By Ekow Hagan
Ghana has committed itself to sending soldiers to assist
Malian government forces to crash Islamic rebels who have captured the north of
the country.
 |
| French Soldiers ready for combat |
Sources close to the Military High Command say Ghanaian
soldiers will join French and other African troops in perhaps what is likely to
become West Africa’s most bloody war.
Some of the well trained rebels are believed to have fought
for the Gadafi regime and are armed to the teeth with sophisticated weapons.
The weapons were apparently taken from the Gadafi stockpiles.
There are suggestions that weapons dropped by NATO planes
for anti-Gadafi rebels may also have fallen into the hands of the insurgent s
in Mali.
Nigeria and Senegal have also agreed to send troops to Mali
while Britain and the United State of America have committed themselves to the
provision of logistic support.
Military experts point out that this is no peace-keeping
mission but a full blown out war in which the French and West African forces
are likely to suffer heavy casualties.
They point out that the participating countries ought to
prepare adequately for the psychological, political and social consequencies of
their intervention.
The rebels have warned that all countries participating in
the Malian war have become legitimate targets of their forces.
Nigeria is already in the grips of a low intensity civil war
with Boko Haram, Militant Islamic group.
There are credible reports that Nigeria is receiving
substantial assistance from the United States of American in its war with Boko
Haram.
It is still not clear whether the Government of Ghana needs
Parliamentary approval to commit Ghanaian troops to war in a foreign country.
EDITORIAL
POLITICAL SOLUTION
Like the Government of Algeria, The Insight urges a
political solution to the Malian crisis because the consequence of an all out
war in which the western power play a major role would be dire.
It is common knowledge that over the last two decades all
the major western countries West Africa as a means of controlling its vast oil
resources.
In our view, the West sees the Malian crisis as an
opportunity to set up a military outpost in
here been dreaming about recolonising West Africa for the sole purpose
of enhancing their neo-colonial control.
The United States of America is already seeing Mali as the
platform from which it will launch its drone attacks across Africa.
The African countries participating in this adventure must
take the lessons of history seriously and history shows that participation in
such adventuress always breed instability at home.
The people of Ghana do not want anything which will lead to
the importation of the war in Mali and our government should watch out.
STATEMENT FROM SAMIA NKRUMAH
My
dear Comrades and Friends,
It is not unusual to engage in
heated discussions and debates on the way forward after an electoral defeat. We
are a Democratic Party and we welcome self-criticism and reflection by all
members. We, the leaders of the Party, are totally committed to protecting the
solidarity and unity of our political force.
 |
| Samia Yaba Nkrumah, CPP Chair |
In no way will some of us engage
in public arguments nor will we be dragged into petty squabbles in the media.
The right place to discuss our problems is within not outside the party.
I strongly urge all CPP executives,
members, and sympathizers to remain focused on what we need to do in this
period. We must without delay and beginning from the centre, organize
ourselves. All national, regional and constituency executives are documenting
our experiences and collating views as to what went wrong for us in the 2012
elections.
Many of us have made serious sacrifices in terms of time, energy and
resources to improve our fortunes. Although the harvest was potentially
plentiful, the laborers were few at the end of the day. Ours is the typical
challenge of a minority party trying to make its voice heard.
Ghanaians have told us what they
think. They like our ideas but they do not consider us sufficiently organized
to be given political power and govern. We have heard them clearly. We are not
broken, we are not giving up and since the elections, we have spent every
minute charting the way forward.
There
is always resistance to an idea that threatens the status quo, that seeks to
make genuine change in a society. But the light of patriotism cannot be
extinguished. Truth cannot be silenced forever. Sincerity cannot be destroyed.
Those values that we want to inject into our politics are more required today
than ever and nothing will deter us in our mission to make our country a more
just and humane place.
We cannot and will never abandon our
ideals and the vision of our mentor, the great Pan-Africanist, Osagyefo Dr
Kwame Nkrumah. This vision remains the realization of fair distribution of
opportunities for all Ghanaians, to meet the basic needs of our citizens, to
become a self-reliant, dignified and culturally confident nation, and to
further the cause of African unity, our only way to become economically viable
for the well-being of our people.
We do
not want to get distracted with petty internal wrangling and forget our mission
to serve Ghana with our ideas and our vision. We have dedicated our lives to
this mission.
Please
stand firm and help us to, within 6 months, present Ghanaians with a
well-organized Party, however small, which is worthy of being associated with
the unmatched achievements of modern Ghana’s founder, Kwame Nkrumah.
Forward Ever!
