Le mercredi 20
novembre 2013
6時、曇り、24℃、65％。
今朝Vodacomとのネット契約が切れる可能性がある。Canal＋とのサテライトTV受信契約も切れるはずだ。Canal+はキプシに事務所ができたので一昨日更新手続きをしてしまった。Canal+がVodacomと同様に愚かであれば、TVも今日切れてしまうだろう。
9時半、ネット契約更新した。
アフリカ大陸のニュースを拾ってブログに乗せているが、戦争と病気と政治腐敗の話ばかりで読者諸氏も疲れてしまうのかもしれない。ケニアの村人が家畜泥棒チータ君を追い駆けて捕まえた話は普段の倍のアクセスがあった。なるほどね。
エディ・マーフィー主演の映画『Coming to America、星の王子 ニューヨークへ行く』に出てくるようなアフリカの王国がある。それがスワジランドだ。ディズニー・ランドではない。アフリカに珍しい王国である。現国王はムスワティIII世。以前彼がミニスカートを禁止したことは既に書いた。去年2012年7月30日のことである。
絶対王政下の国王ともいえるムスワティIII世が一目も二目もおく相手がいる。王妃ではない。コカコーラ社（コーク）である。
コークの収入はスワジランドのGNPの10倍もある。それだけではない。コークは四半世紀前にアパルトヘイトの南アから工場を隣国であるスワジランドに移した。スワジランド・コカコーラ社の製品輸出は全輸出額の50％を占め、スワジランドのGNPの10％にあたるのである。いいかえれば、浪費家ムスワティ国王の経費をコークが担っているといえる。
だからコークのいうことをムスワティ国王もよくきくということだ。コカコーラ社は勿論この国の政治に口出しなどしていないと噂を全面否定だ。
スワジランドでは去る9月25日国会議員55名が選ばれた。政党がないのだから全員無所属。国王の諮問機関というより対外的化粧だと悪口を言われている。しかし、こうして少しづつ「立憲君主国」の体裁を整えていくのであろう。なにしろ国民が貧しいとはいえ、120万人しかいない小国である。去年書いたときよりも妻の数も子供の数も増えているかもしれない。そのうち西欧で教育を受けた王子の時代がくるにちがいない。
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| ムスワティIII世と后の一人 |
Le vrai roi du
Swaziland, c'est Coca-Cola
La firme américaine de
soda détient un pouvoir colossal dans le petit royaume.
Une démocratie
monarchique. C’est le nom que donne maintenant le roi Mswati III à sa monarchie
du Swaziland. N’y voyez pas un quelconque signe de changement. Tout, dans ce
pays coincé entre l’Afrique du sud et le Mozambique, confine à la mascarade. A
commencer par les élections qui se sont tenues le 20 septembre dernier au cours
desquelles 55 députés sans étiquette —les partis sont interdits— ont été élus
pour siéger dans un parlement fantoche. Les rares membres de l’opposition en liberté
ont dénoncé un simulacre de scrutin.
Le souverain avoue
volontiers son goût pour le spectacle, lui qui, après avoir réaffirmé
l’interdiction de la mini-jupe, a donné une nouvelle fête des roseaux en
septembre 2013. Les réjouissances ont été l’occasion, comme d'habitude, pour sa
majesté de choisir une nouvelle compagne parmi un parterre de vierges dénudées.
Fait curieux dans un Etat dont la porte-parole des forces de l’ordre avait
expliqué en juin 2012 que «le viol est facilité [par la mini-jupe] parce qu’il
est facile de retirer la petite pièce de tissu».
Drapé dans ses habits
de lumières, le roi déploie tous les efforts possibles pour garder la mainmise
sur la politique et l’économie du pays. Face à Coca-Cola pourtant, le roi est
nu. C’est du moins ce que laissent à penser les déclarations de Sam Mkhombe,
l’ex-secrétaire privé de Mswati.
Dans un article publié
par le Wall Street Journal, ce dernier accuse le souverain de «faire tout ce
que [Coca-Cola] lui ordonne». Il faut dire que l’entreprise américaine pèse
pour près d’un dixième du produit national brut et génère la moitié de sa
production à l’exportation. Un phénomène parfois qualifié de
«Coca-Colonisation».
Même si le producteur
de soda affirme ne pas faire de politique, il contribue, en négociant
directement avec Mswati, à prolonger son règne et à accentuer son contrôle sur
des pans entiers de l’économie. Selon l’association Freedom House, la famille
royale s’est accaparée quelque 26 millions de dollars sur le budget de l’Etat
en 2012. Pour se maintenir au pouvoir, le roi mène également une diplomatie des
plus habiles en préservant de bonnes relations avec les Etats d’Afrique
australe et de l'Union européenne. L'Etat swazi demeure aussi l’un des derniers
Etats au monde à reconnaître Taiwan, ce qui lui permet de toucher une aide
annuelle de 2 millions de dollars de la part du gouvernement de l'ïle, rapporte
Courrier International.
（上記の記事のソースになったWallstreetの記事）
In
Swaziland, Coke Holds Sway With the King
Some
Swaziland Citizens Criticize King's Close Ties With Coke
By PATRICK
MCGROARTY CONNECT
Nov. 18,
2013 7:51 p.m. ET
MATSAPHA,
Swaziland—When Coca-Cola Co. executives want things done in this tiny African
monarchy, they don't call on lobbyists or local politicians. Instead, former
Coke employees and Swazi officials say, they go see the king.
