The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2017—Volume XIII

By Anthony Livingston Hall

ANTHONY L. HALL takes aim at the global events of 2017 with a unique and refreshing perspective. Some of the topics in this volume include:

President Trump telling pathological lies
“He’s continually challenging us to believe the lie we hear instead of the truth we see.”

Instagram mainstreaming strippergrams
“Instagram has normalized twits sharing, for all the world to see, not just their family albums but intimate pictures that should be for a lover’s eyes only. It is little more than a platform for hard-core narcissists and soft-porn exhibitionists to show off.”

President Putin waiting in vain for payoff from hacking US election
“America’s ingenious system of checks and balances has so circumscribed Trump’s Putinesque impulses that all Putin has to show for his hacking is Russia suffering even worse economic sanctions and irreparable reputational damage.”

White supremacists rampaging in Charlottesville over Confederate statue
“I can think of 99 things that bother me about racism in America today, but a Confederate statue ain’t one.”

Justin Gatlin spoiling Usain Bolt’s swan song in 100m
“The look of anguish on Bolt’s face—when it struck him that he was going to lose—rivals that look in ‘The Scream,’ Edvard Munch’s most famous painting. #Priceless!”

Fox News reckoning with scourge of sexual harassment
“Fox News markets itself as a Christian sanctuary in a wasteland of moral degeneracy. But these scandals expose it as just a proverbial Peyton Place.”

Athletes and CEOs snubbing Trump
“He is so unpopular that being invited to this White House is tantamount to being invited to a garden party by that proverbial skunk.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532046421

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 © 2018 Anthony Livingston Hall.

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 author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-4533-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4534-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-4642-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018903413

iUniverse rev. date: 04/13/2018

To Katherine,

For making me the luckiest man in the world

Contents

Acknowledgement

Introduction

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Jammeh, The Gambia’s Would-Be Strongman, Hightails It into Exile

Groundhog-Day Famine Crisis in Africa

Sisi Completes Egypt’s Vicious Circle by Releasing Mubarak

Wither South Africa…

Cartoonist captures president raping state. ‘Zuma must go!’

Hail, Erdogan—Nouveau Sultan of Turkey

Blockading Qatar: Trump Makes Messy Middle East Messier

Trump tweets while Middle East burns

Israel caves on Al Aqsa Mosque, but damage done

Another Free and Fair Election in Kenya Descends into Violence

WTF: court rules election invalid?!

Carter Center has some ‘splainin’ to do

Re-run

Saudi Women Granted Right to Drive. Hooray…?

Saudi Arabia promises to repent for extremist ways…

Alas, Worst Bombing in Somali History Evokes Little Sympathy, Let Alone Empathy

Military Coup Ousts Mugabe in Zimbabwe

Mugabe accepts golden parachute

Return of the white farmer

Africans Selling Africans as Slaves … Again

Forever War in Afghanistan

America Drops the MOAB (Mother of all Bombs)

Three More Americans Die for ‘Mistake’

Russians arming Taliban to fight Americans…? Duh

Trump Aping ‘Stupid’ Obama Who Aped ‘Crusading’ Bush

Taliban begets ISIS

Jerusalem

Recognizing Jerusalem: Trump’s America and Netanyahu’s Israel against the World

Intifada—a Latterday David vs. Goliath

Trump blows US role as peace broker

US Uses Foreign Aid to Threaten World Over Jerusalem. China Should Call Its Bluff

World defies US threat

AMERICAS / CARIBBEAN

Obama Ends Discriminatory Wet Foot, Dry Foot Cuba Policy

Trump’s hypocrisy on human rights: Cuba vs. Qatar

Venezuela’s Death Spiral of Recession, Protest, and Repression

Trump threatens dying economy with economic sanctions

Rio’s Olympian Hangover Ends in Bankruptcy

‘Aftershock’ of Mexico Earthquake Is Another Earthquake

ASIA

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 … ‘Lost’

China: Where Hong Kong Is Concerned, Britain Is Now Adrift at Sea

Lesson of Tiananmen Square?

Pakistan Declares Former President Pervez Musharraf a Fugitive

The North Korean Menace

Trump ‘Leading from Behind’ as World Reacts to (Latest) Nuclear Test

Potemkin Military Parade and America’s Mercenary Response

Trump Depending on China to Protect US

North Korean Nukes like Quicksilver for China and US

North Korean Nukes Upstage America’s Fireworks … Again

Trump vs Jong-un: the Ultimate Reality-TV Death Match…

Trump double dares after Jong-un crosses his red line…

China, Next Stop on Trump’s Traveling Circus Through Far East

Trump congratulates China for ‘raping’ US

Trump’s ‘fake news’ about making America great again

Myanmar’s Persecuted Rohingyas

Aung San Suu Kyi Lording Over Crimes Against Humanity

Rohingyas Suffering Fate of Darfurians (Remember Them?)

Fellow Nobel Laureates Damn Suu Kyi, the Godmother of Ethnic Cleansing

Rock stars damn Suu Kyi as ‘handmaiden to genocide’

Pope Compounds Moral Cowardice with Contrived Apology

EUROPE

Prince Charles Draws Analogies Between Trumpism and Nazism

Court hands Kate token victory over topless pics

Like Barack Obama, Meghan Markle is black. So why is she passing…?

