A Rebuttal to Friedman: There is no “lid on Africa” also addressing his misconception on Migration!

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “taking the lid off” as: “to cause something bad that was previously kept secret to be known by the public” (Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press). A writer like Thomas L. Friedman in the New York times should know this perfectly well, as he used this term in his column ‘ Opinion Can I Ruin Your Dinner Party?’ published on the 7^th August 2018. This is the reason for why I writing this. Because of two paragraphs that needs to be addressed, I will first let his words speak, before showing what the EU says about the matter. As a European, the American writer doesn’t make sense.

The key part was:

“Toppling Qaddafi without building a new order may go down as the single dumbest action the NATO alliance ever took. It took the lid off Africa, leading to some 600,000 asylum seekers and illegal migrants flocking to Italy’s shores in recent years, with 300,000 staying there and the rest filtering into other E.U. countries. This has created wrangles within the bloc over who should absorb how many migrants and has spawned nationalist-populist backlashes in almost every E.U. country” (Thomas L. Friedman – ‘Opinion Can I Ruin Your Dinner Party?’ 07.08.2018 link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/opinion/can-i-ruin-your-dinner-party.html).

I don’t know in which world Friedman is residing, but the words of the EU, Zelesa and MPC are clearly not opening any jars of uncertainty. Yes, there been a growing amount of illegal and non-asylum seekers through the United Nations or Bilateral Organizations, which they have come from War-Zones as in the past. As the EU Member States takes their quota of refugees and asylum-seekers as a global task of helping people in need, as that cannot happen where they are or they are living in temporary shelters awaiting hopefully a helpful nation to become their guardian. However, no else is saying it is NATO fault or even the fall Qaddafi, which is the reason for crossing across the Mediterranean sea. There is more porous borders as well as the conflict in the Sahel Region that has continued. These are all reasons for the transport of refugees from the rest of the Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there was never a lid to be taken of the continent.

The EU Science Hub states:

“Between 2008 and 2016, the total annual number of African migrants remained stable. However, legal immigration was declining in this period, while the number of irregular arrivals and asylum claims of Africans increased. Irregular arrivals of Africans via the Mediterranean started to decline again in 2017.In Europe, the majority of African immigrants come from North Africa, with most people making the move to reunite with family members already settled in a European country” (EU Science Hub – ‘New perspectives on African migration’ 01.07.2018 link: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/news/new-perspectives-african-migration).

EU Project opened more nations for Immigration:

“Clearly, African immigration to Europe was marked by increasing diversification both in the number of countries sending and receiving the immigrants. Particularly remarkable was the emergence of the southern European countries, principally Italy, Portugal, and Spain, themselves longstanding emigration countries, as immigration countries. This was as much a product of the improving economic fortunes in these countries and their integration into the prosperity and political sphere of Western Europe as it was of mounting immigration pressures on their borders to the east and the south. Enclosed in a new European transnational space, new identities of ethnicity and citizenship began to emerge that entailed creating both symbolic and material borders to keep away or distinguish the immigrants. The Europeanization of these countries and the rebordering of the Mediterranean that it implied required the separation and stigmatization ofimmigrants from the global South (Suarez-Navaz, 1997; Royo, 2005)” (Paul Tiyambe Zeleza – ‘Africa ‘s Contemporary Global Migrations: Patterns, Perils, and Possibilities’ P: 39, June 2010).

Migration Profile – Libya:

“Despite Libya being, first and foremost, a country of immigration, the deterioration of immigrants’ conditions in the country has also made it an important country for transit migration and particularly for the many migrants trying to reach Malta and the Italian Isle of Lampedusa As to emigration patterns, Libya has never recorded significant outward migration flows. However, during the 2011 unrest, there was an upsurge of Libyan nationals fleeing the country. According, though, to the authorities in neighbouring countries, the great majority are believed to already have returned to Libya” (…) “To conclude, two considerations can be made about the impact of the Libyan crisis on international migration movements. On the one hand, Sub Saharan nationals were without any doubt the people most at risk, both in Libya and at the borders (where repatriation activities led to an impasse). On the other hand, the capacity of neighbouring African countries to manage the crisis in terms of the reception of migrants was remarkable. (IOM, 2012)” (Migration Policy Center – ‘MPC – MIGRATION PROFILE Libya, June 2013).