Samia
Nkrumah
SAMIA
NKRUMAH: IN A DIFFICULT TRANSITION TO MARXISM-NKRUMAISM
By Lang T.K.A. Nubuor (A Sympathizer of the CPP)
Reading
through Ms Christina Samia Yaba Nkrumah’s January 11, 2013 statement on the way
forward for the Convention People’s Party (CPP), one is immediately struck with
a sudden spirit of urgency in the Chairperson’s tone. Such urgency was
impressed on her continually for years for as many times that we ever had the
occasion to comment on the way she goes about the business of running the
party; but without a semblance of response from her.
It is
unfortunate that it is now (after losing the Jomoro seat) that she awakens to
that urgency; but it is too late for her. Her sudden call for self-criticism
within the party is indeed belated. She truly never made intra-party self-criticism
a tool for organizational development. And, yet, that instrument has always
been the source and seat of organizational strength and advancement.
All
the same it is possible to understand her previous but silent rejection of
self-criticism. For, self-criticism is that tool which scientific socialists
(Marxist-Nkrumaists) consciously employ in their organizational work; unlike
bourgeois parties which see it negatively as a communist construct and avoid it
as an anathema. Samia has never been a socialist, not to talk about her being a
scientific socialist of the Marxist-Nkrumaist breed. Hence her reject.
Her
sudden romance with the concept is yet to be bone-deep. For, while she now
calls for its application she continues in her old ways of being silent on the
question of socialism the adoption of which is the only means of coming into
grips with the practical dynamics and the politico-philosophical principles
animating that concept – self-criticism. We are saying that the true
application of self-criticism cannot be and is not outside the socialist
framework.
As it
is, this sudden romance with the concept of self-criticism remains at the
periphery of Marxism-Nkrumaism – the expression of scientific socialism within
the conditions of Africa. We are not helped by such knee jerk reactions
bordering on the romantic. A scientific appreciation of the party’s condition
on the basis of the principles enunciated by the Foremost Pan-Africanist,
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, is the impeccable requisite now.
 | |
| Samia Nkrumah |
In
this respect, we can proceed here to point out that Samia’s proclamation of the
CPP as a ‘Democratic Party’ can only be understood in its bourgeois framework.
We are here in reference to her call for the CPP to, ‘without delay’, organize
‘from the centre’. A People’s Party is surely not organized ‘from the
centre’ but from the grassroots. It is bourgeois parties that are
organized ‘from the centre’. The name is Convention People’s Party. And
its historical origins explain clearly to us that it originated from the
grassroots.
It is
the abandonment of the grassroots approach and concentration on the
top-to-bottom strategy that have today brought the CPP to its toes. Currently,
we can only see Samia well-positioned in the bourgeois framework. We cannot,
however, deny that she has made statements suggestive of a certain desire to
jump out of that framework. In her Christmas greetings in a text message on
December 25, 2012, for instance, she states that ‘We will organise together to
help our people liberate themselves from poverty’.
That
organizationally and ideologically correct statement stands in contrast with
the bourgeois top-to-bottom (from the centre) strategy. The point, however, is
that such a statement appears to be coming out of the blues of her native
bourgeois ideological bent of mind. Else, how could she suddenly abandon that
correct statement within a period of less than three weeks and return to talks
about ‘from the centre’? Our lady is reluctantly in a transition
occasioned by her electoral defeat throwing her into populist knee jerk
reactions.
In
this transition, she still does not see anything wrong about her old bourgeois
anti-Marxist-Nkrumaist ideas and sincerely believes that Ghanaians love those
ideas although they have their doubts as to the CPP’s organizational strength.
This is her take: ‘Ghanaians … like our ideas but they do not consider us
sufficiently organized to be given political power and govern.’ The weight of
her bourgeois education, which she still carries around, unfortunately blinds
her to the linkage between ideological and organizational choices.
And
Samia has an interesting conception of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s vision.
She restricts that vision to the ‘distribution of opportunities’. No
Sir, Madam. Osagyefo’s scientific socialist vision of a socialist united Africa
is fundamentally concerned with the production of opportunities by
the people themselves on the basis of which they will
determine the system of distribution to their benefit. That is why her text
message makes better sense since it is by such means that the people liberate
themselves from poverty and do not give political power to anybody
to be governed – they govern themselves.
Osagyefo’s
vision of a socialist united Africa does not project Ghana as ‘a self-reliant,
dignified and culturally confident nation’ (something it can never be)
separately from ‘the cause of African unity’; in fact, the vision projects not
African nations but a single African Nation with the
obstructionist barriers removed and thus making it possible for any African to
settle anywhere in Africa just in the same way that any Ga or Asante can settle
anywhere in Ghana without being asked to produce residence permit or passport.
