The Vice Guide to Liberia

The VBS, or Vice's broadcasting network, has just released an 8 part series on Liberia and it is remarkable.  To put Liberia in a nutshell you need to understand that it was colonized by freed American slaves in a back to Africa movement, and upon arrival on the continent the freed slaves started to enslave the native African population.  The country did not have the most peaceful start, and now the nation has just emerged from a series of civil wars.  Despite peace now existing in Liberia the nation is far from peaceful, and shows the signs of the many chaotic civil wars that have plagued this nation.  This 8 part series "The Vice Guide to Liberia" truly shows the depths of destruction and the chaos that can ensue during a people's bloody struggle for survival.

The Decade in Pictures

As the decade draws to a close I am still astonished to realize that to many this is the only decade that they truly remember.  This is the decade that they matured in.  This has been a decade where even some of the most beautiful and well intended events have an under current of violence. Even the above picture has violence all around it, since the Iranian government actively pursues suppressing her freedoms.  What she is doing is now illegal and can prevent her from getting any form of an education in Iran because she would now be a 'star student'.

That is not a place people should want to grow up in.

I have included a series of pictures from the decade below, but to get more I recommend visiting The Big Picture.

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The Sunday Knight - Bomb Threat

A young Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

On Christmas day, 23 year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam to Detroit while the plane made its final descent.  He hid his bomb of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), one of the most powerful high explosives, in the lining of his pants and before he attempted to detonate the bomb he ventured to the lavatory for roughly fifteen minutes to set it up.  Upon returning to his window seat, he claimed that he had an upset stomach and then covered himself with a blanket.  At that point he attempted to detonate the bomb, but the detonator malfunctioned and instead a fire erupted in his pants seriously burning his legs.  Upon seeing the fire, hearing the noise, and smelling the smoke the passengers subdued Mr. Abdulmutallab, and the threat disappeared.  

This story should be frightening and infuriating, yet due to the events of the past decade it almost seems like the norm.  This should not be a welcomed surprise.

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Uganda, Homosexuals, & Everyone Else

One of my readers asked me to talk about the impending gay rights crisis in Uganda so here it goes.

The controversy surrounding this issue resides in the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 which will allow for the legal execution of HIV-positive LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Ugandans, yet that is not all that the bill would allow.  Additionally other LGBT Ugandans could face life imprisonment, and straight Ugandans could face imprisonment for not reporting suspected LGBT Ugandans or for speaking favorably about LGBT rights.  Essentially, this bill would create a government sponsored witch hunt for all LGBT Ugandans with the obvious goal being to remove them from the general population either through imprisonment or execution.  When people say that Uganda is trying to legalize a gay genocide they are not exaggerating because that is exactly what they are trying to do.

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC has been the most notable American reporter discussing the issue and you can watch one of her broadcasted segments on the issue below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

I highly recommend for you to visit the website for The Rachel Maddow Show and watch the other segments she had done on this issue.

In her segments and on most of the reporting I have read I have seen this painted as solely a moral and gay rights issue, and although they obviously have cause for this perspective, there is so much more to this issue.  Yes, the bill could adversely affect LGBT people in Uganda to a catastrophic effect, but more frighteningly so could be the affect it has for every one else inside and outside of Uganda.

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The Visual Decline of Empires & Mozart

This is pretty cool, and educational.  The bubbles grow and explode based on the acquisition and loss of territories.  At the bottom left corner is the date tracker for when these events occurred in history.  Also even though this is cool I felt it needed some music so I added Mozart's "Requiem".  Start the music and then start the video. 

Visualizing empires decline from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo.

 Mozart's "Requiem"

No War and No Peace

Gen. Martin Agwai of the UN has declared that the war in Darfur has ended, and that all that remains is simple lawlessness and banditry.  The organized war between the Sudanese military and rebel groups that has reportedly cost the lives 300,000 people and displaced millions over the last six years, according to Gen. Martin Agwai is over.  I should feel ecstatic, but I doubt that is the whole story.

