World On Fire: UN Helpless As Crises Rage In 10 Critical Hot Spots

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations is fighting a losing battle against a rash of political and humanitarian crises in 10 of the world’s critical “hot spots.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says even the U.N.’s 193 member states cannot, by themselves, help resolve these widespread conflicts.

“Not a single country, however powerful or resourceful as it may be, including the United States, can do it,” he warned last week.

The world’s current political hotspots include Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic – not forgetting West Africa which is battling the spread of the deadly disease Ebola.

Historically, the United Nations has grappled with one or two crises at any given time. But handling 10 such crises at one and the same time, said Ban, was rare and unprecedented in the 70-year history of the United Nations.

Although the international community looks to the world body to resolve these problems, “the United Nations cannot handle it alone. We need collective power and solidarity, otherwise, our world will get more and more troubles,” Ban said.

But that collective power is conspicuous by its absence.

Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America’s humanitarian policy manager, told IPS the situation is serious and Oxfam is very concerned. At the end of 2013, she said, violent conflict and human rights violations had displaced 51 million people, the highest number ever recorded.

In 2014, the U.N. appealed for assistance for 81 million people, including displaced persons and others affected by protracted situations of conflict and natural disaster.

Right now, the humanitarian system is responding to four emergencies – those the U.N. considers the most severe and large-scale – which are Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, and Syria.

These crises alone have left 20 million people vulnerable to malnutrition, illness, violence, and death, and in need of aid and protection, she added.

Then you have the crises in Yemen, where two out of three people need humanitarian assistance; West Africa, with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea asking for eight billion dollars to recover from Ebola; in Somalia, remittance flows that amount to 1.3 billion dollars annually, and are a lifeline to millions who are in need of humanitarian assistance, have been cut or driven underground due to banking restrictions; and then there is the migration and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, where almost 1,000 people have died trying to escape horrible situations in their home countries, Scribner said.

The United Nations says it needs about 16 billion dollars to meet humanitarian needs, including food, shelter and medicine, for over 55 million refugees worldwide.

But U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday virtually all of the U.N.’s emergency operations are “underfunded”.

Last month, a U.N. pledging conference on humanitarian aid to Syria, hosted by the government of Kuwait, raised over 3.8 billion dollars.

But the United Nations is appealing for more funds to reach its eventual target of 8.4 billion dollars for aid to Syria by the end of 2015.

“We need more support and more financial help,” said Dujarric. “But, most importantly, we need political solutions.”

But most conflicts have remained unresolved or stalemated primarily due to sharp divisions in the Security Council, the U.N.’s only political body armed with powers to resolve military conflicts.

Asked if the international community is doing enough, Scribner told IPS there is no silver bullet for dealing with these crises around the world because there are so many problems causing them: poverty, bad governance, proxy wars, geopolitical interests playing out; war economies being strengthened through the shipment of arms and weapons; ethnic tensions, etc.

The humanitarian system is not built for responding to the crises in the 21st century.

She said Oxfam is calling for three things: 1) More effective humanitarian response by providing funding early on and investing more in local leadership; 2) More emphasis on working towards political solutions and diplomatic action; and 3) Oxfam encourages the international community to use the sustainable development goals to lift more people out of poverty and address inequality that exists around the globe today.

Scribner said the combined wealth of the world’s richest 1 percent will overtake that of everyone else by next year given the current trend of rising inequality.

The conflicts in the world’s hot spots have also resulted in two adverse consequences: people caught in the crossfire are fleeing war-torn countries to safe havens in Europe while, at the same time, there is an increase in the number of killings of aid workers and U.N. staffers engaged in humanitarian work.

Over the weekend, hundreds of refugees and migrant workers from war-devastated Libya died in the high seas as a result of a ship wreck in the Mediterranean Sea. The estimated death toll is over 900.

On Monday, four staff members of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF were reportedly killed in an attack on a vehicle in which they were riding in Somalia, while four others were injured and remain in serious condition.

Ian Richards, president of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS: “We’re appalled at the loss of our colleagues in Garowe, Somalia and are very concerned for those injured. They truly were heroes doing great work in one of the world’s most dangerous locations.”

He said the United Nations has been clear that it will continue to operate in Somalia and “our work is needed there.”

“We support the work of our colleagues in these difficult circumstances,” he said.

At the same time, Richards told IPS, “We should not lose sight of a context in which U.N. staff and, in the case of local staff, their families, are increasingly targeted for their work.”

It is therefore important, he said, that the secretary-eneral and the General Assembly fully review the protection the U.N. provides to staff in locations where their lives are at risk, so that they may continue to provide much-needed assistance in such locations.

Oxfam’s Scribner told IPS attacks on aid workers have steadily risen over the years – from 90 violent attacks in 2001 to 308 incidents in 2011 – with the majority of attacks aimed at local aid workers. They often face more danger because they can get closer to the crisis to help others.

Because local aid workers are familiar with the landscape, speak the local language, and understand the local culture, and this also puts them more at risk, she said.

“That is why it is not a surprise that local aid workers make up nearly 80 percent of fatalities, on average, since 2001,” Scribner added.

Last year on World Humanitarian Day, the New York Times reported that the number of attacks on aid workers in 2013 set an annual record at 460, the most since the group began compiling its database, which goes back to 1997.

“These courageous men and women aren’t pulling out because they live in the very countries where they are trying to make a difference. And as such, they should be supported much more by the international community,” Scribner declared.

Death in the Mediterranean

Nicola Perugini

It was probably the biggest tragedy in the history of Mediterranean migrations. According to the testimonies of some of the 28 survivors, between 700 and 900 people, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa, were on the boat that sank in the Strait of Sicily on April 19.

We have gotten used to it, and this indeed is one of the most terrifying aspects of this story. Yes, we – white Europeans of different nationalities who hold passe-partout (masterkey) passports – have gotten used to thousands of non-white bodies swamped in the Mediterranean waters, like we got used to many other forms of extermination perpetrated along racial lines in the past. How did it come about?

European policies in the Mediterranean have been constantly oscillating between humanitarianism and policing. Our discussions about migrations always reproduce a sort of state of self-denial.

Questions are framed as if the processes that transformed the Mediterranean in the biggest marine cemetery of the world were in some way disconnected from our Schengen legal-territorial regime.

White vs non-white passports

This regime transformed the “Schengen area” into a single territorial unit and erected a wall, especially against Asian and African passport holders. Schengen ultimately discriminates between white and non-white passports and denies the latter universal human rights such as the basic right to freedom of movement.

Portraying Schengen as a European achievement (“Europe has no borders!”) while ignoring its political effect on the non-white enables us to speak about “accidents” when people sink in our watery frontiers, and to deny that our own laws killed them.

In October 2013, after 366 people drowned close to the island of Lampedusa, the Italian government created the military-humanitarian mission Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”), in coordination with North-African governments. In spite of the considerable amount of rescuing operations, the mission has not managed to prevent the deaths of many migrants.

In November 2014, Mare Nostrum was substituted by Triton, an operation led by the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex), whose mandate is “to support the Italian authorities in collecting intelligence on the people-smuggling networks operating in the countries of origin and transit of the migrants”.

