Transparency International’s corruption index for 2009 was released this week and as readers of this blog know I have a bit of a problem with their index – mainly that it ranks Somalia at all. For the past two years TI has been raking Somalia as the #1 corrupt country in the world. Don’t get me wrong. Here’s my problem with this ranking: if a country doesn’t have any functioning government (police, courts, etc), how can there be corruption? Unless TI is counting robbery, murder, public stoning, internal displacement of people, and so on as corruption, then the only thing Somalia can be ranked in is Shit List.

It’s almost near the end of the month and I only had one post in the entire month. Hmm, something is amiss, right? Well November and I dislike each other due to the fact that every professor wants me to be his or her bitch for this month. In return, I hate this month. An anger displacement syndrome for you there.

More after the break…

Manfred Nowak, the United Nations human rights investigator is throwing tantrum in the media following his ejection from Zimbabwe. Nowak alleges that the Mugabe government has intentionally barred him from entering the country because ‘he knows’ he will find evidence of human rights abuses committed by Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF. Nowak states, using undiplomatic language and improper protocols, “I can only interpret that, at this point of time, they didn’t want any kind of independent fact-finding on torture and other forms of ill-treatment,” referring to ZANU-PF. He goes on to add, “This is totally unacceptable conduct of a government – of a member state of the United Nations – vis-a-vis a United Nations independent expert who is mandated by the human rights council to carry out fact-finding missions on the invitation of the government.” Notice the last part, “on the invitation of the government.” Also notice Mr. Nowak is exaggerating his importance by implying that he is ‘mandated’ by the U.N.’s  human rights council, an act that is essentially imposed on a U.N. member state by the council through the Security Council. In fact, the government of Zimbabwe invited him voluntarily with no mandate to carry out, other than to investigate rights abuses in the country and report it to the human rights council – an entity that once included Iran, Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, etc etc.

While he was in South Africa, the government of Zimbabwe asked Nowak not to come now because the government officials he needs to talk to as part of his investigation are busy with SADC mediations on the unity government between Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party that is currently in jeopardy of dissolving. Thus, the government of Zimbabwe rescinded its invitation and asked Nowak to reschedule it for another time before he arrived in the country. But Mr. Nowak, who was only coming to the country on the invitation of the host government, took matters into his own hands and showed up at Harare International Airport with a stupid look on his face and insisting that he was invited by the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai – who I should add has ceased to participate in the unity government and has no authority on foreign relations. Accordingly, the immigration authority refused him entry into the country and put him back on the returning flight to South Africa. Case closed, right?

Not if you are Manfred Nowak, a supposed neutral diplomat working for the United Nations. He has spent the last couple of days bitching to every media outlet that is willing to listen to his petulant and undiplomatic behavior. Furthermore, Nowak’s self-righteous attitudes and media blitz seems to reflect a disdain for the United Nation’s own Charter that is built on the foundation of respect for member states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity. If I invite someone to my house party and I change my mind and tell them not to come, I expect my wishes to be followed. If they choose to ignore my request and show up at my door anyway? Of course I would shut the door on their face. Too bad the mindless western media will not put this simple diplomatic issue into context. Granted, there a lot of human rights abuses that have to be investigated in Zimbabwe (it is long overdue) and more importantly, MDC-Tsvangirai supporters are just as culpable in these abuses as ZANU-PF supporters are – a fact the western media has been sweeping under the rug for far too long. Because of Nowak’s self-righteousness and stupidity, many victims of state and political parties’ abuse will not have their stories heard.

The moral of the story though? Don’t invite Manfred Nowak to your house!

It took me a while but I have finally finished putting together a video picture montage of my trip to East Africa this past summer where I was studying (near Arusha, Tanzania). I hope you’ll like it; the pictures are mostly in chronological order with my journey. Please enjoy!

From the BBC:

“The winners of a quiz organised by Somali Islamists [in Kismayo] have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes…..Prizes included AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and an anti-tank mine.” Even the losers get prizes, “the runners-up did not go home empty-handed, taking away an AK-47 and bullets.” According to Al-Shabab spokesman, “The reason the young men were rewarded with weapons is to encourage them to participate in the ongoing holy war against the enemies of Allah in Somalia,” which, ladies and gentlemen, are the women and children of Somalia.

I wonder if the winners, with their heavier firepower, would try to kill and rob the runners-up.

Earth

As it is officially Blog Action Day ‘09 now, and the topic of this year being Climate Change, how about we care for our Mother Earth a little more, eh? We haven’t been exactly visiting her often even as She continues to look out for us (how about that wonderful Oxygen we can’t live without?), provide us food to fill our bellies (those of us fortunate enough to have such a luxury) and no matter what kind of seriously crap we dump onto Her, still looking out for us – isn’t time we give back to our Mother Earth?

Granted, we don’t all agree on the cause of climate change but we sure all love the air we breath, the fresh water we drink, and the magnificent natural landscapes that surrounds in all forms and manifestations. Do your part, my friends. Give some love to Mother Earth.

It is the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of Capt Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, orchastrated by France and its puppet tools for his stances against neocolonialism, anti-IMF/World Bank, and debts. But the most threatening thing about this 35 years old leader were his ideas that threatened both internal and external parasites. His progressive policies, social and economic, were ahead of their time to say the least.

Sankara

He was the first African leader to emphatically promote women’s rights and declare HIV/AIDS public health priority. He also stripped tribal chiefs the “right” to get forced-labor from their “subjects,” among other revolutionary policies during his military rule. He was the first and last African head of state to declare IMF/World Bank “aid loans” illegal and should not be paid by any poor country. They don’t make ‘em like that any more. Big up to all those who died for a cause!

If only Africa had leaders like him…

Somali pirates are not much liked these days; for a good reason many would argue. But we all know before the original pirates were hijacking commercial ships, they were lowly fishermen. Besides keeping toxic and nuclear waste dumping ships from the Somali coast, it turns out that they have also successfully kept illegal trawlers at bay from the coast. Now comes the insanely unexpected: Somali pirates have saved the livelihoods of not only Somali fishermen, but Kenyan fishermen as well. The further these pirates have gone out to the high seas to hijack ships, the more the ships (both legitimate and illegitimate ones) have stayed further away – resulting in almost no illegal trawlers entering in Kenya’s (as well as Somali’s, obviously) economic zone (200 miles from the coast) and territorial waters (12 miles) as these industrial illegal trawlers used to do before the rise of pirate hijackings in the horn.

Ironically what the government of Kenya could not do, that is protect its fisheries and marine life, has been done for them by Somali pirates – by accident. Now both Kenyan and Somali fishermen are catching more fish and have a decent life. More importantly, the ecosystem is returning to normal cycles, and fish population has dramatically increased, leading to two-fold benefits for the humans who rely on the ocean for livelihood and the marine life that is now healthy. Now, before I get any hate-mail on this subject, remember the smile on these happy fishermen…

PS: 20,000 Kenyan Shillings is about 250 U.S. dollars.

Tiken is a nightmare for corrupt politicians and oppressive governments around the world. More importantly, he is the voice of the oppressed everywhere. “If the people want to say something and they don’t have the right to say it, reggae music must do it.”