Eric McNeil

🇺🇸 🇷🇼

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

@ErikSolheim My favorite place in the world. 🇷🇼

[Africa Today Media Group @africatodayMG]

Kigali (Rwanda) Named Safest Capital City in Africa.

Global security indices ranked Kigali as Africa’s safest capital for the fifth consecutive year.

Low crime rates and advanced smart policing technologies contribute to the city’s reputation as a secure destination for investment and living.

[Stan @private_dataguy]

$PCT performs in the most demanding applications because the product IS virgin quality. Currently there are ZERO mechanically recycled resins that work in hinge applications (it is extremely tough!).

Like Bruckner for film, Stacktech is a gatekeeper in the injection molding space and brands look to them for assurance a product works as advertised.

Stacktech works with many of the large brands, and there is now exactly ONE resin that will meet regulatory mandates and have the product quality to work in hinge applications.

There are some hints/ interesting products listed on StackTeck’s website:

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

@PascalMurasira Amazing. Nice work. I have noticed that the Rwandan government is taking steps toward adding nuclear power to its energy mix. This will take several years at least, but when it happens that will help significantly. The short blackout periods in Kigali won't be happening anymore.

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

@LindaRaschke … slaughtered.

[Nyiramwiza Solange @nyiramwiza]

By working with international lobbyists and influencing major media outlets, the @Com_mediasRDC portrayed the war as foreign aggression while casting rebel groups as the authors of fabricated atrocities.
The source also alleges that some journalists and publications were either influenced or paid to relay these government-backed stories to Western audiences.

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

@JoshCrumb @JoeRaia5 The best decision I’ve made investing so far was buying $ABXXF
The best feeling I’ve got from investing so far is holding it while watching all of this happen. 👏🏼🙏🏼

[Josh Crumb 🆔++ @JoshCrumb]

Chicago has a deep, rich history of commodity trading, I’ll always respect that city and its ecosystem and champions. But nearly every generalist investor that isn’t in commodities, most tech investors (and there are far more discretionary tech investors than commodity investors these days), can’t really tell you how WTI works, or that CME owns the NYMEX and a lot of the US energy futures complex.

So why is this relevant? As the next generation, social internet natives, we’re building more than an exchange. We’re building a brand at Abaxx (the fourth, shadow five-sided network). Why invest millions over the years in @Smarter_Markets, building a voice and a brand identity, running a weekly podcast without ads or abaxx promotion every week, even putting it in the header of our PRs?

Now we have @CommodMkt as co-chair of Abaxx Markets. It’s inevitable that he will have hundreds of thousands of followers on social, millions of views and viral clips from BBG interviews even on tick tock. Every piece of long form research Jeff puts out going forward will be under the Abaxx brand. We’ll own the customer list of every RIA and institutional investor on the mailing lists.

Every time Jeff goes on BBG or CNBC, Abaxx branded benchmark prices will be on the screen behind him.

And then there is the Abaxx ID++ tech and Agents++ ecosystem to unite the clans (fuelled by Biebs one day!? ;), commodities investors and tech investors. The Bits and Atoms thematic with room to run well into the 2030s.

When you think of watching a movie these days you think “Netflix”. When you think about where your energy and commodities prices come from one day, I want people to think, “The Abaxx”. That’s the vision, thats the investment, thats the network of networks we’re building. Get your tickets now, while we’re still grinding out the early stages of the brand building, hand to hand combat building the first nodes of the network. night after night rocking the small venues.
#29ers $ABXX #WorldBuildersOrBust

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

🇷🇼

[Alex Mvuka, Ph.D. @AlexMvuka]

#DRC - Ten Major Scandals Normalised by International Partners and the United Nations in the DR Congo

1. The DRC government collaboration with or use of armed groups and war lords.
The UN has long known that 85% of the ammunition used by hundreds of armed groups in the DRC is supplied by the DRC army. Therefore, the state itself contributes largely to insecurity. In 2023, the DR Congo government moved away from such informal sponsorship to endorsing these armed groups as “reservists.” Since then, the DRC army has worked in collaboration with these warlords. International partners and the UN are aware of this, yet it remains a normalised scandal.

2. The DRC and the use of mercenaries. Mercenaries are illegal under the UN Mercenary Convention, which prohibits their recruitment, use, financing, and training. The United Nations prohibits killing for money. However, this practice in the DRC is not treated by international partners as a significant issue.

3. State-sponsored hate speech. The DRC government has mobilised some of the most extreme and vicious rhetoric worldwide and has used national television and university platforms to disseminate hate speech involving dehumanisation. This culture of hate speech has led to lynching and cannibalism of those considered as "unwanted".

