₦airaland Forum

Two Faux Democracies That Threaten the World
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Amitai Etzioni has raised an important question:
“Who authorized preparations for war with China?” Etzioni says that the war plan is not the sort of contingency plan that might be on hand
for an improbable event. Etzioni also reports
that the Pentagon’s war plan was not ordered by,
and has not been reviewed by, US civilian
authorities. We are confronted with a neoconized
US military out of control endangering Americans and the rest of the world. Etzioni is correct that this is a momentous
decision made by a neoconized military. China is
obviously aware that Washington is preparing
for war with China. If the Yale Journal knows it,
China knows it. If the Chinese government is
realistic, the government is aware that Washington is planning a pre-emptive nuclear
attack against China. No other kind of war makes
any sense from Washington’s standpoint. The
“superpower” was never able to occupy Baghdad,
and after 11 years of war has been defeated in
Afghanistan by a few thousand lightly armed Taliban. It would be curtains for Washington to
get into a conventional war with China. When China was a primitive third world country,
it fought the US military to a stalemate in Korea.
Today China has the world’s second largest
economy and is rapidly overtaking the failing US
economy destroyed by jobs offshoring, bankster
fraud, and corporate and congressional treason. The Pentagon’s war plan for China is called
“AirSea Battle.” The plan describes itself as
“interoperable air and naval forces that can
execute networked, integrated attacks-in-depth
to disrupt, destroy, and defeat enemy anti-access
area denial capabilities.” Yes, what does that mean? It means many
billions of dollars of more profits for the
military/security complex while the 99 percent
are ground under the boot. It is also clear that
this nonsensical jargon cannot defeat a Chinese
army. But this kind of saber-rattling can lead to war, and if the Washington morons get a war
going, the only way Washington can prevail is
with nuclear weapons. The radiation, of course,
will kill Americans as well. Nuclear war is on Washington’s agenda. The rise
of the Neocon Nazis has negated the nuclear
disarmament agreements that Reagan and
Gorbachev made. The extraordinary, mainly
truthful 2012 book, The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick, describes the post-Reagan breakout of
preemptive nuclear attack as Washington’s first
option. During the Cold War nuclear weapons had a
defensive purpose. The purpose was to prevent
nuclear war by the US and USSR each having
sufficient retaliatory power to ensure “mutually
assured destruction.” MAD, as it was known,
meant that nuclear weapons had no offensive advantage for either side. The Soviet collapse and China’s focus on its
economy instead of its military have resulted in
Washington’s advantage in nuclear weaponry
that, according to two US Dr. Strangeglove
characters, Keir Lieber and Daryl Press, gives
Washington first-strike capability. Lieber and Press write that the “precipitous decline of
Russia’s arsenal, and the glacial pace of
modernization of China’s nuclear forces,” have
created a situation in which neither Russia nor
China could retaliate to Washington’s first strike. The Pentagon’s “AirSea Battle” and Lieber and
Press’ article in Foreign Affairs have informed China and Russia that Washington is
contemplating pre-emptive nuclear attack on
both countries. To ensure Russia’s inability to
retaliate, Washington is placing anti-ballistic
missiles on Russia’s borders in violation of the
US-USSR agreement. Because the American press is a corrupt
government propaganda ministry, the American
people have no idea that neoconized Washington
is planning nuclear war. Americans are no more
aware of this than they are of former President
Jimmy Carter’s recent statement, reported only in Germany, that the United States no longer has
a functioning democracy. The possibility that the United States would
initiate nuclear war was given reality eleven years
ago when President George W. Bush, at the
urging of Dick Cheney and the neocons that
dominated his regime, signed off on the 2002
Nuclear Posture Review. This neocon document, signed off on by
America’s most moronic president, resulted in
consternation and condemnation from the rest of
the world and launched a new arms race. Russian
President Putin immediately announced that
Russia would spend all necessary sums to maintain Russia’s retaliatory nuclear capability.
The Chinese displayed their prowess by knocking
a satellite out of space with a missile. The mayor
of Hiroshima, recipient city of a vast American
war crime, stated: “The nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear
weapons, is on the verge of collapse. The chief
cause is US nuclear policy that, by openly
declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear
first strike and calling for resumed research into
mini-nukes and other so-called ‘useable nuclear weapons,’ appears to worship nuclear weapons as
God.” Polls from all over the world consistently show
that Israel and the US are regarded as the two
greatest threats to peace and to life on earth. Yet,
these two utterly lawless governments prance
around pretending to be the “world’s greatest
democracies.” Neither government accepts any accountability whatsoever to international law,
to human rights, to the Geneva Conventions, or
to their own statutory law. The US and Israel are
rogue governments, throwbacks to the Hitler and
Stalin era. The post World War II wars originate in
Washington and Israel. No other country has
imperial expansionary ambitions. The Chinese
government has not seized Taiwan, which China
could do at will. The Russian government has not
seized former constituent parts of Russia, such as Georgia, which, provoked by Washington to
launch an attack, was instantly overwhelmed by
the Russian Army. Putin could have hung
Washington’s Georgian puppet and
reincorporated Georgia into Russia, where it
resided for several centuries and where many believe it belongs. For the past 68 years, most military aggression
can be sourced to the US and Israel. Yet, these two originators of wars pretend to be
the victims of aggression. It is Israel that has a
nuclear arsenal that is illegal, unacknowledged,
and unaccountable. It is Washington that has
drafted a war plan based on nuclear first strike.
The rest of the world is correct to view these two rogue unaccountable governments as direct
threats to life on earth.

Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate
Editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest
book The Failure of Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Roberts’ How the Economy Was Lost is now available from CounterPunch in electronic
format.

For those that insist on using employment visa to Dubai from Nigeria, here's a website for you to check fake employment visa in UAE:

http://eservices.mol.gov.ae/enetwasal/employeeCredential.aspx

Do you have labor card? --- click "NO"
Then fill the form : name, DOB, Nationality and phone(any number will serve).
Click submit .
If you get a result with your passport photo and passport / company details...You have a valid employment visa. If not, chuck that employment visa in the bin, it's fake!

Just a note for those that like weekend getaways. There are no petrol stations along the 70km (E84) route Fujairah to Sharjah. I did a triangle trip ~Sharjah-Ras Al-khaimah-Fujairah (close to Oman's border). We had about 35km of petrol when we left Fujairah hoping to fill-up along the road. Guess what? No petrol station! Along that whole desert stretch. We ran out of gas at Madam (along Sharjah - kalba road) at 3.25am(night).

We got saved by two pakis with a tow truck at 4.12am. Funny as hell! Hitching a tow truck ride along a desert road in 45 degree heat!

ogakpatakpata: @justi4jesu..........that was the message l tried to convey to the OP, but, it seems he is not getting it, most of our guys in Dubai can attest to this, lots of them do use someone else e-passport to return back to Nigeria, they sometimes pay as much as 2000dhs or more for the passport depending on the seller and the buyer, so it is absolutely possible to travel or use someone else passport to travel, and with the level of corruption in our airport, even when they know it is not your passport, as long as you are ready to play ball and part with bribe, you are good to go....

Exiting UAE with another person's Pali (Nigerian) is common amongst Nigerian overstayers. But Entering UAE with that same Pali is impossible, if used by another person. On exit, there's NO iris/finger/photo matching. Note: First timers get their photo, Iris and finger print saved in the system.




