There is an interesting discussion going on here about an article titled 'Obama and Black American Ethnicity', by Marian Douglas-Ungaro, where I've just posted this comment:
Speaking for myself, one of the two most disturbing facts about the U.S. presidential election of November 2008 is that so many folks - even folks who've never set foot in the United States, are not U.S. citizens, and have never suffered as 3rd, 4th & 5th class Americans on U.S. soil - are so geared up to "elect themselves a black president."
If that is the definition of a ‘Obamatron’, then I guess I fall squarely under it: I am an African who has never lived in America, is not an American citizen and has not lived the Black American historical experience, yet I have been supporting Obamawith enthusiasm, and at times even assumed silliness, for most of this campaign. Except that I’ve actually set foot in the US, have close family members living there for decades (one of my sisters is actually a staunch Hillary supporter and has even worked as her campaign staff) and I’ve worked in Africa for a USAID-sponsored project as a Black African within an otherwise all-American, all-White professional team. But that’s not what makes me feel involved in this campaign and it’s not exclusively Obama’s race or ethnicity that makes me support him either.
Also speaking for myself, as the author does, I come from a country – Angola – whose political life has been shaped directly by American politics for at least most part of the last century and continues to be so to this day. And when you are a citizen of a country where politics, economics, election outcomes, war or peace and life or death are so impacted by American politics as happens to my country, as I am sure happens in not a few countries in Africa and around the world, I, willingly or not, have a stake, even if only remote (you can then call me a ‘remote-controlled automaton’ or ‘Obamatron’ if you wish) in American elections and its outcomes.
I wouldn’t, for a moment, claim that my ‘presumed stake’ in that election is bigger, more significant or even equal, than that of US citizens in general, or Black Americans in particular, not least because I am not entitled to vote there, but given a chance, as it was by this internet-cross-boundaries geared campaign, I feel entitled to have my feelings about it known. And that’s just what I have been doing (again, call me a ‘Obamatron’ for that if you wish – I may take offence at it, but that will not stop me from having and expressing my opinions about ‘your’ elections, at least for as long as your country politics, regardless of the particular ideologies underlying it under different administrations, has an impact on mine and on my life, even if only ‘remotely’).
I would like to, but I won’t dwell too much in this occasion on all the discussions about slavery v. colonialism, race v. ethnicity or Black Americans/African Americans v. Africans. I think brother Mzimkhulu and other discussants here already gave significant contributions to those. I would just add that slavery continued in Africa and particularly in former Portuguese colonies for most of the 20th century under other designations such as ‘contract labour’ and, in the case of Southern Africa, as ‘migrant labour’ to the South African mines. I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that in certain African societies, certainly in Angola and other former Portuguese colonies, someone like Rev. Wright, and even someone like Barack Obama, would hardly be considered or identify themselves as ‘black’ and would most certainly not take the kind of stances on race politics they take in the USA.
Finally, let me cite Mandela in his introduction to a recent publication about the relationships between Black American and Black African political movements, ‘No Easy Victories’: “We were part of a worldwide movement that continues today to redress the economic and social injustices that kill body, mind, and spirit. ‘No Easy Victories’ makes clear that our lives and fortunes around the globe are indeed linked.”
Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer, reaching 2 million barrels a day. It is also OPEC's newest member. Angolans go to the polls on Friday 5 September 2008 for legislative elections, the first multiparty polls since 1992. Ten parties and four coalitions with 5,198 candidates will contest 220 seats. Chatham House's pre-election assessment examines the run-up to these elections in this strategic southern African country whose export earnings in 2008 will be over US$84 billion. Over 8 million voters have registered for these elections which represent a milestone in Angola's post-conflict transition. They also form part of a wider process with presidential elections scheduled for 2009 and municipal elections in 2010. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has been in power since independence from Portugal in 1975. Given the MPLA's institutional and financial strength, it is expected to win the election and might increase its majority which would allow it to change the constitution. For the main opposition party, the National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) these elections will determine how relevant they are, after their military defeat and six years of peace.
