Dolls and Hillary on safari

The Michael Jackson mystery keeps filling the newspapers, blogs, TV bulletins, tabloids, twitter-airwaves, glossy and trashy magazines,... Today I spotted that the LA cops reported that Wacko Jacko died while holding a child-sized porcelain doll.

Anybody still in doubt that some fuses in MJ’s head were tripping?

And earlier in the week it was reported that the Moonwalker enjoyed a couple of times being resuscitated by electro-shocks. The Moonwalker was drifting far of into space. Orbit lost. “Houston, Houston, we have a problem”

Anybody any doubts yet that MJ was maybe not really well? I mean, cuddling a child-sized doll (in bed) and enjoying the twilight zone between life and death,... is that considered normal practice? Is that average human behaviour or symptomatic for psycho patients?

The Moonwalker was wacko. Full stop. May he now find peace of mind and mental tranquility.

From moon walking to diplomacy. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Hillary Clinton seems to have unstoppable energy these days. She was in India selling guns but failing to clinch a global warming deal with the Indians. Then she was back home but her British counterpart passed by for tea and to talk about that other-deathtrap-besides-Iraq, Afghanistan. Elections there next month. I have a slight suspicion that the bearded Taliban are just sitting in their mountain caves and letting the election focus just pass by before coming down with a vengeance just days after the US and its NATO allies have announced victory. This entire military built up now just doesn’t feel like solving anything on the semi-long term. What is for sure, the Afghanis deserve peace so they can built a future. Sad story.

So US travel agent Hillary Clinton has announced she is following Obama’s example and coming to Africa in the coming days. Just following the boss,... aka the one that kept me out of the White House. So in a few days she will kick off her African tour of 7 nations. It’s a hell of an agenda on a continent full of misery and kept alive by endless hope. Too many wars, too much abuse. She wont get the same reception as her boss as he has some bloodties to the dark continent. But it is an interesting African criss-cross.

First touchdown is Kenya. Home of the bloody Al Queda attack on the US embassy in the capital Nairobi some years ago. Wasn’t it 1998? That was brutal. Kenya is also one of the most corrupt nations on planet earth according to any decent source on the issue you can check – be it aid organisations or donor governments or the global corruption watchdog Transparency International. Corruption is fully part of society there. As well in politics as business. Clinton will come and talk to a regional trade gathering. Trade is crucial. But world trade talks on agriculture are deadlocked because of American and European subsidy systems. The Africans want fair access to the northern hemisphere markets. But Clinton’s Nairobi visit will have a second, and probably more important and/or significant item on the agenda. She will have a chat with Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Obviously she is not gonna go and meet him in Somalia itself. That is just mission impossible. Somalia is in total chaos since the early 90s. No central government that controls the whole country. War. Northern states trying to split away. Famine. Destruction. Blackhawk down. Daily loss of lives. People on the run. People maimed. No hope. No future. And in recent years a war between extreme Islamic forces and some kind of central government that is hardly controlling a decent size of land. And reports of jihadist training camps. Of Muslim fundamentalist havens. Somalia is everything it should not be. It is pure misery on all levels. So Clinton is meeting the President to get a firsthand account of the ongoing war between the so called Transitional Government and the ever-advancing Islamic forces. And in between and pretty powerless the African Union troops. Only 4500 of them. The Ethiopians, with US intelligence support, moved in at the end of 2006 and pushed back the Islamic fighters. The capital Mogadishu was re-taken and there was a spark of hope. It lasted only a few days. Urban guerrilla warfare turned Mogadishu into absolute hell on earth. And in the end, as there was no clear-cut end in sight, the Ethiopian forces withdrew back home. Since then the Transitional Government is again in retreat. The US has given them weapons but that doesn’t seem to help too much. It feels a lost battle and that will turn Somalia, or at least the southern parts, into a Muslim fundamentalist kind-of-a-State. Bleak.

But besides the lost cause, Clinton and President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed will also raise the issue of the ongoing pirate attacks in the Gulf of Eden and Somali’s coast. It’s a mad situation where nearly daily ships of all sizes and nationalities are being hijacked by Somali gunmen. Warships from the US, France, India, Kenya, Belgium, even China are patrolling the vast waters in the region and are having some successes but the seas are wide and large and open. Piracy remains a big threat there. And it is one of the most important shipping routes of the world.

