Auteur : Richard Beardsley

GOVERNANCE – AFRICAN CONTINENT

AFRICAN CONTINENT, Cameroon, Non classé

WHAT WENT WRONG ???

Today, in most African countries the citizens are way ahead, hate and fear the Presidents for Life. The corruption, lack of health, education, jobs. The dreams have turned to dust.

WHY?

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Absolute power is the cancer of absolute corruption. Government by the power clique, for the clique. Forget the people. Subjugate the poor.

Cameroon, Uganda, Ruanda… presidents change the constitution in order to stay in power. To stay alive and avoid prosecution for corruption, killing, suppressing…

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Madiba said: « Africans don’t lack in ability, they lack opportunity ».

Yeah, like 70%+ unemployment, unless Daddy knows a Big Man.

WHAT TO DO?

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GOOD GOVERNMENT CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT GOOD OPPOSITION

Winston Churchill said to an adversary: « I detest your opinions, but I will fight for your right to express them ».

African Presidents, don’t arrest, silence, kill your political adversaries. Protect and treasure them. It is they that make you think harder, think better. Serve the people.

GOOD GOVERNANCE NEEDS GOOD OPPOSITION!

 

 

 

10 REASONS WHY COLONIALISM WAS BAD, BAD, BAD!

AFRICAN CONTINENT, Apartheid, Britain, COLO, COLONIALISM, Non classé

TIME4AFRICA NEW LOGO v1.1 sans copy

 

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES INVADED, SETTLED & FINALLY COLONISED THE ENTIRE AFRICAN CONTINENT. 

South Africa was among the first territories to be settled, by the Dutch in 1562, unseated shortly after by the British.

Formal colonial rule was, for the most part, imposed in the latter part of the 19th Century, principally by Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany…

To ‘justify’ the scramble for Africa and its wealth, a Platonic Founding Myth had to be found:

“to civilise the barbarian natives of darkest Africa.”

The so-called mission of civilisation was uniformly carried out in the following manner:

1)      Seizure and confiscation of all land.

2)      Pillaging and theft of all natural assets. 

3)      Systematic murder, (ethnic cleansing), of dissident tribes  – Bushmen & Hottentots. 

4)      The creation of the Slave Trade.

5)      Introduction of Race Laws to suppress and de-humanise.

6)      The imposition of Christianity. In name but NOT in practice.

7)      Limitation of freedom of movement and education – a.k.a. Apartheid.

8)      The pretence that the indigenous population was inferior – unter-mensch.

9)      Institutionalisation of a Baas culture, with the superiority of the White man.

10)    The lasting impoverishment, to this day, of the entire population of the Continent.

Apologists for Colonialisation argue that Europe brought to Africa: roads, transport, skyscrapers, gold mines … Yes for the white settlers, but NO for the disenfranchised.

T H E  R A P E  O F  A   C O N T I N E N T.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M & M

America First, Donald Trump, Kim jong un, Macron, Merkel, Trump

THE ODD COUPLE – UNITED FOR HUMANISM & DIVERSITY.

Merkel: « I don’t follow public opinion I lead. »

Macron: « I was not elected to preserve the status quo, my programme is to transform … »

M&M believe in leadership,  the moral values of a strong, united Europe. Compassion, Integration, Equal Opportunities, Welcome to desperate refugees – (a bonus to our ageing population), an Economic power-house, cutting unemployment, Leadership in combatting Global warming and Climate Change. Saving our planet! Reducing extremes in income. Saving our decent Democracy.

The odd M & M couple will stand up to the Orange Man:

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« Amerika First. » Isolationism, Ignorance, Bombast, HATER of United Nations:

  • Muslims, African Americans, Iran, Paris Climate Control, Racist, Liar, Fantasist, Navel-gazing Narcissist,Pals up with pro Nazi extreme right, Macho arm(s) wrestling with Rocket-man – with mass murder of millions of innocent Koreans – North and South.th (9)Rocketman & Orangeman together are the greatest threat to World Peace and our Humanitarian Values. They need each-other!

M & M  versus  O R A N G E  &  R O C K E T  M A N  for  H U M A N I T Y.

 

400,000+ REASONS WHY…

Aung San Suu Kyi, Birmanie, Crime against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing, Myanamar, Nobel Peace Prize, Rohingya

SHE SHOULD BE STRIPPED OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.

Aung San Suu Kyi acheived ANGEL status in her fight for Human Rights, copping 15 years of house arrest.

SHE was awarded the Prix Sakharov, Nehru, Simon Bolivar, Palme… An honorary doctorate by Oxford University. And many others. All of which should be taken away.

SHE condones, at the very least,  the massive persecution of the ROHINGYA people. Accusing them of terrorism, (similar to hitting Mike Tyson with your nose), and World media of gross exaggeration.

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THE ROHINGYA Moslem minority is denied: full citizenship, freedom of movement, limited to 2 children per family…

BABIES, kiddies, moms, fathers, whole families are slaughtered daily, by soldiers, police, Buddhist monks.