4. The DRC and MONUSCO partnership. The role of @MONUSCO in the DRC is to strengthen the capacity of state institutions, including those responsible for defence and security. MONUSCO knows well that the DRC army works in partnership with hundreds of armed groups and warlords that have records of committing severe crimes against humanity.
These armed groups include FDLR combatants who committed genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. These armed groups have no political grievances other than the desire to exterminate a particular group of people. However, MONUSCO still works with the DRC army. Therefore, MONUSCO is indirectly associated with these controversial armed groups.

5. The attention of the international community has focused heavily on the idea that the primary problem in the DRC is the M23 rebellion. M23 is only four years old. Before and after its emergence, there were over 200 armed groups, including terrorist organisations such as CODECO and the ADF. Both groups are known to be among the most violent and cruel, decapitating over 1,000 people per year.

6. Burundi and Belgium relationship. Belgium supports the Burundian government in the DRC war efforts despite knowing that Burundi is in coalition with many armed groups including the FDLR and it trains FDLR leaders. Burundi has engaged in imposing blockades and famine-based violence in South Kivu against the Banyamulenge people.

7. Corruption in the DRC. Corruption in the DRC is endemic, widespread, and systemic, affecting all levels of government, the economy, and everyday life. It is characterised by large-scale embezzlement of public funds by political elites, high-level bribery, and persistent deficiencies in accountability and governance. In 2024, the DRC ranked 163rd out of 182 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. However, the DRC justify its endemic corruption by claims that only one neighbour "steals its minerals". However, it is not questioned about its regulatory frameworks or what the government does with the rest of its mineral resources. Powerful countries and the UN are aware that international tracing mechanisms exist and know where the minerals ultimately end up.

8. Burundi 's intervention in the DRC. Burundi has intervened in the DRC, claiming to pursue a Burundian armed opposition group. This armed opposition group works with Congolese armed groups. However, Burundi also works with these Congolese armed groups. No one questions this paradox.

9. The humanitarian blockade in Minembwe. International humanitarian agencies can operate almost anywhere in the DRC except in areas where inhabitants are perceived as unwanted by the DRC government. For nine years, there has not been a single international humanitarian agency providing aid to the Banyamulenge. Ten days ago, for the very first, International Red Cross considered how the humanitarian community will be viewed in history and supplied some medications.

10. Ethnocentric politics. There is a form of Black-on-Black racism functioning as a political mode in the DRC. It has become institutionalised within national institutions. Political leaders compete during elections to promote extremist tribal agendas and programmes. These ideas are are tolerated by the international community.

[James Duade @James_Duade]

@marketplunger1 remember that time when you had @JoshCrumb on your podcast & he suggested Abaxx could one day have compute futures 👇

[Mathilde Mukantabana @AmbMukantabana]

Remarkable🇷🇼
Hear directly from some of our 2000 plus visitors!
Get your passport and #VisitRwanda. You won't be disappointed.

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

@JosephRyarasa ‘The real issue is not pretending that one side is completely objective while everyone else is “controlled.” The real challenge is being honest enough to admit our own blind spots while staying open to other perspectives.’
👆🏼
Well said. That is the key! 👏🏼

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

At 9:15 this morning, a judge in Houston sentenced a nineteen-year-old girl named Destiny to eighteen months' probation and a felony record for stealing $87 from register 4 at a gas station.

I know this because my phone sent me a news alert. I read it at my desk. Then I put my phone down and opened the correction queue.

I process payroll corrections for National Staffing Solutions. We have 14,000 client employers. I have a dropdown menu with four options. Corrected. Disputed. Escalated. Closed. I select one. The ticket resolves. Last quarter I processed 2,300 corrections totaling $4.2 million in wages that employers took from workers and kept until someone filed a ticket.

There is no fifth option. There is no option for Charged.

That's a correction.

At 2:47 PM, a woman sat down at my desk. Her name is Maria in our system. She works the night shift at a warehouse. She has been logging 47 hours per week. She has been paid for 40. For 156 consecutive weeks. Three years. The system owes her $6,300.

She brought a notebook. A composition book. The cover was falling off. She had calculated her overtime by hand, every week, in pencil, because she did not trust the pay stubs. I looked at the numbers. Every line was correct. She had been doing the math in her head every Friday for two years before she started writing it down. Two years of arithmetic in her head while mopping floors at 3 AM because the company that owes her $6,300 rounds down and she wanted to be sure.