Estou seguro que a campanha do “teu” presidente é mais interessante de acompanhar da que vai indo por aqui sem interesse praticamente nenhum. Chegamos à triste conclusão que não temos mesmo oposição e que, como se diz aqui “antigamente Partido ùnico, agora… Único partido”!
I had initially written this as a comment to this postbut, on good advice, decided to post it separately.
1. Because it is never enough to stress the importance, relevance and accuracy of messages like Malavoloneke’s here, I must do just that: stress it!
But, let’s not make any mistakes: I am also a good friend of Fernando’s.
With him I shared the anguishes that led many Angolan students in Portugal to bring about a “Manifesto for the Right to Live”, for which we went door to door to collect thousands of signatures from the Angolan community and friends of Angola in Portugal and held a well attended vigil in one of Lisbon’s main squares, which counted with such references of our national culture as Raul Indipwo, his own father, Jorge Macedo, and others, calling for a halt to the hostilities that followed the 1992 elections and for a lasting peace and true democracy in our country. Supporting him I was, a few months later, in the hunger strike he and other Angolan students held in front of the Angolan Embassy in Lisbon to protest at the victimisation students were being subjected to as a result of the intolerance and political violence that marked those times in our national life. With him I traveled, some time later, to Brussels, to spread our message and express our desire for peace at the headquarters of the European Union. To him I suggested, a few years later in Luanda, when he asked my opinion about it, that it would be better for him to go to pursue his studies and leave the political/civic struggles aside for a while – this particular episode happened when he was working in the same office as Rafael Marques, under the auspices of the Open Society, and it would be particularly interesting to observe the evolution Marques’ relationship with that organisation had in more recent years...
For him I was happy when he let me know some time later that he was in Boston post-graduating in Law. To him go my praises for all the courage and strength he shows in fighting for Justice, Peace and Democracy in our country!
However… however, in this occasion, I subscribe to Malavoloneke’s message to him. And deep down in my heart I believe that Fernando also subscribes to it, at least for this once. For this peace we so longed for. For that right to live that we called for so earthly sixteen years ago! And that message was and is very simple:
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!
2. While I was living those moments with Fernando, I was also sharing (or had shared) momentous experiences with such ‘Mais Velhos’ from our country’s political history as Mario Pinto de Andrade, Manuel Lima and Daniel Chipenda (it was straight from this late Angolan nationalist's family home that I left, totally exhausted spiritually and psychologically, more than a decade ago, Lisbon to London, where I’ve been based ever since to rebuild, literally piece by piece, my then totally shattered life and from where I’ve been trying to give whatever contribution I can to our country and to our continent, until I can finally return home without fears of seeing my life shattered all over again for whatever reason – it is thus to protect my ‘right to live’ that I am forced, again, to stay abroad for a while longer. You see, unlike others, no matter what passport we may be using, we cannot disguise or conceal our identity: it is imprinted in our skin, our mind, our memory, our soul, our diction, our culture). With them and others, I learned many of the lessons they had accumulated along about half a century of struggles for liberation, peace and development in Africa. Through them I’ve learned something essential about ourselves: for all the differences in their individual trajectories and standings in the nationalist movement, there was one commonality – our future can only be dictated by our own past, culture and history.
It was from them, among others, and from my own life experiences prior and after meeting them, that I got this sense of just how right Malavoloneke is in saying: “Therefore, I would like you to understand that we all need ways out. Ways out that have also to be ways of hope. Ways of hope that do not need to be necessarily perfect, they just need to be necessarily ours. Created by us with the limitations that we have, created in our own context with our own specificities and created for our land with the adaptations that they might require, but not imposed by a theoretical script from any western country.”
It was what I learned from them (and, to be perfectly accurate, before them, with my father and grandparents) that helped me make sense, particularly looking at my own life, not just of the letters from Unita and Mpla militants that I’ve reproduced here but, above all, of the passages from Douglass North’s Economics Nobel Prize Lecture, which I placed in the comment’s space to this post.
"É justamente porque nasci em Angola, país africano em que vivi e aprendi a conhecer a realidade colonial, que afirmo e defendo a minha angolanidade. E sobretudo: ajudei e continuo a ajudar, na medida das minhas capacidades intelectuais, a fazer respeitar internacionalmente o direito do povo angolano a dispor de si próprio."