The moral and legal duty of rescuing was put on the back burner with the security imperative of border control and smuggling prevention now calling the shots.

Right wing declarations

Since then the tension between rescuing and policing has continued to characterise the debate and accompany the further deaths of migrants. Schengen, obviously, remained untouched.

During the recent months there were numerous appeals among European politicians to even suspend any rescue operations of migrants in Europe’s southern sea.

“We do not support planned search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, an unintended ‘pull factor’, encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths,” stated the British Foreign Office minister in October 2014.

“We must sink the boats [that transport migrants]. An act of war is better than losing a war,” or “We must impose an international naval block [against Libya],” some Italian right-wing politicians exclaimed immediately after this last tragedy in the Strait of Sicily.

There is an explicit killing drive in these statements. However, we would commit a mistake if we understood these frequent invitations to liquidate non-white human lives as isolated cases of political insanity.

Compassionate solution

It is much more frightening to look at the way in which we, ordinary passe-partout Schengen Europeans, have normalised our Mediterranean massacres. We normalised them exactly because we feel relieved after listening to right-wing extremists or governmental hard-liners articulating their virulent acts of racist speech. We tell ourselves: “This is too much, we have a moral obligation to save lives.”

But the problem is that rescuing – what we might think is the compassionate solution to the problem – is simply part of our process of interiorisation of our own homicidal laws.

In fact, rescuing is entirely part of this legal killing mechanism we safely call migration management. The hundreds of human beings who yesterday lost their lives died while a rescuing team of the Italian coastguard approached them.

The migrants moved to the side of their boat closer to the coastguard boat in order to be saved. The weight of their bodies overturned their boat and they were killed in the midst of the rescuing operation.

Being appalled by the statements of the extreme right on rescuing is not enough. We should ask our governments to give up the privileges offered by the Schengen treaty and open our frontiers.

One Billion at COP21

Robert Hunziker

Just imagine the impact, the feeling, the awe-inspiring circumstance of one billion people all standing for the same purpose on the same day. Yes, that is the goal of The Billion People March, coming this December 19th. Don’t miss it. The world has never ever experienced such a spectacle. One (1) out of every seven (7) people on the face of the planet will attend. History will be made. #BILLIONPEOPLEMARCH.

The story line for that upcoming yet-to-be-famous march is: “We change the course of history.”

It’s all about COP21 (Conference of the Parties 21), the greatly anticipated Paris gathering of the nations, conjoining to establish rules and regulations for climate change, the two most maligned nouns in human language, as various competing interests continually take pot shots at its true intentions. What a layman’s spectacle it has become!

Unfortunately, none of those immersed in climate change dialogue, meaning the COP members, have scored, ever. They’re all virgins. Rather, the entire affair is like a sporting event where nobody scores, so, there are no winners. It’s horribly boring without a score. The fans, advocates grow restless from sitting so long without reason to stand and clap.

All of the COPs have been cop-outs, as science is attenuated to a state of debilitation, too many committees, too many hands-on nation-state officialdom edifications, too much jabber into thin air. The score remains stuck at zero.

But, the boredom is about to halt, assuming one billion people get involved on the same day for the same cause. That’s too many to overlook, too many to arrest, too many to play gottcha tear gas, too scary for security… simply too big to ignore.

“The Campaign against Climate Change, for example, is planning to intensify the resistance, including an effort, involving Parisians and climate protestors gathering from around the world, to bring the City of Lights to a standstill. Combined with similar actions around the world—perhaps led by student walkouts and hopefully with the support of union members, religious organizations and other members of civil society—they hope to demonstrate that business as usual cannot continue. Indeed, business as usual cannot continue when the environmental and climate systems upon which business, and indeed all earthy activity depends, catapults toward disaster,” Bron Taylor, professor of religion and nature, environmental ethics and environmental studies, University of Florida, Resistance, Do the Ends Justify the Means? Adbusters, Manifesto for World Revolution PT.2, Vol. 23, No.3, May/June 2015.

Likely, the fabulously successful 350.org’s 400,000 People’s Climate March in NYC in September 2014 serves as inspiration for expectations of corralling one billion people the same day the same hour even though not all together on the splendid city streets of Paris, but for certain, elsewhere at the precise hour. This is not to say the protest will not bring the City of Lights to a standstill. Here’s betting it does.

After all, who’d miss a trip to sublime Paris where Victor Hugo (aged 30) stood amongst the barricades at the Paris Uprising of 1832, and where the world’s most famous cemeteries hold remarkably famous ghosts of Chopin, Molière, Balzac, Delacroix, Pissarro, and Jim Morrison at Père Lachaise Cemetery, and where a distraught mother of three, Queen Marie Antoinette, lost her head, October 16, 1793 at 1:59 P.M. Her “let them eat cake” quip was likely a plant by revolutionaries (forerunners to the neocons) to incite the public against her. It worked.

At any rate, or at the very least, COP21 members will likely learn to empathize, with first-hand experience, the heated exchange experienced by France’s soldiers huddled within the walls of the Bastille (built 1370-83) on that frightful and fateful day of July 14th, 1789, when the hungry masses armed with pitchforks, stones, sticks, and muskets encircled the medieval fortress. Ninety-nine people died in the fighting, but shortly thereafter France was temporarily liberated from the shackles of absolute monarchy. Until the next one was re-established following the ousting of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, the Bourbon Dynasty was restored to the French throne, but no longer “absolute,” called the French Restoration as Louis XVIII (1814-1824) proudly wore the dusty crown (French history is so convoluted).

According to Professor Taylor (Adbusters): “Between 30 November and 11 December 2015, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Paris, France. Commonly know as COP21, the goal is a legally binding agreement by all the nations of the world to reduce and adapt to anthropogenic (human-caused) climate disruption. Given decades of inaction and mounting scientific evidence that global warming is threatening human societies and promising massive species extinctions, the stakes could not be higher. Time for effective action is fast running out.”

He goes on to say: “Since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, there is little reason for optimism. Every major meeting that was supposed to produce concrete results has failed.”

Blame for failure is squarely placed on the shoulders of politicians, oligarchs and corporate elites who are the key deciders and whose national and economic interests are antithetical to any kind of resolution. Indeed, the entire affair has a premature odor of King Louis XVI dismissing his popular minister of state Jacques Necker, who supported reforms as demanded by the Third Estate. Within days, the Bastille is stormed and the French Revolution starts.

Professor Taylor (Adbusters) queries whether the time has come for direct action resistance, harkening back to the days of Earth First! the inaugural avowedly radical environmental group some decades ago. Back in the day, activists got bloodied up quite a bit.

Whilst not advocating arson or outright-armed insurrection, the professor suggests a powerful show of force, meaning huge big-time numbers, can and should have a numbing affect, a knock on the head wakeup call, on COP21 participants. Look at what Martin Luther King accomplished with scary big numbers in the streets, a civil rights act. In the final analysis, numbers do count.

