Tony Chocolonely - slave-free chocolate

Slave-free chocolate, something different from Fair Trade chocolate and a very interesting story which had been going on here in the Netherlands. Teun van der Keuken (Tony) runs a consumer programme here and a few years ago he came across information which suggested that child slaves were being used on cacao plantations in West Africa, most importnatly in Ivory Coast, where a large proportion of the world's cacao production is located. These slaves are mostly boys/young men from the neighbouring countries of Togo, Benin and Mali from where they are sold into slavery, sent to the plantations and are treated verty very badly for little food and no money. This pracrice has apparently been confirmed by UNICEF and various independent research projects.

Tony decided that he would try to create a brand of slavery-free chocolate, avoiding, in the main any cocoa beans coming from Ivory Coast and tried to launch this at the premiere of Charlie and Chocolate Factory in London in 2005, but was prevented from doing so, leading to the commercial introduction of the Tony Chocolonely chocolate bar.

Taking the campaign further, he reported himself to the police for having knowingly consumed a product which was made illegally (i.e. by child slaves). The Dutch authorities refused to prosecute, saying they had other things to do with their time. In the meantime, he managed to upset quite a few of the large chocolate makers in Europe, with one (Nestle) saying that there is no such thing as slave-free chocolate. He was also very disappointed to note that so-called Fair Trade chocolate being made and sold by Max Havelaar in Holland also included cocao shipments from Ivory Coast which could NOT be guaranteed to be slave-free.

Anyway, during the trial, he was able to produce an ex-slave, one who was fortunate enough to have been able to run away who told the story of how he was sent from Ghana to Ivory Coast as a young man of 15, sent to work in the cocao plantations and was treated very badly. However the outcome of the process was that the Dutch state would allow him to call his own chocolate slave-free but he would not be prosecuted for knowingly buying a product which had been produced illegally. A pity, as it would have represented a major challenge to the large cocoa traders and chocolate makers if they were forced to protect their consumers by avoiding cocao harvested by slaves.

However, whatever else, it was a very brave attempt and a very effective way of publicising this problem.

Tags: Tony Chocolonely, slave-free chocolate, chocolate, slavery, Ivory Coast, cocao

Mother and child

Mother and child, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is a timeless image of a mother with child, this one taken on the banks of the Omo River in southern Ethiopia.
It is an image we found many times in Sicily in the religious paintings and frescoes in the churches, baby Jesus suckling at the breast of the Virgin Mary.

Whilst investigating this Sicilian phenomenon on the internet, I came across a book called 'Dark Mother - african origins and godmothers', which explains how 'the oldest veneration we know is of a dark mother of central and south Africa, whose signs -- red ochre and the pubic V -- were taken by African migrants after 50,000 BCE to caves and cliffs of all continents. The oldest sanctuary in the world was created in 40,000 BCE by African migrants at Har Karkom, later called Mt. Sinai, foundation place of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.''

It is startling, therefore, to find that, despite these beginning, these three religions have all officially turned their back on the goddess, all worshipping a distinctly male god.

However, as was very clear to us in Sicily, when we were there in 2004, many societies feel the need for the sacred feminine, thus the local practice there of worshipping Ceres/Demeter/Kore/Virgin Mary as evidence by an unending and unbroken stream of her representation in all sorts of art forms on the island, from small statues to great baroque masterpeices.

Tags: dark+mother, goddess, black+madonna, madonna, madonna+child, mother+child, mother+and+child, sicily, sicilia, italia, maria, virgin+mary, jesus, italy, religion, black, woman

Censorship and repression in Ethiopia

Downtown Sodo, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is an everyday scene from a town in Ethiopia, this one being Sodo, in the south of the country, a place we stopped off for lunch, after our coffee in Shashamane, on our way to meeting the boats at the Bele Bridge on the road towards Jimma, near the Sudanese border.

We spent five weeks in Ethiopia and during that time almost every single person we met and spoke to about politics was very against the government, especially as they seemed to have cheated on the first parliamentary elections ever held in the country, which were held earlier in the year. We had chiiling experince as well of the repression in Ethiopia, arriving in the capital a day after government forces had killed over 40 people on the streets and arrested many thousands more.

