Post #398

A Soft Power Playbook 🔊 A vivid guide to manipulating public opinion: a Zimbabwean NGO Centre for Natural Resource Governance, which lives on European and American grants, has published what it claims are images of illegal lithium exports from Zimbabwe to China. 🔸 Beyond the fact that real illegal exports cannot be photographed from the middle of a loading zone, the manipulation is also evident in the scale involved. No one would ever move such large volumes illegally and so openly. 🔸 Unfortunately, such manipulations may divert people's attention away from real instances of illegal schemes in the mineral industry and compromise the whole cause. ⏩ The images are still disturbing. The only thing that slightly softens the sight of thousands of big bags of lithium concentrate flowing abroad is the fact that Zimbabwe does, at least for now, appear to be pursuing in good faith a lithium localization policy, planning to ban all exports of unprocessed lithium from the country starting in 2027. ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow