WHAT’S IN A CORPSE?

WHAT’S IN A CORPSE?




American Marine soldiers were captured on video peeing on the corpses of Taliban fighters. They evidently enjoyed their act, these sons of Christian and civilized America which always strives to teach us Christian democratic values. At the risk of annoying some quarters let me ask the pertinent question: what is in a corpse? Corpses have been sold, mutilated and defiled in the past.

To begin with America has refused to respect many Geneva Convention laws and rejected the ban against torture. Its troops in Afghanistan (and Iraq and other places too) are there to kill people they call their enemies. Afghanistan is not that famous for its R&R spots and considering that the Talibans are also not that gentle with corpse, one can understand the frustration of the peeing Marines. Back in History Belgian colonialists were proudly photographed holding decapitated heads, chopped of hands, etc of the Congolese (15 million died in the hands of the colonials). Colonial wars were not respectful of the bodies of the natives. The German tried to wipe out the Herero people of Namibia (the Nazis got many of their evil concepts from that campaign); the British tried their hand everywhere. Italians killed a million Ethiopians chopped of head and hands of patriots and the Italian colonial Minister Alessandro Lessona even imagined “an Ethiopia without Ethiopians”. Here is one report on the British penchant to destroy entire communities: “On 29 March 1896, Rhodes’ ally Lord Jarvis wrote to his wife that ‘I hope the natives will be pretty well exterminated . . . our plan of campaign will probably be to . . . wipe them out . . .’, while in July he wrote to his mother, suggesting that,‘. . . the best thing to do is to wipe them out . . . everything black’. In January 1897, Lord Grey wrote describing the mood in the colony: even the missionary Father Biehler felt ‘the only chance for the future of the [Mashona] race is to exterminate the whole people, both male and female, over the age of 14! ” In such situations, it is not possible to expect niceties towards the dead.

Still, the American penchant to be disastrously grotesque does shock. The crimes in the Philippines, later made paler by the Indochina experience, were beyond measure and many corpses were mutilated. The Vietnam experience was of course worse. Dead Vietnamese were defiled in one way or another. In Iraq, Abu Ghraib photos of dead Iraqis being defiled by American troops are now followed by American troops peeing on Taliban corpses. Guantanamo is evidence of mistreatment of the living—why expect respect for the dead? Water boarding and other brutal tortures were sued and are still being used on live prisoners—why bother for the Taliban corpses who are dead and would not feel wet or humiliated by the urines of beasts? We should also consider the fact that Americans had been defiling the corpses of Native Americans and habits refuse to die. All this said, I am the first to admit that Africans are not saints in this respect. Anti and pro Gbagbo forces in Ivory Coast torched people to death Kenyans and Ugandans beat and torch alleged thieves in a crude mob justice that also takes place in South Africa where victims are forced to drink petrol for what is called internal combustion. Samuel Doe was cut to pieces. Even Khadafy’s coprse was defiled courtesy of America, Britain and France. Decapitation, mutilation of the dead is not a strange thing to Africans. If violence is as American as apple pie the defilement of corpses is as universal as (not as matoke, sorry) but rice.

Anyway, respect for corpses has not been an American tradition at all. Check the following report:

“On September 19, 1995, two men allegedly broke into the mortuary
at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills and engaged in
sexual intercourse with two female corpses. The next day, police announced the two men were being held on suspicion of burglary.
According to police, the two men were not charged with having
intercourse with a corpse because having sex with a corpse is not illegal
in California. This left the men liable only on charges that they
broke into the mortuary and stole computer chips from a personal computer in the building”. There you go. Necrophilia is also a favorite subject of American movies and TV programs. The genre is not, alas, Horror.

