11 posts tagged “africa”

At the end of the Africa-Europe talks in Lisbon, President of Senegal had this to say concerning the much touted agreements between "equals" (E.P.A.'s)

“It’s clear that Africa rejects the E.P.A.’s,” President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said at a news conference, claiming the support of the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. “We are not talking any more about E.P.A.’s; we’ve rejected them.” [nytimes]

Reading this statement gives me renewed hope that Africa is on her way to recovery. It doesn't surprise me that Mbeki himself didn't have the testicular wherewithal to say this himself, leaving it instead to his Senegalese counterpart to do the honours alone. To his credit, he IS making headway in as much as the British experiment with independent Zimbabwe is being made to flounder. It is time our leaders acted provocatively. Their statements need to court controversy, instead of secret winks in board rooms. The electorate need to be involved in the dialogue. Hearing our leaders make statements abroad and face the music when they do so, will be the first step in raising public awareness to issues such as these. I am doubtful if the Senegalese president's statement will make the domestic papers (in Azania), and even if it does, it will not capture the audience as much as the same statement would have, had it been made by Mbeki himself. To his further "credit", Mbeki does face significant domestic pressure. This pressure comes as part of the package, being a "leader" with the kind permission of his zionist benefactors. He can only continue his engagements in Harare, due to the more or less independent security team that comes with the office of president. He and his cabinet are some of the few who can engage in foreign affairs in this way and get away with their lives. I continue to wonder if even they know the dangers posed to them by the gangsters who effectively run the stock exchanges in Johannesburg and Tel Aviv.

Concerning the Lisbon affair, it is obvious to anyone who is not a pathetic victim of the pro zionist African Nationalist propaganda machine, that we are not equals to the one's who effectively run our economy from London, New York and other neo-colonial economic centers.

There can be no freedom without equality. And no deals between a master and slave can be equitable. Equality begins with genuine autonomy. And sadly, such autonomy can only come after open conflict and when the nation can defend itself from military attack. It would place African people in good stead to strengthen trade partnerships with friendly governments, as well as to acquire military capabilities of the their own and to secure reliable international alliances of the kind that would offer military support if we are attacked by Europe or America. These are the prerequisites to signing any deals with gangsters. Who goes to gang land unarmed is a fool.

It would be better if no deals were signed to begin with. Sanctions are in effect an open arrangement that display the real undercurrents to our dealings with thugs. Sanctions are a blessing; free trade deals are a curse. By disguising their true purposes, FTA/EPA's, lull the public into acquiescence, whereas hostile policies like sanctions, promote domestic policies that confront the enemy and deal with the situation by the horns. Of course, such a domestic situation will be complex to begin with. We see open conflict in Zimbabwe. There are some who will be misled into partnerships, believing as they do, the promises made to them by a middle class elite who lead the way in such deals. Even the current situation of the tip toeing regime in Pretoria is testimony to the nature of this dynamic. I would argue that Zimbabweans are more fortunate than Azanians, due to the fact that they are more mature and politically organised than their southern brothers. Not least of all, it is far safer to walk the streets of Harare than it is to walk in Johannesburg by day.

Somali police have surrounded the offices of an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu and opened fire on the building, according to station officials.

"Many Mogadishu-based journalists have been forced to flee the country due to the ongoing intimidation of journalists," Joel Simon, the CPJ's executive director, said in a statement.
   
"We call on the government to stop this harassment and to move its forces away from the main gates of the Shabelle media network offices."

Somalia is also the second deadliest country in the world for journalists, after Iraq, according to the CPJ.

Al-Jazeera (Sept 18th, 2007)

This post refers to an article by John Yeld of the Cape Argus covering a paper in the Medical Journal "The Lancet".
The authors of the paper (subsequently signed by 260 medical professionals worldwide) conclude that the stance of the American medical establishment seems to be one of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".
The "Lancet Letter" is entitled
Biko to Guantanamo: 30 years of medical involvement in torture
David J Nicholl, Trefor Jenkins, Steven H Miles, William Hopkins, Adnan Siddiqui, Frank Boulton, on behalf of 260 other signatories
The Lancet - Vol. 370, Issue 9590, 8 September 2007, Page 823

The news report below, appears in full at the allAfrica.com website
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070644.html

There are strong parallels between the treatment meted out to murdered Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko and detainees held in the notorious US prison at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the so called "war on terror", says a group of more than 260 doctors from around the world.