No dia em que Mário Pinto de Andrade completaria 80 anos, a Fundação Mário Soares (FMS) publicou no seu site parte do espólio do nacionalista angolano. Em Dezembro, o acervo do político e intelectual vai ser doado à Fundação Sagrada Esperança.
A recuperação do espólio demorou cerca de 10 anos a ser concluída. Em 1998, Henda e Anna Ducados, filhas de Mário Pinto de Andrade, depositaram o material na FMS, em Lisboa. Uma opção criticada, na altura, mas que Henda Ducados garante ter sido “meramente técnica”. Do conjunto entregue constava documentação escrita e fotográfica recolhida junto de personalidades da Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde e Moçambique e, sobretudo, na casa onde o nacionalista viveu até à sua morte. A análise dos espólios de Amílcar Cabral e de Daniel Chipenda, depositados na FMS, permitiu cruzar dados e aumentar ainda mais o acervo de Mário Pinto de Andrade.
A primeira fase da recuperação, catalogação e digitalização do material terminaria só no início deste ano. “A maior parte estava em mau estado, por ter ficado guardada durante muito tempo em caves e também devido à qualidade do papel e da tinta”, explica Henda Ducados. O espólio de Mário Pinto de Andrade foi dividido em quatro grandes grupos: Investigação (57%), Movimentos de Libertação (32%), Documentos Pessoais (6%) e Actividade Literária (5%). Entre a documentação disponível encontram-se “pérolas históricas”, como a correspondência trocada com Viriato da Cruz, Agostinho Neto e outras personalidades destacadas, todos os passaportes que utilizou (incluindo os dos tempos em que fintava a PIDE), rascunhos da Comissão Organizadora da Conferência da Organização da União Africana, que integrou, os discursos das independências do Ghana e da Guiné-Conacri, actas e minutas de conferências internacionais, e muito mais.
A dimensão humana do nacionalista angolano também tem um espaço de destaque. São muitos os diários escritos à mão que poderão dar pistas mais profundas sobre o homem por trás do político. O acervo tem ainda documentação relativa a Maurício Ferreira Gomes, Agostinho Neto, Fernando Costa Andrade e Marcelino dos Santos. Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde, Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe, bem como o Movimento Anti Colonial e a Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias Portuguesas estão também representados.
“Este é o regresso da memória de Mário Pinto de Andrade do exílio”. É assim que Henda Ducados classifica o retorno do espólio do seu pai ao país. Admitindo que “em Angola a História não foi à procura dos seus heróis”, defende que “é preciso haver uma reconciliação com a memória e com o passado” do qual “Mário é uma figura incontornável”. E é exactamente de “preservação de memória” que Henda Ducados fala, quando analisa a importância e simbolismo do acervo documental do nacionalista: “Esta é uma herança que deve ser partilhada, é património de Angola. Divulgá-lo é reconhecer e homenagear o trabalho, não só do Mário, mas de toda uma geração que contribuiu para a independência de Angola e que abriu portas para todos nós vivermos com orgulho na nossa identidade e sem complexos de qualquer tipo”.
This night could not have happened 40 years ago -- or even 4 years ago.
And it could not have happened without you.
You believed, against the odds, that change was possible. I felt your passion here tonight, and I know it was shared by millions of Americans who are building this movement all across the country.
Tonight is your night. But tonight is just the beginning.
The general election is going to be faster and tougher than anything we've faced so far. And our opponents will do everything they can to tear us down.
I need your support more than ever.
Our party is united. Our purpose is clear. And our goal is in sight.
My mom, the girls, and I left home in Chicago and got to Denver yesterday. What a beautiful city! The convention started this morning, and everyone here is getting ready for the big week. All the work you've done is at the heart of what's happening here, and our team filmed a short video to give you a look behind the scenes at the convention center. Take a minute to check out the video and share it with your friends.
This week, folks from across the country will get to know Barack and our family a little better. Tonight I'm giving a speech at the convention, and I'm planning to share a few stories about the Barack I know -- the husband, the father, and the man who shares my dreams for our girls, for this country, and for our future. Before my speech, we're also going to show a video introducing our family to families across the country. This is such an important moment, and I hope you'll join me by tuning into the convention tonight and all week long.