Torturing and decapitating people are, in my opinion, not as bad as anything done to a corpse. Intercourse with a dead person is vile but as California law clearly puts it no crime is involved (maybe because the corpse would feel nothing). Killing innocent people by air strikes and drones is evil and not comparable to vile attacks on dead people. Lumumba’s corpse was defiled but not many in the West cared. Today militias supported by the West have raped and attacked more than half a million females in Eastern Congo. Cutting the throat of people is disgusting but the Talibans and Al Shabab type of bizarre forces enjoy it. If people pee on these killers is it poetic justice? If we say yes then we all go into the mad, mad world of criminals playing roulette with decency and hopes of a better world. The Talibans and the Marines are in their own nightmarish world of playing recklessly with our hopes and rights as human beings. The West made fun of Idi Amin and Bokassa and even alleged they were cannibals. The RUF of Sierra Leone also came to the rescue chopping of people’s hands, arms and heads. But the whole operation there was for diamonds and orchestrated by Britain in the first place.

Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo, Afghanistan….. The image of America is not that nice. Peeing on dead people is not going to improve their image. Obama has not been that much of a dramatic change over Bush in the political field. Frustrations abound. American soldiers as harbingers of democracy or decent values are total fiction. The soldiers who peed on corpses publicly and graphically announced that America’s promise of decency and democracy is totally false. This is a proper message to all who want to be duped by Washington. It is also possible that there are many who want for Washington to pee on them but this is not the feeling of the majority. If Americans troops only pee on dead people it is also going to be a problem for those live ones who want the urine treatment. Are Americans that selective with their brutality? If so, is discrimination involved? Must you be dead to be peed on by the agents of civilization, democracy and Christianity? Very difficult questions awaiting clear answers. Again, what’s in a corpse? Dead people have been defiled for centuries. More relevantly, live people have been defiled and peed upon for centuries. This is much more important an issue. Alas, no one seems to care. Be assured, American troops would perform more grotesque and inhuman actions in the future. Defiling corpses is a crime but more than that crime against live people is even worse. Peeing on the dead is not as bad as doing worse things on the living.

HAPPY GENOCIDE

HAPPY GENOCIDE !



This time around Amnesty International has got the spirit right by calling for the arrest of George Bush during his tour of Africa. Alas, Ethiopia, Zambia and Tanzania do not have independent and truly African regimes and the man accused of violating the international convention against torture (and possibly against mutilating English grammar) will be feted and honored and not arrested. Bush will surely say “they misunderstimated me”. And Meles Zenawi, whose police and security forces torture and brutalize all prisoners, would give him a hug.

The so called International Criminal Court and the head prosecutor Ocampo are part of Western instruments against the so called Third World. If genocide be the issue, then the first people to be arrested and tried would be the American and Western criminals who have supervised genocides all over the world. Talk of Indochina and Chili and you get Kissinger. Mention Kenya and the horrible crimes of British colonialism come to the fore and France is guilty of the barbaric murders in Algeria. In recent times, the crimes of America in Iraq and Afghanistan are worthy of mention and Amnesty is right in calling for the arrest of George Bush. Tony Blair should also be detained without delay and charged. But, let us be real and realize that the powers in place are beyond the law and the ICC farce of Ocampo. The pathetic puppet is only focused on arresting Yugoslavs and Africans who have displeased the Western capitals. If genocide is really the issue, the recently celebrated Thanksgiving Day is but an example of the celebration of the wanton murder of Native Americans by savage settlers from Europe who were neither pilgrims nor invited guests. Manipulated and revised History has to be reconsidered—the day is a day of mourning for the real Americans who were there before even Columbus “discovered “the place. Happy genocide is in order for those celebrating the day and it is sad to note that Africans including Ethiopians celebrating the day. But this is not the issue here.

