Alleluia, I can now watch my World news on
the BBC in peace and not be compelled to watch the numbers played by the head
of states of the 8 most industrialise and richest countries on earth. The other
actors who were in
Germany
and who also irritated me were the hordes demonstrating outside the meeting
venue of the world’s most powerful leaders. It has become a regular sight and
they have become part of the decor. A World meeting without them will be
synonymous to a sumptuous party without champagnes. However, I suspect there should be a sort of
connivance between countries organising those big theatrical shows and the
assemblage of protesters, who are always present and vying in their garish
dresses to be seen. While the formers are showing their financial and military clots,
the latter are in a showy display of who knows best how to show sympathy to the
poor.
And at a more extreme level, some compare
on who best insults
America
or their whipping boys: George Bush
and Tony Blair. When both men leave
power, I will be glad to see or hear their justifications for snipping the
US and the
UK. Strangely as it would appear, Vladimir Poutin, the arch assassin of
journalists, Press freedom and the man who orchestrates massacres in
Chechnya
is considered a saint. Well, while I don’t appreciate the ridiculous
gesticulations of those so-called anti-globalisation activists or whatever
names they call themselves, I still think that, they deserve some praise for
their courage. Their demonstration shows that, we are all human beings, for
they are crying and pressing rich countries to give their crumbs to the world’s
poor. By the way, who are the worlds’s poor? They have decided already chosen.
And as usual, it is
Africa. Fine, for if the
world’s richest countries were honest, Africans won’t even need to work again,
because they will get all the attentions and all the financial aid they have
promised.
False
promises and new comers
But the richest countries in the world have
leaders who are wicked, hypocritical and cynical even with their own very
people. Two years ago in
Gleneagles,
Scotland, the same characters with the exceptions
of three individuals: Shinzo Abe of
Japan, Nicholas Sarkozy of
France and Angela Merkel of Germany, but the same countries, promised to help
Africa, the sick heart of the world. And two years after,
of all the promises they made, none was respected. It is as though, the leaders
of those rich countries have something on their minds which bothers them and
whenever they mentioned
Africa, they seem
exorcise. But why should they keep bothering themselves? I bet you, contrary to what is being said,
Africa and Africans will never die.
I also noted a new character at the just
concluded G8 meeting; he was Nicholas Sarkozy, the new President of France. He
too claims that, he wants to help
Africa. Nicholas
Sarkozy was seen playing with a mobile phone like a child and giving it to
despot Vladimir Poutin. Was Sarkozy over excited for having met the World’s
great? No one knows, but if that was the reason for playing like a school boy
in a school yard, he has every right. For he has been mocked in France, he was
called a Lilliputian who wanted to a place( president) that belongs to the Old
boy network of Ecole National D’administration.
He was even presented by the Socialist as the new poodle of George Bush, a
wicked and heartless man.
Ridiculous
But all those smear campaign did not
discourage the French and Mr Sarkozy. But Sarkozy is now walking on the air
since his electoral triumph and takes the world to be
France. He is a hard working man
though, but he got all wrong with Africa, for how come that a country such as
France, that has been reeling on record 30 years
deficit help
Africa? The greatest joke of all
was not the stomach pain of President George Bush, which I suspect was a result
of over eating, but it was the financial packaged that, the world’s 8 richest
countries promised to
Africa: $ 60 billion. The
sum is to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria & tuberculosis and also help financially.
Thank you very much for your help, for there is a saying, in the bible of
course, that: there is happiness in giving than in receiving.
So the G8 leaders were happy for their
number to a point that, Angela Merkel saw it fit to organise an international
Press conference to mock Africans the more. Now, the $ 60 billion aid package
to Africa is the foreign reserve of
Nigeria. I don’t just want to
mention the foreign reserve of
South
Africa. And these questions: how will the
monies the G8 have promised again be shared amongst 53 African states or 54
should
Somaliland gains international
recognition? How much will be invested
in the fight against HIV/AIDS and Malaria? To say the least, the financial
promise is vague and ridiculous and will end up like the other promises they
made 2 years earlier.
The
fear of China & Questions
The problem of most western countries is
that, they are jealous of
China
and her investments in
Africa. The Chinese
don’t talk, they act. To the G8 countries, the fear of
China’s interest in
Africa
is their beginning of wisdom. For I suspect, they think the Afro-Chinese
relationship may alter the plans that they have earmarked for
Africa.
Besides the official table talks most western countries want
Africa
to remain forever underdeveloped. There are even some courageous western
countries with selective memories that are accusing
China of supporting dictators. Yes,
it might be true, but how many African dictators have monies in Chinese Banks?
China is being
whacked in the West for supporting the Sudanese government. Yes, it is true,
but who talks about the Sudanese rebels supported by Western countries?
Are Sudanese rebels not also committing
atrocious acts in
Darfur? Did or are western
countries not still supporting dictatorial regimes in Africa such as those of
Egypt,
Tunisia,
Cameroon and
Zimbabwe? Did
western countries not support the Apartheid regime in
South Africa for almost half a
century? The African continent doesn’t need financial help from the G8. What
they need is for G8 countries to support democracy, good governance and help in
the fight against corruption. For most corrupt African leaders have the monies
of their loots in G8 countries. Africans will be glad to hear that, corrupt
Nigerian governors arrested in
London
have been detained and not allowed to escape as it was the case of the former
governors of Bayalsa and Plateau states. Africans want investments, they will also
be glad to know that, the properties and bank accounts of Paul Biya, Robert Mugabe, Albert Bernard Bongo Odimba aka Omar, Obiang
Nguema Mbazogo, King Mohamed VI , Housni Moubarak, Abdelaziz Bouteflika have
been seized or blocked in France, Germany, US and Britain. Until that happens,
everything said and promised by G8 leaders will be for the consumption of their
own very public and elsewhere but not for
Africa
and Africans.
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