As we can really see, is that what Friedman is saying is wrong. The African Migration to Europe has lasted long. That is not new and has usually followed to the previous Colonizers of the ones migrating. However, with the change of he European Union, has changed that pattern, but not opened up something. The Libyan Crisis and fall of Qaddafi have had is effect. However, the results by the EU and the IOM are stating not as bad as previously stated. Also that the “illegal” are rising, but less of the direct asylum-seekers, meaning their means and ways has changed, but the end-game are more of the same. They are still fleeing from crisis and wars in Sub-Saharan Africa, but they doing so by the shores of Northern Africa crossing into EU Countries.

So, the taking the lid off by invading and deposing Qaddafi seems like far-fetched. That is a lie, also a relic of the past, as Friedman sounds like they opened a box with a box-opener. This was simply done with getting rid of one dictator. He seems like that is the reason for the whole transit in Libya, not the whole conflict within the continent and neither the true nature of it all. As people are doing whatever they can to get shelter and hope for the future, because the International Community isn’t reacting or caring about the oppression in their nations. They are forgotten and know they will not get help, as the Western Powers are boasting these leaders who oppress and then people want to flee from these shores.

No lid was taken, it was never a lid there to begin with? Are there a lid that was opened so that United States could have space for all the slaves in the past? Or is there a lid taken of the brain of Trump? We all, the rest of the world really want to know.

Enough of this nonsense. Peace.

Only ignorant smucks are proposing a “Libyan Model” concerning transition of Power!

There are these gentlemen of the world, who are just modeling the world under a paradigm as long as you get rid of dictators and totalitarian leaders. Everything will be fine and dandy, they think killing a leader and suddenly his reign will fall. They think that the idea of going in with military and militias are the solution to cross over to a democratic models. However, this sort of activity is only risky and usually opens up a can of worms, that no-one can predict, as the civil service and the power-vacuum created isn’t filled. While the militias, the weapons and the new war-lords can create new conflict and pro-longed civil wars to get their party to control the new government. Therefore, when people like John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence and Donald J. Trump are saying they want a Libyan model. They are not considering the implications.

They are saying it is fine to support militias to kill a leader, to destroy his political and military party, to destroy the nation building project around that person and try to force someone else through a military solution. That is a proxy war with support and help from allies. This meaning NATO and other bombing from air, while militias are supported with arms and ammunition. That is all to conquer and take down a dictator. Instead of trying to get a peaceful takeover with a transitional period and also dialogue, that takes time and build trust between all stakeholders. They are anticipating that the final nail in the coffin and the killings of a leader is the key moment, that will create a brave new world.

In October 2012, the Human Rights Watch published a report called ‘Death of a Dictator – Bloody Vengeance in Sirte’ which stated: “Video clips filmed by mobile phone cameras at the time of Gaddafi’s capture and posted on social media sites offer visual evidence for at least one such execution. In one video clip showing Gaddafi in the custody of militia fighters at the drainage pipes just moment after his capture, a dazed but alive young man with his right leg in a cast can be seen sitting down on the ground behind Muammar Gaddafi and his captors, appearing virtually unharmed, with his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. As the phone camera pans away from the young man and focuses on Gaddafi and his captors, several short bursts of machine gun fire can be heard in the background. In a second video clip apparently filmed just moments later, a group of men captured from the convoy are filmed on the main road above the culvert with the drainage pipes being brutally beaten by militiamen, and the phone camera then pans down to show the same young man with the cast on his leg lying lifelessly among the bodies of several dead Gaddafi loyalists, with blood still flowing from his wounds. While the actual moment of his killing was not caught on camera, the two video clips taken together strongly suggest that he was shot dead by militia fighters in the moments immediately after his capture, as there do not appear to be any exchanges of gunfire taking place at the time the videos were recorded. A Human Rights Watch inspection of his body the day after the killing found that he had been shot in the chest and the upper right leg” (Human Rights Watch, P: 30-31, 2012).

