A Thought ~ 3: Protests and Violence

Protests, it seems to me, don't last; 
not as long as many may want, or fear.
But violence and killings can, and have.
Are the post-election street marches
across America now
going to fizzle according to this script,
or are there, here, the makings of the Mother
of All Protests?

The West's Initial Ambivalence Toward Somali Pirates

The West's ambivalence, till recent days perhaps, toward Somali pirates has been noted by all who take an interest in these things. Why the ambivalence? Three possible reasons:

ONE, a sense of guilt and embarrassment about its genesis: Let me share with you this particular conversation about why the West ("We" in what you are about to read) has not, even now, responded with "materiel" robustness to acts, increasing acts, of piracy off the Somali coast. The conversation represents Vers 01 of the explanation of the West's attitude towards the piracy. Click here to read

According to this version, the slide toward piracy all starts with the overthrow of Siad Barre bytwo Hawiye clan leaders, Ali Mahdi and General Mohamed Farah Aidid. The two Warlords had a falling out very soon after Barre's ouster, and this led to a prolonged civil war. To feed themselves, the Aidid troops resorted to "robbing aid trucks carrying food to the starving masses, and re-selling it to continue their war." Ali Mahdi's men, on the other hand, turned to the Indian Ocean, where Somali fishermen had already been complaining, to no avail, of "illegal vessels coming to Somali waters and stealing all the fish."

Coincidentally, as Ali Mahdi turned to the ocean, two European companies, one Swiss and one Italian, were just getting set to cut a sinister deal with any Somali Warlord who would, in the ensuing power vacuum, allow them to dump container-loads of Europe's toxic waste in Somali waters. Ali Mahdi was more than willing, for a miserly fee of $3 per ton (a gross saving to the Europeans of some $997 per ton). The deal went on for years, and complaints, even by UNEP, against the dumping fell on the world's deaf ears. According to a UNEP spokesman, the waste included "Uranium, radioactive waste, lead, Cadmium, Mecury and chemical waste."

It is the Indian-Ocean Rim tsunami of 2004 -- which brought on shore some leaking containers, with severe health repercussions on the Somali coast -- that triggered consequential Somali action against European ships plying the Eastern African coast, which brought rise to the wave of piracy that the world has to contend with nowadays.

"It was months after those initial reports that local fishermen mobilized themselves, along with street militias, to go into the waters and deter the Westerners from having a free pass at completely destroying Somalia’s aquatic life. Now years later, the deterring has become less noble, and the ex-fishermen with their militias have begun to develop a taste for ransom at sea. This form of piracy is now a major contributor to the Somali economy, especially in the very region that private toxic waste companies first began to burry [sic] our nation’s death trap."

Will an active effort to stop the pirates bring uncomfortably back to the surface, and perhaps headlines, the truth about Europe's toxic waste agenda, which even the Somali pirates have lost sight of?

TWO, a certain kind of romantic and folkloric attitude toward piracy: There is Vers 02, which is not totally unrelated to Vers 01: Click here to read. Titled, "Top-Earning Pirates", the business-minded article to which the link leads is written by Matt Woolsey, and published in the online version of Forbes, no less. Here, we read that high seas piracy, initiated by "government-hired pillagers like Hernando Cortes" in 1503, became:

"colonial [America's] version of investment banking. Through good positioning, aggressive go-getters could make millions from global trade and commerce in diverse sectors. They were frequently chased off shore to the Caribbean by angry governments. And in the end, they were sometimes sunk without a trace. "

But, history tells us, these government hirelings themselves becam targets of pirates from other lands, waiting for them in the high seas:

"Those riches couldn't be sent using wire transfers. So when Cortes wanted to send a bounty of Aztec gold to Charles V, he had to load it onto ships and sail it across the sea, where men like Jean Fleury were waiting. In 1523, the French privateer fell upon a Spanish treasure fleet--a score that helped him net $31.5 million in present-value dollars over his career, making him the sixth highest-earning pirate of all time."

If Jean Fleury was the sixth, whi was the "highest-earning pirate"? It was was Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, an Englishman. He made a total of some $120 million (present-value) in the 18th century. At $115 million in total "earnings", Sir Francis Drake, an English sailor-pirate, was second. He was knighted by none other than QEI.

