It was appropriate and commendable that the UK Labour Party got back to sanity at their just-concluded conference. Bravo to both the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.
One marvels at the capacity of "spoilers" to make life hard and harsh for leaders. It happens everywhere, with Nigeria witnessing a unique brand of such cloak & dagger politics right now.
Okay, maybe not exactly the same details and matrix, but it's about two leaders who won posts together and the whole question of "natural succession". Boss seems not willing to "let go", and deputy seems eager to "take over" - with all the mess and spoilers in between! There is then the small matter of traps and counter-traps, corruption charges, and fall-guy/sacrificial lamb scent to it all. Oh, we speak of course of President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar. It is a Bad, Sad Tale!
Unlike the Labour Party, Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party, PDP, (now-factionalised) has been unable or unwilling to close ranks. It has backed the boss, and the VP has gone to court. The drama continues.
Perhaps not surprising, for Nigerians generally believe that the PDP has squandered eight years of our democratic experiment - failing to deliver good governance. Most of its governors have just been named in a sordid report by the anti-corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu, at a special senate briefing this week. The governors -caught off guard - are now in open revolt. What a party!
If anyone today is looking forward, with renewed hope, to the 2007 elections, it is certainly not the party members. Unlike the UK Labour, for this lot, it seems the party is finally over!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
The military leaders of Thailand's recent coup do not need a whole year to return governance to civilian leaders, despite the seeming popularity of the unfortunate intervention. Obviously, the real stabilising factor is their most reverred constitutional monarch. He has undoubtedly given his nod.
Let them ride the crest to facilitate early elections.
The new government should do the rest.
Let them ride the crest to facilitate early elections.
The new government should do the rest.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
We applaud and thank President Chirac of France for calling for deliberate caution and more time to tackle the Iranian Nuclear issue.
And US President, George Bush, for re-emphasising the diplomatic solution route.
Let more voices rise, and speak up. Let world leaders speak, and act wise.
The time is NOW!
And US President, George Bush, for re-emphasising the diplomatic solution route.
Let more voices rise, and speak up. Let world leaders speak, and act wise.
The time is NOW!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Isn't it truly fascinating that both the US and Iranian presidents took the podium - just hours apart - at the UN, today? They hurled at themselves. Expected.
Implacable and at odds as they are, it must intrigue no end that their seething "confrontation" took place on US soil. Well, at the UN Headquarters in New York.
So will it be with all other leaders who the US and the West disagree with! They will speak on US soil, no matter their views or tirades!! It is our unity-in-diversity, One World.
That is the beauty of the UN - the meaning of our tied-fate.
Oh yes!
Implacable and at odds as they are, it must intrigue no end that their seething "confrontation" took place on US soil. Well, at the UN Headquarters in New York.
So will it be with all other leaders who the US and the West disagree with! They will speak on US soil, no matter their views or tirades!! It is our unity-in-diversity, One World.
That is the beauty of the UN - the meaning of our tied-fate.
Oh yes!
Nigeria mourns. We have just lost over a dozen top military brass in an Air Force plane crash, prompting a three-day national mourning order by President Obasanjo - who had to cancel his overseas tour (including an IMF/World Bank speech, and perhaps the UN General Assembly) - to personally take charge of things. He flew straight into Abuja to personally receive survivors and casualties of the vicious crash. His demeanour was palpably draining. As a retired general
of note, he knows more than most the full import of this huge loss. He was clearly in pains.
In rallying the nation, the president showed leadership and humanity at its best, and Nigerians everywhere joined their commander -in-chief to deeply mourn. We lost two GOCs and the Army Secretary, and could have actually lost the Army Chief, who was to join the flight!
We're told 13 of the 16 brave souls on board died. Expectedly, a probe has been ordered.
Rest in peace, dear compatriots, and may God console and comfort your families and friends. May your comrades never let you or the nation down. Goodnight.
May God bless Nigeria.
of note, he knows more than most the full import of this huge loss. He was clearly in pains.
