AAMER RAHMAN: ‘DEMS VS GOP’ NO CHOICE FOR US

Here we are again. Another US presidential election is coming up in November, and we are back to the same old, same old: Democrats vs Republicans, Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, deadly foreign policy vs deadly foreign policy. But is the ‘lesser of two evils’ a real choice?

In this clip from comedian Aamer Rahman’s comedy standup tour in February in London, he relays to the audience the reality in which our people live. We are stuck in a system that only demands that we choose in the voting booth who will oppress us and kill people like us around the world. We cannot ignore the Biden administration’s role in aiding Israel in killing more than 33,000 Palestinians while it continues to play a covert role in aiding the displacement, hunger and murder of our people in the Sudan and the Congo.

Continued…. Our people’s unwillingness to back Biden is not an endorsement of Trump. With the system as it is, we find ourselves in a lose-lose situation.

But we need not despair. All around the world, people are waking up to reality and coming together to struggle for a better world. Through collective organised efforts, change is possible.

Do you support Joe Biden or Donald Trump, or do you think it’s time for something new?

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Nigeria is taking action over its meningitis crisis - becoming the first country in the world to roll out a new vaccine that’s widely hailed as revolutionary, as it offers protection against five strains of the disease.

It’s among the 26 African nations that have been deemed “meningitis hyper-endemic” by the WHO. In the last six months, seven of Nigeria’s 36 states have registered between them some 1,742 suspected cases, and counting. That includes 153 deaths.

Meningitis can be very deadly, especially in its bacterial form. It targets membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord. In the initial phase of the roll-out in Nigeria, some one-million under-30s will get the jab.

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WHEN GERMANY TURNED AFRICA INTO A LABORATORY

Colonial Germany’s genocide in Namibia is slowly attracting the attention long denied it. But the imperialist power also did despicable things in its East African ‘possessions’ that are even less widely known about.

One of its most revered scientists - Robert Koch, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on tuberculosis - used Africans, kept in concentration-like conditions, as guinea pigs for trials of a dangerous experimental drug for sleeping sickness.

While some might put it all down to the ‘bad old past,’ as African Stream’s Clinton Nzala here explains, some things haven’t really changed.

Would you agree?

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SWAPO’S FIGHT FOR NAMIBIAN INDEPENDENCE

Today marks a significant anniversary in present-day Namibia’s push for independence from apartheid South Africa. Sixty-four years ago, on April 19th, 1960, The South West People’s Organisation was founded. It campaigned to free what was then South West Africa, from oppressive rule.

In the aftermath of the First World War, South Africa was given a League-of-Nations mandate to administer the territory that was previously a German colony. However, citizens of South West Africa were not consulted sparking resistance from the start. Anger grew further when the South African racist regime exported its apartheid policies to the region. In 1966, the UN terminated the mandate given to Pretoria, but the apartheid regime refused to comply, prompting SWAPO to take up arms.

Continued…. For the next two decades, SWAPO waged a long and bloody struggle to free their homeland. They were supported by the armed wing of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), as well as Cuban and Angolan military. Eventually, their combined strength on the battlefield secured victory. In 1988, the South African regime was forced to accept a UN-brokered deal to withdraw its troops from Namibia and southern Angola.

The following year, elections were held, and SWAPO’s Sam Nujoma secured a resounding win. On March 21st, 1990, he was sworn in as Namibia’s first post-independence leader.

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TUNISIANS: MORE EU MONEY TO KEEP AFRICANS
OUT? NO THANKS!

Italy’s Georgia Meloni was in Tunisia on Wednesday for talks on curbing cross-Mediterranean migration. It was her fourth visit in less than a year. Among the agreements signed was a promise for 50-million euros in aid. It comes on top of last July’s splurge - 150-million euros for curbing migration and another 150-million euros for budgetary support for the debt-ridden country.

Europe’s externalisation of its borders - which has also included deals with Libya and Morocco - has benefitted corrupt government officials and traffickers, while exposing migrants to exploitation. There have been allegations of endemic police abuse, including extortion, violence and sexual assault.

Arrested migrants have been fined and deported for illegal entry - without regard to whether returning them to their countries would put them at risk of torture or imprisonment, which is a violation of the UN’s Refugee Convention.

Continued….. Tunisia last year forcibly drove more than 1,000 Africans into the desert, with reports numerous abandoned migrants died from heat and thirst.

Ultimately, the root causes of cross-Med migration remain unaddressed. Most make the dangerous journey to Europe in search of opportunities unavailable back home. The reason for poverty back home is European imperialism - from slavery and colonisation, to today’s neo-colonialism.

As Walter Rodney opined, the development of Europe was built on the underdevelopment of Africa. What Africa needs is reparations, not financial carrots to incentivise corrupt governments to do Europe’s policing for them.

Many Tunisians are unhappy about Tunis’s deals with the EU - and came out to protest Meloni’s latest visit. In this clip, one of them speaks his mind.

Do you agree with his sentiment?

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MADURO SHREDS WEST ON IRAN RETALIATION

The world is teetering on the edge of the abyss of a world war because Western powers have been unwilling to rein in Israel, said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In this clip from a fiery address given during a 15 April event to commemorate the first anniversary of @nicolasmaduro’s TV programme, ‘With Maduro More’ (@conmaduromas_), he dragged the West for condemning Iran’s 13 April retaliatory attack on Israel.

Continued….. What the West does not mention is Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Syria on 1 April, killing 16 people, including high-ranking Iranian military figures. The Geneva Conventions lay out the right of countries to host diplomatic buildings abroad as sovereign territory. Further, international law stipulates the right to proportionate responses to attacks. What would a Western country have done if a state attacked its diplomatic buildings?

