana also does).

The idea is to strengthen small holders position and access to inputs in order to transform the agricultural sector, and have this financed not only by the public sector, but also by private sector investments as the public sector does not have the resources to invest the amounts that are needed.

It does however NOT mean that ProSavana consists of a bunch of investors that will be “buying” land. In fact ProSavana has mapped out where there is free land, and points out that this is very limited and thus does not recommend large scale land investments outside the few pockets of unused land. Investors are recommended to invest higher up the value chain, in processing for example. Or to engage with smallholders as contractors (providing inputs to small farmers, and then buying their produce).

And no, ProSavana is not a businessventure. ProSavana is a government development program that aspires to ensure that investments are made in the most beneficial and responsible manner.

ProSavana consists of extensive research into the agriculture of the region, constraints and potentials etc. This information can then be used to determine what type of investments (and where) is desirable and not desirable. I don’t understand how anyone can think that possessing in-depth information can ever be bad for the government to make adequate decisions.

You can find the draft plans for ProSavana online and read for yourself. The problem is I don’t think most people can be bothered to read 500 pages of detailed information, and simply continue to rely on blog posts like this.

I agree that ProSavana can be criticised for their lack of transparency and lack of dissemination. Since November 2012 however they have started to disseminate information and meet with civil society to exchange views on ProSavana. I am sure there are aspects of ProSavana that could be improved through constructive critique from civil society, but this cannot be done if we are not well informed.

Anything current on the UNAC efforts and the Pro Savana project? Publications, Mozambique News etc? Is Pro Savana going forward?

Jim Traub

http://www.waronwant.org/about-us/extra/extra/inform/17755-the-hunger-games

“The UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) is using the aid budget to tighten the corporate stranglehold over the global food system.

This report reveals how DFID has been using hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money with the express purpose of extending the power of agribusiness over the production of food, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. While this will increase the profits of corporate giants such as Monsanto, Unilever and Syngenta, it threatens to disempower small farmers and rural communities and condemn them to long-term poverty.”