In rallying the nation, the president showed leadership and humanity at its best, and Nigerians everywhere joined their commander -in-chief to deeply mourn. We lost two GOCs and the Army Secretary, and could have actually lost the Army Chief, who was to join the flight!
We're told 13 of the 16 brave souls on board died. Expectedly, a probe has been ordered.
Rest in peace, dear compatriots, and may God console and comfort your families and friends. May your comrades never let you or the nation down. Goodnight.
May God bless Nigeria.
The military coup in Thailand is surprising but not debilitating, since there is a constitutional monarch - highly respected by all - on seat. It is a setback none the less, and an early resolution plus prompt return to democratic governance be irreducibly demanded by all.
Fresh elections, if it comes to it, should be swift, just and fair.
No nation must be under the jackboots!
Fresh elections, if it comes to it, should be swift, just and fair.
No nation must be under the jackboots!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
We welcome the good news that India and Pakistan are to resume talks over Kashmir. Let the talks be good, and spread more good news to all.
Why won't the Non-Aligned Movement adopt this conflict resolution window as its golden opportunity to make some lasting impact of its strength and relevance today? It will be great, wouldn't it?
May the hawks and hardliners on both sides, and the negative influences outside, give true peace a chance, please.
A final chance.
Why won't the Non-Aligned Movement adopt this conflict resolution window as its golden opportunity to make some lasting impact of its strength and relevance today? It will be great, wouldn't it?
May the hawks and hardliners on both sides, and the negative influences outside, give true peace a chance, please.
A final chance.
The crisis in the Nigerian Presidency (i.e. feud between boss and vice) is chilling and exciting! We await more details of their self-indicting shenanigans, and the dramatic unravelling of the long-standing pretentions of cordiality - despite media scoops to the contrary. No wise or full commentary can be run at this time. No earth-shaking surprises yet. We must wait and see. The threats and counter-threats are drumming louder and louder. Why? The PDP Family is in disarray. Things have finally fallen apart, and the centre can no longer hold - again, despite all pretensions to the contrary!
In a way, however, this was long in coming. Part of the hints became concrete during the Third Term or Tenure Elongation debacle. If then was theatrical, now is nollywood! But we wait.
Let it be said that the show of shame may not be stopped because it is due process for their due rewards for poor leadership, bad governance and tainted democracy. They've betrayed citizens and country. This is not just about money, it includes faiths, fates, values and truths.
Do Nigerians lament, then? No!
Why not? It is timely ingredient, and spice, to cook our next democratic meals come 2007!!
And so? Let the show proceed!!!
In a way, however, this was long in coming. Part of the hints became concrete during the Third Term or Tenure Elongation debacle. If then was theatrical, now is nollywood! But we wait.
Let it be said that the show of shame may not be stopped because it is due process for their due rewards for poor leadership, bad governance and tainted democracy. They've betrayed citizens and country. This is not just about money, it includes faiths, fates, values and truths.
Do Nigerians lament, then? No!
Why not? It is timely ingredient, and spice, to cook our next democratic meals come 2007!!
And so? Let the show proceed!!!
Our counsel is for the IMF and World Bank to heed the call and wise counsel of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in all their well-considered ramifications. They better do.
The power of non-state actors and crusaders is reflected in the rise and rise of civil society. This can only be ignored at great cost, and to devastating ends. No CSO input, no true development!
Prediction: Mobilisation of the people to vote in more progressive and sensitive political leaders around the world. If Al Gore were US president last time, would the White House had ignored Kyoto with such disdain?! If Tony Blair were not British Prime Minister, would there have been Gleneagles?! Populist politicians will become presidents/prime ministers in more and more places in the new millennium. CSOs will ensure this because of the arrogance and distance of government and big business.
Prediction: There will be more Carters, Turners, Gorbachevs, Mandelas, Clintons, Gates, Bonos, Oprahs, Soros',Trusts and Foundations in the years ahead. And surely more Non Governmental Individuals, NGIs, with outstanding credentials and formidable competences. It will be fun!
