Opinion
Regulars
by Cameron Dudo Cameron Duodu Under the Neem Tree
Africans at risk in Libya
NATO must, without fail, and immediately, save the black Africans threatened with death in Libya.
N
in March 2011, told harrowing stories, even then, of how difficult life had become for them – when Tripoli had not seen the sort of fighting that Benghazi and other towns had experienced. They said they had left about 10,000 of their compatriots behind, of whose fate they weren’t aware. The stories of brutality against blacks that have appeared on
D
Eh? Why are we still here?
Is the US government looking into the activities of people like Harold Camping, who predicted that the world would end on 21 May 2011?
o one in his right mind would be surprised that the new rulers of Libya’s streets want id you hear the news f om the physics Muammar Al Gathafi’s army. The resistance put up in Tripoli by pro-Gathafi snipers was intense enough to frighten the anti-Gathafi forces into imposing summary justice on suspected would-be murderers.
A group of 500 Ghanaians who managed to return home back mysteries surrounding the source of “dark
to mete out justice to remnants of Col. research laboratory, CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Re earch), in Geneva, Switzerland, the other day? Physicists carrying out research at the “Large Hadron Collider” there reported that they were close to uncovering the
matter” – a mysterious component of the universe whose pres- ence is predicted by theoretical physics but which has, hitherto, been undetectable by experiment. Don’t worry – I am not about to take you into areas of study
Channel 4 News in London and on CNN, as well as in The Inde- pendent newspaper in London, make it imperative for the NATO leaders to impress upon the National Transitional Council (NTC) urgently that the suppression of racist hysteria against blacks must count as one of their topmost priorities. Of course, it is understandable that the NTC should be pre- occupied with consolidating its administration. But people killed by racists, in the meantime, cannot be returned to life. So, if the NTC and its allies do not do something extraordinary to save innocent black workers, they will do permanent damage to Libyan diplomacy in Africa.
which baffle even those who understand what Einstein meant when he said that “space is curved”. Space is curved, so what? Does that make it easier to understand how an equation that merely says “energy is mass squared by the speed of light”, led to the creation of nuclear weapons that can destroy the world? No, my interest in “dark matter” is very practical indeed. You
see, we are told that all “matter” in the universe – including you and I – has its counterpart “dark matter”. And if the two ever meet, they annihilate each other! Eh? Yes! The idea that someone exactly like you in a parallel world is lurking in the ether somewhere, waiting to materialise and annihilate you, and you him – if ever scientific conditions alloIw you two to “me t” – i so disorienta ing tha we must seal
with them to adopt UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which formed the basis of the NATO intervention in Libya. But already, South Africa and many other African Union (AU) members have been dragging their feet about recognising the NTC. The Nigerian and Ghanaian governments on the other hand, which have recognised the NTC, have come under intense criti- cism for jumping the gun. This is because many people think that f they had waited, they could have used the dipl matic weapon
88 76 October 2011 New African | July 2011 | Ne |w African
call on the NATO leaders to remember that South Africa voted up in a bunker beneath the Swiss Alps, till kingdom come, the guys trying to pry dark matter out of a “collider”.
I mean, why should visible matter and dark matter annihi- late each other? Why not get your dark matter counterpart to walk hand in hand with you, exchanging anecdotes, instead? “Hey, do you remember…” It should be such a nice experience to meet someone to whom you can’t tell lies – because he i is you. But no, these scientists want to bring out something
of recognition to protect more effectively, the hapless blacks Hmmm – it isn’t only on the minds of scientists that the iquidated by arm d L byan racists.
that will make us both dead at first sight!
seen on television, who express d the fear that they would b l annihilation of the universe is occupying valuable space at the moment. A “prophet” in America called Harold Camping, also ment, black Af icans in Libya did not exactly enjoy the life of “luxury” a d roses that some Libyans have projected unto them, eith Why Camping’s prophecy was given any credence at all is a only went to Liby
to use the country as a staging post to try who succee ed in leaving Libya, sometimes perished
The irony of the situation is that under Al Gathafi’s govern- caused a major stir when he predicted that the world was to come to an “end” on 21 May 2011.
