Review of African blogs

comments on a disturbing report from the Times (UK) on Phillip Morris and British American Tabacco (BAT) targeting yourng and children in Nigeria to become smokers.

'Lawyers for Nigeria’s largest state, Kano, will argue today that the tobacco companies sponsored pop concerts and sporting events and, in some instances, gave away free cigarettes, to recruit minors to smoking.'

Nthambazale.blogspot.com reports on new developments in the use of alternative technologies in Malawi.

'In an effort to make engineering relevant to the society, the Electrical Engineering department at the Malawi Polytechnic, has been running the Wireless Network for Health Applications project since mid 2006. This work is being done with collaboration from the Radio Communications Unit, Aeronomy and Radio Propagation Laboratory, Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy. The goal of this project is to improve the delivery of health services by improving access to information and timely communication through low cost wireless-based communication network and basic telemedicine applications in the city of Blantyre.'

The Concoction - Apparently the US Army and George Bush have been studying the film “Battle of Algiers” to try and find some answers to Iraq – A slight relief in that at least they have moved from the Hollywood film model to something more realistic. However as Concoction states that it’s not as funny as it sounds if one looks at some of the film’s depictions

'...the film opens with a scene in which "Paras" (French paratroopers) brutally torture an old Arab man. The information they get from him will lead them to the hide-out of Ali la Pointe, the last remaining leader (so they hope) of the FLN, the movement they are determined to crush. As they close in on the hide-out, the film retraces how the Algerian revolutionary movement began, showing us some of the routine indignities visited on Arabs by French colonials: a bunch of young French punks trip Ali just for the fun of seeing him take a fall... As the Arabs begin to demand an independent Algerian state and terrorist cells begin to leave bombs in places frequented by the French (the race-track, bars, the Air France office) the colonists (many of them called pieds-noirs because they were born in Algeria) become more and more enraged, attacking even small Arab children trying to sell candy on the street.'

I am not quite sure of the point of this study except possibly that Bush et al are seriously concerned about loosing all control of Iraq and having to do a runner similar to Vietnam.

Nigerian Curiosity comments on a recent interview by former Biafrian leader, Emeka Ojukwu in which he claimed that Igbo’s were not equally Nigerians. Curiosity wonders whether he is once again leading towards the idea of sessession and states:

'In the BBC interview, despite suggesting a separate state for Igbos, he also mentioned that Nigeria could still remain a united nation. These two statements seem contradictory and the article does not elucidate further. Unfortunately, I neither have access to the entire interview and cannot speculate on the intentions behind Ojukwu's statements, nor am I knowledgeable about the context within which they were made. It would be interesting to have a broader understanding of where he is coming from. Nevertheless, I must wonder whether Igbo people feel like second-class citizens in their own country. If so, how is that possible? The Igbo people that I know are successful, industrious, hard working and extremely driven in business, education and any other area where I have had the opportunity to get to know them. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, Igbos are relegated to second-class status.'

The comments give further insight into the feelings of Igbo people but for many of the civil war generation, there has never been any recognition of the pain and suffering of ordinary Igbo's during the 3 year period.

Voice of Somaliland contends that the root of African problems today ly with the manipulation of the different ethnic peoples of Africa, by African leaders and gives Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi as a prime example.

'Whether we like it or not and whether elected or a despot, a nation has just one leader. In diverse ethnic settings, this person belongs to just one ethnic group. In particular, when the power is snatched by guns, the leader’s fighters are pre-dominantly from his/her ethnic groups. This is the most widely observed scenario in Africa. The worst case is when the ethnic group constitutes the minority group. Since democracy is a majority rule, this minority class will never allow a functioning democracy; always sabotage the interests of the majority, and most importantly always believe in the gun since that is the only way for them to be able to rule. This is the scenario in Ethiopia.'

Rosemary Ekosso comments that the British government’s actions in the Chagos islands as an example of colonial dehumanisation and racism.

'Landgrabbing
A god complex.
Method
Start in 17th and 18th century
First, uproot people from their homeland
Enslave them or otherwise press them into demeaning service
Then ignore them until a rich and powerful country wants their land
Next, turn your beady eye on this land, viewing the human inhabitants as an inconvenient weed on potentially lucrative real estate
Weed the natives out, referring to them as “Tarzan and Man Friday" , thus playing up racist stereotypes of savages who should be divested of their land because you are better at exploiting it.
Then lease the island to the rich and powerful nation in exchange for an 11 million pound discount on Polaris missiles.'