Sure, less violence is occurring, yet no peace treaty has been agreed to by the waring factions.  No one has officially agreed to stop fighting.  They are just fighting less.  This is good, but not enough to exhale.  Sudan has over 26 rebel factions that at any minute could decide to reengage.  Additionally, the government has not depleted their superior military capabilities.  There appears to be a calm, but there could still be a storm.  Declaring victory too early, as all Americans know, is not only not smart, but not wanted.  Work is still to be done to truly end the violence in Darfur. 

You can read more HERE.

Blind Soldiers

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yesterday this woman, Katy Abrams, appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews to explain herself, her actions, and her frustrations after she was shown causing a ruckus as Sen. Arlen Spector's town hall meeting. During her anger filled rant she declared how she did not want our country to fall into the grip of communism, and how she wanted us to revert to the Constitution how the Founding Father's intended. Additionally, she boasted about how she is 35 years old and had never before been interested in politics, but the fear of universal healthcare, a.k.a. our mortal enemy "Socialism", made her get involved and has woken a "sleeping giant".  

I wish she was joking when she articulated these opinions, but we all know she was not.  Luckily for us Lawrence O'Donnell, who was sitting in for Chris Matthews, politely took her to task on her unfounded beliefs and fears for this country.  To give you a quick run down of the interview, Mrs. Abrams mentioned how she felt she paid too much in taxes, but did not know her yearly income.  She disliked a single-payer healthcare plan, but acknowledged that her parents may need Medicare soon.  Most glaringly she mentioned how she did not care too much about 9/11 and the War in Iraq because she was too busy living her own life.  That statement alone is just unbelievable.  These are America's blind soldiers.

America's blind soldiers are this new bread of middle class Americans whose main objective is self-preservation.  They do not want universal healthcare because they already have healthcare, and feel it would be unfair to pay taxes for something they already have.  They believe you can always pay less in taxes, yet have no idea how much money they make.  This is absurd and selfish, and not what betters countries.  They are fighting a war based on money and power, and have even made up a mortal enemy, Socialism, to rally the troops around.  At the end of the day I hope they do not win, but I know it will be bloody and ugly.  They will go into battle at town hall meetings, and even national television unprepared and uninformed, but will fight and yell their hearts out.  Sometimes they will win, town hall meetings, and sometimes they will loose, Hardball with Chris Matthews, but they will continue fighting until they become educated and learn about what they are fighting for.  They are fighting for ignorance, inequality, big business, and expensive healthcare.  However, I know they do not see it this way.

Sometimes I wonder if they are being fueled by blood, alcohol, and drugs just like these soldiers who were used as pawns by their country's wealthy elite.

 

Courts and Criminality

Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor

About a month ago during Sonia Sotomayor's Senate Confirmation Hearings, I found it fascinating that at the same time former President of Liberia Charles Taylor was being tried for war crimes at the Hague.  Apart from that they both involved courts, Sotomayor seeking appointment to the highest court in America and Taylor being tried in one, they shared no similarity at first.  However, as the proceedings unrolled it became more and more evident how these two events related to one another.  They were similar in the acts that they created and defended.  The acts were those used to obtain and defend power.

I will start with a quick background on Liberia because this is a country that fascinates me to no end.  Liberia is not like most African countries and Charles Taylor is not a name similar to most African names.  The reason for this difference is that Liberia was founded by freed American slaves with new American names in the 1820's.  They left America to found their own country, a country with a foundation in American styled democracy.  Liberia even means "land of the free" and their capital Monrovia was named after President James Monroe.  Liberia fascinates me because we would like to assume that a country founded by Americans with an education in democracy would lead to a peaceful democratic country.  That could not be farther from the truth.  From the 1820's to the 1980's the Americo-Liberians suppressed the indigenous African people and truly created a society of the "Haves" and "Have Nots".  In the 1980's an indigenous Liberian Samuel Doe took control of the government from the Americo-Liberians through a bloody coup d'etat.  That bloody coup was then quickly followed by another one from Charles Taylor in 1990.  This penchant for bloody wars then inclined Charles Taylor to get involved in the Civil War in neighboring Sierra Leone.  In this war he enlisted the involvement of children soldiers and even kept them ready to fight through concoctions consisting of various drugs, alcohol, and even blood.  This is definitely a war crime, but the defense comes from the fact that in this war, and many others, the leaders led from the rear.  How can you be responsible when you were not physically there?  That is the new question.  You can gather all the sticks, wood and brush to make a fire.  You can then light it, and then you leave.  Others are left to stoke it and ensure that it burns.  Any one of them could stop it, yet none of them do.  Who's fault is it that an entire village was burned to the ground now?  Should Charles Taylor be responsible?

