Friday 2 February 2018

Lest we forget that USA is also a Shithole

Trump meeting African leaders at the G7 meeting in 2017.
Spitting fire and fury over his dislike for Blacks and other non-White people, the unrestrained political mongrel in the name of Donald Trump bluffed that immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries in Africa including Haiti and El Salvador are not welcome in USA.

Nobody would have imagined that a president of the so called world’s superpower state would utter such racist and divisive sentiments. But then, it isn’t a surprise since the 45th occupant of the White House is a man terribly short of insight with a delusional penchant for courting attention.

Facing economic, social and political despondency for decades, African states and other poor non-African, non-White countries ashamedly carry along the ‘shithole’ tag.

Precisely, the nature and behaviour of most of the African governments make it prime for the ‘shithole’ classification to ideally define the African governments. Why ‘shithole’ African states?

Look around the continent and realize how African states are infested with corruption, poverty, socio-economic inequalities and disparities, political injustice among other challenges which majority of the states have deliberately refused to address or pretend to be addressing.

Decades after gaining the oft-exaggerated political independence, the filthy majority of the African states are facing the same socio-economic and political problems they sought to effectively deal with at the time the cunning colonialists ‘declared’ them politically independent.

But most people often forget, or at least pretend to forget that African countries would be miles ahead socially, economically and politically were it not for the colonization and neo-colonization of the Black man’s continent.

Who are responsible for colonization and neo-colonization of Africa? The foreign powers, with their mad rush to Africa premised on the classical rivalry between the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the world, though the greedy African political leadership is also to be blamed.

The West has been led by USA for years following the crumbling of the British Empire. Taking advantage of the historical and apocalyptic fall of the British Empire, the USA subsumed in pretence the world’s leadership with her hegemonic global agenda fueled by the much famed ideology of American Exceptionalism and the Cold War.

During the Cold War, African states were vulnerable to the antics of the world’s superpowers at that time, the USA and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), before the latter’s cataclysmic disintegration. African countries were enticed by ‘gifts’ from the capitalist axis led by USA and communist axis under USSR’s leadership.

Neo-colonialism, which Africa’s former colonial masters had institutionalized, intensified as a result of the Cold War. Foreign powers offered financial and technical assistance to African states that cooperated with them with some going to an extent of facilitating the toppling of governments.

Of particular concern is the role played by the notorious USA and nosy France in overthrowing legitimate governments across Africa.

USA, for instance, was instrumental in engineering the military coup in Ghana then under the leadership of the charismatic pan-Africanist, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. The aim of the coup in Ghana was to trigger a stream of chaos or put in place a puppet regime so that USA could get as much cocoa as possible at extremely cheaper rates.

Across Africa’s Great Lakes Region in the lush Congo Forest, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire) was not spared either by the covetousness of Washington. The USA government was behind the ousting of the influential pan-Africanist Patrice Lumumba who was captured, tortured and executed.

Lumumba was replaced by the flashy dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, whose puppet regime went to bed with the USA government to loot the minerals at the expense of the Congolese citizens, majority of whom are poor.

Disguising herself as the champion of democracy across the world, the USA didn’t bother to promote democratic principles in DRC, choosing instead to confidently support a dictatorial regime led by the despotic Mobutu. Currently, USA’s multi-national corporations walk into DRC, collect minerals and walk out in fashion under protection of DRC’s authoritarian regime and the USA government.

Nigeria also endured a lengthy period of political instability characterized by coups that the USA partly orchestrated. They saw the oil and voila, they triggered chaos in Africa’s most populous country. Washington shipped the oil as poor Nigerians wallowed in poverty.

In dubious fashion, the USA government continues to be hell bent in supporting non-democratic regimes in Africa and interfering with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states.

Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti and other states that have non-democratic governments continue to enjoy the support of Uncle Sam. Ethiopia has a terrible human rights record but Washington cannot advocate for the rule of law to be observed owing to the fact that the former is a strategic military partner to the USA government.

Having mastered the art of double-standards, the USA cannot condemn the authoritarian regime of East Africa’s longest-serving despot, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. In Kenya, the USA government is supporting the corrupt and rogue Jubilee administration without showing utmost concern for social and political injustice brought to light before, during and after the electioneering period.

