US universities in Africa 'land grab' (Harvard -Vanderbilt)

Guardian ^ | June 8th, 2011 | John Vidal and Claire Provost

[bronxville]

US universities in Africa 'land grab'

Institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt reportedly use hedge funds to buy land in deals that may force farmers out

Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study.

Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from "land grabs" that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world.

The new report on land acquisitions in seven African countries suggests that Harvard, Vanderbilt and many other US colleges with large endowment funds have invested heavily in African land in the past few years. Much of the money is said to be channelled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa's largest land acquisition funds, run by former JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs currency dealers.

Chinese and Middle Eastern firms have previously been identified as "grabbing" large tracts of land in developing countries to grow cheap food for home populations, but western funds are behind many of the biggest deals, says the Oakland institute, an advocacy research group.

READ MORE: - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/us-universities-africa-land-grab?CMP=twt_fd

[bronxville]

- "US universities are reportedly using endowment funds to make deals that may force thousands from their land in Africa."

[Pecos]

So...Liberals are forcing farmers off their fields, leaving them - what? Starvation? Re-education so they will learn to accept their new lot in life? I’m guessing there will be no campus protests since Republicans aren’t responsible.

[bronxville]

“Harvard’s endowment tumbled 27.3 percent in its latest fiscal year, largely because of problems with its private equity and hedge fund portfolios, lopping off $10 billion and shrinking its portfolio to $26 billion. Taking into consideration donations and spending, the endowment shrank by nearly 30 percent.

Yale also suffered about a 30 percent loss in its endowment, to about $16 billion, the university’s president disclosed in a letter Thursday, adding that final figures on performance were still being compiled.

“We want to alert you to the fact that another round of reductions will be necessary,” Yale’s president, Richard C. Levin, wrote in what he called a budget update to the Yale community praising the cost-cutting that had already occurred.

A year earlier, Harvard’s endowment had approached $37 billion, while Yale’s endowment had been $23 billion.”
contin...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/business/11harvard.html

Is this where their money is going? One wonders who they’re really working for...? Certainly not the students who must pay even more for their leftist education.

[bronxville]

“In Ethiopia, a process of “villagisation” by the government is moving tens of thousands of people from traditional lands into new centres while big land deals are being struck with international companies.”

This is also our future.

The first thing Obama did when he got into office was “land grab” millions of acres for “conservation”.

[babble-on]

You’ve read this just the way the Guardian wants you to.

Good little anti-capitalist you are.

[bronxville]

Some blame Larry Summers others blame the Investment Committee for the “losses” - Meyer, El-Erian, Kaplan, and Mendillo.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/11/29/how-larry-summers-lost-harvard-18-billion/

Then there’s this interesting character...
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_L._Overby

[Pecos]

I have a problem with a farmer being forced out of the only life he knows when he has no way of getting an education to find other work. Stamp that any way you want, but your conclusion about me is wrong.

[OldNewYork]

Many of these institutions (are they really primarily about education any more?) have so much money that they’d be able to stop charging tuition, across the board, for quite some time.

And of course, there are classic examples of limousine liberalism throughout them.

[Moltke]

can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world.

What, like modern agriculture and plenty of food for all? Heaven forbid! (And - oh no! - some of those leftist scum 'social activists' might lose their raison d'être)

[Siena Dreaming]

Actually, it's the liberals at the paper who are portraying this as the poor little farmers getting booted; Harvard is the Capitalist here.

This is the way the liberal MSM always portrays stuff like this.

What's happening, though, is a private group is buying which is a perfectly legitimate transaction.

[rabscuttle385]

What's happening, though, is a private group is buying which is a perfectly legitimate transaction.

Then why are some of these transactions dependent on revenue from UN-issued carbon credits (i.e., U.S. taxpayer dollars)? See below excerpt:

The largest land deal in South Sudan, where as much as 9% of the land is said by Norwegian analysts to have been bought in the last few years, was negotiated between a Texas-based firm, Nile Trading and Development and a local co-operative run by absent chiefs. The 49-year lease of 400,000 hectares of central Equatoria for around $25,000 (£15,000) allows the company to exploit all natural resources including oil and timber. The company, headed by former US Ambassador Howard Eugene Douglas, says it intends to apply for UN-backed carbon credits that could provide it with millions of pounds a year in revenues.

This is not capitalism. This is the establishment figuring out how to simultaneously screw the non-establishment on both sides of the Atlantic!

[stephenjohnbanker]

Great post, Rabs.