Brutal Police Incite Riots in France; Ignorant Trump Incites Riots in Sweden

Wither England

France’s Marine Le Pen, Putin’s Latest Democratic Honey Trap

France chooses Obama-like hope over Trump-like fear

Fail, Putin! Only (More) Sanctions to Show for Meddling in US Election

Hail, Merkel! The Grandmaster of German Politics

Merkel’s win undermined by far right gains

Catalonia Continues Sisyphean Climb Towards Independence

Catalonia blinks

UNITED STATES

Obama’s Farewell Address

MLK Day

Presidents’ Day

Earth Day

The inconvenient truth about Gore’s sequel

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Oh Donna—Hillary’s ‘Slave Girl’ Singing Tales of Freedom

Black Lives Matter

Matter More to White Cops than Black Thugs

Blacks Killing Blacks No License for Police Misconduct

Three White Cops Kill Two Black Men…

Blacks Have Given White Liberals like Bill Maher License to Say Racist Things

White Supremacy: The Tragedy and Folly of Charlottesville

Fleeing CEOs force Trump to disband business council

Washington Monument, father of all monuments to racists…?

The Trump Presidency

Trump Is Trump, and Intelligence Is Intelligence, and Never the Twain Shall Meet

US Intel report on Russian hacking

Intel says Putin has compromising info on Trump

Trump is wrong about most things. But he is right about this!

American suckers: Russians hack their elections, while Chinese pick their pockets

Women Worldwide March against Trump

A ‘day without women’

Trumpasites Gagging on Big Lies and Outrageous Pledges They Swallowed

Cabinet secretaries reverse Trump’s travel ban

Nomination of Gorsuch to Supreme Court Affirms Politicization of Judiciary

McConnell Rebuking Warren Is about Racism and Sexism Not Senate Decorum

Nordstrom Rejects Trump Brand. Court Overrules His Muslim Ban

Trump brand becoming toxic for business

‘Unprecedented’: American Immigrants Seeking Refuge in Canada

Trump’s Three-Card Monte of an Address to Joint Session of Congress

Russia, Iran, and North Korea Making Trump Look like a Chump

Trump Tapping Huntsman for Russia Suggests He Really Is Putin’s Puppet

Trumpcare Health Scare for Trump Voters

Failure to repeal and replace Obamacare would be political malpractice

Repeal and replace fails in spectacular, humiliating fashion

Trump, Jared, and Ivanka Forgoing Salaries Is Just Another Bait and Switch

Trump donates to National Park Service

The First 100 Days…

Advisers treating Trump like that crazy uncle…

Republicans Bunt Then Claim Home Run on Obamacare

Channeling Nixon, Trump Fires FBI Director

Trump demanded oath of loyalty

Comey’s testimony had all the suspense of yesterday’s news

Russians Dupe ‘Stupid’ Trump and White House Staff

Trump sharing classified info forces McMaster to Spicer himself

WTF: Saudis Giving Islamophobic Trump the Royal Treatment…?

Trump Kissing Up to Saudi Arabia, Kissing Off Europe, and French Kissing the Philippines

Trump’s America Showing Signs of Hitler’s Germany…?

Trump’s lawyer says this wannabe dictator IS above the law

CIA Director Insinuates Obama Misrepresented US Intelligence

DACA: Ain’t No Wall High Enough to Keep ‘Them’ from Getting to US

Trump Decertifying Iran Nuclear Deal more MALO than MAGA

Trump leading march against Iran, but nobody following

Trump More Mussolini than Hitler: ‘Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby’

Now Chief of Staff Kelly ‘Spicers’ Himself for Trump re Sgt. La David Johnson

Sen. McCain Needles Trump as ‘Bone-Spur’ Draft Dodger

Release of JFK Files—the Deepest Trumpian Rabbit Hole Yet

‘Haley to UN General Assembly: US Does Not Fear Isolation’

Enough Said

Special Counsel Mueller and ‘This Russia Thing’

Special Prosecutor Appointed. Checkmate!

First Indictment Has Media Reveling in Speculation

The first three in Trump’s house of cards fall

Republicans Exploiting FBI Texts the Way Trump Exploited DNC E-Mails

THE GLOBALSPHERE

Tech Companies Worse than Snowden’s Bogeyman NSA

Zuckerberg designed Facebook ‘like’ an addictive opioid

Confessions of Facebook programmers continue

Smart China Spending Less on Military; Stupid US Spending More

When Landfills Kill—the Real Life of ‘Slumdogs’…

D-Day

Obama: To Solve World Problems Put Women in Charge

New research shows men are the weaker sex

World Refugee Day

Sexual Abuse Allegations against Pope’s Adviser Damns Papacy

Pope exorcises Vatican’s chief pedophile exorcist

G20 Germany 2017 Summit in Hamburg: Much Ado About Nothing

Trump clueless, friendless, and feckless (and those friggin’ Trump kids!)

Trump to UN General Assembly like Obama to KKK Rally

Trump delivers a flurry of Trumpian tweets

‘Paradise Papers’ Out Elizabeth II as Tax-Dodging Queen

Acts of Terrorism

Islamists Terrorizing London … Again

Suicide bomber brings Manchester concert to explosive end

Terrorists take another stab at London

Gun-Crazy USA: Mass Shooting Targets Congressmen (and Postmen Too)

Target Las Vegas

‘New Normal’ Comes to New York City

Worst Church Shooting in US History

Bombing in Sinai Shows Dreaded ‘Clash of Civilizations’ Is Between Moderate and Extremist Muslims

US-Russia Sparring Over Syria

Putin Ordered Assad to Gas Innocent Syrians…?