By the way, I’m exasperated by the dictatorial antics of the despotic Jubilee administration that rekindles the memories of the anti-democratic KANU regime. Kenya’s democratic gains have been eroded under the Jubilee administration and unapologetically, Kenya is acquiring a peculiar statehood of being a shithole of shitholes. Washington, the champion of democracy, would pretentiously ignore this.

Uncle Sam wouldn’t raise a finger and condemn Djibouti’s strongman, Ismail Omar Guelleh as the tiny Horn of Africa nation plays host to the former’s military base. Apart from the USA, Djibouti has allowed France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and India to set up military bases.

Libya is experiencing a civil war as a result of the invasion by the USA-led NATO forces dating back to 2011. Libya, then under the able leadership of Brother Leader Muammar Qaddafi, was peaceful with the Libyan people guaranteed of access to high quality social amenities with the country not having any foreign debt.

Because of her voracious appetite for oil, USA orchestrated the fall of Libya by arming militants and crafting evil conspiracy theories that Libyans were tired of Qaddafi’s dictatorial regime and were demanding for establishment of democratic systems and structures.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen have been ravaged by wars instigated by USA in the name of “War on Terror”. America’s destruction of Afghanistan began after the 9/11 attack with Washington riding on the paranoia that the Taliban was cooperating with Al Qaeda in promoting terrorism. USA invaded Afghanistan when the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia!

Iraq was destroyed by USA because the Washington government was eyeing the former’s oil. George W. Bush, then serving as the 43rd USA president, lied to the world on how Iraq had ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.

Unknown to many, Iraq had a stockpile of these weapons but destroyed them in 1991 and ceased all its nuclear and biological weapons programmes in the same year due to pressure exerted by USA and her allies. Since then, the Iraqi people are strangers to peace and stability with puppets regime established by the USA. And by the way, if Iraq had such weaponry, would the USA have invaded her?

Syria and Yemen are war-torn states with the USA drooling at the oil fields of these countries. But the shithole USA government claims that the Syrian and Yemeni governments are unpopular with the masses and they must fall. USA financed destitute militants to hold anti-government demonstrations in Syria and Yemen, a similar case with Libya, in the wake of the contorted and highly skewed Arab Spring.

Crafting of propaganda and hatching of conspiracy theories is USA’s well-mastered game. Having faced moments of non-cooperation with the Libyan, Syrian and Yemeni governments, the USA government played the opportunist card, triggered chaos and siphoned the oil while lying on why ‘democratic’ governments must be established in these countries.

The double-faced USA government cannot condemn whatsoever the undemocratic regime in Saudi Arabia. The cooperation between USA and Saudi Arabia dates back to February 1945 when the then US President Franklin Roosevelt met with King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia aboard a US warship.

Roosevelt met with King Aziz on his way to the USA after attending the Yalta Conference on the future of Europe following the end of the Second World War. Since then, USA and Saudi Arabia have been close allies with geopolitical interests and oil being the agenda of the American government.

Saudi Arabia is used as a proxy by USA to generate political instability in the Middle East. Through her military partnership/cooperation with Saudi Arabia, USA finances militants to fight legitimate governments in the Middle East with the objective being to cause confusion and steal the oil. Saudi Arabia has a dubious distinction and distinguished notoriety of arming militants, case in point the current civil war in Yemen. But USA is silent.

Closer home, South Sudan is muddling through a civil war that erupted in December 2013. Recently, the USA denounced South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and declared him as an ‘unfit partner’. But nobody is questioning the role the USA government has been playing in fueling the civil strife in South Sudan. Remember USA is siphoning oil in Africa’s youngest state.

I bet a deal between USA and Salva Kiir has gone sour and Washington has made an about turn on supporting him and is hell bent on deposing Kiir and establishing another puppet government. Folks, it is the oil.

What do you call a state that interferes with the sovereignty of other states, supports dictatorial regimes and promotes war in the world as a divide and rule strategy to loot natural resources? You call it shithole! Never mind that Africa is shithole but my mother country, Kenya, is the shithole of shitholes.

And by the way, at the recent African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, African political leaders shelved the idea of demanding an apology from the not-so-well read USA president after he sent them a letter expressing his respect for Africa! African political leaders are compromised and intoxicated by neo-colonialism. But, don’t you see both are shitholes?