Anyway,
when Samia says that ‘We cannot and will never abandon our ideals and the
vision of our mentor, the great Pan-Africanist, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’,
does she mean to separate OUR ideals from OSAGYEFO’S vision? Please, in
case she visualizes something to that effect she must quickly drop it as if
some extremely foul excreta has just been deposited unto her honourable head.
We have only one revolutionary ideology in Africa. It is Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s
initiated Marxism-Nkrumaism. It spells out our ideals and vision.
In
this piece of commentary, on the basis of her own statements, we have drawn out
a picture of a Samia Nkrumah in a tedious transition to Marxism-Nkrumaism. She
is experiencing difficulties to change and is resisting change. We believe that
when she crosses the transition she could be a great asset to Africa. For now,
however, the way forward requires that she be sacked for non-performance to
enable a younger person with impeccable Marxist-Nkrumaist credentials to assume
the Chairmanship.
That
is the very first step in the CPP’s way forward. Good luck and God bless.
STATEMENT
BY (CPR)
Ladies
and Gentlemen of the media, we welcome you to this press conference.
We
have invited you here for two main purposes (i) to introduce to you the
Committee for Party Re-organisation (CPR) and; (ii) further state our position
on key matters for the way forward for the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
We
are the Committee for Party Re-organisation (CPR) which includes CPP UK
Representatives, CC members, the youth and some of the Parliamentary Candidates
who stood on the ticket of the CPP in the 2012 elections. The Committee was
born out of post-election meetings held on December 15th and
December 22nd 2012 at the Party headquarters, during which hectic
deliberations on the Party’s performance before, during and after the December
elections was undertaken.
 |
| Abu Sakara |
We
are inspired by the reasons for Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Positive Action of which
the CPP embarked 62 years ago towards our colonial independence. The situation
confronting the CPP, today, demands bold scientific steps in reconstructing the
Party towards defeating poverty and exploitation in its current form.
Ladies
and Gentlemen of the media, the Electoral Commission was mandated to conduct
free, fair and transparent elections. However, it is very regrettable that on
the two voting days many polling stations allowed people to vote without
biometric verification. This we consider as unfair and in contravention with
agreed principle.
A case in question is the Jomoro situation where people bussed
from neighbouring Ivory Coast into the Constituency to register as voters, and
on the day of voting areas in the constituency such as Newtown and Elubo had
significant number of breakdown of biometric machines thereby giving the EC the
excuse to allow people to vote without the biometric verification. This we
consider a heavy blow to the reputation of the Electoral Commission in
mitigating irregularities.
The
Committee for Party Re-Organisation (CPR), having reflected, dissected and
analysed the electoral performance of the Presidential and Parliamentary of the
Convention People’s Party, feels obliged to take responsibility in charting a
new way forward for the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
It
is this way forward that is boldly spelt out in our Resolution of December 22nd
2012. In the resolution, we expressed our consciousness of the general weakness
of the party from the polling station to the highest level of decision-making;
and we expressed the need for the initiation and implementation of a political
programme as being of immediate, paramount and fundamental importance to the
future work of our party.
Ladies
and gentlemen of the media we therefore wish to take this opportunity to read
out the full text of the Resolution adopted by the Committee for Party
Re-Organisation (CPR).
December 22, 2012
RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE COMMITTEE
FOR PARTY RE-ORGANISATION (CPR) ON THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE CONVENTION PEOPLE’S
PARTY
1.
We the
undersigned, having come together as individuals and
card bearing members of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in the name of ‘COMMITTEE
FOR PARTY RE-ORGANISATION’, otherwise known as CPR, in the light of the
catastrophic performance of the CPP,
2.
Recalling our hectic deliberations on December 15th,
2012 and December 22nd, 2012 at the CPP HQ during which a review of the Party’s
performance was rigorously undertaken and analysed in an open and independent
forum,
 |
| CPP General Secretary, Ivor Greenstreet |
3.
Conscious of the general weakness of the party from
the polling station to the highest level of decision-making, as exemplified in
the lack of planning, coordination, fundraising, training, proper party
discipline; ideological training, membership drive and urgency and inefficiency
in the Party’s working committees,
4.
Cognizant of our duty to our party, its traditions,
our ideology and our duty to our mother Ghana, do look at the foregoing as the
biggest impediments to the growth and forward movement of our Party,
5.
Having found the initiation and implementation of
a political programme of immediate, paramount and fundamental importance to the
future work of our party and that this should be guided by a clear definition of our
ultimate objective, that is, what we want to achieve, what society we want to
build), (i) what strategies and tactics to adopt to get to reach our ultimate
objective (ii) the prerequisites involving the mobilization of the human and
material requirements toward the achievement of the ultimate objective,
6.
Emboldened by the above mentioned meetings, the CPR
arrived at the following (4) point agenda for the reconstruction of the party
as follows;
(i) Effective political programme,
(ii) Communication,
(iii) Finance; and
(iv) Research,
7.
