I am not very excited about 2010, mostly for selfish reasons. I would like the clock to stand still so I can take care of some unfinished business. I am fed up of watching the years accumulate without a corresponding increase in the bank balances!
That petty thought having been aired, there are some things that we know about 2010. Nobody expects the world to end in 2010, that honor being reserved for 2012. There will be the football world finals in South Africa during the southern hemisphere winter of 2010 and an African team is not expected to win the so-called World Cup.
There will be congressional elections in the United States towards the end of 2010. The Democratic Party will face a whipping at the polls, perhaps not enough to overturn their majorities in congress but enough to slow down Barack Obama's increasingly unpopular agenda!
There will be more black babies born to single mothers than at any time ever in the history of the world. Black men will continue to be slightly less than half of the US prison population despite blacks being only about 12% of the overall population.
High school graduation rates in inner city neighborhoods in the US will stay well below 50%. Black unemployment will continue to exceed the national average in Barack Obama's America. The Afghan war will accelerate, even as the US footprint in Iraq diminishes.
Across the central Atlantic, on the expansive continent of Africa, many questions will remain unanswered. Will this be the year when Zimbabwe's immortal leader finally realizes that he is mostly flesh and blood with a little conceit to weld it all together? I would not bet my old tennis shoes on it.
Can we expect any surprises in 2010? As a SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) volunteer, I am always cautiously optimistic that we might be able to detect a signal from deep space that is consistent with transmission by an intelligent species!
Now that would be something worth blogging and bragging about!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Can we do math?
I am somewhat skeptical about this whole festive season fever! That may be because I think that the whole year ought to be a festive one. There should not be people who have to wait for the festive season to have a decent meal or a new pair of shoes and whatever else one may associate with the season of giving.
Here is a conversation which one might expect between two aliens approaching our planet at close to the speed of light as they try to break the galactic crossing record.
AlienX: We shall soon be whizzing by that blue planet which is mostly water and tiny bits of land. But many people there die of thirst!
AlienY: I heard that they are a relatively smart species-obviously not in the league of galactic wayfarers like us- but smart enough to get a rickety rocket to ferry some of them to their moon and back!
AlienX: Here is another fascinating fact about them: about half of them die of over-eating, while similar numbers die of under-eating!
AlienY: So they can build rudimentary space craft but they can't figure out how to divide up the food amongst themselves?
AlienX: Precisely, but if you asked them, Im sure they would say it's more complicated than math! There is something called politics, which is not very respectful of the laws of mathematics.
For example, it might make more political sense to dump bananas in the ocean than to bring down the price of bananas at the market.
AlienY: That reminds me of something which my "granny to the power of ten" told me used to happen on our planet.
AlienX: Will they ever learn?
AlienY: Only truly smart species can learn from their experiences. Why do you think there are no earthlings on this galactic race?
AlienX: I was thinking we might slow down and take a look at the Victoria Falls but I have lost my appetite for all earthly delights!
AlienY:I have a suggestion. Why don't we stop over Harare, Zimbabwe? At least they know what a hundred trillion miles might feel like.
Here is a conversation which one might expect between two aliens approaching our planet at close to the speed of light as they try to break the galactic crossing record.
AlienX: We shall soon be whizzing by that blue planet which is mostly water and tiny bits of land. But many people there die of thirst!
AlienY: I heard that they are a relatively smart species-obviously not in the league of galactic wayfarers like us- but smart enough to get a rickety rocket to ferry some of them to their moon and back!
AlienX: Here is another fascinating fact about them: about half of them die of over-eating, while similar numbers die of under-eating!
AlienY: So they can build rudimentary space craft but they can't figure out how to divide up the food amongst themselves?
AlienX: Precisely, but if you asked them, Im sure they would say it's more complicated than math! There is something called politics, which is not very respectful of the laws of mathematics.
For example, it might make more political sense to dump bananas in the ocean than to bring down the price of bananas at the market.
AlienY: That reminds me of something which my "granny to the power of ten" told me used to happen on our planet.
AlienX: Will they ever learn?
AlienY: Only truly smart species can learn from their experiences. Why do you think there are no earthlings on this galactic race?
AlienX: I was thinking we might slow down and take a look at the Victoria Falls but I have lost my appetite for all earthly delights!
AlienY:I have a suggestion. Why don't we stop over Harare, Zimbabwe? At least they know what a hundred trillion miles might feel like.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Mugabe's thin Zimbabwean roots!
When Robert Mugabe, the leader of Zimbabwe's former ruling party, ZANU-PF, says that Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans, he is technically correct.
What he does not tell you is what he really means by this seemingly innocent claim. Just in case you missed it, let me expound for a second on what I know to be the true meaning of his assertion. Remember this is the same fellow who once urged Britain's Tony Blair to "keep your Britain and I will keep my Zimbabwe".
At another time he uttered a statement which remains unexplained to this very day: "Zimbabwe is mine", he claimed, leaving out, somewhat strangely, "says the Lord", as some of his lieutenants have said.Mugabe's claims to ownership of Zimbabwe are deeply ironical given his own clan's thin Zimbabwean roots. After all, this is a fellow whose own ancestors reportedly arrived in Zimbabwe towards the end of the 19th century (irony of all ironies) as human mules to the colonizing white settlers who he now claims to detest!
I do not think that it matters where one's ancestors came from or when they arrived on our fair plateau of Zimbabwe, but the hypocrisy of Mugabe's assertions is difficult to ignore.
Sadly, when Mugabe says Zimbabwe is his and things of that nature, he is saying the bare naked truth. If you are a member of his family, "up to the fourth generation", Zimbabwe indeed, is yours. You get to choose and pick a few farms, plushy jobs in the civil service and lucrative government contracts.