******** if them catch you....na panti!!!******

kaliphate: As in,he lost d copy of his visa dat he printed out,now he is scared cos he thinks they can steal his visa number and his details and forge a passport and use it to travel instead of him,is dis possible?

I think you just printout another copy of the visa in your email, and not worry about lost copy. Qatari visa isnt a US visa that any diehard dude would wanna waste money cloning a new passport for. I really doubt anybody is gonna waste so much money to use that Visa. Think of it, to use that visa, the passport number and passport details should be the same withthe one used to apply for the visa. it will be impossible to get the same passport number from Immigration even he claims he lost his passport and files for a new one with your details. Getting a new "Pali" with your data (different "pali" number) will be so freaking expensive, and that's only done in Abuja.

Many containers are hauled to Old Ojo road, Alaba market, trade fair, agbara and mile 2 areas on cargo trucks that are too heavy for the Mile2-Badagary road. I don't know if a rail track to Ijora/iddo would reduce traffic on Apapa/mile2/badagary roads.

It 'd be nice if they built cargo rail tracks from the Apapa/tincan ports to these Mile2/Badary areas and other industrial zones.

Many importers in the east use Onne port -a bit more costly than Lagos ports, but I don't imagine them using the rail road to convey goods to the east. The container deposits for containers going outside Lagos are already crazy sums (>200k for 20ft, >300K for 40ft). Probably, the rail roads are mearnt to serve the north.

Getting a driver's license in Ajman.
Location: Dept of Traffic and Licensing, Ajman
GPS coordinates: 25.410762,55.510022
Required Documents:
Emirates ID
Visa Copy
Passport copy
Business registration certificate
No objection certificate (in Arabic)
Request for Driver's license (letter in Arabic)
Labor dept's stamp and signature card

Stage 2.
Go to the location.
Submit your documents to police guys at the gate.
They will issue you a queue number
Go to the counter when called
Pay 170 Durham
*They didnt waive classes for me on Nigerian drivers license .
You will directed to a room for Eye test.
Send the documents back to first counter you visited.
She'd submit your file to the next counter
At this counter, they take your photo and issue a data card for stage 3.

Stage 3.
Go to Qeyadah Driving institute -next to the traffic and license dept. with your data card and passport.
There you will asked to pay 1350 dirham for lectures, textbook, and signal test.

Counterpunch
US V. Trayvon Martin

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary
School massacre, Texas Congressman Louie
Gohmert, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell,
Senator Rand Paul, Florida State Representative
Dennis Baxley (also sponsor of his state’s Stand
Your Ground law), along with a host of other Republicans, argued that had the teachers and
administrators been armed, those twenty little
kids whose lives Adam Lanza stole would be alive
today. Of course, they were parroting the
National Rifle Association’s talking points. The
NRA and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative lobbying group
responsible for drafting and pushing “Stand Your
Ground” laws across the country, insist that an
armed citizenry is the only effective defense
against imminent threats, assailants, and
predators. But when George Zimmerman fatally shot
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, teenage pedestrian
returning home one rainy February evening from
a neighborhood convenience store, the NRA
went mute. Neither NRA officials nor the pro-
gun wing of the Republican Party argued that had Trayvon Martin been armed, he would be alive
today. The basic facts are indisputable: Martin
was on his way home when Zimmerman began to
follow him—first in his SUV, and then on foot.
Zimmerman told the police he had been
following this “suspicious-looking” young man. Martin knew he was being followed and told his
friend, Rachel Jeantel, that the man might be
some kind of sexual predator. At some point,
Martin and Zimmerman confronted each other, a
fight ensued, and in the struggle Zimmerman
shot and killed Martin. Zimmerman pursued Martin. This is a fact.
Martin could have run, I suppose, but every black
man knows that unless you’re on a field, a track,
or a basketball court, running is suspicious and
could get you a bullet in the back. The other
option was to ask this stranger what he was doing, but confrontations can also be dangerous
—especially without witnesses and without a
weapon besides a cel phone and his fists. Florida
law did not require Martin to retreat, though it is
not clear if he had tried to retreat. He did know
he was in imminent danger. Where was the NRA on Trayvon Martin’s right to
stand his ground? What happened to their
principled position? Let’s be clear: the Trayvon
Martin’s of the world never had that right
because the “ground” was never considered
theirs to stand on. Unless black people could magically produce some official documentation
proving that they are not burglars, rapists, drug
dealers, pimps or prostitutes, intruders, they are
assumed to be “up to no good.” (In the
antebellum period, such documentation was
called “freedom papers.”) As Wayne LaPierre, NRA’s executive vice president, succinctly
explained their
position, “The only thing that stops a bad guy
with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Trayvon
Martin was a bad guy or at least looked and acted
like one. In our allegedly postracial moment, where simply talking about racism openly is
considered an impolitic, if not racist, thing to do,
we constantly learn and re-learn racial codes.
The world knows black men are criminal, that
they populate our jails and prisons, that they kill
each other over trinkets, that even the celebrities among us are up to no good. Zimmerman’s racial
profiling was therefore justified, and the defense
consistently employed racial stereotypes and
played on racial knowledge to turn the victim into
the predator and the predator into the victim. In
short, it was Trayvon Martin, not George Zimmerman, who was put on trial. He was tried
for the crimes he may have committed and the
ones he would have committed had he lived past
17. He was tried for using lethal force against
Zimmerman in the form of a sidewalk and his
natural athleticism. The successful transformation of Zimmerman
into the victim of black predatory violence was
evident not only in the verdict but in the stunning
Orwellian language defense lawyers Mark O’Mara
and Don West employed in the post-verdict
interview. West was incensed that anyone would have the audacity to even bring the case to trial—
suggesting that no one needs to be held
accountable for the killing of an unarmed
teenager. WhenO’Mara was asked if he thought the verdict might have been different if his client
had been black, he replied: “Things would have
been different for George Zimmerman if he was
black for this reason: he would never have been
charged with a crime.” In other words, black men
can go around killing indiscriminately with no fear of prosecution because there are no Civil
Rights organizations pressing to hold them
accountable. And yet, it would be a mistake to place the verdict
at the feet of the defense for its unscrupulous use
of race, or to blame the prosecution for avoiding
race, or the jury for insensitivity, or even the gun
lobby for creating
the conditions that have made the murder of young black men justifiable homicide. The
verdict did not surprise me, or most people I
know, because we’ve been here before. We were
here with Latasha Harlins and Rodney King, with
Eleanor Bumpurs and Michael Stewart. We were
here with Anthony Baez, Michael Wayne Clark, Julio Nunez, Maria Rivas, Mohammed Assassa.
We were here with Amadou Diallo, the Central
Park Five, Oscar Grant, Stanley “Rock” Scott,
Donnell “Bo” Lucas, Tommy Yates. We were
here with Angel Castro, Jr. Bilal Ashraf, Anthony
Starks, Johnny Gammage, Malice Green, Darlene Tiller, Alvin Barroso, Marcillus Miller, Brenda
Forester. We’ve been here before with Eliberto
Saldana, Elzie Coleman, Tracy Mayberry, De
Andre Harrison, Sonji Taylor, Baraka Hall, Sean
Bell, Tyisha Miller, Devon Nelson, LaTanya
Haggerty, Prince Jamel Galvin, Robin Taneisha Williams, Melvin Cox, Rudolph Bell, Sheron
Jackson. And Jordan Davis, killed in
Jacksonville, Florida, not long after Trayvon
Martin. His murderer, Michael Dunn, emptied
his gun into the parked SUV where Davis and
three friends sat because they refused to turn down their music. Dunn is invoking “stand your
ground” in his defense. The list is long and deep. In 2012 alone, police
officers, security guards or vigilantes took the
lives of 136 unarmed black men and women—at
least twenty-five of whom were killed by
vigilantes. In ten of the incidents, the killers were
not charged with a crime, and most of those who were charged either escaped conviction or
accepted reduced charges in exchange for a guilty
plea. And I haven’t included the reign of terror
that produced at least 5,000 legal lynchings in
the United States, or the numerous
assassinations—from political activists to four black girls attending Sunday school in
Birmingham fifty years ago. The point is that justice was always going to elude
Trayvon Martin, not because the system failed, but because it worked. Martin died and
Zimmerman walked because our entire political
and legal foundations were built on an ideology
of settler colonialism—an ideology in which the
protection of white property rights was always
sacrosanct; predators and threats to those privileges were almost always black, brown, and
red; and where the very purpose of police power
was to discipline, monitor, and contain
populations rendered a threat to white property
and privilege. This has been the legal standard
for African Americans and other racialized groups in the U.S. long before ALEC or the NRA
came into being. We were rendered property in
slavery, and a threat to property in freedom.
And during the brief moment in the 1860s and
‘70s, when former slaves participated in
democracy, held political offices, and insisted on the rights of citizenship, it was a well-armed
(white) citizenry that overthrew democratically-
elected governments in the South, assassinated
black political leaders, stripped African-
Americans of virtually all citizenship rights (the
franchise, the right of habeas corpus, right of free speech and assembly, etc.), and turned an
entire people into predators. (For evidence, read
the crime pages of any urban newspaper during the early 20th century. Or just watch the hot new show, “Orange is the New Black.”) If we do not come to terms with this history, we
will continue to believe that the system just needs
to be tweaked, or that the fault lies with a
fanatical gun culture or a wacky right-wing
fringe. We will miss the routine character of such
murders: according data compiled by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a black person
is killed by the state or by state-sanctioned
violence every 28 hours. And we will miss how
this history of routine violence has become a
central component of the U.S. drone warfare and
targeted killing. What are signature strikes if not routine, justified killings of young men who might be Al-caeda members or may one day commit acts of terrorism? It is little more than a
form of high-tech racial profiling. In the end, we should be able to prevent another
Sandy Hook school tragedy—and the $7.7 million
dollars that poured into Newtown on behalf of
the victims suggests a real will to do all we can to
protect the innocent. But, sadly, the trial of
Travyon Martin reminds us, once again, that our black and brown children must prove their
innocence every day. We cannot change the
situation by simply finding the right legal
strategy. Unless we challenge the entire criminal
justice system and mass incarceration, there will
be many more Trayvon Martins and a constant dread that one of our children might be next. As
long as we continue to uphold and defend a
system designed to protect white privilege,
property and personhood, and render black and
brown people predators, criminals, illegals, and
terrorists, we will continue to attend funerals and rallies; watch in stunned silence as another police
officer or vigilante is acquitted after taking
another young life; allow our government to kill
civilians in our name; and inherit a society in
which our prisons and jails become the largest,
most diverse institutions in the country.

