After what seems like an absolute eternity I am back with a regular internet connection and perhaps...able to move forward with this bloody blog!
The weather here in sunny Valencia...is, not surprisingly, sunny.... although today promises to be a touch more hazy than the rest of the week. But hey, who wants to talk about the weather when we have so much more interesting fish to fry.
Having now got a regular internet connection I find myself darwn ineveitably towards news stories on Africa. I'm married to a beautiful African woman and despite being white, I have always had the strong sense that somewhere deep, down inside that I am more African than anything else. Is that a primal, evolutionary hangover from our our shared genetic lineage or something that has grown inside of me; a metaphorical African ghost that possesses and steers my attention ever-southward, ever drawn to the chaos that is Africa? Or is it something much simpler? I used to think it was just the wildlife. Nothing compares to watching game on an African plain, but now after many trips I know that, as stunning, as wonderful as the flora and fauna are they could not possibly snare me the way that I have undoubtedly been snared. It's not just the wildlife, it's everything that is Africa; the colours, the people, the smells, the chaos, the history, the culture, the wildlife and more...so much more. And so in some mild-mannered way I take offence when someone seeks to destroy yet more of of this crumbling, delapidated continent and one of the most destructive forces in Africa today is Robert Mugabe.
With the news today that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is to seek an audience with the despotic leader Zimbabwe's plight once again surfaces onto the front pages. Why though, this wholly unacceptable situation is not on the front pages every day is beyond me. Mugabe is without doubt a ruthlessly, efficient leader. I do not doubt his intelligence or his leadership skills persay....anyone who can remain in power in the political hothouse that is Africa is obviously succeeding in some way or another. One doubts that his longevity is down to his kind and generous spirit! His is a regime built on fear and destruction, coercion, bribery, corruption and pure, unadulterated evil.
Mugabe first came to prominence in the 1970s where, as a freedom fighter (against Ian Smith's fading colonial and pertinently, white regime) and thence to power as leader of Zanu-PF in 1979. In the early days of his reign Mugabe entered into a short-lived and ultimately destructive coalition with Joshua Nkomo. He wished to improve the lot of his people, to make Zimbabwe into a modern, shining example of black African government. But very quickly after the collapse of that initial coalition (following the discovery of a cache of arms at Nkomo's HQ) his bright new world descended into darkness. Early promises of democracy and political unity failed miserably in the aftermath of a country supposedly free from the tyrannical yoke of imperialist colonialism. Political rivals were rounded up, captured, tortured or killed as Mugabe sought to tighten the political noose. The post-colonial economy went from being one of the most profitable and productive in Africa to one the the worst performing in the world, a fact that Mugabe, now 84, continually refuses to acknowledge hiding behind a ream of paper-thin denials, insisting that Zimbabwe is still the powerhouse it once was. Deluded is not the word! The last journalist to interview Mugabe in December last year must have wanted to laugh when Mugabe insisted that Zimbabwean economy was "a hundred times better" than that of most African countries!
In 1992 I was lucky enough to visit Zim (as it is affectionately known amongst travellers) at a time when the situation was still reasonably progressive and the people of Zimbabwe still had cause to hope that their future would be as bright as they had once believed only a few years before. I saw a country with (by African standards) an excellent infrastructure; good roads, trains that ran almost on time and flourishing agricultural and tourism industries. It seemed to me at the time that of all the countries I'd visited in Africa (and there are more than a few) that Zim had indeed been singled out for a prosperous and settled future. The game parks were well run. There was food on the supermarket shelves and in the markets. People drove modern vehicles and trade seemed good. But as a toursit you often become blind to the deficiences of the places you are visiting just because you are so happy to be there. Perhaps that was me. At the time I knew all about Mugabe but the (shall we say) unpleasant face of his regime had yet to emerge internationally. He was still being wined and dined by world leaders as a 'freedom fighter' and hero whilst at the time performing political slight-of-hand to make his rivals disappear from under the very noses of those.