We do hereby
affirm that only with a rigorous, disciplined and conscienscious adherence to
the implementation of this political programme, shall the CPP emerge a better,
vibrant and forward looking vanguard of the people of Ghana.
8.
We reaffirm our conviction that in our desire to build a
vibrant, militant, pan-Africanist Party, history will absolve the forces of
progress.
9.
Conscious of the toll that disloyalty, indiscipline and open
betrayal has taken on the party’s fortunes throughout its history, especially
the last two decades under the current democratic dispensation, we would like
to warn those members of the Party leadership whose views, actions and
tendencies are at variance with the forward march of the Party that they shall
be abandoned on the scrap heap of history. In the interest of the forward march
therefore, we are determined that this new CPP will no longer include elements
with opportunistic tendencies who keep flirting with reactionary political
parties.
10. Finally
we reaffirm that the CPP remains the home of all oppressed
(workers, farmers and unemployed) in Ghana and shall work tirelessly toward bringing
them back into the party fold.
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE FOR
PARTY-RE-ORGANISATION
1.
Kweku
Dadzie
-------------------------------
(Political Coordinator
Office of the Gen. Sec)
2.
Yaw
Adu-Larbi -------------------------------
(UK Rep- Central Committee.)
3.
Kadri
Abdul Rauf
-------------------------------
(Ag. National Youth Organiser)
4.
Mamshie
Omar Bawa
---------------------------------
(Dep National Youth Org. )
5.
Ernesto
Kofi Yeboah
-------------------------------
(Ag. Dep Nat. Youth
Organiser/Comm)
6.
Paul K.
Anaman
---------------------------------
(Greater Accra Regional Sec.)
7.
Djagbletey
Jacob
--------------------------------
(Dep. Ashanti Youth Org.)
8.
Ernest
Afram
-------------------------------
(Ex PC - Anyaa Sowutuom)
9.
Kofi
Asempa ----------------------------------
(Ex PC - Tema Central)
10.
John F.
Appiah
---------------------------------
(Member-Legal Committee)
11.
Francis Huago ---------------------------------
(Member- Communications Team)
12.
Eric
Asani Tano
--------------------------------
(Member- Communications)
13.
Tetteh
Ehiaway
----------------------------------
(Member-W/R Communications
Team)
14.
Cornelius
Okan-Adjetey
----------------------------------
(Member)
15.
Nabi
Adjah
----------------------------------
(Ex PC – Dadekotopon)
16.
Alhassan
Samudeen
-----------------------------------
(Member)
17.
Desmond
Hammond
----------------------------------
(Member)
18.
Kwaku
Anyang (alias Kwaku X)
--------------------------------
(Member)
19.
Kofi
Adoma Boateng
--------------------------------
(Member)
UK
to aid France in Mali intervention
Britain has announced it will
provide France with logistical support during its Mali intervention as French
forces stepped up airstrikes against Islamist militants fighting government troops
in the North African country.
 |
| David Cameron, UK Premiere |
The British prime minister has
welcomed France’s decision to
intervene in the North African country
to help the Malian army halt a rebel advance towards the capital Bamako.
"The Prime Minister has agreed
that the UK will provide logistical military assistance to help transport
foreign troops and equipment quickly to Mali,"
David Cameron's office said in a statement on Saturday, adding that London is
not going to deploy British personnel in a combat role.
Downing Street said two military
transport planes would be deployed, AFP says.
Over 100 Islamist militants have
been killed as Malian troops backed by the French military fought for control
of the strategic town of Konna.
Meanwhile, Paris announced on
Saturday that a French pilot had been killed in an air raid over Konna. "During
this intense combat, one of our pilots… was fatally wounded," French
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement. The pilot was wounded
during the operation and later died in hospital.
This comes just two days after
France sent hundreds of troops to its former colony. The West African regional
bloc ECOWAS, will begin sending troops to Mali on Monday.
French airstrikes overnight pushed
back Islamist rebels from Konna and destroyed a rebel command center, Le Drian
said.
The deployment of French troops has
been met with anger from Islamist group Ansar Dine, which said the move will
have “consequences for French citizens in the Muslim world.” Ansar Dine
is fighting on the frontline of the battle of Konna.
“We are actually in Konna for the
jihad [holy war]," an Ansar Dine spokesperson
told AFP on Friday.
French President Francois Hollande
says the country will raise its domestic terror threat level as a result of the
military operations. He promised to increase protection at public buildings and
transportation networks.
France decided to take military
action after a plea from Mali’s president, and says the intervention will last
as long as necessary. However, many critics say France may have had its own
motivations for deploying troops in the country.