Indeed, the world will be watching. How could it not with tens of thousands rallying in individual cities around the world, hundreds of thousands in some major cities, and likely well over 500,000 on the streets of Paris, maybe 750,000 or more, and yes, bringing the City of Lights to a standstill.

Just imagine the TV images for the whole world to watch, leaning back in a worn easy chair, eating pizza, drinking beer, sipping soda, fattening up whilst amusingly watching the world’s youth, scraped knees, bloodied noses, broken bones, and bruised bodies, along with a few brave more-mature adults, and a couple of actors, turn COP21’s attending members upside down on their heads because, similar to King Louis XVI, they don’t get it!

WikiLeaks, Sony, and the Transparency Dilemma

Binoy Kampmark

A record, call it a database if you will, featuring 173,132 emails and 30,287 documents specifically relevant to Sony’s US subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). This is the stash that WikiLeaks has made available for consumers of information. The material was the subject of the infamous hack that Washington insists came from North Korea, a claim that is still vigorously disputed.

According to Julian Assange, “The archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation.” For the publisher, “It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geopolitical conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there.” According to his critics, it is merely a trove of gossip that did more to harm privacy than necessarily affirm any earth shattering developments.

Sony has taken to the bastions to protect what it regards as privacy violated. In words from a spokesperson to the LA Times, “The attackers used the dissemination of stolen information to try to harm SPE and its employees, and now WikiLeaks regrettably is assisting them in that effort.” Accordingly, the company “vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks’ assertion that this material belongs in the public domain and will continue to fight for the safety, security and privacy our company and its more than 6,000 employees.”

Sony’s retained lawyer Boies Schiller has aggressively attacked WikiLeaks. “Despite its purported commitment to free speech, WikiLeaks’ conduct rewards a totalitarian regime seeking to silence dissident speech, and imposes incentives on entities such as SPE who depend on trade secrets, confidential information and protection of intellectual property to exercise their First Amendment rights every day.” SPE are the self-appointed guardians of good secrecy over bad.

Journalists have certainly been trawling the material to see if there is anything of value. There is certainly much in terms of bird feed. Email correspondence between actress Natalie Portman and Sony Motion Pictures Group Chairwoman Amy Pascal is cited as showing the modest efforts of chat activism over last summer’s conflict between Hamas and Israel. Pascal had better things to do than dabble in Portman’s moral universe.

Privacy needs to be proportionate to the context of power that is wielded. Those, be they government officials with power of life and death over individuals, or entities with deep pockets and networks of influence, should be more transparent. Not so SPE, which sees its operations as necessarily clandestine in an aggressive world of trade secrets and policing.

The wisdom for the technocrats and bureaucrats is the reverse: the more complex society becomes, the more ill-informed the public must be for them to succeed. Platonic high castes come in to fill the void, offering the paternal guidance. Accept the secrecy directive – we know best.

It should come as little wonder, then, that Sony Pictures’ CEO Michael Lynton warms a seat on the board of trustees at the RAND corporation. The military research entity was ever so helpful in advising Sony on managing North Korea’s reaction to the film, The Interview. Regular invitations from RAND and hosting by Sony of RAND personnel, feature.

The degree of power determines how visible its holder is. That, at least, is the principle. Sony is not necessarily as important as Assange makes it out to be, but it would be a mistake to assume that the company wields no measure of influence in the corridors of power. Film and propaganda are intrinsic enterprises of the political mission. Corporations have the front seats at the negotiating tables of Congress and the trade missions.

Discussions and speculations about the role celluloid plays in affecting politics is undeniable. They tend to exist in the realm of the immeasurable, though their pull on the political process is hard to deny. British Prime Minister David Cameron, to take one example, did ponder the possible impact of Outlander on the independence reference in Scotland. Daft, yes, but still worthy to note in email traffic.

Given SPE’s role behind the production of Outlander, executive vice president Keith E. Weaver found himself discussing the agenda for a meeting with Cameron. (Outlander itself is based upon the novels by the same name by Diana Gabaldon, whose first novel was published 23 years ago.)

“From a Sony Pictures Entertainment perspective,” goes an email by Weaver, “your meeting with Prime Minister Cameron on Monday will likely focus on our overall investment in the UK – with special emphasis on the importance of OUTLANDER (i.e. particularly vis-à-vis the political issues in the UK as Scotland contemplates detachment this Fall).” Not earth shattering, and more cultural and geopolitical, but nonetheless significant as an agent of influence. After all, Cameron doesn’t mind traversing low brow cultures if a ballot is at stake.

Some material from the trove is more direct and pungent. The company, unsurprisingly, has been a keen student of anti-piracy measures. A document by a Sony employee notes the activities of the Anti-Piracy Group in the company, covering content security, technology, business intelligence, enforcement, PR and education, public policy and commercial policy.

He goes on to outline the strategies taken by the company regarding its business interests, using the language of universal relevance. What diminishes Sony’s profits, in other words, diminishes everybody’s. “Our PR approach with international markets is based locally rather than globally. Our goal is to help grass roots organizations tackle piracy in their own territories. We offer support, help and guidance to ensure that the issue of privacy is not about the impact of American business alone, but about the impact on everyone’s businesses.”

The stance is well noted in SPE’s interest regarding contributions to the re-election of Democratic Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo. The sticking point there was the limit on corporation donations of $5,000. In an email from Weaver to Pascal, “Thanks to Governor Cuomo, we have a great production incentive environment in NY and a strong piracy advocate that’s actually done more than talk about our problems.” To that end, efforts were being made to raise the contributions to “50K overall. This means I need to ask individual senior execs for support, which is not my favourite thing to do.”

Sony gives the impression of a wounded giant, with thousands of employees who have been supposedly assailed by the dark forces of hacking. When queried, its standard response is that one cannot question a company about material that has been pilfered. But the other side of the argument – that WikiLeaks has merely unearthed a gossip train rather than a useful information trove – is similarly mistaken. Secrecy is not an inviolable charter for the powerful.

Kenya’s Sorrow: the US Connection

Conn Hallinan

The systematic murder of 147 Kenyan university students by members of the Somalia-based Shabab organization on April 2 is raising an uncomfortable question: was the massacre an unintentional blowback from U.S. anti-terrorism strategy in the region? And were the killers forged by an ill-advised American supported Ethiopian invasion that transformed the radical Islamic organization from a marginal player into a major force?

As Kenyans were mourning their dead, opposition figures were openly opposing Kenya’s occupation of southern Somalia and bringing into question Washington’s blueprint for fighting terrorism: drones, Special Forces, and regional proxies.

Speaking in the port of Mombasa, former prime minister and opposition leader Raila Odinga called for the withdrawal of Kenyan troops, as did the Speaker of the National Assembly, Justin Muturi. Speaking at the funeral for one of the victims, Senator James Orengo said, “We know very well the consequences of a war of occupation. We must withdraw our troops from Somalia to end this.”

Absent from most of the mainstream American media was an examination of exactly what role the U.S. has played in Somalia over the past decade, and how Washington has helped create the current crisis.

A little history.