Trump Launches ‘Wag-the-Dog’ Strikes against Syria

Assad responds

‘Russia knew’

Putin Blames ‘Little Green Men’—as Bloom Comes Off His Bromance with Trump

Hurricanes

Harvey: Water, Water, Everywhere, But Not a Bone Should Sink

Irma: Eyeing TCI, My Mother Country

Commemorating 9/11 as Diversion from (Media Coverage of) Irma

Wildfires Rivaling Hurricanes

California burning

Puerto Rico, Trump’s Katrina; Niger, His Benghazi

Puerto Rico catfished by Whitefish

Whitefish hooked

SPORTS

Hail, Serena! Greatest Athlete Ever!

Wimbledon: Venus triumphs in defeat; Roger pads iconic career with victory

US Open: Hail, Stephens…?

Tiger’s Poor Play Causes Back Pain—Again

Tiger! Tiger! driving drunk

Vonn wants to ski against men…

Vonn crashes again … and again

Doping Charge Strikes Usain Like a Lightning Bolt

The fix is in for Usain Bolt to have fairytale ending

Gatlin wins, becomes skunk at Bolt’s farewell party

Bolt pulls up lame…

IOC ban shows USA how to deal with ‘systematically’ corrupt Russia

Boycotting Women Hockey Players in Game of their Lives

USA players triumph over USA bureaucrats

Erasing Records to Whitewash Steroids from Track and Field Is Absurd

What Will It Profit Floyd Mayweather to Scam Another $200-300m But Lose…?

Mayweather TKOs McGregor

Hamilton’s US Win (Practically) Guarantees F1 World Championship

USA Gymnastics Sex-Abuse Shame: Gabby Victim-Blames Aly and Outrages Simone

Gabby claims #metoo

NCAA

Clemson Tigers Roll Alabama Crimson Tide for CFP Championship

UConn Women’s Basketball Team Makes History … Again

March Madness—and then there’s the women of UConn

Mississippi State, the Cinderella of all Cinderellas, upsets presumptive princess UConn

Hail, Carolina (north and south)

NFL/NBA

NFL Conference Championship Sunday: Hail, Patriots! Hail, Falcons!

Patriots Stun Falcons to Win Super Bowl 51

Hired-Gun Durant and Warriors Outshoot King James and Cavaliers

Kneeling, the Flag, and the National Anthem

Sports teams snubbing Trump

ENTERTAINMENT

#OscarSoDiverse …?

The Oscars: my picks

And the Oscar goes to…

The Grammys: Adele Sang and Won; Beyoncé Performed and … Reigned?

Carlos Santana agrees: Adele’s a singer, Beyoncé a performance artist

CNN Peddling ‘Fake News’ about Michael Jackson’s Death

Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Fans Are as Stupid as Trump’s Voters

Sexual Harassment: Days of Reckoning

Sex Pest Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, the Bill Cosby of Cable TV

Fox extinguishes sex pest

Alas, Megyn Kelly will debut on NBC looking like she’s still on FOX …

The (new) Cosby Show

My prediction of Cosby’s demise proved exaggerated

This Hurricane Harvey Harassed Hollywood Hotties for Decades

Meryl Streep leads belated cast of A-listers condemning Harvey

Weinstein vs. Trump: Hollywood more righteous than Bible Belt…?

Kevin Spacey, the homosexual Weinstein

No Sexual Harassment in Putin’s Russia. Ha!

Charlie Rose, Accused Sexual Predator, WAS My Favorite TV Interviewer

CBS fires Rose

Trump’s Insulting Tweet about Doug Jones, the Alabama Democratic Nominee, Reveals More about Trump

Rogue’s gallery of sexual predators and pettifogging perverts

POTPOURRI

Bush Daughters Publish (Another Selfie-Serving) ‘Open Letter’ to Obama Daughters

Yale Whitewashes Historic Figure to Appease Politically Correct Nincompoops

My Good Friday Sermon

Happy Easter … Monday

France: Skinny Models Must Fatten Up to Perfect Catwalk

No Heels for ‘Wonder Woman,’ Thank You Very Much!

CNN Excommunicated Religious Scholar Reza Aslan! Thanks Twitter

Epidemic of Female Teachers Risking Prison to Have Sex with Students

Clueless Emily Ratajkowski Thinks She’s ‘Too Sexy’ for Hollywood

OJ Paroled: Juice on the Loose Again

Justice delayed but not denied for Oscar Pistorius

Apparently, Like Her Brother Michael, Janet Jackson Has That Recessive Racial Gene

First Cancer, Then Divorce, Now Bell’s Palsy? ‘Please cry for me, Angelina’

Family friend affirms my cynical take on Jolie

Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn Latest Celebrities Crying Foul over Hacked Nudes

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

In Observance of Veterans Day

Happy Festivus!

Happy Kwanzaa!

IN MEMORIAM

Chuck Berry, the ‘Father of Rock & Roll’

Roger Ailes, Sexual Predator Who Founded Fox News

Hugh Hefner, Self-Professed Playboy and Cultural Revolutionary

Bibliography: Notes on Source Materials

About the Author

Acknowledgement

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

One of my pet peeves is finding typos in published books. But I have come to accept that, no matter how keen the editing, there’s no avoiding them. In fact, works by acclaimed authors like Tom Wolfe, Henry Miller, and Kurt Vonnegut have had the dubious distinction of appearing on the dreaded Corrigenda List of Book Errata. Therefore, please forgive me if you find any typo that makes this book a candidate for that list.

