Showing posts with label International Criminal Court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International Criminal Court. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Barack Obama In Kenya



Obama's 'homecoming' to Kenya highlights economic boom
Better stocktaking methods and new software have helped cut delivery times to supermarkets from two weeks to two days and sales have grown by 50 percent ..... Obama's visit reveals Washington's desire to fix ties with Kenya - East Africa's top economy and a partner in the fight against religious radicals - after they slumped while President Uhuru Kenyatta faced international charges of crimes against humanity. ....... Obama also faces pressure from rights organisations to use his popularity to address Kenya's problems with corruption, media freedom, and the battle against militants from Somalia's al-Shabab group, who have spilled blood in a shopping mall, a university campus among other targets. ...... bullish about Kenya's economy, which grew by 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2015. It is one of the world's fastest-growing markets and part of a long-term expansion across sub-Saharan Africa that is building a middle class of new consumers. ...... "The UN projects that over 1.8 billion children will be born in the next 35 years across Africa. That's a huge market that's available for anybody serving the baby industry, everything from diapers to baby food. There is lots of opportunity" ....... technology start-up firms in its western suburbs seek to build on such successes as the mobile phone money transfer system, M-Pesa. The innovation hub along Ngong Road has been dubbed Silicon Savannah. ...... "You can feel the confidence in Nairobi these days, a sense of swagger and bravado on the part of Kenyan elites" ........ "A sense that Kenya, for the first time since independence, really does have its destiny in its own hands and does have options in terms of who it chooses to partner with internationally" ...... The US president has an 80 percent approval rating there and is lauded as "our son" ..... he will not visit his ancestral village Kogelo, the site of his father's grave, amid al-Shabab security concerns. ....... Obama appears dismayed that he will be tied to his security detail and motorcade, rather than be free to meet with distant relatives, such as his step-grandmother Sarah Onyango Obama ...... visiting Kenya as a private citizen is probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president because I can actually get outside of a hotel room or a conference centre ....... Upon arrival, he will meet his Kenyan counterpart, Kenyatta, whose presidential bid Washington lobbied against because, at the time of the election in March 2013, he faced International Criminal Court charges over his role in the 2007-08 post-election violence. ........ The court dropped all charges against Kenyatta in December. ...... Kenya's economic boom is part of a wave of modernisation and entrepreneurship that is sweeping sub-Saharan Africa and challenging deep-rooted prejudices that the continent is forever blighted by poverty, war, disease, and corruption. ........ "The pundit's pendulum will not always swing from Afro-pocalpyse to Afro-optimism" ........ "There will essentially be a mixed bag of billionaires emerging at the same time as we see people risking their lives to reach Europe across the Mediterranean. They will exist side by side, in much the same way we as see the super-rich and a homeless population in Washington DC"
US holds summit with African heads of state
Afua Prempeh says she will never wash her frock again. She was hugged by Michelle Obama during a feel-good event for young African go-getters in Washington last week, and Prempeh does not want the US first lady's impressions to be rinsed away. ...... the allure that the Obamas retain in Africa, despite their waning approval ratings at home. The couple's charisma, together with President Barack Obama's Kenyan lineage, will be used to full effect at the first US-Africa Leaders Summit ...... "I'm still recovering from the excitement of hugging Michelle," says Prempeh, 28, a Ghanaian environmentalist who won a six-week study tour in Florida. ...... "The Obamas are a symbol of hope, that people can look beyond the colour of my skin or the fact that I'm a woman." .......... a continent where Europe and China are bigger traders. ...... Almost 50 African heads of state plan to attend Monday's three-day summit on business, security and governance. The four dozen presidential motorcades circling downtown Washington could cause traffic gridlock reminiscent of Nairobi, Lagos or Johannesburg. ...... European Union trade volumes with Africa hit $200bn in 2013. China's rocketed from $10bn in 2000 to more than $170bn in 2013. In recent years, US-Africa trade has stagnated at about $60bn. ........

Africa's population could eclipse China and India with two billion people in 2050, consisting of one quarter of the world's working-age population.