Suggestion: Gordon Brown should rally like-minded players to get the Bretton Woods tigers to listen and change, or... It is time to support the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, GCAP, at their level....passionately, pragmatically, proactively and promptly.
The Singapore show-down with CSOs was shameful. We call for amends.
The power of non-state actors and crusaders is reflected in the rise and rise of civil society. This can only be ignored at great cost, and to devastating ends. No CSO input, no true development!
Prediction: Mobilisation of the people to vote in more progressive and sensitive political leaders around the world. If Al Gore were US president last time, would the White House had ignored Kyoto with such disdain?! If Tony Blair were not British Prime Minister, would there have been Gleneagles?! Populist politicians will become presidents/prime ministers in more and more places in the new millennium. CSOs will ensure this because of the arrogance and distance of government and big business.
Prediction: There will be more Carters, Turners, Gorbachevs, Mandelas, Clintons, Gates, Bonos, Oprahs, Soros',Trusts and Foundations in the years ahead. And surely more Non Governmental Individuals, NGIs, with outstanding credentials and formidable competences. It will be fun!
Suggestion: Gordon Brown should rally like-minded players to get the Bretton Woods tigers to listen and change, or... It is time to support the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, GCAP, at their level....passionately, pragmatically, proactively and promptly.
The Singapore show-down with CSOs was shameful. We call for amends.
As Fatah and Hamas inch towards creating a unity government in Palestine, we must now urge all "interested" parties to help pile more pressure and encouragement on them. This is clearly a window of positive opportunity which should/must not be blown. We have a very strange way of blowing great chances in this long-running conflict, don't we! Let's make amends this time.
And here we call on the Quartet, Israel, Arab League and the African Union (which has very long standing relations and empathy for the PLO).
Then we must add US Democratic Party leaders, for obvious reasons.
Finally, the media must keep tabs and stay with the story...holding all to account, speaking truth to power. No more, no less.
The key is...PEACE. The love of peace. And the peace of loving peace.
And here we call on the Quartet, Israel, Arab League and the African Union (which has very long standing relations and empathy for the PLO).
Then we must add US Democratic Party leaders, for obvious reasons.
Finally, the media must keep tabs and stay with the story...holding all to account, speaking truth to power. No more, no less.
The key is...PEACE. The love of peace. And the peace of loving peace.
Darfur. And I worry.
All Africans should worry. The Sudanese leaders and people must worry. The issues are now of such magnitude and concern that the world's peoples spoke unmistakably worldwide this day. No leader should under-rate, ignore or dismiss these portends. They are grave.
No-one can damn this call, this cry. Not the country, not the continent, not the globe.
Africa must get Khartoun to relent and comply with the UN Security Council resolutions...now. Delay is dangerous for Darfur, and injurious to the nation's future. It is bad for Africa. Very bad.
Again, action is....TODAY!
All Africans should worry. The Sudanese leaders and people must worry. The issues are now of such magnitude and concern that the world's peoples spoke unmistakably worldwide this day. No leader should under-rate, ignore or dismiss these portends. They are grave.
No-one can damn this call, this cry. Not the country, not the continent, not the globe.
Africa must get Khartoun to relent and comply with the UN Security Council resolutions...now. Delay is dangerous for Darfur, and injurious to the nation's future. It is bad for Africa. Very bad.
Again, action is....TODAY!
No matter what, British Prime Minister Tony Blair should not be stampeded or humiliated out of office. It will be counter productive for party and country. No need to.
No matter how painful, the Blairites must work with the Brownites to secure the greatest good of New Labour's good for country and party. There will be both long after their principals/idols.
No matter how tempting to do otherwise, Chancellor Gordon Brown must help his boss and long time friend, Tony Blair, with a safe-landing on how the handover goes.
Do I like Tony Blair? For especial reasons, yes. Did I like Margaret Thatcher? For very special reasons, yes. Do I sense same fate? Not really. The prognoses point differently.
Should the prime minister go? Absolutely yes.
How? Creatively, courageously and.....early.
