SO WHAT IF OBAMA WINS?

SO WHAT IF OBAMA WINS?


Imamu Amiri Baraka called hope a delicate suffering while someone else called it tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment. No question that Ethiopia's suffering millions need hope, but then the same Ethiopians say he who lives on hope dies with desire. Very realistic you would say but it won't be correct all the way. Ethiopians, or at least her so called intellectuals, are complicated.

I hear that Ethio-Americans are alive with expectations of an Obama victory. One intellectual who has yet to fathom the evil mind of Meles Zenawi and the complicated situation in Ethiopia has vowed to address all Ethiopians on the spirit and message of Barack Obama. Another promised an Obama victory will give Ethiopians the tools and moral equipment to defeat their enemy-- the same regime of Meles that is being backed by America because it is a foot soldier in Washington's so called war on terror in the Horn of Africa. Hope springs eternal said someone else--hope is the poor man's bread. I am the first one to admit that years of close contact with Ethiopian and African politics has made my cynicism strong. To be fair, of course, I would prefer defining cynicism as sentimentalism on guard, guarded optimism. This requires no prophetic ability but just observing experience and facts. Decades of US foreign policy towards Ethiopia and the region has been cynical, cruel and often mistaken and against the interests of the people. US and Ethiopian interests have hardly ever been synonymous.

I remember many Ethio-Americans contributing money and hoping for a better understanding from America when the Clinton fellow got elected. It was not long before his wife Hilary flew to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, to praise Isaias Afewerki as a democrat. Clinton himself went on to lable Meles, Isaias, Yoweri Museveni and Kagame of Rwanda as a new breed of democratic leaders for Africa. The Clinton administration backed the repressive Meles regime and aggravated the plight of millions of Ethiopians. Let me say right here that this has not much to do with the American people who are as generous as any other and have helped Ethiopians in their time of need but official America is another thing altogether. True believers of Obama would argue that he is different from Clinton and would chart a better deal for people suffering under dictatorships. Aside from this being a song we have heard so many times before and taking into account that our fate should not be handed over to any foreign power or leader, it is obvious that Obama is first and foremost an American. He may have had a Kenyan father but as the Kenyans themselves say "Mweri mwega umenyaagwo na ngetho" ( the good millet is known at harvest time). Come January, President Obama will first and foremost fulfill the plans and priorities of the US of America. Clinton or Bush, these priorities have not changed much in terms of Africa and are unlikely to change under Obama. The ethnic chauvinist Tigrean regime has served America well and will continue to be a pliant stooge in the coming years. Obama may be black but this would have no weight at all in determining his policy towards Ethiopia and Africa. The rogues and barracudas like Cheney and Rice may be out of power--a good sight to behold-- though the replacements may not warm our hearts in Africa. To let the cynicism ride its dark horse, for those who want more problems and chaos for America it is true that McCain is the right choice. Such people can hope, if he is elected, his adventures into Iran, Syria, more obdurate policies in the Middle East and elsewhere will aggravate the crisis of America but we cannot wish the American people that much pain while wanting our own to disappear.

A realistic appraisal of the weight of Africa in American politics is called for. Take the Congo where more than 4 million people died and American and British companies running after minerals are behind the bloody militias. Who has cared enough to raise a voice in defense of the Congolese people? Ask Kofi Anan for one. Equatorial Guinea is in America's good books because American companies are taking its oil. Ethiopians suffer under one of the most repressive regimes in Africa--does Washington care? Are they not more interested in the mercenary role of the regime? Obama may be black but American foreign policy is, so to speak, white. White in the sense that it has no heart for the suffering peoples of Africa. Those who are experts at discerning the internal political and economic situation in the USA may adequately explain how Obama would be, domestically, an improvement on Bush or McCain but I will bet all the dollars that I do not have that for Africa Obama will be more of the same, demagogy to the contrary notwithstanding. The American comedian Woody Allen said reality is the leading cause of stress for those in touch with it. Yet, stress or not, we have to be realistic (without quotations) and much as it is historic and pleasant to see Obama in the White House his presence there would not change much for Ethiopia and Africa. Let it be said though the enthusiastic reception that Obama got in Germany (a country that wants no blacks on its soil), that he made it this far in America and may even get elected is historic indeed. America may yet surprise us positively and we hope it does.