It seemed that the British Government reacted in an appropriate manner by ending friendly relations with Ethiopia, providing money only to non-governmental organisations in the country, by-passing the repressive government. Earlier in the year, the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi was a member of Tony Blair's Africa Council, looking at ways of helping Africa out of its many predicaments. Killing ones own citizens, locking up the opposition and journalists was not what Tony Blair had in mind and, by all accounts, Tony Blair feels very let down by these subsequesnt events

However, the mighty US sees Ethiopia as a Christian stronghold in a largely Islamic area and therefore a major ally in its self-declared War on Terrorism. So, again, as it had in Iraq and in various South American countries, the US prefers to support a "strong man" than be bothered too much about how such strong men treat their own citizens, while supposedly fighting for the forces of law and order. The Ethiopian Government have been given arms and training, while these very weapons are used against its own people. This is called pragmatic foreign policy, not idealistic foreign poicy (which is apparently what some people call Bush's policy with respect to ousting Saddam). I don't know which one is worse; surely there must be a better way to conduct foreihn policy.

There was a very interesting report in the NRC newspaper here during the week which reported how the Ethiopian Government tried to use the situation in Somalia to focus the people's attention away from the domestic situation, towards a so-called common enemy, namely Somalia, one of the poorest countries in the world. Hmmm... well, according to the NRC, the Ethiopians are having none of this and are feeling ever more betrayed by the West which continues to support Meles, the monster in charge.
Anyway, we have dealt with all this a number of times before on this blog. Just a couple of extra points to make:

1 there are two excllent reports on the Make Dictatorship History site, one from Reporters Without Frontiers and the other by Human Rights Watch, which detail the repression in Ethiopia

2 a visitor to this site, Mark, mentioned that the reason why we have not been getting any visitors to the blog from Ethiopia recently is probably because the Ethiopian Government has blocked access to blogspot. This possibility is mentioned in the Reporters Without Frontiers report on Ethiopia.

Eritrea seems to be just as bad, if not worse than Ethiopia, according to these reports, but at least the Eritrean Government is not receiving arms or support from the West, not that they actually want it either.

Tags: Ethiopia, Shashamane, africa, human rights, abuse, make+dictatorship+history, human rights watch, reporters without frontiers

Songs of Praise by African Head Charge

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was sent into town on a mission to find a CD version of Songs of Praise by African Head Charge, without success. Well today, having found out that Fred's turntable does not seem to be working (something wrong with the connection between the turntable and amplofier) I changed the paradigm and decided to connect the turntable, which I still have after 23 years, to the hi-fi system we have upstairs. I have always thought that there was no room for the turntable, but a bit of lateral thinking made me realise that we never use the casette player anymore.

Indeed, we never got into buying cassetttes, only taping off the radio (I still have numerous tapes of John Peel in the early 80's and a Queen session for Kid Jensen, although Fiona, my sister, DID tape over my Black session for teh same DJ). Anyway, this casette played has been taking up room in the cupboard, without ever being used, so it was time to remove that and place in the turntable on top of the CD player. There is a little bit of room to slide the records in and play them. So, before I knew it I was playing the old much-loved Songs of Praise LP, scratches and all and, my goodness, it has such a great sound.

The record was made years before its time, featuring as it does African chants, reggae, dub, Indian beats and gospel in a weird but wonderful mix which is such a pleasure to the ear. The titles of the songs on the LP are:
1. Free Chant (Churchical Chant of the Iyabinghi)
2. Orderliness, Godliness, Discipline and Dignity
3. Hymn
4. Dervish Chant
5. Hold Some More
6. Healing Father
7. Healing Ceremony
8. Cattle Herders Chant
There seem to be more tracks on the CD which was published, but having heard twenty second samples of them on an internet site, I do not think they really belong to the album, as their sound is quite different to the sounds and feel of the original album. Anyway, if you can get your hands on the album, it is highly highly recommended.

Sunrise on the Omo River

Sunrise on the Omo River, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

It is 07.41 in the morning and the mist is still in the Omo River valley, the brown waters of the river are streaming past from the mountains of western Ethiopia down to their destination in Lake Turkana in Kenya. The sun is peeping through and throwing its light on the western bank of the river, before it burns away the clouds and sets us up for a hot, bright sunny day, during which we will climb to the top of the mountains on the eastern shore to meet the first people we will have seen for three days, apart from ourselves.

Looking for country 100

This blog has been viewed in 99 countries this month, according to ShinyStat, the (excellent) Italian company which keeps track of visitors to this site. One of its countries is 'Others', which has visited 22 times, these are probably the tiny states in Polynesia or somewhere. This map-making software would have us believe that these 99 countries are just 43% of all the countries in existence, which means that there must be very many of those 'little'countries around.

