Will ‘The Real Muggers Please Stand Up’

By Olusola O. Muhammad
23/03/2002 15:50:00

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Whilst the British media focuses on its typical stereotyping of Black youth as ‘mobile phone muggers,’ a cursory glance into the history books of this ‘great’ technological and economic Nation will show the greatest and most heinous ‘mugging’ that has ever taken place – the enslavement of African people by Great Britain and her baby nation, America.

As muggers go, on the other side of the Atlantic a ‘Corporate Mugging’ of epic financial proportions is being examined by Congressional Hearings, into Enron, once the 7th largest company in Corporate America, and which filed for bankruptcy on 2nd December 2001, with losses totalling $55 billion. Could this become President George W. Bush’s ‘Watergate,’ who has been linked to the Enron Company’s financial scandal?

C laiming victory for the western ‘free world’ in the ‘War Against Terrorism,’ “President Bush and his administration are entwined in a story of corporate greed and political manipulation involving energy giant Enron, now the target of a double criminal investigation” into its financial irregularities.

On the 2nd December 2001, Enron, America’s 7th largest Company declared itself bankrupt with losses totaling $55 billion resulting in America’s biggest bankruptcy filing in American history. “Enron is a Houston-based utility trading company that sells energy to industrial and domestic consumers.” “It is one of the biggest firms of its kinds in the world, a standing it owes in small part to Bush’s governorship in Texas,” The Observer 13/1/02 – [The Enron Scandal].

Exposed to full view

Back in August 2001, an explosion that killed three people occurred at its Teesside power plant in the UK, and ever since a ‘can-of-worms’ has been opened into the financial irregularities of Enron, its auditors and internal governing board.

Until that unfortunate event “the public profile in this country of the US energy company was pretty low,” www.independent.co.uk 10/8/01. During that period, “The former Conservative Energy Secretary Lord Wakeman… in 1990 helped to privatise the UK’s Electricity industry and gave consent for Enron to build Britain’s largest private power plant on Teesside.” Ironically, when Labour came to power it vowed, “…not to allow any more new private gas-fired power stations.”

Enron also owns Wessex water, employs 21,000 staff in more than 40 countries and in just 15 years, from humble beginnings grew to become America’s 7th largest company. In India “…despite enormous public hostility, it was the driving force behind plans for a massive power station that was built at Dabhol, near Bombay.”

Enron’s business tentacles reached as far as the Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos, Mauritius, Bermuda: where subsidiary companies were established for the purpose of avoiding paying tax. These companies were also used to hide the enormous losses of the company; some say over $600 million, whilst the company continued trading and those in the know made huge profits before the company collapsed.

The financial collapse of “Enron was just the kind of scandal a war would hide,” which went unreported to the employee’s and the public for several months. Many employees invested their savings in the company stock (shares) – some their life savings – but “The ethical – maybe criminal – core of the scandal is that Enron trapped its employees into a ‘stock-lock-, whereby they were not allowed to sell” their shares. “When the company collapsed, they lost everything.”

Dirty Insider Trading

Meanwhile top executives of the company – aware of Enron’s dire financial situation were “…blessed by inside information and foresight – made a killing by scrambling to sell shares,” and “…cashed in stock and stock options for up to $1 billion (£700m)” before the company collapsed. They were in fact “amassing personal fortunes.” www.observer.co.uk 13/1/02.

Ordinary people working for Enron are the real victims of this scandal of which “It has long being reported how the Bush…family…” has its fingers neatly interwoven in the Enron scandal with political favours being granted during Bush Senior and Bush Juniors presidency’s.

People like Pat Betteridge of an Enron subsidiary company invested $300,000 to buy 3,500 shares has now seen his shares become worthless. A retired Wallis Hoffarth, a colleague of Betteridge’s, saw his $120,000 of shares also become worthless

In London, according to the BBC News web site, “The Company’s administrators, PricewaterhousCoopers, said 1,100 staff had been made redundant across the UK.”  UK banks are also affected with “Enron’s UK subsidiaries owing millions of pounds to banks including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Abbey National.” “National Australia bank, which owns Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank in the UK” could potentially lose £141 million.