For those of us who have a country or a continent to save, time presses and the luxury of giving time to our hope to be real is not there at all. No choice but to fight for our own liberation relying on ourselves and knowing full well that this may possibly pit us against president Obama too if he does get there.

Invading Somalia to Save It!

INVADING SOMALIA TO SAVE IT

Those who have failed to understand the real reasons that prompted Meles Zenawi to send troops to invade Somalia are not few in number. As usual, self declared experts wax lyrical trying to explain to us on why and how Meles had to obey the American diktat, how he is scared of a few thousand hard core Salafist fanatics who may invade and wrest off the Ogaden that a full sized Siad Barre army could not, or how Meles, who is said to graze or chew Khat every afternoon, saw during one of his highs that taking over Mogadishu is the way to a cleaner skin and Nirvana.

Obviously, none of the above reasons hold any water. To put it frankly, none of the so called experts like David Shinn and John Prendergast, former eulogizers of Meles and the TPLF, have the morale high ground to preach now on the realities of the Horn. Yet, they and all the others have failed to understand why Meles sent troops to invade Somalia especially since he was attacking the former dictator Mengistu of wreaking havoc in Somalia. Meles was backed by Siyad Barre in the past and feels indebted towards Somalia. This is the basis of his undying concern for that Stateless country and its battling clans. Meles may not have a fondness for Mogadishu that rivals the one he had for Asmara but here again the Somali capital was said to be brimming with the Eritreans he sincerely loves to frequent with no matter the circumstances. Those who say Meles sent non- Tigrean soldiers to the invasion with the hope that the Somalis may finish them off are also off mark as Meles is jealous of guarding his victims all to himself. Yes, the little fellow is insatiable. Moreover, the invasion cannot be explained away by the allegation that Meles was told that a plant cure for his newly developed skin problem (his face and hands just to talk of the visible parts) is to be found in the gardens of the Somali presidential palace taken over by Sheikhs Ahmed and Aweys. The invasion had in fact deeper and profound motives that I will attempt to reveal here below.

The invasion of Somalia was prompted by the deep love Meles Zenawi has for that country. There they were the Somalis enjoying clan warfare, flooding, all the miseries of the world without even a decent State and Meles could not just sit back and deprive them of an invasion. He had to do his share to make their life as Horn citizens worthy of the region. Somali had invaded Ethiopia when the latter was deep in the grip of a political crisis and Meles had to reciprocate. The Somalis needed an invasion to complete their pain and needed an invasion to seek some unity against a foreign enemy. Meles has obliged and given them the opportunity. Will they take it or waste it? You can lead the horse to the water but you cannot make it drink--and thus no one can blame Meles if the Somalis failed to unite. Another reason is the search for physical contact with Eritreans. With the northern front patrolled by UN soldiers, direct contact had not been easy and Meles, who used to spend his vacations in Asmara and likes nothing more than physical contact with his cousins, had been suffering from what his Chinese doctors have diagnosed as Lack of Contact with Eritreans Anxiety (LACEA). This could only be cured by going to Mogadishu and by making physical contact, even by proxy, with the Eritreans rumored to have been there en masse. Maybe he found none there and this could explain his sadly chauvinistic assertion that the Eritreans were hiding in the skirts of Somali women. As a confirmed coward, Meles knows of course where the best hiding place could be though he could have said Kismayo instead.