We seem to have a very good reach, although not so much in Africa or Central Asia. I am surprised not to have had any visitors from Ethiopia or Eritrea, especially given the fact that we have discussed Ethiopia's involvement in Somalia many times and described our journey in Eritrea. Maybe the government censors are at work, these two governments being well known for being very/extremely repressive.

So, in order for us to get the hundred up this month, we need a visitor from Ethiopia, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana as places we have been, or maybe Paraguay which I visited in 2004. Or indeed, any of the other places where we have not been like Nicaragua, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Mongolia, Laos, Papua and New Guinea, Algeria, Tunisia or Libya or any one of the other hundred or more countries

A bar in Shashamane

A bar in Shashamane, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Across the border to Ethiopia now to Shashamane, a town lying south of Addis Ababa, which we went through three times, twice in the rain and once to stop for refreshments.

It is in the Rift Valley Lakes region of Ethiopia on the road down south towards Awassa and thence Kenya. It is a quite unremarkable place except for one thing. In 1941, the Emperor of Ethiopia granted 500 acres of land there to the Black People of the West, and in the next thirty years about 22 families came to settle there. Most of these came from Jamaica from the Rastafarian community.

These Rastafarians see Africa as their ancestral home, rightly enough, and have centred their beliefs on Ethiopia, due to references to Ethiopia and Ethiopians in the Bible, where these are taken to mean black people. Haile Selassie crowned as Emperor in 1930, with a lineage claimed (falsely without doubt) to go back to the Queen of Sheba came to the throne as Ras Tafari, from which the organisation took its name.

From the early 1930s, Rastafari in Jamaica have developed a culture based on an Afrocentric reading of the Bible, on communal values, a strict vegetarian dietary code known as Ital, a distinctive dialect, and a ritual calendar devoted to, among other dates, the celebration of various Ethiopian holy days.

Later on Bob Marley would go to popularise Rastafarianism with his inspirational music, loved and played all over the world, even though ot start with reggae did not have any direct association with Rastafarianism.

During the early 1990's I was very keen on a band called African Head Charge, mostly because of their excellent, classic album Songs of Praise from 1989, which I have on LP, but not on CD. Looking for it in the excellent music shops of Amsterdam today, I could not lay my hands on a CD, and back here the only copies seemingly available are a very expensive Japanese edition. I am not even sure I can download the music off any site, which I suppose is the main way of getting one's hands on music nowadays.This connects with Shashamane in that their 1993 album was called In Pursuit of Shashamane Land. Also good, but not quite as good as Songs of Priase.

Shashamane as a town does not have a very good reputation in the guidebooks. As we drove through we saw plenty of posters referrring to Bob Marley and the Rastafarians, but it seems the Rastafarians tend to live outside town. We enjoyed a coffee at this bar above and had a few minutes to walk around before setting off to catch our rafts down the Omo River.

The Shadow of the Sun

Berbera coastal plain, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Ryszard Kapuscinski dies

"Poland's most celebrated journalist and non-fiction writer, Ryszard Kapuscinski, has died in Warsaw, aged 74, after a heart operation. He made his name in Africa in the 1960s, where he was the Polish Press Agency's only correspondent. He wrote widely on wars and dictators, chronicling the last days of Ethiopia's Haile Selassie and the Shah of Iran. " - BBC news

He wrote the very excellent book, The Shadow of the Sun, My African Life, in which he recorded his experiences over 40 years a a reporter in Africa. His stories covered independence for Ghana, superstition in Uganda, a coup in Zanzibar, the genocide in Rwanda and starvation in Ethiopia, amongst others. Not always the most positive news to come out of Africa but he tells his stories with so much sympathy and attention to detail.

However, it is his stories of everyday life which are most enchanting auch as short stories about a camel herder in Somaliland, a day in a village in Senegal, life in 'his' alleyway in Lagos and what goes on underneath a tree.

One observation of his which sticks in my mind, and unfortunately I cannot find it in the book now, regards the introduction of plastic containers which he says is the one thing which more than anything has changed the lives of so many people in Africa. No longer do the women and children have to transport water in heavy vessels, mainly on their heads, but now they can strap water cannisters to a donkey and let them do the work. And this is very much what we saw when we were in Africa ourselves, donkeys everywhere strapped with yellow plastic cannisters bringing water from the well to the village (and often wood from the forests to the village).

