Disgusting case of grovelling towards Royal Saudis.

We just cannot believe our eyes this week of the television images of dreadful grovelling towards the rulers of Saudi Arabia. The nature of devious, duplicity of Saudi foreign policy eludes those who dance and sing praises at the feet of the King of the Saudis. The evils of Saudi wahhabism  are overlooked, as the king proclaims moderation we discover  UK mosques are stuffed with reactionary Saudi wahhabis hate literature.  One understands states need relations and sometimes even with dreadful regimes but to engage in displays of over the top grovelling is nauseating, given different circumstances we wonder that if the Mugabe regime had abundant oil to trade he would be the one being praised and we informed of “shared values” - this is too much! British foreign policy needs cleaning up and some sort of return to a principled, ethical foreign policy, we need to dump relations with unpleasant regimes, there would also be some cost savings.

Naming the Royal in the scandal.

For once the high and mighty tabloids are stuck they cannot name the Royal involved in the blackmail scandal yet thanks to the internet curiosity can be satisfied within seconds. Normally, we have no time for silly sex scandal stories, private lives are private lives unless of course they cause problems for others who may be innocent. Our tabloid media is intrusive, the search for cheap headlines especially sex scandals is all they seek, they care little for the lives they may ruin. How sick can it get when The Sun was prepared to pay a paparazzi £300,000 a shot of the face of a dying princess. We wish all good people would boycott the miserable Murdoch Sun. No, I’m not naming anyone in the Royal sex scandal  simply because we all deserve to keep private lives. 

How to get on in Africa.

Last night’s Dispatches programme on Channel 4 was an excellent expose of corruption in Africa. Sorious Samura, a Sierra Leone journalist visited the huge slum of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya to illustrate how the poor have to contribute money to officials in order to survive. From building a home in a slum to finding a job was a shocking tale of paying bribes. There was generally criticism and rightly that the make poverty history campaign is a joke and the the priority should be to eliminate corruption. Sorious Samura also showed how easy it was to set up bogus charities so that thieves can obtain funds trickling through from foreign aid. DFID funds are clearly being looted as we write. Sorious Samura finished the programme in Sierra Leone where illustrated how corruption was rooted in the primary schools here teachers not receiving their pay expected some little payment in kind and cash from their pupils, we have been funding Sierra Leone for free primary education for some time so clearly some people have been making a lot of money from DFID funding, that funding has recently been suspended.

Corruption in Africa should be a priority concern and target, aid should be suspended until corruption is dealt with.

Those shared values with the Saudis?

So Kim Howells, minister at the Foreign Office, talks of shared values between the UK and Saudi Arabia, From a country ruled by a reactionary monarch; where women are second class citizens; where amputations and killings have the blessings of state and the religious police; where British citizens have been tortured and refused justice we apparently have shared values! Robin Cook must be turning in his grave! Why on earth do we find it difficult to distance ourselves from nasty regimes?  Saudi money is filthy and stinks with death and terror - we should not be doing business with this regime.

European Union betrays Zimbabwe.

One by one the unprincipled leaders of Europe have betrayed the people of Zimbabwe, now the EU has formally invited Mugabe to the EU - African Union summit.  This decision is a disgraceful  and dreadful betrayal of the Zimbabwean people. All the human rights abuses mean nothing to the EU leaders. Previous decisions against the regime were clearly meaningless window dressing. It means also the the EU leaders have still not understood the issue, their idiotic belief that the EU needs to talk to Mugabe not to isolate him, despite past experience; that dialogue with this fascist dictator is a total waste of time.  Meanwhile in the real world, British Airways has now ceased flights to Harare, Ethiopian Airlines will cease flights to Harare on November 15th, so far  18 airlines have ceased flights to Zimbabwe due to costs and difficulties in fuel supply. 

The English question.

We believe there is a legitimate question to answer and we find the attempts by government ministers to answer this issue pathetic.Devolution and the setting up of separate assemblies and parliaments within the UK has led to the other nations awarding themselves favoured status in regard to prescription charges, care for the elderly etc. we are concerned that Scottish MPs can vote on matters concerning England whilst English MPs cannot vote on Scottish issues. It is sad that the issue is now being picked up by the Conservative party in the form of establishing a grand committee of MPs to vote on English affairs only. It is very sad that Labour has not completed the devolution scheme in establishing an English parliament. Happily, the idea of English regional assemblies is a dead duck as such an experiment would be too costly, bureaucratic and confusing. We hope that ministers look again at the existing constitutional settlement and legislate for an English parliament.

The hard shoulders on motorways.

We write with some concern of the idea of allowing the hard shoulders on motoways open to traffic. We find it hard to understand why Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is so excited about extending this idea to other motorways. The concept now is that the hard shoulder is there for emergencies and is often used by emergency vehicles. The opening of the hard shoulder as an experiment on the M42 is greeted with comments on pollution easing and more traffic flow.

We are rather alarmed that now this formula will be extended to other motorways. This is a bad idea and we hope wiser heads will intervene and prevent such a development.

Kenya prepares for elections.

President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya has now dissolved the Kenya Parliament and 210 seats will be up for grabs in the forthcoming general election, date should be confirmed today.  Mr Kibaki heads the Party of National Unity which is not doing well in the polls, his main contender is Mr Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement. Despite anti-corruption legislation passed by the outgoing parliament corruption remains Kenya’s number one issue. Another old political issue is majimbo - federalism. Kenya’s 10th general election should be interesting.

The Mo Ibrahim Prize update.

So it was hardly a surprise! Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique, has been given his prize and hopefully he will use the $5,000,000 wisely and put it to good use in his country.  Many of us who have lived and worked in Africa and have family and relatives in our case in Zimbabwe, have become rather cynical  of African politicians who become rulers. As we stated in the previous post too many African leaders have looted the resources of their countries and stashed money away in Swiss banks etc. We hope sufficient research was undertaken to ensure the happy recipient has not also stashed money into banks. We remain sceptical of the wisdom of such a prize but would suggest that recipients be encouraged not to put the prize money to personal use.

The Mo Ibrahim Prize.

Anyone proposing a prize ($5,000,000 ) for a former African head of state for “their excellence in leadership” is faced with a momunental challenge. Mo Irahim is a Sudanese mobile telephone millionaire who believes his idea will promote wisdom in government. Apparently there are 13 posssible candidates. Good governance in Africa is about as rare as rain in some parts of the continent.

The favourite appears to be Joachim Chissano ex President of Mozambique. A panel of four headed by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan; former Irish President, Mary Robinson; and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari; Salim Ahmed Salim former Tanzanian Prime Minister and former Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity; Aïcha Bah Diallo, former Minister of Education in Guinea and Special Adviser to the Director general of UNESCO; Ngozi Ojonko Iweala former Foreign and Finance Minister of Nigeria.

I’m not sure this is a good idea, Mo Ibrahim thought this might help to contribute a gradual move from foreign aid and promote good governance. Surely, any winner would donate the prize to promote education. On the other hand we know full well how African leaders have been quite good at stashing away funds in Swiss banks. I think there needs to be transparency and and some confirmation of how clean some candidates are.