The group, which includes South Africans, has called for the US doctors involved in treating these prisoners especially those helping to force feed detainees on hunger strike by inserting tubes into their noses to be reported to their professional medical bodies for breaching internationally accepted ethical guidelines.

The doctors express their outrage in a letter that appears in today's edition of The Lancet, the prestigious independent medical journal published in Britain.

The 30th anniversary of Biko's death from severe head injuries is next week.

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Biko was savagely beaten by Port Elizabeth security police while being held in solitary confinement and driven naked in the back of a police Land Rover to Pretoria, where he died a lonely death in a police cell.

Continue reading the rest of this report and comments [theAzanian Blogger]

Related Articles:
Durban Conference on Racism (Sept 2001)
Medical News Today
Accra Mail Tribute  to Biko - Thirty Years (by Dida Halake)
SA History.org

Some of you may be shocked after reading that. Not only by the gore of it, but by the fact you could never have imagined that could happen. Let me tell you that the area it happened in is only a twenty minute bus ride out of the centre of a major Azanian port. This gruesome incident occurred in a suburb of Durban City. Yes, you never heard about it being this bad. I know.

The truth is seldom heard. Most people only see blurbs on CNN, and then they are usually the same ones repeatedly shown, regardless of the story connected to them. If such images are shown to you without any information, you assume it happened in one of those "naughty" countries like Zimbabwe or Mogawhatsusname", not good old Mandelaville. The truth is that violence in Azania is so severe it puts Zimbabwe in the eyes (no it's not as bad as Mogadishu yet). Let me say that in standard, non Azanian English: the Azanian violence levels are far worse than that found in Zimbabwe or Malawi. The sad difference is that our situation is ignored. It is drummed home that we are a democratic country so many times, that when people go missing and turn up in the hands of the terror cell controlled from the pentagon, people just continue with their daily duties. After all, South Africa is one of the "good African states", obediently following American and British guidelines about social spending, and economic policies. So, one is sure they did "whatever" for "whatever good reason". So even if you DO happen to hear that "politicians have repeatedly said that security is an expensive affair and that Azanians need to start paying for out of their own pockets", you'd probably agree with them. A few years ago, the security industry was the fastest growing industry. Today, private security companies patrol wealthy neighborhoods, expensive electric fences and burglar alarms are installed by anyone with half a brain and the money to do it. The rest of the folks get screwed. Private security companies have even been signed up to protect certain police stations that had had their weapons stolen so many times, they themselves had become part of the problem.

Of course, I don't blame you for not knowing about our situation. We are a small drop in the ocean compared to all the other things going on. Besides, the media and shoddy journalism is also to blame. This is not only true about Azania (still known by it's colonial name, South Africa). Last month I showed some students a report about the Russian exploration of the North Pole, an dteh following day, one of the net savvy kids showed me a young blogger's response to the event. The video shown during CNN TV soundbyte/blurb was footage taken from the famous movie "Titanic". Though it doesn't prove the Russians had faked the whole affair, it does lead one to question what the media giants really assume about our intelligence. We weren't even informed about the source of the footage, which would have been half respectful. Such oversights or plain shoddy production or "journalism" is meant to sensationalise and sometimes to mislead. Many misconceptions about many important things arise from this sort of dishonesty.

When we actually read the cold hard facts about a situation in Azania or Iraq, we tend to see it in relation to other images we have seen (genuine images or otherwise) and the impact of these hard facts are actually softened by the subliminal (and not so subliminal) repetitive rubbish we have been fed prior to exposure to the facts.

As a result, when we see a leader like Ahmadenijad or Chavez address the UN, though they may be making very good points, if we have been suckered up to that point, we can't understand the address.

Now, back to the article I posted: Why has the situation come to this? If anyone wants my opinion, let me hear yours first. i will only say that it has a lot to do with a culture having been whittled away and something else put in its place. Also with a breakdown of other norms, services, and a silence regarding the whole thing. If there is noise being made, it's all that it amounts to: NOISE. The noise takes place at middle class dinner tables, and among ruling class newspaper redaers. The end result is that nothing ever happens, and a state of paralysis sets in.

There, I've gone and said too much now. I'll leave the rest to you.

The article leads with this statement:

One of the most durable features of the U.S. culture is the inability or refusal to recognize U.S. crimes.

