Sometime Soldiers Are Better Than A Bushel Of Wheat

President Bush was recently in Africa. He received a rousing welcome everywhere he went. To his credit, the amount of money this administration has committed to fighting diseases in Africa has been the highest. To many of us who feel strongly against a lot of policies of this administration, Bush does deserve credit for the amount of aid America has committed to Africa in last one year. My point builds on this engagement from America in the African continent.

Africa in recent years has seen genocides, civil wars besides the perennial problem of Malaria, Aids and other diseases. My contention is that American engagement needs to be much more pervasive. Clinton tried it in his years in office but lost support within US after the Black hawk incident in Somalia. Rwanda followed and America was woefully missing....one country that could have clearly made the difference. Something similar is happening in Sudan right now and Kenya is on the brink of descending into the familiar anarchy that is so prevalent in Africa. Interestingly, the bar is so low with respect to judging how a country is doing, we don't even talk about countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria where corrupt governments have run amok. Some recent examples exist where America committed soldiers and had the desired effect--Kosovo, first Gulf war and Afghanistan being good examples.

American army's current engagements across the world has meant that even if the will of the American people is there to commit troops to troubled regions in Africa, there is hardly any soldier available to do so. Now here is a clear opportunity to develop goodwill for America where a lot of it already exists as the current trip from Bush has shown. How much better it would be if American could suffice its capital commitment with soldiers on the ground. The killing that is happening around the African continent would definitely decrease if militants there know that America is serious about bringing peace. Now I would contend that feeding a child in some refugee camp in Darfur is great but wouldn't it be greater to make sure that the kid never lands up in that refugee camp?

Why Zacob Zuma Is Bad News for South Africa

Jacob Zuma or JZ recently became the president of African National Congress and in on his way to succeed Thabo Mbeki when he steps down later this year. Why is this bad news? Well, for starters, the guy still has pending corruption charges in courts. He recently got out of rape charges with a very interesting line of reasoning. Lets look at everything one by one:

1) JZ has more than 20 children from 6 women and recently took over his fourth wife. One of the former wife is current foreign minister of South Africa

2) JZ was charged of rape and he had to say the following during his trial: He said it was his duty to have sex with the accuser because she was wearing a kanga, which is a short African wrap, and if he had not done that, she would have remained unfulfilled!!! He went on to say: : "In the Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready". Zuma was finally found not guilty.

3) The other interesting aspect of this case is that the woman was HIV positive. At that time, Zuma was president of National Aids Council but did see enough reason to wear a condom while having sex. He thought that a shower would be enough. Now you are talking about a country where 1 in 7 adults have AIDS...so much for leadership at the top!!!

4) Finally, this guy is still facing fraud charges in defence contracts and tons of other things.

What is disturbing is that this country is not Congo or Liberia or Sierra Leone...this is South Africa, one country that has done a really good job in transitioning to democracy after the end of Apartheid. Post Apartheid, thanks to the leadership of Dr. Mandela, the country did not open up the balance sheet to retribute against white population. Mbeki has again done a reasonable job of taking the country forward. I am not sure that Jacob Zuma's credentials provide a lot of hope. It would be a disaster if South Africa goes the way a lot of African countries have went. This is the biggest and the best governed country in Africa. African continent needs a robust working democracy in South Africa to prove that democracy, peace and justice can work.

The Indispensable Nation

Today I heard Madeline Albright, secretary of state in Clinton administration and the first woman to have served in this position. Many consider her one of the better secretaries of state US has had, especially for her role in stopping the genocide in Kosovo. She can also be credited for getting very close to a solution to the middle east problem and visiting Pyong Yang to meet Kim Jong Il. Despite her successes, there is also a huge blemish on Clinton administration- Rwandan genocide-and Madeline Albright can be attributed some blame. She was first the ambassador to UN and then secretary of state when Hutus and Tutsis ripped each other apart.

I thought that she had one interesting insight about modern world and role for American in the same. The role of being the ultimate referee and an indispensable nation. America first made itself indispensable in subtle ways after the 1st World War at the Leagues of Nations.....Then, in very explicit terms in the 2nd World War. It is anyone's guess what would have happened if America had decided not to jump into Europe's war. Since the fall of communism, America again played that role wonderfully well by first kicking out Iraq from Kuwait and then intervening in Kosovo.