Robin D. G. Kelley, who teaches at UCLA, is the author of the remarkable
biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (2009)

Update on UBA Africard:
Used this card to make AED2000 (equivalent of US$546) withdrawal on ADIB ATM in Dubai mall. It worked, and I got immediate alert on my phone -UBA deducted 90,413 Naira from my account.

@OP
If its a valid visa, call your agent to get the contact of the Korean guarantor. Also get copies if the notarized invitation letter. Check your visa status. If its a C2 that means you got a business visa. If C3 -tourist/visiting visa. As a Nigerian, you need a guarantor for a tourist/visiting visa. If you don't have the Korean guarantor contacts, then don't bother wasting flight fare to Korea. Immigration wouldn't waste a minute with you. They'd call your airline to take you back immediately.

If C2, you must know what your korean guarantor wrote on the invitation. They will call him or her and ask what you're buying, and at what price. They will also ask you the same. If both answers are different, bye bye to entering Seoul. Secondly have sufficient fund as a business man.

In Seoul, there are places where you'd find Nigerians. Most folks are in Itaewon and Habangchon. There you can get a cheap motel for 20$ a night. Make friends, someone will introduce you to a factory or warehouse job. Salary ranges from 1.5 million won ~ 2 million won (1800$) depending on the factory. If your visa is a 30day visa, then go to immigration at city hall to get a full 90day visa at the cost of $25.
The issue you'd have is getting residence. That's up to you. There are different routes : student, investor, marriage ( locals or expats). Local will be a bit easy if you are fine and have some swag. Investor route requires 100,000$ foreign direct investment. Student visa is difficult... Working and schooling is hard!!!!

justwise: [/b]

That just means all the forgeries and cleaning are just pointless and silly, if the holder can still be caught at the airport.

[/b]

That is exactly why its difficult for some Nigerians to get a job in the position of trust, we always look for away to by-pass legitimate system.

The whole thing is ridiculous, why would anybody buy forged visa then pay some fraudulent individuals at the embassy to 'check' it unofficially while applying directly to Korean embassy cost as little as $30?

Dude, his visa might not be fake? That's why he wants to get it verified.

$30 doesn't get him a Korean visa without a korean guarantor to provide the necessary documents :tax clearance, signed guarantee form, employment history, publicly notarized invitation, ID copy etc.

All forgeries are not pointless and useless, because many have used them to board planes and seek "aduro" on arrival. Is right or wrong? Well, ask them dudes who used ''em in early 90's to Japan, Europe and America, chop "aduro", now either permanent resident or citizen.

What are you going on about fraud? Having someone at embassy check if visa is valid or not is fraud? Please! Having someone in jamb/waec check your result is fraud?

Well, the truth is there are visa agents. Some help you get a valid visa for a fee, some put a fake visa for a fee.
Op has a korean visa in his passport. We don't know if his visa is valid. Op doesn't know if visa is valid. He paid for the visa. He wants to travel out of Nigeria. What does he do?

Go to the consulate to do what exactly?

Well, only at the Korean embassy and at port entry can he check the visa number validity. Since I am neither a hacker, nor with access to embassy database, the best I can suggest is going through the guys working there to check if he has a visa application file. They keep mOst the visa application files.
At the consulate in banana island, they have huge stacks of applicants file at the reception room. Nigerians are working at the reception area. They can help him check unofficially.

justwise: You still don't get it, if the forgers clean the name and the expiry date, how about the visa number and the water mark? Will the forger be able to change all that?

Go to the consulate to do what exactly?

Dude, someone sold this guy a Korean visa with his name and passport number on it, and, as I assume, valid for 90 days. Now he wants to know if the visa is fake or real.

All Korean visas have the same generic watermark, hologram prints, and stencil prints on them. So forgers won't bother these features. If that visa is fake, then all the forgers did were to clean the names, passport number and issue/expiry date of a used Korean visa, and type the op's passport data onto the cleaned visa leaving the visa number intact. It's simple! Thats how it's done in TBS. When I mean "clean" don't think of photoshop gimmicks. They phyically clean the typing on the used visa and retype on it with new data. If you put it under mercury light, it will pass. But how they detect this reprints is with a magnifying glass to check the prints, or at port of entry when they put the visa number in the system.

justwise: So from the photocopy you will be able to see even the security features?

