Not to be confused with what used to be Cresta Royale Hotel, but has been for a few months now FIESTA Royale Hotel, part of the Sterling group of hotels.
This is the place I went to from Saturday 1 September up until Tuesday 7 September. It is the reason for the few-day absence, as we were seriously strategising with partners on stopping some nefarious trade agreements the EU wants Africa to sign by 31st December, 2007.
Today is Global Stop EPA Day. It is exactly 5 years since the European Union went into negotiations with 77 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of countries to sign a new convention that would become the COTONOU Agreement, from which the Economic Partnership Agreements--a new agreement defining the relationship between the two blocs--would come to life.
Five years on, and after many protestations by civil society and citiszens alike, the EU still does not get the message that Africa does not want it. As such, a Global Day is a stark reminder that this is nothing more than re-colonisation of Africa!