Frighteningly our American political discourse has been solely focused on obtaining power this year and that should not be a surprise, yet this year is different.  We have one party in control and another in utter disarray.  The Republican Party is panicking and trying to find at any cost a way to obtain power.  This is where things start to get dangerous.  During the Sotomayor hearings we constantly heard divisive and controversial racial phrasings in reference to newly appointed Justice Sotomayor, and all of this was an attempt to demean the nominee.  They had no merit for their complaints, but only a desire to obtain power in their objections and this is not democratic.  It is more despotic than anything, and the use of race as a lightning rod for the defense should not be ignored by anyone.  In many of the bloodiest conflicts of the modern era, or any era for that matter, race or ethnic differences have been the catalyst.  In the end, one side wins but often neither force's troops truly know what they were fighting for apart from victory over their newly established mortal enemy.  I sadly see discourse such as this brewing among the American populace.

First their are the "Birthers" who erroneously claim that President Obama is not an American citizen.  They proclaim fabricated documentation that allegedly indicates a birth in Kenya, yet they ignore his official birth certificate that is available for all to see on the internet.  Strangely they all appear to have no interest in the fact that John McCain was born outside of the continental United States.  This is a fact, but a fact that should matter not.  John McCain was born in the Panama Canal on a military base while his dad served in the Navy.  This is a non-issue, but one that could easily be used by zealots crazed on power instead of stability for their advantage.  However, the "Birthers" pale in comparison to the universal healthcare opponents that threaten violence at town hall meetings, and shout down any opposing view points.  This could easily get scary and incredibly detrimental to the discourse and democracy in this country.  

Unsurprisingly, most of the organization for the "Birthers" and the universal healthcare opponents is not coming from those holding signs on the side of the road or threatening violence at town hall meetings.  The organization has come from lobbyists representing the health insurance companies or bloggers who stay far away from the fray.  They receive large amounts of money to gather the sticks, wood, and brush to start the fire.  Now all they have to do is start it and walk away, and that is exactly what they are doing.  All facts would indicate that none, if any, of the masses will attempt to put out the fire, so the stoking continues, and eventually an uncontrollable conflagration ensues.  I fear that this may occur, but I hope cooler heads prevail.

The crime on trial in The Hague involving Charles Taylor centers on how much responsibility can you place on a general that leads from the rear.  The crime occurring in the United States is that we have people so hungry for power and full of cowardice that they elect to be a general that leads from the rear.  Hopefully, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will learn from the events in The Hague and learn how to properly prosecute those who act in this fashion.  Attorney General Eric Holder appears to have the right idea with his willingness to investigate the Bush Administration for their torture practices.  Read more HERE.  

In the end, it may just be time that America is forced to learn from their minorities.  Our African-American President proposes policies that he feels will help all Americans.  Our first Latin American Supreme Court Justice will attempt to fairly regulate the laws that govern our land.  Our African-America Attorney General will investigate alleged crimes by the previous Administration to ensure that they are not duplicated by the present and future ones, but that is not all.  We must look at our former Americans who went in search of pastures anew to understand that a society entrenched in creating the "Haves" and the "Have Nots", a society that pits races and ethnicities against one another to obtain power is not a society that can foster democracy.  Someone must stop the powerful from starting the fire and walking away.  Someone must educate the people enough that they learn that they can stop stoking the fire at any time.  This is how democracy survives, and war crimes do not occur.  This is what we need to learn from these courts and varying degrees of criminality.

For more information on Liberia visit HERE and for up to date daily information on Charles Taylor's trial visit HERE.

The Sunday Sir - Leadership

This week was about leadership.  Leadership arriving and leaving.  Leadership being admired, appreciated, and respected.  Leadership being hoped and fought for, and leadership being questioned.  People across world spoke of leadership this week.  The discussion of leadership must start at home first.

