printThe following is from “Where Magic Wins Out Over Reason,” now on WND.COM:
“The images coming at us from Somalia are too horrible for words. And I don’t mean the sight of celebrity journo Anderson cooper and his CNN sidekicks standing in the neighboring Kenya, and blaming, against all evidence, the ‘worst drought in 60 years’ for mass starvation in Somalia. As BBC tells it, the drought ‘has gripped only parts of Somalia,’ and then only ‘since June.’
You have flint for a heart if the images of children starving slowly do not reduce you to tears. Aidan Hartley of the London Spectator describes these distended-bellied, dying innocents as ‘martian-headed skeletons,’ whose emaciated little bodies have begun to eat up their fat reserves and muscle proteins. Many, if not most, will succumb to slow and agonizing organ failure.
In conjunction with ‘the drought’—isn’t Texas experiencing one of those—Cooper and company (joined by other cretins on Cable) have mentioned the menace of the Islamist group al-Shabab, which ‘rules over the population in a style reminiscent of Pol Pot’s Cambodia crossed with the Taleban.’
However, Hartley imparts what Cooper is incapable of imparting—and what any vaguely knowledgeable journalist writing about Africa knows: ‘war caused this famine.’ In this case, internecine warfare was compounded by foreign, military intervention courtesy of the duopoly I dub the ‘Anglo-American Axis of Evil,’ in my new book.
Washington and Westminster (and their special forces) galvanized a neighboring Ethiopian gang to invade southern Somalia and occupy Mogadishu. ‘The objective,’ explains Hartley, ‘was to expel Islamists alleged to have been linked to al-Qaeda.’ And never mind that, ‘Under the Islamists, the city was enjoying its first period of relative peace since Somalia collapsed into civil war in 1991.’
Hunger in the Horn of Africa is not something Cooper is capable of understanding, let alone explaining to his fans on twitter. Contra Cooper, Hartley has not pruned the evidence. As jaundiced a journalist as he is, however, Hartley has failed to look deeper into the heart of darkness that is Africa.
“Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa” fills this gap…”
“Into the Cannibal’s Pot” is available from Amazon.
The complete column is “Where Magic Wins Out Over Reason,” now on WND.COM.
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I’ve just read the last page of your book last night and I can definitely recommend it as required reading for everyone who understands English.
The most pertinent question in my mind is where are the African relief workers? As far as I know, it is only South Africa who is doing something. And even then, I don’t know exactly WHAT it is we’re doing over there. Probably lots of talk and backslapping.
Without getting into the foibles of Anglo American military and political gyrations we could take it to the lowest common denominator. The US has the potential to alleviate the suffering of people the world over in an emergency such as this. However we are so caught up in political corruption and ineffeciency I seriously doubt that we would be able to help ourselves in such a situation. For that matter the old South Africa and the old Rhodesia side by side could probably do the trick, unless thwarted by the African tendency to avoid meaningful help for reasons of ethnic power grabbing.
As always, a well thought out article. Ten years ago, an “Agency” official in Pretoria told me, “The situation in Africa is hopeless. She’s doomed.” My pastor just returned from the World Methodist Conference in Durban. While there,he met my old Rustenburg pastor, now in Dundee. T’will be interesting to see what he has to say about the situation when I see him Sunday.
There was a form of government that many US cities had called the “City Manager” where they politicians actually attempted to hire comptetent management to run the place. The Manager had to report to the Council but was given authority to do a decent job. One might think that some of the African countries would hire some outsiders to “manage” things and maybe even train a cadre of (possibly) honest civil servants and set up a system of “rule of law”. At some point, the Colonialist West and the Post-Colonialist West cannot be blamed for every mess in the pathetic continent.
Then, there is, sadly, a country that was a BEACON OF PROSPERITY on that continent that seems hell-bent on sliding into the abyss of its more northern brethren. I need to finish a certain book on that subject.
It’s actually fortunate we don’t have a WASP lib as Prez right now. He’d be sending in the Air Cav for another Meals on Wheels Op…which’d end up like the last one. Dead American soldiers being dragged thru the streets of Mogadishu. Obama, at least, will do no such thing. He’s into Predators.
[What’s “Air Cav”? Please, for my sake, write complete words.]
I assume “Air Cav” is short for Air Cavalry. It seems to fit.
I hope that INTO THE CANNIBAL’S POT is achieving lively sales thus far.