No matter how painful, the Blairites must work with the Brownites to secure the greatest good of New Labour's good for country and party. There will be both long after their principals/idols.
No matter how tempting to do otherwise, Chancellor Gordon Brown must help his boss and long time friend, Tony Blair, with a safe-landing on how the handover goes.
Do I like Tony Blair? For especial reasons, yes. Did I like Margaret Thatcher? For very special reasons, yes. Do I sense same fate? Not really. The prognoses point differently.
Should the prime minister go? Absolutely yes.
How? Creatively, courageously and.....early.
The Vatican was wise in taking steps to calm frayed nerves and assuage sensibilities over the Papal Lecture quotes. Three sorry's and clarifications in a row, with the Holy Father's personal regrets over the controversy, is not only unprecedented but profoundly significant.
The voices for peace rightly raised by some leaders in the moslem world are welcomed. The protests and attacks should stop. Let's have a cease-fire now. No further escalations, please.
On both sides of the divide (we hope there be no divide, for the sake of our common good), let there be continued sensitivity and unbroken dialogue. And dialogue there must be.
Christianity and Islam must work, not only together but, with other religions and faith bodies to make our world a better, safer and more contemplative place.
Peaceful cohabitation is both imperative and inevitable. It is profitable. Pray, it is the basis of our common humanity, and must be guarded and guided sensitively, jealously and creatively. That is why we're, all of us, together in the United Nations.
May we have the courage to make, build and keep the precious peace our lives and our world so direly and promptly need.
Amen.
The voices for peace rightly raised by some leaders in the moslem world are welcomed. The protests and attacks should stop. Let's have a cease-fire now. No further escalations, please.
On both sides of the divide (we hope there be no divide, for the sake of our common good), let there be continued sensitivity and unbroken dialogue. And dialogue there must be.
Christianity and Islam must work, not only together but, with other religions and faith bodies to make our world a better, safer and more contemplative place.
Peaceful cohabitation is both imperative and inevitable. It is profitable. Pray, it is the basis of our common humanity, and must be guarded and guided sensitively, jealously and creatively. That is why we're, all of us, together in the United Nations.
May we have the courage to make, build and keep the precious peace our lives and our world so direly and promptly need.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
September 11. Five years later. We must remember the dead and their loved ones. They were from so many countries and territories. About 3000 souls lost. What grief!
Ground Zero, for America, redefined the war on terror. And for Osama bin Laden as well as his Al-Qaeda group (already an ubiquitous movement), the jihad continues. Deadlock!
Guess what? I have an idea: Why don't we ask the Pakistanis to help set up a UN Negotiation platform with the "insurgents" or "radicalist fighters" or "jihadist"???
Didn't the British do so with the IRA?
Did the Apatheid regime in South Africa not do so with the ANC?
Is Spain not doing so with ETA, now?
What about Sri Lanka?
And Nigeria's Niger Delta?
Ultimately, it shall be Dialogue! Dialogue!! DIALOGUE!!!
And, in case the hawks have forgotten, was the US not positively involved in some of the above?
Let Kofi Annan and President Musharraf take the lead. Five years, and with the current state of play, there is no question that no side is winning. Escalation cannot be in anyone's interest, and the cost of war is many times the cost of "making the world safer through poverty removal, regional equity and global justice. Then, we can all start spreading freedom, democracy and good governance with the dividends of peace".
If The US and USSR could bring the cold war to an end, through negotiation, then we can end this war through negotiation and international cooperation.
Let's bite the bullet.....for peace.
Ground Zero, for America, redefined the war on terror. And for Osama bin Laden as well as his Al-Qaeda group (already an ubiquitous movement), the jihad continues. Deadlock!
Guess what? I have an idea: Why don't we ask the Pakistanis to help set up a UN Negotiation platform with the "insurgents" or "radicalist fighters" or "jihadist"???
Didn't the British do so with the IRA?
Did the Apatheid regime in South Africa not do so with the ANC?
Is Spain not doing so with ETA, now?
