Author: Mike

Had Hurricane Katrina been Iraqi or Afghan or any number of nationalities with some tedious relation to al-qaeda, this President would know what to do.

But it wasn’t , nor indeed was it human. It was literally a force of nature to which we are all subject at one time or another.

Images of the devastating floods in Mozambique in February 2000 may have shaken the hearts of many the world over, albeit briefly. Then the world forgot the suffering and the poor. Even the fantastically destructive tsunami that wiped out over 200,000 lives across the indian ocean states seems to have all but vanished from the western psyche.

Buoyed by a seemingly tireless patriotism, Americans have generally been comfortable with their leaders’ efforts to make them the most powerful nation on earth. Economically and militarily perhaps. In the currency of humankind, perhaps. But they die and they suffer like the rest of us, at the hands of nature.

Undoubtedly Mr Bush would have carpet bombed entire nations to smithereens had this been a human terrorism act. As it is , it wasn’t (atleast not yet proven), it was that other ‘terrorist’ – the weather, reminding us all that our wasteful ways are disturbing patterns that we do not understand…. yet delight in meddling with.

Message from George Carlin

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but
have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller
families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less
sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems,
more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too
little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too
much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to
life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but
have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer
space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom,
but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but
accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more
computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we
communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small
character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of
two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are
days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night
stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to
quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and
nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to
you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just
hit delete.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones because they are not going to
be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because
that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the
only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, “I love you” to your partner and your loved ones, but most
of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep
inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will
not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to
share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments
that take our breath away.

– courtesy of George Carlin. 2005.

Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq. These are places , notable but not unique, where America has committed violations to human rights and universal decency. Reserving their right to ‘defend’ themselves against ‘terrorists’ and projecting their agenda of pre-emptive action (albeit on the basis of false intelligence), the US and its allies have crapped all over international law and are getting away with it.

Whilst it may be that Australia , the UK and even Italy (amongst others) ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’ with the US in its operations in Iraq, it seems now that the US’s impunity is not limited to the rest of the international community but even to its ‘friends’.

The killing , by US soldiers, of Italian agent and negotiator – Nicola Calipari – has shown, once again, that there is no honour in this so called coalition. Calipari, who was travelling at high speed, in a car with an Italian hostage whose release he had just negotiated, was shot whilst approaching an American checkpoint in Baghdad. He was trying to shield the hostage from shooting and died a hero.

After a seemingly routine investigation, the US authorities have announced that the shooting was ‘accidental’. The Italians claim they had notified the Americans of Calipari’s route and had permission. Whatever the facts actually are, it remains that there are more versions of what happened and therein lies the crisis.

Friendly fire , as this questionably is, are accidents that happen between allies. Usually they are as a result of miscommunications, carelessness or simple bad luck. But in this case, with US troops on the highest alert and constantly on edge, they rained bullets on this car that they thought should stop, but whose occupants thought they were pre-approved to go. The result is one dead negotiator and two ‘allies’ arguing on whose version of the truth is most accurate.

The underlying doctrine of the US has been and always will be ‘multilateralism when we must, unilateralism when we want’, even if that unilateralism is within a restricted multilateralism. This barefaced impunity that allows the US to do what it likes, when it likes and to whomever it likes is only possible because of the economic and military power that buoys this empire.
The time will come when world commerce is not dictated by the dollar and when bigger and better armies exist to counter America’s. Every empire goes the same way.

The UK High Commission in Lagos, Nigeria processes over 17,000 visa applications. Its the busiest UK visa office in the world. Statistics from other popular destinations paint a similar
picture – Nigerians are trying to get out at an alarming rate.

If we let our imagination get a little creative, but remain educated, we might extrapolate that there are ten times more people who did not make an application. This might be due to lack of funds, inadequate supporting documentation. In other words, there are about 170,000 people every month who actively want to leave Nigeria.