"Sir Francis Drake, a 16th century British privateer who saved England from the Spanish Armada and went on to a profitable life of plunder at the behest of Her Majesty's Government. Fellow Englishman Thomas Tew places third with earnings of $102 million. His biggest score came in 1693, when he pilfered a ship full of gold en route to the Ottoman Empire from India."

Sir Francis Drake holds a place of high honour in British history. It has been suggested that his exploits, and Spain's "blind-rage" attempts to punish him and his kind at all cost, and to defeat an England that harboured them and benefited from their loot, led to Spain's own decline as an imperial power. I recently posed this questions in one of my tweets: Is there a 21st century Francis Drake out of Somalia waiting to be "discovered"? In another tweet, I speculated that, at present-prices, the list of Top-Earning pirates is likely to be topped by a Somali.

THREE, indecisiveness in the face of a creeping threat perpetrated by starving "minnows": There is considerable lack of clarity of thought in the world community about how best to respond to a piracy that is portrayed in the media as a major and growing threat to world commerce -- indeed, to globalization. A muted body of opinion suggests that the shipping companies should simply continue to pay the ransom demanded by the pirates. Moreover, since piracy is a criminal act, not a military or terrorist one, the world's leading navies have no reason to intervene. However, another body of opinion holds that NATO is the only force with the infrastructure to deal effectively with the piracy.

But there is also the unresolved issue of how to deal with captured pirates. Much of the West's opinion seems to be that captured pirates should simply be offloaded in Kenya, which should try them in its own courts and incarcerate the guilty; after all, Kenya has been the destination of the cargo in a good number of the captured ships. Kenya appears attractive because America continues to suffer from the "Black Hawk Down" syndrome of the Clinton years, and is hesitant to re-engage in Somalia; and Europe seems to want to remain at arms-length. In my view, trying and jailing captured pirates in Kenya would be just too toxic for our polity, and too destabilizing, overall. Kenya would be, pure and simple, the world's dumping ground. We would not accept that.

Links to a Selection of More Recent Sources:

1. Somali Pirates Hone Their Tactics: Click

2. Piracy Money Piles Up in Kenya: Click

Obama's Commonwealth Mindset

The one thing that struck me at London's G20 meeting on April 2 -- which for us at GMT+3 somehow ended no sooner than it had begun -- was that President Obama has a Commonwealth mindset. There had been escalating hints of this all through the last two years, to be sure, but the press conference he held last night capped all that. I think the Queen sensed this most strongly when she, and the Duke, hosted a private tea for the Obama's at the Buckingham Palace.

I think that, because of the Queen's and Obama's unique and unifying presence(s), G20 has, through its leaders (and the millions of viewers who caught glimpses of the goings-on in London via TV), all of a sudden morphed into what must surely become a Global Commonwealth. I think that, by the same token, the Queen and Michelle consecrated this turn in the road with all that surround-groove they got into in front of everyone present at the palace the other night. It was all spontaneous and mutual, of course, the Queen's press detail later said of the super-touchy moment beamed around the world [click here for story and pics].

Happy to see the Queen so happy, as she approaches her 83rd(?) birthday -- so soon? The lady is forever young, and Michelle was there to let it all show through.

But why Michelle? Let's just venture to say that Michelle represented an unabashedly touchable Kenyan (not to say American) connection which the Queen found (in a double-loop sort of way) very, very touching -- herself having become Queen, upon a tree, right here in Kenya (and her ancestors having ruled Michelle Obama's America, causing Michelle's own ancestors, but not as much Obama's, unspeakable pain). Michelle, in reciprocally and symbolically "touching" the Queen (as Mother or Sister and friend), set off that loop in a glorious perpetual motion. She presented a unique opportunity for the Queen to spontaneously and publicly express what she deeply felt, an opportunity which she perhaps has never really had, and which she seized because she did not want it to pass (protocol or no protocol).

I have digressed somewhat, perhaps. I had simply wanted to remark upon what really, really struck me at G20, witnessed from afar, as Obama's commonwealth mindset. But there is a very complex threading of history and memory and circumstance in all this stuff, the telling of which is, like the Queen's urge, irresistible. And it all makes me tell myself, and my wife: if you think you have seen everything, then, wait for the next thing -- as long as you have the health.