When military dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991, Somalia fell into the chaos of clan warfare, sparking off a U.S. military intervention in 1992. While billed as a “humanitarian intervention,” the Americans aggressively sought to suppress the plague of warlords that had turned the nation’s capital, Mogadishu, into a shattered ruin. But the expedition derailed in 1993 after 18 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somalis were killed in the infamous Black Hawk down incident. The U.S. withdrew the following year.

Which doesn’t mean the U.S. went away, or that it didn’t apply a new strategy for Africa, one designed by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. The genesis of that plan came from James Carafano, a West Point graduate and head of Heritage’s foreign policy section, and Nile Gardiner, director of the think tank’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, who drew up a document entitled “U.S. Military Assistance for Africa: A Better Solution.”

The strategy called for the creation of a U.S. military command for Africa, a focus on terrorism, and direct military intervention using air power and naval forces. The authors argue against putting U.S. troops on the ground, instead enlisting those of allies. Those recommendations were adopted by the Bush administration—and later the Obama administration—lock, stock and barrel. African Command (Africom) was created, as along with the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative, to train troops in 16 nations that border the vast area embraced by world’s biggest desert.

While targeting “terrorism” is the strategy’s public face, Carafano and Gardiner argue that U.S. “vital interests” are involved on the continent, “With its vast natural and mineral resources,” Africa, say the two scholars, “remains important to the West, as it has been for hundreds of years, and its geostrategic significance is likely to rise in the 21^stcentury.”

A major rationale behind the strategy is to checkmate Chinese influence in Africa and short circuit Beijing’s search for raw materials. China gets about one third of its oil from Africa, plus platinum, copper, timber and iron ore.

The new policy made its début in Somalia when the U.S. actively aided Ethiopia’s 2006 invasion to support the unpopular and isolated the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFGS). The invasion overthrew the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which had brought Somalia its first stable government in 15 years.

The ICU was a coalition of Islamic organizations that included a small group calling itself the “Shabab,” Arabic for “Youth.” While the ICU was Islamic in ideology, it was more moderate than the Shabab. The ICU also had more support than the TFGS, because it had routed the clan warlords who had dominated Somalia since 1991.

However, those warlords—united in an organization incongruously called the “Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-terrorism”—were strongly supported by the U.S. CIA. Claiming that the ICU was linked to Al-Qaeda, Washington leaned on Ethiopia to invade. When they did, U.S. Special Forces based in Djibouti accompanied them and gave them intelligence and equipment. The U.S. Navy shelled a town in Southern Somalia, killing, according to Oxfam and the United Nations, 70 civilians and wounding more than a 100. While the New York Times claims that U.S. support for the invasion was “covert,” it was anything but.

The powerful Ethiopian Army crushed the ICU, but the brutality of the occupation that followed fired up a resistance movement led by the Shabab. Given that Ethiopians and Somalians are traditional enemies, and that the former is largely Christian, the latter overwhelmingly Muslim, one wonders what Washington was thinking when it backed the invasion.

It was the 2006 Ethiopian-U.S. invasion that turned the Shabab into a major player, just as the invasion of Iraq fueled the creation of, first, Al-Qaeda and then the Islamic State of the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria.

The Shabab quickly took over most of southern and central Somalia, although their brutality and strict interpretation of Islam eventually alienated them from much of the population. However, the one thing that Somalians could unite around was expelling the Ethiopians, and after two years of ambushes, roadside bombs and suicide vests, Addis Abba withdrew most its forces.

At the time, the Shabab was not affiliated with Al-Qaeda—it did not do so until 2012—and its concerns were mainly local. The organization was more like the Taliban in Afghanistan, albeit with a more extreme interpretation of Islam. But that distinction was lost on Washington, which pressed the African Union (AU) to send in troops. In 2007, the AU, with UN compliance, established the African Union Mission in Somalia (AUMIS) and deployed 9,000 troops to support the TFGS.

It is no coincidence that the bulk of AUMIS troops are from Uganda and Burundi, two countries that receive U.S. aid, as does Ethiopia. From 2009, U.S. military aid to Addis Abada jumped 256 percent.

The U.S. also footed the bill for private mercenary organizations, like Bancroft Global Development, to train Ugandan and Burundi troops in counter-insurgency warfare. The fact that Bancroft is a private company shields it from public scrutiny, including by the U.S. Congress.

While the initial AUMIS deployment was not very successful, it finally drove the Shabab out of the nation’s capital, Mogadishu, although that was, in part, a reflection of the Shabab’s loss of support among Somalians, alienated by the group’s brutality. Eventually the organization was driven out of all Somalia’s major cities. But even with numerous setbacks, a recent attack in the capital that killed 15 people and wounded 20 demonstrates the Shabab still has a bite.

Kenya—another recipient of U.S. aid whose soldiers are trained by U.S. Special Forces—invaded southern Somalia in 2011 and seized the Shabab-controlled port of Kismayo . While publically the reason for the invasion was Shabab kidnappings of Kenyans and tourists, apparently Nairobi has long had its eye on the port of Lamu as part of a development plan for the northeast part of the country.

Again, the Shabab was scattered rather easily, but only then to resort of guerilla war and attacks on civilian targets in Kenya and Uganda. In 2011, it set off two bombs in Kampala, Uganda, that killed 76 people. In 2013, it killed 67 people in a shopping mall in Nairobi and then topped that with the massacre at Garissa University.

The response of the Kenyan government has been targeting ethnic Somalians living on the Kenyan side of the border with Somalia, threatening to close down one of the largest refugee camps in the world, and squeezing the country’s Muslim. Those are actions liable to alienate Kenya’s large ethnic Somali population and its minority Muslim communities. “Shabab needs to create an atmosphere of fear and suspicion to gain a foothold,” security analyst Mohamed Mubarak told the Financial Times,” “And they may succeed if the Kenyan response is not thought out carefully.”

The blowback attacks have soured most Kenyans on the invasion. A poll taken last fall, six months before the Garissa University bloodbath, found that a majority of the country wants its troops out, and two in three Kenyans thought there would be more terrorist attacks.

What seems clear is that the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for using military force in Africa has been a disaster. It has destabilized Somalia by overthrowing the ICU, spreading the war to Uganda and Kenya. It turned Libya into a failed state, which in turn unleashed a flood of arms that have helped fuel civil wars in Mali, Niger and the Central African Republic.

The widespread use of drones may kill some terrorist leaders, along with large numbers of civilians, and, rather than destroying organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Shabab, it ends up atomizing them into groups that are smaller and harder to track, but no less capable of committing mass murder. Indeed, for organizations like the Shabab and Al-Qaeda, drones have proved to be the 21^st century’s most effective recruiting sergeants.

Military occupation sows the seeds of its own destruction, and, while using drones and proxies may keep the American death count down, that strategy ultimately creates more enemies than it eliminates.

The solution in Somalia (and Syria and Yemen) is political, not military. According to Bronwyn Bruton of the Council On Foreign Relations, the Shabab is “not a monolithic movement,” but includes leaders from the old Islamic Courts Union that the U.S. and it allies so disastrously overthrew. “Some of these leaders are extremists, and the idea of talking with them is unappetizing. But the United States can and should negotiate with them directly.”