SHE does nothing to protect the victims from ETHNIC CLEANSING & CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, on a massive scale.

WESTERN DEMOCRACIES simply wring their hands and look the other way.

BANGLA DESH, one of the poorest nations on the planet is overrun by the fleeing ROHINGYA families.

WE at the very least should be ensuring their safety in MYANAMAR and en route. Building, urgently, housing and hospitals for the hundreds of thousands of homeless, starving, wounded, sick families. « The least wanted people in the World. »

UNITED NATIONS should step in with health-care, soldiers, funds to just say STOP!

SHE should be brought to justice at the International HAGUE court. Or is that only for African politicians?

HOUSE ARREST IS TOO GOOD FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI.

TIME4JAZZ

Non classé

M U S I C  &  C U L T U R E  O F 20th C E N T U R Y

The music of 20th century culture was Jazz and Blues. Rooted in Africa, perhaps especially Cameroon, and transported by slavery to the New World.

My personal faves: Basie, Bessie Smith, Bird, Coltrane, Lester Young & wife Billie Holiday, Miles, Mingus, Monk, Roach, Rollins… BB King, Big Mama Thornton, Nina Simone and the great Buddy Guy. I can listen day and night to Yusef Lateef’s flute.
This musical genius equals Bach, Beethoven, Mozart. Just listen to Bach and Monk which bridges and unites centuries.


Brit Rock of the 50s/60s could not have existed without these giants. Clapton, Beck, Keith Richards . . . listen and learn every mother loving day.


If I were forced to choose one only musician to take to my desert isle I would hesitate between ‘Trane and Duke for their sheer genius.


Finally I would choose Duke who I had the privilege of meeting, when I was 18, at a full rehearsal in Coventry Cathedral, my country’s symbol of « no more war. » But I would smuggle in the entire oeuvre of John Coltrane, ‘cos every time I hear it, it’s like for the first time around.


J A Z Z   L I V E S – L I S T E N  I N. https://youtu.be/PYgow060zOg

MUGABE – 37 YEARS IN POWER

Non classé

th-4SAINT OR SINNER Robert Mugabe, a highly educated man, became PM then President of Zimbabwe from 1980 and is still there at the ripe old age of 93 this February, predicting that he will continue unt…

Source : MUGABE – 37 YEARS IN POWER

MUGABE – 37 YEARS IN POWER

Non classé

SAINT OR SINNER Robert Mugabe, a highly educated man, became PM then President of Zimbabwe from 1980 and is still there at the ripe old age of 93 this February, predicting that he will continue unt…

Source : MUGABE – 37 YEARS IN POWER

MUGABE – 37 YEARS IN POWER

Education, Free health-care, Robert Mugabe, TIME4AFRICA, Zimbabwe

th-1SAINT OR SINNER

Robert Mugabe, a highly educated man, became PM then President of Zimbabwe from 1980 and is still there at the ripe old age of 93 this February, predicting that he will continue until he makes his century.

Opinion is polarised, with many Africans giving him sainthood status, and most westerners, notably anglophones, the complete opposite.

th-4 FREEDOM FIGHTER 

Revered or remembered for his radical land reform, by the confiscation and africanisation of  vast farmlands owned for generations by some 4,500 white Zimbabweans, dating back to the colonisation by Cecil Rhodes.

Throughout his 37 years of absolute power he has mocked the West, deriding calls for his retirement – with the witticism that nobody demands same for Queen Elisabeth. Ignoring that she is a constitutional head of state, with no political or executive power. A role he could very well have chosen for himself.

I have recently read an eulogy that « Mugabe is the greatest man since Hitler » having rid the country of wicked, white, colonialist, landowners.

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DICTATORIAL DEMAGOGUE

Detractors of Mugabe accuse him of a smorgasbord of sins:

° turning Zimbabwe from Africa’s breadbasket to basket case, through his land grab in favour of his cronies, resulting in +80% unemployment.

° thus turning Zim from major food exporter to importer.

° impoverishing the vast majority of the 14 million citizens, causing thousands to flee.

° the destruction, of the worthless Zim currency with historic inflation of +2 million%.

° human rights abuse on a massive scale, with repression, imprisonment, torture and  death to his detractors.

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My programme would have been the following:

°Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

°Land Reform by converting  ownership of farms to long-term contracts, conditional on intensive education of farm management to Zimbabweans; provision on-site of schools, health clinics, places of worship, community transport, pension rights. Contractual renewal, depending on the exemplary implementation of the contract and full integration of Zim managers. No inheritance on expiration or death.

°Social democratic government, with constitutional limit to terms of office, universal, supervised suffrage, a loyal opposition. (Mugabe could have become titular Head of State when he reached full term).

°Free health care and education for all.

°Managed economy with fiscal rigour and sanctions on corruption.

°Dynamic engagement with Africa and the Western world.

POVERTY = REPRESSION & NOT FREEDOM.