Having lived in Nigeria for 17 years and not having been back there in 13 years, the stark reality of the scene I met when I finally revisited earlier this month is extremely worrying.

Corruption permeates much of society, it is no longer quietly done with a smirk and a nod, it is open air and in your face.

The middle classes have been decimated and the gap between the very rich and the very poor is gaping. Its a society on the brink of breakdown but seeming somehow to carry on with ordinary tasks in an extraordinary circumstance.
Children still go to school, but their teachers are not motivated to teach. I heard stories of teachers failing students in their school classes that didn’t sign up for the private classes that they set up. Private schools and tuition are at an all time high. Universities and schools are chronically underfunded – much of the little that is earmarked is siphoned away. So much so that private universities are the new fad – even the President is trying to get in on the act by founding his own!

More on the unemployment, even the street vendors who ply their wares on the treacherous highways of Lagos in stifling humidity and heat for long hours every day count as employed. Theirs must be the least efficient form of employment (labour vs rewards wise).

It would seem that people will sell whatever they have to get by. Teachers sell knowledge and female university students (a minority I’m told) sell sex. Apparently, as classes end on Thursdays, many can be seen flocking to the domestic airport in Lagos for flights to Abuja – the Federal Capital – for the pleasure of the legislators and other wealthy elite.

Nigerians are not lazy people as a general rule, sure they love life and a party, but also have a good work ethic. Nigeria, despite regional differences, has produced world class scientists, educators, artists. Its farmers used to feed the nation and its crops used to account for the bulk of its GNP.
‘Used to‘ is the operative phrase. That is, before the oil and the greed for its revenue.

Oil has literally polluted Nigeria. It has turned its protectors into victimisers and permitted the devastation of lives and livelihoods. It gave birth to a new type of corruption and opulence that marks Nigeria as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Corruption is not cultural (contrary to what the Customs officer at the airport might say!), its a scourge borne from the rape of the country’s abundant natural resources, the divisive and unbalanced distribution of State spending and the rabid ethnicality of its politics. Endemic underinvestment in basic social infrastructure – electricity, water, housing, communications, education etc., has resulted in a country plagued by electricity rationing, undrinkable public water and other basic failings. Yet every single day, from oil alone, Nigeria earns $12 million. From this it cannot provide the basic medication to its people, nor clean drinkable water, nor educate its youth.

All this has made investors (especially foreign ones) eager to come into Nigeria – if Nigeria won’t build its infrastructure, it can privatise its industries and turn its obligations over to foreign corporations without the responsibility (or accountability) to the people. They know it has the wealth (for now anyway) to finance such projects. The international shame that it cannot fulfill its social obligations despite its wealth , coupled with a need to stand up to its perceived regional and international importance is compelling the current Nigerian administration to try and meet its responsibilities. They are trying to fight corruption – a key obstacle to attracting respectable international investment. As well as trying to tackle counterfeiting – another key threat to the influx of consumer goods, medication and other products. Even bottled water is counterfeited!

The problems of Nigeria are too numerous and complex for a humble blog like this to tackle, sufficed to say, the government is of the people and shit sticks.

This article is concerned with the continuing exodus and attempted exodus of Nigeria’s human resources. Whilst it may be understandable that many head (through various channels) to the ‘west’ – Europe, the UK and the US, others still head for apparently less hospitable places (than Nigeria). Recently the Saudi Arabian Haag authorities threatened to reduce the number of pilgrims from Nigeria for this year, by the number of those from last year who did not return from Saudi Arabia – almost 27,000. These people left a secular country in West Africa (much cooler and more African) to a wahabist Islamic nation in North Africa (very hot, and full of Arabic people with less regard for Africans, oh and they cut off limbs for stealing.)

Those who still care for Nigeria and hope it will find its way to it fill its potential must ask themselves why Nigerians, particularly the youth, are queuing up to leave. Perhaps when this question is asked and answered, something can be done to address it.