So the journalists spontaneously cheered Obama with a standing ovation, eh, at the end of that press conference? They were cheering that mindset, and so cheering the future of this world.


ps: Take a look at this farcical, hilarious, convoluted rendition of the above blog post from http://wikipediaobamawindows.blogder.com/: Click here

Saga of the Lame Duck Who Could Duck Shoes and Stuff

Click here to start the saga of Bush's improbably moral virtual unbungled unfinal parallel journey>> Saga starts

Noooo! I didn't see that! Did you see that? Is he that quick?

X-ray vision?

Tell me this wasn't real, but too real. It was all a concoction to make Bush thrilled, a sort of farewell party.

How could the journalist have plotted all that when he didn't know Bush was coming in the first place -- to that place? If he didn't know, how would he have known he would be invited? Allright, there had been a rumour. They're all invited? How dumb! All of them? Then this was coming all along! Then why didn't Bush just stay home? After all, it'll be all over on January 20.

That's the whole point?

And shoes? Allright, heavy duty disposable good for nothing dime a dozen made in america maybe ready to go sandals. OK, he didn't know the guy was coming and that's why he didn't have stones in his pocket.

It was all an act, and that wasn't really Bush. Couldn't you tell? It was all hollywood, like the moon-landing! Bush wasn't really in I-Raq. It was all Laura's prank, really. Or Jena's. Something to laugh about at Christmas, now that Thanksgiving's over. The joke's on us!

The real Bush was in Dallas, not Baghdad (too much Saddam there right now), clearing up some stuff about his new pad. So, what would he say?

Was the man's aim as bad as that or is Bush, the impersonator, that good? Were the man's venom-weighted words as off-target as his shoes, or did they get the impersonated, untranslated, Bush more than we know? I mean, all that stuff about orphans and widows -- from a man too small for his shoes! Mr. President, only you can tell us.

That wasn't a duck, in that water. That wasn't even water.

And, yes, that was a hawk! Hawkeye Bush. Bushie Hawkeye. I swear I could see the adrenalin pump, as only cowboys can pump. Did you see Bush's thrill at the first miss? Did you see the boxer in him -- the subtle left-right bob? Like, bring it on, buddy. Like, float like a butterfly. Hold that sting!

I swear I saw a touch of Ali. Like, is that all you got?

And to see that, after all Bush has done, Al Maliki couldn't wouldn't didn't take a hit for him -- not even one miserable hit! Just stood there dumbfounded, with a half-stretched hand. A case of Maliki see, Maliki Doolittle, if you ask me. And yet: damned if he does, and damned if he don't.

I bet the shoes are destined for the I-Raqi MOMA (Art, Antiquity, whatever) now. There'll be occasional borrowings by the Bush Presidential Library, you betcha. Worth a million now. A million more tomorrow.

Who says the duck's lame when the duck's so nimble? But all's well that ends well.

They must be cheering all over Texas, right now. In all the gyms. All the talk shows.

Allovamerika. As Bush loves America.

They had forgotten that he is that kind of man, and that he had it in him. Those eye-crossing chads, which he collected more of in 2000 than Al, they were not all a fluke.

Shame on all the presidents and premiers who cannot float -- who cannot duck a vituperative, leave alone a missile. Shame on on all their houses! Take a leaf from Dubya.

Noooo! I don't believe any of that. None of that American fiction!

Moral of the Story: All I know now, from all this, is that, as long as you're alive (and the longer you're alive the more so), you'll never see enough! Abridged Story of the Moral: You aint seen what you aint seen!

President Obama: Here Comes The Sun!

For us in Kenya, "at this moment," here comes our son (wuodwa). He is far from prodigal, and is much beloved even if only lately beheld! Behold -- the son!

He has done us proud -- even though we waited, merely, in the villages; waited for him to arrive from a long and winding journey, with many forks along his path. We did not go half the way to meet him -- dying though we were, with the anxiety and pain of waiting. While he searched for the mythical White House, and a crown which no eye can see, we waited in villages we have occupied for centuries with the fortitude and memory and wariness of a people among whom migration is the very essence of folklore, and king-making is second nature.

For the world: Here comes the Sun!

It was a good thing that they did over there in America, last night -- this morning, here in Kenya -- as the world watched, waiting, as someone once said, to exhale. It was a good thing that they looked as deep into their conscience and their souls as they did, as Fall, ominous and tantalizing Fall, deepened and darkened amid all the buzz. And that they did not despair. They saw, reflected there, him. Him!