Herman goes on to debunk the idea that religious fanaticism is at the root of terror. He lists what he perceives as the contributing factors at the root of violence and hatred for the United States. He identifies the US installation of tyrants like the Shah of Iran in 1953, the military backing given to Saddam Hussein during the brutal war waged against the new Islamic Republic of Iran, and the US support for the illegal zionist entity in Palestine.

The statement ends with this relevant observation:

imperial terrorism inevitably produces retail terrorist responses; that the urgent need is the curbing of the causal force, which is the rampaging empire.

The complete posting is archived (right click to open in new tab)
http://web.archive.org/web/20011103060522/globalresearch.ca/articles/HER109A.html

In short, the much disliked yet apt words of brother Malcolm concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy remain true today:

a case of chicken coming home to roost

Moreover, apart from seeing their own violence turned on themselves,
Americans are paying the price for:

• their acquiescence of the fraudulent process which ushered in the current US presidency,
• their acquiescence of the assaults on freedoms which were instituted subsequent to Bush's election
• their acquiescence of the obvious deceptions created and then used as pre-texts for the military interventions
  
• their acquiescence of the abuses of the media meant to incite fear, then hatred
  
• their acquiescence of the illegal wars which are being waged today
• their acquiescence of the abuses at secret torture camps including but not exclusive to Guantanamo
  
• their acquiescence of the continued support for the criminal entity occupying Palestine

Sadly, we are all victims of this rampaging empire and we will all pay the price for inaction.

What feeds this process do you think? It defies all logic that so many will be fooled into so much irrational and blind support for a deceptive and a corrupt state. When confronted by reason, some people tend to bury their heads in the soil. Part of the problem of course is as a fellow blogger put it, a nation fed with the doctrine that it is superior to all others, cannot fathom anything other than this perception of themselves. To be exposed to anything other than confirmation of this illusion, becomes something tantamount to suicide. It is a fragile identity. Some would argue it is the mentality of a nation in a state of war, yet I cannot agree that this is a given or even natural state.

In the humble opinion of this blogger, this is more than natural. It is self-serving and it is obstinant. Another blogger noted that the Holy Quran mentions how the enemies of God will never accept the believers, until [the believers] embrace [the non-believers'] religion (identical in the translation to "way of life"). The Holy Bible mentions something similar in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere, I believe. We must in effect show our allegiance to the great satan by our wanton and obstinant embrace of death, violence, destruction, symbols of allegiance, if you will. Refusal to open one's mind to allow rational considerations into our thinking and our actions, is surely sinful at best, and dangerous at worst. For it prevents our God from using us as instruments in His correction of the wrongs of others.

i would expect this posting could be classified as "hate speech" in less democratic nations. Frankly speaking, i couldn't care less if it is. let me say only that i don't hate anyone, i just don't support some people's choices, and i reserve the right to say so. if and when those choices begin to affect my own life and the life of my family, then my voice will become louder. the right to speak out and to do what i can to establish a community in line with my values, is non-negotiable. if it is not too much to ask for, let those who agree with me also be heard. of course, we have a long way to go before people begin to speak without fear. but let us make a start. open the can of worms so to speak.

Nigeria's Anglican congregation, is second in size only to Britain's. That is news to me. News.24.com carried a report in 2003 in which the typical African opinion was expressed concerning people who choose to engage in homosexual practices:

The primate of Nigeria, the Most Reverend Peter Akinola, has described the appointment of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex marriage as "a Satanic attack" on the church.

More recently, (News.24 URL http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2162306,00.html)

Abuja - Eighteen men face charges of sodomy in a Nigerian Islamic court after authorities arrested them as they prepared to take part in a gay marriage, state media reported.

On Tuesday (August 21st, 2007), Ugandan's staged a protest calling for tougher measures by police against people who choose to engage in this particular sexual deviance, actions which are banned in the conservative Christian country. The protest seems in part to have been triggered, by a press conference held by sexual deviants (known as smug) a few days before. The protesters also took the opportunity to object to a report made by the US intern Katherine Roubos in the Daily Monitor, in which she dealt with the experiences of people who choose the homosexual lifestyle in Uganda. The newspaper is owned by Aga Khan, currently visiting East Africa. The Daily Monitor intern has denied campaiging for people who choose a gay lifestyle, saying she was simply doing her job:

I was assigned a story by the editor and I did it objectively. My job is to report on events, not my personal opinions

Notwithstanding the conservative views of Africans, some religious leaders, seeking to impress upon the world  their allegiance to an idea of modernity perhaps at best,  or to satan at worst, continue to insult Africans. In South Africa, conservative religious views are also ignored by the church leadership who is increasingly out of step with political, moral, and generally most social and economic realities in Azania and Africa at large. A major part of this scenario is coloured perhaps by an ingrained racism, even self hatred, which disregards Africans as backward, seeing them as needing to be led, cajoled, and if need be, whipped into a world of modernity.

