TIME FOR ACTION IS NOW- PICK UP YOUR PHONE AND CALL PAUL BRUBAKER, SENATOR MENENDEZ' OFFICE, AT
973-645-3030
973-645-3030
It is another time for African Diaspora action, this time with regards to the Electrify Africa Act H.R. 2548 which passed the House of Representatives by a bi-partisan vote of 297-117 on May 8, 2014. It didn't of course pass unanimously, I don't want to say anything, you make up your own mind. But the good news is that it has passed the Republican controlled House, but this time we need the Electrify Africa bill to be introduced in the Senate, and again we are calling on all of us to again pick up the phone and call our great friend and supporter Senator Menendez's office to introduce the bill in the Senate.
Remember what happened two years ago when we had to do the same thing, with regards to the AGOA Third Country Fabric bill. After being contacted by Washington, I issued an alert and asked all of us to contact Senator Menendez to avoid any obstacles of the bill's passage in the Senate. A lot of you heard the call to action and swung into action. I issued the alert on July 6, and by August 2, 2012, the good news came that the Congress had passed the AGOA Third Country Bill. We received accolades of appreciation from Washington for our swift action.
Okay, let's just look at the background of this action. We are all aware that President Barack Obama visited Africa last year, and while there at a speech at the University of Cape Town, Obama unveiled his $7 billion Power Africa Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to double Africa's access to constant electricity supply, an initiative that would start with six countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Of course, there were many people who complained of its paltry amount compared to the $15 billion that President Bush sunk into Africa for the AIDS initiative.
But on the other hand, as the saying goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach the same man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." In other words, Obama was saying to us, I can't just give you money, but I am going to provide you with the money to improve your electricity supply so that you could increase industrial output and provide more jobs to the millions of unemployed Africans.
We have to appreciate the House of Representatives passing the Act, but now needs Senator Menendez to introduce the Senate version of it as soon as possible.
We urge you to call SENATOR MENENDEZ NOW TO INTRODUCE THE SENATE VERSION OF THE 'ELECTRIFY AFRICA ACT". Call his State Director Paul Brubaker 973-645-3030 and tell him that Senator Menendez needs to introduce a Senate version of the bill.
Supporting Facts:
· It's a shocking fact, but 70% of people in sub-Saharan Africa don't have access to electricity.
· Mothers give birth in hospitals without power. 225 million people are served by hospitals with no electricity.
· Life-saving vaccines can't be refrigerated. 60% of refrigerators do not have reliable power.
· Students can't study at night without candles or flashlights. 90 million children go to primary schools without electricity.
· Families cook on toxic open fires.
· Farmers lose their harvest to spoilage.
· The Electrify Africa Act seeks to mobilize and coordinate US government and private sector investments in the energy sector in Africa. The bill seeks to help African governments increase electricity access by 50 million people by 2020. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House-passed bill will actually save the federal government $86 million over the next 5 years. This is due to the novel-investment based approach that leverages private sector investment at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Dr. Chika A. Onyeani
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
African Sun Times: www.africansuntimes.com
Email: conyeani@africansuntimes.com
Tel.: 973-675-9919
Cell: 917-279-4038
African Sun Times: www.africansuntimes.com
Email: conyeani@africansuntimes.com
Tel.: 973-675-9919
Cell: 917-279-4038
"It is not what you call me, but what I answer to, that matters most"– Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success, Onyeani's internationally acclaimed No. 1 bestselling book.
Have you bought Onyeani's blockbuster novel, The Broederbond Conspiracy, adapted by the San Francisco State University "to teach students how to write a spy novel."
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