Hiya!
Hope you had a good week....a bit of a drink maybe, some dancing, some good food and some sex thrown in, just for good measure! And if you didn't enjoy any such delights.....then what the hell were you thinking? Next week don't be slacker. Life is short.....get out there!
Not quite sure why I started out like that but I have and I'm not a deleter...once my comment is out there, it remains so. I'm not one for backtracking or post-bloggie editing. It's on my screen so out it goes....although I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not. First thoughts are often the most coherent, so I tend to go with that and let it all hang out.....open it up to the breeze...see what happens, you know?
I'm in real danger here of just having a complete blog entry as an aside and not really writing anything at all.
Would that be such a bad thing?
I digress......
Now - having said what I said I find I have something to say after all - time for the meat in the sandwich. I feel it necessary to update a couple of my earlier entries, not because there's anything big or new to say but because it annoys me intensely when such things are just left dangling, kinda like movies that end without tying up the loose ends. I prefer a neat package with no fraying ends. So.....
In Somalia things have moved on apace. The Kenyan invasion is ongoing. Now an estimated 2000 Kenyan troops are in Somalia with Kenyan officials saying that the force will not leave until the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab have been destroyed. However long that may take! But, at the end of the day this is still Africa. Chaos is the norm and such a thing as a straight answer to a straight question is simply not forthcoming. For example, official Kenyan reports said an air attack on Jilib was successful in killing at least 10 of the al-Shabab jihadists and injuring more than 45 more. However, Médicins sans Frontières (MSF) said (after the attack) they had treated only injured women and children, and there were only 3 dead and not the expected larger figure. But, the sad truth of it is that no matter how many died or were injured, or who was telling the truth and who was not, it just doesn't matter. No-one really gives a toss what happens to a few black Africans in a part of the world which is poorer than most Westerners can ever imagine and has no resources (if you discount the amazingly good-looking indigenous peoples) worth grabbing by the rich northerners of the various Western and Northern alliances. In fact, al-Qaeda have latched onto this in a big way (see this amazing video and you end up not knowing what to believe... http://gu.com/p/32q3d) and are making definite headway winning the psychological battle for hearts and minds.
I do not doubt for one second that there are many bad and terribly dangerous men and factions at large in Somalia and the surrounding areas. Some of the atrocities committed - the kidnappings, the murders, the rampant piracy - are truly horrific and these men need to be brought to justice. But, in the same breath I am also equally sure that these men are a very small minority and yet, in my mind as in many others I'll wager, the word Somali is synonymous with terrorism. And that can't be right! The poor people of the horn of Africa - the Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea - have suffered decades of strife of one form or another. No sooner is one tragedy over than the next one hits. Drought, famine, war, civil war and then the same all over again. Sometimes a deadly melange of them all and yet we can sit happily in our armchairs watching the evening news condemning these people as terrorists, extremists and the like, just because one of them gets tricked into becoming a suicide bomber. But we haven't led their lives. We haven't felt the pain and the hunger and the desperation they have felt. We haven't lost everything we ever owned because a kid carrying an AK-47 told us to leave or to die. It's too easy to condemn in the (neverending) wake of 9/11 all of those who dress differently from us, who think differently, who worship differently. Again, I am guilty of generalising - there are surely those of you who may indeed be enlightened, even understanding perhaps - but generalising is what the media, in particular, and the human race in a larger context, is all about. It's what we do. Most people feel comfortable being part of a group and as such we extend that comfort zone to those around us and those we see on the TV or in the newspapers just because they live in the same country or are in the same social class. For example.... all Chinese cannot say the letter R; all black men have big cocks; all footballers are stupid; all teenagers are trouble; all Americans are naïve; all Brits are stuffed shirts!! Catch my drift? And finally, all Somali's are terrorists!