er willingly or through sheer misinformation. Many blacks mystery, for he is a serial apocalypse predictor who last foretold the day the world would end as “Sept. 6, 1994”! When nothing because some were imprisoned for entering Libya illegally, while even tho
and get into Eu ope. But this often turned out to be an illusion, happened on that day, 17 years ago, he took refuge in the lam- est excuse in the world: he said he had made a “mathematical miscalculation”. This non-event was known to the American rying to get them into Italy.
at sea in unsafe boat , on which unscrupulous smugglers were t mainstream media, yet they still gave a lot of publicity to Camp- ing’s new prediction. It must be because he is based in Oakland, out to be equally hazardous, as the nhuman treatment of e migrants by the Italian p ice was notorious for its callous- It is the state where you will find modern pyramids – cre- eatment of th migrants as one of the worst scandal
Life in Italy for those who did not drown in the sea, turned California. Oh, California! How many quirky things will come out t ohf that state that spawned Hollywood?
ness. Humanitarian o ganisations have described the Italian tarted in the style of the thousands-of-years-old tombs in Egypt. Although the most famous pyramids in the world are, of course, dice in Libya when, in January 2008, his government announced plans to deport black migrant en masse. This was a sign that they were “undesirable”, ut it also signifi d the Colon l’s legendary refusal to see rea ity when i stares him in the face. For as chair of the AU, and someo e who was feverishly trying to get himself recognise
Italian
politics. Al Gathafi himself laid the groundwork for anti-black preju- those in Egypt, California surprisingly has its fair share of the triangular-shaped structures. Why do people build pyramids in California? To entomb themselves after they are dead, of course. There are at least eight pyramid-mausoleums in Califor- nia – three in Oakland alone. So, you see, “Prophet” Harold Camping doesn’t sound too strange when he delivers his ex- cathedra pronouncements on the end of the world there. Perhaps did not need the Hum n Rights Watch to point out to him that th mooted mass deportations were “illegal” under Libya’s own laws. What I fail to understand is why, although the existence of fied to anti-black prejudice – coupled with insensitivity towards h feelings of their brothers to the south – being a problem of g-st nding for both the Libyan people and Al Gathafi himself. First, Al Gathafi. In March 2010, he caused immense anger n Nig ria by suggesting that the country should
as Africa’s “king of kings” (on the say-so of African
traditional rulers whom he had bribed with enormous sums), it those mausoleums transmit something to his brain, of which we are not aware.
Libya’s deportation of black Afric ns in earlier years testi- weirdos in California is well documented, most of the mainstream t media in the West refrained from ridiculing Camping when he l soanid that something called “The Rapture” would occur on 21 May 2011. On that day, Camping said, the good Christians – led, of i course, by the faithful followers of his – were to be spirited into the air to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. He would catch them unto religious strife”. Among Nigerian politicians who took umbrage with Al Gath fi’s remark was the pres dent of the Nigerian Sen- ate, David Mark. He described Al Gathafi in just one word: “mad”! ext, an official statement was released by the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign A fairs, which s ated that the country’s ambas- sador to Tripoli had been recalled for “urgent consultations” because of the “irresponsible utterances of Colonel Al Gathafi”. The statement added – still in a markedly undiplomatic manner – “Al Gathafi’s theatrics and grandstanding at every auspicious occasion have become too numerous to recount.”
divid
wo – a Christian south and a Muslim north! – “to save it from Himself and fly with them “home” to Heaven. Trumpets would sound the alarm to indicate the beginning of the end of the world. The beginning? Yes. First would come “The Rapture”. The end N itself would occur on 21 October 2011 when the “s nners” or “unbelievers” left behind on the earth, would be struck by “Armageddon”. That would mean the destruction of the earth. Now, “Prophet” Harold Camping is a former civil engineer, and he gains credence from many p ople because he deploys mathematical jargon th t seems to lend a sci ntific ring to his “prophecies”. He has a wide audience, for he r ns “Family Radio”, one I of the extreme right-wing radio ne works that have succe ded hat Al Gathafi could make such a statement, even though every- oneOn such stations, irrelevant non-issues - such as the alleged promote peace between its religious and ethnic communities.
t says much for the sense of reality that exists within the AU t in hijacking much of America’s political discourse.
k ows that Nigeria has been trying desperately for years to “Muslim faith” secr tly held by Presiden Barack Obama, or
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