So, when this is the ending of someone who ruled Libya for decades on end and had total control. When you say you want this model, that must mean you want militias to come in and get rid of his body in a demeaning way. What else can it mean? Because the Libyan model is supporting militias to get rid of Gaddafi, but not having support or plans of succession. Neither what sort of government and legitimate ruler there was supposed to come after. The reports from Libya ever since is chaos and continued fighting, a pro-longed civil war that has lasted for 7 years from 2011 to 2018. That was supported by Western Allies and has ended in countless tragedies.

Therefore, I am amazed when the likes of the Trump Administration proposes a ‘Libyan model’, do they want to promote civil wars and destruction of nations, just so they can have a puppet and they can control the resources? Is that the norm and values of the United States?

Because, it is seemingly as long as there is no peaceful transition and no sort of temporary impasse for all stakeholders within a conflict. There will be more blood shed and less of evolution to a peaceful and legitimate government. It has been changes from dictators without bloodshed, when the dictators has stepped down and gotten ‘untouchable’ and put in exile. While the state could have figure out new maneuvers within a transitional time, so that the parties and stakeholders could get their slice of the newfound peace. Not just figure out ways to eat and control, but actually fill the vacuum left after the fall. But that is all a pipe-dream as the super-powers want to bomb places to oblivion, kill the leader and loot the nations, while leaving the people dry and hoping that the empty pockets and plates doesn’t retaliate towards the puppets installed. It is like we never learn and that our leaders never want to learn. Peace.

President Trump’s insane call to the Governor of Guam!

Governor Eddie Baza Calvo must feel strange and weird after the call from his Commander-In-Chief President Donald Trump. He must be wondering what the hell that is going-on. The White House released this statement expressing their concern for Guam today: “President Donald J. Trump spoke yesterday with Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo. President Trump reassured Governor Calvo and our fellow Americans on Guam that United States stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America” (White House, 12.08.2017).

With that sort of statement you would expect the conservation to a bit different, than how it really was. Since the President who is escalating tensions with North Korea and their dictatorship, the militarized leadership of Pyonyang, who has threaten to attack Guam with long-rage missiles. Clearly, the American territory are under siege. So, let’s just take some of the words from Trump talking to Calvo!

Calvo said this: “Mr. President, as the governor of Guam representing the people of Guam, and as an American citizen, I have never felt more safe or more confident with you at the helm. So with all the criticism going on over there, from a guy that’s being targeted, we need a guy like you. So I am thankful and I’m glad you’re holding the helm sir”.

The governor trying to ease the president and give him confidence, even nearly sounding like supporter, but clearly, he is not ready for what the President will say. Since he cannot imagine, this sort of conversation. Since the President clearly like the admiration and thinks the flattering talk is genuine.

Trump said this: “Well, we’re going to do a great job, don’t worry about a thing. They should have had me eight years ago. I wish. Nobody with my thought process. Because that was the last time, but uh, and frankly you could have said that for the last three presidents. But you’re gonna be taken care of. You’ve become – Eddie, I have to tell you, you’ve become extremely famous. All over the world they’re talking about Guam and they’re talking about you”.

I don’t think Governor Calvo is in public office to become famous or wanting the North Korean tension and possible missiles launched from the Korean Peninsula because the rhetoric of Trump. I am sure that Calvo and the local government wants silence and less threats to their lives. They could clearly lived in peace and calm if it wasn’t for the war-talk of President Trump. North Korea is only answering back to the threats of nuclear warfare and annihilation. Surely, the fame isn’t what is at risk for Calvo, that is that the island he reside and where is family lives will be bombed by foreign forces.

Trump continues to say: “So look, governor, I just want to let you know. We’re with you 1000%. You have nothing – you notice he hasn’t spoken recently. He doesn’t talk so much anymore. And we’ll see how it all works out, but you’re not going to have a problem. You don’t – this is between you and I, but you don’t like to talk. You can’t do that. And you can’t do that with people like us. So I just wanted to pay my respects and say you seem like a helluva guy”.

