The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2014—Volume X

By Anthony Livingston Hall

Anthony L. Hall takes aim at the global events of 2014 with a unique and refreshing perspective. For example, on:

Media broadcasting terrorist propaganda as breaking news

We live in a Twitter age of such promiscuous, indiscriminate and surreal media practices that it seems perfectly normal for our own media to be helping the enemy perpetrate psychological warfare against us. What else explains the media shielding us from the epithets of racists, but bombarding us with the taunts of terrorists?

Snowboarder Shaun White failing to medal at Sochi Olympics

Frankly, I think its fair to say that never before in Olympic history has an athlete so hyped to win gold failed to even win bronze.

Only authoritarian regimes can govern Arab countries

Show me an Arab country governed by a democratically elected government and Ill show you one that is an ungovernable mess.

Feminist call for liberated women to ditch high heels

Its a reflection of the addictive high women get on heels that, when theyre barefoot (or wearing tennis shoes), they invariably perch themselves on the balls of their feet to simulate those missing high heels. Have you noticed this?

Putinization of Russia

Putins propaganda has done such a terrific job of convincing Russians that Westerners are undermining their culture at home and threatening the safety of fellow Russians abroad, the credibility of his presidency now depends on backing up his neo-Stalinist words with avenging military action.

Police in U.S. killing unarmed Black men

If I hear another political or civic leader calling for a conversation on race, Im going to puke. Because nothing will do more to curb deadly encounters between the police and young Black men than requiring the former to attach cameras to their bulletproof vests and prevailing upon the latter to obey police orders.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491761106

Anthony Livingston Hall

Anthony L. Hall is a Washington-based lawyer who is licensed to practice in a number of foreign jurisdictions. He hails from The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands and was educated at some of America’s best schools, including Williams College. Hall is also a syndicated columnist and the author of The iPINIONS Journal, a weblog of enlightening and entertaining commentaries that provide a refreshing take on current events. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. http://ipjn.com

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Copyright © 2015 Anthony Livingston Hall.

Photo by Freed Photography

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-6111-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6112-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6110-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015903238

iUniverse rev. date: 03/19/2015

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Uganda’s Gay Witch-Hunt

Media: Missing Airplane Trumps Ethnic Cleansing

Egypt’s Arab Spring Spawns Military Dictatorship

Egypt lecturing U.S. on democratic principles…?

Arab Spring’s Indian Summer

South Sudan Continues Descent into Heart of Darkness

‘Another African famine?! Nobody cares!’ Then call me nobody

Alas, Kidnapping Schoolgirls Is the Least of African Crimes against Humanity

Sen. McCain weighs in, showing again why he was unfit to be president

Pistorius Puts Foot in Mouth (so to Speak) with ‘Tissue of Lies’

Pistorius gets off on murder. Manslaughter looms…

Pistorius gets 5 years! I agree. So why all the outrage?

U.S.-Africa Summit Confirms Africa Dating China, Marrying America

Killing of U.S. General Betrays Tragic Folly of U.S. Presence in Afghanistan

Out with a whimper

South Africa Joins Ranks of Countries ‘Selling Its Sovereignty to China’

Winnie Mandela—a Woman Scorned … Still

Winnie says ‘Nelson swindled and betrayed me’

ICC Decides Not to Prosecute Kenya’s Kenyatta. Duh

Instead of Peace Israel Settling for Apartheid…?

Groundhog Day

Hamas using human shields; Israel bombing them

One Hair on One Israeli Soldier Worth more than All of Gaza?

Obama Adviser Is Right: Netanyahu Is a ‘Chickenshit’ Prime Minister

Perhaps Only Authoritarian Regimes Can Govern Arab Countries

Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds Fighting for Control of Iraq. Stay Out, America!

Why have 3,000 troops in Iraq when 300 will do?

Mission creep…

Demystifying ISIS: Case against Obama’s Bush-lite War on Terrorism

New York Times endorses my ‘demystifying’ commentary

Bombing Daesh…

Obama More Like Bush than Obama Would Like To Say

Obama: We Are the Indispensable Nation

Media, Stop the ‘Breaking News’ about Beheadings Already!

Obama coordinating with Iran

Obama’s Mission Creep in Iraq Channeling JFK’s Mission Creep in Vietnam

Why propagate terrorist propaganda

Iran bombing Daesh too

AMERICAS / CARIBBEAN

The Gall of Wyclef Jean Criticizing International Donors

Haitian déjà vu: corruption, violence, and dysfunction

Pandemic of Democratic Revolutions Spreads to Venezuela

The Bahamas Is 41! Time to Grow Up!

Petty politics (and homophobia) bedeviling equal rights for women

Happy Columbus Day…?

People of the Caribbean, Beware of Minister Farrakhan

Kidnappings in Mexico as Ordinary as Gun Violence in America

‘Cuban Twitter’: Obama’s Bay of Pigs…?

Russia Reopening Base in Cuba? Whoopty Friggin’ Doo

New York Times to Obama: End Senseless Embargo

Obama takes historic steps

ASIA

Japanese Harpooned by Western Cultural Bias

First, save the whales; now, the dogs?

What about the ducks…?

Obama’s Visit to Japan Upstaged by Bieber’s Visit to Its War Shrine…?

Another Mining Disaster: this Time in Turkey

Indians Vote to End Gandhi-Nehru Dynasty

Military Coup in Thailand … Again

Hong Kong Protesters Raise Spectre of Tiananmen Square 2.0

Protesters blink, retreat, surrender

Hunger strike…?

‘Lost’

China joins search

Enough with the satellite images of debris already!

Garbage

Searching, searching, everywhere, but no debris to see

MH17: Another Malaysian Airline Falls From the Sky

QZ8501: Now an AirAsia Flight Disappears

Wreckage found

EUROPE

‘As the Elysee Turns’: the Serial Ménages à Trois of French President Hollande

Hollande arrives in United States, sans first lady

Help! Floods Have Balkan Streets Looking Like Venetian Canals

D-Day that ‘Saved the World’?

Should Scotland Become an Independent Country? ‘No Thanks’

Scotland votes resounding ‘No’

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Mr. Gorbachev, take back that speech!

In Denying Dalai Lama, Pope more Politician than Pontiff

Pope rebukes Vatican, redeems himself

Students Reject William’s Royal Acceptance at Cambridge

To Abdicate, or Not to Abdicate, Is Not the Question

Baby Weight Too Much for Pregnant Kate

Princess Diana’s Lover Insinuates Prince Harry Is His Son

The Orange Revolution Turns Red … with Blood

Putin as Hitler; Crimea as Sudetenland?

Putin Takes Crimea. Checkmates Obama…?

Ukraine’s China Syndrome

Checkmated on Crimea, Obama Plays for Rest of Ukraine

World condemns Russia; China abstains

Crimea Declares Itself Independent and Part of Russia: Irony?

Putin Took Crimea More Out of Resentment and Fear than Imperial Ambition

Obama dissing Russia as just a ‘regional power’ is ill-informed and ill-advised

Prokhorov, Russian Owner of NBA Nets, Exposed

Obama Tries to Rally Europeans to Stand Up to Putin. But…

Crimea One of Many ‘Distinct Nations’ Within Nations Voting to Breakaway

Europeans’ Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish Appeasement of Putin

A Ukraine Divided Is the Only Way It Will Stand

First Crimea, now Donetsk; next Odessa?

