Qaddaffi and a grand interference

 Qaddafi, a twenty seven year old accident of history had a grand ambition, to become a seventy something year old emperor of Africa and the soul of revolutions once past. The madman of Libya had a grand ambition and had no premonitions interfering in local affairs from Sierra Leone to Burkina Faso, from Chad to Liberia and everywhere else he was allowed to forment trouble. For more than a decade, Qaddafi's minions evoked terror on the people of West Africa as he provided patronage to militants and coup masters in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Conakry.  He did not stopped there, Qaddafi also attacked his neighbors - Chad, militarily for years, and Nigeria every opportunity he had.

In a continent usually led by illiterate soldiers and sometimes their spawns,  Qaddafi often appears the gadfly in a gorilla nest. His ways have always been crude, bellicose and seldom intelligent, yet he manages to hold sway in a continent better known for its darkness than for its ideas.

In recent days, the discussion had moved to the word interference.  In the streets of Arabia and the dark reaches of Africa, ignorant politicians, journalist and even more ignorant ordinary folks are mouthing the word interference. Criminals, pretending to be politicians in Africa are even calling for a halt to the West led decapitation of a "generous" butcher. It is instructive to note that Qaddafi's generosity is only to despots like himself. He had no qualms murdering poor immigrants who use his dessert nation as a jump-off ground to a beckoning promise of freedom in Europe. Qaddafi prided himself in his efforts at restraining poor despondent African's from crossing the Mediterranean sea to Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

For 42 years, he pretended to be the voice of Libyans, subjecting the people to the same abject poverty that most Africa under the indigenous control have endured since the "independence movement" of the 1950s. Qaddafi represents the worst sentiments, and Libya for 4 decades represents the worst case of a nation fixed in time. In Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and other places, despotic governments have changed hands, ever so often. The longest serving despot in Nigeria, Yakubu Gowon, lasted for 9 years while the longest in Ghana, Rawlings, lasted for 20. Houphouët Boigny of Ivory Coast died in Office after 33 years, and Sesse Sekou was booted out after 27.

The last several weeks have been good to the people of Africa. Foxy Mubarak was finally driven out of office, after years of using the Muslim brotherhood as a foil to perpetuate himself in power and create a modern monarchy at a time hereditary rule is becoming a global relic. Ben Ali of Tunisia  after two dozen years was also thrown out of office just as Bouteflika of Algeria was being put on notice and Museveni of Uganda was cementing his own grip on power, albeit tenuously. Ivory Coast continues at a stalemate as Laurent Gbagbo refuses to relinquish power, but his role models are being driven from office everywhere - even the crazy man of Cuba has seen nature take control.

The cry of interference from the Capitals of AU and AL are whinings of despots.  The self styled royal thieves of Saudi Arabia, Bharain and Syria are all shouting themselves hoarse to protect a status quo that let them pretend to be better than other people in the region and across the globe because of an accident of history. They were nomads who happened to have settled on a land long enough for oil to be found there! They still sell people, keep slaves and behave like cave men, only with control over too much money than they have any rights to while the other people of those same lands are treated like less than humans.

The cry of interference by the cowards  of African Union is nothing but the shallow shrieks of locusts  bellyaching because their grip on the scarce resources of their various nations may be slipping from their tantaloons back into the hand of the people of their countries.

True, the middle east has seen a great growth in infrastructure, fueled largely by the oil under the dessert sands; but the people of those lands remain some of the globes least educated and opportuned. Africa has fared far worse. Nigeria pared back all the promise of independence to become one of the poorest nations in the world with a great many of its once proud people in abject poverty. Ivory Coast continues its gradual decline while much of East and Central Africa remain frozen in time. All of these because almost all the nations of Africa and the Middle East have experienced nothing but a rollar coaster of despotic rule since the end of the Second World War. The last few weeks offer a ray of hope; and Muammar El Qaddafi and his crazy sons should not be allowed to take that away , nor should the dying breed of despots be allowed a new lease on life.