R. E. Ekosso's Blog

Somali pirates: The Whole Truth

We have all been overwhelmed with images of the heroic rescue of an American ship’s captain from Somali pirates. The BCC report I saw this morning on TV referred to him as “the latest American hero”. Tsk, tsk, Senor BBC! You can be so snide!

We have heard of the threat to international shipping. We have heard of warships and destroyers being deployed to the area.

It all sounds very straightforward. These people are unscrupulous robbers who will stop at nothing to get what they want – filthy lucre – and they even barter human lives in their greed. And the brave and well-armed Americans are going to teach them a lesson.

These pirates appear to be pretty unsavoury characters, don’t they?

Should Africans Celebrate Obama’s Progress?

If they wish. In fact, I do not see why they should not. I myself am quite chuffed that he has made it this far.

However, in so doing, they should consider the following:

Obama is an American. I hear people referring to him as African-American. Let me digress a little. This is an appellation I find illogical. When a person is referred to as Africa-American, Italian American, Asian-American or any of those other Something-Americans, it implies two things: (a) this person is not the real article when it comes to Americanism – he or she is a hybrid; (b) there are other pure, unalloyed American-Americans and those are the real article. All others are fakes and wannabes. Since we all know that the only people with any real claim to that land are the people who were wiped out to make space for other people, we also know that apart from the few real Americans, everyone in that country is an immigrant, whether they were dragged there in chains or whether they came as conquering non-heroes, fortune-hunters, dishonest land-grabbers, indentured labour, or students.

Now, to return to Obama’s American-ness. Coloured (I use the term here only to take issue with it: what are the others, then? Colourless and therefore superior? Since when did human colourlessness become a virtue?) people all over the world have been celebrating as Mr Obama leaps from strength to strength. I concede that there is something to celebrate. Even fifty years ago, having a black man within hailing distance of the white house (except as a servant, of course) would have had the white supremacist terrorists out in force. And now millions of white people are voting for a black man. So, yes, there is something to celebrate.

ALICE WALKER'S OPEN LETTER ON RACE AND OBAMA

I apologize to my more faithful readers for not posting much of late. I am a little busy. However, while I get my act together, here is something from Alice Walker. It is a topical letter in that it addresses issues that people prefer to ignore as they watch the US polls.

At least in the eyes of some, Obama's pastor erred not because he said what he said, but because he dared to mention something that America prefers to ignore. Alice Walker makes many a point in her letter. It is well worth reading. Here's an excerpt:

It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton ( I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man."  One would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact.  How dishonest it is, to attempt to make her innocent of her racial inheritance.  I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking, person to person, with any leader, woman, man, child or common person, in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.  I cannot see the same scenario with Mrs. Clinton who would drag into Twenty-First Century American leadership the same image of white privilege and distance from the reality of others' lives that has so marred our country's contacts with the rest of the world.

Wish we had many like her. The full letter follows.

Letter from Judy, Kenya

The following is from an e-mail from the friend of a friend, who is in Kenya as post election turmoil rocks that country.

In reading it, it has come to me that this is eerily like a blueprint for what I fear will be Cameroon’s descent into hell when the time comes. The time will come.

It will come because people eventually become restive when power is kept in one sphere for what they consider to be too long, especially if such power is not perceived to be used wisely, and they become very angry when they think that the power has been retained by fraudulent means. This is what, as the posting below shows, has happened in Kenya.

It is a riveting story, told by a trained and balanced observer with a good eye for telling examples.

Addax article: Cigarettes for Nigerian Children

I once read somewhere that at the height of the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis, British exports of beef to Nigeria increased by 300 per cent. I have searched high and low for the source of that statistic, but I cannot find it.

But I visited this ste a while ago, and bookmarked it for my blogging purposes. I have now remebered the story, and so I offer you another tale of amoral greed  to join the all-too-many similar tales.

Read on...the English article is below the French.

The BAE scandal: big business, government and the lack of morality

BAE says the following in its bit on corporate responsibility on its website:

We must fully understand and comply with laws and controls governing defence exports everywhere we operate, and ensure we meet the highest standards of conduct in our work.

I don’t want to sound prejudiced, but a company that sells weapons that are then used in wars to facilitate the killing and maiming of countless human beings really shouldn’t say things like that in public. When you sell things like tanks and fighter jets, what do you think they’ll be used for? Playing tennis? But then BAE is not the only weapons systems company in the phonebook. There are many others.

The reason BAE has been in the news of late, however, is not because it sells weapons systems. It is because of a corruption scandal.

Dr George Ayittey on China (France) and Africa

SOURCE

The write-up below was posted on an online forum in response to a discussion about what China wants in Africa and how Africans should view this new pragmatic "friendship". Dr. Ayittey, the author, is a professor at Howard University and a respected academic and published author. His works includes Africa Unchained, Africa Betrayed, and other books and articles.

I have Dr. Ayittey's permission to post the article. I have taken the liberty of editing out direct references to the participants in the argument. Other than that, the article is almost unchanged.

Read on...I promise you will not be bored.

JEAN HELENE: ANATOMY OF A DEATH

Important note: all quotations are my translations.

On 23 October 2002, I had my car radio on as I drove to work. I used to like listening to RFI, the French international radio service, because I thought they spoke good French and they had a different take on the news from the English-speaking media. That morning, it was all about the shooting the evening before by a policeman in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire of Jean Helene, one of RFI’s reporters.

Apparently, Jean Helene, or Christian Baldensberger by his real name, had gone to meet a source outside police headquarters, when he had an altercation with a policeman. The policeman, Dago Sery, went into the station, came out with an AK-47, and shot Jean Helene. You can find this version of the altercation here.

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IMPERIAL PERSPECTIVES by EDWARD SAID

I belong to a Yahoo forum where divergent opinions have been expressed about the issue of terrorism and suicide bombers. The beautiful thing about debate is that it presents us with a wealth of knowledge and information, or disinformation, depending on where you stand, about what we think is going on around us.

One of the debaters on the forum (thanks, Mufor) posted this article by Edward Said about how the Western world chooses to view and present Arabs and their problems. I have never seen it expressed so well, and I would like you to think about it.

I got the article from  the Palestinian Monitor website, which credits the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram with publishing the article. I am glad that opinions from people who know or love the Arab world are finally being heard, at least in some quarters. It is our duty as human beings to view the Middle East Read conflict from alternate perspectives. Read on...

MEDIA BIAS ON THE MIDDLE EAST: FIGHTING BACK

The extreme bias that has so far been displayed by most of the Western media in regard to the crises in the Middle East has given rise to much anger. Someone posted a link to a video of George Galloway, the maverick Brtish MP, chewing a Sky reporter to absolute shreds. Click on the Play button below. the video is best viewed with a high-speed connection. Galloway is a loose canon, but Lord, can he say it!

The comments following the broadcast are a revelation in themselves, in that they give us a very clear idea of the extent to which people on both sides of the fence have been  brainwashed. They are well worth reading.