Russia and China Make Kindred Bedfellows

Ukrainian Separatists Down Malaysian Plane

Only one European leader prepared to stand up to Putin…?

Cameron doubles down…

Int’l Court Declares Putin a Liar and a Thief (But He’s a Murderer Too)

The Russians Strike Back … with Fruits and Vegetables?!

Eastern Ukraine Becoming as Much a Part of Russia as Crimea…?

Kasparov: Putin Acting just Like Hitler

Putin Blames America for Russia’s Aggression

UNITED STATES

Christie on ‘Bridgegate’ Channeling Obama on Healthcare.gov

Christie cleared…

MLK’s Children Feuding Over His Legacy … Again

‘Friendly Fire’ at Fort Hood … Again

Stabbing Rampage at Pennsylvania High School

Another day, another school shooting…

Affirmative Action and Gun Control

NRA cares no more about gun violence than drug cartels do

Supreme Court docket in big business pocket

Girl (9) kills instructor teaching her to shoot Uzi. Lesson learned?

SEC Lawyer Admits Big Dogs on Wall Street Untouchable

Prisoner Swap: 1 American (Bowe Bergdahl) for 5 Taliban?

On Second Thought, Keep Your … Huddled Masses

Too Much Ado about Botched Executions

Remembering 9/11: a Moment of Silence Will Do

No Happy Ending in Secret Service Prostitution Scandal

Supreme Court Rules Voter ID Laws OK

On CIA Torture: I Was Wrong

Defense Secretary Gates Betrays Himself and Obama in Memoirs

Obama: et tu, Panetta?

Billionaires Feeling Like Jews Facing the Holocaust…?

State of the Union Address: ‘A Childish Spectacle’—Take 2

Not only redundant and irrelevant, but plagiarized too?

Obama on Marijuana; CVS on Tobacco

Nobel economists call for ending war on drugs. Duh

The Times gets on marijuana bandwagon. It’s about time

Poisoned Chalices: First Black President of U.S. and First Female CEO of GM

Obama Trumpets Obamacare Success … Despite Republican Sabotage

Jimmy Had Billy; Bill Had Roger; Now Barack Has Mark…

2014 Midterm Elections: Republicans and the Triumph of Irrational Intelligence

‘Call it the stupidity of the American voter’

Success of Obama’s policies confounding, vexing, defying Republican critics

Republican agenda: undoing Obama policies

Obama Announces Cosmetic Reforms

Bill Gates on Edward Snowden: He’s No Hero

From Spycraft to Stagecraft, Snowden Debuts as Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’

Snowden/Greenwald Profiting off NSA Leaks. NSA Spying in The Bahamas

Germans Exposed as Spying Hypocrites. Others Will Be Too…

Supercookies? Yes, Eat Up!

As Much about Resisting Arrest as Police Brutality

Cops now wearing video cameras

‘Gentle Giant’ Michael Was A Big Thief

Why Are They Still Protesting? And Who Are They?

Chastising the Times for Describing Michael as ‘No Angel’?!

Ferguson Protesters Awaiting Grand Jury Decision or Lying In Wait to Riot…?

Officer Wilson walks

Ferguson Wrong, New York Right Not to Indict White Cop for Killing Black Man

Racism Worse Under Obama? Yes, but…

GLOBALSPHERE

Uli Hoeness, German Sports Hero, Now Poster Boy for Global Tax Cheats

Hoeness convicted and sentenced

April Is Autism Month

Obama Was Embarrassed by Nobel Peace Prize? Good!

Harley Davidson Goes Electric

500-Page Books?! Even 500-Word Articles Too Much These Days

Apple manufacturing needs … and you ain’t seen nothing yet

Rupert Murdoch Endorses My ‘Third Way’ on Climate Change

March to save the planet? Get real!

China-U.S. landmark agreement more about clean air than climate change

Preening Deceit of Brilliant People with Fake PhDs

Burger King Fleeing to Canada to Dodge Taxes

For Far Too Many, ALS Bucket Challenge Just Another ‘Selfie’ Stunt

Everybody Would Be Better Off If Nobody Lived Beyond 75

Malala Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Gunman Terrorizes Canada. Keep Calm and Carry On

‘Lone wolf’ terrorizes Australia

Massacre in Pakistan shows Muslims suffer most from Islamic terrorism

Veterans Day

Rosetta Comet Mission: the Robot Has Landed. Great! Now What?

Robot’s radio silence

World AIDS Day

Facebook ‘Like’ an Infectious Disease

Facebook Buys WhatsApp for Life Support

Facebook Complaining about NSA Spying? Ha!

Tech companies outed as liars and hypocrites

Keep Your Selfies to Yourself … Puhleeease!

More Websites Banning Public Comments

Facebook: Update your name!

Facebook Friends?! Try Facebook’s Guinea Pigs

OKCupid confirms NSA has nothing on social media. Period.

Facebook Is to Microsoft as Zuckerberg Is to Gates…?

Target Africa … Again

First related death in the United States

‘Stop the Ebola Scaremongering!’

Dear Ebola

SPORTS

Student-Athletes Make Billions but Most Graduate Poor … and Dumb

Categorical imperative to pay student-athletes just got stronger

UConn wins men’s NCAA championship

UConn wins women’s NCAA championship

Jason Collins, the Jackie Robinson of Gay Athletes?

Michael Sam, a more worthy Jackie Robinson of gay athletes?

Alas, Sam not so worthy after all

Wither Kobe Bryant…

Phelps Comes Out of Retirement. Duh

The other Michael Phelps: a dopey pot-smoking drunk driver

To rehab to avoid prison…

Triple Crown Letdown … Again

Spurs Cool Off Heat to Win NBA Championship

LeBron taking his talents back to Cleveland

Vindication and Re-Glorification of Cyclist Greg LeMond

Hail Serena—U.S. Open Champion … Again

Nagasu Skates like an Olympian but Misses Out on Olympics?

America, Stop the Scaremongering Over Sochi Olympics!

Forget Muslim terrorists; beware Russian Cossacks

Shaun White Wimps Out of Slopestyle

The Opening Ceremony

Let the Games Begin!

Media Coverage of the Olympics vs. Paralympics

Putin Turns $51 Billion Olympic Park into Racetrack?!

NFC Championship Marred by Thug for Nigger Comment

Super Bowl XLVII: Picking Seahawks to Upset Broncos

Seahawks rout Broncos

NFL: Wife Beating No Worse than Dog Fighting

The inevitable apology—from Smith, not the NFL

NFL revises policy on domestic abuse

Janay Made Informed and Liberated Choice to Stand By Her Man, Ray. Okay?

