In this opinion piece Dr Justin Thacker, director of Church Action for Tax Justice, states that Africa contributes $41 billion more to the world that it receives. Tax dodging by multinational enterprises is costing the continent far more than its receives in aid. The myth believed in the global north is that Africa is poor, but the reality is that it is rich, and we have become wealthy and stayed wealthy because we have been taking its wealth. "If we truly want to help Africa, we must begin by stopping the stealing".

Global Justice Now's 2017 Honest Accounts report detailed how money moved between Africa and the rest of the world. Each year while $162 billion flows into Africa, $203 billion flows out making Africa a net annual contributor to the rest of the world to the tune of $41 billion. In the colonial era past these funds were taken through slave trade, but in the contemporary period ways include debt servicing and especially the way in which the global north facilitates tax dodging.

Africa has the gold and diamonds we like to wear; the oil that fuels our lifestyles, and the copper and cobalt that go into much of our technology. So each of is probably using or wearing something right now which was dug out of African soil. Zambian copper, South African gold, Ghanaian oil and more are all very profitable and taxes, when paid, go to support the Zambian, or South African or Ghanaian public services – paying the salaries of teachers, funding healthcare. However, companies extracting these minerals use ingenious ways to avoid* paying those taxes, and they do this to the tune of $60-70bn a year – three times the amount the continent receives in official aid. Thacker points out that while each of us may not be personally stealing from Africa, "we are the ones who buy the goods from those companies and it is our government that is facilitating these practices. We may not be directly involved but through our consumer decisions and through our lobbying (or lack of it) we bear some responsibility."

​Read the full article here.

* The result arenot dissimilar to this UK property developer avoiding payment of £45m to a new community-benefit levy in one of London's poorest boroughs with a 49% BAME population.

A follow-up to our last post. This article is about the 1000 clothes workshops in one area of Leicester, one of which will be  where the anonymous man described in our previous post works. Thirteen hour days for £4 an hour – less than half the minimum wage –  is common. Read the full article.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's announcement of a "commission" into racial injustice has been met with incredulity. David Lammy, author of one of a number of existing recent reviews and reports, stated: "It is time for action on the countless reviews, reports and commissions on race that have already been completed." The commission was announced by Johnson in an article he wrote for the Telegraph about his hero Winston Churchill.

The Independent Editorial, noting Churchill's famous wartime red stickers: "ACTION THIS DAY", says: "Instead of action this day on racial injustice, Mr Johnson promises some vague internal 'commission' that might come up with some suggestions by Christmas." It continues Johnson wants to "kick the debate to the other side of Christmas when, presumably, the impending issue of a no-deal Brexit and the continuing response to the coronavirus pandemic may bury more bad news for him. It is so crude a tactic it suggests Downing Street takes the electorate for fools."

If our Prime Minister is serious about #BlackLivesMatter this is not how to #GetRacialJusticeDone.

MJR trustee Joe Aldred was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme yesterday on the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities, where the risk of dying from the virus is at least 2-3 times higher in African-Caribbean communities than in white ones.

​Joe reflects on personal loss, the reaction from Pentecostal churches and the wider effects on his community. "It feels like there has been a health timebomb waiting to explode in the African-Caribbean community. If you were to look at any of the stats in the UK for BAME life and particularly for my own community... what you will see is that we show up in negative stats almost anywhere you care to look, socially, economically, politically. We have lived with that over-representation in underlying conditions, and what Covid has done is simply highlighted that."

​Listen to the full interview here (starts at about 18:50), or download an mp3 clip here.

"COVID-19 has exposed a pre-existing underlying health condition in our society."

In a Press Release today Movement for Justice and Reconciliation has made a call for urgent action from the government on the disproportionate number of BAME people dying from COVID-19. Chair Alton Bell says: "Although underlying health conditions may have contributed to the disproportionate number of deaths, too few people have recognised that social inequality and the legacy of enslavement are also major contributory factors." MJR has produced research that shows the links to enslavement in the descendants and in our modern society. Read the full release here.

In this article Dr Jenan Younis outlines a number of factors contributing to the disproportionately high number of deaths among NHS doctors and carers from BAME communities. She points to an inequality in workplace culture which results in BAME doctors being expected to do more, and not to complain. "There is evidence from the BMA and GMC that Bame doctors are much less likely to complain about issues regarding safety born from a concern of having to face recriminations or reprisals in comparison to their white counterparts." In the present crisis this results in colleagues being "fearful for their own safety without adequate PPE but equally fearful of the repercussions of speaking out."