By the time you finish reading this, perhaps a child would be dead in Darfur or a woman would be raped by the Janjaweed, certainly a climate of fear and insecurity would still persist. So please read quickly.

Those looking in from the outside can see little difference between genocide and crimes against humanity, but the difference is literally between life and continued death.

Sparing you the longwinded academic definitions, these crimes include mass killings, rape and other actions that threaten the survival of a group of people. Genocide covers this same range of crimes but is definitively limited to four groups – national, ethnical, racial or religious group. It also is particularly qualified by the element of ‘intent’. This means that the perpetrators of genocide must have ‘intent’ to commit these acts for them to be genocide. Presumably if the Nazis annihilation of the Jews and other ‘undesirables’ could have been passed off as a mass accident, then it would not be genocide. Although ‘intent’ can be inferred from the persistent patterns of the crimes, it still remains the most tenuous to prove.

Far more significant a difference is the obligation to act. Crimes against humanity engender debate and chastisement – but no obligation to bring it to an end. Genocide is different, nations are under obligation to act to stop it. That means they must do what needs to be done – individually and/or collectively to stop it. Stopping genocide requires intervention.

But intervention costs money. It takes organisation and resources. It costs money and requires solid political will to commit troops, weapons and resources to face down another sovereign power (usually) – regardless of the severity of their abuse. It often requires international cooperation and the setting aside of national interests. It needs to be entirely altruistic and truly for the good of humanity.

The UN Report into the human rights situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, after a detailed investigation into the documented atrocities stopped short of describing the Darfur abuses as genocide.

A UN team, headed by a notable war crimes veteran judge, saw the scale of the internal displacement due to the conflict, heard reports from the Darfur people, NGOs and humanitarian agencies. It was the most comprehensive international investigation into the abuses. Yet they determined that although so many had been killed and millions had been displaced, there was no intent on the part of the Sudanese government to destroy the Darfur.

So, the abuses in Darfur are not genocide but ‘mere’ crimes against humanity. No one is required to act to stop it. The Janjaweed commanders may face ICC charges in the future, but who will bring them to justice, under what mandate?

The dead are still dead, the dying not far behind them. To those displaced women and children, the broken men and the shattered lives of Darfur, these academic differences are no consolation whatsoever.

There has been a huge uproar about recent images of the English royal, Prince Harry. Third in the throne queue, Prince Harry appeared at a friend’s costume shindig dressed as a Third Reich Afrika Korp desert uniform, complete with the reviled Swastika armband.

Now, the Afrika Korp were not strictly Nazis, that is members of the National Socialist Party, nor particularly institutionally racist or anti Semitic. By all accounts they were regular army soldiers, whose duty was the defence of their country. Of course, General Rommel was suspected of conspiring to assassinate Hitler. All this is beside the point.

Since this picture was published, no doubt entirely for sensationalist gain, there have been calls for a personal public apology to be made by Prince Harry. Others have called for the re-education of Harry in the horrors the Nazis wrought upon 10 million innocents (6 million Jews and 4 million other ethnic minority groups – labelled as ‘undesirables’ by the Reich) – presuming of course the Harry was educated about anything of the Holocaust or the atrocities of WWII.

It seems to me that there are two views anyone interested in this news piece could take.

One, it was simply a case of bad judgement on Harry’s part. After all he is only 20, youthful exuberance and an unquestioned behaviour make troublesome bedfellows. He is unfathomably wealthy, with great wealth comes great responsibility – he is only 20, he cannot be expected to be responsible. Whether he and his friends have any understanding of the significance of their behaviour is open to question.

Or two, all his wealth and privilege has only compounded the arrogance and historical elitism of the class from which he comes, this view of empire and of being rulers of the world has seen British imperial rule in a third of the world. Whilst colonial control has dwindled, that mindset has remained alive and well in the British aristocracy and it seems, in the new generation. After all, his great uncle was a Nazi sympathiser. So Harry behaviour simply makes him the most visible aspect of a very entrenched feeling. The theme of the party was ‘Natives and Colonials’ – a society that still thinks such language is acceptable is quite obviously not yet ready to accept the damage that type of language represents. So much for multicultural Britain.

