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Comment by haliou | Hacker News Reader

My first post on HN :) I'm not sure the situation is a simple as the author implies. It is true that when the French left Guinea in 1958 they took everything with them. Eventually Guinea turned to communist Russia with even greater consequences.

The author claims "Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene military in the country to defend its interests". This is not true as it's a defence agreement against external aggression, not internal civil war. For example they did not intervene for any side during the 2002-2004 civil war in the Ivory Coast.

The usage of Franc CFA is actually beneficial to those using the currency as it's value is pegged to the Euro, hence helping to control inflation.

I do not dispute the facts that Africans countries ought to be more autonomous (after all that's what independence is), but this stems more from a failure from Africans politicians than anyone else.

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>The usage of Franc CFA is actually beneficial to those using the currency as it's value is pegged to the Euro, hence helping to control inflation.

The merits of pegging local currencies in such a way are very doubtful. Across the whole eurozone, today, this issue is hotly contested by activists stating that this rigidity penalizes poorer countries, because their lower-quality wares cannot use currency devaluation as a competitive weapon anymore. Countries using the Franc CFA might be experiencing the same problem... Also, Argentina started its bankrupting spiral when its currency was artificially pegged to the US Dollar without really having the commercial and political power to sustain such link in the long run.

A monetary policy is not just about "keeping inflation low" -- in fact, inflation and currency devaluation in many cases are necessary corrections.

>"For example they did not intervene for any side during the 2002-2004 civil war in the Ivory Coast."

That's no true. France supported Alassane Ouatarra, the current president who lost the election, but was backed by France which troops fired on people on the street and also bombarded with helicopters the presidential palace to force the elected president Laurent Gbagbo to give power to Alassance Ouattara supported by France.

Links are all over the net to prove that.

The fact and history behind the CFA is much more dark, than presented.

I agree with you, Africans should fight the French to become more autonomous.

You are mixing the facts. I stated the 2002-2004 war. The election were held in 2010.

During the civil war[1] 2002-2007 The country was divided in two with the French military separating both side, the French were authorized to act by UN resolution 1528 (very important!)

The elections were held in October 2010, the counting took months and the Electoral commission declared Alassane Ouatarra the winner in December 2010. Laurent Gbagbo refused to stand down, claiming he won. Thus the 2nd civil war began[2]. The stand off continued until April 2011 when the rebel took control of the country including Abidjan and with the help of the French removed Gbagbo.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Ivorian_Civil_War [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Ivorian_Civil_War

Similary to the case of Lybia, the UN resolution didn't ask France to bombard the presidential palace, and also shoot people on the street.

We need to care more about facts and deeds not UN wind bags.

I'm not a defender of France or what they did. I'm African born in the Ivory Coast and simply wanted to clarify a few things from the article.

Uhh, it's nowhere near that simple. Despite Gbagbo the incumbent doing everything he could to handicap Ouattara, Ouattara was announced as the winner with 54.1% of the vote. The next day, Gbagbo then "cancelled" the results from seven regions, which gave him 51.45% of the vote and allowed him to claim victory. Unsurprisingly Ouattara (and the international community in general) did not buy this, and civil war ensued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_Ivorian_crisis

And while Ouattara's troops weren't angels, neither were Gbagbo's, which is why he's at the International Criminal Court now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo#Arrest_and_tran...

"Eventually Guinea turned to communist Russia with even greater consequences."

What did you mean by that? Wikipedia is prety succint on this:

"Following France's withdrawal, Guinea quickly aligned itself with the Soviet Union and adopted socialist policies. This alliance was short lived, however, as Guinea moved towards a Chinese model of socialism."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea#Independence_and_Post-C...

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