“There is that much at stake
financially and strategically in Mali. But on the other hand this is the sort
of intervention that could drag on for very long time. I think what triggered
it was the move by the Islamist rebels towards Bamako, which is the capital
where most of the French citizens are.Most of them are located at the southern
end of the country and I think Hollande felt he had to do something to protect
them.” France-based independent journalist
Robert Harneis told RT.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council
called for “rapid deployment” of international forces in Mali to
combat the Islamist militants in the north
of the country.
Given the latest developments in the
West African country, the members of the UNSC “expressed their determination
to pursue the full implementation” of its resolutions on Mali, in particular
Resolution 2085, adopted in December, which authorizes the deployment of over
3,000 African-led international troops.
The support force approved by the UN
had not been expected to be deployed until September 2013.
Ansar Dine and Mujao have controlled
most of northern Mali since last April. They formed an alliance with Tuareg
rebels following a military coup in March.
However, their alliance quickly
collapsed, with the Islamists capturing the area's urban centers and
marginalizing the Tuareg rebels.
The Islamists have been accused of
war crimes and attempting to impose strict Sharia law throughout the region,
harboring fears that the area could soon become a hub for al-Qaeda linked
militants.
The legacy of Fidel Castro
By
Kamal Wadhwa
What
do we know about Fidel Castro? That he was raised in a wealthy Cuban landlord's
family with a devout Catholic schooling by priests who were his teachers.
Given his aristocratic upbringing, he would have probably succumbed to
elitism and the easy life if he had not taken his teachers seriously. In essence,
Castro was really a defrocked priest who took upon himself the protection of
his congregation when the Church would not!
 |
| Commander Fidel Castro, Former Cuba President |
Castro's
mentoring by priests gives a valuable clue to his later development as a
devoted scholar who valued his education very greatly and who also attached a
lot of importance to physical culture and the care of the body. That probably
explains Castro's later success as a revolutionary thinker and ideologue as
well as a military commander who could cope equally well with books and
battles.
There
has been no leader in history of Castro's ilk who has applied his education and
academic knowledge so rigorously both to solving the practical and humdrum
problems of daily life and the task of waging a revolution, often by violent
means. He was a professor, a military genius and a political supremo - all
three personalities combined into one!
All
the qualities and attributes of Castro's personality and character would have
served no purpose had he not possessed a sensitive conscience that knew pain
and suffering and could empathize and sympathize with the most wretched of
mortals no matter what their station in life. It may be that he has survived into
his eighties because he always did the right thing and took the proper course
of action whenever and wherever necessary.
 |
| Map of Cuba |
Castro
really defeated America through the power of his books and multifaceted
learning because most Americans do not believe in book learning.
Ironically, that very great education as a lawyer was acquired at Harvard
University and he used it to topple the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro
managed to loosen Batista's hold over Cuba by rhetoric and action on a very
high intellectual and military plane, respectively.
Moreover,
Castro was deeply aware of the Latin American revolutionary tradition as
bequeathed to him by Jose' Marti and other great men. By seeing
himself as part of a distinguished past and a Latin American world wider than
Cuba, he could draw comfort and solace that other Latin Americans before him
had sacrificed their lives to take up the cause of Latin American
humanity.
That
is why Castro never took pity upon himself despite the dangerous life he lived,
with political controversies, jail sentences and often exile - everything that
his enemies could impose upon him. His family life was more often than not in
shambles and some of his most dear ones defected to America from where they
launched vociferous campaigns to malign him.
Had
not Castro led an uprising at that critical juncture in Cuban history to
challenge and uproot Batista, Cuba may well have become a banana republic like
Panama or Nicaragua. Batista was mired in sleaze and corruption and totally
caught up with the pleasures of the flesh. Even the Americans were tired of him
and wanted him out.
That
Cuba has survived as a socialist state without any great pain or suffering is a
measure of Castro's intellectual genius and political acumen. At a time when
other Latin American countries are fast succumbing to capitalism and free
market systems, Cubans now are reasonably well-fed and tolerably clothed and
housed. If America has its way, then Latin America will once again become its
backyard - a playground for the rich and famous.
With
its vast oil riches and membership in the NAFTA (North American Free Trade
Association), neighboring Mexico has yet to benefit its people despite
government rhetoric about the mythical progress it has attained. Indeed the
Mexican government has acted against its own national interest by seeking to
cut subsidies on food targeted for the poorest of the poor Mexicans.
And
what about the periodic incursions of American forces into Mexican territory in
hot pursuit of fugitives without a thought for international law and the rules
that bind all nations in such cases?