If I know anything about the media it is that every issue has its clichéd ‘fifteen minutes’. It will be made to grip the public for finite period of time and then become old news. Harry will undeniably fade from the headlines for this story, his life will continue unhindered and he will get into Sandhurst, if it is still something he wants to do.

I’m a firm believer that everything will eventually turn to comedy, no matter how tragic. It seems to me a fundamental part of moving on. Monty Python for example, parodied the Spanish inquisition to great applause. In time, the World’s slave past and colonial era shame will also move into the comedy mainstream. As will Hitler, the Nazis and the Holocaust. But for now, deep wounds exist on these and other issues which should be respected.

Any kind of election was what was required in Iraq. Any kind of election would satisfy the requirements of its main organisaers.

As widely predicted, most Shias voted and most Sunnis didn’t. Of course this has to do with decades of Shia oppression, who incidentally are in the majority, by Saddam’s despotic regime. Are the tables turning in Iraq? Will the balance of power horribly tip in favour of the Shia? Will Iraqi be faced with a Shia version of Saddam, instilled with the scars of decades of tribal bitterness?

In the months leading to the elections, insurgents, driven by a variety if motivations – nationalistic and religious – have waged a bloody campaign of ‘guerilla’ warfare. Kidnappings and hostage execution, bombings , assasinations and other attacks, resulting in an enhanced climate of fear. Of course the presence of the US and their documented abuses in Iraq already raised this fear to desperate levels.

Despite all this, what remains clear is that whoever forms the ‘new’ administration of Iraq will face more than insurgency. With the tab running on its liberation – $174 billion so far by the US alone – (lets not forget how much protection cost the Saudis in Gulf War 1), this is new economic slavery unfolding right before our very eyes.
On this issue of debt accumulation, the US and its allies in Operation Iraqi Liberation, OIL (oops) , I mean Freedom, have called for debt forgiveness. Of course they would. Legacy Iraqi debt was principally to Russia and other Arab nations. They now want old debts forgiven to make way for insurmountable new debt, to them. A debt that will guarantee peonage to generations of Iraqis.

After years of sanctions, there is no social infrastructure to speak of. Electricity is basic, communications , health, education. The list goes on. The human resource of Iraq is decimated. To be fair, Saddam was responsible for much of this, but that does not excuse the West’s role. Its complicity in the pauperisation is well documented.

The amount of investment required to reinstate basic services is monumental – the UN and World Bank initially estimate $55 billion for the rebuilding. Where is the money for this investment to come from.

It is said that wealth, like energy is never destroyed. Like energy, it also continuosly flows. Well Iraqi wealth, like the Saudis’ and the Kuwaitis’ will flow, as oil and rebuilding contracts, back to the the US.

We have introduced ‘democracy’ to Iraq, our brand that discourages dissent of Empire and forces upon its recipients the wonder of private property and as a bonus prize, the Law that ensures the compliance of all. We have unleashed upon Iraq a system of greed and the unending pursuit of wealth and we shall reap the benefits of our undertaking. Of course, elections will result in huge aid pouring into Iraq. The West will line up to recognise the new administration as well as agree contracts.
Levis, Starbucks and other envoys of ‘democracy’ will no doubt pitch their stalls, in support of freedom. In time, the West will get a return on its investment in Iraq, far more than it ever put in.

So let us hail the Iraqi elections, our economies will be better for it. Iraq will buy guns from us and soon to follow will be contracts to kit out schools, hospitals and other destroyed infrastructure. Correction, Iraq will buy from the US and they will decide which of its coalition of the bribed, bullied and beaten will be offered the crumb.

Politics, it is said, is a dirty game. As political games go, the Israeli/Palestine issue is perhaps one of the dirtiest. With rules that appear to be non-existent and anger and hatred that run deep in the young and old of both sides of the conflict, it is a situation that even the most open minded activists despair at ever being fairly resolved.