I am so lucky to be married to the woman who delivered that speech last night.
Michelle was electrifying, inspiring, and absolutely magnificent. I get a lot of credit for the speech I gave at the 2004 convention -- but I think she may have me beat.
You have to see it to believe it.
You really don't want to miss this. And I'm not just saying that because she's my wife -- I truly believe it was the best speech of the campaign so far.
The Next Vice President Saturday, 23 August, 2008 3:54 PM From: "Barack Obama" To: "Ana Santana" Ana --
I have some important news that I want to make official.
I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate. Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.
I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone.
We need your help to keep building this movement for change.
Thanks for your support,
Barack
*****
Hello
Sunday, 24 August, 2008 7:07 PM
From: "Joe Biden"
To: "Ana Santana"
Ana --
I'd like to thank you for the warm welcome I've received as the newest member of this campaign.
What you and Barack have accomplished over the past 19 months is incredible, and it's an honor to be part of it. I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting involved.
I recorded a short video message about how I hope to help in the weeks ahead.
Please take a minute to watch the video and share it with your friends:
Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing a lot of the things you've done to grow this movement -- reaching out day after day in neighborhoods all across the country, connecting with people who are hungry for the change we need.
This is no ordinary time, and this is no ordinary election. I plan to do everything I can to help Barack take back the White House.
I don't need to tell you that John McCain will just bring us another four years of the same. You can't change America when you supported George Bush's policies 95% of the time.
Barack has the vision and the courage to bring real change to Washington. But even he can't do this alone.
Join me by getting involved in your community -- and reach out to your friends and family to get them involved as well.
Wednesday, 4 June, 2008 4:19 AM From: "Barack Obama" To: "Ana Santana"
Ana --
I'm about to take the stage in St. Paul and announce that we have won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. It's been a long journey, and we should all pause to thank Hillary Clinton, who made history in this campaign. Our party and our country are better off because of her. I want to make sure you understand what's ahead of us. Earlier tonight, John McCain outlined a vision of America that's very different from ours -- a vision that continues the disastrous policies of George W. Bush. But this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past and bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love. It's going to take hard work, but thanks to you and millions of other donors and volunteers, no one has ever been more prepared for such a challenge. Thank you for everything you've done to get us here. Let's keep making history.
For the last ten days the word has been violence spurred by xenophobia. Nothing can justify the levels it has reached, but it certainly begs explanation, understanding and rational, long-term, solutions. A common definition of ‘xenophobia’ will hold it as “a strong feeling of dislike or fear of people from other countries.” Is this really what explains the appalling scenes from Johannesburg’s shacklands being shown in the media all over the world? I do not believe that South Africans in general fundamentally ‘dislike’ people from other countries, but there is certainly some degree of ‘fear’ behind the shameful attacks against foreigners of the last few days. So, perhaps ‘xenophobia’ only explains part of the issue - more precisely, the part arising from fear. But fear of what exactly?
I think it is safe to posit that it might be fear of being engulfed, overtaken, swamped by massive inflows of economic migrants from all over the continent. Fear of losing out on a totally uncontrolled competition for access to all of their already meagre sources of survival: jobs (or just the increasingly fewer employment opportunities available), housing (or just the decreasing space for their own shacks or more solid and larger houses for their families), marketplace (or just their shrinking share of the local informal markets), food (just bound to become even more expensive and of limited availability as the current food crisis spreads around the globe), health (compounded by the AIDS pandemic in the region) and education (whatever little of it they may access in a financially restricted educational system).
In short, fear of losing out on an open competition for scarce resources and extremely limited opportunities. Hardly anything new elsewhere in the world or in South Africa itself. In effect, Black South Africans have seen the chances of improvement in their living standards undercut by labour competition from the region and the wider continent for more than a century, particularly in the backbone of the country’s economy: the mining industry.