Cousins Was Game, but Washington Redskins Return to Losing Ways

Washington turns on RG3

RG3 benched

The Masters Without Tiger Is like the Heat Without LeBron

A snooze-fest

Golf: More about Tiger than the Game Itself

For Tiger, Bad Play Causes ‘Pain’, Not Vice Versa

Your Photos with Blacks, Including Magic Johnson, Embarrass Me

NAACP rescinds lifetime achievement award

Michael Jordan weighs in

Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Offers Self-Incriminating Defense of Sterling

NBA Commissioner Hands Down Death Penalty

Players planned strike

Cuban is more idiot than bigot

NBA Closes Sale of Sterling’s Clippers

‘Shocked, Shocked!’ Another NBA Owner Caught Making Racist Remarks

‘Beautiful Game, Ugly Business’

Nooooooo! All Is Not Lost (Yet) America…

The ‘most magnificent tournament’ ever!

Brazil Surrenders to Germany 1-7

Germany Wins World Cup!

ENTERTAINMENT

The Grammys (or the Mr. and Mrs. Carter Show)

‘MITT’—the Documentary

The Oscars: My Picks

And the Oscar goes to…

White guilt behind acclaim of 12 Years a Slave and Lupita Nyong’o

‘Girls’ (or Revenge of the Fat Girl)

‘Dancing With the Stars’? Say It Ain’t So, Billy Dee

Billy Dee withdraws… duh

WTF: Colbert to ‘Late Show’?! Woody Allen Casts Whites Only?!

Allen explains his Whites-only casts

Xscape! More Pedophile Charges Prove Michael Was Not ‘Gone Too Soon’

Now the financial proof…

Even Perez Hilton Thinks Lady Gaga’s Just a Freak Show

More Harry Potter…?! Say It Ain’t So, J.K.

Tim McGraw Swats Away the Groping He Invited

Teasing ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Just what the Fifty Shades movie needs: a bad scientific review

Blacks in Hollywood? Don’t Judge by the (VF) Cover

Leaked E-mails Expose Big-Shot Liberals as Closeted Racists

Hollywood big shots apologize

Now buying racial indulgences?

A Crying Shame: Sony Pulls ‘The Interview’

Boycott Sony (and other studios too)!

Reversal of fear

A Black James Bond? No, Hell No!

POTPOURRI

Burning Bras Still Wearing Heels. Feminism’s Unfinished Work

Emma Thompson defies heels with flats

Forget Angelina! Hannah’s the Breast-Cancer Survivor Worthy of Praise

Dr. Oz in Fat Suit?! Why Not in Blackface, Doctor?

Liberal Jihadists Rebuke Mozilla CEO Eich and Islam Critic Hirsi Ali

Epidemic of (Female) Teachers Hooking Up with Students … Is Benign

My Good Friday Sermon

Why Monica’s Happy Endings with Bill Could’ve Lasted Happily Ever After

CNN Boss Is What’s Wrong with Journalism Today

Forget Racist Donald Sterling, Designers Still Featuring ‘All-White Girls’

Thanks Mila, for Telling Men to Stop Saying, ‘We’re Pregnant’

Nothing ‘Brave’ about Ian Thorpe Saying, ‘I’m Gay’

Spanx: a Girdle by Another Name that Does the Same

Nudes of Celebrities, Including J-Law and Kate Upton, Hacked. Duh

Clooney Nuptials Show Saturday Weddings as Segregated as Sunday Services

New York Times Typo Problems … Consinue

‘Jesus Was Married…Had Two Sons…and Was Never Crucified’?!

A Royal Gripe about Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger

A Serial Rapist?!

One Woman’s Damning, Galvanizing Account

Cosby’s procurer of women comes out

Mother of Cosby’s ‘rape’ child says, ‘me too’

The Toll

Camille stands by her man

IN MEMORIAM

Pete Seeger: Legendary Folk Singer, Social Activist

Gabriel García Márquez: Nobel Laureate, Political Journalist

Maya Angelou: Abused Child, Diva Prostitute, Celebrated Poet

Nadine Gordimer: Nobel Prize-Winning Author, Anti-Apartheid Journalist

Richard Attenborough: Actor, Director, Social Activist

Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier: Deposed Dictator

Myles Munroe: Motivational Speaker, Prosperity Preacher

Adrian V. Kisovec: Engineer, Inventor, Linguist

Bibliography: Notes on Source Materials

About the Author

To

My sister, Maureen Hall, MD

Whose triumph over struggle

Is the stuff of legend

Introduction

This is my tenth volume of commentaries; it covers the major events of 2014. The topics are as eclectic as ever. They include the hope of Arab Spring giving way to the terror of ISIS; the Sochi Olympics; the United States normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba; the hacking of Sony Pictures; the disappearance of Flight MH370; the Crimea as the Sudetenland of our times; the ex-communication of NBA owner Donald Sterling; the scourge of Ebola; the killing of Michael Brown; the World Cup; the outing of Bill Cosby as a serial rapist, allegedly; and in memoriams, to name a few.

I have left all commentaries in their original form—as posted on my weblog, The iPINIONS Journal. This not only gives you, the reader, a better sense of time and place, but also lends authenticity to my thoughts on unfolding events in real time. But this volume also contains updates to many of them, which I decided against posting on my weblog, to add more value.

As usual I hope my commentaries serve as a provocative, informative, and even entertaining antidote to the re-tweeted snark and partisan talking points that pass for social commentary these days. And I hope that, for posterity, this volume proves a reliable source for reflection on the most important (and popular) events of 2014.

That said, if writing commentaries on the major events of the day were not so enjoyable, even therapeutic, I would have quit years ago. Because it’s very disheartening, even discouraging, to have the ratio of people asking why I bother writing them, to those actually reading them, at 10.1. The reason they ask, of course, is that most people now read a 147-character tweet and think they know everything.

Hence my fear that publishing 500-word commentaries is becoming rather like building horse-drawn carriages … when most people were interested in driving Model Ts. Good thing then that I began publishing them ten years ago more as a hobby (and unrequited public service) than as a way to make money (or attain my fifteen minutes of fame).

-—ALH

January 11, 2015

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my production and design team for their unfailingly professional and personable support.

Thanks to my small group of extraordinary friends for their continued interest in my commentaries. Never mind that their support these days amounts to little more than suggesting provocative topics, which I invariably ignore. This is why I am sure I risk causing no offense by singling out my dear friend Mary Lauture for a special note of thanks. She is easily the most devoted reader and constructive critic in the group.

Thanks to my darling Katherine—whose love, support, and friendship have sustained me in all of my endeavors for the past twenty-nine years. She has a pretty sharp editorial eye too.

Last, but by no means least, thanks to my readers. You may be relatively few in number (Justin Beiber has sixty million twits reading his tweets for Christ’s sake!), but you inspire appreciation beyond measure.

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Uganda’s Gay Witch-Hunt

February 26

Uganda enacted a highly controversial anti-gay law this week. It calls not only for the criminal prosecution of homosexual offenses, but also for the public denunciation of homosexuals.

But his new law will surprise nobody who knows anything about the growing hostility towards homosexuals across Africa, where homosexuality is taboo in every country and already illegal in 37. For example, to facilitate the witch-hunt it sanctions, a Ugandan newspaper published the names and pictures of hundreds of homosexual suspects. But it would not surprise me if newspapers in other countries, like Nigeria and Gambia, ape this perverse form of informing the public.