In short, talking beats bombing and works better.

Dealing With Militants: The Case of Kenya and the Phillipines

Satwinder Rehal

Recent events in two different corners of the world have brought out contrasting outcomes on issues of internal security in the face of terrorist threats in nations of the Global South. Fresh in the news is the recent attack at Garissa University College in Kenya by elements of Somali based and al Qaeda linked militant group, al-Shabab, where 147 people, mostly students from the institution, were brutally killed in the early morning raid, leaving a nation dumbfounded yet again after another such attack in September 2013 at the upmarket Westgate Mall in Nairobi which recorded 67 innocent casualties.

In South East Asia, the Philippine media is rife with debate on the outcome of a botched covert police operation in the country’s restive island of Mindanao that left 67 people dead, 44 of whom were members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), an elite police commando group. Operation Exodus was mooted as a covert mission to capture known terrorists Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan and his accomplice, Abdul Basit Usman. Blacklisted by the FBI as a wanted Jihadist connected with the 2002 Bali, Indonesia bombing, Marwan was the alleged leader of the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, the central command of the Al Qaeda linked and Indonesia based Jemaah Islamiyah. He had a bounty of US$5 million and thus the priority to neutralize Marwan in his hideout in Mamasapano, a quit village in far flung Maguindanao located in the southern part of the Philippine archipelago.

On 25th January, 2015, the Operation was rolled out that saw the eventual killing of Marwan. However on their retreat back from the site, the SAF commandos encountered guerrillas belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) which saw 44 members of the PNP-SAF members lying dead after the encounter. This was not the first operation in pursuit of Marwan. Nine such operations had been attempted since 2010. Five were aborted while the other 4 had failed.

On her part, Kenya’s involvement in Somalia is marked by “Operation Linda Nchi” (Operation Protect the Country] that was launched on 11th October, 2011. This is the largest military operation since independence in 1963 meant to sweep through areas of Southern Somalia controlled by the extremist Islamist group. On a mission to protect the nation's "territorial integrity,"  Kenyan forces are attempting to secure the northern border with Somalia, an unstable region where the killing and abduction of Western tourists, aid workers, and local Kenyans has made news. The escalation in murder of Westerners has been an important catalyst, but not the sole reason for this armed intervention.

In November of 2011, the Kenyan government agreed to have its forces re-hatted under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and were therefore formally integrated into AMISOM on February 22, 2012 after the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2036. Thus in efforts to keep her borders safe from extremists, Kenya got sucked into the ‘Somalia problem.’ In retaliation to Kenya’s troop presence in Somalia, the militant al-Shabaab vowed to disrupt the peace in Kenya. In November 2014, elements of the al-Shabaab ambushed a bus in Mandera, coincidentally near the Somali Border with Kenya, and killed 28 non-Muslim passengers. This was followed by another attack on a group of quarry workers in the village of Kormey, near the Somali border, killing 68 of them. Al-Shabaab said the attack was retaliation for mosque raids that Kenyan security forces carried out in November of 2014 to weed out extremists.

The Garissa University College attack is the biggest assault by the militants so far which has raised public concern over the security apparatus of the country in protecting the citizenry. Indeed Richard Downie, a fellow and deputy director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. warned in his 2011 article entitled ‘Kenya’s Military Operation in Somalia’ of civilian casualties likely to intensify Somali hostility to Kenya. Recent events in both Kenya and the Philippines in the quest to contain militants within its borders have revealed some uncanny shared experiences.  

Like Somalia, Mindanao in the Philippines is a restive predominantly Muslim enclave and a terrorist haven. According to a 2008 US State Department report, Philippine government has little control in the Sulu archipelago and the island of Mindanao. The government has also had trouble combating resentment among the local Muslim minority regarding policies of the central government. As a result, the Philippines is home to a number of militant groups, of which the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army (NPA), and Jemaah Islamiyah are listed as terrorist organizations that are active in the Philippines. Adding Khalifa Islamiya Mindanao to this list may not come as a surprise.

The Philippine government has taken significant steps to combat terrorism, but terrorists continue to use the country as a base to organize, raise funds, train, and operate. The Philippines is therefore under perpetual threat from Islamic radicals. The central government in Manila is in the quest to end hostilities with the major rebel group in Mindanao, the MILF, starting with the signing of ceasefire guidelines to prevent any truce violations in March 2013. In effect, both sides agreed to a joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) to prevent any truce violations that could endanger an on-going peace process effort dubbed the ‘Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro’ that will see and the Moro rebels ending their demand for a separate state in exchange for broader autonomy in Mindanao. But the Philippine government still has to deal with other militant groups hell bent in disrupting any peaceful effort on the ‘Mindanao Question.’

This is no different to what Kenya is experiencing with the Somali based militant groups across the administrative border. Historically, the central government has had to deal with secessionists who sought to sway the predominantly Somali North Eastern Province towards the cause for a ‘Greater Somalia.’ This attempt lead to the 5 year ‘Shifta War’ (1963–1967) that culminated in a ceasefire agreement signed by then Prime Minister of the Somali Republic, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal. However, the violence in Kenya deteriorated into disorganised banditry, with occasional episodes of secessionist agitation, for the next several decades. Today, the vast semi-arid area is a haven for al-Shabaab militants and other bandits.

Like the Philippines, Kenya does not have the capability, military or financial, to be sustain its efforts securing its porous borders and citizen security adequately. Peace efforts are the available options for both countries. For the Philippines, a negotiated ceasefire agreement and efforts towards autonomy on the part of the Moro is on the table, while for Kenya, calls are made to recall its soldiers from their peacekeeping duty under AMISOM. However, the cases in Mamasapano and Garissa have raised questions on such peaceful efforts.

Government critics in the Philippines are arguing for the government to stop negotiations with the MILF by passing the Bagsamoro Basic Law (BBL), while in Kenya, calls are being made to close the Daadab refugee camp in order to stem entry of insurgents under the guise of being refugees from across the border or turning the camp into a militant recruiting base. At the same time, questions have been raised in both country contexts on the competency of security organs in coordinating and checking militant attacks. The brutal manner in which the 44 SAF members were killed coupled with emerging allegations of lack of coordination on the part of the Philippine central government not only to retrieve the trapped soldiers, but also tin he lack of coordination between the police and the army on the ground, left a country shell-shocked and in need for answers. This event has in turn dented the President’s image with poll surveys showing trust and approval ratings at the lowest since the President’s assumption to office.

President Aquino has been on the receiving end ever since the Mamasapano incident; from his inability to receive the flown remains of the commandos in Manila, to alleged lack leadership on the matter and instead laying blame on now sacked Special Action Force (SAF) director Getulio Napeñas for the bloody results of the Mamasapano clash. President Aquino indeed took time to meet with individual families on two occasions and to oversee government assistance to the bereaved families but where some emerging reports indicate his inability to amicably address concerns of some family members who sought immediate answers from the President about the botched mission.