The miscarriage of justice is best exemplified by Ocampo and his ICC. A so called embargo killed half a million Iraqi children in an event that was dismissed by Madeline Albright as just collateral damage. Bush has been identified with water boarding and a country that often boasts of being civilized has shown its naked face—wanton murder and brutal torture. From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo it is all injustice riding high. Gbagbo is whisked, actually bundled by the French to The Hague but the perpetrators of genocide like Mels Zenawi are feted and cuddled by the West—they are theirs. A Congolese alleged war lord is taken to The Hague while the master criminal Kabila is still in power. If Beshir of the Sudan is sought by the ICC why are not Bush, Nguema, Blair and the NATO bombers not accused? The same old nauseating double standard rears its head. There are genocides and there are genocides—no news here, just the dog biting the man. If you stick with the West you can murder and torture to your heart’s content and maybe face one or two lame “stop it” s through the years. One can live with that especially if one is a sadistic butcher and dictator.
There is no doubt that Gbagbo will be railroaded though his rival and the French army can both be accused of the crimes against civilians. Yes, the ICC seems to have an appetite for black faces only. To mention racism would be just belaboring the obvious. It is still this the kind of world we live in. No one has yet paid a cent let alone serve a prison term for the genocide of Africans and the infamous slave trade. Five million Congolese have died victims of the greedy pursuit of the mining conglomerates—no arrest warrant has been issued for them. The outcry for Darfur is not at all matched by a serious concern for the Congolese victims of the mineral robbers. The perpetrators and supporters of Apartheid are still around with no credible mea culpa coming out of them. The list is long. The rape of India, of South America, of Africa and Indochina involved genocides of all sorts and few of the criminals have been made to pay. That one genocide is till being celebrated as Thanksgiving Day is enough commentary. Here is one report on that Day: “1621, year of the supposed ‘first Thanksgiving.’ There is not much documentation of that event, but surviving Indians do not trust the myth. Natives were already dying like flies thanks to European-borne diseases. The Pequot tribe reportedly numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had reduced their population to 1,500 by 1637, when the first, officially proclaimed, all-Pilgrim "Thanksgiving" took place. At that feast, the whites of New England celebrated their massacre of the Pequot. "This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequot," read Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop's proclamation. Few Pequot survived.” Many other massacres did follow. In 1623 at the Pamunkey Peace Talks the English poisoned the wine at a "peace conference" with Powhatan leaders, killing about 200; they physically attacked and killed another 50. British perfidy is very old. The accusation that blankets contaminated by small pox were given to the native Indians is not to be brushed aside lightly. Syphilis was spread also and this is without even mentioning the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.
Evidently, Bush will not be arrested by the African puppets. In fact, he was given a prize by Meles Zenawi—as we say in Ethiopia stinking fellows walk close and hand in hand. ‘Gim legim abreh azgim’. One is out of power and the other wobbles still. The American backed regime in Ethiopia has committed genocide and massacres, and tortures dissidents brutally and as a matter of routine. That Bush took this long to come and say bravo to his puppet is actually what is surprising for he does belong in Addis Abeba alongside Meles. Time for Bush and Meles to say Happy Genocide, to one another up close, together, with their stink.

OF LIES AND DESPOTS

OF LIES AND DESPOTS

““They made us many promises, more than I can remember. They only kept but one. They promised they would take our land, and they took it.” ----Red Cloud

Who was it who wailed “If only I had the luxury of lying?” I do understand the burden of French president Sarkozy who had to complain in private to Obama about Netanyahu “the liar”. Here is how the press report put it:

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes.
"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter. Obama is lying too as he has cuddled up to and tolerated many shamelessly lying despots. They are “his” liars. As we Ethiopians say, you love your baby snot and all. Politics and lies seem to cohabit comfortably, alas. Impostors who can delude the crowds make effective despots. They fear not the lie in other words. Every year at the general meeting of the African Union or the UN a carnival of liars is held. Coup makers and murderers pay lip service to democracy and the will of the people. Those who easily and readily promise the sky to gullible millions will steal the land from all of them. Easy, invade Bahrain and then weep for the people of Syria. Invade for your own limited political objectives and then swear concern for the welfare of the people (France in Ivory Coast and Libya, America in many other places). The lie is important. If Netanyahu lies as Sarkozy alleges then most French people know that Sarkozy himself plays loose with facts actual or historical.
The existence of the WMD was one of the worst lies America and Britain played on the world with Colin Powell in the role of the pathetic messenger. We all saw the carnage that was justified by that huge lie. Africans were promised paradise and deprived of their land and freedom. Ethiopians have been promised three meals per day and millions are still starving and eating once a day has become a luxury. The lies are so effective that there are still many naïve souls who believe that Western troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring democracy to the peoples there. Lying has become the pillar of the State in many countries and most despots rely on lies as much as arms to perpetuate their rule. A link has conveniently been made between Al Qaida in the Horn, in North Africa and the Boko Harem in Nigeria. The Africom operations are destined to carve out a New Africa, dominated by the West and serving the interests of the West. More drone bases would appear on African soil (the latest one is in Arba Minch/Gamo Gofa/, Ethiopia) and American troops would fight along African ones (Ethiopia, Uganda, etc) to crush any resistance to western domination. A good example of the big lie is the fraud that the war against Libya exposed. Kaddafi was said to have thousands of African mercenaries (many black refugees and workers were killed as a result by the so called rebels), that he was going to bomb Benghazi and killed some six thousand Libyans (the NATO war killed many more actually) and that jets bombed civilians. The whole accusation was presented by the Libyan For Human Rights many of whose members were to become members of the Transitional Council to win power.
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, a Sociologist and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) has put it as follows:
“The claims of the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) were coordinated with the formation of the Transitional Council. This becomes clear when the close and cagey relationship of the LLHR and the Transitional Council becomes apparent. Logically, the Obama Administration and NATO had to also be a part of this.
Whatever the Transitional Council is and whatever the intent of some of its supporters, it is clear that it is being used as a tool by the U.S. and others. Moreover, five members of the LLHR were or would become members of the Transitional Council almost immediately after the claims against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya were disseminated. According to Bouchuguir individuals with ties to the LLHR or who hold membership include Mahmoud Jibril and Ali Tarhouni.