Sadly, apart from urging LGBT people living in Uganda to either stay deep in the closet or get the hell out of the country, I don’t know what anyone can say or do to protect them. After all, Western leaders have spent the past three years condemning Syrian President Assad for massacring women and children but doing nothing to stop him. Therefore, that they’ve begun condemning Ugandan President Museveni for oppressing homosexuals is hardly worthy of note.

What is noteworthy is that this law is just the latest manifestation of the oppressive governance China—as a super power rising—is enabling throughout the developing world. Because the only reason Uganda is defying the West like this is that China has made it clear—to everyone from genocidal maniacs to homophobes and kleptomaniacs—that it will more than compensate for any financial or economic sanction Western countries impose pursuant to their political, social, and moral values.

In fact, during an interview with CNN on Monday, reporter Zain Verjee asked Museveni if he was at all concerned about this law incurring the wrath of the United States. This question was especially pertinent in light of the fact that, according to a February 18, 2014 Reuters report, President Obama personally called to lobby him against signing the bill and warned of financial reprisals if he did. Yet I watched as Museveni took newfound pride in dismissing (or dissing) Obama’s call as tantamount to blackmail unbecoming of dealings between friendly nations, before telling the United States to mind its own business:

Respect African societies and their values… Let us manage our society… just the way we don’t interfere with yours… [Of course I dislike homosexuals] they’re disgusting!

Mind you, homosexuality is as deeply rooted in Uganda as it is in the United States. But it’s no accident that the president of Uganda is now using the same words to defend his country’s abuse of homosexuals that the president of China uses to defend his country’s abuse of political dissidents. What’s more, this is the same president of Uganda, who, just years ago, the president of the United States was hailing for his progressive policies towards treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS:

President Bush praised Uganda for its handling of the AIDS pandemic, saying the East African country was leading the world in combating its spread.

‘You have shown the world what is possible in terms of reducing infection rates,’ Bush told Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Friday.

(CNSNews, July 7, 2008)

This is why the only way even the mighty United States can influence government policies in an increasing number of developing countries is to seek China’s blessing … and assistance.

Meanwhile, given that gays are still fighting for their civil rights in most Western countries, Westerners condemning this Ugandan law risk being accused of brazen hypocrisy. American evangelicals—who spread their gospel of homophobia throughout Africa faster than the spread of HIV/AIDS—personify this hypocrisy. In fact, this law reflects the success these crusaders have had imposing extreme Christian values on Africans that they’ve been unable to impose on Americans. The Christian jihadists in Arizona—who are trying to enact a bill making it legal for them to refuse public services to gay people—will attest to this. Because, despite the media stoking conflict and suspense for commercial purposes, it’s patently clear that the pragmatic governor of Arizona will veto this bill. Not to mention the Coalition of African American Pastors who are trying to impeach (Black) U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for entreating state attorneys general to ignore state laws banning gay marriages.

In other words, Museveni could be forgiven for telling Obama to deal with homophobia in America before trying to deal with it in Africa.

Media: Missing Airplane Trumps Ethnic Cleansing

March 20

Granted, it’s hardly surprising that news organizations would rather spend hours manufacturing suspense over the mysterious disappearance of a passenger airline in Asia than spend a minute covering the latest atrocity unfolding in Africa. After all, even the antics of B-list celebrities trump African atrocities when it comes to the two R’s that guide all media today: ratings and readership.

Therefore, I’m all too mindful that any reporter sounding the alarm about Christian crusaders ethnically cleansing Muslims from Central African Republic (CAR) today is akin to John the Baptist preaching about the coming of Jesus Christ in the wilderness during Bible days. But I heard the alarm. I always do. In fact, I responded to a similar alarm ten years ago by joining the fatefully silent chorus of those not only condemning Muslim jihadists for ethnically cleansing Christians from Sudan but also pleading for Western governments to use their political influence and military might to stop them.

What follows is an excerpt from Help! Ethnic Cleansing and Forced Starvation Persist in Africa, December 1, 2005. It pertains to that crisis as it unfolded back then, but can also pertain to the one unfolding in CAR today. Indeed, it might be helpful for you to read it as such.

___________________

More than a year ago, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that the systematic raping, pillaging, and killing of Black Africans in Sudan’s Darfur region constitute genocide… I described these genocidal acts as ethnic cleansing because they were (and are) being perpetrated by Arab militiamen known as the Janjaweed (bandits)…

Notwithstanding mounting death tolls … European and American leaders have done little more than express moral indignation and allocate guilt-assuaging funds to deal with the problem. Never mind that it’s been abundantly clear for years that these funds have had virtually no salutary impact on the genocidal plight of Black Africans in this region of Africa.

Unfortunately, news coverage of the Natalee Holloway saga over the summer and hurricanes throughout the fall has trumped media reporting on the situation in Darfur. This, despite the fact that experienced aid workers now say what’s going on there is the worst humanitarian crisis in history. And, given my previous articles on the humanitarian crises in Niger and the DR Congo, this is a truly alarming assessment.

Alas, I can only reiterate my plea to the readers of this weblog to do whatever is possible to challenge world leaders (including Obasanjo of Nigeria and Mbeki of South Africa) to organize an international coalition of the willing to intervene to stop this ethnic cleansing in Africa—just as the international community intervened to stop similar atrocities in Europe [Bosnia) only years ago.

___________________

For the record, though, here is all you need to know about the current crisis from a February 12 report by the New York Times:

Tens of thousands of Muslims are being forced by Christian militias to flee the Central African Republic in what human rights groups and a top United Nations official characterized on Wednesday as de facto ethnic cleansing.

Of course, I condemn this ethnic cleansing by anti-balaka Christians against Muslims with the same indignation and despair with which I condemned the ethnic cleansing by Janjaweed Muslims against Christians. What’s more, I’m acutely mindful that, just as it is with most conflicts on the continent, the fighting in CAR is also motivated by quest for raw political power and control of rich natural resources. But I see no point in commenting any further. Well, except to concede that, instead of international law, perhaps the only law that can truly govern religious/ethnic conflicts among the descendants of Abraham (not just in Africa but in the Middle East too) is the old biblical law of lex talianos: an eye for an eye, etc.

God bless and help them all.

Egypt’s Arab Spring Spawns Military Dictatorship

March 25

The chickens continue coming home to roost:

An Egyptian court Monday sentenced to death 529 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi on charges including one murder count, in a trial denounced by human rights groups as bereft of due process.

The biggest mass death sentence handed down in Egypt’s modern history comes amid a sharp escalation of a crackdown on dissent and, in particular, on the Muslim Brotherhood.

(Al Jazeera, March 24, 2014)

Surely you understand why I cannot state too often that I warned it would be thus:

With all due respect to the protesters, the issue is not whether Mubarak will go, for he will. (The man is 82 and already looks half dead for Christ’s sake!) Rather, the issue is who will replace him. And it appears they have not given any thought whatsoever to this very critical question.

The devil Egyptians know might prove far preferable to the devil they don’t. Just ask the Iranians who got rid of the Mubarak-like Shah in 1979 only to end up with the Ayatollah—whose Islamic revolution they’ve regretted (and have longed to overturn) ever since.