Don’t know what specifically Clinton and her Somali guest can outline and plan about the piracy threat besides just recognising that it is serious, because the Somali President has no powers nor resources to tackle the plague. The ports and bases from which these pirates operate are without doubt located in Somalia, but a powerless government can just watch and take notice.

After that bleak assessment Hillary Clinton travels south to South Africa. Meet the new president Jacob Zuma, talk trade, preach worldpeace and move on. South Africa is facing some touch social unrest these days but the American visitor wont see the burning townships nor the trashing public service protests. Red carpet and photo ops. Some words (probably not controversial at all) and spin at a press conference and back to the airport.

Next stop is just a few hours in the air. Angola. An oil- and mineral-rich nation that is still coping with the destruction of its 25 year civil war past. But a nation that is the playground of Chinese, Israeli and US investors. This will be a serious trade chat. Buying confidence, trust, and making Angola feel much appreciated. It’s all about big business here.

And of she goes. Back in the air. Next stop Kinshasa. Capital of the vast Democratic Republic of Congo. The heart of Africa. A nation riddled with troubles: poverty, tribal tensions, the largest UN peacekeeping mission, mutiny, war in the East, dirty diamond deals, murky timber sales, backhand gold contracts, illegal mining, disease, rape, environmental challenges,... If Obama thinks he has a nearly impossible agenda, check out the Congo. It’s mad. So talks about the ongoing UN mission in the war torn East. Conversations about political stability. Chats about social and educational developments. And certainly business. Big business. Gold, diamonds, uranium, timber, coltan (which goes in every laptop and cell phone),... It’s Fifth Avenue in the bush!

Back to the airport. Greetings. Boarding. Take –off. Nigeria is next. The most populated country of Africa. A turbulent nation. And these days again shaken by very bloody, merciless Islamic attacks in the northern part of the country. More than 100 killed in 3 days. Islamic fundamentalists killing and murdering. And the state’s security forces reacting without restrain. It’s mad. It’s an eye for an eye. But business will also here be a main element of Clinton’s smiles and handshakes. Nigeria is a crucial oil producer.

And then a short trip to Liberia. The nation built by freed American slaves. But a nation that is tense these days because President Helen Sirleaf-Johnson might be forced to step down soon. Liberia is trying to deal with its brutal past. To help to heal the wounds and reveal the facts a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up. Modelling itself on the famous TRC that helped South Africa with its demons from the apartheid past. But the Liberian TRC outlined something that was more or less known but till now without too much detail. During the civil and regional war Sirleaf-Johnson helped financing bloodlust warlord Taylor when he came from neighbouring Sierra Leone into Liberia. Taylor is currently standing trial at the UN court in The Hague for war crimes. And it’s a charge sheet that drips of blood: recruiting child soldiers, organised rape, chopping of limbs. This is much more than Hollywood’s Blood Diamond blockbuster.

So Liberia’s TRC has exposed the financial trails from the current President to Taylor. And now the majority within Liberia’s parliament wants to ban Sirleaf-Johnson from office.

And in between this political mess lands Hillary Clinton. Smiles all the way and messages of hope and solidarity and common history. But as she boards her jet to her final African stop, the political situation in Liberia remains shaky. And shaky in that part of the world too often leads to ugly bloodshed.

Final stop is Cape Verde. No clue why Clinton wants to touch down here. It is an easy refuelling stop on the way back home and maybe it’s just for some crayfish and snapshots.

The airmiles have been clicking. Meanwhile the radio across Africa is still playing Jackson’s hits. Everything has lost its innocence.

Throw out. Listening to Boston’s Death & Taxes’ debut album “Tattooed hearts and broken promises”. Fine rocking tunes.

collateral – the last breath of July 2009

Bush babies

Interesting. Very interesting. Human behaviour at the core of it all.

The US Centre for Disease Control, which is some public health administration, has released a report that openly, undoubtedly, clearly and maybe somewhat shockingly shows that teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis have gone up across the USA during the second term of president George Bush.