Dr. Mahmoud Jibril is a Libyan regime figure brought into Libyan government circles by Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi. He would undemocratically be given the position of Transitional Council prime minister. His involvement with the LLHR raises some real questions about the organization.

The economist Ali Tarhouni on the other hand would become the minister for oil and finance for the Transitional Council. Tarhouni is Washington’s man in Libya. He was groomed in the United States and was present at all the major meetings about plans for regime change in Libya. As Minister of Oil and Finance the first acts he did were privatize and virtually handover Libya’s energy resources and economy to the foreign corporations and governments of the NATO-led coalition against Libya.

The General-Secretary of the LLHR, Sliman Bouchuiguir, has even privately admitted that many influential members of the Transitional Council are his friends. A real question of interests arises. Yet, the secret relationship between the LLHR and the Transitional Council is far more than a question of conflict of interest. It is a question of justice and manipulation.

Sliman Bouchuguir is an unheard of figure for most, but he has authored a doctoral thesis that has been widely quoted and used in strategic circles in the United States. This thesis was published in 1979 as a book, The Use of Oil as a Political Weapon: A Case Study of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. The thesis is about the use of oil as an economic weapon by Arabs, but can easily be applied to the Russians, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and others. It examines economic development and economic warfare and can also be applied to vast regions, including all of Africa.
Bouchuguir’s analytical thesis reflects an important line of thinking in Washington as well as London and Tel Aviv. It is both the embodiment of a pre-existing mentality, which includes U.S. National Security Advisor George F. Kennan’s arguments for maintaining a position of disparity through a constant multi-faced war between the U.S. and its allies on one hand and the rest of the world on the other hand. The thesis can be drawn on for preventing the Arabs, or others, from becoming economic powers or threats. In strategic terms, rival economies are pinned as threats and as “weapons.” This has serious connotations.

Moreover, Bouchuiguir did his thesis at George Washington University under Bernard Reich. Reich is a political scientist and professor of international relations. He has worked and held positions at places like the U.S. Defense Intelligence College, the United States Air Force Special Operations School, the Marine Corps War College, and the Shiloah Center at Tel Aviv University. He has consulted on the Middle East for the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department and received grants such as the Defense Academic Research Support Program Research Grant and the German Marshal Fund Grant. Reich also was or is presently on the editorial boards of journals such as Israel Affairs (1994-present), Terrorism: An International Journal (1987-1994), and The New Middle East (1971-1973).

It is also clear that Reich is tied to Israeli interests. He has even written a book about the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel. He has also been an advocate for a “New Middle East” which would be favorable to Israel. This includes careful consideration over North Africa. His work has also focused on the important strategic interface between the Soviet Union and the Middle East and also on Israeli policy in the continent of Africa.