Mugabe's control of the nation's resources is not seriously in question, regardless of the valiant efforts of finance minister Tendayi Biti.Still the question refuses to go away: can the evils of settler colonialism be washed away by simply transferring the settlers' allegedly ill-gotten assets into the hands of one family and its political hangers-on?
I think not.
Posted by allen at 6:05 AM
What he does not tell you is what he really means by this seemingly innocent claim. Just in case you missed it, let me expound for a second on what I know to be the true meaning of his assertion. Remember this is the same fellow who once urged Britain's Tony Blair to "keep your Britain and I will keep my Zimbabwe".
At another time he uttered a statement which remains unexplained to this very day: "Zimbabwe is mine", he claimed, leaving out, somewhat strangely, "says the Lord", as some of his lieutenants have said.Mugabe's claims to ownership of Zimbabwe are deeply ironical given his own clan's thin Zimbabwean roots. After all, this is a fellow whose own ancestors reportedly arrived in Zimbabwe towards the end of the 19th century (irony of all ironies) as human mules to the colonizing white settlers who he now claims to detest!
I do not think that it matters where one's ancestors came from or when they arrived on our fair plateau of Zimbabwe, but the hypocrisy of Mugabe's assertions is difficult to ignore.
Sadly, when Mugabe says Zimbabwe is his and things of that nature, he is saying the bare naked truth. If you are a member of his family, "up to the fourth generation", Zimbabwe indeed, is yours. You get to choose and pick a few farms, plushy jobs in the civil service and lucrative government contracts.
Mugabe's control of the nation's resources is not seriously in question, regardless of the valiant efforts of finance minister Tendayi Biti.Still the question refuses to go away: can the evils of settler colonialism be washed away by simply transferring the settlers' allegedly ill-gotten assets into the hands of one family and its political hangers-on?
I think not.
Posted by allen at 6:05 AM
Saturday, December 5, 2009
In-fighting in MDC USA
It appears that there is an escalating struggle for control of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 's affairs in North America, particularly in the United States. For the avoidance of doubt, this has nothing to do with the historical schism of October 2005 which resulted in the two MDC formations now known as MDC (T) (hereinafter referred to as the MDC) and MDC (M).
It would be accurate to say, at this juncture, that the MDC in the USA is in a state of civil war. On the one hand, there is a group calling themselves MDC-North America province, who claim control of the party's affairs in Canada and the USA; on the other a group calling itself MDC-USA, which is apparently favored by the party authorities in Harare.
Even as we speak, either group is trying to line up as many so-called branches of the party behind it, including (allegedly) one man branches being created all across the US for the sake of inflating political territory. Sources inside the movement suggest that the in-fighting has paralysed the party's operations, leaving no clear channels of communication between the rank and file and the party leadership. Other sources say the struggle is less about the soul of the party and more about the hunger for power by those leading the two factions.
As an independent observer, one may wonder why the party authorities in Harare have essentially chosen to remain uninvolved in this matter. Granted, the fortunes of the party do not depend upon the fate of an external branch, even one based in the world's richest and most powerful country. However, the on-going chaos reinforces the impression that the MDC is a group of rank amateurs motivated solely by the lust for power.
It seems to me that the MDC structures in the West would be well-served by adopting some of the practices of political parties in their respective countries. In the United States, for example, the Democratic and Republican parties are highly de-centralized coalitions of strongly motivated members driven by a commonality of issues - unlikely to result in the personality clashes that seem to dominate the MDC's affairs here.
In the same vein, the party authorities in Harare should be flexible enough to not impose the sort of structural puritanism that may be suitable in Zimbabwe to a more liberal political environment such as exists in the United States.
This may seem like a double standard to some, but the reality is that the party's supporters in the Diaspora have been exposed to issue-based approaches to political organizing and seem to like it that way. By de-emphasizing the authority of some of these national and trans-national super-structures, the movement might be better able to listen to the true voices of its members.
For now, unfortunately, the political greed of a few people seems to hold sway in North America.
It would be accurate to say, at this juncture, that the MDC in the USA is in a state of civil war. On the one hand, there is a group calling themselves MDC-North America province, who claim control of the party's affairs in Canada and the USA; on the other a group calling itself MDC-USA, which is apparently favored by the party authorities in Harare.
Even as we speak, either group is trying to line up as many so-called branches of the party behind it, including (allegedly) one man branches being created all across the US for the sake of inflating political territory. Sources inside the movement suggest that the in-fighting has paralysed the party's operations, leaving no clear channels of communication between the rank and file and the party leadership. Other sources say the struggle is less about the soul of the party and more about the hunger for power by those leading the two factions.
As an independent observer, one may wonder why the party authorities in Harare have essentially chosen to remain uninvolved in this matter. Granted, the fortunes of the party do not depend upon the fate of an external branch, even one based in the world's richest and most powerful country. However, the on-going chaos reinforces the impression that the MDC is a group of rank amateurs motivated solely by the lust for power.
It seems to me that the MDC structures in the West would be well-served by adopting some of the practices of political parties in their respective countries. In the United States, for example, the Democratic and Republican parties are highly de-centralized coalitions of strongly motivated members driven by a commonality of issues - unlikely to result in the personality clashes that seem to dominate the MDC's affairs here.
In the same vein, the party authorities in Harare should be flexible enough to not impose the sort of structural puritanism that may be suitable in Zimbabwe to a more liberal political environment such as exists in the United States.
This may seem like a double standard to some, but the reality is that the party's supporters in the Diaspora have been exposed to issue-based approaches to political organizing and seem to like it that way. By de-emphasizing the authority of some of these national and trans-national super-structures, the movement might be better able to listen to the true voices of its members.
For now, unfortunately, the political greed of a few people seems to hold sway in North America.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)