This is hardly the first time the West has provided Israel with cover as it flagrantly violates international law. After the 7 October escalation in the 75-year Israeli occupation of Palestine, the US vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. In the meantime, the United States has shipped and flown hundreds of containers of arms to Israel, which has killed more than 33,000 people. The UK has conducted 50 spy mission flights over Gaza, and Germany has sent more than 10,000 tank shells to the Israeli occupation. 

However, the West’s days of dictating global affairs look to end soon, and this head-in-the-sand attitude carries a real risk of ending human civilisation.

Please share your thoughts.

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CLARE DALY: E.U. PRESIDENT A COMPLACENT PSYCHOPATH

Clare Daly, Irish member of the European Parliament, has long shown support for the Palestinian people. Since Israel’s bombardments and escalated siege of the Gaza Strip began on 7 October, Daly has criticised the United States and the European Union for their diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel.

A few days after European Union President Ursula von der Leyen condemned Iran for its retaliatory attack on Israel, Daly called von der Leyen a ‘gen*cidal psychopath’ in an 18 April address to the EU Parliament. The EU has provided Israel with aid while it has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians.

Was @claredalymep right to condemn the EU Commission president? Let us know in the comments.

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TRUMP NOT SORRY FOR WANTING INNOCENT BLACK TEENS DEAD

Five Black and Latino teenagers spent years behind bars for a rape and brutal assault that happened on this day in Central Park, 35 years ago.

They were all innocent.

During their trial, Donald Trump - then a New York businessman - took out full-page ads in a number of newspapers, calling for the death penalty to be applied.

That didn’t happen, but the Central Park Five, as they became known, each served between five and 13 years - before being exonerated in 2002, when the real attacker confessed.

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US VETOES UN RESOLUTION ON PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD

The US has used its Security Council veto to override - singly - the will of Algeria, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and other Security Council members to let the Palestinians have full UN membership. In all, 12 out of 15 voted for what would have amounted to recognising a Palestinian state. (Currently, the Palestinians have observer status.) The UK and Switzerland abstained.

Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the US used a person of Colour as their envoy to defend White supremacy. It previously used African-American Linda Greenfield-Thomas to veto a ceasefire resolution on Gaza. In the lead-up to the Iraq war, Colin Powell was used to present fabricated evidence to justify war.

Continued…. Many have long questioned the veto right held by the five permanent members of the UNSC (China, France, Russia, UK, US) - pointing out that it can be abused, un-democratically, to oppose the will of the majority (something particularly ironic - or hypocritical - in the case of the self-styled world champion of democracy!).

What are your thoughts on the issue?

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BALDWIN: ENSLAVED AFRICAN LABOUR BUILT U.S.

Reparations to Africans have long been a contentious issue. In this clip from a 1965 debate between author James Baldwin and US conservative writer William F Buckley at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, Baldwin paints a picture of how, through forced labour, Africans played a crucial role in building US wealth. The economic prosperity of the United States during its early years was inextricably tied to the institution of slavery, as the labour of enslaved people contributed to building industries such as agriculture, finance, textiles, and mining.

Continued…. The wealth generated through centuries of free labour laid the groundwork for the economic development and industrialisation that characterise the United States today.

The legacy of slavery—compounded by subsequent discriminatory practices, such as Jim Crow laws and ‘redlining’ neighbourhoods to mark areas meant for Africans—has prevented equal access to education, employment, and housing opportunities. That is why many say reparations are a means to acknowledge and address the systemic injustices that have hindered Africans’ economic and social progress in the United States. The consequences of these policies manifest today in higher incarceration rates for Africans, as well as a household wealth ratio of 20 to 1 between white people and Africans.

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AFRICOM GENERAL REVEALS REAL REASON U.S. IS IN AFRICA

Western media paints US imperialism as an altruistic initiative to bring democracy to savages too simple-minded to know who their enemies are. But, sometimes, the truth slips out, such as when US Africa Command (AFRICOM)’s General Michael Langley admitted why the United States holds a vast footprint on the continent. Apart from access to African resources, the presence of non-Western powers seems to be a problem for Washington.

However, history shows the West broke African society through slavery, colonisation and ongoing neo-colonisation for the past five centuries. Russia and China, on the other hand, do not have such a history.

What’s more puzzling is the West’s insistence on this strategy despite the messaging not attracting many adherents on the continent, not even from far more Western-leaning countries like Ghana.

Take a look and please share your thoughts.

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SA BANS BREEDING LIONS FOR TROPHY HUNTING

High-paying trophy hunters will no longer have South African lions on their kill lists after Pretoria banned the lucrative trade. Environment Minister Barbara Treecy announced on April 3rd that breeders of captive lions have two years to phase out their businesses before the ban takes effect.

South Africa has more lions in breeding farms (7,838) than in the wild (3,500). The big cats are bred for hunting, and as a substitute for tigers in traditional medicine. A study conducted by Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society (TREES) in collaboration with the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) revealed that foreign trophy hunters spend an average of $10,300 per hunting trip, excluding travel costs.

Continued….. The total economic contribution of trophy hunting to the South African economy is more than $130 million a year.

The 2015 killing of the famous Zimbabwean lion ‘Cecil’ by a hunter from the US led to global awareness of Africa’s ‘canned’ hunting problem, where animals are bred solely to be shot by wealthy foreign hunters. Critics say little has been done to curb the trade, and the impact on conservation efforts has been detrimental.

What you think of South Africa’s decision?

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TONI MORRISON: YOUR QUESTION IS POWERFULLY RACIST!

If you’ve never read any Toni Morrison, this short clip might just inspire you to. The Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist is known for her unmatched poise, authority and articulacy - qualities on display here, as she halts the interviewer in her tracks to call out the implicit racism of her question (essentially: why doesn’t Morrison write about White characters?). The interviewer is left shell-shocked.

What’s your reaction?

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