My friend, it's not about the security features. All forgers have to do is use old/ used visa, clean the name, issue and expiry date, re-type op's data on the used visa as a new one. But where they will have a problem is typing Korean fonts. That's what I want to check, if they scanned it or they typed it. Secondly from the visa number (which is not typed), it's possible to know when it was issued. Typical visa number NJ8006167 - visa issued in 2008.. If all these checks and others pass, he could then go to the consulate. Simple!

justwise: How will you do that? Will the op send you a copy of the visa or the passport itself?

A copy of the visa, just to compare with the ones in my passport; check the remarks (mostly written in Korean).
If the sticker is the same with what I have in passport, he could further verify the visa by visiting the consulate.


@ op. read the pidgin english part of my post.

Well, for south Korean visa, you don't have to appear for visa. Someone can apply for your visa.

Anyway, I can help you verify the visa. I will compare with the ones I have in my passport, or give you the contact of my friend at Lagos consulate near banana island.

Note:
1. South Korea visa doesn't hv applicants photo on it.
2. Visa number starts with NJ for Abuja, LG for Lagos
3. It's written Republic of Korea, and not South Korea at the top.
4. Check the remark section to see the name of your Korean sponsor.
5. The visa is stenciled "KOR" all over it so that it's not easy to peel from the passport page.

Caution:
Having a Korean visa doesn't guarantee entry. On arrival at Inchon, you have to go through interrogation. They will call your sponsor. He has to be your guarantor. They will search your bags for drugs and clothing label-If you have lived in Korea illegally and gone home to do "U" turn with a new passport, you might have somethings to show , clothes, coins, name cards etc. sometimes they will ask you question in Korean, just to see your reaction. Finally, your funds. How much you have on you will determine if they'll let you into town or call your airline to take you home

Is the Government of Nigeria’s Homophobic and
Anti-Human Rights Rhetoric the Real Threat to
Moral Order in the Country?

Homophobia in Nigeria by IJEOMA EKOH

According to Nigeria’s Ministry of Information, its web portal was attacked on July 4th by a “group” of gay rights activists, who were ostensibly hoping to successfully fight Nigeria’s anti homosexual rights laws by ambushing its
governmental portals. As the special assistant to
the minister of Information, Joseph Mutah, puts
it, the attacks were attempts to not only “promote” homosexuality in the country but also
to “blackmail” Nigerians into abandoning their
commitment to a “highly cultured and religious
society.” Admonishing the group to lawfully
campaign for queer rights through the
institutions of Nigeria’s “robust” democracy, Mutah warned the gay rights villains that
Nigeria’s government would not succumb to their
immoral whims since the majority of its people’s
remain “overwhelmingly opposed to the
imposition of gay rights and marriages as
practiced in other countries.” Now one might be tempted to laugh out loud at
the preceding press release, as there are certainly
reasons to find it amusing. For instance, there is
the issue of Mutah’s assertion that Nigeria is a
“robust” democracy despite a deeply entrenched
culture of vote rigging, gross human rights violations, corrupt and ineffective legislature and judiciary. One would have to suspend disbelief in
order to embrace the idea that although Nigeria
remains a country where most citizens lack access
to electricity and the internet, gay rights activists
could electronically subvert deeply entrenched
homophobic attitudes to “promote” queer rights by compromising its web sites, if only for a few
hours. Yes indeed! For Mr. Mutah and his ministry
there are big bad gay bandits lurking around
menacingly on the Internet hoping to change
Nigeria’s anti gay culture instantaneously and
compromise the country’s high moral standards. But perhaps the biggest reason why one might
find all this satirical is that it signals the first time
the Nigerian government appears very much
committed and invested in representing the will
of the people. Yes, Mr. Mutah is right! Although
the majority of Nigerians are in dire need of three square meals a day, electricity, drinking water, security from domestic terrorists and a more rigorous guarantee of their human rights, they are also “overwhelmingly” homophobic.
And to this end, its ever-prudent government has chosen to disregard the people’s more urgent
material needs to prioritize its human rights
denying will. It has in an unprecedented display
of bowing to the presumed desire of the people
passed a repressive legislation that could
imprison homosexuals for up to 14 years. More scarily, they have given moral licence to the
continuation of the type of jungle justice that was recently practiced in Imo state where a number of individuals accused of being gay were stripped
naked, tied up with rope and paraded around the
community. Indeed Mr. Mutah and like-minded
officials are continuing Nigeria’s noble tradition
of maintaining an exemplary commitment to the
principles of democracy and human rights! Yet this author urges all to hold their laughter. If
only because Mutah’s deployment of democratic
rhetoric while simultaneously justifying the
denial of democratic rights to a segment of the
population is worrying and should be for every
Nigerian committed to the principles of human rights. Indeed despite signing on to the United
Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the continued violation of the human rights of homosexuals means that Nigeria’s
government cannot be relied upon to protect the
inalienable rights of all its citizens. What is more, the attack on queer rights ought to
be seen by Nigerians of good conscience as part
and parcel of the human rights violations that
characterize the daily lives of most Nigerian
citizens. The culture of impunity enjoyed by the
titans at the top of the Nigerian food chain against ordinary people is the same one that
legitimizes the attack on the human rights of
LGBT members of the national community. My
fellow–Nigerians, the oppression of queer
people is bound up with your human rights and
should not be seen as alien and different! Martin Luther King was right on with his bold
declaration that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere. We are caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single
garment of destiny. Whatever affects one
directly, affects all indirectly.” But if one needs further reasons to hold their
mirth, another look at Mutah’s pronouncements
is also helpful. What does Mutah mean when he
asserts that Nigerians will not accept the
“imposition of gay rights from abroad”? Why,
one may ask, is a presumably educated Nigerian official with access to enormous resources and
the world wide web, reproducing the now
debunked fable that homosexuality is a western
and an un-African import? Should we at best,
view Mutah’s pronouncements as a commitment
to ignorance; or at worst an attempt to miseducate the people, a state of affairs already
facilitated by his government’s neoliberal policy
of disinvestment in public education? Whatever
the case may be it behoves me at this juncture to
recommend the book Boy-wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities, edited by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, on
the matter of homosexuality and Africa. It should
help dispel the seemingly stubborn idea that
homosexuality was brought to Africa by the
Europeans much like Christianity, elaborate
“white” weddings, and the white wigs worn by our esteemed judges. And what about the oft deployed argument,
explicit in Mutah’s pronouncements, that
guaranteeing basic human rights to homosexuals
is a threat to moral order in Nigeria? Although,
we have all come to expect irrational statements
from Nigerian politicians dressed in grandiose language, one must still wonder as to the basis
for such declarations? Since homosexuality has
been demonstrated to be as African as Mutah
himself is and has always existed in Africa, to
what extent does the notion that it threatens
Nigeria’s “highly cultured and religious society” rational? One could only believe this assertion if
one is partial to the false premise that
homosexuality is un-African. If one does not
pander to the “out-of-Africa” thesis, how can the
decriminalisation of homosexuality now threaten
Africa if it has always been on the continent? And where homosexuality has been legalised, in what
ways has it threatened the society’s moral order?
Perhaps Mutah, the Ministry of Information, the
federal government and like-minded people in
Nigeria should enlighten us as to this special
rubric that they use to measure morality in which Nigeria apparently ranks higher than the rest of
the world? To conclude, the bottom line must be that
Mutah’s rhetoric and the current climate of
extreme homophobia in Nigeria is far from
humorous. Indeed if the federal government’s
recent rejection of the United Nation’s
recommendations on the human rights of LGBT people is anything to go by, the only people that
might be laughing are those Nigerians that
erroneously view the guarantee of basic human
rights to homosexuals as distinct from their own
human rights. Congratulations to the morally upstanding and
virtuous national legislature for successfully
distracting the people from the manifold social,
political and economic issues that undermine
their quality of life and actually threaten the
country’s moral order. Ijeoma Ekoh is adoctoral student at York University (Canada) and Director at We Are
From Ihe.