A brief look at the economic history of the Johannesburg region (also known as the ‘Witwatersrand’, or simply the ‘Rand’) tells us that monopsonic control (i.e. control of the labour market by a single employer that sets all rules and wages) of recruiting for the mining industry was vital for the ‘Randlords’. The mining industry was faced with diminishing returns and rising costs of operation, which could not be passed on to the consumer due to the fixed price of gold. Therefore, it vitally depended on the institutionalisation of oscillant migrant labour: only an infinitely elastic supply of labour at rates lower than its marginal product could guarantee profitability.
Monopsonistic organisation of employers, especially in its ability to generate economies of scale by reducing the costs of recruiting, transportation and accommodation of migrants from outside South Africa, prevented competition for labour from pushing wages up. This required an immobilised, disorganised and dependent labour force, the maintenance of which was guaranteed by an array of segregationist policies restricting access of Africans to skilled jobs and their permanent urbanisation, thus hindering their ability to acquire and develop bargaining skills.
In 1893, the South African Chamber of Mines established a ‘Native Labour Department’ with the explicit objective of taking “active steps for the gradual reduction of native wages to a reasonable level.” This was followed, in 1896, by the creation of the ‘Rand Native Labour Association’ which, a year later, claimed to have promoted an increase in employment by over 500% above its level in 1890 “without any appreciable rise in wages.” By the end of the century, the organisation of recruiting had managed to increase the level of African employment by 600% at a wage rate below what it had been at the beginning of the mining industry.[1]
Yet, in spite of that achievement, competition for regional labour still prevailed in the industry and, in 1900, employers created the ‘Witwatersrand Native Labour Association’ (WNLA), which was the only body allowed to recruit in Mozambique, the main source of labour supply. The WNLA was to structurally define the regional labour market, for the rest of the last century to this day, as one of dependency for migrant workers and permanent low wages for Black South Africans – certainly lower than what they could have been if not for the institutionalised influxes of foreign migrant labour.
It is against this historical background that the growing tensions, conflicts and, ultimately, extreme violence of the last few days ought to be analysed. Of course, since the end of Apartheid, a mere 14 years ago, substantial changes have occurred in the nature of institutional relations within South Africa and between the countries in the region and in the structure of the regional labour market, translating into a relatively stronger bargaining power for the South African labour force. Along the last century, there was also a significant diversification of the South African economy away from the mining industry.
However, and in spite of the prevailing status of South Africa as the regional powerhouse, poverty and social exclusion levels in the country have not decreased sufficiently as to offset the potentially distortionary effects on the local economy of a permanent influx of economic migrants from all over the continent, as far afield as Nigeria and, for the best part of the last decade, particularly from Zimbabwe. Although official figures show only around 120,000 people applying for asylum in South Africa in the last decade, at least another million Africans - and some estimates say two million - have moved there (figures from 2005). And this time without any regulator, such as the WNLA, to somehow control it. To quote Mamphela Ramphele, Co- Chair of the Global Commission on International Migration, “South Africa is finding it difficult to absorb the flows of immigrants, which have increased faster than the South African economy. We are like a little Europe, without her resources.”
This is a reality that the South African government, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) have to tackle with unwavering determination. In particular, SADC and the AU have, more than ever before, the duty, under their existing general legal and institutional frameworks and specific sectoral protocols, to regulate economic migration fluxes within the continent in such a way as to guarantee that both migrants and host country residents have their economic, social and human rights protected.
Moreover, all countries in the continent (and here I am particularly thinking about my own country of origin, Angola, which has also been attracting significant levels of migrants from all over the continent and the rest of the world since the end of the war) must understand the current events as a desperate cry from the poor and socially excluded for their governments to put their houses in order, i.e. to improve their economic and governance performances, and in particular their income redistribution policies and social support systems, in order to, if not totally stem, at least make the current levels and specific directions of intra-continental migration controllable overall. Only such an integrated approach to the problem can turn migration into a productive, culturally and humanly enriching experience to the benefit of the entire continent.
