| Well, human does not live by news alone. So my emails can be eclectic, especially on weekends. Seriousness is mixed with lighthearted musings...plus you can watch videos on beauty; not war causalities. Who says African leaders do not have a sense of humor? See that in a paragraph. The dogs bark and the caravan passes. Les chiens aboient, la caravane passe. Huh? Congressional members of the "super committee" charged with coming up with $1.2 trillion in budget cuts are focused on how to announce failure to reach a deal. " My heart says I should feel sorry of Obama. Why bomb an African nation that does what he cannot do in improving the economy? Automatic cuts would go into effect, including social security. Hello: Dis Libyan wahala sef. A friend from Egypt rang about it (will get there later) as I was watching videos on Miss Africa USA and other videos on pageants such as Miss University Africa. Incredible talents oozing from inner beauty. Miss Cameroon won the Miss Africa USA 2011. I don't have a video clip. See Miss Guinea 2009, Fifi Soumah, who won the Miss Africa USA title in 2010. Waooow! Powerful. After you read, watch her talent presentation among others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJOzKjq9x9M&feature=related The African Traditional Wear presentation is more edifying on beauty than the bone ass show that promotes caricatures in the name of swim suits competition. Miss University Africa. It seems the original song: Zangalewa by a Cameroonian artist, which was adapted by Shakira for the world cup 2010, has been adopted by many pageants. This time for Africa. Now, you may understand why I was in no mood for the darker picture of Africa. Moreover, I had to catch up with the outstanding work of Ladies of the Golden Scepter in my alma mater: Our Lady of Lourdes, LESA USA. My friend at the other end of line said: MsJoe, have you watched the news? Saif was captured. I replied: Oyeah? I'm just coming from (withheld); been off all week. Ah, I am watching videos. It is weekend, let me find out the circumstances from (sources withheld) on Monday. My reply conveyed the relative unimportance in context of significance - what has happened in Libya. So I agree with James in that dimension. The saying James quoted "the dog barks, but the caravan moves on" denotes that people can make noises but cannot do a thing about the cause of their agitations. Aptly used, all the denunciations of NATO's pre-packaged deceptions and the foreign-backed NTC are not changing the relevant tides. It is a lesson on how power works, aided by vested-interest media. The mass media defines and demonizes (like giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it), the populace (most not knowing better) buys into the framework and it gives politicos a pass to commit whatever. I have done media and I know how it works. Does it mean people should not make noise because they do not have the power to affect the object of their consternation? I shudder at the suggestion because moral imperative has its own unique role. First of all, immediacy or reversal of a deed may not be the objectives. For example, someone who takes up the cause of cancer because a relative died of the disease does not intend to bring back the person. He or she may want to sensitize, educate, drum support, develop resources and if any helps to prevent others from dying, that's enough. Sometimes making the noise may just shine light on contemporary events and put history in perspective, without which doom is repeated and beautified. That is powerful for posterity. For examples, the calculated foreign intervention, raining bombs that destroyed Libyan infrastructure with heavy civilian deaths could have gone unnoticed as the calamities were basically ignored by mainstream press. The revelation (previously denied) that Qatari, French, Egyptian, British and even Sudanese Janjaweed fighters were recruited to fight as Libyan rebels, the admission that informants posed as CNN, BBC and other foreign journalists, pictures that show that civilian entities such as schools, sources of water, hospitals, TV stations were bombed were brought to light by mostly alternative media where the proverbial dogs bark. So let the dogs bark. How the UN makes resolutions has been affected by barking dogs who could not stop the caravan on Libya because the motion already passed but future similar caravans may be dead on conception. Check Syria, Iran and you can forget any sanction on Zimbabwe. Now, you see the role of barking dogs? Maybe they bark for the future. Whatever, I am a realist which is not the same as endorsing the reality faced - just accepting it and the inevitable. I had posted the reality - the proverbial fat lady sang - meaning it was over when Tripoli fell easily and suddenly - and there was no comeback as days turned into weeks. Regime change was in effect. It is like a coup d'etat. If there was no resistance or counter coup, that's