The China-US 'Brotherhood'
By Pepe Escobar

The fifth round of the US-China Strategic and
Economic Dialogue began this Thursday in
Washington. This China-US "Brotherhood" does
involve a lot of talk - with no perceptible action. US
Think Tankland is trying to convey the impression
that Beijing is now in a more fragile position relative to Washington compared with the post-financial
crisis environment in 2009. Nonsense. It's as if the ongoing NSA (global) scandal never
happened; Edward Snowden exposed how the US
government has turned against its own citizens
even while it keeps spying on virtually the whole
planet. Then there's the meme of the Chinese
economy being "in trouble", when in fact Beijing is launching a
long-reaching, complex strategy to calibrate the
effects of a relative economic slowdown. Finally, the supposed "aggressive Chinese
behavior" in terms of Asian security is just spin.
Beijing is building up its navy, of course - yet at the
same time both China and selected members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations are fine-
tuning their tactics ahead of multilateral talks about a code of conduct for any serious problems in the
South China Sea. Beijing would be foolish to go for
diplomacy of the gunboat variety - which would
certainly attract a US countercoup. Bogged down, all over Beijing has clearly interpreted the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization's "liberation" of Libya - now
reverted into failed state status; US support for the
destruction of Syria; and the "pivoting" to Asia as all
interlinked, targeting China's ascension and devised
to rattle the complex Chinese strategy of an Eurasian energy corridor. Yet it does not seem to be working. As Asia Times
Online reported, the Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline may well end up as IPC, "C" being an extension to
Xinjiang in western China. Beijing also knows very
well how the proposed Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline
has been a key reason for the emphatic attack on
Syria orchestrated by actors such as Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and Turkey. Beijing calculates that if Bashar al-Assad stays and the US$10 billion pipeline ever
gets completed (certainly with Chinese and Russian
financial help) the top client may end up being
Beijing itself, and not Western Europe. Considering its strategic relationship with
Islamabad, Beijing is also very much aware of any
US moves to stir up trouble in geo-strategically
crucial Balochistan in Pakistan - with a possible
overspill to neighboring Sistan-Balochistan province
in Iran. In parallel, Beijing interprets US bluster and intransigence about Iran's nuclear program as a
cover story to upset its solid energy security
partnership with Tehran. Regarding Afghanistan, the corridors at the
Zhongnanhai in Beijing must be echoing with
laughter as Washington backtracks no less than 16
years, to the second Bill Clinton administration - an
eternity in politics - to talk to the Taliban in Doha
essentially about one of the oldest Pipelinestan gambits. "We want a pipeline" (the Turkmenistan-
Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, TAPI), says
Washington. "We want our cut", the Taliban reply.
This is politics as Groundhog Day. The problem is Washington has absolutely nothing
to offer the Taliban. The Taliban, on the other hand,
will keep their summer offensive schedule, knowing
full well they will be free to do whatever they please
after President Hamid Karzai slides into oblivion. As
for the Washington notion that Islamabad will be able to keep the Afghan Taliban in check, even the
goats in the Hindu Kush are laughing about it. It's all about Syria Syria, though, remains the key story - as the pivot
of a spreading cancer, a Sunni/Shi'ite sectarian war
largely encouraged by the House of Saud and other
Gulf Cooperation Council actors, and bought hook,
line and sinker by the Obama administration. It took a courageous diplomat to leak it, plus
translations from Russian to Arabic and then
English, for the world to have an idea of what
politicians actually discuss in those largely
vacuous, photo-opportunity summits. What Russian
President Vladimir Putin told Obama, Britain's David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande
face-to-face at the recent Group of Eight summit in
Northern Ireland is nothing less than gripping.
Examples: Putin addressing the table: "You want President
Bashar al-Assad to step down? Look at the leaders
you've made in the Middle East in the course of
what you have dubbed the 'Arab Spring'." Putin addressing Obama, Cameron and Hollande:
"You want Russia to abandon Assad and his regime
and go along with an opposition whose leaders don't
know anything except issuing fatwas declaring
people heretics, and whose members - who come
from a bunch of different countries and have multiple orientations - don't know anything except
how to slaughter people and eat human flesh." Putin addressing Obama directly: "Your country
sent its army to Afghanistan in the year 2001 on the
excuse that you are fighting the Taliban and the al-
Qaeda organization and other fundamentalist
terrorists whom your government accused of
carrying out the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. And here you are today making an
alliance with them in Syria. And you and your allies
are declaring your desire to send them weapons.
And here you have Qatar in which you [the US]
have your biggest base in the region and in the
territory of that country the Taliban are opening a representative office." The best part is that German Chancellor Angela
Merkel then corroborated Putin's every word. And
Chinese President Xi Jinping certainly would have
done the same. Keep weaving that net, brother Even if the Obama administration's bright idea of
selecting the "good" rebels to be presented with light
weapons would work (and it won't; in a war theatre
the real hardcore fighting forces - as in the Jabhat
al-Nusra-style gangs - end up laying their hands on
the best weapons), there's no evidence that Bashar al-Assad's forces will fold. On the contrary. There will be a push to reconquer
all of Aleppo - already in progress, as well as a push
southward to Daraa to secure the border with
Jordan; petro-monarchy-fueled weapons to "rebels"
in southern Syria go through Jordan. Rumors of
"overextension" are greatly exaggerated; this can be accomplished in stages. Russia, meanwhile, will keep playing a very clever
game; ensuring essential weapons to the Syrian
government while ready to deliver even more lethal
stuff in case Washington decides to step up its
weaponizing. And then there's the whole Muslim Brotherhood-wide
mess. Al-Akhbar has deliciously detailed how the House of Saud virtually destroyed Qatar in Egypt -
as well as in Syria. It's never enough to remember
that the House of Saud supports backward Salafi
parties in Egypt and weaponizes backward Salafi
fighters in Syria. In Egypt, meet the new boss - Saudis and Emiratis -
same as the old boss - Qataris. Before he recently
decided to self-depose, Emir al-Thani spent as
much as $17 billion on assorted Arab Springers,
most of it for Morsi in Egypt. Now the House of
Saud has already offered $5 billion, and the Emirates $3 billion. None of them have obviously
been reading on this site the views of Spengler -
who has proved that Egypt, much to the regret of
their wonderful people, will remain a banana republic
- without the bananas (see Islam's civil war moves to Egypt , Asia Times Online, July 8, 2013.) The bottom line: Beijing is betting it will win in
Pakistan, in Iran, in Syria (it's already winning in
Iraq), in Pipelineistan, not to mention in the South
China Sea, while Washington will be entangled in its
own Brotherhood net. "Fragile"? You wish. Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

Nigerians! Why we dey vex when person criticize us and our ways of life. This guy is on point. How a thieving few go impoverish the rest of us? I have no answer to this question. But somehow I think the answer lies in our attitude: we too dey praise mediocrity ...someone posted pictures of renovation at Lagos international airport. Many latched on praising GEJ. I saw the renovation at the same airport two weeks ago ... It's tawdry . It doesn't befit a nation producing 2.28 million barrels of oil a day at 98$/barrel compared to UAE's 2.9 million a day. Google Dubai airport, Abudhabi airport; you'll see development on a desert at 50 degrees heat. Still at this temperature, the cities have pipe-borne water. Which city in Nigeria has pipe-borne water? They desalinate their water drawn from the sea.. But we get the water for free underground -no desalination required, yet many have no tap water.