(Army Pledges No Force Against Protesters, The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2011)

Recall that, even though democratically elected to succeed Mubarak, Mohammad Morsi proved such a bigger devil that the very pro-democracy protesters who ousted and imprisoned Mubarak returned to their protesting ways and soon ousted and imprisoned Morsi. Except that getting rid of Morsi begat General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who is proving yet an even bigger devil. Not least because he’s using mass show trials (as cited above) and other more brutal measures to politically cleansing Egypt of all traces of the Muslim Brotherhood. Reports are that he has imprisoned over 19,000 members since seizing power last summer and is now systematically executing those who held leadership positions.

Frankly, al-Sisi is ruling Egypt in a manner that makes Mubarak and Morsi look like Boy Scouts. Which is why nothing vindicates my early criticism of pro-democracy protesters quite like the fact that, after commandeering Tahrir Square to get rid of Mubarak and Morsi, they are now conspicuously MIA. Granted, these erstwhile democratic revolutionaries are probably sensible enough to appreciate that al-Sisi would probably do to them what Chinese dictators did to pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Except that their hypocrisy, cowardice, and naiveté are being brought into sharp relief by Morsi’s die-hard supporters who are risking and incurring al-Sisi’s wrath by taking to the streets to protest against his brutal military dictatorship.

Incidentally, even though Egyptian judges are acting more like executioners these days, I suspect al-Sisi is just using death sentences as a pretext to feign mercy by commuting them to life in prison, which is bound to be the fate of every front-line member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, al-Sisi knows all too well that Western governments are too busy trying to find ways to counter Russia’s annexation of Crimea to even voice feckless condemnation, let alone take action to restrain him. Not to mention Western media being too busy covering Flight MH 370 search-and-recovery efforts in the Indian Ocean, like vultures hovering over dying prey, to cover these far more newsworthy events unfolding in Egypt.

In any event, there can be no gainsaying that, like Iranians, Egyptians must regret the day they got rid of a benign despot only to end up with a malevolent one.

RELATED

Egypt lecturing U.S. on democratic principles…?

June 25

Imagine that.

Of course I’ve been lamenting every vindicating episode arising out of the warning I gave in the germinating days of the Arab Spring (as cited in my March 25 commentary above) about the devil Egyptians knew in Mubarak being preferable to the one they were likely to get in any other leader.

Frankly, I would bet my life savings that the vast majority of Egyptians who got rid of Mubarak now regret doing so, and are now sheepishly longing for his relatively benign dictatorship. After all, they have since had to cope with a president in Mohammad Morsi, who fashioned himself a latter-day pharaoh lording over an Islamic state (i.e., instead of the secular state they clearly prefer), and now with one in Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who replaced Morsi in a military coup last year and is fashioning himself as a prototypical Arab strongman presiding over a veritable police state. In fact, nothing has given democracy protesters cause to rue the day they overthrew Mubarak quite like the way al-Sisi is labeling all of his political opponents Muslim terrorists to justify having them rounded up, by the thousands, and sentenced to death after mass show trials….

But I suppose it betrays shrewd political judgment that, instead of having the famous "al-Jazeera 3″ journalists arrested and sentenced to death too, al-Sisi had them sentenced on Monday to 7-10 years in prison. Never mind that their only crime was reporting on al-Sisi’s totalitarian rule in ways he deemed were giving aid and comfort to his terrorist bogeymen. And, talk about being shrewd, only this explains al-Sisi seizing the opportunity to lecture an American president, using the same words about the principles of democracy (in this case, an independent judiciary) that American presidents have been using to lecture Arab leaders like him for decades:

‘We will not interfere in judicial rulings,’ Sisi said on Tuesday morning. ‘We must respect judicial rulings and not criticize them even if others do not understand this.’

(The Guardian, June 23, 2014)

Ouch!

Notwithstanding his plainly mischievous indignation, I applaud al-Sisi for publicly reprimanding Obama. Granted, Obama was merely asking him to use his legitimate presidential power to pardon these journalists. But it’s worth noting why al-Sisi was able to so effectively insinuate that Obama was exhorting him to do something as president of Egypt that Obama would be impeached for doing as president of the United States. Because this hints at what U.S. presidents have been doing since time immemorial; namely, publicly lecturing their despotic friends about implementing democratic reforms, while privately exhorting them to execute all kinds of dictatorial favors to further U.S. interests.

Apropos of which, late-breaking reports are that even the U.S.-backed prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, publicly lectured Obama today about democratic principles as he defiantly rejected Obama’s call for Iraq to form a new government of national unity, which does not include him as the divisive, sectarian prime minister. Specifically, al-Maliki decried the call as an imperial attempt to impose a coup against his democratically elected government and an affront to Iraq’s democratic constitution.

Again, imagine that.

But this rejection is all the more humiliating for Obama given that his call was tied to sending in U.S. troops to help al-Maliki fend off ISIS/ISIL insurgents. Because al-Maliki is effectively emulating Thomas Paine, that oft-cited pioneer of American democracy, by saying that he’d rather lose Iraq to Islamic terrorists than conspire with Obama to pervert its democratic process. And I think he means it (i.e., like Bashir al-Assad of Syria, al-Maliki believes he’s the democratically elected leader of his country and will not abide the formation of any government of national unity that does not leave him in place as prime minister).

In any event, I would like to think this is a case of an American-friendly dictator (in Egypt) hoisting an American president up by his own petard. But I suspect that, after a suitable period of opportunistic political posturing, al-Sisi will honor Obama’s request and pardon the journalists … and only because two of them happen to be Westerners.

NOTE: Obama is purportedly asking al-Sisi to release political prisoners too. But, trust me, American presidents asking Egyptian presidents to release political prisoners is rather like American presidents asking Israeli prime ministers to stop building Jewish settlements: the asking in both cases is only ever for political show.

UPDATE

Arab Spring’s Indian Summer

November 30

I admonished, from the outset, that protesters were hopelessly misguided and naïve. Sure enough, events that grew out of their protests duly vindicated my admonitions. Most notably:

On Monday Egypt’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, forty-eight hours to reconcile his irreconcilable differences with opposition forces. Never mind that Morsi had even less chance of doing this than Mubarak had of striking an eleventh-hour compromise with these same forces before the military deposed him.

This is why I find it so mind-boggling that, after reacting initially with justified defiance and righteous indignation, Morsi ended up looking just as feckless and fatally compromised as Mubarak did: offering a desperate plan at the eleventh hour for a government of national unity—with himself remaining as president.

Alas, just as it was with Mubarak, this was too little, too late. And, like Mubarak, it’s probably only a matter of time before Morsi ends up on trial for all kinds of alleged crimes against the state.

(Egypt’s Democratic Military Coup? The iPINIONS Journal, July 5, 2013)

Unsurprisingly, as delineated in commentaries above, General al-Sisi punctuated this Sisyphean turn of events by instituting a new dictatorship, with himself as president, which is making Mubarak’s look benign by comparison…. More to the point, though, here is the way I characterized an open conspiracy among al-Sisi and his military cohorts (i.e., even before they mounted their coup) to grant Mubarak reprieve from the life sentence the Morsi court handed down for his crimes:

I suspect that having him wheeled into court on his hospital bed every day during trial and this reported health crisis now are all part of a charade orchestrated by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces—the military generals who still (and will continue to) rule Egypt – to exaggerate Mubarak’s downfall and suffering.