Trump is weird and insane, talk about if and when President Kim Jong-Un talks and such. It is not all Presidents who hugs the media and is obsessed with their own ego’s like Trump. North Koreans are spreading propaganda fitting their works and objectives with clear strategies, not like Trump who does whatever to gain popularity and create deflection crisis. That he says North Korea wont be a problem, says it all, when the North Koreans can actually hit Guam with their missiles and their technology.

I am sure Calvo couldn’t care less about his own state of fame, more about the worry of the missiles coming his way to, the island where he is governing. Clearly, Trump do not understand that part or have the clarity of the efforts and worries the locals would have for a possible air-strike. As the Local Government of Guam, as published warning material for a possible air attack from North Korea. That is how serious the leadership there takes it. Something, the President doesn’t seem to grasp. Because his unique mind doesn’t understand the worry of the people on Guam.

Guam, should not feel safe by this and by the response the American President had. He is ignorant and also clearly in his own state of mind. That doesn’t fit the paradigm and the possible plans of North Korea. North Koreans has an agenda and a plan, Mr. President is just winging-it and hoping it doesn’t fail him. Peace.

U.S. Representative Cicilline letter to Paul Ryan on “If President Donald Trump won’t take nuclear war off the table, Congress must” (11.08.2017)

Opinion: the World does not need War-games on the Korean Peninsula!

The World never needs war, we have enough unsolved conflicts to handle in Iraq, Libya, Syria, South Sudan, Yemen and so on. These are all going on right now. We don’t need another conflict, when the grand gentleman and the leadership of the world cannot fix the ones that are going-on. With all the innocent dying and killings going daily.

Therefore, the warmongering between President Donald J. Trump and President Kim Jong-Un. The possible warfare will be devastating. Not only for the Korean Peninsula, but for world in general. This will possible put lives in danger in South Korea, Japan and China. Not only American territories in the Pacific and on the Asian continent. United States playing a dangerous game with the tough tone.

North Koreans aren’t the most predictable pack of republics, third generation of dictatorship and militarism out of proportions. They can clearly damage their neighbors as the camps of production and total control of population can muster painful weapons who has force to hit Seoul, Tokyo and other major cities. This should worry anyone!

President Trump seems to just want to show his balls and be the biggest voice, not within reason or within thinking consequence. Since his army is placed THAAD missiles on South Korean soil, they might have a bigger nuclear submarines at ports in South Korea. Therefore, their forces are close by the North Korean borders.

No-one with a clear mind and spirit want to venture into a nuclear war, no one with a clear mind wants to venture into war. Because of the effects of the war and the possible destruction of lives. The possible hurt and devastation of society. This here will not only inflict possible hurt on North Korea, it most likely hit South Korea, Japan and China. Even other states who will be hit by random bombs and missiles sent to hurt either off them. For all we know Philippines could get a burner who was supposed to hit Guam. Bombs and missiles aren’t always hitting their targets.

Therefore, it is time for diplomacy and talk. Not enrich plutonium and uranium, while hoping the sanity of our leaders are there. It is time for slowing the rhetoric and talk. Discuss and maneuver in within measure. The end-game are so dire, so unnecessary and a conflict that will take decades to revive a possible positive outcome. Not like the Iraqi war the American’s ventured in are solved by now and that is decades after the invasion and killing of President Sadam Hussain. The history does not need to happen again, neither a similar destruction of a republic like the death of Muammar Al-Gaddafi and Libya. The same could happen in North Korea, with effects that would be mirrored in South Korea.

That is not a weird vision, that is most likely. It is time for Trump to play more golf, lay-off Twitter and stop his alarming statements. Actually shut-up and let his foreign officials work on peaceful means. The North Korean leadership will gain leverage and reason for their testing of more sophisticated equipment. Something the world doesn’t need! Peace.

Hon. Evelyn Anite clearly doesn’t know the fair market regulation in the Communication Act of 2000!

 

“Speaking at the launch, the State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization, Hon Evelyn Anite praised UTL for taking the lead in spearheading such initiatives” (Uganda Telecom, 19.06.2017)

Honourable Evelyn Anite, the State Minister for Investment and Privatization, the one who was speaking on the 19^th June 2017 at the Constitutional Square in Kampala. This is where she uttered words of special disgrace. Especially in a free-market ideology that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has bought into with the Structural Adjustment Plan (SAP). Together with the privatization of all sort of markets. Uganda Telecom isn’t the only Cellphone provider or the ones delivering telephone services in Uganda. There are dozens owned by local and by foreign investors. These are all from MTN to Airtel, even Smile Telecom and others. These are in competition and is one of the most profitable industries in Uganda.