Finally, to all brothers and sisters, victims and perpetrators of the unspeakable acts of violence of the last few days in Johannesburg, I would like to dedicate this song, Chileshe, about which Bra Masekela said: "We first recorded this song in 1968 on the 'Promise of A Future' album. People from Jo’burg always thought of themselves as being much more advanced, civilised and hipper than anybody that did not grow up there, especially people from the outlying provinces like Northern Transvaal, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland. I was also thinking about how the whites used to ill-treat us and call us 'Kaffirs' and all kinds of dirty names. The song is a call to those who are denigrated and vilified by these attitudes to stand up proudly and not allow themselves to be called derogatory names like 'Mighirighamba', 'Makirimane', 'Makwankwies', 'Makhafula', etc. With the influx today of peoples from all over the African diaspora into South Africa, the level of xenophobia has risen to disgusting heights. Most paradoxically, the song is even more popular amongst black South Africans today and is deeply loved by the new immigrants which helped the 'Black To The Future' album to platinum heights."
*****
*The title refers to this poemby Gil Scott-Heron
[1] Figures from Wilson F., Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969, (Cambridge UP, 1972)
Other references: Katzenellenbogen S., South Africa and Southern Mozambique: Labour, Railways and Trade in the Making of a Relationship, (Manchester, Manchester UP, 1982); Milazi D., The Politics and Economics of Lbour Migration in Southern Africa (1984); Crush J., Jeeves A. & Yudelman D., South Africa’s Labor Empire – A History of Black Migrancy to the Gold Mines, (Oxford, Westview Press, 1991)
‘Listened, Stood and Delivered!’ If Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” will go down in history as one of his most important speeches during this race, his yesterday’s speech in Des Moines will not go unnoticed either.
More incisive and articulated than ever, he definitively managed to dismiss all claims that his was “an eloquent but empty call for change”…
Meanwhile, here's how he views yesterday's victory:
What we just achieved
Wednesday, 21 May, 2008 2:29 AM
From: "Barack Obama" To: "Ana Santana"
Ana --
The polls are closed in Kentucky and votes are being counted in Oregon, and it's clear that tonight we have reached a major milestone on this journey. We have won an absolute majority of all the delegates chosen by the people in this Democratic primary process. From the beginning, this journey wasn't about me or the other candidates. It was about a simple choice -- will we continue down the same road with the same leadership that has failed us for so long, or will we take a different path? Too many of us have been disappointed by politics and politicians more times than you can count. We've seen promises broken and good ideas drowned in a sea of influence, point-scoring, and petty bickering that has consumed Washington. Yet, in spite of all the doubt and disappointment -- or perhaps because of it -- people have stood for change. Unfortunately, our opponents in the other party continue to embrace yesterday's policies and they will continue to employ yesterday's tactics -- they will try to change the subject, and they will play on fears and divisions to distract us from what matters to you and your future. But those tactics will not work in this election. They won't work because you won't let them. Not this time. Not this year. We still have work to do to in the remaining states, where we will compete for every delegate available. But tonight, I want to thank you for everything you have done to take us this far -- farther than anyone predicted, expected, or even believed possible. And I want to remind you that you will make all the difference in the epic challenge ahead.
Bom, parece que finalmente foram declaradas treguas na “Maka de 1 Jose’ contra 3 Antonios mais os Mukuaxis”… Assim sendo, eh-me dada a oportunidade de trazer aqui alguns artigos publicados nas ultimas semanas, que ficaram na gaveta a espera do fim do ‘kibeto’, como por exemplo este, de Bonavena, no Agora:
Não faz muito tempo, o Centro de Estudos e Investigação Cientifica (CEIC) da Universidade Católica de Angola (UCAN) realizou uma conferência sobre a pobreza. O poder como sempre esteve ausente. Alguns intelectuais evitaram aparecer para não serem conotados com um acto que lhes cheirava à subversão. Nessa altura, fomos criticados, por alguns deles, por estar a promover uma conferência sobre a pobreza que era uma evocação negativa, numa altura em que o país estava a crescer a bom ritmo e o discurso oficial triunfalista exacerbava os ganhos do crescimento económico (que diziam que seria de 34%, o maior do mundo, depois tiveram que o rever pela metade) e afirmava que este crescimento, por si só, resolveria o problema da pobreza. (...) Agora, que há em vista as eleições 2008 e é preciso dar atenção as formas mais eficazes para caçar votos, a pobreza está na moda do discurso eleitoralista, a pobreza aparece à cabeça da tematização dos discursos políticos. Até mesmo o homem mais rico do país (e chefe de fila da burguesia predadora) não fala mais das muitas "oportunidades de negócios" mas da pobreza, apresentando-a como uma prioridade de governo. Os "negócios" serão feitos na calada da noite enquanto de dia se irá falando da necessidade de "combater e vencer a fome, o subdesenvolvimento" e de "criar condições para o bem-estar dos cidadãos".