It is clear why Bouchuiguir had his thesis supervised under Reich. On October 23, 1973, Reich gave a testimony at the U.S. Congress. The testimony has been named “The Impact of the October Middle East War” and is clearly tied to the 1973 oil embargo and Washington’s aim of pre-empting or managing any similar events in the future. It has to be asked, how much did Reich influence Bouchuiguir and if Bouchuiguir espouses the same strategic views as Reich?”
The reality is complicated and like the proverbial Truth needs a contingent of lies to protect it. The West lies to pursue its objectives which are anathema to the interest of Africans primarily. AFRICOM is the new instrument of neo colonial domination and plunder and war against terror is the new name for the scramble of the new Century. The lying despots are the cogs for the wheel of the West and its predatory campaign against Africa. Human rights organizations are being used as a cover for the wars the West is waging against African and other continents. At the end of the day, it is war for valuable resources. The US imports more oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia. The resistance to the plunder of Africa’s oil and resources comes from the people of Africa and it is this resistance that is conveniently being presented as “terrorism”. The African despots are thus part of the big lie and working against the continent and its peoples. The lie is huge. The stakes are high as Africa’s future is on balance. Meles Zenawi sells bonds to gullible people promising that they will get their money back once the huge dam get finished on the Nile. Ivory Coast is said to be fine with Ouattara and Kabila is said to be a panacea for the Congo while Tsvangirai is expected to be an improvement on Mugabe, and so on and on. All lies. In politics “relative improvement” often hides a lie, the continuation of the same under a new name, a new despot. Lies are the weapons of despots. Gullible citizens trust the lies and become victims of tyrants. The wake up call is still unheard. Many Africans still imagine their salvation will come from the West. Waiting for Godot is the reality we observe with sadness.
How long are we to be fooled?

NATO AKHBAR! WOW!

NATO AKBAR ! WOW !!

There was a time when Allah Akbar only meant God is great. Alas, times have changed and in the tragedy that is called Libya Allah Akbar now means NATO Akbar, an exultation of the murderous machine called NATO that reduced Libya to rubbles and killed thousands of innocent people (all photos edited/censored-- circulate, nothing to see, thank you!). As Hilary Clinton so stupidly said: wow!

The illegal and grotesque execution of Khadafy is within the realms of a war crime. There was from the outset the decision to execute him if he were ever to be captured alive. The dictator knew too many secrets, just like Ben Laden, and an open public trial was not to be envisaged. One confidential newspaper in London has asserted that the decision to kill Khadafy was endorsed and called for by none other than Obama and Sarkozy. Imagine Khadafy enlightening us on his deals with Condoleezza Rice and the CIA, with that Tony Blair fellow (who has now become a political consultant to the tyrant of Kazakhstan at a yearly price of 8 million British pounds), with Berlusconi and France’s Sarkozy who had hosted him at the the Elysee palace and begged for more oil concessions for TOTAL. Obama has become the father of all disappointments. The man has been given an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize (but then again this prize has been given to criminals like Kissinger and De Klerk too!). He has failed to keep his promises (Guantanamo is still open for example), waged wars, interfered in other people’s affairs using force, approved and enjoyed murders and selective assassinations (Ben Laden/Khadafy) and went on to say with insensitivity that the war has been won in Libya with no casualty and “only” two billion dollars spent. This is Bush talk par excellence—it is apparent that for Obama too the lives of thousands of Libyans are of no consequence whatsoever. Obama hobnobs with dictators and arms and supports tyrants. Meles Zenawi is one example. I am sure Ugandans can point to their own despot, Equatorial Guineans and Djiboutians to theirs and Chadians to American backed Deby. Sarkozy is also obsessed with winning the coming 2012 presidency and has even had a programmed birth to project the “ papa poule” image (it has not stuck) and has resorted to force against other countries (Cote d’Ivoire and Libya) to present himself defender of the imperial and shredded macho image of France.