Some would surely ask what Ethiopia has got to export to Somalia by the invasion. Not bananas for sure. Of misery and bloodshed Somalia had plenty too. What then? The Bible? Meles is a closet Albanian Stalinist and he has rejected his only God, the son of Afewerki. AIDS through General Bacha Dabale? The Somalis have their own sick fellows with warlords and Islamic court Sheikhs on the verge of insanity from the blood they have spilled. Some lesson on unity? The man is the epitome of division but the clanish Somalis can learn little from him. Delusion of grandeur? But what do you gain showing off with aged Russian jet fighters and tanks against a small force that had none of both? Meles has in fact appeared as a bully, hiding behind a bigger bully, using a battering ram against a fly, burning the gojjo/tukul to get rid of the tuhan/bed bug. Bad bully. And that, alas, is what has also prompted him to invade knowing full well that, at least in the first round, he will roll over the relatively poorly armed and outnumbered Islamic court fighters while getting the chance to strut and parade like a peacock, a victor-- I warned them, they did not listen, I came, I saw, I conquered. A pathetic Caesar on the Horn, a tin pot dictator, a remote control commander, a coward playing at warrior, a fool rushing into the marsh. Meles loves disasters so long as the misery of peoples is assured. And he expects a thank you from the world at large.

The invasion of Somalia is also provoked by the Ethiopian opposition. Those in Kaliti and elsewhere are all to blame. They isolated and hounded Meles so much that even former friend are shunning him and beginning to call him authoritarian. And the opportunist Americans could dump him like they dumped the Shah, Mobutu and even Sadam. Which meant he had to bend backwards to oblige these powerful fellows. A camp in Hurso? Take it please! Action in Somalia? Whatever you say! Washington is looking for three “terrorists” hiding in Mogadishu—no problem, I will invade the whole country and try to find them. Meles was forced to obey the Americans because the opposition, disloyal elements to their core, isolated and exposed him as a dictator. The Opposition could have been charged for this crime too. But, given the situation, what else could he do but bootlick! Let the Americans back the opposition and cause his demise? Over your dead body is the Meles response. A few thousand dead in Somalia is hardly a sacrifice worth talking about. Didn't a hundred thousand perish in the Badme front only to lose Badme and other areas in a World Court ruling later on? Moreover, the Islamic Court was threatening to end the anarchy of Somalia in its own way and no one can expect Meles who relishes division and anarchy to fold his arms and watch as Somalia overcomes clan divisions and casts a bad light on his own ethnic policy that, let us admit it, has failed to fragment and destroy Ethiopia.

Somalia had to be invaded to be saved from its own newly developed delusions. Thanks to Meles, it has now been given the chance of anarchy and more warfare, perhaps the chance to unite against a foreign enemy and wage more war, a chance to avoid an Iraq type massive American invasion by being victim of a poor man's invasion by Meles instead, an opportunity to invite Eritreans and others for the free for all like in Eastern Congo, and the golden occasion to be the victim in the eyes of the world. Why blame Meles when all he wanted to have was physical contact with his Eritrean cousins and to extend a helping hand to the fraternal people of Somalia? The Islamic Court desired to kill as many Ethiopian infidels as possible and Meles has paid the transportation cost to bring the potential victims to Mogadishu--he should be thanked. A home delivery for a Jihad, if you want. Meles had also to test the American trained counter terrorist soldiers in Blattein. If not in Somalia, where? Moreover, after feeding America all the intelligence about the vile terrorists lurking in Somalia, Meles could not shy away from the invasion called for by the situation. Be fair and be in his shoes all of you critics, though he may be as nasty as the bearded Sheikhs or even worse. You can destroy a country to save it-- that is one American concept that Meles has understood ever since Dedebit. That is why Meles is sabotaging the interest of Ethiopia in order to safeguard it.

So in the end, why did Meles send troops to invade Somalia? The desire for mayhem and anarchy? for murder and bloodshed? Out of love for the Somalis in need of a foreign invader? To prove that he is his own man and can invade any country? To use his rusty jets and tanks and get rid of some of his troops? To throw Ethiopia into a mess? All and anything-- except to please Bush. Mogadishu is taken, Kismayo will fall. It is “mission accomplished” Meles style. What next? We have to await the coming Meles session with khat and the revelations he may have on the way out of the mess.