Monday marked the day of Al Franken's official swearing in as a United States Senator, and I found this fitting.  No more than a couple of days after Sarah Palin quit as Governor of Alaska the Democrats earn a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.  I know that neither one of these truly effect each other, but it appeared as a changing of the guard in my eyes.  The Republican's had an individual who they buttressed up and placed on the national stage with the hope that she could energize their faltering party who could not take the heat, so she left the kitchen.  The idea of Sarah Palin was much greater than the actual Sarah Palin, and we have all seen that.  Al Franken on the other hand could not be more of the opposite.  The idea of Al Franken is far less than the actual Al Franken.  People attempt to ridicule him as merely a comedian, yet he is obviously much more than that.  If you had any doubt of that you must have overlooked the fact that he defeated an incumbent Senator in one of the most contested elections in modern history only to emerge as a proper Senator.  I must say the notion that anyone seriously thought that Sarah Palin could adequately serve as Vice President of the United States is now laughable to a degree beyond anything Al Franken has written in his entire life.  Now we all need to assess who is the comedian.  

Internationally, we American's need to be proud that we have a much envied President.  A President who many countries would in a heartbeat would gladly swap for their own.  First the President visited Russia and quickly reached a miraculous agreement with Russian President Medvedev to reduce both countires nuclear stockpiles.  At this point, the strength of Obama's diplomatic and foreign policy skills were on full display and ready for the G8 summit being hosted Italy's controversial President Silvio Berlusconi.  President Obama's first major visit to Europe a month ago served as an introduction.  It was a chance to charm, impresses, and allow for authority to grow.  This trip however was all about authority, and he impressed in doing so.  When the European public witnessed the young, vibrant and intelligent American President on this occasion many wished he was their president.  Italian's would have quickly swapped him for their philandering, billionaire President with a year around tan.  The British appear to already want to exchange the dour Gordon Brown for someone else, so President Obama could be ideal.  The German's appear to be growing tired of their scientist Chancellor Angela Merkel.  The French have even developed a love affair, only rivaled by their addiction to the Kennedy Family, to the Obama's that pushes their own Sarkozy-Bruni family out of the limelight.  In Europe our President was the envy of all nations, yet I doubt he gets the same admiration domestically.  This is something worth noting.  Eventually he left Europe, but not after the leaders of the G8 agreed to reduce carbon emissions to decrease the affects of global warming.

After Europe President Obama then made his first Sub-Saharan Africa visit when he visited Ghana, and he received a heros welcome.  All of Africa clamored to catch a glimpse of the first African-American President of the Untied States.  The prodigal son came home, and he knew that this is where he came from.  He may have gone away under horrific circumstances, and while he was gone he struggled but eventually he carved a place that he could call his own.  No one was his master.  No one could dictate what he could do with his life.  He was a man.  He was a proud man with a great family who never forgot where we came from.  The life he had built was a good one, and he still had work to complete in his new life, but he knew at some point he must come home so that his family could see him.  That is what President Obama did and that is why this was so important.  When he said he has "African blood running through him" he meant it.  It is true and need not be forgotten.  He took his family along and the toured fortresses that were part of the slave trade.  He spoke to the Ghanaian parliament and declared that Africa must stop their corruption if they want to improve.  Homecomings do not need to be only hugs and celebration.  Sometimes harsh words need to be spoken in a cordial manner, and this is a sign of good diplomacy.  Eventually, America's President returned home as the envy of the world.  This is the leadership that I enjoy.

However, when one ventures out into the world despite all the good that may occur you would be insane to ignore the bad, the different, or the fascinating.  Thus this Sunday Sir cannot be just about America.  That would go against the goal of proper international diplomacy.  Despite the fervor that surrounds President Obama and the improving example of leadership that he is we must not ignore those going through a transition.  Honduras is still going through the aftershocks of their coup d'etat, and the international community remains undecided about how they stand.  Countries obviously cannot support military coups, but they equally should not support amendments to constitutions that could allow dictatorships to form.  This is a tough call, yet we all hope for a more peaceful outcome.  At the same time, Iran remains in a constant struggle between the people and the government.  No one knows what the future will bring, but we all know neither side will go away without a fight.  China recently had a riot that erupted from tensions between their ethnic muslim minority of Uighur residents and the majority Han residents.  In all over 157 people were killed in the fighting.  137 of those killed were Han, and 46 were Uighur.  All of this stemmed from the death of two Uighur workers in a toy factor after an altercation between Hans and Uighurs.  Lastly, but certainly not least, Kim Jong-il of North Korea according to reports coming out of South Korea and China is suffering from pancreatic cancer and is very ill.  Very soon North Korea may have another Supreme Leader.