Now that is hell of a legacy for reborn-Christian Bush II. The Bible as a policy instrument clearly didn’t work in the teachings of the flesh. The demonization of contraception under Bush’s conservative Christianity inspired educational policies have just lead to the opposite of what it was intending to do. It spread the word that pre-marital sex was pure evil. And those condoms were an evil instrument of lust that needed to be banned. Sex was only acceptable after marriage and for baby-making purposes only. The devil is in our heads and needs to be tamed! Sorry, needs to be cleansed by death.

The Bush-backers should quickly run to their churches, light a candle and fill the coffers of the evangelical spin doctor some more, because that policy clearly did not work. It backfired right in their face! Oh boy, “evil” has won! Light another candle quickly.

The Bible-based policies forgot one thing: humanity.

The report by this Centre for Disease Control proofs that since 1991 teenage pregnancies (we are talking here about girls under 15 being pregnant) were on the decrease. Same for syphilis. But in 2005 this trend reversed sharply. And especially in the American southern States. Interesting as these States are more conservative and feel closer to Bush’s Bible policies than the more, so called, liberal states like NY or Massachusetts. So as President Bush is in his second term and the effects from his evangelical social and educational policies are starting to cause effect, his legacy is an increase in teenage pregnancies. Tell that to mass on Sunday!

It should teach those narrow minded people out there that youngsters will have sex, whatever religion, race, ... they belong to. Rich or poor. Urban or rural. So instead of rejecting reality and by that undermining the (sexual) health of young people – including the kids of conservative parents themselves – sexual education is the key. Teach youngsters about sex and responsibility and consequences. And make contraception available. And de-demonise contraception. Get real. Rejecting reality and human behaviour is more evil than preaching blindly and dumbly. Reality is there to see and accept. Work within reality instead of sticking to theoretical wish-wash. And don’t blame liberals or other religions or so called modernisation or punks or losers or broken marriages or music or movies or certain teachers or anything like that. Accept reality and work within reality. It is of the interest of all children; even those that you take to Sunday church too.

From sex to world politics. Just a step for mankind. Should say humankind. That’s more respectful to the female half (majority in fact) of this planet.

I haven’t heard much of Iran or North Korea lately. The protest in Iran have slowed down as the authorities have reacted forcefully. But the critical voices within the clergy are still very much present. Interesting to watch.

And North Korea. There seems to have been some mudslinging rhetoric between the nuke nutters and the outside world again. Also interesting to watch. Washington DC seems to think that North Korea is exporting nuke technology and know-how to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Dictatorships always find each other even if they are ideologically on the opposite sides. Amazing in fact how North Korea’s philosophy that it is indoctrinating its starving population with is based on hardline communism and hate for the capitalist West. While the military regime in Burma is tightening the screws on the poor nation against any leftist inspired protest and eventual uprising. But doing military deals together seems all fine. Human behaviour at its darkest.

Throwout. Just thinking about Van Morrison’s “The Healing Game” album. For me his best . Deep. I can listen to it any time anywhere.

C-Ya

collateral – July 2009 is standing on the edge of the dustbin of history

Black and green

Signs of our times. Ex-First Lady turned Foreign Missionary Hillary Clinton was in India over the last days. Series of difficult topics on the agenda as India falls amidst a very troubled region (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Tibet,...). But as a sad proof of the state of our world the USA and India can agree and sign deals on bigger weapons trade but not on global warming and pressing environmental issues. Death before survival. Black over green.


It’s amazing how in most, if not all, foreign relations between major to semi-sized nations there is always a merchant of armoury in the corridors. Deals on rockets, submarines, surface to air missiles, new radars, choppers, jeeps, trucks, planes, bombs, bullets, military radio communication systems, torpedoes, warning systems and pre-warning systems and systems that mislead the existing or non-existing enemy, systems that scramble cell phones,... there is always something that makes the military cut when nations meet. There is never a recession, a global meltdown, a freeze,.... in the trade of death and destruction. Of course, I agree, some of these Grim Reaper tools have a very effective deterrent and self-protection purpose and they work nicely in that area. But from warning to self-defence to attack to invasion is a fluid phase. Some doctrines and tactics see attack as the first step of defence anyway.


