A very interesting twist on immigration

Ok, so this is the model. You are, say an insurgent group, like Al Queda or something committed to overthrow the Saudi Royal Family. Al Queda currently takes help from various places such as Pakistan, UAE, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan etc. Say it did manage to overthrow the Al Saud's. Then Al Queda is now running Saudi Arabia.

But the Saudi's are upset that in the name of the Ummah, all these indigent and poor immigrants from Yemen, Sudan and Pakistan are taking away all the jobs and creating crime and mess and and and. So the Saudi's kick or try to kick all the immigrant population out.

But then Pakistan, UAE, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan etc. remind Saudi Arabia and Al Queda about the help they provided in overthrowing the Al Saud's and say, why are you mistreating our citizens in this manner? Far fetched? no its, not because the identical thing happened in South Africa. Here's the story. I quote snippets:

a spate of violence against immigrants, including Nigerians, reflected historical amnesia. Mr Yar’Adua has faced strong popular pressure to deliver a tough message to the South African government.........Images of foreigners burnt alive and beaten by lynch mobs have been circulating on the internet, fuelling outrage in countries that once welcomed South African fugitives from racial persecution and lent support to the African National Congress (ANC) in its days as a liberation movement.

Racial and ethnic violence against immigrants has a long history which I have intermittently explored here. And in the fullness of time, all are exposed to it, Whites in Zimbabwe, Blacks in South Africa, Jews and Muslims in Europe, and so on so forth.

But again, notice that Nigeria did not talk about the elephant in the room. Why the richest country in Africa has so many emigrants? Why have people emigrated from Mozambique? What made people leave in their millions from Zimbabwe? THAT is the bigger issue, those corrupt, thieving, cheating, robbing leaders. Dragging history into it is just hiding the issue.

Technorati Tags: Africa,Corruption,Nigeria,Mozambique,South Africa,immigration

Mozambique's former leader wins award

Now this is indeed good news mixed with a bit of sad as well. The good news is that Joaquim Chissano, the ex-President of Mozambique, has been awarded a Leadership award. This award is meant for people who come into power through elections and then hand over power to a freely elected successor. The good thing is that there is one person who was found worthy enough to win this award. The sad bit is that most of the rest of the lot are such a venal, thieving corrupt lot (and if they aren't venal, corrupt and thieving, they are simply stupid like Mbeki).

But hey, lets clutch at straws! I quote:

Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general who chaired the selection panel and announced the winner, said this showed the continuing dynamism of a man who had become a role model for the continent, making peace with his own rebel adversaries in 1992 and going on to establish democracy and the beginnings of economic recovery.

"This remarkable reconciliation between opponents provides a shining example to the rest of the world and is testament to both his [Chissano's] strength of character and his leadership," Mr Annan said.

"His decision not to seek a third presidential term reinforced Mozambique's democratic maturity and demonstrated that institutions and the democratic process were more important than personalities," he added.

In 2005, Mr Chissano retired after 18 years with his reputation intact, making him a relative rarity among his African peers.

He was picked from a shortlist of 11 heads of state who stood or fell down in the past three years. More than half of them took power in coups and were therefore ineligible.

Mr Chissano cut his teeth in the war against Mozambique's Portuguese colonisers, becoming head of state when his predecessor died in an air crash in 1988.

Under his rule Mozambique went from being a Marxist, single-party state at war with itself, to a multi-party democracy, still among the world's poorest countries but at peace and with a free-wheeling economy among Africa's fastest growing.

Technorati Tags: Mozambique , Africa , Politics , Corruption

A blinding insight from the Mozambique's Roman Catholic archbishop

Somebody stab me, I cant take this any more. He says:

Mozambique's Roman Catholic archbishop has accused European condom manufacturers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV "in order to finish quickly the African people".
The archbishop of Maputo, Francisco Chimoio, told the BBC that he had specific information about a plot to kill off Africans. "I know that there are two countries in Europe ... making condoms with the virus, on purpose," he alleged. But he refused to name the countries.
He added: "They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."

a D' oh moment. What a stupid man, and this is coming from their objections against abortion.

Technorati Tags: Africa , Christianity , Abortion , Women