Without
doubt, Latin America is in deep turmoil indebted as it is to American banks and
commercial institutions. And with the loosening up of Latin American economies,
the power and financial muscle of the MNCs is beginning to be felt by the rank
and file of South Americans as the former launch their media blitzes and sales
pitches to sell goods and services that no one really needs.
Most
North Americans see Latin America as a potential basket case and a debtors'
club. Witness the help the United States is giving Colombia to curb its
drug barons. Bolivia still kowtows to the United States as long as the problem
of its external debt to American banks is not resolved. There is also just that
danger that the native economies of Latin America will be greatly damaged or
uprooted to make way for foreign goods and services that are being marketed by
Western MNCs. In time, the means of production and distribution may well fall
to the MNCs and cripple Latin America for generations to come!
But
with all its problems, there is no great fear of Latin Americans dying of
hunger and starvation because the Vatican is there to feed and supply Latin
America if the need arises. However, as long as Castro lives that will not
happen. Other Latin American leaders have been too deeply impressed by Castro's
Cuba and its secular traditions so as not to succumb to charity and the open
gutter it leads to.
 | |
| Cuba School Children |
Latin
America can still free itself from the trap it is caught in if its leaders
adopt Castro's revolutionary consciousness and use his methods to fight the
creeping and ugly capitalism as is represented by the WTO - a covenant like no
other covenant in history! So great is the global destabilization that has been
caused by it!
Millions
of young hearts are beating for Castro, especially in the benighted regions of
the Third World. Everywhere young people are tired of earlier revolutionary
role models such as Gandhi, King and Mandela. They think it is cowardly not to
fight; bullets must be fought with bullets, not with acts of forgiveness and
compassion.
Like
Castro, these deprived youths respect books and education, but they don't want
to wait for decades and the eternity it takes to bring about non-violent change.
They want satisfaction and change in the immediate future - during their own
lifetimes and not for their children, but themselves!
Fidel
Castro's legacy is practically relevant today because the Third World and parts
of Europe are caught in the grip and vise of capitalism and free market forces.
While in the past the State was generally the dominant player in these
economies, it is now beating a hasty retreat as the pressure on it to
deregulate mounts - equally by domestic companies and foreign MNCs!
 |
| Cuba culture on dispaly at Festival |
In
the new era we are witnessing today, moneymaking is the sole and prime motive
even in the poor man's life because everything that matters to him is factored
with cold cash considerations in mind. And as our planet faces increasing
resource scarcity, tomorrow's world will be gripped by economic mania and
material obsessions!
What
we see around us is a crude cultural barbarity where people choose comics over
books, lifestyle magazines and paperback novels over true, authentic literature
and fast food over home-cooked meals - all because the inferior habits do not
take much effort and do not unduly tax the body or the mind!
Castro's Cuba has shown that high culture can co-exist with
bread and butter reality; that ideas and ideals are as important to socialist
countries as output and investment, and that romance and happy endings, too,
exist under socialism. This is not what the West would want to believe as it
would lose its motive power and purpose to demonize socialism and the East. 07.01.2013
*****************************************************************
NOTE:
The author is an Honors graduate in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities
from the University of Chicago. He has also studied Political Science and
Economics at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at wadhwa.kamal@ymail.com
The likelihood of a peaceful solution in Mali
By Fabian
Scherer
Interim President Traore is not
prepared to wait until September 2013 to act against the rebel groups.
Ansar Dine, one of the three Islamic extremist
groups occupying northern Mali, has taken back a pledge to end hostilities,
which had been made last month during peace talks in the neighbouring Algeria.
According to their own statements, the group felt its commitment to peace was
one-sided, and thus decided to leave open the possibility of hostilities.
In December 2012, shortly after the
United Nations Security Council had approved a West African joint military
intervention to drive away militant groups in the deserted northern Mali, Ansar
Dine, which controls the cities of Timbuktu and Kidal, declared “to refrain
from all actions that would cause confrontation and hostilities in the areas
that they control.” During the peace talks, mediated by Burkina Faso’s
President Blaise Compaore, the vow was also made by the secular Touareg group,
National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, which aims for the secession of
the country’s north.
The secular secessionist groups had
been the initial trigger for the country’s current problem. Last year they
revived their request for an independent state in the country’s north, and the
resulting political unrest, which also led to a change of government, left the
door open for Islamist groups, which quickly overshadowed the secular Touaregs.
Among Ansar Dine, two further groups, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the
Movement for Oneness and Jihad in Western Africa, started to occupy key cities
in northern Mali, and implemented strict forms of Islamic Shariah-law,
tyrannizing the local population.
Meanwhile, the influence of the
current transitional government, which is situated in Bamako in the far south
of the country, became almost non-existent in the north. In November last year,
the Economic Community of West African States had agreed on a common military
operation against the Islamists to restore Mali’s unity, which had once set an
example of a well functioning democracy in the region. The UN recently approved
the plans, but it still adopts a reserved attitude, favouring a diplomatic
solution over the military intervention.