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 snarky topics, which I invariably ignore. All the same, I say a special thank-you to my dear friend Mary Lauture. She is easily my most loyal reader.

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

Last, but by no means least, thanks to you, my readers. You may be relatively few in number, but you inspire appreciation beyond measure.

Introduction

This is the thirteenth annual compendium of entries from my weblog, The iPINIONS Journal. However, in all my years of commenting on the global events of our times, this is the first time I was tempted to submit a compendium on just one topic: Donald J. Trump. I resisted.

Nevertheless, my temptation gives a sense of how much Trump dominated the global events of 2017. This even manifested in my attempts to engage friends in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean on issues related to their respective countries. We always ended up talking about him. Mind you, our discussions always focused on Trump’s train-wreck antics and snarky tweets, which have done more to debase the US presidency and undermine its democratic institutions than any foreign adversary ever could. Still, nothing indicates the radical transformation afoot—in America and around the world—quite like this:

The changes ushered in by President Trump mean that Germany, and Europe, must define and defend their own interests and embark on a more independent and assertive foreign policy, Germany’s acting foreign minister. …

[The foreign minister] highlighted a vacuum of leadership among the once-tightly knit phalanx of like-minded Western nations, as the United States increasingly appears to be jettisoning that role.

(The New York Times, December 5, 2017)

Meanwhile, never in the history of politics was so much written about the reckless rhetoric (via tweets) of one politician. Alas, the interest was such that commentators risked losing readers if they dared to write about anything other than Trump’s latest outrageous tweet. Nevertheless, I persisted.

Which is why a word cloud of the topics in this thirteenth volume would include others like North Korea, the New England Patriots, Rohingyas, Beyoncé, Russia, Serena, Wonder Woman, Pope Francis, Saudi Arabia, Mayweather vs. McGregor, Adele, Zimbabwe, NFL players kneeling, Charlottesville, Bill Cosby, Mass Shootings, Tiger Woods, Moonlight, ISIS, O.J. Simpson, Facebook, Emmanuel Macron, #OscarSoDiverse, Hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, Maria), Qatar, Wildfires, Catalonia, Hugh Hefner, Migration, China, Meghan Markle, Jerusalem, and #MeToo.

As always, I have left the commentaries in their original form. This not only gives you a better sense of time and place, but also lends authenticity to my thoughts on the unfolding events in real time. But this volume also contains many updates not posted on my weblog. I’d like to think they add value.

I quote extensively from previous commentaries. I do so to show how current events vindicate them, and to distinguish myself from commentators whose opinions seem no more rooted than the trending topic of the day. I use two block quotation styles throughout: shorter quotations are italicized; longer ones (a.k.a. excerpts) are in plain text and set off with lines above and below.

I hope that, for posterity, this volume proves a reliable source for reflection on the most important and noteworthy events of 2017. And I hope these commentaries serve as a provocative, informative, and entertaining antidote to social media postings. Never mind that no less a person than President Trump would have you believe that snarky tweets constitute informed public debate these days.

-—ALH

January 3, 2018

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Jammeh, The Gambia’s Would-Be Strongman, Hightails It into Exile

February 1

Six weeks ago, The Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh, seemed determined to emulate Zimbabwe’s, Robert Mugabe. Specifically, he refused to cede power after voters ousted him in a free and fair election on December 1, 2016.

Alas, Jammeh is just the latest African despot attempting to hold on to power. …

It eventually took military force to remove Gbagbo [of Côte d’Ivoire recently]. I fear it will take the same to remove Jammeh. … They never learn.

(The Gambia’s Jammeh Using Military Force after Losing Democratic Election, The iPINIONS Journal, December 14, 2016)

Sure enough, it took military force.

[On Saturday night, January 21,] longtime leader Yahya Jammeh climbed aboard a small plane in the capital city, Banjul, waved a final goodbye to his loyal supporters, and headed into exile in Equatorial Guinea. …

As pressure mounted on Jammeh to cede power, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened to send in a military force to oust Jammeh and install Barrow.

(The Washington Post, January 30, 2017)

I never envisioned Jammeh enjoying a long and happy retirement, however. Not least because, as I noted in my original commentary, The Gambia’s new government seems intent on following the precedent Liberia’s new government set when it prevailed upon Nigeria to give up its exiled president.

Nigeria’s president said Liberia’s new government, which had formally sought Mr Taylor’s extradition, was free to take him into custody.

Mr Taylor faces war crimes charges over his role in the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. He went into exile in Nigeria in 2003 as part of a deal to end 14 years of civil war in Liberia.

(BBC, March 25, 2006)

I duly commented on his fate in Former Liberian President Charles Taylor Convicted in The Hague, April 27, 2012.

I’m sure Jammeh thinks he struck an ironclad deal to live in blissful retirement. But, given what happened to Taylor, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s only a matter of time before Equatorial Guinea gives him up too. In fact, The Gambia is already laying the predicate for extradition proceedings:

The Gambia’s new president has disavowed an immunity deal for his predecessor after accusing him of fleeing into exile with a plane-load of luxury cars and cash stolen from the central bank.

