by Femi Akomolafe
We refuse to be, what you want us to be
We are what we are, that is the way it is going to be, you don't know
You cannot educate I, for there's no equal opportunity
Talking about my freedom, people freedom and liberty
Yeah, we have been trodden on your wine press much too long, rebel, rebel, (2x)
Babylon system is the vampire,
Sucking the children day by day, yeah
Me say the Babylon system is the vampire
Sucking the blood of the sufferer
Building church and university, oh, yeah
Deceiving the people continually
Me say dem graduating thieves and murderers
Look out now
They sucking the blood of the sufferer
Tell the children the truth (2x)
—Bob Marley, from the album SURVIVAL.
(Swans - November 2, 2009) One of the definitions of hypocrisy is "feigned high principles: the false claim to or pretense of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings."
Churchill, whom the English sometime ago voted the greatest Englishman ever, once said: "[The English] are not a young people with an innocent record and a scanty inheritance. We have engrossed to ourselves... an altogether disproportionate share of the wealth and traffic of the world. We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in the unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to us."
The effrontery of Westerners to assume the high moral ground is always baffling, at least to yours truly. Take any happening anywhere in the world and you see Western political leaders, intellectuals -- supported by their sycophantic corporate media, spewing absolute nonsense. They are fast, very fast to condemn a so-called repression in China, so-called human rights violations in Iran, and the supposed shortcomings of the rulers of Sudan. Yet, they never see the shortcomings in their own societies.
Just take a look at them: every Western nation is, literally, armed to the teeth. Their leader, Uncle Sam, spends about half its budget on its Pentagon, and it's bristling with every form of weaponry known and unknown to man. Every form of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons is to be found in the arsenals of these Western nations.
Yet, let any non-white nation attempt to invest in some weapon system, and we see Westerners hollering "danger," "danger." They, of course, would deny that their action stinks of rank racism. Maybe they should tell us why the nuclear weapons built by the white rulers of South Africa were withdrawn when power was to be handed over to the black rulers.
It is said that the guillotiner does not like the sight of a machete wielder; how apropos! To the diseased minds of Western leaders/scholars, the rest of the world is waiting for the opportunity to pay the Western man back in his own bad coin. It never occurred to them that all we, in the non-Western world, want is simply to be left alone to manage our own affairs as we deem fit, without interference or molestation from any nosy imperialist.
We have to question what exactly is wrong with the imperialist wolves in the West that made them believe that they have every right to defend themselves, whilst denying others the right to do the same thing. Why do leaders of Britain (I see nothing Great there except duplicitous chicaneries) think that they are entitled to have a so-called independent (major components are supplied by Uncle Sam) nuclear deterrent, whilst the Iranians are to be denied the same? What manner of thinking informed the president of the United States of America to deny the North Koreans the right to nuclear weapons whilst US forces are parading vast quantities of the same weapons?
These are legitimate questions that should excite the mind of any fair-minded person who believes in the equitable application of international law and justice. It certainly will be very heart warming if someone can help out with some answers -- not that I am holding my breath!
Why should I, in my little patch of Africa, be afraid of Iran or North Korea? For crying out loud, Koreans have never colonized my land, they have never aggressed any part of my beloved Africa, and they have never enslaved Africans. Iran has never toppled a government in Africa and installed a puppet to guarantee the continual rape of African resources whilst despoiling the African environment in the process. Neither Iran nor North Korean is sending modern-day missionaries to my land to peddle the gospel of crass materialism, sexual aberrancy, pedophilia, and pederasty. Yet, the heirs of slave-masters and colonialists are telling me that Iran and North Korea present a clear and present danger and they expect me to take them seriously. It is difficult to imagine what the imperialists take us for, really. Do they still believe that we did not read up on our history and know all about the atrocities they have committed (and continue to commit) in our land in the name of "civilisation," "democracy," "human rights," etcetera, etcetera?
The imperialist West remains the only place today where people still arrogate to themselves the right to go around the world raping, killing and destroying human lives. The Chinese are not doing it; neither are the Russians nor the Indians. I shall be grateful if someone can educate me on the last time Iran or North Korea invaded another country. No one else except the champions of human rights in the West goes around the world sending drones to kill innocent people or bombing whole villages to kingdom come. No one else but the sanctimonious West is killing vast numbers of HUMAN BEINGS in the name of an ill-defined, utterly mindless War on Terror.