Therefore, just look into what the Privatization Minister said yesterday, which is interesting.

“Once the managerial problems at Uganda Telecom have been fixed, Ugandans will be compelled to own a UTL Simcard just like having the national identity (ID) card Evelyn Anite, the outspoken State minister for Investment and Privatization has revealed” (…) “”It did not take us to get somebody from another country to come and fix what is [problems] in UTL. We’re not yet done but we are close by…I want to tell you something; that once we fix the problems in Utl, it is going to be compulsory for Ugandans to hold a UTL line just as it is for you to have a national ID, you must have a Ugandan line. That is the spirit of patriotism”, she said” (URN, 2017).

Sometimes, there should be given some public ethics and governance practices to fellow ministers, as their reach and their possible outreach of laws and proposals. Even the State Minister Anite should learn some parts of the Uganda Communications Act of 2000, which says: “56. Commission to encourage fair competition. The commission shall, in the performance of its functions under this Act, promote, develop and enforce fair competition and equality of treatment among all operators in any business or service relating to communication“ (Uganda Communication Act, 2000). So the laws abiding by the state itself, says it is supposed to be fair, but what is even more neat.

The Second section in Part X, which is worth looking at, since this is the exact part that the operators and the Minister totally forgotten or overlooked, if ever have read: “57. Prohibition of acts exhibiting unfair competition. An operator shall not engage in any activities, whether by act or omission, which have, or are intended to or likely to have, the effect of unfairly preventing, restricting or distorting competition in relation to any business activity relating to communications services. Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), an act or omission referred to under that subsection shall include— any abuse by an operator, either independently or with others, of a dominant position which unfairly excludes or limits competition between the operator and any other party; entering any agreement or engaging in any concerted practice with any other party, which unfairly prevents, restricts or distorts. competition; or (c) the effectuation of anticompetitive changes in the market structure and, in particular, anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions in the communications sector. Neither the Uganda Telecom Limited nor any of its affiliates shall hold or acquire an ownership interest in the second national operator or its affiliates. Neither the second national operator nor its affiliates shall hold or acquire an ownership interest in the Uganda Telecom Limited or any of its affiliates” (Uganda Communication Act, 2000).

So the idea of the State Minister of Privatization are actually thinking of making provisions for the failing state-owned company Uganda Telecom, to get all citizens to have sim-cards and making them costumers in the midst of free-market and also in the midst of all competitions. This is clearly a massive breach of the law and these pieces of legislation. You don’t need to be a scholar or a man of wisdom to understand the possible problems of UTL. This clearly can be seen as limiting the competition and the other companies, as the state only in this way looks into UTL and not helping the other companies. Because she didn’t say all citizens should have MTN and Airtel too, only mentioned UTL.

This is not enforcing free and fair competition and equality of treatment between them. The words of State Minister Evelyn Anite isn’t enacted or become law, even a motion to Parliament. But shows the disregard for functioning law by the own Parliamentarians. That is clearly needed and Speaker Rebecca Kadaga should get the functioning staff to teach their fellow MPs. So they know their laws and provisions within their departments. This so they don’t create these sort of embarrassment, which Anite has done yesterday and revealed today. If not maybe a NRM Caucus at Kyankwanzi could be a learning seminar instead of bashing in the glory of the President and his controlling ways. Peace.

Reference:

URN – ‘Uganda: UTL Simcards to Become Mandatory for Ugandans – Anite’ (20.06.2017) link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201706200332.html

URSB: Press Statement on Provisional Administration of Uganda Telecom Limited (28.04.2017)

Libya: Regarding recent development concerning UTL (03.03.2017)

Government Takeover of Management and Affairs of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) – (01.03.2017)

UCC letter: “Termination of Interconnection Agreement with Uganda Telecom” (30.01.2017)