[Aqui]
Esta semana, varios artigos de interesse no SA:
'Justino P. Andrade «oficializa» ruptura'
Justino Pinto de Andrade declarou esta semana ao Semanário Angolense estar descartada qualquer hipótese de voltar a integrar o Mpla, que realiza este fim-de-semana a sua terceira Conferência Nacional. O economista e analista político argumentou que deixou há muito tempo de se rever na política praticada pelo partido no poder em Angola. Segundo Justino Pinto de Andrade, o Mpla sofreu uma deriva dos princípios que defendia para a sociedade angolana nos primórdios da organização. «Este não é o Mpla que defendia os meus ideais. Este Mpla só pensa no petróleo e em enriquecer uma casta minúscula de privilegiados», afirmou. E disse mais: «É uma organização que governa sem a mais absoluta noção de justiça social, aprofundando as assimetrias sociais. Ora, eu não pactuo com isso. Não são esses os princípios de vida que defendo para a nossa sociedade».
[Aqui]
JPA tambem assina um artigo sobre as recentes polemicas declaracoes de Bob Geldof:
'Bob Geldof – o iconoclasta'
O músico e activista dos direitos humanos, Bob Geldof, quase que incendiou a pradaria, ao declarar que Angola está a ser «gerida por criminosos». Ele fez esta afirmação no contexto de uma Conferência sobre Desenvolvimento Sustentável decorrida no dia 6 deste mês, num hotel de Lisboa, quando dissertava sobre um tema já por si provocador, denominado «Fazer a Diferença». Os seus anfitriões eram os dirigentes do Banco Espírito Santo (Bes) e também do semanário português Expresso. Estava entre um naipe de figuras do grande capital e, julgo eu, também diplomatas. (…) Admito que a frase pronunciada pelo músico e activista cívico irlandês peca por ser excessiva, uma vez que ainda alimento a esperança de haver entre nós também alguns governantes honestos e que respeitam as boas regras de convivência e de uso dos bens e do património públicos. Acredito que ainda haja quem não se tenha locupletado com o dinheiro alheio ou do povo. Guardo dentro de mim a esperança de que haja quem não confunda o seu partido com o Estado, e que não goste de misturar os «dois sacos». É por isso que eu penso que o Bob Geldof pode ter sido excessivo – só pela generalização – em respeito, pelo menos, por aqueles por quem ainda nutro respeito.
[Aqui]
Como muitos, incluindo o proprio, esperavam, Ernesto Bartolomeu foi punido pelas suas declaracoes sobre a TPA, aqui mencionadas na semana passada:
Não se sabe já que consequências haverão para Ernesto Bartolomeu, um dos pivots do telejornal da Tpa, na sequência do processo disciplinar que a direcção da estação lhe moveu por, na sua óptica, ter «quebrado» o sigilo profissional a que estaria obrigado pelas funções que desempenha. Ernesto Bartolomeu disse publicamente mais ou menos que, entre outras coisas, em relação aos partidos políticos, os noticiários daTpa não são feitos com base no que é recolhido pelos jornalistas, mas sim em função do que decidem os editores a partir de «orientações superiores», dirigidas em regra para favorecer o partido «maioritário». Numa palavra: há censura. E isto, para começar, valeu-lhe o inquérito. Não se sabe também o que terá motivado o «Bartolas» a lavar a «roupa suja» da empresa fora de portas, mas que é preciso tê-los no lugar para o que fez, lá isto é. Agora, é só aguentar o resto.
A questao e' tambem analisada no Angolense.