(The Telegraph, January 23, 2017)

Except that Jammeh should be able to sleep easier than Taylor ever dreamed of. After all, President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea lords over a brutal kleptocracy. He stands accused of perpetrating crimes that make Jammeh’s alleged corrupt practices and human rights abuses seem petty by comparison. What’s more, unlike nearly every other African leader, Obiang shielded himself and his cohorts from international prosecution. Specifically, he refused to submit his country to the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court (ICC). No doubt this is why Jammeh rejected Nigeria’s offer of asylum in favor of Equatorial Guinea’s.

On the other hand, African states now have a vested interest in seeing Jammeh (and other despots) held to account. Not least because they sent shockwaves through the international community late last year when they denounced the ICC as a Western tribunal that is biased against African heads of state. South Africa even led some states in withdrawing their membership. Now comes this late-breaking development:

African leaders backed a plan for a collective withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) at a continental conference on Tuesday.

Attendees of the African Union’s annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa took the non-binding decision at a private meeting.

(Newsweek, February 1, 2017)

As it happens, I provided the political and intellectual cover African states needed to do this in a number of commentaries, including No (Equitable) Justice in ICC Prosecuting Kenya’s Kenyatta, March 25, 2013, International Criminal Court Has Lost All Credibility, June 5, 2013, and Neocolonial International Criminal Court Is Imperious and Incompetent. Abolish It! April 11, 2016. But, having discredited the ICC, African states must now rise to the challenge of showing the world that they can hold regional leaders to account for human rights abuses and war crimes, including genocide. Doing so would give unassailable credence to the African Union’s motto of African solutions to African problems.

Unfortunately, I have reason to fear they will not rise to that challenge. Nothing informs my fear quite like this:

African leaders are beaming with foolish pride today over the way they conspired to help Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir abscond from justice. They perpetrated this conspiracy during an African Union summit in South Africa last weekend. …

I am dismayed because, as yesterday’s edition of the UK Guardian recounts, this is the same Bashir who presided over the killing of 300,000 black Africans and displacement of two million.

Given this, instead of aiding and abetting him, you’d think black African leaders would want to tar and feather Bashir. Except that far too many of them have more in common with him than their own people.

(Abetting Sudan’s Bashir Betrays All That’s Wrong with African Leaders, The iPINIONS Journal, June 17, 2015)

So, Jammeh seems well-situated for a long and happy retirement. But, fearing Interpol, he would be well-advised to resist his Westernized wife’s inducements to accompany her on the American and European shopping sprees to which she has become so accustomed.

Groundhog-Day Famine Crisis in Africa

March 20

My weblog does not feature any revenue-generating ads. That’s because, when I launched it 12 years ago, I wanted to make plain my primary interest in contributing to informed public debate on an eclectic array of topics. This has distinguished it over the years from the blogs of far too many others—who have made plain their primary interest in attracting cash-milking visits.

Today’s commentary throws this into sharp relief. After all, while I am commenting on the grave matter of famine in Africa, virtually everyone else is commenting on the patent farce of President Trump falsely accusing former President Obama of wiretapping his phone. And I’m not even including Facebookers, Twitterers, and Instagrammers—whose vacuous, snarky, and narcissistic contributions do nothing but dumb down, coarsen, and debase public debate.

Which means that, by reading this, you’re akin to one choosing health food over junk food. And, just as eating health food is better for your body, reading this is better for your mind … and soul.

That willfully self-righteous rant aside,

The world faces the largest humanitarian crisis since the United Nations was founded in 1945 with more than 20 million people in four countries at risk of starvation and famine, the UN humanitarian chief has said.

Stephen O’Brien … urged an immediate injection of funds for Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northeast Nigeria plus safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid ‘to avert a catastrophe.’

(Al Jazeera, March 11, 2017)

No doubt this crisis warrants our attention, concern, and support. Never mind the Orwellian spin Trump’s new budget director, Mick Mulvaney, offered during a White House press conference last week. Specifically, a foreign reporter asked if he was concerned that 20 million of the most vulnerable people on Earth will suffer from cuts to the United Nations and US foreign aid. Mulvaney replied, rather indignantly, that

We’re absolutely reducing funding to the UN and to the various foreign aid programs [which] should come as a surprise to no one who watched the campaign.

(Fox Business, March 16, 2017)

He then rationalized that refusing to fund things like daily meals for poor Americans and emergency relief for starving Africans is an act of compassion towards American taxpayers, insisting that funding such programs would not be using their dollars in a proper function.

Mind you, I cannot read or listen to reports about famine in Africa without being seized with cynicism and feelings of fecklessness. I was disillusioned enough by global fundraising campaigns—from Live Aid in 1985 to Make Poverty History in 2005 and the Global Citizen Festival in 2016. They were supposed to end famine in Africa, remember? But the broken promises of political leaders only compounded my disillusionment. US President Bill Clinton (in 1998) and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (in 1999) led the chorus of those who vowed never again would the world standby as tribal conflicts give way to Ethiopian-like famines or Rwandan-like genocides. Except that nothing exposed their hollow vows quite like this headline from the April 4, 2004, edition of the Washington Post:

How did ‘never again’ become just words?

This brings me to the groundhog in my title. For it alludes not only to all of the failed efforts to end famine and genocide in Africa, but also to all of my commentaries lamenting those notorious failures. In fact, one of the very first commentaries I wrote on my blog is titled Despite Live8 and G8, Relief Looms like a Cruel Mirage to Millions of Africans Dying of Starvation! July 21, 2005. It is replete with the cynicism and feelings of fecklessness I had already developed from my ancillary involvement in humanitarian efforts to provide sustainable relief.