He also talked about the phenomenon of seeing people by the side of the road, going somewhere, quite probably miles and miles away from anywhere, and with no hope of getting a lift and carrying very few provisions. Where are they going and where are they from, he asks? Indeed, it was a question, we too asked many times as we travelled the highways and byways of Africa.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone thinking of travelling in Africa, as it will heighten your experience of what you see around you.

Aerial bombardment of Somalia by US

Here we have an aerial relic of the 1980's namely a Somali MiG fighter shot down over Hargeisa, now being the centrepiece of the Victory Monument in downtown Hargeisa.

Today we have heard about aerial bombardment by the US on suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in the far south of Somalia. Rest assured, they were not using aircraft like this. Oh no, the aircraft used were AC-130's, heavily armed gunship that has detection equipment and can work under the cover of darkness and which have very little chance of being shot down by conventional arms.

I find the business very disturbing. For a start, the whole Al-Qaeda organisation seems to be at least a figment of its own and US propaganda than a real organisation, serving a purpose for both. But what is exactly membership of such an organisation? Do they carry cards ith a membership number? Or is it any Muslim group with terrorist purposes?

Secondly, as I have said before I think aerial bombing is a very cowardly way of going to war.

Thirdly, given that so many so-called Al-Qaeda operatives have been recruited and trained in Europe, de sthe US resrve the right to go bombing, say, university campuses in the UK if they have 'intelligence' of plotting of dastardly deeds there (because it certainly happens)?

Fourthly, Somalia now has an historical opportunity to make peace with itself, with the attention of the whole world, including even the new head of the UN (whose first task may be to sack the UN representative to Somalia (and Somaliland) a rather nasty piece of work named Mr Fall). The US, having encouraged the illegal Ethiopian invasion, has a large part to play in the reconciliation process, in which case the unilateral bombing of Somali sovereign territory is hardly the best place to start, esepcially when considering where they last left off.

Lastly, we have yet another example of the US bombing an Islamic country in a so-called war against terror but which can easily be seen, by those who want to, as a war on Islam.

Please let us have more emphasis on national reconciliation and less warmongering. Because before you know it, the much predicted counter-insurgency will become a reality, giving Somalis another ten or more year of violence and uncertainty.

Why the US should recognise Somaliland's independence

Early evening colours in Wadi Rum - facing north, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

I came across an interesting article on the web, through searching on the blogger bar above. Again it refers to Somaliland, discussing why the US should recognise Somaliland. My response was as follows (not published as I was not able to log on to that site):

"Thank you Professor Schraeder for this excellent article. Time has moved on a bit with regards to the situation in the south, with reports this morning that the US has launched an air strike, following the sweeping away of the UIC by joint TFG and Ethiopian troops.

The US is taking an active role now in the affairs of Somalia and the timing would seem to be perfect to push for recognition of Somaliland, either through the AU or unilaterally (hopefully with support of the EU, or EU minus Italy). Taking Somaliland out of the Somalia equation, not only rewards Somaliland for its efforts, but simplfies the task of the Somalis in the south.

Not only this, but at a time of what one hopes will be national reconciliation within Somalia, the example of Somaliland can be used as an illustration of how a democratic and pluralist nation can be formed in the context of Somali traditions.

One other practical way the US could help Somaliland would be to put pressure on its arch-ally, Saudi Arabia to lift the ban on import of livestock from Somaliland, the ban being politically motivated, not backed by any scientific or medical evidence that there is anything wrong with Somaliland's livestock. This would help kick-start Somaliland's improverished economy.

In addition, maybe a strong word in the Somaliland Government's ear that arresting and imprisoning journalists is not good democracy."

Go back to the deserts whence you came

Wadi Rum - passage in the sand, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

As Ethiopian troops fired into crowds of protestors in Mogadishu, it seems that the violence is escalating again. It is also reported that the number two of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wants to get in on the act by calling on Muslims to fight the 'crusaders' and respond to his call for a jihad. He called on Islamists to use suicide attacks, mines and ambushes against the government and the Ethiopian forces.

Thank you, but a jihad is the last thing which Somalia with already so much recenty history of war and strife needs. The country needs to reconcile and build a peaceful, pluralistic society, just has been achieved in Somaliland. This will not happen through the meddling of religious nutcases or terrorists like Al-Qaeda. The Somalis know this adn it is to be hoped that they have the courage to engage each other in nation building.

So humble, as I am, I call for those Al-Qaeda troublemakers to go back into the desert and leave countries like Somalia alone. It looks like there is plenty of space for them there. Just go and shut up.

Further., there seems to be no news of the journalists in Hargeisa, except that they have apparently been badly treated in prison by the police.