In any dispute they have with the rest of us, Westerners always arrogate to themselves the right to be the accuser, the prosecutor, the judge, and the enforcer. They accused their former stooge, Saddam Hussein, of every crime known to man. They slapped sanctions that reduced Iraq to pure rubbish. Yet, they were not satisfied until they finally invaded the country, deposed their former quisling, and had their new stooges hang him. Yet, it never occurred to these imperialists with their Ivy League universities, their oxymoronic intelligence outfits, and their numerous think tanks why Iranians are not rolling over to be thrashed and raped like their neighbors in Iraq.
The Iranians and the North Koreans are no fools. They know that imperialism knows no moral and no ethics and that it's motivated only by a desire to conquer, dominate, and exploit. They also know that since no logical explanation can ever be adduced for neo-colonialism, the imperialists will eventually resort to the only things that make sense to them -- lies, deceit, subterfuge, and outright violence. Do you still wonder why the Iranians and the North Koreans are testing every missile they can lay their hands on?
Iran (formerly Persia) had a history stretching as far back as 1500 BC, and it was once a preeminent world power. Korea boasts an illustrious civilization that predates the Christian era. How do we then explain the situation whereby upstarts like Europe and the USA are telling the Iranians and the North Koreans how to live their lives and how to protect themselves?
What informed these reckless imperialists' decision to arrogate to themselves the right to speak for the rest of us? What, if not for rank and arrogant racism, prompted white folks -- a minority of the world's population -- to proclaim themselves the "international community" and pretend to represent the rest of us?
This is how the BBC (Imperial Britain's official mouthpiece) reported a recent disclosure by Iran that it has a second centrifuge facility:
Iran's decision to build a secret facility represented a "direct challenge to the basic compact" of the global non-proliferation regime, US President Barack Obama said, making a statement in Pittsburgh, where he is hosting a G20 summit. Despite Iran's assertions that the facility was for peaceful purposes, the new plant was "not consistent" with that goal, the US president said. Speaking after Mr Obama, the French and British leaders used strong language to insist that Iran would now have to disclose full details of its entire nuclear programme or face new and tougher sanctions.
Gordon Brown stressed that the US, France and UK were "at one" on the issue, and accused the Iranians of "serial deception." There was now "no choice but to draw a line in the sand" over the nuclear issue, he said. "Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear programme."
Mr Sarkozy said the situation was a challenge to the entire international community. "Everything must be put on the table," the French president said, adding that the world needed to see a "step change" from Iran in the coming months.
Who appointed this dwarfish cretin to speak for the "international community"? I for one do not elect any arrogant imperialist to speak on my behalf.
Every year the US State Department publishes what it calls a report on human rights around the world. In it the authors vociferate against other countries' shortcomings whilst neglecting the monumental infringements on the rights of the poor and the minorities in Amerikkka. The oligarchists ruling Amerikkka still find it more expedient to jail young black Americans than put them through school. The U.S. continues to lead the world in carrying out capital punishment, yet it has the biggest mouth in condemning other people's penal system. The U.S., where justice is sold to the highest bidder, continues to condemn other nation's judicial inadequacies. Uncle Sam boasts of being the richest country on earth, but homeless destitute citizens continue to deface its streets.
Ironically, those who have actually used nuclear weapons, continue to produce, stockpile and extensively test such weapons, have used depleted uranium bombs and bullets against tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Kuwaitis, and even their own soldiers and those of their allies, afflicting them with incurable diseases, blatantly violate their obligations under the NPT [Nuclear Proliferation Treaty], have refrained from signing the CTBT [Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty] and have armed the Zionist occupation regime with WMDs, are not only refusing to remedy their past deeds, but in clear breach of the NPT, are trying to prevent other countries from acquiring the technology to produce peaceful nuclear energy.
—Iran's president Ahmadinejad
Recently (July 18, 2009), The Guardian of London published a piece by former British Premier Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Booth Blair, entitled "Africa's Obstruction of Justice." In said piece Mrs. Blair informed us that she finds the African Union's refusal to deliver Sudan's president to the International Criminal Court's dock "depressing."
