merHabatat Tomas and Mobae for joining our debate on Museveni. I have to
warn you, though, that you enter the arena at your own risks, as Sal is
getting pretty desperate and may be soon planning to unleash a
blitzkrieg left and right. Be prepared for the long haul!
Tomas, thanks for coming to my rescue, though THE ECONOMIST is not in
the top list of my favorite magazines -- too ultra-conservative for me.
In this instance, though, I will take my friend Sal's advice, and use
the "Economist" article for corroboration as "it is perfectly acceptable
to import [ideas from any source] as long as they work [for me]." See
how you can quote out of context and with slight fudging, and make
anything sound and look like you want it to? As you can see, I learned
that trick from Sal's esteemed Western press' longstanding tradition of
reporting on Africa:-)
But seriously, the "Economist" article must be given some credence. It
reminds me of a talk I once attended by the prominent American
dissident, Noam Chomsky. In emphasizing a point about how it is getting
difficult to rely for any truthful reporting from the Western
establishment media, he said something to this effect: One should
totally ignore the news as reported in the front section (section A) by
newspapers of record such as the New York Times, Washington Post, LA
Times, Wall Street Journal, etc., as all their reporting is mostly
corporate propoganda to manufacture consent and keep the rubble in
line. To get the low down on events of significance, one should always
go to the business section of these newspapers or refer to specialized
business or economic magaiznes. These reports must be accurate, as
corporate CEOs and Wall Street fat cats can't make investment decisions
based on lies, propoganda and distortions. They must get the real deal
of what actually is happening, without the standard journalistc
reporting with ideological filters. The cardinal rule in politics is,
according to the legendary Deep Throat (who actually brought about
Nixon's demise), if you want to know the truth FOLLOW THE MONEY!
I finally figured it out why Sal is resentful of Museveni. Sal and the
"Cowboy" have actually much in common. There was something bothersome
with Sal's vehement attacks on Museveni, until his last rebuttal to
mine opened my eyes to a commonality between the two. If you follow
Sal's postings since this whole debate started, he has been constantly
moving all over the floor like a butterfly. He is difficult to pin down.
First, with his anti-Rush diatribe, he had me thinking that he was
left-of-center moderate. Then with his quotation of The Who, I safely
assumed that he was, well, a Counter-Cutluture McGovernite. With his
qoute of that famous line from Marx, I was ready to redbait him as a
commie. Hardly have I started to prepare my defences based on these
assumptions, before the wily Sal does a double somersault and moves from
extreme left to the extreme right and starts waxing eloquent on
anti-big-government pro-free-market Reaganite/Thacherite/Gingrichite
rhetoric.
Sal justly deserves to be called "the Muhammad Ali of Dehai," as a
tribute to that legendary boxer's butterfly moves. Just like Museveni,
Sal can sure dazzle you with his suave dance moves on the floor and win
a debate with unuspecting opponents hands down. That's why he resents
Museveni -- because Museveni steals away the lime light from Sal by
using the same butterfly moves. The Ugandan "eminence grise" knows how
to manipulate the right buttons of the Western press, use their own
rhetoric against them, beat the Lords of Poverty at the World Bank and
the IMF at their own game, and turn around like a magician to show a
healthy economic report and a stable government. "So what," retorts
Sal, "Mussolini could make the trains run on time, too." Well, let me
retreive that from Mobae Afewroki's "No Parallel Analogy" file for a
moment (with your permission, of course, Mobae) and use my own "No
Parallel Analogy" to pummel Sal with his own stick. Sal, if you so
adrime Reagan, Thatcher, and Gingrich -- and it is a well known fact
that it is a short distance from Mussolini to the Three Stooges -- well,
then, ergo shouldn't you also like Museveni, whom you allude to as the
Mussolini of Africa! (Thanks Mobae, you can safley file that away in a
new folder of "Mounting Evidences Against Sal.")
Fortunately for me, I have woken up just in time to smell the coffee!
My hunch was furhter confrimed when I managed to fish out from my
Museveni file (quite thick by now, and still growing) the following old
wire report from Reuters. I was amazed at the similarity with Sal's
last posting, praising the now tired cliché of
big-governement-is-the-source-of-all-evil ultra-rightist line, which is
nothing else but a ploy by this neo-con politicians to hoodwink the
people while dismantiling public assests to dole them out to their
corporate sponsors. Unlike the legendary Robin Hood, these modern day
Robbin' Hoods rob from the poor to give to the rich. Without further
ado, ladies and gentlemen of the Dehai jury, I present Exhibit A as
evidence against the defendant Sal:
--------------begin Reuters article-------------------
UGANDAN PRESIDENT BLASTS AFRICAN BUREAUCRATS
DAR ES SALAAM, March 24 [1994] (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni blasted African bureaucrats on Thursday, saying they were the
main obstacle to Africa's economic growth.
"Bureaucrats have a propensity for dishonesty," Museveni told a meeting
of ex-students at Tanzania's Dar es Salaam University.
"African governments wrongly thought bureaucrats were the primary
producers of wealth. They are not," he pointedly told the ex-students,
many of them senior civil servants.
Museveni called for the formation of the African middle class to
spearhead economic production and said colonialists did great harm by
destroying the first stirrings of this class.
A former socialist pupil now deeply committed to World Bank-supported
economic reforms in his native Uganda, Museveni said the collapse of the
middle class hurt the continent.
"Capitalists always have vested interests in peace and have an eye to
the stability of their markets. We too can use them," he told cheering
crowds at the convocation.
He said it was time for Africa to stop clinging to the export of
traditional raw commodities, like coffee, on which many African
economies depend for hard currency earnings.
"Any old woman can produce coffee. As technology leapfrogs, demand
from the consumer is even less," he said.
He said East Africans were slow in tapping tourist potential, but added
the even Kenya, which boasted of progress, did not manage $500 million
in earnings compared to billions Spain made from tourism.
"You find silly laws like 'No photographs in this area' in Entebbe
(Uganda). Illiterate immigration officers ask tourists 'What are coming
to do in my country? Any relatives here?'," he said. "It has got to
end."
Museveni urged Africans to remove all obstacles to trade and cut
interference by Africa's bloated public service.
----------------------end Reuters article----------------------
Checkmate, Sal. may'do Seba?
Elias Amare Gebrezgheir
Lawrenceville, NJ
PS: Mobae, thanks for the kind words of welcome. Thanks are due to you
and other veteran Dehaiers for keeping the fire aflame. Eritreans in
the diaspora, and in the homeland too, can sure use a platform like this
for the civil discourse of ideas. I agree with you, Dehai is as good as
we make it; let's all use it wisely to build a democratic tradition of
free speech with responsibility.