The destruction of Libya and the commandeered execution of Khadafy is a disgrace to Washington and Europe. Despite the trumpeted claim that the removal of Khadafy has heralded a new era, the reality is bleak. Libya has been taken one step back and there is no sign of a two steps leap foreword other than the adoption of Sharia law, the reintroduction of polygamy and the denial of divorce rights for women. Some forever naïve souls in Africa have hailed the execution of the Libyan dictator and some live tyrants may be shaking in their expensive loafers imagining such a fate being theirs. Outside of this, the murder of Khadafy does not augur well for Libya and Libyans. Reactionary Arab regimes aided the rebels, Qatar sent troops and Sudan sent arms and ammunition. It was a free for all that showed the features of the new scramble for Africa. The old devils are there, hungrier and better armed than ever before. New predators have come from the East with China leading the way. Forget the hollow talk of solidarity and concern for the welfare of Africans. In all this, the African Union has been demonstrated to be in a state of comatose that was the lot of the previous OAU, the puppets of the West dominate the so called Union and it was not long before all these who were beholden to Khadafy ( and enjoyed his gifts and aid) abandoned him in frenzy.

The NATO military fury against Libya has nothing to do with democracy or with helping a people “hungry for democracy”. The composition of the rebel leaders and their religious zeal do not promise any democratic commitments. Compared to Khadafy, they have emerged as more backward, their proclamation of Sharia law affirming the fact. Their tribal or ethnic division has hampered them up to now from forming a sort of government however wobbly. The dictator, like most tyrants, had mauled institutions worthy of the name and so allegiances and loyalties are basic—“tribal”, family, region and religious. Much as Khadafy and his folks antagonized others, the brutal and violent action against Khadafy loyalists (and the Khadafa group) is bound to undermine a trouble free future. Wow! Khadafy is gone and hail the new Libya is thus a hollow and overly optimistic cry unsupported by the facts on the ground and by our experience of “mission accomplished” and continued havoc in Iraq and Afghanistan. If truth be told, Khadafy was attacked for Libya’s oil, for his anti imperialist rhetoric and call for African unity, for his stand against the daylight robbery of the resources of Africa by foreign monsters. Otherwise, the double standard has been laid bare, only fools believe that the war against Libya was a war for democracy and the human rights of the people? What human rights? The rebels killed as many African workers and migrants as the Khadafy who was hailed by Europe for promising “I will serve as a wall to stop the famished hordes coming to your shores and lands”.

Moatassem Gaddafi, meeting Hillary Clinton, 21 April 2009. A murderous criminal who personally executed soldiers who refused to shoot at the protesters, Gaddafi's fifth son and the National Security Advisor, was also killed in Sirte.


The extrajudicial murder or rather the lynching of Khadafy was ordered by those with extensive past experience in the matter. Obama may have forgotten it but black Africans were lynched by white racists in America, the British hanged too many Kenyan and Yemeni patriots and French colonialists murdered thousands in Algeria and many other places. Yet, the “lynchers” hailed and feted Khadafy when it suited them.






Khadafy was kosher, halal, their friend and ally, before they turned against him and planned his ouster and assured his execution. The double standard is so plain to see it needs no detailed comment. The Tunisian uprising was seen in bad light by France and the West. The French interior minister even offered to provide French repressive means and experience to quash the people’s revolt. Hilary Clinton assured us that, Tunisia notwithstanding, the regime of Mubarak was stable. Assad of Syria and Salah of Yemen have murdered thousands with no NATO plane hovering over their skies or no drone bombing their strategic arms depots. Take also the African dictators allied with America (like Meles Zenawi for one) who are enjoying full Western support and no sanctions though they are labeled horrible human rights violators and guilty of genocide (Gambella, Ogaden). Tony Blair is consultant to one of the worst dictators in the world. France backs most tyrants in the so called Francophone Africa. The Libyan tragedy highlights the Western drive to re colonize Africa and plunder its resources. More than 5 million Congolese have died in a war sponsored by Western companies greedily vying to control the gold, diamond, coltan and other precious minerals of this hapless country. Not much hue and cry has been raised, at least not as much as the cry over Darfur. While comparing one tyranny from another and declaring this one is relatively benign is not a good exercise, there is for example no doubt that any comparison between say Khadafy and Meles Zenawi shows the latter crueler and more monstrous. Beshir and Mugabe are softies compared to the West’s darling called Meles Zenawi. American military bases and presence in the Horn of Africa and in Uganda augur disaster for the peoples of the region who may rise up against their western backed tormentors. This is why those Africans who wax lyrical in condemning Khadafy and praising the NATO operation are dupes of the worst kind, alas.