South Sudan is particularly noteworthy in this dubious respect. It owes the national independence it gained in 2011, in large measure, to global protests against ethnic cleansing and genocidal atrocities, which Arab militias had been perpetrating against blacks in the Darfur region of Sudan. I added my two cents to those protests with commentaries like

• Help! Ethnic Cleansing and Forced Starvation Persists in Africa, December 1, 2005;

• Save Darfur Rally: Full of Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing! May 2, 2006;

• Alas, the ICC Charging President Bashir of Sudan with Genocide Means Nothing! July 15, 2008.

Sure enough, within three years of South Sudan gaining its independence, I was writing commentaries like

• South Sudan Descending into the Heart of Darkness, December 30, 2013;

• Millions in South Sudan Eating Leaves and Grass … Like Cows, October 29, 2015;

• South Sudan: Another Genocide Developing in Africa, December 19, 2016.

No surprise then that South Sudan is one of the countries the UN is claiming today needs an immediate injection of funds … to avert a catastrophe.

Incidentally, I was heartened that 60 Minutes, the most influential newsmagazine on television, finally ran a segment on this unfolding crisis last night. Because this amounted to having a fog horn join the whistles the rest of us have been blowing for years to sound the alarm.

Above all, though, the sad, frustrating and abiding truth is that this crisis has more to do with the folly of man’s inhumanity to man than the wrath of Mother Nature. In fact, tribal conflict has been the root cause of nearly every humanitarian crisis that has plagued Africa since the end of colonization 50 years ago. Such conflicts invariably hamper irrigation, tilling and crop-rotation efforts to stave off famine. Not to mention the African leaders who misappropriate funds for humanitarian relief to buy arms for those tribal conflicts—a perversion I refer to as alms for arms. Of course, even more galling is the unconscionable way they misappropriate funds to finance their opulent lifestyles.

Nonetheless, famine in Africa is still far more worthy of media coverage than the latest conspiracy in Trump’s mind. More to the point, my commentary ‘Another African Famine?! Nobody Cares!’ Then Call Me Nobody, May 2, 2014, delineates the economic and moral dilemma this chronic crisis poses. I’ve decided I can do no better than to reprise it here, in its entirety.

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‘Another African Famine?! Nobody Cares!’ Then Call Me Nobody

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 UN’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, we have 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. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that the American media are ignoring the UN sounding this alarm about yet another famine in Africa. Indeed, CNN does not even deem this famine 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)? This 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 (a.k.a. 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 guilt me into eating my vegetables by telling me how lucky I was compared to starving children in Africa. For some unknown reason, she seemed particularly concerned about starving children in Biafra. The cheeky little bugger that I was, though, 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 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 this blog 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:

Helping Africa is a noble cause, but the campaign has become a theater of the absurd—the blind leading the clueless. …

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 a BBC Newsnight report on August 5, 2011, 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. Then 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.

Accordingly, 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 guilting you into donating (as I do) to their organizations, like UNICEF, USAID, Doctors Without Borders, UN World Food Programme, and CARE.

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Sisi Completes Egypt’s Vicious Circle by Releasing Mubarak

March 24

Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak has left the Cairo military hospital where he had been held in custody for much of the past six years, and returned to his home in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, his lawyer said.

Mubarak, 88, was acquitted by Egypt’s highest appeals court on 2 March of conspiring to kill protesters in the final verdict in a long-running case that originally resulted in him being sentenced to life in prison in 2012 over the deaths of 239 people in Arab spring protests against his rule.

(The Guardian, March 24, 2017)

And so, Egypt’s vicious cycle—from military dictatorship to civil disobedience and Islamic democracy then back to military dictatorship—is now complete. It began only six years ago, but it seems like sixty. More to the point, though, I warned from the outset that it would 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 the 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 Khomeini—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)

Sadly, my fears for Egypt have now been completely realized. Nothing demonstrates this quite like General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi running a dictatorship that makes Mubarak’s look like a liberal democracy. As it happened, I chronicled each phase of this vicious cycle in commentaries like Protesters Return to Tahrir Square, June 6, 2012, Egyptians Continue March Back to the Future, December 20, 2013, Egypt’s Arab Spring Spawns Brutal Military Dictatorship, March 25, 2014, and Egypt Sentences Morsi to Death: Exposes Fecklessness of US Mideast Policy, May 20, 2015. But Dismissal of Mubarak’s Charges Brings Indian Summer for Egypt’s Arab Spring, December 1, 2014, includes this pithy indictment and summation of the Arab Spring:

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.

All that’s left for Sisi to vindicate this cycle and validate his rule is for Egypt’s patron, the United States, to bestow its seal of approval. President Trump intends to do just that when Sisi visits the White House next week.

Wither South Africa…

April 10

Which is in the death throes of becoming a Zimbabwean mess.

An esteemed judge famously found that the leaders of a failed state I know all too well showed clear signs of political amorality, immaturity and general administrative incompetence. Therefore, it speaks volumes that South African leaders make the leaders of that failed state look like Jeffersonian statesmen. Notably, having robbed the treasury, wrecked the economy, and scandalized the people, South Africa’s rapacious leaders are now setting their sights on the last repast of all pseudo nationalists: white-owned land.