These foreign and domestic events are all about leadership in the present.  President Obama attempts to lead the world.  The Democrats attempt to lead America.  The Hondurans attempt to define and contain their leadership.  The Iranians similarly fight to have more control over their leadership.  That fight may eventually result in a change of leadership.  Only time will tell.  The Uighurs of China fight to gain some significance or influence with their leadership.  The frustration may have been poorly placed or lacking structure, but it is there for all to see.  Hopefully, the Chinese government may take notice.  The government needs to fear their own people to a certain degree.  I do not know if the Chinese do.  North Korea hopes to have more of the same leadership, but the world wonders what this new leader will bring.

I will end this Sunday Sir with a mention of leadership past and present.  Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush Administration's torture practices.  President Obama does not support this according to most reports, but he must support his Attorney General.  He must allow him to do his job.  The next couple of weeks will show if President Obama's knack for leadership internationally can be equally applied domestically.

That was the week that was and this was your The Sunday Sir

Amateurs

In addition to The Sunday Sir - Aborting Growth I feel it would be good to read this great article in The New York Times The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs.  It provides a great widow to worlds where abortions are illegal and the doctors are not trained properly.

The Sunday Sir - A Fort Knight

It has been a fortnight since I last posted a Sunday Sir, and boy was America busy.  Boston found a potential serial killer in the Craigslist killer Philip Markoff, the leader of the Somali pirates was brought to America to face trial, torture and how we decide to prosecute those who committed torture became the topic of the week, but in a flash Swine Flu invaded the country from Mexico creating mass hysteria for a couple of days only to subside once Senator Arlen Spector defected to the Democratic Party, President Barack Obama reached his 100 day mark, and Supreme Court Justice David Souter decided to retire.  Man that is a lot of major news.  Two weeks is not what it used to be.

Two weeks used to only be 14 days, but in a time when 100 days becomes an accomplishment we now must reconsider what we constitute as normal.  President Bush frequently took two week vacations, and few objected, yet in this climate if President Obama decided to do the same I believe many would fear that the sky may fall upon them.  The times are changing, and we need to see this.  Events seem to be more interconnected than ever before, and this is good.

The previous administration launched misguided land based wars that resulted in a diminished Navy, while at the same time advocating the use of torture during these wars.  They seemed to act as an island whose actions would never affect other factions, nor be reprimanded by an alien entity.  In the present time, the reduction of the size of the Navy gives rogue Somali pirates the impetus to attack American civilian cargo ships and now the America military must successfully defeat a terrorist group without declaring war on the country where the terrorists originated from.  The sole surviver of the Somali pirates must now be brought to America to face trial instead of being tortured in the hopes of gaining information.  While said prisoner is awaiting trial the present Administration and Congress must decide how to act concerning the admitted acts of torture committed by the Bush Administration.  Should the President ignore the crimes and continue with his previous agenda or should Congress create a special non-partisan investigative body to find out if a crime was committed?  That was the question for a couple of days, yet the answer was called "learn your federal departments".  The President may be the Commander-in-Chief, but the main federal law enforcement duties fall the Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder.  Thus Eric Holder will oversee the investigation of the previous administration and the President and Congress can focus on other matters.  Other matters would soon arrive.

Swine Flu, the pandemic that was not really a pandemic, arrived and people panicked.  Swine Flu did not do much when it arrived, so the panic subsided.  Arlen Spector then became a Democrat and the 21% of the American population that still identifies themselves as Republican panicked.  Democrats would now have a filibuster proof majority and the Republican Party may have in the blink of an eye moved from a national to a regional and lastly to an obsolete party.  Obama and the national media then took a day to celebrate making it to 100 days, while I was pleased we all made it through the past week and a half.  To crown off the fortnight David Souter left the Supreme Court and the guessing started as to who President Obama would name as his replacement.  Republicans have already started to object against his pick despite the President not having picked it.  They will attempt anything to stave off an existence in oblivion.