[Aqui]
Finalmente, Sousa Jamba fala (muito mal) do “melhor escritor vivo na lingua inglesa”:
'Naipaul é um sacana'
Como escritor VS Naipaul é uma unanimidade. É inigualável. Já como homem, porém, é visto como um ser desprezível. O escritor, que ganhou o Prémio Nobel de Literatura, já foi descrito como um racista (contra os negros), snobe, cruel e um egoísta da primeira classe. O homem é também tido como um grande mulherengo que, além de ter tido uma amante latino-americana (enquanto a sua esposa inglesa sustentava a casa), nunca parou de visitar prostitutas de todo o género. Os ingleses gostam de biografias – sobretudo de escritores. Em muitos casos, as pessoas preferem ler as biografias dos escritores do que as suas próprias obras. Como alguém já notou, há vezes em que uma abordagem da vida de um escritor é o melhor retrato dos tempos. Neste momento, o mundo das letras anglófono anda obcecado com o primeiro volume da biografia de Naipaul escrita pelo escritor Phillip French, que se tornou famoso por ter recusado uma condecoração da Rainha. Curiosamente, figuro numa das páginas dessa biografia: certa vez Naipaul pôs-me a correr da sua casa quando, a meio de uma entrevista, eu fiz perguntas que o irritaram. (…) Entre os anos 50 e 60, VS Naipaul escreveu romances que retratavam a vida nas Caraíbas, para onde os seus avôs indianos tinham sido enviados como trabalhadores contratados. Depois virou as suas atenções para o continente africano sobre o qual escreveu vários livros de viagem assim como romances – todos descrevendo as ilusões, fraquezas e os caos da África pós-colonial. Para Naipaul, que nos anos 60 foi conferente na Universidade de Makerere, no Uganda, o continente africano não tinha nenhum futuro. Esta afirmação enfureceu vários escritores africanos da sua geração. Escritores como o nigeriano Chinua Achebe e o queniano Ngugi Wa Thiogo, embora fossem críticos assumidos das elites políticas que predominavam em vários países africanos nos anos após a independência, tinham fé no futuro do continente africano e, por isso, viam Naipaul como um verdadeiro reaccionário. (…) Para Naipaul, os negros têm pouco valor. Derek Walcott, poeta e dramaturgo nascido na Ilha de Santa Lúcia, nas Caraíbas, vencedor do Prémio Nobel de Literatura em 1992, diz que uma das falhas principais de Naipaul é o seu ódio contra os negros. Além de abominar os negros, Naipaul também não «passava carta» à Índia e aos indianos. Para o grande escritor o que conta é a Inglaterra – isto é, a aristocracia inglesa. Segundo a biografia que está a fazer ondas, um dos grandes sonhos de Naipaul não era só casar com uma mulher branca – mas alguém oriundo da grande aristocracia. Só que a mulher que «preenchia as medidas» e que ele tentou conquistar não lhe deu bola. Essa foi uma das maiores dores de cotovelo na vida Naipaul. Depois que se tornou milionário instalou-se numa grande casa de campo no sul da Inglaterra, onde se fez rodear de mordomias compatíveis com um verdadeiro lorde. O problema é que os ingleses não gostam muito de estrangeiros extravagantes ou que fazem tudo – incluindo vender a alma - para tornar-se num deles. Os ingleses, mesmo a classe alta, aceitam sempre estrangeiros. Porém, para serem respeitados os estrangeiros devem ter amor-próprio.
… Well, not yet. Hillary is still widely predicted to win the next two scheduled primaries. But... that’s about it.
[And, evoking Mothers’ Day, here’s how he answered when asked, in specific reference to this cover, during this interview, how he thinks his mother, if alive, would react to where he got now: “she would just say ‘don’t let it go to your head, just keep on working hard”…]
Now, apart from the obvious reason of this cover, what made me retake this seriesafter a while was the interesting fact that, for the first time in this race, I actually heard someone in the mainstream media (or on any other media for that matter) referring to it as “The Mother of All Battles”! And, not only that, it was within a poem… by ‘BBC World News America’ anchor Matt Frei, on the BBC2 ‘This Week’show of 24/04/08. Unfortunately, so far I couldn’t get the video of that show (it doesn’t seem to be available online any longer) or a transcript of the poem, but I had to mention it…
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