The average Euro-American capacity for hypocrisy is simply astounding!
Here is Mrs. Blair shedding copious crocodile tears over Sudan! This is the same woman married to the monster, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, aka Blair the Liar!
It is difficult to know where to begin to tackle this depressed woman.
Tony Blair was the sidekick of that imbecilic moron, the 43rd occupant of the White House who launched a genocidal war on Afghanistan and Iraq. No one keeps count of the millions of lives lost and destroyed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now in Pakistan. We may ask why Mrs. Blair was not depressed by the killings of innocent Iraqis and Afghans and Pakistanis. A life is a life is a life for Christ's sake! I feel depressed whenever and wherever human lives are wantonly wasted -- be it in the Congo, Somalia, the USA, Darfur, or wherever.
Cherie Blair is a lawyer, for crying out loud! The fact that her husband is an international war criminal (even if he remains unindicted) does not appear to have fazed the two-faced wretched hypocrite.
What do Western folks really think of themselves? The entire history of the West drips with blood -- human blood -- and today the heirs to this wretched history are wrapping themselves in garbs of righteous righteousness and making obstreperous noises about "Human Rights!" The people whose history vividly attests to their mercilessness and heartlessness are today disturbing our peace about some "freedom" and "democracy." These are the same people who turned human beings into mere chattels and wiped out entire human races wherever they met them!
So, Mrs. Blair was depressed and for this she got generous space in one of the leading British newspapers!
Which bring us to the vast hypocritical game the imperialists are playing in Southern Africa. Leaders and scholars of the West would want us to buy into their lie that President Mugabe (may the ancestors continue to protect and guide him) is being punished because he had denied his people democracy, human rights etc, etc., etc.
Come with me and let's shed some light on this patent lie and hypocrisy. Let's compare the two Southern African nations of Uganda and Zimbabwe. We can then ask another perfectly legitimate question of why the West is so vociferous on Zimbabwe and is silent, very silent, on the events in Uganda.
The West and its media often lapped on President Mugabe as a sit-tight dictator. Mugabe has been in power for 29 years; Yoweri Museveni has been ruling Uganda for 23 years; a difference of just 6 years. Yet every child in the world knows that Mugabe is a sit-tight dictator who has ran his country aground.
Zimbabwe is a multi-party democracy with a flourishing and an independent and very vibrant press. Mugabe has consistently held and won elections in Zimbabwe. Museveni operates a "no party" system which he calls "movement," and he brooks no opposition. The only election Museveni ever participated in was against Professor Yusuf Lule way back in 1979, and when he lost he took to the bush to fight a guerrilla war and seized power in 1986.
Today Mugabe is sharing power with the opposition; in Uganda, Museveni simply does not tolerate any opposition.
The civil society organizations and the trade unions in Zimbabwe are very free and strong and they enjoy external support. In Uganda, they are muzzled and are mainly under government control.
It is without doubt that Mugabe brandishes more robust democratic credentials than Museveni and we all can see the emptiness and nakedness of the imperialists' shouts of "human rights" and "democracy."
Mugabe was morphed into an ogre because he has the guts to stand up to the imperialists and the courage to take back land from land-grabbers and redistribute it to the rightful owners. Mugabe remains one of the few leaders in Africa who has called their bluff.
Despite his dictatorial tendencies, the imperialists continue to see Museveni as their "ally." He's their lapdog whom they can use to fight their proxy wars in Africa -- as happened in DRCongo.
The capacity of the imperialists to deceive is truly astounding!
For my part, I must say that as long as I live, and as long any little vestige of colonialism and imperialism remains in Africa, I shall prosecute a ruthless war on these monsters, a war in which here shall be no truce. Colonialism and imperialism have no honour, no shame, no morals and no conscience. The devastation which they have wrought in Africa is without parallel anywhere in the history of the world, but now Africans have arrived on the scene...
—Kwame Nkrumah, former Ghanaian leader, in a speech at the Casablanca Conference, 1961.
A voice from Africa worth hearing... Please consider a donation.