Now, by all accounts the supermarket shelves are empty, the fields produce no crops and the game parks have no animals. This horrid, little, detestable man is running the country into the ground and lining his pockets at the expense of his own people. Of all the evil and corrupt regimes that have come about in Africa since the collapse of colonialism roughly 50 years ago, Mugabe´s may not be the worst but it can certainly lay claim to be the most resilient. And still the powerful politicians of the world just seem to be content to let these atrocities continue. Africa always seemed to be a place apart politically. A place so far removed from the affluent West that most people, politicians included, cannot even contemplate relating to the problems of a nation so different and so poor that to save them from further suffering seems to be just too much effort to bear! How can we bring realsisation home to the people of the world? I have no idea. But something needs to be done. The politicains turn a blind eye so it is left to the likes of Sir Richard Branson who, by all accounts tried and failed to 'buy' Mugabe out of power (http://gu.com/p/32gqk). But at least he tried which is a damn site more than most men of power have! Or the campaigning Archbishop of Canterbury, who after arriving in Zim last week was kept waiting and waiting before finally being granted an audience with the despot. No doubt promises made about saving the Zimbabwean Anglicans from further persecution were warmly recieved by the Archbishop, Rowan Williams (http://gu.com/p/32gfm), but in truth I don't doubt for one minute that it is just another bucketful of Mugabe's verbal pigswill that the world seems only to grateful to swallow!
Zim is definitely a subject I shall return to. Often!
And now for Spain today....here´s the good news! This morning Standard and Poor have cut Spain's credit rating from AA- to AA causing yet another drop in the value of the Euro. The reasons cited include Spain's exceptionally high unemployment, tightening credit and high private sector debt.
They said....."Despite signs of resilience in economic performance during 2011, we see heightened risks to Spain's growth prospects due to high unemployment, tighter financial conditions, the still high level of private sector debt, and the likely economic slowdown in Spain's main trading partners."
They went on to say that they did not have confidence in Spain's projected growth for 2012, which had been predicted to be only 1.5%, but is now expected to be less than 1%. Further credit rating drops may well follow should Spain actually fail to meet it´s projections and fall in line with that S&P expectations.
This is bad news for all of us. Not just for us in Spain but for Europe as a whole. The severity of the economic climate in Spain was brought home to me last week when the various projects at the company I work for were put on hold or, at the very least, delayed because creditors were unable to pay their debts to us. It´s a vicious circle ...one cannot the other who cannot pay the other and everyone in the line falters! Companies here seem to be taking bigger than usual risks in order to swell their books and gain new business. Manufacturers and suppliers are slashing prices and taking on new clients without the usual credit considerations because they have no choice but to take the risk. The climate is desperate and shows all the signs of getting much worse. As one of the plebians, all I can do is keep my nose to the grindstone and hope that things begin to turn round. Everyone is struggling. Everyone is juggling debts and credit, deciding who to pay and when. I am lucky in that, to some extent my job is more international and so I am still able to see a future for myself, but other co-workers are not sure. They work on projects for the Spanish market and these seem more precarious than ever. The amazing thing is atht in the streets and the bars and the cafes no-one seems to be the slightest bit worried. Wednesday was national fiesta day ...again!..... and everyone was out drinking, eating and making merry. Whatever the economic situation nothing, it seems, can dampen the Spanish need for a party!
In Kenya yesterday 2 female Spanish aid workers from Medicins sans Frontieres were kidnapped from the Dabaab humanitarian camp by Somali gunmen who shot their driver in the neck (though amazingly he lives still) and escaped back over the nearby border (http://gu.com/p/32tmq). In the wake of the recent kidnapping of two French and British women the aid workers are now, understandably, feaful for their safety. OXFAM said last night that this new incident may well affect the aid missions in and around Dabaab whislt security conditions are reassessed.
To say I don't understand this madness that seems to have affected the Somali people is to only voice what everyone else is surely thinking. These gunmen have no respect for anyone or anything and to abduct aid workers such as this again and again shows that they have no understanding or apprecaition of how the rest of the world thinks or behaves. It is a hotbed of violent, criminal activity that the rest of the world seem quite happy to just let continue. I cannot help thinking that if there were exploitable resources in the country then such a situation would not be allowed to roll on endlessly. We would have been in there years before sorting things out and tying up the re-construction contracts before the last bullet had been fired. But since Somalia is of little economic value the situation endures and the innocent continue to suffer. There must be something that can be done to end this cycle of bloodshed and violence before the disease spreads and infects the rest of East Africa. Please write to your local MEP with your suggestions.
And finally....Mark Cavendish...perhaps the greatest British cyclist of his generation and, of course, the new World Road Race Champion, has announced his arrival at Team Sky for the start of next season (http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,15264_7235754,00.html). This is fantastic news....Team Sky is primarily a British outfit (though there are many international riders on the team) with British management and now British stars! I cannot wait for next year to come and to see a British cycling team pushing all before them and sweeping the board. Go Cav!
See you soon
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