Furthermore, I suspect that he agreed to play along because he was assured not only that his sons would be acquitted, but that they would be able to keep millions in ill-gotten gains to live a very comfortable life in exile (no matter what additional show trials they must endure in the short term).

Not to mention that the ‘prison’ where Mubarak has been (and will continue) living out his last days would probably make the retirement home of any multimillionaire seem like a humble shack.

(Protesters Return to Egypt’s Tahrir Square, The iPINIONS Journal, June 6, 2012)

This is why yesterday’s shocking decision by the al-Sisi court to formally dismiss all charges against Mubarak struck me as just pursuant to the open conspiracy I characterized two years ago:

The court also acquitted Mr. Mubarak, his two sons and a wealthy business associate of corruption charges; the three others had come to personify the rampant self-dealing of Mr. Mubarak’s era as much as the president himself.

(New York Times, November 29, 2014)

Mind you, to be fair, Mubarak is on record not only declaring his innocence, but also reminding Egyptians that he warned of the chaos and instability that have followed his unceremonious ouster. Here, in part, is the categorical statement he made before the court in August:

I, Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, who is standing before you today, never handed down orders for the killing of protesters… I would never hand down orders … to wreak chaos of which I had been warning.

(Al Jazeera, August 13, 2014)

Frankly, all that’s left is for the dismissal of these charges to trigger another round of revolutionary protests:

I hope I can be forgiven for taking a little credit for coining the phrase ‘never-ending revolution’ in Egyptian Revolution Part II, July 14, 2011.

(Egypt’s Democratic Military Coup? The iPINIONS Journal, July 5, 2013)

Egyptian Revolution Part III…? In fact:

The dismissal of charges yesterday, after Mubarak’s initial conviction and life sentence were overturned in January 2013, sparked an anti-government rally of about 2,000 people [calling, yet again, for the ‘fall of the regime’] in Tahrir Square…

Critics contend the election of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has allowed the reincarnation of Mubarak’s police state and crushed hopes of justice for the families of those killed in the uprising.

(Reuters, November 29, 2014)

Indeed, these are the same anti-government protesters who took to this same square last year to celebrate al-Sisi’s ouster of Morsi, and who did the same four years ago to call for the ouster of Mubarak. Even so, the irony seems completely lost on them that, despite all of their revolutionary protests, the dismissal of all charges against Mubarak means that Egypt has ended up right where the Arab Spring was sprung. But, if they think they can repeat against al-Sisi the miracle in Tahrir Square that led to the ouster of Mubarak, I have two words of admonition for these protesters: Tiananmen Square.

South Sudan Continues Descent into Heart of Darkness

April 25

Last summer I joined the chorus of those heralding the birth of South Sudan as a new nation in Africa—fathered not by colonial masters but by Africans themselves. But I felt constrained to sound this cautionary note in a commentary presaging its independence day:

What looms, however, may cause the southerners’ Independence Day, which they will mark on July 9, to turn into a pyrrhic celebration…

I just hope and pray these southerners—who are comprised of all kinds of Black tribes—can avoid the kind of tribal conflicts that continue to beset so many other countries in Africa.

(South Sudan Secedes, The iPINIONS Journal, February 9, 2011)

Sadly, less than six months later, I was obliged to comment on South Sudanese cannibalizing each other:

‘Two weeks of fighting have left at least 1,000 dead and split the oil-producing country barely two years after it won independence from Sudan. It has also raised fears of an all-out civil war between the main Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups which could destabilize fragile East Africa.’

I should note that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, with his government troops comprised mostly of Dinka tribesmen, and sacked deputy president Riek Machar, with his rebel forces comprised mostly of Nuer tribesman, have dispatched delegations to peace talks in Ethiopia. But nothing indicates how fated those talks are to fail quite like both men also deploying more troops to escalate their civil conflict.

(South Sudan Descending into Heart of Darkness, The iPINIONS Journal, December 30, 2013)

Now comes this:

The massacre in Bentiu, South Sudan [on April 15], has shaken even hardened humanitarian workers… Civilians were killed in the town’s main hospital, in a Catholic church and in the Kali-Ballee mosque…

The rebels, who are largely from the Nuer ethnic group, allegedly killed non-Nuers, and Nuers who they believed did not support them.

(The Guardian, April 23, 2014)

Clearly I have no cause to despair for Africans more than they despair for themselves. Yet I cannot help but look on with forlorn hope as chronic poverty and tribal/ethnic/religious conflict all over Africa make it seem like colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to that Dark Continent.

Indeed, even though it might be too politically incorrect for many to concede, I suspect that the vast majority of us in the Caribbean look at the life of the average African—whose ancestors were not harmed by the European slave trade—and thank God that we are here, and not there.

(CARICOM Demand for Reparations Smacks of Extortion, The iPINIONS Journal, November 4, 2013)

Hell, even South Africa, the putative diamond in the rough, is becoming a political laughing stock and economic basket case under the leadership of Jacob Zuma. And simmering disillusionment and resentment are such that poor Blacks seem poised to do to rich Whites there what poor Blacks did to rich Whites in Zimbabwe.

More to the point, Hutus and Tutsis (of Rwandan genocide infamy) proved that the barbarism Idi Amin personified was not the exception. Sadly, that barbarism seems to be rule given the number of genocidal rebel groups now menacing so much of Africa, including the National Liberation Forces in Burundi, Congolese Revolutionary Movement in DR Congo, Al-Shabbab in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria (who made news last week by raiding a school and kidnapping over 200 girls), West Side Boys in Sierra Leon, pirates in Somali, and Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda (who, despite the famous #stopkony2012 crusade, remains as active as ever), to name just a few.

But nothing crystallizes chronic African despair quite like the Black non-Muslim Sudanese who fled religious/ethnic persecution by Arab militiamen in Darfur being among those who were slaughtered in tribal conflict by Black non-Muslim rebels in Bentiu. How’s that for cruel irony. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Black non-Muslim Mauritanians are choosing to remain displaced in a disbanded UN refugee camp in Senegal than return home because they fear Arab militiamen ethnically cleansing them the way Arab militiamen ethnically cleansed Black non-Muslim Dafurians in Sudan. Without UN protection and care, however, I fear it’s only a matter of time before the Senegalese, who are ninety-five percent Muslim, begin treating these Black non-Muslim Mauritanians like a cancer to be excised from their territory. And so goes the cycle of African despair.

This is why I’d bet my life savings that, under sodium pentothal, every Black person born in America or the Caribbean would thank our lucky stars that neither Abraham Lincoln nor Marcus Garvey succeeded in repatriating Blacks to Africa. That a Black American is now the most powerful man in the world is a poignant personification of this fact.

That said, it might be helpful to know that I was constrained yesterday to disabuse an American friend of the presumption that the barbarism on display in South Sudan’s civil war is uniquely African. I could have done so simply enough by citing the barbarism that attended everything from the Wars of the Roses to World War II (with its infamous Holocaust). But I sufficed to remind him of the barbarism America displayed by not only codifying slavery in its Constitution, but also fighting a bloody civil war because half of the country presumed a God-given right to enslave Blacks in perpetuity. I mean, what could be more barbaric than that.