REMEMBERING ESHETU CHOLE

Here are some poems in English written by the late Dr. Eshetu Chole:

The Traveler (1962)

It was a cool and starry night
As I lay back upon the dark grass
That a thought passed through my mind

Amidst te blaze of the heavenly stars
I felt at (a)loss
the loss of a traveler in a strange land.

A sudden fear flashed across my heart,
A thought of thing long-gone and things to come
And my weary body shook and froze.

For I knew the world was no man's land
Strange, unexplored and always young.
I thought at once of the distance I had gone
And the distance yet to come.
And with the sigh of tired traveler
I let these words go forth.

" I am a traveler in a very strange land".
A traveler without guide,
A land without a gun.

DARKNESS (1963)

Dark was all--
Darknes I fear
Evil though it evokes
Sad memories it recalls.

I sat in a dark room
Seeing images of things that never were
Hearing sounds that were not made.

I sat there silently,
Waiting, hope ever increasing
For light to replace darkness
And relieve me of my pains.

RETROSPECT (1963)

Far are those days,
Far in a distant past
But their memories still shine.

Gone are the days of youth,
The days of mirth and laughter;
Weak are those eyes that once glowed with fire
With their flame burnt out;
ime has whitened the hair that was once black
Wrinkles have invaded that smooth and shiny face.

Gone are those days when we were innocently playful--
Gone too with them is the vigour of life;
Cold is the heart that once was warm with love,
And the hot and lively blood
Has given way to coldness,
The coldness that heralds
The nearing of the end.

Books by Hama Tuma

Books by Hama Tuma

• "Democratic Cannibalism":African Absurdities III, Infinity publishing, 2007
• " The Case of the Criminal Walk and Other Stories (Outskirts Press,May 2006)
• Give me a Dog's Life any Day: African Absurdities II [Essays, Trafford Publishing, 2004]
• African Absurdities: Politically Incorrect Articles [Essays, First Publish, 2002]

• Kedada Chereka [Novel in Amharic] , 1999
  
• To Eat an America and Other poems (in English), 1995
  
• Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor and other stories [Short stories, Heinemann, 1993]
• Of Spades and Ethiopians [Collection of Poetry in English, Free Ethiopian Press, 1991]
• Habeshigna #1 & #2 [Two collections of Poetry both in Amharic (1999)
  

Message

There was once upon a time a www.hamatuma.com but the server collapsed and the web site vanished with it. Awaiting a savior, this blog has been launched.To post the articles and also to raise points of discussion. Can and will other writers come aboard? We shall see. I plan to review books of all sorts and share a certain reading experience with others. I will try to invite writers from Ethiopia to use the space to have their say. To present the stories and poems of many others denied spaces or publication. Ambitious? Perhaps. But it is good to dream, to aspire to push the mountain aside.As the Chinese say, books do not exhuast words and words do not exhaust thoughts.

Laughing at Africa

Laughing at Africa has been a favorite pastime of many people in the West since time immemorial. The "dark continent" as some chose to call it was the target of derision by self declared experts who had little credentials other than their mountain high prejudice against black people. Aristotle defined wit as an educated insult but Africa often got coarse buffoonery, cruel, cutting, demeaning, exclusive and more than often racist.