Coke's sway
with Swaziland's King Mswati III has enabled the drinks maker to secure a 6%
tax rate, far below the official 27.5% corporate rate, according to a former
minister who said he took part in the negotiations. "The king does
everything they say," says Sam Mkhombe, who was King Mswati III's private
secretary for seven years and traveled with him to Coke's Atlanta headquarters
in 2007.
For Coke,
whose $48 billion in revenue last year was 10 times the value of Swaziland's
gross domestic product, influence here comes with an awkward compromise: Coke
has moved front and center among the multinationals whose tax dues and economic
output provide critical foreign capital to authoritarian African countries.
Coke
declined to say what tax rate it pays in Swaziland, but it said it doesn't play
politics here or elsewhere. "As a company policy, we do not take positions
on the affairs of sovereign governments," Coke said in a written response
to questions sent by email. "We operate with the highest standards of
integrity in Swaziland just as we do in any of the more than 200 countries
where we do business."
The company
also disputed the claims of former Coke employees and former government
officials that Coke executives meet regularly with the king and his aides.
"Our senior leaders do not regularly meet with King Mswati, nor do they
serve as ambassadors on behalf of Swaziland," Coke said.
Percy
Simelane, a spokesman for Swaziland's government, declined to discuss the
king's relationship with Coke in detail. "His Majesty the King has an
open-door policy with all investors and their companies and not just Coca-Cola,"
he said.
Other
companies have faced criticism about some of their operations overseas. Exxon
Mobil Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp., for example, are the top investors in
Equatorial Guinea's oil and gas industry, which generates almost all the tax
revenue for the regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa's
longest-serving ruler.
The
Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht SA is the biggest private employer in
Angola, where President José Eduardo dos Santos has been in power since 1979, just
one month less than Mr. Mbasogo.
In 2009
complaints from international advocacy groups prompted Nestlé SA to stop buying
milk from a farm controlled by the family of Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe, another leader in power for more than three decades.
Representatives
for ExxonMobil and Marathon declined to answer specific questions about the
relationship between their businesses and the government of Equatorial Guinea.
Odebrecht
said its work on energy, water, sanitation and other projects benefited all
Angolans, not a specific government. "Odebrecht is proud to be actively
participating in the reconstruction and development of the country," the
company said.
A
spokeswoman for Nestlé said the company has started two programs to secure milk
from small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe.
A quarter
century ago, Coke moved a factory making the concentrate bottlers mix with
water to produce its drinks into Swaziland from neighboring South Africa. The
move came at the height of a global outcry and sanctions against the
white-minority regime there.
Today,
Coke's factory generates more than half of Swaziland's exports, the central
bank says, and nearly a 10th of its gross domestic product. The nearly 500
employees inside Coke's compound near Swaziland's main airport are among the
country's best paid, say former employees and union leaders who have tried
unsuccessfully to organize them. And Coke says it spent $5 million in the past
three years on water systems, medical equipment, education programs and an HIV
treatment center.
"If
Coca-Cola were to use that muscle, we would have a bigger potential for
change," said Musa Hlophe, a pro-democracy campaigner and the former head
of the Federation of Swazi Employers.
Coke has
become a cornerstone of an economy that allowed King Mswati III's royal family
to draw an allowance of $26 million from the government's budget in 2012,
according to the pro-democracy group Freedom House. Meanwhile, the World Bank
says two-thirds of the landlocked country's 1.2 million citizens live below the
poverty line.
"I
have never met that figure flying on its own for expenditure by the royal
family," said Mr. Simelane, the government spokesman. "Budget
allocations are made to all state institutions in order for them to function,
including the King's Office, which covers a wide spectrum of functions."
Swaziland's
ruling family has kept a tight grip on the country's politics, banning
political parties and arresting union leaders sporadically over the years on
charges of dissent and disturbing the peace, the leaders and human-rights
groups say. In September, Swazis elected 55 members of a parliament that
answers to the king.
Some
analysts say Coke and other big companies in Swaziland now face the delicate
task of demonstrating that its booming business isn't intertwined with the
country's repressive politics.
"The
king's refusal to initiate political and fiscal reforms continues to be a point
of public frustration, so there's a reputational risk of dealing with a
government like Swaziland's," says Pamela Wadi, a senior consultant at the
corporate advisory firm Control Risks. In addition to Swaziland, Coke has been
called on to address concerns in other countries, from water shortages in India
to Russia's treatment of gays.
Coke said
earlier this month that it would take steps to prevent land grabs by its sugarcane
suppliers, including third-party reviews in countries such as Brazil, the
Philippines and South Africa. The move came after an Oxfam campaign criticizing
Coke and other companies for not doing enough to protect farmers' rights
generated more than 225,000 signatures on petitions.
Africa is a
small but fast-growing market for Coke, which is struggling with sluggish sales
in the U.S. and Europe. In some African countries, people drink fewer than 50
servings of Coke products a year, compared with 750 servings in Mexico and 400
in the U.S.
In a bid to
close the gap, Coke and its bottlers and distributors have planned to invest
$12 billion in Africa between 2010 and 2020. The company doesn't disclose sales
in Africa, but beverage volume at its Eurasia and Africa unit rose 9% in the
first nine months of 2013 from a year earlier, compared with 2% globally.
Still, in
the eyes of some Swazi residents, Coke's booming business in a repressive
country has created an image problem.
"In a
sense we have this regime not because it's doing well," said Wander
Mkhonza, a union leader who said he has been arrested a half-dozen times and
was jailed for more than a month earlier this year on sedition charges, which
he denies. It's there, he said, "because the businesses around it are
doing well."
—Mike
Esterl in Atlanta contributed to this article.