In a letter to Southern Africa's Anglican Archbishop Ndungane, Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria said:
http://www.afrol.com/articles/10519

What you cited as top priorities are in this context clearly misplaced. I ask, are the issues of peace, hunger, shari'a, and HIV/AIDS, serious and prevalent, as they are, more important to the Church than faithfulness to the plain truth of Scripture?

Ugandans are rightly making some much needed noise on this issue, but they may be missing the point just a bit. Far more damage is being done by media outlets across the continent and no doubt inside Uganda as well. It may be easier to attack the Daily Monitor and it's staff, yet the real culprits are left smiling. The Daily Monitor report may just be the straw that breaks the camels back, yet i would venture to say, the camel needs a back breaking.

Aga Khan's visit is more significant however. He will officiate at the inauguration of the Bujagali hydro-power dam, a multi-national project supported by the World Bank. The Bujagali project will bring many opportunities to Uganda (Mail & Guardian, Azania), and it also symbolises in itself, new alliances and prospects for development. My strange personality smells a rat once again. Our progress as Africans is often hampered by outside influences, who see benefits in sowing division. The Daily Monitor is carrying other significant stories at the moment, yet this one report has become the cause perhaps, of many Ugandans setting the newspaper aside as an unreliable tabloid.

After reading Roubos' report, the mention of so called abuse and oppression and referring to people who choose this lifestyle with the term "gay and lesbian" seems to suggest that the reporter was perhaps out of step with African sentiments. Being American, such errors are to be expected. In Africa, (the topic being taboo from Nigeria and Ghana to Uganda and Azanian) most of us do not consider this to be abuse or oppression at all. Neither do we consider that such people are a natural category of humans, as is the popular belief in some western societies. The term criminal would suffice instead of "gay and lesbian". Roubos should have worded her report differently, and perhaps spoken more in terms of preventing inhuman treatment of those who choose to violate Ugandan law.

Those interested in reading more about the Anglican communion in particular, may wish to visit a blog entitled BOLIVIANBEAT : Building bridges, engaging Truth

p.s.

I would have liked to post this article in the "Gay group" at vox, unfortunately i have been banned from the group for some reason. My hope is that the post reaches the audience it is intended for. The view that this issue is a closed one, is unfounded. Let it be known there are many voices in places where there exist no restrictions on the expression of opposition to this issue as is the case in less democratic western societies where certain views are seen as hate speech.

Expressing these views puts one at risk of losing some alliances and some friends in the process, yet it is any person or community's God-given right to decide it's own course of action, according to it's own values. The fact i am an African, fundamentalist Christian, Catholic, Muslim, or any other number of labels shouldn't make my view any less valid.

Let's talk a while about poetry, terrorism, and war. A strange mix you say? How many of you knew that the so called "white" South African poet Breyten Breytenbach, along with many other notable and talented people, were once branded as terrorist? In the years of active resistance, (sometimes referred to as "the dark years of Apartheid") there existed, ironically and sadly, more "color blindness" than today. By a strange twist of logic, Black Consciousness was branded racist and is still laregly misunderstood today. One would be forgiven for concluding sometimes, that the twist is more often a deliberate distortion than a real misunderstanding, confusion or misinterpretation. It suits many people to brand and trash ideas that pose some threat to their fragile hegemony. Indeed, nowadays, the same people who languished for years in prison for what they believed in, for their opposition to Apartheid, now face a new branding: and are often accused of being racist for expressing criticism of the government of the day.

I stumbled upon this newsletter which made for wonderful reading. I will certainly search out anything by Breytenbach in the coming months. If you will forgive me, I have extended the idea of poetic license just a bit here (in the interest of the resistance) and included some audio of Breytenbach in my playlist for you to enjoy. My advice is to sip on some "moer koffee" if you can find some, and read the text, poets against war.

It is fair to say there has been a deterioration in the international environment, both physically and morally.

Breyten Breytenbach, Potsdam, 2005