it. Whether it is right or wrong is irrelevant when the victors and the vanquished are all that matter to decide the current. I am no war general but I wonder whether the Gaddafi regime had assessed the contingencies of the war and his pre-war diplomacy. His capture and murder, in the way it happened, conjure a sad man unable to fathom what was happening. Libya was by miles the richest country in Africa with a Human Development Index after Seychelles. He pumped money here and there for African self-reliance, even reducing telephone costs in Africa. Libya had no external debts; he was not financially beholden to IMF, World Bank, UN food, EU funds. How the man did it with years of sanctions deserves flowers and kudos. But there was a fatal weakness somewhere; a politics which he must have ignored. I don't know what it is but there must be one that has nothing to do with dictatorship. China and all the current Princes, Sheiks and Sultans of Middle East are not democratic. But the West cannot say and act on pim. Considering that Gaddafi was pal with Washington, Rome Paris and London after various rapprochements reestablished relationship with the West and he was an ally in fighting terrorism (Condi visited him), I am shaking my head about the treacherous terrain of realpolitik. It was my Mom who tutored me on it and explained that if Libya was strategically irrelevant, the powers wouldn't care about engaging Gaddafi - so it was all about keeping him close and he opened up. What she explained made sense when China vetoed sanctions on Zimbabwe in July 2008. That's a proxy power play among supepowers, containing each other in regions. Did Obama not go to Australia last week? So why did Russia and China abstain on Libya? History will tell. But with all three African nations - Nigeria, South Africa and Gabon voting yes, that history will also inform more on the weakness of the African Union and Gaddafi's diplomacy or lack of same thereof. South Africa tried to smart up from the ruse of Resolution 1973 but the caravan was already passing. Museveni of Uganda offered the greatest line for laughter. He wondered how Gaddafi could trust the West so much that he did not have shoulder-to-air missiles to shot down some of the NATO planes. The fact that he said this after US offered him 100 experts to catch Joseph Kony made it even funnier. Who says African heads of state are all dull with no humor? Mugabe debates with the chutzpah of a champ giving jib-jab blows to his intellectual opponent - the foreign the better to his advantage. Yahyah Jammeh jib-jabbed Britain by saying the colonial master did nothing besides teaching Gambians to sing: Baa baa black sheep have you any wool? People, I can tell you many " tori" but the most suitable venue is for laughter only. Back to the headline and I reiterate: Saif's capture is a non-event. His strength rested on his father's and I don't think he cultivated much appeal to independently inspire a formidable military counter-revolution to recapture Libya through bush fighting - guerilla modus operandi. Bagging a doctorate from Britain, he is more comfortable with the modern world, donning the reformer pedigree, jetting to Western capital and smooching with the likes of industrialists. The Zintan fighters who captured Saif promise to treat him well. It is my guess that Libya will do so in order to clean up its revengeful image. I heard Saif asked to shot in the head as he was being captured - but his captives refused. As I researched and inquired, talk of a Libyan Liberation Force for a long-term insurrection, mostly guerilla style that will cause more deaths and destructions, is a tad irresponsible. Why - if elections would be held in 2012? That should be the priority to determine who leads. If the populace wants a Jamahiriya, let them decide. If it wants NTC, let them decide. While the Libyan Dragnet has so many lessons, a warning to dictators carries little or no reality. If anyone is so naive to think super powers intervene for good democracy against bad guys (sorry Mami Ellen of Libya), the world is passing by while you dream spectacularly. For example, some Cameroonians thought drumming in front of the White House and calling on Obama to support them by bombing and unseating Biya had a ring of reality. Other Ugandans tried a version with sporadic walk to work and skirmishes. Obama instead provided military aid to Museveni. Hello? Have a happy weekend everyone. Hope you enjoy my recommendations of videos to watch. Forget war.....unless you can win one for Africa. There is no winner in Libya. The place needs election. MsJoe . In a message dated 11/20/2011 3:11:15 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, zichivhu@yahoo.com writes:
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
USA Africa Dialogue Series - Saif Gadhafi captured! Les chiens aboient, la caravane passe. Beauty Videos
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