He had known for a while, for he could see with eyes that have seen farther than his age, that they saw what he strove so hard (despite his eloquence) to tell them -- that they saw in their minds' eyes what he saw in his -- and that they were in the end unperturbed by the choice that they were prepared, in their millions, to make. At this time. And though there is no telling until the choice is with finality made, we are free at last to have our sigh of relief -- to heave with possibility.

How "sweet" it is to have this day of euphoria, and even ectasy -- even if this once only, for now, and even if all over (for as long as we want this thing to last) --in which we can, finally, purge all that unspeakable fear of betrayal and bad faith we had firmly locked up inside; in which we can contemplate, with utter relief and the abundance of joy we allow ourselves, the solemnity and grandeur and historicity not of what is to come but of what is, unbelievably, right here, here right here, before our own very tired -- our very own -- eyes, and "at this moment." Eyes wrapped around the surreality of this real and impossible thing. How Mumias-Sugar "sweet" to have been here and, as he (epitome of love) loves to say, "at this time."

It is a good thing, too, that America, reaffirming the possibility of all that is good in all of us who are good, has caused the world to be not saddened but exceedingly happy, and awash in tears of joy and in the relief self-evident in Jackson's unabashed tears; and that the world has found a reason, in that same relief of happiness and happiness of relief, to embrace America as America has never perhaps been embraced, or imagined it could be. America has made the world happy, as perhaps the world has never been collectively and simultaneously and everywhere happy -- even if for a moment. And in embracing America the world in fact embraces itself -- in a tight circle of emergent, effervescent, audacious hybridity.

And so it is that what has come to pass has come to pass, so that what is is. And thus it is that he -- the very same Obama, the very apt Renegade, that verily singular Ker -- intones: "We are the people we have been waiting for!"

Has there never been (never, ever) such a meme -- at once powerful and improbable, at once political and cultural, at once special and one of us -- as Obama, that we allow ourselves so many praise-words? Perhaps not -- not that we can remember with euphoric memories. Will there ever be, again? We dare to hope yes, for our own sakes! Yes we can crawl up to our possibilities -- and fly past them. Yes we can fly!

P.S.
1. Here's a photostream of Team Obama, back-stage, on election night: Photostream
2. And here's a video of President-Elect Obama's November 4th Victory Speech

Obama's Grand Tour

Obama's current tour of the Middle East and Europe, starting with Afghanistan and Iraq as I had thought it would, gives us all reason to pause and ponder what awaits the world in the near future. Let me post just some of the thoughts that are going through my mind right now, particularly after reading a blog post in Political Punch by ABC's Jake Tapper (see Yambo's Blog Village).

America is fortunate to have a citizen whom the world so widely admires, already, and through whose achievements, as President, I believe America will in turn, and once again, be widely admired as a self-renewing land of opportunity (a land, moreover, which knows how to seize the opportunities that come its way).

America will be respected, once again, as a respectful member of a world community whose defining character is diversity -- and even hybridity.

Of course, as a Kenyan, I am proud that we had something (just a little something) to do with the gift which America, now, so proudly presents to the world -- and which the world is manifestly ready to receive with so much enthusiasm.

America's gift is Kenya's gift. Africa's gift, indeed.

The very gift of humanity to Planet Earth is Africa's gift.

What Obama's Presidency Would Portend For Africa

In a post dated 4th June 2008, the Blog Admin at politics.nationmedia.com asked: Barack Obama, by clinching the US Democratic ticket, has moved closer to the White House. What would his presidency portend for Africa, given his Kenyan roots?

I thought it was a good question, so I posted the following comment:

Obama, like Mandela and Kofi Annan -- but, sadly, no other leader here (in Kenya or Africa as a whole) right now -- will be a catalytic role model for a new generation of Africans thoroughly disillusioned by the current crop of self-seeking and mean-spirited leaders in Africa.

I hope that, by sheer example emanating from the genuineness and strength of his character, Obama will also jolt at least some of our leaders out of their cocoons of mischief, Machiavellian self-centeredness and sheer bad behaviour -- so that they can at last begin genuinely to serve in the public interest.

In Obama's victory is the essential message that really good guys can finish first. You don't have to break the rules to win -- which is what Hillary (a true "Kenyan politician")tried to do!