President Jacob Zuma has called on parliament to change South Africa’s constitution to allow the expropriation of white-owned land without compensation.

(The Telegraph, March 3, 2017)

South Africa is on an inexorable descent into the heart of darkness. Nothing characterizes this quite like the way hopelessly misguided thugs disrupted yesterday’s memorial service for veteran anti-apartheid activist, Ahmed Kathrada.

This was despite the Durban High Court granting an interdict preventing members of the youth league from disrupting proceedings at the event held at Sastri College in Greyville, Durban.

(IOL News, April 9, 2017)

No doubt such behavior would shock the conscience even of Joseph Conrad. It must certainly have Nelson Mandela rolling over in his grave. But the reason for this latest eruption of fratricidal unruliness is irrelevant. All you need to know is that these kids were only doing what they thought President Zuma wanted them to—with all of the foreboding consequences that entails.

Incidentally, if this is your first conscious brush with the name Ahmed Kathrada, take a minute from your mindless social-media trolling to google it.

More to the point, though, everything that is playing out in South Africa, including growing anti-government protests, played out in Zimbabwe. And there’s every reason to fear that it’s only a matter of time before South Africa ends up where Zimbabwe is today—a dark, dangerous, destitute, desperate, diseased, dishonest, dyspeptic and dysfunctional mess. Indeed, Zuma’s venal shuffling of his cabinet, which provoked this latest round of protests, is akin to the fateful shuffling of deck chairs on the Titanic.

But, even before South Africans elected him in 2009, I warned that Zuma would lead them down a primrose path to ruination. Therefore, I can look on events unfolding in South Africa with little more than resigned indignation. Mind you, I support South Africans who are protesting these days: Zuma must go! It’s just that I’m humbled by the fact that I’ve been supporting Zimbabweans who have been protesting for over 20 years: Mugabe must go!

In any event, I can think of no better way to express my resigned indignation than to reprise Zuma Doing to South Africa What Mugabe did to Zimbabwe, December 12, 2015. It’s my I-told-you-so commentary, and sums up all I care to say about South Africa—so long as Zuma remains its leader.

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I have written many commentaries over the years decrying South African President Jacob Zuma’s corrupt and incompetent leadership.

For example, here:

One wonders what could have prompted the ANC to emasculate Mbeki. … If he heeds the ANC’s recall … Zuma will become the next duly elected president. Then, I fear, he will do for South Africa what Mugabe has done for Zimbabwe.

(South African President Mbeki Forced to Resign … Hail Zuma, The iPINIONS Journal, September 22, 2008)

Here:

Rabble-rousing trade unionists (COSATU) and unreformed communists (SACP) have turned the ANC from a governing coalition into a band of pillagers. Therefore, Zuma enlisting them to intimidate his critics, like cartoonist Zapiro, should serve as a dire warning of what South Africa will become under his leadership.

(Zuma Issues Fatwa against Cartoonist Zapiro, The iPINIONS Journal, December 22, 2008)

And here:

I lamented the wayward path the country was veering towards two years ago. In doing so, I cited Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s foreboding prayer about the ANC choosing an alleged rapist and thief as its leader. …

I also invoked Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer’s political rebuke about the ANC betraying its values and losing its way.

(South Africa Betraying Its Values, The iPINIONS Journal, May 13, 2011)

Therefore, I was hardly surprised this week when even die-hard Zuma supporters began decrying his leadership too:

South African President Jacob Zuma’s sacking of his respected finance minister in favour of a relative unknown has shocked investors and emboldened critics who say the 73-year-old is driving the economy to ruin. …

Markets reacted unambiguously, with the rand plunging to a record low against the dollar.

(Reuters, December 11, 2015)

All I have left to say is, I told you so.

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RELATED

Cartoonist captures president raping state. ‘Zuma must go!’

April 18

Scandals of all types have characterized Zuma’s presidency. I have decried those scandals in far too many commentaries. A case in point is Jacob Zuma Issues Professional Fatwa against Cartoonist Zapiro, December 22, 2008, which includes this prophetic cry.

____________________

It is a fact, however, that Zuma got off scot-free on a charge of raping a woman who regarded him as her father, despite effectively incriminating himself. He also got off on charges of racketeering and other financial crimes, despite evidence that would humble most Russian oligarchs.

Therefore, Zapiro’s depiction of him raping the South African justice system is as fair and accurate as any cartoon can be.

At any rate, Zapiro will defend himself by invoking the universal freedom of the press to comment on the public lives of public figures. Not to mention that truth is an absolute defense to claims of defamation.

____________________

Sure enough, Zapiro’s vindication came when the October 28, 2012 edition of the South African national paper Mail & Guardian heralded, Zuma surrenders, drops lawsuit.

Except that, as with any serial rapist, getting off only emboldened Zuma to rape more. It is hardly surprising then that Zapiro, renowned for his irreverent but unassailable caricatures, had cause recently to depict Zuma raping not just the justice system but all of South Africa. Of course, mindful that Zuma-led South Africa has become the rape capital of the world, Zapiro took pains to say he did not publish this latest rape caricature lightly.

It depicts President Jacob Zuma zipping up his trousers as one of the Gupta brothers gets ready to ‘rape’ South Africa, depicted as a woman, with State Security Minister David Mahlobo, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini and The New Age editor Moegsien Williams holding her down.

