Quoting Yogi Bera, "It's deja vue all over again". As noted in a Globe and Mail article, "Land: Africa's last great treasure", this modern trend justifies the headline in the Globe, "The New Colonialism! Are we experiencing a modern form of exploitation or a breath of fresh air meeting society's direst needs?

Colonization is considered a bad word. To go back a few generations the western world acquired great wealth while exploiting third world resources. South America was stripped of gold. European capitalists got rich mining and selling a tremendous value in South African diamonds. Of course the industrial revolution evolved on the basis of oil from the middle east.

From this aspect, Canada could be considered part of the third world (or in the north even the fourth!). Our proximity to the United States has also made us part of the first world. Most Canadians live close to the southern border hence guaranteeing access to American markets where we also supply resources. Our crown lands are owned by Canadians but we started the ball rolling when it comes to foreign controlled resource development.

Many large Canadian companies are subsidiaries of American firms Much of the produce from our land is largely controlled south of the border but of course it doesn't matter since northern Canada is out of sight, out of mind to most of us.

Considerable publicity went into the provincial program "Lands for Life" a few years ago. This was a Queens Park decision making process which allocated unlicensed crown land to either industry or environmental reserves. (Most of Ontario's northern crown forests were already committed to industrial purposes by Queens Park parliamentarians in the south.) Industry is committed to supply timber or pulp to American controlled companies. Similarly large tracts of forest lands in Alberta have been given over to Japanese exploitation.

Canada has led the way into the new era, committing land to foreign industrial development. This modern acquisition of food and energy lands is well reported by the Globe and Mail article. Certainly the world is struggling to supply food for 6 _ billion people and counting, and becoming aware that the end of fossil fuels for industry, heating and transportation is in sight.

One alternative is rehabilitation of the world's marginal lands to meet these needs. With the spectre of global warming especially, there is an obvious need for alternatives to fossil fuels.

Unfortunately the majority of waste lands coincides with living space for the poorest people on the planet ripe for exploitation, particularly in Africa.

The article reports on a strong movement to get control of African Land. The biggest move is acquisition of land for agricultural development. Lonrho Corporation of Britain has about 25,000 hectares for potential rice production in Angola. Janet, a company in Saudi Arabia has secured 10,000 hectares in Egypt for barley, wheat and livestock feed. India has invested four billion dollars for agricultural production in Ethiopia while the government of Dubai, in conjunction with East Africa agribusiness, secured 5,000 hectares there for tea production. Qatar has leased 20,000 hectares in Kenya for fruit and vegetable production. The list goes on and on involving Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

The energy crisis is a similar story with development of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2.8 million hectares) for biofuels. Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zaire are other sources of resource lands being sought. The big proportion of these acquisitions is for planting of Jatropha, an oilnut producing tree.

This promises to be a major source of oil supply supporting the transportation industry as well as production of electricity. It also has considerable potential for poverty alleviation for small landowners as well as energy for national self-sufficiency.

Foreign investment is a valuable tool for creation of prosperity if directed towards grassroots people and as a basis for national development policy. It can also be a powerful means of creating wealth for foreigners controlling land, hence the capability of earning money. Buying or leasing of land by foreign investors restricts the ability of poor people or nations to become self sufficient, hence an effective means of exploitation.