Anyway, the issue of so called ‘end use’ came up when the US and India talked about US arms and arms technology being sold from DC to Delhi. The US would very much like to keep an eye on where their tools and ending up. Meaning if it’s to be used for the purpose India said they wanted to buy them for, or is there a secondary agenda. With India breathing air (polluted too often) in a very volatile region and itself not free from bombs and suicide freaks, and on top of that being a nuclear power too, it is very much understandable that Washington wants to keep an eye on where its high end (military) technology ends up. But it seems in the end Clinton and company had to give in on their strict demands to monitor end usage and the deal was done. The merchants of death got the bucks and the politicians lost out on strict control. And India just smiles.


Meanwhile any attempts to tackle global warming didn’t progress. It’s freeze on that front. Subzero amidst a warmer planet. And that’s not a good omen ahead of a global environment gathering later this year. The US and India are two major polluters and thus major contributors to global warming. So they could drive a new consensus. They could break the barriers. Come up with new proposals. End the deadlock. Move from spin and speech to action. But the green hope stayed locked up.


But global warming, of which really the effects already can be felt by African farmers for instance, will not get taken seriously by the majority of voters and thus the majority of politicians till the signs are so in your face that it is too late on many fronts. Obvious statistics, or advancing deserts, or freak storms, or declining fish stock,... it really doesn’t matter to the majority of earth’s citizens as it does not hurt their getting up / have a 5 second chat with the kids / go to work on a jam-packed, stinking underground train or sit in a car in stinking traffick jams with raging drivers and crap radio programs / hate the job / go home / warm up a pre-cooked meal / have a 10 second chat with the kids / sink in the sofa / watch 2 soapies and 1 talk show / go to bed and start the same shit all over again.


When food prices go up by 20%, when coastal areas get battered more and more by hurricanes, when rivers burst more often and more violently,.... then maybe a very slow process of open up your eyes and ears and mind to what is happening around you might start sinking in. Slowly.


Meanwhile more bombs, planes, radars, jeeps, choppers, jets, bullets have been sold to nations where education and health could need a serious financial injection.


As the US and India were signing arms deals amidst the polluted air of Delhi, a German highway looked like a scene of a new Bruce Willis movie. Some 260 vehicles crashed into each other. I don’t think Hollywood could come up with a better scene that that. Maybe it was a cunning plan to inject new momentum into the car industry amidst growing job cuts and closing down dealerships. A stimulus plan with a twist!


Throw out. Just heard the new tunes by Tom Morello, the guitar-artist from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave fame. He teamed up with rapper Boots Riley in a project called Street Sweeper Social Club. Sounded like RATM meets Lenny Kravitz. I especially like the 3rd track – The Oath. The others seem to swing between ‘cool’ to ‘ok’. The album certainly didn’t hit with like a bomb.


C-Ya


collateral – 2nd half of July 2009

Obama in Africa

So here he was. President Obama setting foot in Africa for the first time since he became President of the US of A. To no surprise, Obama-fever reached the sky and beyond in Ghana. The Gold Coast as it’s known. A reasonable decent example that democracy can grow in Africa. Unfortunately this type of example is still too few across Africa. The oldest continent. But a continent scarred by its past, hurt by its daily reality, and dreaming of a better future while fearing it might be the opposite.

Obama visited the slave fort where Africans were sold of to American cotton farmers. And Obama spoke to the people of Africa – his paternal roots.

Obama spoke openly and directly and without too much empty rhetoric as too many northern hemisphere leaders have done previously (and will do again) when blitz-visiting Africa.

He touched upon the issues and warned about the future. He admitted the failures of the past but warned that Africa needs to stop blaming all its woes on its colonial past. And that was hitting the nail on the head.

Africa’s decolonisation started in the 60s but was soon hijacked by the cold war. The West supported apartheid South Africa out of fear of Russian influence in other parts of Africa. Russia supported rebel groups across the continent to fight a proxy war with its Washington foe. Britain tried to retain control of independent Kenya by steering the process through the backdoor. The West blindly kept Congo’s dictator Mobutu in the saddle out of fear of a Marxist revolution in the heart of Africa. And on and on. It was a very murky and dirty chess game.