....... A bigger US footprint in Africa is far cheaper than pivoting to Asia ......... a small bit of effort now could mean better market access and closer economic ties in 25 years, when Africa will be better positioned to buy the goods and services that America is best at producing." ...... The US may lag in trade, but it has more African diplomatic posts than any other country and is stealthily expanding its military presence. Last month's revelations of US secret military advisers in Somalia added to the list of known hotspots where US trainers, spies, drones, and commandoes operate. ...... Visiting leaders cannot trumpet their feats in the plenary speeches of typical multi-lateral events. Worse still, they won't have one-on-one time with Obama, unlike the guaranteed presidential face time at Beijing's triennial Africa meets. ........ Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan were not invited. ...... Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta appeared on the guest list because he cooperated with the International Criminal Court over his role in the ethnic bloodletting of 2007-08. ...... Adebayo Alonge, 27, said it will be tough to use the skills he gained at Yale University to grow his business distributing low-cost drugs across Nigeria's countryside.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Syria's Turn

(en) Syria Location (he) מיקום סוריהImage via Wikipedia
New York Times: In Syria, Crackdown After Protests: Protests broke out in four Syrian cities on Friday, the first large-scale demonstrations here since the pro-democracy uprisings began in the Arab world three months ago. Brutal police crackdowns followed, leaving six people dead and scores injured..... In the largest protests, several thousand people gathered in the center of Dara’a, in southern Syria, chanting “God, Syria and freedom only” ..... A Facebook page, “the Syrian revolution 2011,” has called on people to protest against corruption and repression. ..... Small protests in the capital on Tuesday and Wednesday were violently dispersed by the authorities, who arrested scores of demonstrators. The state news service, SANA, dismissed those protests as the work of outside agitators. ..... about 20 youths who had written graffiti complaining about the high cost of living and calling for more freedoms...... “They used live ammunition immediately, no tear gas or anything else”
Democracy in Syria, as in Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia or Libya, or in Iran, is not Britain's business, it is not the business of France, it is most definitely not the business of the United States of America. But when the people rise and take to the streets to peacefully protest, if any actor, any entity, any apparatus, any organization, any state structure, or mafia group, or a terrorist group, or a clan, or royal family, or an army, or a police force decides to unleash animal brutality upon those peaceful protesters, not just the US or Britain or France, but the entire community of nations on the planet has to stand up for them, and there are many, many nonviolent options. You impose global travel bans on all members of the regime, you freeze their assets, you issue strict warnings of vocal support, you extend moral support, you offer logistical support, maybe they need a few laptops, a few camera phones, medical supplies perhaps, and you give the offenders a little time, all the time making it absolutely clear unleashing animal brutality is not acceptable, and of course you press charges against them in the International Criminal Court, and you issue Interpol warrants for their arrests. And if they don't stop still, then you go to the UN Security Council for the final act. That final act still fits the definition of non violence. The violence against Hitler's regime fit the definition of non violence.

Or some monarchs in the region could do the smart thing and not unleash animal brutality upon their people and request that they be turned into constitutional monarchs. That is a legitimate option. But that is not an option still on the table after you have unleashed animal brutality upon peaceful protesters.

2011 is to be democracy's biggest year in world history. China itself is fair game. Russia is fair game. And the fuck with Mugabe.
a map of the Arab WorldImage via Wikipedia
Khalifa Of Bahrain Must Go
The Two Abdullahs Need To Go
The Response To Benghazi Has To Be In Tripoli
The Military Options
Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia
Barack Obama: My Man
Barack Obama Proved Me Wrong On Race And Libya
Don't Let Benghazi Fall
Gaddafi Just Did The Bin Laden Thing: He Threatened America
Democracy's Despair
North Korea In Sight
Secretary Hillary
John Kerry Has The Solution
No Fly Zone Or Massacre
Saudi Arabi Next
Talk to Jazeera: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
The Anatomy Of Revolutions For Democracy

Friday Prayer: Let A Million Libyans March In Tripoli
Democracy With Lowest Possible Losses Of Human Lives
Gaddafi Is No Simon Bolivar
No Fly Zone Or Surgical Strikes
If Gaddafi Is Not President, It Should Be Easier For Him To Leave
Sound Military Options
Nicaragua, Ortega On The Radar
Make Surgical Strikes, Take The Guy Out
Kick Ortega Out
The Fuck With Mugabe
The Chinese Communist Party Can Keep The Power If They Agree To Pluralism, Federalism
This Is Also About Women's Rights
The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too
Democracy: An Israeli Plot?
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
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The Military Options








The no fly zone has been announced. If Gaddafi continues to fly planes, shoot them down. Bomb the airports that those planes came out of. Bomb the air bases. Bomb the control towers. Bomb the command center in Tripoli.