On this part too, President Kenyatta’s ratings have not been rosy. Polls show that the President’s approval rating dropped by 10 per cent following the Garissa University College massacre attributed in large to his administration's inability to adequately respond to the campus attack. Like the sacking of SAF director Getulio Napeñas for Mamasapano mishap, President Kenyatta had seen the resignation of Police Chief David Kimaiyo and that of his Interior Cabinet Secretary following the quarry attack in Kormey well before the attack in Garissa happened. The latest incident in Garissa has put the spotlight on Kenya’s internal security system again under the directorship of new Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and the new Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett and President Kenyatta as Commander in Chief.

President Kenyatta faced criticism on his inability to make time to visit the grieving relatives and condole with them or even pay a visit to the hospital where some of the injured are still recuperating. Stung by such harsh criticism, President Uhuru Kenyatta wrote personal letters to relatives and guardians of students who died following terror attack at Garissa University College. Some social media critics however note that the President needed to do more in his letter and take sole responsibility for the tragedy. President Kenyatta is indeed under undue pressure to act decisively against al-Shabaab more so in what the public perceives as his government’s failure to stem the growing violence by militants. Hundreds of miles of border with Somalia remain largely unpatrolled, and rampant corruption has allowed militants to slip across with ease. Claims are emerging of failure to act on prior warnings issued by the United Kingdom and Australian governments on the impending Garissa attack. In the Philippines, the role of the US has been acknowledged in Operation Exodus in the form of intelligence support.

In declaring a national day of mourning, both leaders in their respective contexts vowed enhanced security and closure on the matter. On his part, President Aquino pledged support to families of the fallen officers and a thorough independent investigation on the matter, while President Kenyatta declared that extremists would not succeed in creating an Islamic caliphate. The bottom line of these two cases is the question on the ability of countries in the Global South to adequately counter threats to their internal security amidst growing terrorism.

Despite support in the form of intelligence and technical support from allied nations in the Global North, led in large by the Americans and British, lack of coordination between the security organs (military and police), blunders in security operations, and a weak political bureaucracy are emerging challenges for countries in the Global South that are not impervious to various forms of militant insurgencies. Lessons need to be taken from both Mamasapano and Garissa, and add the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria, for authorities in countries of the Global South to amicably counter security threats posed in large by militant terrorists. Is the way forward then for enhanced regional counter terrorism cooperative strategies?

Radicalization Needs Ideology--Not Walls

Collins Wanderi

When reports emerged that Abdirahim Mohamed Abdullahi, a trained lawyer and son of a Government Chief in Mandera County was the mastermind of the brutal terrorist attack which killed 148 students at Garissa University College on 2nd April, 2015, the whole country was shocked. The conscience of the nation was pricked and a subtle but chilling message sent; that nobody irrespective of their social status or future potential is immune to radicalization and extremist militant ideology. 

The spread of extremist militant ideology among well educated, socially advantaged youth in Kenya should however not shock anybody. It is the product of our moral and political philosophy. Kenya is largely an unequal society where the political and corporate elite as well as some Christian clerics have no qualms displaying wanton opulence and urban machismo on the faces of poor people; hungry babies, the old and sick and jobless youth. This inequality and rampant abuse of state power by the politicians create a fertile ground for any group intent on advancing an alternative utopian ideology.

History shows that the easiest way to advance an idealistic philosophy is through religion; a faith which provides substance to the ideology. Religion gives faith to destitute souls; a belief in higher power and hope for a positive empirical change. Islam offers such a substratum more than any other religion in the world. One of Islam’s core doctrines is that there is more to human life than accumulation of material wealth; big houses, fancy cars and exclusive shopping malls. It is this doctrine that captures the imagination of destitute youth leading to radicalization. It is no wonder that at one point in history the murderous Mungiki gang adopted Islam and its leadership led a public mass conversion of its adherents from Kikuyu Traditional Religion into Islam. Islam is that appealing to the down-trodden, marginalised and historically disadvantaged groups and communities. The ideologues propagating violent extremism know this all too well.

But Kenya’s political, corporate and religious elite hardly get the message. Although Kenya has borne the greatest brunt of Al-Shabaab’s brutal attacks in East Africa, on 2nd March 2015, young Kenyans openly expressed support for the militants after Nation FM posted in social media that the extremist group was planning to blow up the House of Parliament. Shockingly, Kenyans in social media unanimously welcomed such an attack on Parliament; the ultimate symbol of Kenya’s sovereignty as long as it was done when all the MPs are inside the House!  This should have shaken the political class to the core but it did not even elicit a whimper from the leadership of Parliament or any of the National Security agencies. This arrogance by the ruling elite is a soft underbelly which Al-Shabaab is likely to continue exploiting.

Arrogance and mechanical thinking will not counter extremism. Building a wall along the Kenya-Somali is ridiculous and unsustainable in the long run. Radicalization is an ideology. The world is yet to invent a missile that can defeat an ideal. Mechanical thinking and physical barriers too have never succeeded in defeating an ideal. If they could, the Berlin Wall would still be standing today.

To counter violent extremism, Kenya requires a paradigm shift; the conception of a new, superior and futuristic moral and political philosophy which promises hope to the poor and the youth of this nation. Such a political philosophy should frown at excessive greed and reckless display of affluence in a country where the majority live below the poverty line. But this will only happen if the political, corporate and religious elite open their eyes, ears and hearts to the majority poor; listen to the cries of hungry babies, the pain of sick old men and women and the angst of jobless youth. Indifference and labelling people who are suffering and perceive themselves as neglected by government and society at large will only drive them further into poverty and destitution and provide a fertile ground for more radicalization and militant extremism.

Europe: The Center of Philosophy?

Okwaro Oscar Plato

There exist many authoritative philosophers/thinkers today: Simon Critchley in England, Gianni Vattimo in Italy, Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky in the United States, Victoria Camps in Spain, Jean-Luc Nancy in France, Chantal Mouffe in Belgium, Peter Sloterdijk in Germany and in Slovenia, Slavoj Zizek, not to mention others working in Brazil, Australia and China.

Imagine, what immediately strikes the reader(s) on seeing the above opening paragraph is the unabashedly European character and disposition of the thing the author calls "philosophy today" - thus laying a claim on both the subject and time that is peculiar and in fact an exclusive property of Europe. However, one would ask: what about non-European, can they think too?

Even Judith Butler who is cited as an example from the United States is decidedly a product of European philosophical genealogy, thinking somewhere between Derrida and Foucault, brought to bear on our understanding of gender and sexuality.

To be sure, China and Brazil (and Australia, which is also a European extension) are cited as the location of other philosophers worthy of the designation, but none of them evidently merit a specific name to be sitting next to these eminent European philosophers.

The question of course is not the globality of philosophical visions that all these prominent European (and by extension certain American) philosophers indeed share and from which people from the deepest corners of Africa to the remotest villages of India, China, Latin America, and the Arab and Muslim world ("deep and far," that is, from a fictive European centre) can indeed learn and better understand their lives.