No wonder then that the two master buffoons, Idi Amin and Emperor Bokassa, became the darlings of the West. Amin was the subject of several documentaries as he proudly showed his plan to conquer the Golan Heights, to help the famished in England, to greet crocodiles "who know him personally" and more. By ridiculing Amin who was brought to power by the British authorities themselves a whole continent was made fun of and ridiculed to the delight of the West. For the antics of one Amin, a whole continent was lambasted and the accusations of cannibalism directed against him and Bokassa shed a suspicious light on all black skinned fellows with white or yellow but strong teeth. Grotesque stories of the West, including incidents of cannibalism, did not get that much coverage at all. The latest and quite horrible jab at Africa involved a goat called Rose and a Southern Sudanese, hornier than brainy, assisted by careless elders taking grain to the mill of the West that loves laughing at Africa. The story goes as follows: a certain Mr. Charles Tombe was quite drunk somewhere in Juba, Southern Sudan, a war torn place where you could be expected to do much more worse things than just getting drunk, and mistook a goat called Rose for a lady. He was caught by the goat's owner while having an improper relation with Rose. The owner sought justice from the elders and they, thereby pushing you to conclude that with elders like these no wonder the people had so many social problems, decided that Tombe should pay a $50 dowry and "marry" the goat.

The BBC picked up this story and the news was sent all over the world. Send the BBC vivid stories of the carnage in the Congo in which Britain is involved or on atrocities of the Meles Zenawi army and the stories will die on their desks but anything on Mugabe and what will ridicule Africa is their cup of favorite tea. And, hence, this story of an African and a goat (as if such acts are unheard of in Europe and America) and the verdict of the improperly funny elders hit the world at large. In the words of the BBC itself (Focus on Africa): "the short amusing story we wrote about on the BBC News website soon turned into the most emailed story we have done and it quickly spread around the world...Over time, it has received several million hits--making it historically one of the biggest hitting stories the BBC has ever published...Every few weeks, it would reappear as the BBC's top emailed story of the day....A Google search on the Sudan and goat now uncovers more than 1 million different web pages, based on the same story". Subsequently Rose gave birth to a male kid and died and the BBC did report that too. What made the story such a hit was not that a man tried to bed with a goat ( bestiality being no strange thing in the West), nor was it because some elders with, evidently, time in their idle hands wanted to have a laugh at the expense of poor Mr. Tombe, but only because it happened in Africa. There go those "darkies" getting into bed with goats and marrying them no less! Anything to laugh at Africa.

We are also to blame if truth be told as we Africans position ourselves to be the butt of crude and cruel jokes. We all know the Western media enjoys having a roaring laugh at our misery--that is why they always report the disasters of Africa and very rarely the good and positive side of this great continent. The self portrait of Africans is not what is found in major Western newspapers and magazines that revel in our so called malaise which is often caused by the West itself. The carnage in most places like the Congo/Zaire/ has its root in the Western companies' voracious greed to rob that country's mineral wealth. It is grim and the likes of Mr.Tombe and his irresponsible elders are only light interludes. Chadian rebels may say they called off their offensive against President Idris Deby because they suddenly realized that they had not agreed on who may replace him (ho ho ho!) but the real story is that French armed interference saved the skin of the tyrant in Ndjamena. Chad's first dictator Tombalbaye used to claim that dead ancestors talked to him over national radio but he was a stooge of "civilized" France. There may be more elephants than whites in Zimbabwe as one correspondent of The Economist noted in an attempt to attack Mugabe but the Zimbabwean leader has become Satan in the eyes of the West not for his dictatorship but for infringing on minority white farmers who owned the bigger share of the country's land. This same correspondent argued that those African leaders who blame "Whitey" are not actually good at balancing the budget while glossing over the fact that "Whitey" likes and supports those who do not balance the budget but steal from it. Mobutu, Bongo, Meles, Arap Moi, clowns but thieving clowns nonetheless and the West laughed and still laughs at Africa with them. As recently as April 20, Reuters reported that the "killing of some 200 people (in Addis Ababa) tarnished Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's democratic credentials". Meles is a reliable puppet who is getting sympathy because his democratic (non existent) credentials have been tarnished (poor soul) by those who fell victim (foolish fellows) to his sharpshooters and federal police thugs.