In this blog, as in the pages of many a western newspaper, al-Shabab are seen as a terrorist organsation, but I can't help asking the question 'who is winning the propaganda war?' In the west, in our papers and on our 24hour news channels, there is no doubt that the US led world press contingent seem to be able to spoonfeed us any report with the words 'terrorist' or 'al-Qaeda' and we just swallow it down without so much as chewing it over. In Somalia al-Shabab are seen by many as the legitimate heirs to this drought ravaged, war-torn African nation. I am as guilty as the next man in assuming that the forces of good (i.e. those NOT associated with al-Qaeda) know what is best and are taking appropriate steps to make our world a better place. And I've no doubt that they (the Goodies) are, hand on heart, doing what they think is the right thing. Al-Qaeda are the bad boys and that is all there is to it! But after watching the above video you have to wonder if 'we the people' are being hoodwinked. How can it be that al-Qaeda are distributing food and offering medical assistance?
Far from being a sympathiser, I now feel that I am equally far from denouncing them, at least in as far as Somalia is concerned. There is always so much that we do not know and we rely on the internet, TV news, etc to tell us the truth. Now, I'm not suggesting that they lie - far from it - but I do think that we (the viewers, the listeners) are victims of the Western propaganda machine as much as those poor unfortunate souls who get lied to and cajoled into becoming martyrs for their cause when anyone with more than a grain of common would see those Koran-ic distortions for what they truly are - a mess of lies. Who's to say that if you and your family were pushed to the brink of starvation, were forced to leave your homes and to live life as a refugee, that you too wouldn't find yourself supporting the people who gave you what you needed even if they were reviled and feared elsewhere? - who's to say that al-Qaeda are the bad boys when they have just given you cash, food and a ride back home?
I guess that what I'm trying to say is that there are always two sides to every story and until you have lived both sides of the fence it is difficult, if not impossible, to fully comprehend any situation. I will do my best to remain a bit more objective in the future and not to just assume that every battle is simply a matter of good versus evil.
I have just come back from my lunchbreak where I continued to plough my way through the excellent "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge (the book on which the HBO series, "The Pacific," was partly based). For anyone wishing to understand more about the Pacific wars of WW2 or to try to understand the horrors of war, I can only heartily commend this book and its' author for its blatant sincerity, heartfelt simplicity and the matter of fact manner in which PFC 'Sledgehammer' deals with the death and mayhem around him.
I put the book down and it got me to thinking about the situation in Somalia. Of how the Kenyan forces had launched air and shelling raids against supposed al-Shabab hotspots and of how those below the barrage must feel. Especially the innocent.
I can't believe what we do to each other in the name of politics, religion, greed or jealousy.
Time to breathe.....and move on!
Have you ever seen 'Blood Diamond' with Di Caprio? You remember when he says "T.I.A."? Or "This Is Africa"....well, at home now we (the missus and I) have our own version which comes rolling out whenever Spanish politics or the economics are discussed. We just shrug our shoulders at the myriad inequities, malformations, distortions and illegimate processes in this country we call Spain...and say, "T.I.S." ...This is Spain.....which if we are to believe what we hear, is actually a part of Europe, but once you live here you realise that this isn't Europe any more than Canada isn't the U.S. Spain is part of Africa. It's governmental processes, the endless red tape, the mañana mentality, the ubiquitous corruption and the immensity of the black economy all go to prove the relevance of that statement. Spain is more African than it is European. Maybe more than just the sands of the Sahara lands in our gardens? African vicissitudes soar like eagles here and if the crisis continues and things take a further nose-dive then those little African foibles may well reassert themselves in a much more visible way. As pockets tighten and desperation grows we may see the face of starving Africa much closer to our little safety zones than any of us might wish it to be.
I hope I'm wrong.
And also, just for the record.....I DO love living in Spain, really I do! It's just a bit, and occasionally more than a bit, frustrating when one is trying to achieve anything that may involve some sort of fiscal or administrative process! As to all my bitching...well, what's life if not for bitching? I do love it here but I would see many things changed as perhaps you've gathered. However, in truth...do I ever expect those things to change?
Do I hell! After all....T.I.S.
P xxxxx
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