That goes without saying, for without that confidence and self-consciousness, these philosophers and the philosophical traditions they represent can barely lay any universal claim on our epistemic credulities, nor would they be able to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard and write a sentence.

These are indeed not only eminent philosophers, but the philosophy they practice has the globality of certain degrees of self-conscious confidence without which no thinking can presume universality.

The question is rather something else: What about other thinkers who operate outside this European philosophical pedigree, whether they practice their thinking in the European languages they have colonially inherited or in their mother tongue - in Asia, Africa, Latin America.

These are thinkers that have earned the dignity of a name, and perhaps the pedigree of a "public intellectual" not too dissimilar to Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Michel Foucault that in the op-ed that was popularly published in New York Times, Time, Guardian among other Western prints, are offered as predecessors of Slavoj Zizek(Slovenian philosopher).What about thinkers outside the purview of these European philosophers; how are we to name, designate, honour and learn from them with the epithet of "public intellectual" in the age of globalised media?

Do the constellation of thinkers from South Asia, exemplified by leading figures like Ashis Nandy, Gayatri Spivak, Ranajit Guha, Partha Chatterjee, Sudipta Kaviraj, Homi Bhabha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, or Akeel Bilgrami, come together to form a nucleus of thinking that is conscious of itself? Would that constellation perhaps merit the word "thinking" in a manner that would qualify one of them - as a South Asian - to the term "philosopher" or "public intellectuals"?

Are they "South Asian thinkers" or "thinkers" the way these European thinkers are? Why is it that if Shakira sneezes it is "music" (and I am quite sure the great genius even sneezed melodiously) but the most sophisticated Indian music ragas are the subject of "ethnomusicology"?
Is that "ethnos" not also applicable to the philosophical thinking that Indian philosophers practice - so much so that their thinking is more the subject of Western European and North American anthropological fieldwork and investigation?

We can turn around and look at Africa. What about thinkers like Henry Odera Oruka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazrui, Chinua Achebe, Taban Lo Liyong, Achille Mbembe, Okot p'Bitek: Would they qualify for the term "philosopher" or "public intellectuals" perhaps, or is that also "ethnophilosophy"?

Why is European philosophy "philosophy" but African philosophy “ethnophilosophy,” the way Indian music is ethnomusic - an ethnographic logic that is based on the very same reasoning that if you were to go to the New York Museum of Natural History , you only see animals and non-white peoples and their cultures featured inside glass cages, but no cage is in sight for white people and their cultures - they just get to stroll through the isles and enjoy the power and ability of looking at taxidermic Yaks, cave dwellers, elephants, Eskimos, buffalo, Native Americans, etc, all in a single winding row.

The same ethnographic gaze is evident in the encounter with the intellectual disposition of the Arab or Muslim world: Azmi Bishara, Abdallah Laroui, Sadeq Jalal Al-Azm, Fawwaz Traboulsi, Michel Kilo, Abdolkarim Soroush. The list of prominent thinkers and is endless. In Japan, Kojin Karatani, in Cuba, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, or even in the United States people like Cornel West, whose thinking is not entirely in the European continental tradition - what about them? Where do they fit in? Can they think? Is what they do also thinking, philosophical, pertinent, perhaps, or is that also suitable for ethnographic examinations?

The question of Eurocentricism is now entirely blase. Of course Europeans are Eurocentric and see the world from their vantage point, and why should they not? They are the inheritors of multiple (now defunct) empires and they still carry within them the phantom hubris of those empires and they think their particular philosophy is "philosophy" and their particular thinking is "thinking"  and everything else is - as the great European philosopher Immanuel Levinas was wont of saying - "dancing."

The question is rather the manner in which non-European thinking can reach self-consciousness and evident universality, not at the cost of whatever European philosophers may think of themselves for the world at large, but for the purpose of offering alternative (complementary or contradictory) visions of reality more rooted in the lived experiences of people in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America - counties and climes once under the spell of the thing that calls itself "the West" but happily no more.

The trajectory of contemporary thinking around the globe is not spontaneously conditioned in our own immediate time and disparate locations, but has a much deeper and wider spectrum that goes back to earlier generations of thinkers ranging from José Marti to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, to Aime Cesaire, W.E.B. DuBois, Liang Qichao, Frantz Fanon, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, etc.So the question remains, why not the dignity of "philosophy" and whence the anthropological curiosity of "ethnophilosophy"?

Let's seek the answer from Europe itself - but from the subaltern of Europe. It is precisely that self-confidence, that self-consciousness, that audacity to think yourself the agent of history that enables a thinker to think his particular thinking is "Thinking" in universal terms, and his philosophy "Philosophy" and his city square "The Public Space", and thus globally recognised Public Intellectual.

There is thus a direct and unmitigated structural link between an empire, or an imperial frame of reference, and the presumed universality of a thinker thinking in the bosoms of that empire. Just like the rest, Europeans are perfectly entitled to their own self-centrism.

The imperial hubris that once enabled that Eurocentricism and still produces the infomercials of the sort we read in Western media are the phantom memories of the time that "the West" had assured confidence and a sense of its own universalism and globality, or as Kant put it in his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), "to a type of civilisation for whose coming he is working."

But that globality is no more - people from every clime and continent are up and about claiming their own cosmopolitan worldliness and with it their innate ability to think beyond the confinements of that Eurocentricism, which to be sure is still entitled to its phantom pleasures of thinking itself the centre of the universe. The Kantian superimposed "similar conditions" are now emerging in multiple cites of the liberated humanity.

The world at large, and the African world in particular, is going through world historic changes - these changes have produced thinkers, poets, artists, and public intellectuals at the centre of their moral and political imagination - all thinking and acting in terms at once domestic to their immediate geography and yet global in its consequences.

Compared to those liberating tsunamis now turning the world upside down, cliche-ridden assumption about Europe and its increasingly provincialised philosophical pedigree is a tempest in the cup. Reduced to its own fair share of the humanity at large, and like all other continents and climes, Europe has much to teach the world, but now on a far more leveled and democratic playing field, where its philosophy is European philosophy not "Philosophy," its music European music not "Music," and no infomercial would be necessary to sell its public intellectuals as "Public Intellectuals."

Xenophobia: A Blight On South Africa

H.E. Jacob Zuma

We have witnessed shocking and unacceptable incidents of violence directed at foreign nationals in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, which has now spread to some parts of Gauteng. Similar incidents had taken place in Soweto in January.

No amount of frustration or anger can ever justify the attacks on foreign nationals and the looting of their shops. We condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms. The attacks violate all the values that South Africa embodies, especially the respect for human life, human rights, human dignity and Ubuntu. Our country stands firmly against all intolerances such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism.

We extend our condolences to the families of all who have lost their lives and wish the injured a speedy recovery.  We appeal for calm, an end to the violence and restraint. Criminal elements should not be allowed to take advantage of the concerns of citizens to sow mayhem and destruction. Any problems or issues of concern to South African citizens must be resolved peacefully and through dialogue.

The police have been directed to work round the clock to protect both foreign nationals and citizens and to arrest looters and those committing acts of violence. We urge communities to assist the police by providing information on the incidents that have taken place in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice. We thank religious leaders, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders who are providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced people.