Them go come on Nairaland dey praise all these shallow leaders. Blaming the devil for our common ills. I thought with these churches at every corner, the devil should have left Nigeria a long time ago. There are mosques at every corner in the UAE with people praying as hard as Nigerians -five times a day. But I don't see much of the devil's deeds here except for the ones our 9ja runs girls dey carry enter all in the name of hustle. Though hot temperature, fever no common for here. Na desert, but nobody get rushed to hospital for thirst or dehydration. A big bottle of Eva water costs only 66naira eqv, the same size cost 120naira in Lagos.

The thing be say we no dey try at all. we dey praise government for spending billions of Naira to put a satellite in space. Whose benefit? Light no dey... What's the use of the satellite in the sky? Some praised the government for restarting the rickety old trains... Why not spend that billion we all have in acquiring a maglev train that will convey masses in a short time from north to south, east to west. There are bullet trains. Why buy rickety stuff just to show the folks you are bringing development when we can buy the best technology out there.

In short, I don tire. I give up!

@ All, I will visit the driving institute this week. Y'all should expect my updates.

Here's a serious one for the house? I turn on the shower hot water is gushing out even with my geyser off. I know it's like forty something degrees out here, but how are you guys able to manage this bathing issue?

I wonder why the media spins Africa as a hot place.. Men! This UAE heat na die! 9ja no hot reach here....well what about Kano - northern Nigeria ?

ogakpatakpata: l don't know how it works in Ajman, but l had a friend who got his in Dubai and it was really expensive, he had to register with a driving school and he did (in-class + road test) altogether he did about 40test and spent about 5000dhs, l hope this helps you.........alternatively , consult with a driving institute in Ajman.....

40 tests? That must have taken years just to get a license. Anyway, I spoke to some dude at Tamadon driving school in Ajman. He asked me to bring along a copy of my Nigerian driver's lincense.
@house, how y'all coping with the extreme heat here? It's like 50c outside, damn!

Hey fellows. Has anyone gone through getting a drivers license in Ajman? I'm thinking of getting a car here 'cause taxi is expensive.

The Media and Syria by PATRICK COCKBURN

Damascus. Every time I come to Syria I am struck by how different the situation is on
the ground from the way it is pictured in the outside world. The foreign
media reporting of the Syrian conflict is surely as inaccurate and
misleading as anything we have seen since the start of the First World
War. I can’t think of any other war or crisis I have covered in which
propagandistic, biased or second-hand sources have been so readily accepted by journalists as providers of objective facts. A result of these distortions is that politicians and casual newspaper or television viewers alike have never had a clear idea over the last two yearsof what is happening inside Syria. Worse, long-term plans are based on
these misconceptions. A report on Syria published last week by the
Brussels-based International Crisis Group says that “once confident of
swift victory, the opposition’s foreign allies shifted to a paradigm dangerously divorced from reality”. Slogans replace policies: the rebels are pictured as white hats and the
government supporters as black hats; given more weapons, the opposition
can supposedly win a decisive victory; put under enough military
pressure, President Bashar al-Assad will agree to negotiations for which a
pre-condition is capitulation by his side in the conflict. One of the many
drawbacks of the demonising rhetoric indulged in by the incoming US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and William Hague, is that it rules
out serious negotiations and compromise with the powers-that-be in
Damascus. And since Assad controls most of Syria, Rice and Hague have
devised a recipe for endless war while pretending humanitarian concern
for the Syrian people. It is difficult to prove the truth or falsehood of any generalisation about
Syria. But, going by my experience this month travelling in central Syria
between Damascus, Homs and the Mediterranean coast, it is possible to
show how far media reports differ markedly what is really happening.
Only by understanding and dealing with the actual balance of forces on the
ground can any progress be made towards a cessation of violence. On Tuesday I travelled to Tal Kalakh, a town of 55,000 people just north
of the border with Lebanon, which was once an opposition bastion. Three
days previously, government troops had taken over the town and 39 Free
Syrian Army (FSA) leaders had laid down their weapons. Talking to Syrian
army commanders, an FSA defector and local people, it was evident there
was no straight switch from war to peace. It was rather that there had been a series of truces and ceasefires arranged by leading citizens of Tal
Kalakh over the previous year. But at the very time I was in the town, Al Jazeera Arabic was reporting
fighting there between the Syrian army and the opposition. Smoke was
supposedly rising from Tal Kalakh as the rebels fought to defend their
stronghold. Fortunately, this appears to have been fantasy and, during the
several hours I was in the town, there was no shooting, no sign that
fighting had taken place and no smoke. Of course, all sides in a war pretend that no position is lost without a
heroic defence against overwhelming numbers of the enemy. But
obscured in the media’s accounts of what happened in Tal Kalakh was an
important point: the opposition in Syria is fluid in its allegiances. The US,
Britain and the so-called 11-member “Friends of Syria”, who met in Doha
last weekend, are to arm non-Islamic fundamentalist rebels, but there is no great chasm between them and those not linked to al-Qa’ida. One
fighter with the al-Qa’ida-affiliated al-Nusra Front was reported to have
defected to a more moderate group because he could not do without
cigarettes. The fundamentalists pay more and, given the total
impoverishment of so many Syrian families, the rebels will always be able
to win more recruits. “Money counts for more than ideology,” a diplomat in Damascus told me. While I was in Homs I had an example of why the rebel version of events is
so frequently accepted by the foreign media in preference to that of the
Syrian government. It may be biased towards the rebels, but often there is
no government version of events, leaving a vacuum to be filled by the
rebels. For instance, I had asked to go to a military hospital in the al-Waar
district of Homs and was granted permission, but when I got there I was refused entrance. Now, soldiers wounded fighting the rebels are likely to
be eloquent and convincing advocates for the government side (I had
visited a military hospital in Damascus and spoken to injured soldiers
there). But the government’s obsessive secrecy means that the opposition
will always run rings around it when it comes to making a convincing case. Back in the Christian quarter of the Old City of Damascus, where I am
staying, there was an explosion near my hotel on Thursday. I went to the
scene and what occurred next shows that there can be no replacement for
unbiased eyewitness reporting. State television was claiming that it was a
suicide bomb, possibly directed at the Greek Orthodox Church or a Shia
hospital that is even closer. Four people had been killed. I could see a small indentation in the pavement which looked to me very
much like the impact of a mortar bomb. There was little blood in the
immediate vicinity, though there was about 10 yards away. While I was
looking around, a second mortar bomb came down on top of a house,
killing a woman. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, so often used
as a source by foreign journalists, later said that its own investigations
showed the explosion to have been from a bomb left in the street. In fact,
for once, it was possible to know definitively what had happened, because
the Shia hospital has CCTV that showed the mortar bomb in the air just
before it landed – outlined for a split-second against the white shirt of a passer-by who was killed by the blast. What had probably happened was
part of the usual random shelling by mortars from rebels in the nearby
district of Jobar. In the middle of a ferocious civil war it is self-serving credulity on the part
of journalists to assume that either side in the conflict, government or
rebel, is not going to concoct or manipulate facts to serve its own
interests. Yet much foreign media coverage is based on just such an
assumption. The plan of the CIA and the Friends of Syria to somehow seek an end to
the war by increasing the flow of weapons is equally absurd. War will only
produce more war. John Milton’s sonnet, written during the English civil
war in 1648 in praise of the Parliamentary General Sir Thomas Fairfax,
who had just stormed Colchester, shows a much deeper understanding of
what civil wars are really like than anything said by David Cameron or William Hague. He wrote: For what can war but endless war still breed? Till truth and right from violence be freed, And public faith clear’d from the shameful brand Of public fraud. In vain doth valour bleed While avarice and rapine share the land.