(South Africa News24, April 4, 2017)

What is surprising, however, is that so many who condemned Zuma as a serial rapist are now condemning Zapiro for depicting him as such. I suspect this inconsistency stems from a visceral reaction to Zapiro capturing Zuma pulling train with Gupta—a non-African, state-capture vulture. After all, there might be liberating pride in condemning Zuma for raping the country, but there’s only neocolonial shame in facing the fact that someone like Gupta was doing so too.

That Zapiro cartoon always leaves me with that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. An acrid mixture of fear, disgust and revulsion.

— CapeTownNatz@NatalieAndrew, April 11, 2017

Rape cartoons in a country with very high rape stats, we don’t need these jokes! Zapiro must be stopped, kwanele manje!

— Negrophile@Rre_kgatie, April 11, 2017

Mind you, the viral tweetstorm his cartoon ignited probably struck Zapiro as manna from heaven. This, after all, is the kind of reaction political cartoonists pray for.

In any event, even Zuma is sensible enough to appreciate that suing for defamation would only vindicate Zapiro’s depiction. Therefore, it speaks volumes that the Guptas, who were clearly happy to jump on board the train, are planning to do so. But they would do well to remember who was zommin who.

Zuma saw nothing undemocratic, or even improper, in granting permission to one of his patrons, the Gupta family, to use a South African military base as their private airport.

Evidently, the Guptas wanted to spare the hundreds of guests they invited to a big, fat Indian wedding all of the indignities that attend landing at and departing from civilian airports; you know, like having to mingle with riff-raff. Not to mention concerns about personal security or loss of expensive wedding gifts; you know, as regular baggage handlers offload the plane: this is Africa after all.

But, in fairness to Zuma, what’s the point in being a wannabe African dictator if one can’t grant one’s friends such simple favors, eh? And how democratic of him to fire the officials who facilitated his favor, instead of jailing the commentators who criticized it. Amandla!

(Zuma Zoomin South Africa … Again, The iPINIONS Journal, May 5, 2013)

Interestingly enough, on November 2, 2016, the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court ordered the release of a special prosecutor’s State Capture report. It detailed the extent to which Zuma allowed the Guptas to exercise feudal control not only over South Africa’s resources but even over its government, including the hiring and firing of ministers.

Frankly, the only thing wrong with this latest Zapiro cartoon is that it depicted only one Gupta brother pulling train. It should have depicted the other two waiting their turn.

That said, Zapiro should be grateful he’s not living in Turkey. Because, as predatory and corrupt as Zuma is, he has never imprisoned his critics. By contrast, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has imprisoned tens of thousands. Chief among them is cartoonist Musa Kart—whose caricatures of Erdogan have made him even more famous in Turkey than Zapiro’s of Zuma have made him in South Africa.

This is not to say Zapiro will get off scot-free. Because it might only be a matter of time before Zuma begins emulating his mentor, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, by having loyal thugs beat up his critics. Given the way they disrupted the recent memorial service for Zuma’s most-revered critic, anti-Apartheid pioneer Ahmed Kathrada, they would probably relish beating the crap out of Zapiro to please their gangsta president.

Hail, Erdogan—Nouveau Sultan of Turkey

April 19

If you harbored any doubts about Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s dictatorial predilection, the referendum he orchestrated on Sunday should disabuse you of them.

A defiant Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the West’s ‘crusader mentality’ on Monday after European monitors criticized a referendum to grant him sweeping new powers, won with a narrow victory laying bare the nation’s divisions. …

The changes could keep him in power until 2029 or beyond, making him easily the most important figure in Turkish history since state founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk built a modern nation from the ashes of the Ottoman empire after World War One.

(Reuters, April 17, 2017)

If you harbored any doubts about US President Donald Trump’s dictator envy, the public show he made of congratulating Erdogan should disabuse you of them.

President Trump called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Monday to congratulate him on winning a much-disputed referendum that will cement his autocratic rule over the country and, in the view of many experts, erode Turkey’s democratic institutions.

(The New York Times, April 17, 2017)

Trump’s congratulation is especially damning when juxtaposed with the fact that other Western leaders were so troubled by the conduct and outcome of this referendum, they offered more admonition than congratulation.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Turkey’s leaders to address concerns about their country’s referendum on a new constitution and open talks with opponents, most of whom have disputed the vote’s legitimacy.

(The Financial Times, April 17, 2017)

Hell, even the godfather of democratic dictatorships, Russian President Vladimir Putin, was sensible enough to congratulate Erdogan only on the down low.

To be fair, it appears Trump failed to read the script his foreign-policy team wrote for his call with Erdogan. Mind you, this blunder is understandable; not least because Trump is so clearly inclined to govern by executive order (a.k.a. presidential decree), which is how any democratic dictator worth his salt would … rule. In any case, this forced White House staffers to follow up with an official statement, which duly expressed the US government’s misgivings about the conduct and outcome of Erdogan’s referendum.

Of course, such blunders are becoming a feature of his presidency. This is why political and business leaders worldwide are beginning to treat him like a crazy uncle, who is liable to say anything. Instead, they are looking to his cabinet secretaries to explain official US policies. Just days ago, for example, this crazy old fool had Navy officials baffled with his atavistic boast about sending an Armada to force North Korean President Kim Jong-un to behave himself. They were baffled because they knew the fleet he was referring to was in fact headed in the opposite direction—for long-scheduled military exercises off the coast of Australia. This forced Pentagon staffers to follow