But the collapse of the Soviet empire brought a quick end to this. But Africa since then has unfortunately not been able to rise above all that and put itself on the right track towards strong state institutions, independent judiciary, solid economic models, free and fair elections.

There are good examples for sure. Ghana as mentioned earlier. It was ruled by the military for a long time but then a visionary officer decided to take the country onto a democratic path. And since then there have been several elections – and without bloodshed or fraud. And its economy is growing fast too. And then there is South Africa. Of course the rainbow nation conquered apartheid and walked into the civilised world. But since that famous, first free vote in 1994 it has been a rocky road. Strong economic growth but growing inequality between rich and poor. Mbeki’s AIDS denialism was as wacko as Michael Jackson himself – but with far wider and deadlier consequences. South Africa’s silence on Zimbabwe’s meltdown remains a dark spot. Its growing corruption is another painful pothole. Where corruption is without doubt a worldwide pest, in Africa it is eroding society fast and furious. There is certainly also Botswana and Mozambique as good examples of what is possible in Africa.

But too often those shining stars are dimmed by the darker clouds of civil wars in Ivory Coast, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Congo,... or massive corruption that nearly forces all international cooperation to halt like in Kenya;... or dictatorships that turn a nation into personal sources of wealth grabbing while the people slide deeper and deeper into hellish poverty like in Zimbabwe, Gabon, Equitorial Guinea;.... Africa should have the guts to look in the mirror and tell itself it messed up. It has failed itself. It has failed its people. It has failed its destiny. It has failed its potential. It has failed its hope.

And Obama spoke about aid and trade. About opportunities and hope. Especially hope. But hope without structures and nations built on democratic principles and the rule of law remains utopia-hope. And utopia is like dope. It might feel nice for a brief moment but when you crashes the headache is severe and reality cold and painful.

Aid can never be forever as it does not stimulate nor create nor built. It enslaves and keeps people dumb and deaf and blind and stupid and numb. Trade is the answer. Fair trade. But trade that builds a better life for all Africans not for the few controlling the bank account. And yes African nations have the right to criticise the West for having trade barriers and trade-distorting subsidies. But in a global market nations and regions will always defend itself to some degree, as long as the basic rules for world trade are outlined, followed, scrutinised and legally supported. Free trade doesn’t mean a free for all. Free trade means fair trade. So Africa needs to learn those examples, those techniques, those rules, those strings that come attached to being part of a world market. The current sell-out of Africa’s mineral wealth to Chinese companies is for instance not a good example of the way forward. The fact for instance too that China brings in its own Chinese workforce (sometimes Chinese prisoners!!) when implementing Chinese investments in Africa is also not a good example to built on. There is certainly enough workforce in Africa that needs the income and the skills.

Trade and investments come when institutions are strong. When nations are rock solid. When the fundamentals of democracy, independent judicial system, and strong and open economic policies are in place. That is the key to success. That is the stepping stone for growth, development and taking people out of poverty.

And that is sadly too often where Africa fails. Dictatorships are only welcome for murky business deals that don’t like day light – shaky diamond sales or illegal weapon trade. Democracies with accountability are needed, and need to be strengthened where and when they are in their infancy.

You can’t for instance have a regional grouping of southern African nations coming together to discuss restoring democracy on the island of Madagascar after a coup, while the leading players in that discussion are a dictator from Zimbabwe and an absolute monarch from the mountain kingdom of Swaziland. That is taking a serious debate to ridiculous levels. That is once more making the ridicule out of you. Or when the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for the butcher of Sudan, then the meaningless African Union attacks the West for being too harsh. Meanwhile the majority of AU members have signed the bill that created the ICC. So again, a pretty direct hit into your own foot.

So yes colonialism and cold war have fooled around with Africa. And yes that should never be forgotten. But please dear Africans, stop blaming all your sorrows on the past when your own actions since independence and the collapse of the Berlin Wall are too often seriously off track.

Use Obama’s fever to try to rise up and fight the injustices. Reject corrupt politicians as they will torpedo the people’s progress. Fight it. Crawl, walk, stand up, stand tall.

Throw out. Been listening to the debut full-length by US band Trapped Under Ice. Hard stuff.

collateral – July 2009