PATRICK COCKBURN is the author of “Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq.

THE ROVING EYE
Qatar's love affair with Syria
By Pepe Escobar

This is the ultimate "Friend of Syria". But what is
Qatar really up to? Word in Doha is that Qatar may
have spent as much as a staggering US$3 billion to
make sure "Assad must go". Yet he hasn't gone
anywhere. Even the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin
Khalifa al-Thani, deposed himself this week, to the benefit of his son, former "heir apparent" Tamim Bin
Hamad al-Thani (see We are all Qataris now, Asia Times Online, June 26, 2013). But Bashar al-Assad
stays put. What gives? Qatar has spent a fortune weaponizing the myriad
Syrian "rebel" factions, buying everything from
stashes in Libya to new stuff in Croatia, flown as
cargo and distributed by Turkish intelligence (there's
an alternative weapons flow by Sunni Lebanese
connected to the Saudis.) The chief weaponizer is a Qatari general. Doha has dispatched Qatari Special Forces on the
ground - just as in Libya - to advise "their" favorite batch of
rebels. Crucially, these Special Forces are
experienced instructors. They are not Qatari; they
are Pakistani - as detailed in this must-read dossier. It goes without saying that these Pakistanis hail
from the same tradition of schooling of the
mujahideen in the 1980s and the Taliban in the
1990s. We all know what came out of it. Asia Times
Online has extensively reported that Syria is the
new Afghanistan - but now with extra bonus jihadi gore, developed in the Iraq war, such as suicide
bombing, beheading and intestine-eating. It's no secret most of the rebels are mercenaries -
usually paid $1,300 a month directly by the Qataris,
with an extra $1,000 if they carry out a special ops.
Quite a few have also developed a secondary career
as YouTube videos uploaders, the weapon of choice
in Arab networks (not to mention Western) to prove how "evil" the Assad regime is. Alongside Washington, Doha also perpetuates the
myth that CIA operatives help to vet these rebels -
with the Supreme Military Council collecting all the
weapons and organizing the distribution. Anyone
who believes this believes Saddam Hussein's
WMDs are on sale on eBay. Moreover, the Syrian embassy in Doha is unique in
the world - as it's entirely populated by "rebels".
Hardcore Qatari lobbying forced the 22-nation Arab
League - which is now, essentially, the Gulf
Cooperation Council League - to hand over Syria's
seat to the rebels. The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) - the latest, messy, rebel political outfit - was
announced in, where else, Doha in November 2012.
Depending on the Arab latitude involved, the Qatari
agenda is depicted as either uniting or dividing the
SNC. The only element that remains stable is Qatar's
foreign policy directive of denying nothing to the
Muslim Brotherhood - as in, for instance, support for
the al-Farouq brigades, who, in theory, control a few
suburbs of Aleppo. Caught in a trap With the ascension of Tamim, the new emir, the key
question is whether this orgy of weaponizing,
truckloads of money, hardcore lobbying and
diplomatic cover has translated, or will translate,
into any tangible benefits for the emirate. The simplistic official storyline spun by Doha is that
the emir and his son advised Assad not to repress
the initial Syrian protests in early 2011. But then,
just like that, he decided to "kill people" - in the
words of former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim,
also known as HBJ, conveniently uttered at a Brookings Institution talkfest. What's not admitted is
that Doha jumped at the opportunity of Syria
becoming the new Libya - when Qatar literally
opened the skies for bombing by the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. To follow corporate Western and Arab media, one
might be excused to think Tamim is the New
Messiah. He has been incessantly hailed as "The
Arab Spring monarch", so "young" and "modern", a
jogger, an auto and sports enthusiast, and proud
enabler of two "accomplished" wives already.

He's more like the emir of the Muslim Brotherhood
Spring - considering his very close ties with
extremely sectarian superstar al-Jazeera tele-cleric
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has for all practical
purposes called for a jihad against Alawites and
Shi'ites in Syria. The sheikh is one of Tamim's top consultants. It's also no secret that Qatar's foreign policy
essentially takes its orders from Washington. There
are nuances, of course; Qatar may have convinced
the Obama administration to align its foreign policy
with the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Obama
administration may have taken this reckless decision by itself. Tamim may have convinced the
Taliban to open an office in Doha by himself, or he
may have followed a "suggestion" from the Obama
administration. The fact remains that Tamim meets
all the time with State Department and Pentagon
stalwarts. And he is also in charge of those precious weapons contracts with the US and also France. Then there are the fractioned relations with the
House of Saud. Word in Doha is that Tamim was
responsible for initiating the 2010 strategic dialogue
with the Saudis. He is formally the president of the
Qatari-Saudi Higher Council. This means he's
always in touch with Saudi intelligence supremo Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz who, apparently, was
a big fan of the Qatari handover. It's no secret as
well that the true power behind the handover was the
awesome Sheikha Mozah, Tamin's mom. The Muqrin connection does make sense because
the House of Saud absolutely loathed the relatively
flamboyant HBJ - not to mention being extremely
suspicious of the previous emir. The HBJ gang has
been more or less sidelined in Doha. Tamim
appointed Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa bin Nasser al- Thani as the new prime minister. From now on HBJ
will be engaged in life in the fast lane in London
managing the multi-billionaire Qatar Investment
Authority. Not a bad deal. It's unclear whether Qatar's influence in Syria will
continue to be that prominent. Now everyone knows
the CIA is amassing a formidable weapons stockpile
in Jordan to be handed - via its "elaborate" vetting
system - to hundreds of trained-by-USA "good"
Syrian rebels only. Jordan and the Emirates are being propelled to the privileged frontline, with the
Saudis supplying loads of portable anti-aircraft
weapons. Qatar may be left weaponizing just a
handful of inconsequent militias. This remains to be
seen in August, with an already much-advertised
rebel attack on Damascus. The proxy war is bound to become even more
horrific. And there's no guarantee Assad will go. The
"young and modern" emir of the Muslim Brotherhood
Spring may soon reach the conclusion he is caught
in a trap of his, and his father's making.

atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-280613.html

illitrate: I noticed that in every country where rebellion exist, aljazeera is always side
by side with the rebels reporting activities and accusing the government of killing
innocent civilians.