While we strongly condemn the attacks, we are aware of, and are sympathetic to some of the issues that have been raised by affected South African citizens. We reiterate our view that South Africans are generally not xenophobic. If they were, we would not have such a high number of foreign nationals who have been successfully integrated into communities all over our country, in towns, cities and villages.

There are socio-economic issues that have been raised which are being attended to. These include complaints about illegal and undocumented immigrants in the country, the increase in the number of shops or small businesses that have been taken over by foreign nationals and also perceptions that foreign nationals commit or perpetrate crime.

We wish to emphasise that while some foreign nationals have been arrested for various crimes, it is misleading and wrong to label or regard all foreign nationals as being involved in crime in the country. In addition, not all foreign nationals who reside in our country are here illegally.  Many are in the country legally and contribute to the economy and social development of the country. Many bring skills that are scarce that help us to develop the economy and are most welcome to live our country.

Others came to South Africa as refugees having run away from conflict or wars in their countries of origin, in the same way that many South Africans left this country at some point and lived in other countries in the continent and beyond. We were treated with generosity, dignity and respect by our brothers and sisters from the rest of the continent. We will never forget that hospitality and solidarity. The support of the Frontline states in Southern Africa and that of the Organisation for African Unity was critical to the achievement of the freedom and democracy we are enjoying today.

In this regard, Government will continue to play its role and fulfil our responsibilities and obligations as members of the African Union and the United Nations. Refugees and asylum seekers will be accorded support in line with international law and protocols, with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We appeal to our people to support and protect refugees and asylum seekers.

I deployed the Ministers of Police, State Security and Home Affairs to work with the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial government to quell the violence and bring the situation to normality. They have done well but the problem requires a much more comprehensive and sustainable long-term intervention. I have therefore assigned the entire Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster to work on this issue intensively, joined by the Ministers of Social Development, Trade and Industry and Small Business Development.

The security cluster and economic departments had already begun working on this matter, following the Soweto incidents in January. I have now directed them to work faster and to engage affected communities, organisations representing foreign nationals, business, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to attend to the concerns raised on both sides. The objective is to avoid future incidents by improving relations and promoting peaceful co-existence between citizens and our brothers and sisters within the continent, as well as other foreign nationals.

We will also be seeking cooperation and support from the affected foreign missions based in South Africa. The Minister of Home Affairs met with African Heads of Missions. The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation will take these discussions forward as well in her engagements with the African Heads of Missions as well. We request Members of Parliament to work with us as well, in their constituencies, to improve relations and promote peaceful co-existence between our people and foreign nationals.

Measures are also being put in place to improve controls and better regulate immigration into our country. In this regard, Government is making progress with establishing the Border Management Agency, which will manage the border environment and all ports of entry. The capacity of the Department of Home Affairs is being improved to enable it to better handle migration issues especially at border posts. In this regard, the SANDF will transfer three hundred and fifty soldiers to Home Affairs, to work as immigration officers at border posts. Furthermore, the SANDF has deployed military personnel along the border line in seven provinces to prevent border crime activities and illegal border crossings. 

Fellow South Africans, We urge all of you to exercise calm and restraint. We also urge those who use social media, to refrain from fanning the flames of violence on Facebook, twitter and other platforms. We all have a responsibility to promote social cohesion, peaceful co-existence and good relations in the country.

Foreign nationals help us to develop a cosmopolitan atmosphere and we welcome their presence. We also want to see an increase in tourism figures from countries in the continent and to share a lot of business opportunities as part of promoting sustainable economic development in the continent.

The upcoming Africa Month celebrations in May provide an opportunity for us to further promote our African identity and good relations with our brothers and sisters from the continent. We look forward to the celebrations of Africa Day in every province on the 25th of May.

Let us work together to provide support to all foreign nationals who have been affected by this violence. The Freedom Charter says there shall be peace and friendship. Our responsibility is to promote this legacy of peaceful coexistence and take it forward. We also reaffirm our responsibility to contribute to a better Africa and a better world.  Let us work together to make our country a better place for all who live in it.

Xenophobia: Time Africans Shared Economic Dreams

James Shikwati

The ongoing xenophobia attacks in South Africa are a reminder to each African to rethink what drives continental dreams. The attacks against migrant workers are not a South African problem but an African problem. This is exhibited by the radicalization of youth into militia and hundreds of fleeing Africans that perish across the Mediterranean Sea.

African unity is threatened because the continent’s oneness is built on the beauty of history but less on concrete economic reality. African leaders proclaim “one Africa” for the beauty and protection it affords them in international forums but they are not keen to grow a unified economic dream for people on the continent.

Horrifying scenes of Africans butchering and burning fellow continental citizens simply because they compete over job and economic opportunities must force a rethink of priorities. Is an African, African simply because he/she is black and was born on the continent? The xenophobia playing out in South Africa is but a tip of an iceberg; a consequence of Africans sold on beauty of continent and left out on juicy economic dream. Can the continent learn from history and forge way forward?

Historical legacies should offer proactive investment in a people to effectively participate in economic platforms. Unfortunately political leadership thrives on negative energy generated by such legacies.  The tragedy unfolding in South Africa is a pointer to the weakness of having a developed country but excluded populations. Pressure builds when populations remain mere spectators of celebrated Growth Domestic Product performance that fails to meet their individual aspirations. 

In “The Penguin Atlas of African History,” Colin McEvedy notes: “In the 1820s the mounting population pressure in black half of South Africa caused an outburst of political violence, the mfecane or ‘time of troubles’. In the eye of the storm was the dreaded Shaka.” Shaka (Ushaga) triggered massive movements of communities to as far as East Africa (the Ngoni). A close study of migratory patterns of ethnic groups in Africa is attributable to some “pressure” mostly economic and occasionally diseases. Africans, especially political and thought leaders must get their heads out of romanticized sands of the past and confront reality – it’s the economy, stupid!

The 1.2 billion African market need to be presented into digestible opportunities for African youth to participate and generate hope. Initiatives such as the Maputo Development Corridor and the Lamu Port – South Sudan-Ethiopia – Transport (LAPSSET) for example, should have a proactive engagement with youth to enable them grow a seed of hope on upcoming opportunities. Discussions on open African airspace should be broken down into how they will translate into increased job opportunities in the aviation sector, hospitality industry and intra African movement of goods.  Africans of goodwill should initiate “know Africa” campaigns, where African youth exchange programs facilitate families hosting foreigners across the continent. The continental unity narrative must go to the next step – economic opportunities; not unity by virtue of color of skin.

The irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries is fueled by African nation-states approach to lock populations in pockets of poverty for political expediency. If Africa has to grow its economic pie, democracy should cease being an avenue to nurture “herd mentality.” To be “African,” one must pass the test of having an “African Software” the Ubuntu. The plight of South African youth calls for a recalibration of economic order to spur growth in industry and work ethic on the continent. An African shared dream of economic prosperity part of the continent. I express my deepest condolences to all affected by the xenophobia in South Africa.