I have retold the major events of these two weeks because I feel these pressing events all center on how we see them and that we see them.  For eight years I feel the American public received heavily censored and biased news, and that makes it hard to see what is around you.  I cannot say whether more news occurs now, but I have noticed that much of our news consists of finding out what happened in the past and addressing that issue.  This past two weeks has consisted of acknowledging the past, reviling in the present, and preparing for the future.  Torture occurred in the past, but we now know we will have to investigate it in the future.  100 days is an arbitrary number, but sometimes it is nice to relax and live in the present if only for one day.  The future is a new Supreme Court Justice, and a powerless GOP.  This is what 14 days has brought us.  Gone are the times when the upper-middle class, WASP medical student would be the last person you would suspect to be a criminal.  Gone are the days when America can afford to wage wars at land or sea due to the acts of a rogue faction.  America is changing and it is changing fast.  We all need to see what is occurring to ensue that the change is positive.

Fortnights used to be nice long vacations, but the world is too fast now, and we cannot afford those breaks.  Instead we must take a day to decompress and then get back to the work of change and improvement.  It will be hard, but most things worth working for should be.

That is what I call 14 days, and this was your Sunday Sir.

The Sunday Sir

For the week of April 3rd, 2009 I was consumed with degrees while the rest of America was consumed by pirates. These pirates are of the Somalian and not the Jack Sparrow kind, and my degrees originated from colleges and universities instead of latitude and longitude. To be more specific, the degree that I aspired for was of the honorary kind. I want another bachelors or doctorate degree, yet aspire to not be bothered with the headache that can be school. I'd like a degree to be bestowed upon me. I have always enjoyed this idea, yet until this week I had no idea how arduous this task may become.

See, this week Arizona State University announced that President Barack Obama would give the commencement address to this years graduating class, but that surprisingly he was not considered for the honorary degree given to many commencement speakers. When asked about the snub ASU Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler explained that honorary degrees are given "for an achievement of eminence" and that President Obama was not considered because "his body of work is yet to come."  Now this logic is absurd at best, and I doubt that it bothered the President in the slightest since he now had to focus on a pirate hostage situation, but it does raise the question as to what kind of individuals we are selecting to educate our children. If one person in all seriousness feels that being President of the United States does not make a body of work or an achievement worthy of an undergraduate degree, then we all must be crazy.  President Obama has a Harvard Law degree, so a degree from Arizona State University is probably not on his bucket list, but being friends with President Barack Obama should be on the bucket list of all places of learning.  ASU did not seem to care, at first.

After days of criticism en masse ASU announced that it had decided to expand and rename a scholarship program after the President and that this would be a much more fitting tribute to the President instead of the honorary degree.  The funniest part about this is that President Obama never asked for special treatment.  I doubt that he asked for anything.  He does not need the degree, but they need to understand that they are supposed to give one to him.  Individuals who have not become President have earned honorary degrees, so having the highest office in the land should merit this honor.  Thus far ASU still does not appear to understand or care about their folly, and I'm left scratching my head.

Is my goal of success and great achievement more likely to be recognized if I pursue a life in entertainment as opposed to civil service?  Is politics and working hard towards your principles so divisive that educators must hesitate to recognize the sitting President as a success?  Selfishness looks to be the attribute at the fore of this situation.  An establishment given the responsibility to educate our youth has failed to see the benefit in giving.  My disappointment is unparalleled.

Late Sunday night the captain of the hijacked American ship, who was being held captive by Somali Pirates on a life boat was rescued by the intervention of Navy Seals.  The captain dove into the water, in a similar fashion to a previously failed escape attempt, and when he was out of sight the Navy Seals opened fire on the pirates, killing most of them.  During the Pentagon press briefing the commander admitted that President Obama was instrumental in the effort to save the captain.

Thus in one week the President saved Americans from attacking pirates, a university lost the respect of thousands if not millions, and I now need to reconsider my stance on earning honorary degrees.  Thankfully, one of us seems to know what they are doing and that one happens to be the one in charge.

(I wanted to write a post that makes light of this situation, but frankly there is not much humor in that.)