History teaches for those willing to learn. Not all revolutions or popular uprisings lead to democratic change. Not all transitions are for good. In Tunisia the Islamist Ennahda has won the election. This party was financed and bankrolled by Middle Eastern and Gulf countries. The west is clamoring about “moderate Islamists” though such a creature has been extinct for many many years. Ennahda is playing along trying to project a reformist image and declaring itself a Tunisian version of the Turkish regime though situations of Turkey and Tunisia are not all the same and the so called reformist wing within Ennhada is a tiny minority. The Tunisian revolution is more or less hijacked and short circuited as is the Egyptian one. The West can live with hard line Islamists and anti democrats (Saudi Arabia is an example) so long as they are pro west and hand over their oil resources. The financial supporter of Ennahda, the fiery Sheikh Youssef Al Quadrawi who lives in Qatar, did declare that any Moslem who does not vote for Ennahda commits a grave sin. The Libyan sharia will sneak into Tunisia too. France which cuddles the Burmese junta hated Khadafy because of economic interests and not because it was affected by the plight of Libyans. One of the military leaders of the Libyan rebels is none other than an Al Qaeda operative who was captured by the Americans and then handed over to Libya for torture and interrogation by Khadafy’s security. One remembers the time when diverse forces (left, right and center) saw in Khomeini a liberator!

A wanted man has been killed in Mogadishu—wow! Bin Laden has been murdered-wow! Khadafy has been summarily executed—wow! The Obama administration has no shame at all and maybe as the late Steve Jobs had said Obama may be a one term president like Sarkozy. Good riddance is in order. Ivory Coast, Libya, drones flying out of their Ethiopian and Seychelles bases to kill and destroy, American troops in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda, Africa’s land being handed out to foreigners, dictators being supported by the West, NATO being used to bomb African aspirations to smithereens—the reality is frightening. The execution of Khadafy and the destruction of Libya is a clear warning for all Africans who are entering a very dangerous time that makes their struggle for emancipation and freedom even more difficult.
Wow indeed! Just look at Hilary Clinton reveling in the cruel death of Khadafy.

Observations

Troy Davis executed. America is to acquire a military base in Ethiopia. Now, we feel safe and secure--this is the America we knew for decades.Old South racism and executions of blacks. America vetoing Palestinians is not also knew. It is History. All this makes Obama's America a myth, a mirage, a page saver, not the real thing. America has joined China,Iran, North Korea and Yemen as the country that executes the most people. Troy Davis's case has many uncleared and unproven aspects. The young man jailed at 22 passed at least twenty years in prison/Death Row/ and this should have been enough punishment. But this was a black man accused of killing a white policeman in Georgia. Unpardonable crime. How long has Mumia Abu Jamal stayed in prison? What does the still open Guantanamo tell us? The central Iraqi prison and the torture? Obviously, America is comfortable with its old and imperialist face and the whole Obama charade of a new deal is just a mask. Talking of China being the top official executioner I recently saw a film on the land grab inside China itself. The eviction of Chinese farmers from their lands, their being beaten by party thugs armed with iron batons.No compensation too. If the Chinese can be this cruel to their people no wonder they are merciless in their land grab in Ethiopia and other African countries. The Chinese have been given permission by the Meles regime to beat up Ethiopian workers when they feel like it. The Chinese are also racist to boot. Ethiopian land has been grabbed by them and by Indians, Arabs and others too.Ethiopia is being ruled by traitors and insatiably corrupt scums.The only solution is a revolution, a removal of the anti people regime. The question of " Is China Imperialist?" is posed. My third point why is that Ethiopian political commentators have started to refer to Meles as Zenawi (his father's name) which is not his name in Ethiopia? In Ethiopia our name is not our father''s name but what the foreigners call our first name/prenom..

