President, Jackson discuss investment
Saturday, 24 September 2011 21:43
From Morris Mkwate in New York
PRESIDENT Mugabe met an American business delegation led by civil rights leader the Reverend Jesse Jackson here on Thursday evening to discuss investment opportunities in Zimbabwe. The group, which is eyeing investment in health, construction, tourism and the media, is likely to visit the country next month.
In an interview soon after the meeting, Rev Jackson said Zimbabwe’s political stability created conducive investment conditions. He said the country should continue to lead in many areas.
“It was a very good meeting. I am interested in trying to work on ways to have more reconciliation in Zimbabwe which will create more opportunities for economic investment and growth,” he said.
“Before leading into the free South Africa, Zimbabwe laid the political groundwork for the new South Africa. There have been some problems, and I hope that now that there is a coalition Government, the President and the Prime Minister can really work together.
“If the world sees them working together, it makes favourable conditions for investment and that’s how you grow.”
Rev Jackson said some American investors intended to build medical institutions and more affordable houses.
“There were things (that emerged in the meeting) like access to more medical equipment. There are businesspeople here who know how to build medical institutions and build more affordable housing.
“So, our interest is to try to figure out a way to get the rival forces to see that there are some values that transcend politics. There is a national interest in opening up access to capital, industry, technology, medical equipment, housing, deal flow and those things we have in common.”
Prior to meeting the President, Rev Jackson met Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Chicago twice. He could not, however, be drawn into revealing details of their deliberations.
“I do know both. Both are Zimbabweans and both love the country. They will keep working to finally find common ground. At some point, there is progress. You move from bad ground to common ground. That’s where progress really takes place.
“I look forward to being a factor in helping to bring them closer together so that Zimbabwe’s interests and growth can take place. The good news is they have worked out a relationship.
“Both of them work in the same place; violence is down and that’s a good thing. So, we should build on that. That’s a great model and they should build on that. It would not be appropriate to discuss that (the meeting with Prime Minister Tsvangirai) except that our interest is very transparent.
“Our interest is in growing and developing Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has one of the most educated populations in all of Africa and has led the way in so many areas. The more they work together the more they are going to find out that there is profit in unity and loss in conflict.”
On sanctions being a major impediment to economic development, he said it was time for the parties involved to discuss the matter.
“Now is the time to engage and talk it out and not fight it out. I think there has been enough fighting and gamesmanship. If you engage you will find common ground.
“I am excited about the prospects. The more they work together the more good things will come your way; and good things mean becoming investment-worthy and having investment attractiveness.”
- The Sunday Mail
Labels: JESSE JACKSON, ROBERT MUGABE
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We Need Initiative to Rebuild America
by Jesse Jackson
'There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America."
With these words at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama electrified a divided country, launching a victorious Senate campaign, and four years later, a triumphant presidential campaign.
He took office amid the worst conditions facing any incoming president since Franklin D. Roosevelt -- a great recession, two wars, financial free-fall. In his first year he staved off depression, rescued the banks and labored to pass some health-care reform.
But the test of whether this is truly a United States of America still awaits. If we are one America, then we must act together to help those hit the hardest by the economic calamities. The economists say the recovery has started, but in urban and rural America, things are getting worse. The industrial Midwest is still reeling, and many of the jobs aren't coming back. California, Florida and Nevada are still staggered by the collapse in housing values -- and now brutal cuts are coming from state and local budgets.
With the banks saved and massive job loss staunched, many economists -- including some in the White House -- now assume the recovery will take its course, and employment is a "lagging indicator." So it's time to focus on deficit reduction and closing down the emergency Federal Reserve programs that gave banks a lifeline. And after the big fight on health care, Congress is looking to pass some kind of financial reform, a token "jobs" program, and get out of town to campaign for re-election.