Right in this dirty game is Yasser Arafat. A former terrorist and latterly a statesman. For over thirty years he has fought Israeli occupation of Palestine , principally through violent means – through terror.
Whatever the means of resistance and whatever the particular end, Arafat has been the most visible symbol of the Palestinian struggle.

But now, in the twilight of his days and casting a shadow upon death’s door, the Palestinians must contemplate a future without the most poignant representation of their struggle. Many, particularly the Israeli and US administration see him as a critical obstacle to peace. They have done all they can to undermine his crumbling Palestinian Authority by pressuring him to rein in Hamas and other resistance factions and then not permitting him the resources to do so , even if he were so inclined. Over the last few months, Arafat has been holed up in his residence and office compound in Ramallah in a military containment exercise by the Israelis. His health is diminishing and his grip on Palestinian politics failing.

When Arafat is gone, no doubt there will be a jostling for power. But who can deliver justice to the Palestinians? Who can bring the struggle as far as Arafat has done?

The moderates that diligently brokered peace in Oslo but left frustrated when it became apparent that this was a charade designed to cheat the Palestinians out of ever getting justice for their expulsion, the expropriation of their lands and the genereations of suffering under occupation. These moderates now know that Israel will not concede any part of East Jerusalem, nor the precious water resources. The right to return will not be discussed much less realised.

Unfortunately terror has a place in the mid-east. The Israelis and the Americans realise this bloody truth. Hamas and Fatah have a role to play, if only as the ‘stick’ reinforcing the attraction of the ‘carrot’. Israel is not ready for a just peace , with Arafat gone, the remaining obstacle to peace would be Ariel Sharon – suspected war criminal and Israeli prime minister.

With Arafat gone, how much dirtier will the game get?

Over the last few months I have read little of mainstream news and more worrying, have written less socio-political commentary. My lack of zeal for the tasks of keeping up to date with the travails of the struggle has caused me concern – have I been assimilated into the apathethic framework that is modern democracy? Have the ‘distractions’ of modern living hijacked my energies and reduced me to yet another bill paying ,tv watching social zombie?

The silence – aka absence of comment – has not been an easy one, my response to events over the last few months have been larconic at best. It is not that my humanity is not stirred by news of atrocities in Darfur or the incalculable suffering of the Acholi in Uganda or , indeed, the hostages in Iraq; but lately I seemed drained of emotion to power my commentary. Anger and frustration at the political systems that permit such injustices are the pen and ink of my writing, these have not been absent over the last few months. Simply put, they have been tempered with a defeatist acceptance that I cannot effect change.

My realisation that I can resign myself to such defeatism sits uneasily at my side, mocking every effort I have made, thus far, to focus my potent anger. So now, I write for my Realisation, that to accept resignation is a path I cannot walk.

Perhaps there is nothing I can do, maybe that is the reality – even if it was, I would choose to be ignorant of this truth and continue to rage against those unacceptables that hurt my sensibilities and my humanity. Defiant ignorance must suffice where the truth of the moment is untenable with my principles.

Whilst a Warrior of Light must sometimes retreat to advance, He must never accept defeat.

He must battle however He can, but always with honour and integrity.

Though He must rest and renew Himself, He must never give up.

My capacity to wade enencumbered, through the lies of the powerful and the sacrifice of truth and innocence at the alter of statehood, has admittedly been temporarily diminished by Darfur, Iraq and other human disasters. My ability to fight on all fronts has been reduced too, by personal issues. But I will be renewed. I will regain my strength and my form. My anger will be blended with knowledge and forged in the wisdom of the collective and I will do more than I have done.

Silence, uneasy as it is for me, is not permanent. When my shouting recommences, it will be deafening and persistent and it will stay the slow course of change.