What about Sri Lanka?
And Nigeria's Niger Delta?
Ultimately, it shall be Dialogue! Dialogue!! DIALOGUE!!!
And, in case the hawks have forgotten, was the US not positively involved in some of the above?
Let Kofi Annan and President Musharraf take the lead. Five years, and with the current state of play, there is no question that no side is winning. Escalation cannot be in anyone's interest, and the cost of war is many times the cost of "making the world safer through poverty removal, regional equity and global justice. Then, we can all start spreading freedom, democracy and good governance with the dividends of peace".
If The US and USSR could bring the cold war to an end, through negotiation, then we can end this war through negotiation and international cooperation.
Let's bite the bullet.....for peace.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Nigeria attracts international interest in many ways than one. And why not? It is a major oil and gas exporting nation, attaining notoriety with its long neglect of the oil-bearing Niger Delta and the new-making waves of expatriate workers' kidnapping by the region's militants. It has some of the brightest and hardworking humans in the African Diaspora, and is home to the continent's largest market - 150 million souls. Nigeria is blessed with huge yet-to-be-tapped agricultural, marine and numerous solid mineral resources: A land of amazing prospects begging for good leadership.
How can we forget its deviants who send "419" (advance fee fraud) letters/emails with which they entice and entrap gullible/greedy people around the globe - I received several this week! Or do we ignore its gifted footballers plying their trade in first clubs and countries worldwide?
Our musicians and fashion designers join the beauty queens to do us proud. Then our home movies which gave the world the third "wood" - after hollywood and bollywood, it is nollywood!
We've won the Olympics soccer gold medal, won and hosted FIFA's junior world cup, hosted the Commonwealth summit (CHOGM), the All Africa Games (twice) as well as several summits of both ECOWAS and the African Union...to mention a few. We also hosted the Miss World Beauty Pageant - excepting its grand finale which religious riots forced to be shifted to London.
Now you know!
Can you then understand our discomfiture and depression with the state of things, politicswise,
when the top two men in Nigeria's presidency are irretrievably locked in a fight-to-finish war?
At a time when we should be coasting home on our hitherto elusive civilian-to-civilian transition
in democratic governance? In a season when we should be leading Africa by glittering example rather than platitudes and precepts? It calls for worry. It calls for grave very concern.
By the way, this same administration rail-roaded us into paying our ubiquitous and tanishing foreign debts - for which I am personally grateful and proud despite its costs (about $13bn) and unfinished investigations to unravel all the rogues behind its stench - making us respected and credit-worthy again. I also applaud them for making some very inspired and clever (including plough-back) decisions in Nigeria's LNG investmests portfolio, which may not be fully known or appreciated by many.
Pray, this team (President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who are both multimillionaires or billionnaires by most accounts) is holding the nation by the jugular, thus threatening our fragile democracy. Their supporters are heating up the polity. Their aides are leaking info and planting poisonous facts and fiction in both the media and rumour mills. The polity is haplessly distracted. The much-invested transition is now on auto-pilot, barely six months to the General Elections!
Latest gist? The president has more or less asked the National Assembly to impeach the vice president. He sent in a letter this week.
Further gist? The vice president has dismissed the charges laid out in the president's letter, and counter-indicted the president on similar/veiled/implied charges. Not yet listed, publicly.
Backlash gist? Several parliamentarians are compiling/reviewing/updating all impeachable sins of the presidency, and weighing up how to share same equitably between boss and vice.
Future gist? MAD case, MAD casualty.....mutually assured dismissal. M...A...D!!!
Pray, who be the "drummers" behind this MADness???
How can we forget its deviants who send "419" (advance fee fraud) letters/emails with which they entice and entrap gullible/greedy people around the globe - I received several this week! Or do we ignore its gifted footballers plying their trade in first clubs and countries worldwide?
Our musicians and fashion designers join the beauty queens to do us proud. Then our home movies which gave the world the third "wood" - after hollywood and bollywood, it is nollywood!