Alarmed!!!

Charles at Hargeisa Club, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

In the meantime, I am alarmed to read an article, published by Journalists Sans Frontieres, whereby it appears that a broadcaster in Baidoa, Somalia has been arrested and, more alarmingly, three journalists in Hargeisa working for the Haatuf newspaper, including the owner Yusuf Abdi Gabobe. Somaliland is supposed to earn respect from the world as a haven of peace, democracy and the rule of law. This sort of nonsense cannot be excused.

I am not exactly sure if this is the man, but his name is Baashe Abdi Gabobe, so a very close fit and he mentioned that he was owner/editor of Haatuf. He was kind enough to show us around Hargeisa when we were there, including the Hargeisa Club, where my parents used to spend so much of their time when they were living there.

The link I have on this blog is to Somaliland Times, an English language sister newspaper of Haatuf. The paper is often critical of certain actions of certain ministers and rightly so, if the stories are to be believed. It would be such a tragedy if Somaliland were to follow the road of so many African countries towards oppression, secrecy and dictatorship.

What IS going on?

Schoolchildren, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

The question is whether or not the residents of Mogadishu were cheering or not when the Prime Minister of the TNG rode into town with his Ethiopian sponsors or not.

War is always a time of much propaganda and there seems to be very much of it about when receiving news from Somalia these days.

One usually like to turn to the BBC in times like this but it has to be said that they have been very sympathetic to the cause of the UIC (Union of Islamic Courts) these past few months with many articles talking about how law and order and peace was brought to Mogadishu since they took control. Their first reaction was to talk about panic and rioting and looting going on when the UIC retreated, whilst other news agencies mentioned crowds cheering the Government forces.

My guess is that it was a bit of both, probably many happy to see the back of the extremists who had taken the re-introduction of Sharia Law too seriously whilst many others had no confidence in the TNG, being a gathering of ex-warlords chosen mainly outside the country with the support of Somalia's enemies, notably Ethiopia whose troops were used to push back into the capital.

Then the other main question is the extent to which the UIC really did represent a terrorist threat to the region and the world as a whole. The US certainly thought so and it was certainly in Ethiopia's interests to paint them as so. Although the UIC top did include a few who had been associated with terrorism before, notably Mr Aweys, there was also a large faction of moderates, allies to Mr Ahmed. As far as I could tell from following the reports over the past few months neither side was particularly in the ascendence.

Somalis (and I am amazed that all of a sudden the world media wants to call them Somalians, no doubt under the influence of the all-knowing Americans) are in general moderate Muslims with a strong non-Islamic traditions such as music and poetry. They are not naturally the extreme Arabist Wahhabi type Muslims, albeit a few of them, such as Mr Aweys have been infected by bthat poison. My guess is that given the chance and time, the moderate Muslim faction would have prevailed as the people would get sick and tired of the extreme wahhabi ways. However, it seems that they have not been given the chance. Instead the country has been taken over by puppets of foreign powers, some of which such as the USA have a distinctly anti-Islamic agenda and I can think of no better way to recruit extremists to the Wahhabi/jihadist cause than such a humiliation.

Going back to propoganda, none is more blatant than the labelling of the UIC as Islamic/jihadist terrorists, posing an imminent threat to neighbours and the rest of the world. It is interesting to see how if these people were such a threat how quickly they could be beaten. I have no idea myself about how militant the UIC really has been, although it was a bit silly of thenm to call on a jihad against Ethiopia nad all of Somalia's foes. I would not have taken this too seriously as they clearly had no capacity to carry out such a war and it sounded more like a rally to the cause than a serious threat. Still, given the world situatiuon, dominated by the US' war on terror, it was a very silly thing to say.

Lastly, the propoganda woulkd have had us believe that there were thousands of Ethiopian troops in Somalia with the TNG and likewise thousands of foreign, including Eritrean troops helping the UIC. Well, subsequent evenst have shown that there WERE thousands of Ethiopian troops whilst I have NOT read any reports of Eritreans or sundry Jihadists having been killed or captured by the Ethiopians/TNG. Again, my guess is that the story of Eritreans being in Somalia helping the UIC was a story put around by the Ethiopian Government in order to get popular support for their involvement, the rivalry with Eritrea being one thing sure to unite most Ethiopians together.

So there we have it, a web of confusion, lies and propaganda and it is all happening now. I have asked Fred if he might use this as a project for school, being more relevant than looking at World War One propaganda, which is what they normally do.