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| Mali Interim President Dionconda Traore |
The main aim of the group is the
implementation of a strict version of Shariah Law in the country, particularly
in its north. If Mali wants to remain a democratic country, it cannot admit to
those demands, but the likelihood that the Islamists will make concessions
regarding their central issue is also low, which makes a forcible solution seem
inevitable. The Malian government needs to act fast, as delaying a solution of
the problem comes with far-reaching consequences for the country.
Firstly, it
cements the role of the current transitional government. Currently carrying out
elections to install a completely legitimated government seems impossible due
to the sealing-off of the country’s north. Secondly, Mali’s economy is
suffering badly from its unstable situation. For 2013, it is expected that the
west African country’s economy will shrink by 1.5%. The national air line, Air
Mali, has suspended its activities, and the flow of tourists, previously one of
the main sources of income, has almost dried up. In Bamako, 20% of factories
have closed, while 60% have resorted to technical unemployment measures,
causing the local unemployment to jump up to 17.3%.
If the conflict becomes permanent,
it will certainly lead to a further destabilization of Mali’s politics and
economy. While the United Nations warned military interventions were unlikely
before September 2013, Mali’s interim president Dioncounda Traore said in his
New Year’s address that he would not wait so long. The faster a potential
operation is carried out, the less time the Islamist groups will have to
prepare. Giving them half a year time might make it possible for them to shift
their activities to neighbouring countries.
Niger is endangered of becoming the
aim for Islamists; on its west, it borders Mali, and on its south, it has
Nigeria as its neighbour, which has been struggling with Islamist Boko Haram
over months. While the ECOWAS troops will be strictly governed by their
mandate, the Islamist groups will be much more mobile, and borders in that
region are long and deserted, and thus no real obstacle. Of course, a peaceful
solution would be preferable, and should not be neglected. However, the chances
of a diplomatic solution are too low to rely on them, and so a military
operation should be set up as fast as possible, so that West Africa does not
generally become a refuge for Islamic extremists.
France displays hypocrisy on Mali
By Tony Cartalucci
A deluge of articles have been quickly put into circulation
defending France's military intervention in the African nation of Mali. TIME's
article, "The Crisis in Mali: Will French Intervention Stop the Islamist
Advance?" decides that old tricks are the best tricks, and elects the tiresome
"War on Terror" narrative.
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| French President Hollande Francois |
TIME claims the intervention seeks to stop "Islamist" terrorists from
overrunning both Africa and all of Europe. Specifically, the article states:
"...there is a (probably well-founded) fear in France that a radical Islamist Mali threatens France most of all, since most of the Islamists are French speakers and many have relatives in France. (Intelligence sources in Paris have told TIME that they’ve identified aspiring jihadis leaving France for northern Mali to train and fight.) Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), one of the three groups that make up the Malian Islamist alliance and which provides much of the leadership, has also designated France - the representative of Western power in the region - as a prime target for attack."
What TIME elects not to tell readers is that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is closely allied to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG whom France intervened on behalf of during NATO's 2011 proxy-invasion of Libya - providing weapons, training, special forces and even aircraft to support them in the overthrow of Libya's government.
As far back as August of 2011, Bruce Riedel out of the corporate-financier funded think-tank, the Brookings Institution, wrote "Algeria will be next to fall," where he gleefully predicted success in Libya would embolden radical elements in Algeria, in particular AQIM. Between extremist violence and the prospect of French airstrikes, Riedel hoped to see the fall of the Algerian government. Ironically Riedel noted:
Algeria has expressed particular concern that the unrest in Libya could lead to the development of a major safe haven and sanctuary for al-Qaeda and other extremist jihadis.
And thanks to NATO, that is exactly what Libya has become - a Western sponsored sanctuary for al-Qaeda. AQIM's headway in northern Mali and now French involvement will see the conflict inevitably spill over into Algeria. It should be noted that Riedel is a co-author of "Which Path to Persia?" which openly conspires to arm yet another US State Department-listed terrorist organization (list as #28), the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to wreak havoc across Iran and help collapse the government there - illustrating a pattern of using clearly terroristic organizations, even those listed as so by the US State Department, to carry out US foreign policy.
Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar noted a more direct connection between LIFG and AQIM in an Asia Times piece titled, "How al-Qaeda got to rule in Tripoli:"
"...there is a (probably well-founded) fear in France that a radical Islamist Mali threatens France most of all, since most of the Islamists are French speakers and many have relatives in France. (Intelligence sources in Paris have told TIME that they’ve identified aspiring jihadis leaving France for northern Mali to train and fight.) Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), one of the three groups that make up the Malian Islamist alliance and which provides much of the leadership, has also designated France - the representative of Western power in the region - as a prime target for attack."
