Mood I'm in.
If I was listening to Miles just now, I would write this differently…
About this and everything else I say in blog or forum or song, I am only functioning as a social human being. That's why I may say what I had for breakfast, although, strictly speaking it's none of anyone's business. Last night I went through the whole of the poetry section of Funmi's Cafeafricana and for this morning's refreshment I read the very first poem in the Divan of Hafiz - (the Salehe Salehpour Persian – English translation which I received as a present two weeks ago) and was again astounded:
" 1. O thou! The veiled rose bud, shame-stricken by thee;
The intoxicated narcissus, astonished by thee.
2. Equality with thee, the rose can make?
For, it hath light from the moon; and the moon, light by thee
" 1. Friends, when hands together embrace ye
The revolution of the sphere, forget ye.
2. When, to me, the turn reacheth; in my place, I remain not.
In recollection of me, that remaining time, drink ye
A couple of weeks ago I told the rabbi "I have never stolen anything in my life!", meditated on the matter thoroughly the next few days , thought about the eggs I have eaten – stolen from some mother's nest , still don't know if ordinary stealing applies to "taking" or having previously "taken", someone's girlfriend/ girlfriends. By the way somebody becomes a racist, because some " nigger" took his girlfriend, the devil incarnates in that somebody and from henceforth the man hates and is at war with all "niggers"
I have always said the 12th blessing of the Amidah, with mixed feelings – since every now and then we are all guilty, to some extent , of lashon hara.
So, it took me entirely by surprise: I trembled when I read Ogbeni Kadiri's new year prayer. That if the Almighty were to wipe out all the corrupt ones in Nigeria, historians would later on regard the wiping out as genocide since a considerable percentage of the population could have been annihilated should the Good Lord fulfil such prayers. Even President Buhari himself - for love of self and country – would hesitate to say Amen to such a prayer. And so would Goodluck Jonathan. As the big book says, there is none righteous, no not one.
Good man : Ike Ekweremadu Warns Against Military Action
I recall in 2011, by a single author, this forum was inundated with over 400 posts when Laurent Gbagbo was being removed by lethal force.
The wise men of ECOWAS and the AU know how to choose and who to pick a fight with. There must be at least be some assurance of success before they make their bold move. This principle of overwhelming lethal force is not evenly applied by the military collective of ECOWAS or the Africa Union who to date will only take on the small fish, which reminds me of
( a) my first Sufi master Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh saying one that " The big fish exist to eat the small fish, to keep the ocean clean"
(b) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani saying, " Israel? Israel is a very small fish. Small fish don't eat big fish. They eat smaller fish" (As I usually tell my numerous Gambian friends, Israel is only twice the size of the Gambia (Israel is 20,770 km² and the Gambia is 10,689 km²)
(c) the story that St Augustine tells in his " The City of God", of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great. The Emperor angrily demanded of him, "How dare you molest the seas?" To which the pirate replied, "How dare you molest the whole world? Because I do it with a small boat, I am called a pirate and a thief. You, with a great navy, molest the world and are called an emperor."
According to some people's Happy New Year wish, they would like to see Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Omar al Bashir of North Sudan ousted by an ECOWAS/ AU army . Retroactively, can you imagine the suffering that would have been imposed on the people of Nigeria, if such a force had been arrayed against Nigeria, to take out Abacha or Paul Biya and a few other long reigning presidents/ despots bought to heel by some overwhelming military force mounted by ECOWAS or African Union. I guess that if Trump got out of hand, if they could ( as in "Yes we can") the same people would like to put together some military components ( land, sea, air and nuclear) that would bring about regime change in the United States of America.
We are human beings.Not that I agree with Professor Maurice Amutabi or Kasim Alli completely – it's just that both those in the Gambia and those outside of the Gambia should go the extra mile to avoid the unnecessary spilling of anybody's blood. There are enough brains out there to ensure that the Gambia has a free and fair re-election process, to begin with – as President Jammeh requested in his New Year Address to the Nation.
And that is my humble opinion.
By the way – yesterday I enquired from someone, why we were not hearing anything about the Gambian crisis from Professor Sulayman Nyang and was told that he is – and has been very ill. Please let us pray for him – for his speedy recovery….
Cornelius
On Monday, 2 January 2017 22:06:16 UTC+1, kasim Alli wrote:
When would we learn from disastrous regime change fiascos and the resulting human calamity of the experiments in Libya, Syria and Iraq among others. Now, we are advocating similar measures in Gambia, Zimbabwe and others. Why not include Egypt, Morocco among other dictatorships and "non-democracies" on this list where you recommend the other "rigged democracies" should teach lessons. And after that, we might also ask that the democratic nations of the U.N. should teach similar lessons in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, maybe Russia and China among other "non-democracies" that need lessons.My point is that we should let the Gambians resolve their issues themselves without any big brother interventions. Let these big brothers resolve their own internal issues first.
Sent from my iPad--I listened to the new year message from Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, the outgoing President of the Gambia and I was deeply shocked to see political buffoonery at the worst level. After Idi Amin of Uganda, we thought the era of tyrants in Africa was over. He claimed that the planned attack by ECOWAS to force him out amounted to declaration of war against the Gambia. Now Yahya Jammeh is the Gambia and Gambia is Yahya Jammeh! He must be forced out by ECOWAS and all democracies in Africa should send forces to teach this demagogue a lesson by forcing him out.Maurice Amutabi
After Jammeh has been removed, Africa should focus on removing Robert Mugabe, Paul Biya, Eduardo dos Santos, Yoweri Museveni, Paul Kagame, Pierre Nkurunziza and other dictators from power. The continent still needs revolutionaries. Yahya Jammeh should borrow a leaf from John Mahama of Ghana, and understand that in democracy you hand over power once you have been defeated at the polls.--Prof. Maurice N. Amutabi, PhD
Vice Chancellor,
Lukenya University
P.O Box 619 - 00204
Athi River, Kenya
E-mail: Amu...@yahoo.com or amu...@gmail.com
Tel: +254-(0)700-744545
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