Tuesday's journey

Random thoughts from radio bulletins, TV reports and newspaper articles crisscrossing my mind. A world’s journey on a Tuesday.

Iran is still on the edge. Nervous. But the state’s oppression machinery is clamping down fast and furious. Army, police and pro-government militia on the streets breaking up protests. People killed. People wounded. People arrested. Democracy under threat. And free speech curbed. State TV is just a joke. To no surprise in such undemocratic autocracy. It’s always used as a tool of repression and distortion. And further attempts to keep internet and telephone lines down to avoid the truth reaching the outside world. Governments that react in such a way feel cornered. Cornered as the truth hits too hard. Reality is unacceptable and thus violent counter reaction. Like a wounded animal in a corner.

It could have been a good test case for democracy in the Middle East, but it turned out sad and sour. Bloody. The red, blood stains on the squares of Tehran will remain forever despite whatever attempts by the governing clique to erase reality. To delete events. To rewrite history. To manipulate the process. To undermine free choice. To destroy hope. To imprison dissent. To silence critics. To kill.

Some details of the vote-gone-wrong are emerging here and there. Slowly and against the odds. It seems that in some 57 districts the voters’ turnout was more than 100%. That is obviously impossible and thus the stench of vote rigging rises. The rot of manipulation comes to the surface.

It is important to note that the protesters do not want to overthrow the Iranian system. This is not an anti-Iran uprising. The Iranian revolution that threw out the dictatorship of the Shah some 30 years ago is not under threat. These protesters want a free and fair vote. They refuse to accept stolen elections. They refuse to accept the iron fist reaction by the ruling forces. They reject manipulation, oppression and the use of violence to silence dissent. They want to save Iran from a path that murders democracy and takes the country back to dictatorship. This time not by an emperor-style ruler like the Shah, but by a clique of so called untouchables. It is sadly often that history has shown us that a fight against dictatorship, like the Iranian revolution against the American-backed Shah, installs another type of undemocratic rule. Human behaviour is too often a sad affair.

From the killing fields of Iran to the green fields of sports. The USA has reached the semi finals of the soccer Confederations Cup in South Africa. This Championship of Champions is held the year before the big world cup soccer show in 2010. And it’s the first time on African soil. Historic. But yes the USA, who honestly has no strong soccer culture, has reached the last 4. Against all odds. Against all expectations. Against all beds. The USA will now play European Champions Spain in a few days. The other semi final is between host South Africa and samba boys Brazil. It’s full soccer fever in South Africa these days. A great feast.

And the feast is expected to be bigger, louder, and madder next year when the full soccer world cup circus comes to town. When the most important soccer event comes to Africa for the first time since the earth was created. And Obama has received an invite from the world soccer body FIFA and from the South African government to attend the opening game of this world cup next year in Johannesburg. That would make the event even more mad and on top of the world.

Obama hits African soil for the first time as US President in a few days when he touches down in Ghana on Africa’s west coast. To my surprise his first African stop is not Kenya – his half homeland. Anyway, a black US President coming to Africa will always be full of hysteria. He carries with him the image of hope. A spin from his election campaign. And if there is something that the African continent needs then it’s his message of hope. Reality is too often too dark to accept, so lights of hope are needed to make it through the day. I am not in the mood to take this feeling of hope by its collar and bring it down to reality because the politics of Africa are a very complex affair. Used and abused. Battle ground of the cold war. Colonised by the West and now, less openly, by China. Democracy still a very fragile embryo. Too many dictators. Too much pain. Too much corruption. Too much wars. Too much of so much. Hope here and there for sure but hope too often washed away by tidal waves of oppression, starvation, mismanagement, and corporate ruthlessness. Hope is Africa’s air. Pain its daily bread.

East wards now. I picked up that soon Indonesia will hold elections. And too many people forget, or just don’t know probably, that Indonesia; which also has an Obama-link; is the largest Muslim nation on planet earth. Indeed! I guess most people would automatically guess that the largest Muslim nation must be somewhere in the Arab world or North Africa. No, it’s in Asia. Interesting fact.

Events in Iran have clearly taken the madhouse North Korea of the news bulletins. Silence. What’s happening with their missile tests, nuke plans and international headaches on how to react? Same silence on Darfur. The world probably has given up on the desert slaughter. There are no simple answers to that crisis because it is not as simple and one-linear as portrait by too many to the outside world. But the suffering continues. And now that Sudan’s President has an international arrest warrant hanging above his head, it makes the crisis more tense and unpredictable. And as always the people suffer while politicians play chess games. Vultures look on.

And at least some good news from Africa too. Some really good news. A Rwandan politician has just been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for his role in the 1994 genocide. Justice done! Finally! At least trials like this one shows that justice catches up with those perpetrators. Those butchers. Those madmen. Those bloodthirsty, paranoiac, ethno-nationalists that thought they could get away with the largest genocide of Africa. About 800.000 people killed in 100 days. That is a statistic that leaves you ice cold. Total madness. And he Rwandan genocide came at the same time as the first free elections in South Africa that threw away the madness of apartheid. In the same month of the same year from hope to horror just 3 or 4 hours flying time away from each other. From reaching a dream to descending into purgatory. From smiles to cries. From hope to despair. From a rainbow nation to a blood soaked soil. From humanity to brutality. From freedom to death. From a new dawn to a downwards spiral of hate. From “Yes We Can” to “No We Can’t”. From Nelson Mandela dropping his vote in the ballot box for the first time to the machete hacking of the limbs of a baby. Humans can be animals. Or lesser than animals. Human evolution or human devolution. Human behaviour is a strange thing.

Throw out. Tuned in to U2’s latest album “No line on the horizon”. Don’t know but got the feeling that the Irish rockers could have done better. But I guess sales will still be sky high. But then again quantitative figures are not equal to great taste, because otherwise junk food joints like McD or KFC would serve the best food around. Right?

C-Ya

collateral – nearing June’s end, 2009