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." ~ Ray Bradbury

THE NATO COUP

THE NATO COUP Libya has now another new Ethiopian image—the sad face of the Ethiopian born nanny burnt by boiling water by the wife of Kaddafi’s son (Hannibal), the same one who was accused in Genève of beating his servants and in London of punching his wife (alas, she being the same one who never paid her Ethiopian nanny but burnt her whole body with boiling water). Libya was previously distinguished by its racist and brutal treatment of refugees and foreign workers (Ethiopians included), the rape of foreign worker women (and men) too. An unsavory place, a grotesque regime. And yet, we also remember the tyrant in Tripoli was a close ally of Tony Blair (the British premier who had a penchant for brutal dictators like Meles Zenawi), of Berlusconi, of Washington too. Times change and some are now alleging that the revolt by the people in Benghazi was itself concocted by the secret services of these Western countries. Be that as it may, it was time for the dictator to go (though he is still resisting proving at least he is not an isolated tyrant like some others in Africa) and the big media machine was unleashed against him, his decadent family and his brutal regime. There were even hints of Khadafy being of Jewish origin! His regime was blamed for atrocities against foreigners, especially African workers, though the so called rebels did not spare the lives of the same. In a country that is one third black the declaration that blacks are Khadafy’s mercenaries has led to violent killings in yet another expression of Arab racism against black Africans. Remember the brutal pogrom type attack by Libyans against black Africans in 2000? The Libyan situation has highlighted many points that will continue to be of relevance for the whole of Africa. The first one is the affirmed marginalization of the so called African Union. The marginalization and irrelevance was so total as to make every African who had ever imagined a role for the AU to weep in shame. Instead of a role for the AU, Libya’s fate, as in Cote d’Ivoire, was decided by the West, by NATO specifically. NATO bombed and attacked Libya with a vengeance that brought to mind not any concern for democracy but colonial wrath. The rag tag force generally presented as “rebels” was assisted by French Foreign Legionnaires, British SAS and American SEAL special troops. The rebels complained of shortage of ammunition but spent thousands of rounds shooting into the air as they shouted Allah Akbar. The NTC was set up with urgency and disparate personalities, quite a few of them late hour turncoats, became its ministers or leaders. What exactly is this rebel force, this NATO patchwork? Coming weeks will reveal the inherent weakness of this body and the very possibility of an imploding Libya. For the moment, the whole focus is on getting the nemesis of the West ( the North African Saddam, to be hanged or shot to death), assuring as it is now declared that the NATO countries get the lion’s share of the Libyan oil and reconstruction contracts. The whole event can also be taken as the new version of the perennial African coup except that this time it is a NATO coup. The sovereignty of an African country is trampled upon as the West arms its own rebels or puppets to overthrow a regime in the name of democracy. Sure enough, some perpetually naïve African souls living in Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and other countries under brutal dictatorships may hope for a NATO coup. Alas they will be waiting for Godot. The pro West dictators like Meles Zenawi do not get bombed but financed and supported by the West. Those who get accused of crimes against humanity by the poodle of the West, Ocampo by name, will not be the masters of genocide and massacres like Meles and Nguema (or Kissinger and Dick Cheney) but the unfortunate ones who have fallen out of favor vis a vis the West. American war mongering in Iraq did not bring democracy. The situation in Afghanistan is worse and the search for a negotiation with the Taliban augurs bad days to come for the Afghan people as a whole and especially women. In Libya, it is not the democrats who head the rebellion but those who are already clamoring for a Constitution based on the Sharia. Egyptians and Tunisians, who had their own revolutions, are still struggling not to be deprived of their full victory by the military (as in 1974 in Ethiopia) or by pseudo democrats with little concern for sovereignty and dignity of their people. It is safe to conclude that not many Libyans, who had to endure 42 years of dictatorship, or peoples of the world will cry for the misfortune of the Khadafy regime. Not now anyway. Khadafy had irked the West by advocating measures that would have affected the West’s desire for hegemony over our continent. Mineral and oil rich countries are now openly at the mercy of NATO. No one will come to the rescue of the Congolese that are being murdered for their minerals. Omar Beshir and Robert Mugabe can shake in their boots. Meles Zenawi, Nguema and others within the Western hegemonic embrace can sigh contented. Even Bashir Assad has been tolerated to no end. The message is clear. The NATO coup is not for democracy but for western hegemony. Is the scramble for Africa back?