There is no way this is going to end up well for the United States. Every tribe in Yemen has received missiles from American drones. The US aided and financed Saleh all these years. They covered for him up to just two weeks ago. The Yemenis won’t forget this. The crack troops we saw Friday fighting the tribes are the anti terrorist forces equipped and trained by the United States.

Words cannot express the utter stupidity and self-destructiveness of US policy in allying itself to the rabble of Ouattara and his friends. What government in Africa will ever trust or deal openly with such a maniacal formulation of national interest on the part of the US. The US is at war in Africa. To win, or survive, requires helping one’s friends and punishing one’s enemies. What imp of the perverse can have gotten things so wrong; and so often?

It was Gaddafi’s Libya that offered all of Africa its first revolution in modern times – connecting the entire continent by telephone, television, radio broadcasting and several other technological applications such as telemedicine and distance teaching. And thanks to the WMAX radio bridge, a low cost connection was made available across the continent, including in rural areas.

It is amazing to see how those in the mainstream press simply ignore anybody who leaves the ‘official frame’ set by the ‘respected authorities’. Every time I left the ‘acceptable box’ during a debate in France on 24 Friday , the others came back where they had left off as if I had said nothing. The limits of debate are narrow and ‘official speak’ is full of new euphemisms and phraseology with meaningless content destined to join ‘collateral damage’ in the dustbin of used spin. Let us look at some examples.
One of …

President Gbagbo ordered his men to put down their weapons and to return to their homes. Now they are discussing how to end this. It is a tragedy, but a man-made tragedy of French greed and UN spinelessness. A shabby affair that will grow worse as people learn what really happened.

Since the beginning of the Ivorian crisis, everything and almost its opposite has been said. Almost all Westerners support Mr Ouattara whom they call “elected President”, while the Africans support Gbagbo, the out-going president whom they designate the “reelected President”. Beyond partisan choices for one or the other president, elected or reelected, it is interesting to note that there is another battle, a remote one, which is being played between China and the West in Ivory Coast. Through direct and indirect military support.

The West defends an old idea of Africa, in which it controls everything by its henchmen and willingly accommodates itself with the misery of the masses.

The video, published on the website DailyMotion and broadcast by CNN news, shows police dragging screaming African women along the ground, including one with a baby in a sling on her back beneath her and another apparently pregnant. The local Seine-Saint-Denis police authority rejected charges of brutality and said the eviction in La Corneuve, north of Paris, was carried out “in relatively good conditions.”

Three years ago, on the night of Sunday June 17, 2007, the French police was called to Bidassoa Street, 20th district of Paris for a disturbance of the peace. On arrival, 8 police officers found Lamine Dieng. He was unarmed. Lamine was pinned to the ground by the police officers, handcuffed with one arm over his shoulder, the other bent backwards, and his ankles was tied with a leather strap. Lamine Dieng died that night. He was only 25 years old.

A family business in the business world is a commendable enterprise. If you own a family business, since it affects the livelihood of your entire family, you most likely find yourself wanting your next generation to contribute to it and to benefit from it. A prudent business wisdom fully supports the benefits of a family business. This, however, turns entirely into a negative situation when it is applied to a national political arena; “family business” and “national democracy” by default are always antonymous.

I wish there would more contemporary African art exhibitions in New York City. I wish one of them soon will feature Ouattara (pronounced wah-TARA) Watts. The two previous NYC-based exhibitions featuring Ouattara were: “Ouattara Watts: For Lily” (in 2007) and “Ouattara Watts: Works on Paper” (2005) both at Mike Weiss Gallery located on 24th St.