AFRICA

Just wanted to say that the Cup of African Nations ended last Sunday. Egypt (who defeated Cote D’Ivoire in the semifinals) defeated Cameroon (who defeated Ghana). So it kind of establishes the North African reign in these games. It’s Egypt’s 6^th win in this cup. It is nice to have the games as they are more exciting than the local South African league.

It was nice to see Speilberg pull out as artistic director of the 2008 Olympic games because China wasn’t doing more in Sudan (and I would say doing negatively). I find it highly strange (may have said this as well, too) that the biggest countries (mostly guys on the Security Council of the UN especially the 5 permanent members) sell weapons and arms to countries that are in conflict and then wonder why there is conflict. Now of course the arms don’t cause the conflict, but the big nations fuel it. And so it’s very strange to see it being addressed. We do this all the time ourselves as many of these places do not manufacture these weapons. And so it seems almost contradictory to promote peace and manufacture weapons (opinion or fact under the guise of an opinion). As always my primary concern is not security as I see security as a symptom not a root cause; I tend not to prioritize symptoms. In my prioritizing hierarchy, peace is above security (as it comes as a byproduct, to some a counterproduct). Given that, it seems that we speak of peace in many ways and then fight it in many actions. A complete nuclear disarmament of every nation on the globe would be fantastic but also fantastical in my cartoonish world.

So African-Sino relations are souring as suspicions increase. I’m trying to imagine China and India 64 years in the future and what the world will be like.

Regarding Africans helping Africans Annan was criticized for not understanding the issues in the Kenya turmoil.

I don’t know if I said this, but people consider this the cradle of humankind. I’ve heard people disagree with this thinking that humanity started in Africa, but in North Africa, but scientist place it here. I am not referring to homo sapiens, but to homo habilis, the first species they label as man. And it was supposed to have started here. So if you ever fly to Johannesburg, South Africa, one of the sites to see is this World Heritage Site (UNESCO) about an hour outside the city where you can find a museum that talks about the Cradle of Humankind or Humanity.