The storming of the school in North Ossetia, by Russian forces to ‘free’ hostages taken by suspected Chechen rebels, is exceptionally tragic. Hundreds of hostages – school children, their teachers and other school staff – have been killed or wounded.



Of course, the unimaginable grief of that community will turn to incomprehensible anger and calls for even more violence against the Chechens.

Sensing the mood, Vladimir Putin’s address to the Russian people was full of promises of tightening security because ‘ We (Russia) showed weakness, and weak people are beaten‘. Vowing to defeat the ‘hostage-takers’ and ‘terrorists’, all that can be expected now from Mr Putin is an even harsher repression of the Chechens.

By targeting the unquestionably innocent – the children, Chechnya’s freedom fighters have converted most of the international community’s sympathy for their cause to angry disbelief. Conscientious observers of the Chechen struggle cannot help but be repulsed by the taking of child hostages, nor of the ensuing terror caused to them. By the same token, Russian forces do not have a track record of negotiation – so despite their claims that no storming of the school was planned, it is possible that they provided a devastating catalyst to bloody conclusion.

What propels a human being to carry out a suicide bombing, the terrorism of children and such desperate acts is often depicted variously as fanaticism, intensive brainwashing of the impressionable youth etc . These seem to me to be simple but unsatisfactory answers, however well they read as headlines. Very rarely does one find reference to historical injustices that have condemned entire generations of a group to subservience and oppression, nor of blame of those that wield power.

Condemned to abject poverty and devoid of an identity, how are the youth of such oppressed groups such as the Chechens and the Palestinians expected to be anything but fanatical to a cause of liberation or any means thereof that may deliver liberation of their kin.

In any conflict, it serves little purpose to split hairs on the damage of battles. Sure, the way a battle is fought must be observed and recorded to ensure that ,even in conflict, human rights are upheld. But in terms of non-violent conflict resolution, which is what negates the need for war in the first place, honest and open discussions must be allowed. Injustice and oppression must be brought to light, acknowledged and resolved before any lasting peace can be achieved. This is as true in Chechnya as it is in Palestine and as it has been seen to work (see various international tribunals) in South Africa (in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission). The past must be exorcised for the promise of the future.

The Russian government, unfortunately, does not have the maturity to make the bold moves required to end the hostilities and atrocities in Chechnya. Vladimir Putin, as other premiers before him, is lost in the red haze of battle. He can see no other way to resolve the issue in Chechnya except through ever increasing repression of the Chechens independence struggle.

What troubles me the most in my ongoing analysis of international affairs is this- if I and other activists for global justice – not particularly qualified in international diplomacy and politics but simply fueled by a sense of fairness, justice and humanity; can reach sound conclusions about non-violent means of promoting peaceful resolutions to conflict, what stops those actually tasked with delivering counse to the powerful from arriving at the same conclusion and if well advised, what stops the powerful from acting on such advice?

Perhaps it is the same age-old problem of not letting the snake guard the eggs – what interest would those persons, whose very livelihood is conflict resolution, have in resolving conflict and reducing fear? I think none. What interest would a government, whose budget is significantly funded by the arms industry have in removing markets for weapons? I think very little.

Finally, what incentive is there for a company capable of destabilizing an entire nation and plunging it into civil war – so that it can plunder its resources when a cooperative junta is in power? Very little indeed.

It takes strength of character to be a leader, to make the tough decisions; to be able to recognise when one has taken the wrong path and to say sorry ,to amend injustice. That is why there are so few truly inspirational leaders in the world today. It seems that the qualities required to lead a country of varying social needs – formed from many strands of many cultures have been substituted with the qualities required to be a hard nosed successful CEO of a global corporation – concerned only with the accumulation of profit and the creation of wealth for a select few at the cost of everyone else.

A different approach is long overdue. The longer the old systems persist, the more school sieges will grace our television screens and the greater the fear we all will live under. One that will recognise the futility of repressing a peoples’ inalienable right to self determination; that promotes the establishment of fair laws and their equal enforcement of such laws.