RELATED

‘Another African famine?! Nobody cares!’ Then call me nobody

May 2

More than 1 million people in South Sudan have fled their homes at a crucial time of the year: planting season. Famine, aid officials say, could be the result, and the U.N.’s top official for human rights said Wednesday she is appalled by the apparent lack of concern by the country’s two warring leaders that mass hunger looms.

(The Associated Press, April 30, 2014)

To be fair, with floods of Biblical proportions surging through the Deep South, fires from the pits of hell raging through the West, trains carrying crude oil derailing and exploding through the Northeast, and Donald Sterling’s racist outburst still reverberating throughout the country, American media could be forgiven for ignoring the UN sounding the alarm about yet another famine in Africa.

Indeed, CNN does not even deem these disasters important enough to interrupt its 24/7 coverage of UFOs (unidentified floating objects, that is) masquerading as debris from missing flight MH370. What’s more, every American can fairly ask: why should I care about starving kids in Africa when African leaders are the ones starving them, and their fellow Africans don’t seem to give a damn?

No doubt the prevalence of drought-borne famine gives the impression that Africa is fated to Mother Nature’s neglect … or wrath. But the disillusioning truth is that the administrative incompetence and nefarious devices of African men are far more responsible for chronic starvation on that Dark Continent. It’s bad enough that these genocidal maniacs couldn’t care any less about causing starvation, but they don’t even have any compunctions about impeding, or even killing, foreign aid workers trying to deliver relief. And don’t get me started on countries like Yemen, Somalia, Libya and others competing to become the Taliban paradise Afghanistan used to be. I mean, what are we to make of a ragtag bunch of wannabe Islamists, calling themselves Boko Haram, kidnapping over 250 mostly Christian girls from a school in Nigeria to sell as child brides (in border countries)—simply because these ignoramuses think Western education is evil and, moreover, that girls should not be educated? And what of the Africans who traffic African migrants into Europe the way South Americans traffic illegal drugs into the United States? At the very least, this conjures up the inconvenient truth that, in far too many cases, Europeans did not enslave Africans so much as buy them from their fellow Africans as chattel (aka personal property).

Incidentally, it was a discussion last night on this kidnapping and other self-inflicted wounds now festering all over Africa that led a dear friend to exclaim, And now another fucking famine?! Nobody cares! To which I replied, Then call me nobody.

Anyway, my mummy used to try to guilt me into eating my vegetables by telling me how lucky I was compared to starving children in Africa. And, for some unknown reason, she seemed particularly concerned about starving Biafran children. The cheeky little bugger that I was, I always told her that I’d be happy to send them my vegetables. But something stuck.

This is why I’ve been doing the equivalent of sending my vegetables to starving children in Africa ever since the Ethiopian Famine of 1984 sprouted the care my mummy seeded when I was a child. And over the past decade—beginning with the publication of Despite Live8 and G8, Relief Looms Like a Cruel Mirage to Millions of Africans Dying of Starvation on July 21, 2005—I’ve been using my weblog to entreat others to do whatever they can to help.

As indicated above, however, even aid workers from organizations like CARE could be forgiven compassion fatigue for Africa, especially in light of sobering truths like this:

The record of Western aid to Africa is one of abysmal failure. More than $500 billion in foreign aid—the equivalent of four Marshall Aid Plans—was pumped into Africa between 1960 and 1997. Instead of increasing development, aid has created dependence.

(CATO Institute, September 14, 2005)

Worse still, according to August 5, 2011 BBC Newsnight report, even leaders of a country as dependent on aid as Ethiopia invariably use development aid as a weapon of oppression.

It’s clearly foolhardy for foreign governments to continue giving aid directly to African governments, only to have local leaders use that aid to line their pockets and oppress their people. But I am truly humbled by the thousands of foreign aid workers (mostly White Americans) who, despite all of the challenges and frustrations, continue to march to the front lines to help combat everything from chronic poverty to the vicious cycle of tribal warfare I bemoaned just days ago in South Sudan Continues Descent into Heart of Darkness (April 25, 2014). Hence, I can never tire of doing what little I can to support them and keep the humanitarian work they do in public consciousness. And, in doing so, I hope you don’t mind my taking a page from my mummy’s playbook by trying to guilt you into donating (as I do) to their organizations, like UNICEF, USAID, Doctors Without Borders, UN World Food Programme, and CARE.

Alas, Kidnapping Schoolgirls Is the Least of

African Crimes against Humanity

May 6

With media of every stripe screaming headlines today about Boko Haram kidnapping another eight girls in Nigeria, one could be forgiven for thinking that kidnapping schoolgirls is becoming epidemic in Africa. But, sadly, these kidnappings are nothing new. What’s more, they are the least of what plagues Africa. See, for example, my May 2 commentary above, in which I not only decry Boko Haram as a ragtag bunch of wannabe Islamists, but also denounce African leaders for using starvation as a weapon of tribal warfare.

My heart truly aches for the affected parents and, naturally, even more so for their kidnapped schoolgirls. But I cannot help thinking that the grief and fear these kidnappings evoke must pale in comparison to the grave emotions genocidal killings and forced mass starvation elsewhere in Africa evoke. Yet, where’s the outrage?

Of course, I appreciate Westerners venting outrage over Boko Haram kidnapping hundreds of schoolgirls to sell as child brides and sex slaves—as its leader Abubakar Sheau vowed to do.

I abducted your girls… God instructed me to sell them, they are his properties and I will carry out his instructions.

(BBC, May 5, 2014)

I’m just all too mindful that these are the same Westerners who vented similar outrage over Lord’s Resistance Army kidnapping tens of thousands of schoolgirls and schoolboys to serve as sex slaves and child soldiers—not necessarily respectively. And their initiation into the LRA often requires them to execute an order to kill family members to prove and ensure their undivided loyalty. Remember when the #stopkony2012 viral campaign made expressing concern for the invisible children the LRA kidnapped an article of our shared humanity? Indeed, social media-driven outrage forced the United States to make quite a show of pledging to help Uganda bring the LRA to justice. Yet Kony and his child soldiers remain as menacing today as they were back then.

Invisible Children’s entire campaign smacks of little more than a feel-good PR stunt (perhaps even a misleading ploy to raise funds for administrative rather than charitable purposes). In fact, I would wager a fair amount of my pride that if you were to ask Rihanna and any of her followers a week from today who Joseph Kony is, they would react as if you asked what the Higgs Boson is.

(Tweeting the Genocidal Joseph Kony to Death, The iPINIONS Journal, March 8, 2012)

Therefore, I hope folks bear this in mind; that is, if they aren’t too busy tweeting about the outrage du jour to wonder about the real-world impact of the #bringbackourgirls2014 viral campaign. Especially given that social media-driven outrage has already forced the United States to make quite a show of pledging to help Nigeria bring Boko Haram to justice.

Frankly, I hope I can be forgiven the expectation that all of today’s condemnation of Boko Haram, as well as concern about the fate of these schoolgirls, will soon prove every bit as fleeting as the latest viral story to metastasize from social media into the mainstream media. And, once again, Western concerns about African crimes against humanity will fade to black.