We've won the Olympics soccer gold medal, won and hosted FIFA's junior world cup, hosted the Commonwealth summit (CHOGM), the All Africa Games (twice) as well as several summits of both ECOWAS and the African Union...to mention a few. We also hosted the Miss World Beauty Pageant - excepting its grand finale which religious riots forced to be shifted to London.
Now you know!
Can you then understand our discomfiture and depression with the state of things, politicswise,
when the top two men in Nigeria's presidency are irretrievably locked in a fight-to-finish war?
At a time when we should be coasting home on our hitherto elusive civilian-to-civilian transition
in democratic governance? In a season when we should be leading Africa by glittering example rather than platitudes and precepts? It calls for worry. It calls for grave very concern.
By the way, this same administration rail-roaded us into paying our ubiquitous and tanishing foreign debts - for which I am personally grateful and proud despite its costs (about $13bn) and unfinished investigations to unravel all the rogues behind its stench - making us respected and credit-worthy again. I also applaud them for making some very inspired and clever (including plough-back) decisions in Nigeria's LNG investmests portfolio, which may not be fully known or appreciated by many.
Pray, this team (President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who are both multimillionaires or billionnaires by most accounts) is holding the nation by the jugular, thus threatening our fragile democracy. Their supporters are heating up the polity. Their aides are leaking info and planting poisonous facts and fiction in both the media and rumour mills. The polity is haplessly distracted. The much-invested transition is now on auto-pilot, barely six months to the General Elections!
Latest gist? The president has more or less asked the National Assembly to impeach the vice president. He sent in a letter this week.
Further gist? The vice president has dismissed the charges laid out in the president's letter, and counter-indicted the president on similar/veiled/implied charges. Not yet listed, publicly.
Backlash gist? Several parliamentarians are compiling/reviewing/updating all impeachable sins of the presidency, and weighing up how to share same equitably between boss and vice.
Future gist? MAD case, MAD casualty.....mutually assured dismissal. M...A...D!!!
Pray, who be the "drummers" behind this MADness???
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
The cost of IT products and services in the developing world is not getting better, despite all the promises and cost-saving advances in technology and political assurances. It is a shame, though not unlike other aspects of our inevitable Global Village: The rich are getting richer while the poor are being impoverished, thus getting poorer!
I shall not stop screaming about the cost of oil and gas, and its debilitating impact on all the poor nations of our planet. Pray, how would they pay? Credit or more handouts? For how long? Is anyone collating and caring? Or, may they be simply doomed???
Back to IT, when will the "digital divide" be reasonably narrowed ( I'm not even suggesting the over-parroted "bridging" ambition!)?? Who's working on the UN Treaty on the subject? When will computers become cheaper, affordable and available in the developing world? And when will calls' tariff follow suit?
Is there anyone naive enough to believe that the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, have any real chance of being attained without tackling the above subjects frontally?
As for our leaders in Africa, I hope they do not need the heavens to descend before they go in purposeful search of our own IT experts in the Diaspora - sons and daughters who we should be proud of - to come make things happen on the mother-continent? In this regard, let's treat them like any expert or investor - fully incentivised, and leveraged for financial services at the African Development Bank as well as other sources (including commercial banks in South Africa, Nigeria, Libya and Egypt).
It is a disgrace that most of Africa's telecoms, including internet traffic, is still being routed through Europe and America in 2007! NEPAD should have tackled this, and settled it, within 12 months of its take-off. GSM coverage in Africa shouldn't be treated like nuclear science. It should be liberalised forthwith, while the CDMA at its most advanced should be used to boost local land lines/wireless density and penetration. The Nigerian experience should guide NEPAD in this business.
We should worry. Our kids are being left behind. What kind of legacy are we creating for them?
Is it time, therefore, for the continent to fully embrace CommonLicence, OpenSource and VoIP as a first step, while the AU goes to learn some high impact interventions lessons from the EU? We better do.
Oh Africa, where be thy pride?