President George W. Bush

President George Bush’s personal gain from Enron has been “nearly $2 million,” since 1993, which was given to him by Enron executives. “Kenneth Lay also donated $326,000 in soft money to the Republican Party over the three years prior to Bush’s presidential bid.”

In 1997 when Enron wanted to expand into “Pennsylvania, one of America’s biggest energy markets…” the chairman of Enron, Kenneth Lay, who referred to George W. Bush as ‘Kenny boy’ approached him for help. “Bush called the then state governor, Tom Ridge, to pitch for Enron, whose bid duly succeeded.” After the 11th September 2001, Tom Ridge was made “Secretary of Homeland security.”

With the political favours granted by Bush Senior and Junior, Enron payments to President Bush, the funding of George W. Bush’s election campaign in the year-2000 election, the meeting of Enron executives to discuss the nations energy plan, one is left to question the role of government and the undue influence the private sector has over national policy.

Government Responsibility

Governments are duly constituted to implement and carry out policy for the benefit of the citizens and to vigorously rebuff any undue influence that would require it to concede benefits in return for financial gain.

Whilst fingers are pointed at African nations for their level of corruption here we find, not only that the highest office in the land – The President’s – has been corrupted in order to effect policy on behalf of one section of the nation, to the extent that citizens lose their life savings and jobs, mugging people of their pensions.

Corporate Probity

Robert Maxwell’s plundering of the pension funds of his employees demonstrates a propensity to criminality and corruption by corporate owners. Likewise the Enron scandal with debts owed by the company being hidden in order to boost its profits and the resulting loss of pension funds of its employees, highlights glaring weaknesses in corporate management and the institutions deployed to ensure the highest standards of financial management in the society.

President George W. Bush’s involvement in this scandal along with members of his government will unravel as the days and months pass by, but the true lesson is for you and I to reconsider how much trust can we put in companies whose executives connive and inveigle how to make more and more profit at our expense. When will we learn?

Is it Global Warming or The Wrath of God? In the days of Noah, it rained like any other day, but then it didn’t stop, and it didn’t stop and it didn’t stop…………………………

By Olusola O. Muhammad
This article appeared in The Final Call to POWER – March/April 2001

In November 2000, at the height of the flooding in the UK, England reached for straws with her rich industrial partner nations, developing nations and ‘Green Party’ lobbyists in The Hague, to find a solution to the historic and unprecedented flooding in England and Wales, which John Prescott said was “A wake up call” on global warming.

At the Hague, confusion “having appeared in the land and sea on account of that which men’s hands have wrought,” (Holy Quran 30: 41-45) caused the conference to end without agreement.

European allied nations refused to support an American and British led proposal to reduce carbon emissions. John Prescott, Britain’s chief negotiator subsequently stormed out of the conference and later said, “There could have been more Unity.” Talks to “Save the World” are rescheduled to continue in May 2001, in Bonn, Germany.

On the 14th January 2001, an article appeared in the Sunday Telegraph stating, “Global warming claims based on false data.”

Increasingly in England, diseases in foods are beginning to have fatal effects on the consuming public. BSE and the resulting CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease); Swine Disease (‘Hog Cholera’) in pigs, that has its origins in a farm Outbreak in East Anglia; Salmonella in pigs, “which causes severe gastrointestinal illness – found on 5.3% of the pig carcasses prepared for human consumption,” (The Independent 8/12/00); and the ‘potential’ long-term effects of eating unfit-for-human-consumption ‘repackaged’ chicken,’ and other meats are all evidence of this.

Railway Station Line flooded during flooding in the year 2000

Similar diseases in food, floods, earthquakes, unnatural fires, and extreme weather conditions in the UK, are known prophecies in the Scriptures of Christians, Muslims and Jews, none more so than that afflicted on the African Egyptian Pharaoh and his people during the time of Moses.

