Monday, May 15, 2006

Our World: On Darfur, Iran and the Middle East

We live in a troubling world today and above all things the world is in search of peace and quiet. Indeed, I reckon it needs all the help it can get but everyday it seems we just drift from one chaos to another. No part of the world is immuned from crisis- every continent has its rebel group and blood seeking brigand. From street gang banging on the streets of America that takes the life of a college basketball player to everyday drug deal driven murder of citizens, criminals and law enforcement in Mexico and Central America to the rebel groups that span the vast continent to the South of New World. Europe is not free from the shackles of hate either: Ireland, Spanish Basque movement, bombings in Turkey and Italian Mafiosi remind us of a bloody world. Asia and Africa have a fairly larger share of this mystery - with actively fought wars and retribution exhaustively taking the time of governments instead of the real work of development. Today I will examine three of these conflicts.

Darfur: The conflict in the Western part of Sudan is nothing short of genocide. Black people of Sudan have been raped, killed and turned to overnight refugees in their own land by their Arab Northern countrymen that have sought to monopolize the oil wealth of the Black people of Sudan for the Northern and National Islamic Government. Pressure from the world powers in their thirst to get oil deals is making the central government rethink its position albeit from the position of strength. The inability of the Arab League to condemn the madness being wrought on the Animist south by the northern Arabs smacks of opportunism and racism; indeed, while it is convenient for the same Arab League to cry for the people of Palestine they will not do the same for the Sudanese blacks. It is a shame. It is a lesson to Black Africans that on the world stage no one can protect our interests better than ourselves. There is serious need to bring all the leaders of this genocide to justice as soon as the conflict is resolved. Indeed, ideas on a standing force for conflicts in Africa is very good but I also think patronizing. What do they mean by they need standing force? Is it not somehow expecting that we Africans will just take up arms against each other at the slightest excuse?

Why are they just treating the symptoms? Is it not true that the root cause of the persistent crisis in Africa and the resultant underdevelopment, poverty, disease and deaths is a direct result of the evil Berlin conference that drew up for the most part the current variegated political map of Africa as slavery/colonial plantation of Old Europe? Is is not the evil milestone in the history of our continent that lumped together people of unrelated history and of improbable monolithism and then expect them to work together towards a national aspiration based on a foreign concept, document or idea like donkeys fed water at the river side?I think it is high time for a new conference in the mould of Berlin conference now planned, ran and controlled by Africans in Africa for the benefit of all Africans. It might take the pressure of the same world stage technocrat that somehow always amass a superior argument to force African dictators to take more loans from their sub-prime international loan shacks and Shylock monetry institutions going by exotic names like Paris Club and IMF; it will require the cooperation of the world for Africa to re-emerge in it true self. This new conference will look at redrawing the political map of Africa by Africans based on willingliness of neighbors and resources at the disposal of constituent parts. Mini republics whose military can be over run by the police service of another will be a thing of the past and the miniaturization of our continent can also be conscripted to the history books.

This is my new concept of Pan Africanism not the aged concept of African unity that can hardly garner support among common people. If we must be united, we can only unite on our terms not on terms dictated by outsider. May be I am just a dreamer, may be this dream is coming way too early before its time; but who says I cannot dream? I can dream- I can dream of a renewed motherland whose resources keeps it factories humming and its people busy. A continent free of crisis and fracticidal killings and misplaced priorities. A continent we all can indeed be proud of. A continent we can call the last bastion of man at peace with his environment and natures heritage to homo sapiens. That is the Africa of my dream, that is the continent of our aspirations. I can dream.

On the two other crisis I speak of here are my opinions:

1. US refusal to fund Hamas led Palestinian government because of Hamas Refusal to recognize the right of Israel to exists: Arrogantly dumb I say and stupid stubbornness are the words that come to mind.

2. Iran's insistence on Nuclear power: This is what you get when you sacrifice your moral authority by lying to Allies, friends and country men. Even a mad dictator will stand up to you. But can the world suffer a fool for too long? Let us wait and see...siddon look.
Till next time...stay on top of what goes on around you, because whatever goes around comes around.

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