Let me add to this post, as I conclude, that Obama represents a new kind of Kenyan -- and American -- politician. The fact that his veins flow with Kenyan blood means that the quality of character he has displayed (may he never lose it!) is not unattainable here. It should not be something that is possible only in America. What has derailed us here is greed and double-speak. We have crooks for heroes -- who have turned our politics into private business. And yet, as Obama says, "Yes we can!" We can have "change we can believe in" -- real, people-focused change.

Barack Obama: Presumptive Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party

Yesterday, 3rd June 2008, was a truly historic day on many accounts in the United States -- and in Kenya. Dare I add Africa and the world at large? Circumspection, alone, holds me back -- but not my [My! My! My!] exclamation! Since we are hours ahead of America here in Kenya, that moment of glory, when Obama reached and then passed the pivotal total of 2118 pledged delegates and superdelegates, a moment which will be etched indelibly (dare I say for eons?) in the annals of at least two great countries, actually occurred very early this morning -- June 4th. A son of Kenya (for that he is) -- alright, a son of America and Kenya both -- had won a presidential marathon in that same America in which Kenyan runners are so used to winning marathons; and in which Americans are so used to seeing, and cheering, them! Cheers, America! And cheers Jatelo!

While in neighbouring Tanzania on that momentous night, Jesse Jackson aptly noted on CNN (I believe I heard him correctly) that Obama's veins flow with the blood of two continents! And I think he thinks -- as Obama and millions of Democrats and Independents and even some Republicans think -- that the time has, this time, come; come for the dream deferred to be at last lived.

Here in Kenya, where the average political leader is a crook of one kind or another (and/or ring-fenced by crooks with a till to loot), where party primaries (if they are held at all)are typically "won" by those who pay the largest monetary tribute to the leader (under the guise of the party), and where local and national elections are habitually rigged(stress habit), with impunity, in favour of those who have thus won the party leader's favour, is it any wonder that millions of us have been so enthralled by, so suspensefully glued to, Obama's indomitable quest -- first as an underdog and then as the much-maligned front-runner -- and are now so thrilled by his present victory, and the victory which (we see) is to come?

To Kenyans, the most important lesson of Obama's primary victory is this: you can be a successful politician without being a crook. Conversely, crookedness is not at all "genetically" (inescapably) programmed into political forms of life. Nor is mean-spiritedness. And self-centeredness, which invariably breeds self-aggrandizement, should not be a feature, let alone the defining feature, of political ambitions or public life generally.

Crookedness may be the way things are, concretely, here and now in Kenya (and elsewhere); but it is not the way things must be. Nor the only way these things can be. It is not that politicians cannot help themselves, but must lie, cheat and steal. All too often, what is read -- indeed, misread -- as typical is only that which we have refused or failed to check, and have instead irrationally accepted as rational; that is, rationalized. Impunity thrives on such rationalization, even as it sucks out all the creative energies in our field of play.

If Obama should win in November, I think certain politicians, with an attitude and bad habits, here in Kenya (and let me say elsewhere in Africa) will begin to notice that the unrequited public attention and adulation which they have for long enjoyed will begin rapidly to wane. You see, there will be another (more electrifying) standard and standard-bearer to be measured against. There will be another Jatelo whose wholesomeness of character will put a glaring spotlight on the blemishes in these other characters. May he win, then, in November! And may he never deviate from the promise that he has become; the promise that his electorate, and we here, have come to see in him!

Last night Hillary refused to concede, but that's OK. She will, still. What would be obscene, and utterly unacceptable, would be to trade (or to seek to trade) her concession for the Vice Presidency. I have remarked upon her unsuitability in another blog. What transpired last night only reinforces that view.

I know, though, that a trade of that kind(widely hailed as the only escape from civil war) occurred right here in Kenya just a few months ago, following a disputed presidential election which degenerated into widespread inter-ethnic violence. Many observers believe that the violence was in part instigated or encouraged by political leaders, too used to double-speak for our own good, who doubled up as underground warlords. In the latest issue of The East African, a weekly newspaper, there is, instructively, a chilling account of serious arms-smuggling, as late as last March (which was after the February signing of the peace accord between PNU and ODM) from Somalia into Kenya (and into the hands of an unnamed militia group here). AU (Ugandan) peace-keeping forces in Somalia are, disappointingly, implicated in this smuggling. The point here is that this is the very antithesis of Obama's brand of politics, to which the world is now going to have to pay attention. But does Hillary want to emulate Kenyan politicians, having recently made reference to Mugabe's bad ways?