The West laughs at Africa and some blacks applaud or join the laughter. An African American (he may not like being called that for that matter) I cited before in another article has joined those who laugh at Africa by praising his ancestors for being slaves and for having left Africa. The Western media likes such fellows. He is

Keith Richburg, a former Nairobi based correspondent for The Washington Post, and in a book he published in 1997 and that was hailed by TIME and other magazines he stated: "I am an American, but a black man, a descendent of slaves brought from Africa...If things had been different, I might have been one of them (The Africans) - or might have met some... anonymous fate in one of the countless ongoing civil wars or tribal clashes on this brutal continent. And so I thank God my ancestor survived that voyage (to slavery)... Talk to me about Africa and my black roots and my kinship with my African brothers and I'll throw it back into your face, and then I'll rub your nose in the images of the rotting flesh (of the victims of the genocide of the Tutsis of Rwanda)... Sorry, but I've been there. I've had an AK-47 rammed up my nose; I've talked to machete-wielding Hutu militiamen with the blood of their latest victims splattered across their T-shirts. I've seen a cholera epidemic in Zaire, a famine in Somalia, a civil war in Liberia. I've seen cities reduced to rubble, because their leaders let them rot and decay while they spirited away billions of dollars - yes, billions - into overseas bank accounts... Thank God my ancestor got out, because, now, I am not one of them." For once, I am tempted to blame the machete- wielding Hutu militia for being magnanimous! Self hate is a by product of the colonial oppression or of the brain washing by the establishment so much so that the pathetic journalist, who will be consistent if he votes for McCain come November, praises the slavery of his ancestors. He should go and check the carnage in Iraq for one. No wonder they laugh at us poor and confused black dupes.

So called democracies in Africa are caricatures and there you have a serious laughing matter. The new Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua, almost kneeling before George Bush in the White House ("This is a moment I will never forget in my life" said Umaru) is a real joke. And as Mukoma Wa Ngugi noted "to travel from Kenya to Mali one has to apply for a visa at the French consulate in Kenya and (conversely) to travel from Senegal to Kenya the visa has to be issued through the British embassy in Senegal". Now this is another good laughing matter. The whole notion of the Commonwealth should make us roar with laughter as should the idea of a "France-Afrique". Djibouti's President Gelleh makes people pay to be part of his official entourage to the USA (where many of them ask for asylum consequently) so much so that Washington has forced him to reduce his delegation to less than twenty--and we can surely laugh on this. The goons that make Africa a laughing stock are "Made in the West" most of the time. All this is to say that there is much to laugh at in and on Africa but it has little to do with a goat called Rose and a man called Tombe or with provocateur civilians who stand in the way of bullets to tarnish the democratic credentials of prime ministers but much to do with neocolonialism, bad governance, plunder and the suffering of Africans under tin pot dictators backed by the West.

THE RAMPAGE OF THE MORAL BRIGADE

OR

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

The authorities in South Sudan have rounded up girls and women wearing trousers in what they call a vigorous campaign to "preserve our culture". What is the dress culture of Southern Sudanese? The "jellabiya" of the Arab North? The Dinka tribal wear if it at all exists? The main question actually is: in war torn and devastated South Sudan, is this really the most important and relevant campaign that the local government should launch? Sometime ago, in this same South Sudan idle elders ordered a man to marry a goat and gave the BBC and the West one more chance to laugh at Africa. How come African politicians and power holders get so busy on irrelevancies?

The moral aspect of the issue brings to mind one Algerian official of the sixties who ordered all men to grow a moustache or else. In this same country, grown up men who called themselves policemen drove black Peugeot cars and kidnapped young girls from the streets, shaved their hair, manhandled them and brought them back to their districts. These were the "brigade des moeurs", the Moral Brigade, and the girls were punished for being "improperly dressed", "having boy friends" and the like. The zealous policemen did not have much else to do. Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea woke up one bright morning and banned Christmas and any use of the word "intellectual". Mobutu of Zaire, the most corrupt and merciless of thieves, came up with "authenticite", name changes and nation-wide Mao-type attire. Joseph Desiree Mobutu became Mobutu Sese Seko wa Zabanga and remained a neo colonial stooge till his death. In Iran, fanatic clerics ordered women and men to ride different mini buses and the minister in charge of transport explained it thus: "everyday 370,000 women ride minibuses and if ten males brushed against them it would mean 3.7 million accountable sins".