RELATED

Sen. McCain weighs in, showing again why he was unfit to be president

May 14

In Checkmated on Crimea, Obama Plays for Rest of Ukraine, March 7, 2014, I delineated the kind of criticism I’ve been leveling against John McCain for years for displaying a rash and bellicose temperament that is unbecoming of a U.S. senator, let alone a U.S. president.

Except that McCain has always enjoyed such hero worship in public life that my criticisms have invariably been decried as political blasphemy. This, notwithstanding that his reputation as a national war hero is based solely on the recklessness and/or incompetence he displayed as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, which resulted in him getting shot down and spending most of that war in a prison camp. (He’s fond of citing, as a badge of honor, the recklessness and/or incompetence that resulted in him graduating at the bottom of his class from the Naval Academy at Annapolis.)

In any event, McCain vindicated every criticism I’ve ever leveled against him yesterday when he declared what he would do if he were president about the hundreds of schoolgirls Nigerian thugs kidnapped a month ago:

‘I certainly would send in U.S. troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country,’ McCain told The Daily Beast Tuesday. ‘I wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan,’ he added, referring to the president of Nigeria.

(The Daily Beast, May 13, 2014)

Well, perhaps the early onset of dementia has robbed McCain of the awareness that Obama demonstrated this kind of decisiveness and strength when he sent in U.S. troops to get Osama bin Laden without Pakistan’s permission. But Obama did so to get the man responsible for killing almost 3,000 American citizens. By contrast, a president McCain would be sending in U.S. troops as an international SWAT team everywhere, doing everything from fighting other countries’ civil wars to rescuing kidnap victims as in this case. Never mind that the United States acting as the self-appointed policeman of the world is every bit as outdated and discredited as the United Kingdom acting as the self-appointed colonizers of the African Continent.

Let me hasten to clarify, however, that you should not be misled by the wanton (and arguably racist) disrespect McCain shows for Goodluck Jonathan, the democratically elected president of the most populous country in Africa. Because the most outrageous part of his declaration, by far, is the reckless disregard he shows for the lives of American soldiers—who he clearly thinks are as expendable as aerial drones.

Frankly, John McCain is to Congress what Donald Sterling is to the NBA. Unfortunately, Congress does not have the institutional integrity that is compelling the NBA to get rid of Sterling.

Pistorius Puts Foot in Mouth (so to Speak)

with ‘Tissue of Lies’

July 21

Oscar Pistorius was in an altercation at an upmarket nightclub over the weekend, his family said Tuesday…

Regardless of who started the argument, the weekend episode focuses fresh attention on the disputed character of Pistorius, a globally recognized athlete who is on trial for murder after he fatally shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a closed toilet door on Feb. 14, 2013.

(The Associated Press, July 15, 2014)

The defense finally rested last week. The court will hear closing arguments in early August.

But, far from living up to its billing as the O.J. Simpson trial of South Africa, this trial has been about as captivating as a congressional hearing on greenhouse gases. Even Pistorius’s highly anticipated cross-examination turned out to be more gross than engrossing, given that he spent more time snotting and vomiting, when he wasn’t sobbing, than answering incriminating questions. In fact, this prompted the internationally acclaimed South African cartoonist Zapiro to publish a carton depicting the prosecutor—first mocking Pistorius’s snot-dripping sobs about his fibular deficiency as a license to fib; then dismissing his overall testimony as a tissue of lies, while handing him a box of Kleenex.

The only drama for me came when the prosecutor called the defense’s bluff. It came after a psychiatrist tried to earn his venal fee by insinuating that Pistorius could not be held criminally responsible because of a mental defect. Specifically, he testified that, when Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, he was suffering a generalized anxiety disorder, which has afflicted him since childhood.

Except that, instead of allowing that testimony to go unchallenged, the prosecutor demanded a comprehensive mental assessment by a panel of independent psychiatrists. The judge duly ordered a 30-day assessment at a state mental hospital. I can’t imagine it surprised anyone, least of all Pistorius or his defense team, when that panel found that he did not suffer from any mental illness that would have influenced his actions that fateful night. From which I inferred that the only anxiety disorder he suffers stems from his fear of going to prison.

I’m on record—in Oscar Pistorius Now South Africa’s O.J. Simpson…? February 15, 2013—stating my belief that he is as guilty as sin.

UPDATE

Pistorius gets off on murder. Manslaughter looms…

September 11

The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ruled out all murder charges, but says he may still be guilty of culpable homicide (manslaughter).

Judge Thokozile Masipa said the prosecution had failed to prove the Olympic athlete killed his girlfriend deliberately in the toilet after a row, prompting tears from Mr. Pistorius.

(BBC, September 11, 2014)

I object!

For, with all due respect to Milady, it defies logic to find that a reasonable person cannot foresee that firing four bullets into a toilet stall would probably kill whoever is inside. Not to mention that this conduct comports with the textbook definition of depraved indifference for human life. And that’s murder … even in South Africa!

Frankly, there’s no denying that the prosecution presented sufficient evidence to warrant a guilty verdict on at least one of the murder charges. Except that, evidently, Judge Masipa gave Pistorius the benefit not just of a reasonable doubt but of any conceivable doubt. Only this explains her finding of not guilty on all charges related to murder. But I shall leave it to legal pundits—who make a living prattling on about sensational cases and second-guessing rulings/verdicts—to elaborate on her judicial errors.

Truth be told, though, this judge had me thoroughly mesmerized as she read her judgment this morning. Not least because she heightened the suspense inherent in waiting for her verdict by reading so haltingly that it compelled me to hang on her every word. In fact, she came across more like a drama queen giving a theatre performance than a judge delivering a courtroom judgment. Nothing affirmed this impression quite like the way she punctuated her reading throughout with dramatic pauses. But I was utterly stupefied when she adjourned proceedings with the words:

It is clear that his conduct was negligent… We’ll proceed tomorrow at half past 9.

(BBC, September 11, 2014)

As cliffhangers go, no Hollywood writer could have scripted a better one. After all, this came a mere 15 minutes after a long lunch break. Still, ironically, what little she read during those 15 minutes clearly telegraphed her intent to find Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide. Therefore, if she timed her adjournment for dramatic effect, it was anti-climactic at best. But more time center stage for this diva in judicial garb—complete with her deceptively unassuming demeanor….

Except that her adjournment is now inflicting cruel and unusual anguish not just on Pistorius (who still faces jail time), but also on the victim’s loved ones (who have just cause to fret that Milady might pick up tomorrow by defying her own logic to find him not guilty of culpable homicide too). Indeed, with respect to the latter, Judge Masipa gave the impression that her tongue lashing about his unreasonable conduct and evasive testimony is punishment enough for this already crippled Olympian….

Still, I remain convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s as guilty as sin—as I stated for the record in Oscar Pistorius Now South Africa’s O.J. Simpson…? February 15, 2013. What’s more, I fully expect this judge to show more common sense, to say nothing of legal judgment, than the jurors who acquitted O.J. by finding Pistorius guilty of this lesser charge, and sentencing him to seven years in prison (after weighing all mitigating and aggravating factors).

Of course, apropos of my allusion to O.J., even if, with tortured reasoning, she lets Pistorius off scot-free (or finds him guilty but gives him little or no jail time), I have no doubt that, like O.J., he