The current administration confused this indispensability with the license to do whatever they want to around the world. Iraq war is the example which people quote...there are numerous other example...unilateral pullout from Kyoto negotiations, problems with Europe, the whole axis of evil rhetoric...the list just goes on. I have said it at some other places in this blog and I repeat it. America earned some tremendous goodwill since the end of the 2nd World War and this administration squandered it all in 6 years.

Despite the current reputation of America around the world, the world still needs America's power and its moral force. The problem is that US has lost the moral high ground to preach people around the world. One way to regain that high ground could be to divert American power to solve problems in Africa...and there are plenty of them there. I don't think anyone would have any problem if America sends troops to bring some order in some of the worst war zones in Africa. Darfur is a great example. And what America recently did in Somalia along with Ethiopia is an example of what can be achieved. The whole world needs this indispensable nation and has the right to get it back from the clutches of incompetence.

Democracy in Congo?

No one knows the answer to this question. Final results for the elections are out and Joseph Kabila has won them comfortably. But as usual, nothing seems to have changed. East voted for Kabila and the west for Jean-Pierre Bemba. Bemba, as expected, has refused to accept the results and plans to challenge it in the Supreme Court. So what is Democratic Republic of Congo( previously Zaire) all about and what do people fight for?

DR Congo is at the heart of the equatorial region of Sub-Saharan Africa and includes 47% of the continent's forest. The Congo River and its tributaries form an economic lifeline due to the lack of decent roads( total length of the roads is 300 miles in a country bigger than the whole of Western Europe). The country boasts huge reserves of gold, some 30% of the world's diamond reserves, more than 70% of the valuable coltan mineral,a vital ingredient in mobile phones, besides vast deposits of cobalt, copper and bauxite. Most of these reserves are in east and that is where the fighting has been concentrated.

4 million have died since 1998 and even today, close to 1200 people die everyday because of direct or indirect consequences of the war.From Belgians in colonial times to Mobutu Sese Seko( the guy who hosted Ali and Foreman for the Jungle in The Rumble at Kinshasa), everyone has pillaged this land. After the Belgians left in 1960, the country was ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko before he was deposed in a rebellion by Laurent Kabila( father of Joseph) in 1997. Laurent was killed in 2oo1 and since then, Joseph has taken the command.

Today there is hope but it still seems too early...things do not change for good that easily in Africa. How do you get 210 tribes together with such history of animosity? And combine that with Diamonds!!! Isn't it surprising that those regions which are rich in natural resources around the world are the most fucked up?

In Freetown, C.O. Cuts Hands

If you search for Sierra Leone on the web, the first article would not be about its natural wealth (like diamonds). The first line of any article would read something like this: "After the rebels had fled into the surrounding hills, Lamine Jusu Jarka was carried to the main hospital here one morning in January. A young man named Mr. Junior, wearing a shirt that declared "C.O. Cut Hands," had chopped off his arms with an ax. " And what irony, the country's capital is called Freetown!!!

If you think that your life is fucked up, just read stories of Darfur or Freetown or Monrovia or Kinshasa and you won't feel that bad. We are just so fortunate to have escaped what is happening in Africa. The march of democracy and all decency has somehow missed a whole continent.The place is littered with so many bodies, raped women and amputated limbs that counting them would be a huge exercise in itself.

I want to talk about Sierra Leone today because this country has witnessed the most horrific of the crimes. People maimed by child soldiers just to prove that their government cannot protect them....the most conservative estimate is at least a million. They would come to a house and go to each of the members of the family and ask them whether they want their hands cut from the elbow or from the palm...same thing for the legs. One million people amputated like this!!! A mad rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, aided by a diamond crazy war lord from Liberia called Charles Taylor ran bersek for 10 years. And at the end of all these atrocities, what was the punishment given to these gentlemen? Foday Sankoh got a power sharing arrangement through a peace accord and Charles Taylor got to become the president of Liberia!!

Well, justice has been delivered in some sense in recent years.Foday Sankoh died a mad man and Charles Taylor is awaiting trial at the Hague but the fighting hasn't stopped...it just goes on and on...there are new Sankohs and Taylors running their militias...battlegrounds have shifted a bit but reality is still the same....can someone talk about march of freedom in these countries?