I shall not stop screaming about the cost of oil and gas, and its debilitating impact on all the poor nations of our planet. Pray, how would they pay? Credit or more handouts? For how long? Is anyone collating and caring? Or, may they be simply doomed???
Back to IT, when will the "digital divide" be reasonably narrowed ( I'm not even suggesting the over-parroted "bridging" ambition!)?? Who's working on the UN Treaty on the subject? When will computers become cheaper, affordable and available in the developing world? And when will calls' tariff follow suit?
Is there anyone naive enough to believe that the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, have any real chance of being attained without tackling the above subjects frontally?
As for our leaders in Africa, I hope they do not need the heavens to descend before they go in purposeful search of our own IT experts in the Diaspora - sons and daughters who we should be proud of - to come make things happen on the mother-continent? In this regard, let's treat them like any expert or investor - fully incentivised, and leveraged for financial services at the African Development Bank as well as other sources (including commercial banks in South Africa, Nigeria, Libya and Egypt).
It is a disgrace that most of Africa's telecoms, including internet traffic, is still being routed through Europe and America in 2007! NEPAD should have tackled this, and settled it, within 12 months of its take-off. GSM coverage in Africa shouldn't be treated like nuclear science. It should be liberalised forthwith, while the CDMA at its most advanced should be used to boost local land lines/wireless density and penetration. The Nigerian experience should guide NEPAD in this business.
We should worry. Our kids are being left behind. What kind of legacy are we creating for them?
Is it time, therefore, for the continent to fully embrace CommonLicence, OpenSource and VoIP as a first step, while the AU goes to learn some high impact interventions lessons from the EU? We better do.
Oh Africa, where be thy pride?
Monday, September 04, 2006
I am a fan of Space, and its exploration. I look forward to our harnessing its beauty, its mystery and its abundant offerings. To do so collaboratively and sustainably. Yes, you guess right, I do strongly believe in the International Space Centre. We need it.
Should it be any wonder that I join in congratulating the Europeans for the successful mission of "mapping the Moon". We await more details. I salivate.
Meanwhile, let's speculate on and on and on.....
Along with NASA, the European Space Programme should move quickly to download concrete and consumable dividends to citizens, so that its relevance and continued benefits can be vividly beheld, popularly owned and, thus, generously financed. This should be done creatively and courageously: first, as public good, and, second, as sensible business.
Out here, from Africa, you have my vote.
Bravo!
Should it be any wonder that I join in congratulating the Europeans for the successful mission of "mapping the Moon". We await more details. I salivate.
Meanwhile, let's speculate on and on and on.....
Along with NASA, the European Space Programme should move quickly to download concrete and consumable dividends to citizens, so that its relevance and continued benefits can be vividly beheld, popularly owned and, thus, generously financed. This should be done creatively and courageously: first, as public good, and, second, as sensible business.
Out here, from Africa, you have my vote.
Bravo!
Kofi Annan's shuttle diplomacy to the Middle East all last week was right and timely, and, for me, successful. Getting the presidents of Syria and Iran to give their countries' official support to the Lebanese-Israel cease-fire, and Lebanon's reconstruction, and saying so personally to the UN Sec Gen on their own soil, was historic. We must applaud.
Not getting Tehran to backdown on the uranium enrichment or nuclear matter is no setback as such. He got a first-hand reassurance of a commitment to dialogue and negotiation, plus Iran's reaffirmation of its disavowal of nuclear weapons as a state policy. This point was re-echoed in the United States by ex-president Khatami who is currently visiting the Americans. He gave an insightful interview to CNN on this and other pertinent issues. Quite instructive, indeed.
I am hopeful.
Not getting Tehran to backdown on the uranium enrichment or nuclear matter is no setback as such. He got a first-hand reassurance of a commitment to dialogue and negotiation, plus Iran's reaffirmation of its disavowal of nuclear weapons as a state policy. This point was re-echoed in the United States by ex-president Khatami who is currently visiting the Americans. He gave an insightful interview to CNN on this and other pertinent issues. Quite instructive, indeed.
I am hopeful.
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