I scanned the notebook and attached it to the ticket. She asked what happens to the ticket. I told her it goes into the correction queue. She asked how long. I told her ninety days. She asked if she would get the money. I told her the employer would be notified.

She asked again. I did not have a different answer. She knew that. She asked anyway. I think she wanted me to hear myself say it twice.

I closed the ticket. I selected "Corrected" from the dropdown. The system auto-generated a thank you email. Her first name is misspelled in the email. It has been misspelled since intake. We correct wages. We do not correct names.

American employers steal $50 billion per year from their workers. I want you to sit with that number. The FBI says all robberies in America total $482 million. All burglaries: $3.4 billion. All larcenies: $5.4 billion. All motor vehicle thefts: $7.5 billion. Every piece of property stolen by every criminal in America totals $16.8 billion. Wage theft is three times that. I learned this at a compliance industry seminar in 2022. The slide was titled "Market Opportunity." The room had 340 people. Everybody wrote it down. Nobody left.

The Department of Labor has 611 investigators for 165 million workers. That is one investigator for every 278,000 workers. It is a 52-year staffing low. There were more investigators in 1973. Last year, the DOL recovered $259 million. That is 0.5% of what was taken. We call the 0.5% enforcement. We call the other 99.5% the correction window.

That's a correction.

The same week Destiny stole $87 from register 4, an employer in Houston withheld $340,000 in wages from 280 workers over two years. The Department of Labor assessed a civil penalty of $14,000. The employer paid it the way you pay a parking ticket. The employer is still operating. The employer does not have a record. Destiny will have hers when she is twenty-nine. She will have it when she is thirty-nine. She will carry it into every job interview for the rest of her life. The employer will carry a correction.

My daughter turned nineteen last month. I spent $87 on her birthday dinner. I was typing Maria's ticket number into the system when I thought about that and my hands stopped on the keyboard for a moment I cannot explain to you except to say that $87 is a very specific number when you have processed 11,400 corrections and not one of them has been referred for criminal prosecution. The category does not exist in my system. I have looked. There is Compliance Remediation. There is Classification Adjustment. There is Closed — No Further Action. There is no category called Theft.

I looked. It is not there.

That's a correction.

The correction queue closes tickets in ninety days. A closed ticket is not an open crime. The window closes the case before the worker opens one. Every quarter I present the metrics. The number of corrections is rising. We present this as improved compliance. The slide is green. Green means we are catching more theft. We are catching more theft because there is more theft. The slide does not show the second number. The slide is green because we designed the slide.

$87 is a felony. $6,300 is a ticket. $340,000 is a correction. $50 billion is a slide.

I eat lunch at my desk at 12:15 because the correction queue empties briefly when the East Coast offices close. I have eaten lunch at my desk for seven years. I have a lucite block on my desk that says Compliance Excellence. I received it in 2023. It is the only award I have ever received for anything.

It is heavier than it looks.

[The New Times (Rwanda) @NewTimesRwanda]

[AD]: Rwanda is set to make history.

With a new agreement with @ZiplineRwanda, the country becomes the first in the world to adopt nationwide autonomous logistics infrastructure and the first outside the U.S. to launch an urban drone delivery network.

By 2027, Kigali could see drones delivering everything from medical supplies to everyday essentials, redefining how cities move.

Learn more here: https://t.co/ydKwW6ecVX

[TWIRWANEHO MOISE 🇨🇩 @TwirwanehoMoise]

#WashingtonDC: Aujourd'hui, des milliers de Banyamulenge venus des 50 États des États-Unis se sont rendus à Washington D.C. pour manifester contre le gouvernement de Kinshasa et exiger l'arrêt du génocide perpétré contre les Banyamulenge en RDC.

La plupart des rues de Washington D.C. ont été fermées pour permettre le déroulement de ces manifestations pacifiques.

@realDonaldTrump @PatrickMuyaya @Presidence_RDC @StateDept @SecRubio @hrw

[#marchoogsteyns @MarcHoogsteyns]

Mon analyze sur implication du Burundi dans la guerre au Congo. A partager !!!!

https://t.co/AtoXg8441u

[Eric McNeil @EricM2217]

@africatodayMG What is this post referring to @grok

[Rwanda Is Open 🇷🇼 @RwandaisOpen]

PM of Barbados on H.E. President Kagame.

"Since I last saw you, I visited your Memorial, and I must tell you that for me seeing you again, is a very emotional moment because you are a giant among men. And I feel the need to pay tribute to you tonight"

[#marchoogsteyns @MarcHoogsteyns]

America's peace effort in the DRC is becoming more and more shaky. Pls. read and share!

https://t.co/BzgzfiO6hN