Bro, this is very simple: The rulers of Qatar own Aljazeera. Qatar is strongly supporting Syrian rebels with cash and arms. So Aljazeera is with the rebels.

Remember, he who pays the piper, calls the tune.

The Perils of Western "Democracy" From Ethiopia to Mali
" Divide and Rule in Africa"

by THOMAS C. MOUNTAIN


Divide and rule is a law of imperialism and
western style “democracy” is how imperialism
implements this law in neocolonial Africa. It’s
called “elections” and with it’s winner take all
diktats division, conflict, ethnic cleansing, mass
murder and civil war are the results. Traditionally in Africa’s villages decisions and
conflict resolution takes place using a consensus
system with no absolute winners and losers, with
all parties agreeing to the final decision and
honor bound to carry it out. Just the opposite of
what happens after “elections” in “democratic Africa”. The dishonor roll of “African Democracy” a.k.a.
bought, rigged or stolen elections must begin
with Ethiopia, where the ethnic minority regime
declared themselves victors 12 hours after the
polls closed with 99.6% of the seats in
parliament. Second place could go to Liberia, where the
capital Monrovia has not had running water or
electricity for the entire term of Eleanor
Johnson’s Presidency, she who ran unopposed
the last “election”, and won a Nobel Prize to
boot. In third place, maybe second place really, stands
Somalia, where there simply was no voting done
by the Somali people, the entire parliament
which “elected” the President was hand picked by
the previous President. Fourth place? Maybe Libya where Al Queda
militias run rampant and it doesn’t really matter
who won the latest “election”, it is all about tribe
and family and ties to the local warlords, sort of
like Somalia really. Fifth place is being reserved for the “victor” of
the Malian “election”, scheduled to be held in the
midst of an ongoing counterinsurgency with
thousands of French troops still occupying the
country. Sixth place goes to Cote D’Ivoire where under the
international communities supervision hundreds
of thousands of non-Ivorians were allowed to
vote (never mind the Ivorian Constitution) and
then declared the World Banks local rep as the
winner (again, never mind the Ivorian Constitutional Court who declared the
incumbent President the winner). And when the
incumbent wouldn’t cede power as demanded,
rocket his Presidential residence courtesy of the
French military and UN “peacekeepers” until
shellshocked into surrender. Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burundi, Congo, Central
African Republic…insurgencies and rebellions
everywhere and the foremost demand of Pax
Americana and its western vassals is “elections”. Of course there is one country in Africa that
doesn’t have elections. It is also the African
country with the smallest debt to the IMF and
World Bank and one of if not the fastest growing
economies on the continent. According to a nearly opaque World Bank report
this country has tripled its GDP since expelling
western aid organizations in 2004 and the UN
“peacekeepers” in 2005. Can one even name
another country in the world that expelled an
entire UN “peacekeeping” army? I am talking about Eritrea, 22 years independent
and no elections. And you know what? When I
raise the question of “elections” with my Eritrean
family and friends, both at home and abroad, (I
am the only one who raises this, I cant remember
the last time an Eritrean I knew did so) they have little or no interest in the subject. If I persist, the Eritreans will tell you that the
thought of “elections” only brings with it visions
of divisions and conflict. Most everyone here in
Eritrea supports the President and the feeling is
pretty clear we don’t need westerners telling us
what’s best. In other words the only people calling for
“elections” in Eritrea are not Eritrean. Democracy is supposed to mean that the leaders
of a nation do what their people want. Most Africans will tell you what we most want is
food, water, shelter, medical care and education
for our children. If a country’s leaders are providing these basic human rights to their people they are doing what
their people want and practicing democracy. If
they are not, if their people are hungry, cold, sick
and illiterate then these leaders are not democratic no matter how many times they hold “elections”. Democracy vs elections is how matters stand inAfrica today, and it all boils down to who is cold, sick, hungry and illiterate and who has leaders taking care of their people, first and foremost, those most in need. Elections in Africa means divide and rule,followed by crisis management, managing the western created crisis to better loot and plunder
Africa’s resources, everyday more critical in a
world ever more rapidly devouring such.

Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent journalist in Africa,
living and reporting from Eritrea

www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/18/divide-and-rule-in-africa/

There's no HOPE for this country. See the people wey they rule the country. A bunch of king kongs! Rowdy as hell! Folks! It ain't gonna get better with these retards running affairs for all of us. Don't they remind you of 'em agbero hustling bus drivers at bus stops?

And these retards on here supporting Jang for trying to rig an election that appears fair, and thanking GOD for such effort? What a country? I guess I would have to ditch the hope I have for the country. It ain't getting better. And I reckon it won't. These old coons will do what ever to have a strangling hold on the country. And the worst is that young lads on here are still reasoning like the old farts!

Lord, I give up!!

Truckpusher: Coming from a Nigerian ,i wouldn't be surprised after all an average Nigerian that leaves the shores of Nigeria antagonizes the country especially with all that subtle emotional blackmail you get from your white masters and the new found freedom from wants and basic necessities of life.

The corruption y'all keep shouting about has always been encouraged by these western nations,......it's like a man that accepts loots from a thief and uses it only to turn around and call him a thief whenever the going gets bad.

FYI all the criminal bullish nations parading themselves as world powers should know one thing ,there were powers before them and they all fell and their case wouldn't be any different.....They can try as much as possible ,i can assure you that Nigeria will not fragment let them keep dreaming we'll only hurt but we'll not fall.

Look! Look around you. What has improved? The people still got no steady electricity except they power their homes themselves.. The people still got no water from the state, they drill their water. The roads are horrible, unfortunately they can't build their own roads. Believe me if they could do all by themselves they wouldn't be hoping these dumb leaders change things here. TELL US, what has changed? We still can't refine our fuel! We still can't make toothpick! We can't build roads without JB n CCECC! We still dont have good education! We still don't have good and affordable health care! We still havent got a national airline. We still dont have a welfare system to carter for the poor! We haven't curbed insecurity! We still can't halt the pollution of the Niger delta ! We have NOTHING! We are angry and we can't take It anymore!

All we have is an unstable country with an ignorant in charge!

^^^^ Nah, despite their education, it's all about the money for these guys.

Y'all trying desperately to turn the story around. This ain't about US.... It's about Nigeria, goddamn it! Whine on, and forget to look inward. Blame it on the yanks. But mind you they(USA) got steady light, water, health care, security, and you got NONE!

I am commenting because it seems paid gov't agents are having a field day on the forum. I can't bear to read them praise a failed gov't.
Guys, Nigeria's gone to the dogs. I don't have any hope, not now, not in 2015! There's absolutely nothing that gives joy in this shithole of a place. No light, no pipe-borne water, filthy roads, polluted air, insecurity.. It's endless! Even the smallest emirate -Ajman, with no oil can boast of steady light, pipe-borne water, smooth road etc. Look at Nigeria, a shame! Horrible place made worse by dickheads in charge. They keep inventing old, failed policies to loot.
When y'all drive home, look at those faces at the bus stops. They are SAD, ANGRY and OPPRESSED! Because the corrupt leadership don't give a fvck about them!

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 77 percent of women in Nigeria use skin-lightening products, the world’s highest percentage. That compares with 59 percent in Togo, and 27 percent in Senegal. The reasons for this are varied but most people say they use skin-lighteners because they want "white skin".


http://aljazeera.com/story/20134514845907984