One wonders where the politicians get the time to be so ridiculously busy. They must have turned into expert thieves of the national treasury as it seems to take not much of their time. The man who called Nigeria a continent and Africa a nation with incredible diseases, that is to say George W. Bush, has two wars going on, a failing economy and yet finds time to make us laugh with his antics. I still prefer Vietnam's busybody foreign Minister Nguyen co Thatch who said "we are not without accomplishments. We have managed to distribute poverty equally". African leaders are experts at this but this also is not taking much of their time. Take Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa who has invaded Somalia, is denying the existence of the famine, robbing the country blind and yet has the time to give a speech on Gandhism, non violence and the rule of law. Lying takes not much time?

The rampage of the moral brigade is ruining the continent. The very ones who preach the respect of "our" culture are the very ones sold out to foreign powers or foreign habits. The moral high ground they seek is illusory and at best repressive. Bush would have called it the "fallacy of humans" meaning their fallibility of course. But then, this is the fellow who said of his dog Barney "he is a good man". The Iranian president denies there are gays in his country while Mugabe vows to stamp them out and the Malawi police set up a special anti gay squad. Sexual preferences, the length of skirts, types of dresses, hairdos, and personal sins preoccupy those who are leading whole countries to the pits. The LRA rebels in Northern Uganda cut the lips and ears of those who ride bicycles: their leader Jospeh Kony hates bicycles it seems. This is why this South Sudanese preoccupation with trousers appears grotesque; a bad joke by the authorities who should have been concerned on saving that place from the stifling poverty and suffering it finds itself in. The dictator in Ethiopia invades a country and says we "were invited", then goes to deny there is famine and turns around to argue "the numbers are wrong, only 4 million are starving". Four million is like four people around the corner for this fellow!

As Bob Dole said life is very important for Americans. He may not know this, but life is very important for all peoples of the world. Yet, this is not a fair world we live in. Take the Saudi Sheik Abdul Aziz who said "the earth is flat and anyone who disputes this is an atheist who deserves to be punished". Give him the chance and the Saudi Sheikh who has his orgy in the Riviera and Las Vegas will chop off our heads any Friday in Jeddah. As Sarah Palin said, this is "nucular". Psychologically, the inability to focus on the relevant and the crucial is a malady. Attention Deficiency Syndrome does not cover it. African despots pay attention to all and sundry especially to non serious issues. They never forget their enemies, the dissidents. They never forget to harass us citizens by telling us how to dress, what to eat, with whom to sleep, whom to elect, etc. Actually they elect themselves come what may and they do not need the people at all. Morgan Tsavangari, the darling of the West, took a two- week course in Harvard to study good governance-- he will surely be an improvement on Mugabe, no? We are now talking of creative capitalism, regulated capitalism and maybe we shall hear of humane capitalism. Wild times indeed!

Moral police are often suspect. The hankering to the past usually indicates a present that is troublesome. African despots hanker to the past that is at most less than idyllic. We are hungry today and they tell us we were the beginning of humanity and we introduced farming to the world. Does it really matter? The suit that Southern Sudanese men wear and the big hat that the Southern region president wears are not "native" but then again who cares? Our busy politicians are machos as are the moral brigades called Taliban, Islamic Court, mullahs, etc...They are all forces of regression, nostalgic of the dark times of ignorance and savagery. We should be glad that Southern Sudanese girls have trousers to put on unlike millions other destitute Africans who have no decent clothes at all. Alas, those in power have lost all perspective just as they have no notion of decency and democracy. They are busy chasing after irrelevancies and shaming Africa to no end.