This inequality is rooted in discrimination. "The medical profession is certainly no stranger to discrimination, a GMC-commissioned independent report highlighted that Bame medical professionals are likely to be treated differently and undersupported by their peers. It seems this is a discussion we as a profession are afraid to have."

While acknowledging that there is a debate going on about this issue, Dr Younis is not optimistic that it or the promised inquiry will lead to any lasting change. "All that will change is that many individuals such as myself will undergo a stark realisation that the value of being “ethnic” in this society is to serve and be sacrificed"

​Read the full article. Photo: Amged El-Hawrani is just one of the many Bame care workers to have died.

This 'Letter from Britain' by Joan Blaney details the ways in which existing discrimination and inequalities in British society have been exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. "Social and economic inequalities continue to be burning injustices, with black people experiencing high unemployment rates, less security in work, lower wages, and poorer housing.  Such issues are a major threat to our long-term health and well-being and are readily exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While government policies are to be observed by all to help slow the spread of the virus, they nonetheless bring deeper social and economic pain to many black people, particularly those in disadvantaged communities."

One example quotes a report by SHELTER which says Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are "disproportionately likely to suffer from poor housing and seven times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions than white households. Social isolation therefore is not practicable in these circumstances." Additionally, as the majority of black people are mainly employed in manual and frontline caring jobs, they will find it harder, if not impossible, to work from home.

The article also points to the disproportionately higher non-white deaths from Covid-19 and links to underlying health issues such as malnutrition, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease, which are more prevalent in the black community. "Attention should be paid to these underlying conditions to minimise such disastrous statics in the future." Read the full article here.

A lot is being written currently about how the health, social and economic impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic are having a much bigger impact on the poor in both the UK snd USA, a section of the population in with BAME people are already over-represented. As seems to be the case with any crisis, the basic inequalities in Western societies are thrown into sharp relief. The same could be said of course of the impact of the virus on underdeveloped countries of the world. For further reading here are several recent articles and quotes.

Afua Hirsch writing in the Guardian asks: "If coronavirus doesn't discriminate, how come black people are bearing the brunt?" A study of 2000 critical ill patients in the UK shows 35% are BAME: twice the representation in the wider population. Afua cites the #CharitySoWhite urgent call for action over the disproportionate impact of the virus on Britain’s minorities. Read the full article.

A letter in today's Independent from Deryck Browne Chief executive, African Health Policy Network, states: Inequality means some are suffering more than others from this pandemic. This government hypocritically claps the same frontline staff that it decimated with its austerity cuts, wage freezes and fiscal responsibility. The communities that suffered when local authority budgets were cut, Sure Start centres closed and charities’ funds slashed are proving to be the same communities likely most vulnerable to contracting the virus." Read more here.

In the USA Bernie Sanders has said ‘Systemic racism’ is behind higher African American deaths amid growing evidence that people of colour, especially African Americans, make up a disproportionate number of people being infected or killed by the virus. Read the full article.

According to an Associated Press analysis  of the USA's 13,000 deaths thus far about 3.300 or 42% were black, double the proportion of African Americans in the total population in the areas covered by the analysis. Read more here.

BBC News 9/4/20: “It is New York’s poorest districts heavily populated with African-Americans and Hispanics that are being hardest hit by this health and economic crisis”. 
“When you’re in one of the poorest communities in the country, it already was a challenge... What people are watching right now is what happens when you don’t invest in addressing poverty for generations.” Michael Blake, New York State Assemblyman.

This article by Runnymede Trust Deputy Director Dr Zubaida Haque looks at existing societal inequalities and how the impact of COVID-19 will affect black and minority ethnic communities. "We are living in extraordinary times, where we have been caught off-guard by a global health crisis, which puts into sharp relief the existing inequalities in our societies."

The health, social and economic impact of the pandemic  will affect ethnic and gender groups to different degrees. In the UK, Black and ethnic minority (BME) people are among the poorest socio-economic groups and structural inequalities place these groups at much higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, as well as experiencing harsher economic impacts from government measures to slow the spread of the virus. BME communities experience higher rates of child poverty and ill-health and are more likely be employed in precarious work and live in poor housing conditions compared to their white British peers. Read the full article here.