But take one look at Detroit -- or at Cleveland or South Chicago. Some of Detroit's -- and the Midwest's -- problems are self-generated. But many come from the decadelong decline of manufacturing that culminated in the collapse of the auto industry.
Unemployment among the young is at its highest levels since the government began keeping track after World War II. For low-income black teenagers, according to the New York Times, only 4 in 100 found jobs this fall.
If we are truly one America, we cannot abandon these kids to idleness, crime, drugs and poverty. We cannot abandon industrial cities in despair. We cannot allow millions of Americans to lose their homes while saving the predatory lenders that put many of them in the fix they are in.
This administration and the Congress must step up to this challenge. We need a bold new initiative to rebuild America. Across the country, our basic infrastructure is in dire need of repair and renewal. Leaking sewer systems expose millions to befouled water dangerous to their health. Outmoded or absent mass transit clogs streets, wastes hours in gridlock and exacts a cruel tax on our lives as well as our economy. An outmoded energy system leaves us ever more dependent on foreign oil, while we fail to lead the new green industrial revolution that will generate the growth markets of the future.
President Obama called us to build our economy on a new foundation -- investing in infrastructure, in new energy, in education and training. We now need a policy to fit the vision. Establish a national infrastructure bank, providing guarantees for pension funds, to invest in building the new green infrastructure of the 21st century and put people to work. Invest in children, ensuring that they have the best education available in the world, from pre-K to affordable college, no matter where they are born.
And then target those investments on the areas most in need -- on our cities in despair, our depressed rural areas. Provide direct public service jobs so young people can get the discipline, skills and hope that come from work.
If this is one America, it is not enough to rescue Wall Street and abandon Detroit. It is not acceptable to write off our cities or our rural areas as lost. Surely, if we can plan to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, we can plan to rebuild Detroit and South Chicago.
A United States of America -- now is the time to prove it.
Labels: GREAT DEPRESSION II, JESSE JACKSON
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Rev Jesse Jackson offers to broker Zim talks
Nyarai Chidemo
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:52:00 +0000
AFRICAN American civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson has urged President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to show their commitment to peace through negotiation and offered to broker talks between the two leaders to end the crisis in the country. Jackson who was speaking to Voice of America radio said he was aggrieved by the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.
"We are pained, given the tremendous role that Zimbabwe played in liberating southern Africa from colonial rule. Now we must work diligently, together with President Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai to get Zimbabwe back into a reconstruction mode again," he said.
Jackson called on all people to assist the people of Zimbabwe find a way out of their current political crisis.
"If this were a white regime in Zimbabwe seen as holding up an election, the world would cry out to ask for fairness and open, free fair election without violence so we can again begin to get resources back into Zimbabwe to reduce inflation, to revive the economy. Zimbabweans need food and health and housing and capacity to restart their economy," Jackson said.
Jackson said some Western voices have not been loud enough about elections in other countries where the opposition there had complained about irregularities. But he said Africans should not look for a reason not to work for peace.
"We should not stand idly by and by some romantic notion of friendship be too weak to take a stand for openness, fairness and democracy for all of the people. If the AU (African Union) cannot resolve this crisis, it weakens itself by its inaction. If it cannot address in a meaningful way Zimbabwe, it cannot address in a meaningful way the Congo, Kenya, or Liberia, or Ethiopia, or any place else on the continent," Jackson said.
Jackson said it is time for leaders to step forward to help build a bridge over Zimbabwe's troubled waters.
He said if need be, he's willing to make himself available to help bring about what he called the restoration of growth in Zimbabwe.
"We must attempt to get some leaders who will take the risk and the burden of trying to build a bridge. And I'm certainly willing to reach out to other leaders and be available myself to help do what must done to help bring about the restoration of growth in Zimbabwe. It's our moral obligation. We did it for the freedom of South Africa and we cannot stop now in this quest for people to live freely and without fear and with hope," Jackson said.
VOA/TZG
Labels: JESSE JACKSON, ZIMBABWE
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