2/6/2012: From the Guardian: In an unprecedented move, three serving African leaders and their families are under investigation in Paris over whether they embezzled state funds to acquire vast assets in France including bank accounts, Riviera villas and fleets of luxury cars. The clan of Gabon‘s late leader Omar Bongo…
Posts tagged as “Gabon”
10/30/2011: Many of the comments on the appointment of Dennis Galvan as VP for IA are somewhat supportive. I don’t trust Dennis Galvan because of the way he handled the deal between UO and Gabon this summer. Galvan and Lariviere signed UO to a deal with Gabon based on some…
There were (at least) two credible internal candidates. President Lariviere went with the one who was willing to go to Gabon and prove he had no spine. As with other recent appointments there was no legitimate search committee, hence Galvan will take office without any buy-in from the people he…
7/23/2011: Thanks to a commenter for the link to the Kennedy mansion purchase, in the WaPo. Nice, but it’s not quite President Bongo’s pied-a-terre in Paris. The Gabon / Oregon proposal is here. (Sorry, I got this last week from Ms Denecke – and then forgot to post it.) “Twin…
7/13/2011 update: I’ve written UO Public Records Officer Liz Denecke asking her to forward *all* the agreements, and I copied Dennis Galvan and John Manotti. Still no reply. Maybe it makes sense for UO to cut deals with corrupt politicians (as with Pernsteiner for example) but not in secret. 7/12/2011:…
6/28/2011: From Harry Esteve in the Oregonian: The Oregon Legislature has dealt a serious blow to plans for building a world class “sustainability center” at Portland State University. … “There are a multitude of concerns,” said House co-Speaker Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg. Top among them, he said, is that the building…
6/28/2011: From the Voice of America. I didn’t realize they had survived the end of the cold war. The videos are just fascinating, and not simple. Great questions, some plausible answers, tough followups. Impressive on both sides. A lesson for US reporters. But keep thinking about his $140 million Paris…
6/28/2011: The Koch Foundation’s academic grants – which come with many strings – are in the news again, Dan Berrett has an excellent piece in Insidehighered.comhttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/28: It concludes with this: The best way to safeguard a university’s interests and commitment to academic freedom is to be clear about expectations up…
6/20/2011: Deborah Bloom of the ODE manages to extract some qualifying language from Professor Galvan on Gabon: “It’s one thing to say we won’t do business in Africa,” Galvan said. “It’s another thing to say we are going to understand the African reality of what a change toward good governance…
6/15/2011: UO Matters’s foreign correspondents have been hard at work on the UO Gabon partnership. Turns out the US Ambassador Eric Benjaminson is a UO alum and football fan – pretty sure he’s not talking soccer. Finalement, c’est un réel plaisir de vous présenter le Dr. Dennis Galvan et John…
6/15/2011: What UO says about Gabon President Ali Bongo, via its press office: Gabon, with a population of 1.5 million, is one of the richest nations in its region after 50 years of coastal and offshore oil production. But its leaders acknowledge that oil will not last forever, and its…
6/14/2011 update: A commenter forwards us one UO connection: The US Ambassador to Gabon, Eric Benjaminson, is a UO history grad. 6/14/2011 update: Latest word is that the details of the donation are not set, and may be government funds – though apparently in Gabon there is no distinction between…