The Children of Israel under Pharaoh, like the Black Community in England, suffered injustice, and Pharaoh despite the plea’s of God’s Servants, Moses and Aaron, refused to obey God’s command to “Let my people go.”

Whilst the UK experienced severe rain, snow and wind, hundreds of cases of Black deaths in police custody remained unresolved. The parents of Stephen Lawrence remain aggrieved at the unresolved murder of their son. The disproportionately high level of School expulsions of Black Children continue unabated. The criminal Government – Media conspiracy, labelling the Black community as the dregs of society remains solidly intact.

England’s re-colonisation of Africa, as reported in the September issue of this paper, (page 4) moves into fifth gear, and the ‘D-Notice’ is implemented by the media, ‘whitewashing’ coverage of the historic ‘Million Family March’ (16/10/00) in Washington, USA and London’s 144,000 Family March (29/10/00).

Railway Station Line flooded during flooding in the year 2000

Could it be that the extensive flooding that plagued the UK, and where flood warnings are still in place throughout England and Wales, is the result, according to the Evening Standard, of that ancient law of Karma, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap?” If so, what has ‘Great Britain’ done to warrant, “An Act of God” or Divine Judgement? Has ‘Great Britain’ been weighed on God’s scales of Justice, been found wanting and is thus reaping her just reward?

In the Evening Standard, newspaper 29/11/00, entitled “A flood of questions, but no real answers,” Tony Blair said, “From what I have seen, over the next few years we can expect to face these types of situations,” speaking on his tour of some of the worst affected areas of flooding.

Tony Blair being a ‘devout Christian’ and representative of a multi-faith society no doubt knows the Scriptures of the Bible and Holy Qur’an. These books give a detailed picture of ‘future’ events such as flooding and the stories of people who were afflicted with injustice by other nations and the subsequent intervention of God, on their behalf.

The intervention by God was to warn nations such as ancient Egypt and Babylon to do justice to the people. God plagued the oppressor nation with famine, drought, floods, fire, snow, plagues of flies, frogs, hail, locusts (crop destruction – GM Food), boils (Measles, Meningitis), death of cattle (BSE) and the Nile River being turned into Blood (World War III); or by totally destroying that nation.

The Black community in the UK remains at the bottom of the pile, unproductive, mis-educated, destitute, marginalized from society, mentally enslaved and a problem to themselves by remaining disunited, despite attempts by those who love them to show them the true path of freedom and ‘Exodus.’

The hidden hand of White Supremacy advocates integration, yet the heart remains rabidly institutionally racist and is opposed to that which constitutes the foundation of a fair Nation.

After four hundred years of servitude slavery under ‘Mother England,’ Britain refuses to apologise for slavery and makes no attempt to repair the damage done and that which she continues to do.

According to the law of ‘cause and effect’ nothing happens without a cause, and God is known in the Scripture to punish “To the third and fourth generation” the actions of those who went before. Oh, England what have you done?

Men at The Million Man March

Maybe God will spare this nation if she calls the entire nation to repentance and atonement for her past wrongs. And for that which she continues to do to the Original people of the world, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red and even poor Whites.

The Honourable Minster Louis Farrakhan called the Historic ‘Million Man March & Holy Day of Atonement’ in America (16/10/95) due to the sins of America and its people, and Minister Michael Muhammad of The Nation of Islam, England, called the 10,000 Man March in the UK (17/10/98) calling for the Black Man to stand up and take on his responsibility, that God in His infinite Beneficence and Mercy may divert His just Chastisement on the nation and people.

Those nations of the past that did not heed the warning of their Prophets and Messengers thereby suffering the fate of ancient sister nations, Rome, Sodom & Gomorrah and Babylon, were totally destroyed.

It would be wise to heed the warning of God’s Servant in the UK, Minister Michael Muhammad, a Student of ‘The Hon. Elijah Muhammad’ under the guidance of Minister Louis Farrakhan.

This is just the beginning of sorrows.

Note: In February 2001 the rain started again