What TIME elects not to tell readers is that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is closely allied to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG whom France intervened on behalf of during NATO's 2011 proxy-invasion of Libya - providing weapons, training, special forces and even aircraft to support them in the overthrow of Libya's government.
As far back as August of 2011, Bruce Riedel out of the corporate-financier funded think-tank, the Brookings Institution, wrote "Algeria will be next to fall," where he gleefully predicted success in Libya would embolden radical elements in Algeria, in particular AQIM. Between extremist violence and the prospect of French airstrikes, Riedel hoped to see the fall of the Algerian government. Ironically Riedel noted:
Algeria has expressed particular concern that the unrest in Libya could lead to the development of a major safe haven and sanctuary for al-Qaeda and other extremist jihadis.
And thanks to NATO, that is exactly what Libya has become - a Western sponsored sanctuary for al-Qaeda. AQIM's headway in northern Mali and now French involvement will see the conflict inevitably spill over into Algeria. It should be noted that Riedel is a co-author of "Which Path to Persia?" which openly conspires to arm yet another US State Department-listed terrorist organization (list as #28), the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to wreak havoc across Iran and help collapse the government there - illustrating a pattern of using clearly terroristic organizations, even those listed as so by the US State Department, to carry out US foreign policy.
Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar noted a more direct connection between LIFG and AQIM in an Asia Times piece titled, "How al-Qaeda got to rule in Tripoli:"
"Crucially, still in 2007, then al-Qaeda's number two,
Zawahiri, officially announced the merger between the LIFG and al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM). So, for all practical purposes, since then, LIFG/AQIM
have been one and the same - and Belhaj was/is its emir. "
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| NATO |
"Belhaj," referring to Hakim Abdul Belhaj, leader of LIFG in Libya, led with NATO support, arms, funding, and diplomatic recognition, the overthrowing of Muammar Qaddafi and has now plunged the nation into unending racist and tribal, genocidal infighting. This intervention has also seen the rebellion's epicenter of Benghazi peeling off from Tripoli as a semi-autonomous "Terror-Emirate." Belhaj's latest campaign has shifted to Syria where he was admittedly on the Turkish-Syrian border pledging weapons, money, and fighters to the so-called "Free Syrian Army," again, under the auspices of NATO support.
NATO's intervention in Libya has resurrected listed-terrorist organization and al-Qaeda affiliate, LIFG. It had previously fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now has fighters, cash and weapons, all courtesy of NATO, spreading as far west as Mali, and as far east as Syria. The feared "global Caliphate" Neo-Cons have been scaring Western children with for a decade is now taking shape via US-Saudi, Israeli, and Qatari machinations, not "Islam." In fact, real Muslims have paid the highest price in fighting this real "war against Western-funded terrorism."
LIFG, which with French arms, cash, and diplomatic support, is now invading northern Syria on behalf of NATO's attempted regime change there, officially merged with al-Qaeda in 2007 according to the US Army's West Point Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). According to the CTC, AQIM and LIFG share not only ideological goals, but strategic and even tactical objectives. The weapons LIFG received most certainly made their way into the hands of AQIM on their way through the porous borders of the Sahara Desert and into northern Mali.
In fact, ABC News reported in their article, "Al Qaeda Terror Group: We 'Benefit From' Libyan Weapons," that:
A leading member of an al Qaeda-affiliated terror group
indicated the organization may have acquired some of the thousands of powerful
weapons that went missing in the chaos of the Libyan uprising, stoking
long-held fears of Western officials.
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| French Soldiers |
We have been one of the main beneficiaries of the revolutions in the Arab world," Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a leader of the north Africa-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM], told the Mauritanian news agency ANI Wednesday. "As for our benefiting from the [Libyan] weapons, this is a natural thing in these kinds of circumstances."
It is no coincidence that as the Libyan conflict was drawing to a conclusion, conflict erupted in northern Mali. It is part of a premeditated geopolitical reordering that began with toppling Libya, and since then, using it as a springboard for invading other targeted nations, including Mali, Algeria, and Syria with heavily armed, NATO-funded and aided terrorists.
French involvement may drive AQIM and its affiliates out of northern Mali, but they are almost sure to end up in Algeria, most likely by design. Algeria was able to balk subversion during the early phases of the US-engineered "Arab Spring" in 2011, but it surely has not escaped the attention of the West who is in the midst of transforming a region stretching from Africa to Beijing and Moscow's doorsteps - and in a fit of geopolitical schizophrenia - using terrorists both as a casus belli to invade and as an inexhaustible mercenary force to do it.
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