21st century wars of religion

Red is the colour!, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here we have some more 'Ethiopians', namely ethnic Somalis who live in Ethiopia on account of the way the British gave the Ogaden away to the Ethiopian emperor at the start of the 20th century.

Our local rag, Het Parool, had an interesting article about the Ethiopian aggression in Somalia talking about the Ethiopian government being dominated by the mainly Christian highlanders who oppress the 'conservative' Muslims of eastern Ethiopia (the Ogaden). Interesting that the journalist felt the need to use the word conservative to describe the Muslims, when the very same label could be attached to the highland Christians, hardly the most progressive people in the world.*

As it happens, the Ethiopian governemnt is not so much dominated by the highland Christians but a small clique from Tigray, the home of the warrior Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who seems to be as much hated by the non-Tigrayan Christians as anyone lese in Ethiopia. He is just a warlord wearing the cloak of democracy (through organising patently unfair elections, killing dissidents and imprisoning most of the opposition of dubious charges of treason). But he is a very clever man and knows very well how to keep the Americans on his side, painting himself as a Christian bulwark in a land surrounded by militant and undemocratic, if not terrorist, Muslims.

For this, he is given assitance to further oppress his own people as well as encouragement to settle old scores in Somalia. What is easier nowadays to accuse someone or some organisation of having links with al-Qaeda? And if one offers to stand up and fight, well bingo!, help yourself to all the arms, intelligence and 'military 'training' you want. You become defender of western values, an ally in the American war on terror and, if you are lucky, you can even get the United Nations on your side. In this instance, the UN security council seemed not to bat an eye-lid when passing a resolution to stop the embargo on arms to Somalia and to approve of the stationing of foreign 'peace-keeping' troops in Somalia.

Tomorrow, I will have a look at how the entry of the Ethiopian army and its puppet Somali government has been reported in the various media.

* - Just thought I ought to mention that our other paper, the more intellectual NRC Handelsblad did actually describe the Muslims of Ethiopia as mainly liberal. Class just shows through. Cancel that parool subscription!

Ethiopians attack Somali airports

Ladies posing, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

According to the BBC

Ethiopian jets have bombed two airports in Somalia in a widening operation against an Islamic militia group.
Jets hit the international airport in the capital, Mogadishu, and another at Balidogle, in the south of the country.

So the war has started in earnest, no doubt pushed on by the US, wanting to open up yet another flank on their war on terror. Again, an Ethiopian governement which is widely hated by its people and whose democratic and human rights credentials are almost the lowest of the low. Hypocrisy? Yes, as always and again the Somali people are suffering.

Ethiopia at war with Somalia

Posing, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here are a bunch of 'Ethiopians' from Jigjiga, albeit they are Somali people, living in what is land assigned to Ethiopia by the British over a century ago, namely the Ogaden.

Somehow, their Ethiopian government, which managed to stay in power by cheating last year, has decided that it can save Somalia from the grip of the Islamists of the UIC and have sent their troops into Somalia. They have also lobbied, together with their friends in the US, to have the arms embargo on Somalia lifted. The United Nations, which seems to know next to nothing about Somalia, and has agreed to the lifting of this so-called embargo which was never policed anyway. They are said to have about 8,000 tropps in Somalia.

They are in Somalia supporting the pretend government, a government which was formed outside the country in Kenya, consisting largely of representatives from the warlords who had made life for Somalis hell for the last 15 years or so. It is a government which spent its first year or so in Kenya before being eventually kicked out as they were just spending other people's money and not doing anything. It is a governement which has no or little general support within Somalia and one which had to find a town outside the capital, Mogadishu, namely Baidoa, to spend its time. It is a government which has no real right to exist or call itself government, except that it is recognised by the idiots at the United Nations and the African Nations sponsoring its existence, such as neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, both being countries in control of old Somali lands themselves.

It is this government which seems very happy to work with its backers, the (illegitimate) government of Ethiopia and is allowing foreign troops into Somalia to protect Somalia from the very peaople who have finally brought some measure of peace and stability to Somalia, namely the Islamic Courts.

Anyway, it seems as if the war has already started, judging by reports on the BBC, so this should make both the US and the United Nations very happy, however bad it is for the Somalis themselves. Shameful.

And I am sure war is nothing which ordinary Ethiopians want either, rather I am sure they would rather see the back of their own cheating murderous barbaric government, a government, which needless to say is supported itself by the self-proclaimed upholders of freedom and democracy, none other than the United States. Another bloody war on their hands.