Somali Pirates, Brave Americans, and the Navy

On Wednesday the crew of an American vessel hijacked by Somali pirates of the Horn of Africa retook control of their ship. The captain of the ship is being held on a separate vessel, and American Naval ships are on their way. Off of the Horn of Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean pirates are a constant threat, but rarely do they attacked ships bearing the American flag. This attack further stresses the thinning, the stretching, and the diminished influence of the American military.

In America's Elegant Decline Robert D. Kaplan explains how during times of peace the strength of a nations navy allows for peace to continue. Essentially, the navy's objective changes from battles at sea, launching aircraft to providing safe cover for cargo. Cargo ships during all times need to transport goods from one nation to another, and navies need to prevent piracy and allow safe passage. The navy prevents minor skirmishes at sea. Therefore, these minor altercations do not get the chance to build into bigger situations away from the eyes of the public. People pay far less attention to the seas than they do to the land, but this lack of focus does not denote a lack of importance.

Currently America is "obsessed with dirty land wars, and our 300-ship Navy is roughly half the size it was in the mid-1980s."  Our focus is in the wrong place and now the seas are not even safe for peaceful American flag bearing cargo ships.  The American bluff has been called by Somali pirates.  They finally realized that our focus was in the wrong place and now mayhem has ensued.  While Barack Obama continues to improve the image of America to the world, we need not neglect Somali pirates or the importance of a strong navy.  Before long we may need to pay a tariff to pirates to get a safe passage through the Indian Ocean.

Accidents

On March 6th Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, was killed in a car accident.  A car accident where the driver of a heavy Nissan truck inexplicably veered from its own lane into on coming traffic and collided head on with the Toyota Land Cruiser in which both Mr and Mrs Tsvangirai were riding.  Sometimes accidents just happen.  The initial thought was that the driver of the Nissan truck swerved to avoid a whole in the road, but that was quickly disregarded.  Now one of the theories being tossed around is that he fell asleep at the wheel.  Basically, they have no idea why the Nissan truck collided head on with the Tsvangirai's Land Cruiser, but lack of sleep and pot holes probably is not the reason.

Mr. Tsvangirai survived the accident and was taken to the hospital, but the devastation he feels from the loss of his wife may be harder to recover from than his physical injuries.  

Earlier in the year Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to a power sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe to finally put to an end the controversial elections, that according to most Mr. Tsvangirai won.  Despite his loss in the election Mr. Mugabe would not relinquish power, so against the advice of many Mr. Tsvangirai agreed to the power sharing proposal so that he could at least have a certain degree of power.  Thus far his influence has been negligible and now he is lucky to be alive.  Accidents as these used to frequently occur in Zimbabwe and now it appears as though the rash of perilous pot holes and narcoleptic drivers are again becoming the scourge of influential opposition party leaders.

In the meantime thousands are still dying of cholera, children have no schools to go to, and the Zimbabwean dollar is worth less than the paper it is printed on.

Love in the Time of Cholera

This is not fiction.

The Times of London predicts that the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe will certainly double in the next couple of months and increase to almost 115,000 infections.  The epidemic has already taken the lives of more people than has ever occurred in the whole of Africa in any year.  HERE.

In the meantime Grace Mugabe, Robert Mugabe's wife or "the First Shopper" probably went on a lavish shopping spree and would not let anyone stand in the way of her passionate pursuit of possessions.  HERE.

She loves shopping.  He loves power.  Neither loves Zimbabwe.

I am constantly baffled that such atrocities are allowed to occur.  Maybe I'm naive.  Maybe I'm new to the plight of Zimbabwe or the many plights that occur throughout Africa, but at some point you just have to care.  I just do not understand how someone could not.  "We all have problems", and that is a phrase that I often hear, but commonly it is meant to focus on ones own problems.  Surprisingly people fail to acknowledge other peoples problems with that phrase despite the obvious implication in the statement.  Maybe, and just maybe, people might see that helping other people with their problems could help at alleviating their own ones.  I can see that with Africa and I mentioned how helping Africa could aid American in my previous piece "African Presidents and the Power of Not Voting".  Sometimes I'm at a loss for words.

The Times of London remains a great resource for educating oneself on the constant atrocities that occur daily in Zimbabwe and I thank them for that.