If you only bomb the planes in the sky, you are agreeing to play the cat and mouse game that Gaddafi wants to play with you. When he announced a ceasefire he lied. That was his way of saying just give me 48 more hours, and I will have Benghazi by then. Then there would be nothing for you to do.

This dude is not going to do the ceasefire thing. It is the nature of the beast.
Muammar al-Gaddafi Mouammar Kadhafi Colonel Qu...Image by Abode of Chaos via Flickr
You bomb the planes in the sky. And if there are reports - as there are - that he has, if anything, accelerated military action on the ground, then that would be a clear signal that he has not understood the concept of the no fly zone. The concept is to protect Libyan civilians. If he continues to attack civilians, you look for all movements on the ground by the Gaddafi forces, and you conduct aerial strikes upon them. There are open roads that his forces use. They are not hard to find. These are not exactly the jungles of Vietnam. There is nowhere to hide. This is a freaking desert. There are open skies.

But if there is action on the ground on his part, you attack his military establishments in Tripoli. You hit the core of his military organization. You hit the presidential palace, because that is where the orders are coming from.

All this until all military action on his part ceases, not very likely. Instead the guy is threatening to go into a whole different direction. He is threatening military action against France.

It is like this. A criminal with a gun is on rampage at a department store. The police decide to take action. When he is finally surrounded and it is decided gunning him down is the only way to end the rampage, he sends a message that he is going to come next for the police station - maybe he will blow up the building - if the police try to gun him down.

Do you weigh his words? Do you want to think if it is worth taking the chances? Or do you get further confirmed in your suspicious that what you are facing is a criminal?

Gaddafi has done what Bin Laden did not do. At least Bin Laden went into hiding before he started issuing his tireless fatwas. Gaddafi is issuing his threats against entire countries and he is doing it without going into hiding.

This guy is not the president of Libya. He has no formal title. By his own admission he has no claim to any kind of representation to Libyan sovereignty. This guy is a criminal first, last and foremost.

It is not Al Qaeda that took over Benghazi. The people who took over Benghazi are people who aspire to turn Libya into a modern democracy. I wish that upon all Arab countries.

The uprising in Benghazi was not violent. Gaddafi's army units in Benghazi defected. Can't blame them.
Muammar al-Gaddafi, pictured in 2009Image by BlatantNews.com via Flickr
The way this drama is going to end is this guy Gaddafi is going to commit suicide. As days have passed, he has become even less and less compromising. That is a warning sign. My judgment is he will kill as many people as possible before he will kill himself.

Exile is no longer an option for him. He has killed too many people. If he is captured alive, he gets to go to the International Criminal Court. But I doubt he will want to get captured alive.

The choice is between putting the mad dog to sleep and letting him kill a few thousand more people before he kills himself.

I wish it were otherwise. I wish he would do the ceasefire thing. That there would be no more attacks on civilians anywhere in Libya. Then the people of Libya would have the option to protest peacefully or keep him as their leader.

The international community does not have a democracy agenda. It is the Libyan people who have a democracy agenda. Liberty rings from within the human heart.

Christian Science Monitor: With Libya, is ‘Obama doctrine’ on war emerging?
New York Times: In Yemen, Opposition Encourages Protesters
BBC: French military jet opens fire in Libya
New York Times: Allies Open Push in Libya to Block Qaddafi Assaults
Voice Of America: Fresh Protests in Yemen Despite State of Emergency
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Saturday, October 02, 2010

Criminals Do Not Get To Organize Political Parties

Ruhollah KhomeiniImage via WikipediaAfter the regime in Iran is gone, an interim government will come into power. That interim government will hold elections to a constituent assembly. Iranians will have the right to organize political parties to contest such elections. That would include people who are currently part of the Iran state structure. But that would not include criminals.

People in power directly and indirectly responsible for unleashing brutality upon peaceful protesters are criminals. They have to be tried either in the International Criminal Court or by the interim government domestically.

Criminals don't have the right to vote, let alone the right to organize political parties.

Khomeini is a war criminal. He unleashed war weapons upon peaceful Iranian demonstrators. Khomeini has a right to not accept the demands of peaceful protesters, but he has no right to deal violently with peaceful protesters. But he did, and he is a criminal. That bearded, disheveled dude in Iran is a criminal. He is going to be in handcuffs sooner rather than later.




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