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‘‘The world diplomatic front is a screen on which appears the apparent struggle between the Free World and the Communist camp….Behind it the real struggle goes on …’ Henry Kissinger (1955)1 This conflict in Ukraine has exposed the underlying features, previously hidden, of the contemporary world. Europe’s condition as a vassal state was expertly hidden but is now thoroughly revealed. This generates a question: what was the Cold War truly about? What were the US ambitions in Europe? To…
One of the first issues when reviewing critical commentary on the Ukraine war that must be noted is that among these critical parties in the West the context and behaviour of the neo-cons are described as either delusional or irrational. Their politics are seen as based on post-WW2 rhetorics. Col Macgregor repeatedly describes the Europeans and neo-cons as ‘crazy’, ‘delusional’, and full of ‘complete folly and disaster’ in his webcast:1 Two issues arise. First is that claiming the other…
Chinua Achebe ‘Father of African Literature’? One thing can be said about the literary intellectual class in Nigeria with certainty: it is close to bankruptcy. There is a world of difference between coffee room chat and serious intellectual discussion. Serious intellectual discussion requires some research and most Nigerians cannot be bothered with that. Serious intellectual research requires funding. Serious funding. This has not been available in Nigeria in any shape or form since the late 1980’s if not before….
Alex Mercouris in his presentation of 14 April 2024 1asks the question: Does Iran have the capability to develop hypersonic weapons … and then adds ‘by itself’? Alex’s has a curious assumption that Iran has to develop the technology on its own with exclusively national resources. This is a strange assumption as it has never been applied elsewhere. Let us start with the Manhattan Project. This project utilised scientists from all over Europe etc, for example from Hungary, Germany,…
‘O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!’ Walter Scott (Marmion 1808) Western psychohistory generates a complicated web of what becomes self-deception. But Western sceptics seeking justice also become entrapped in this. Western received history portrays the West as active and the rest of the wold as reactive or victims. This often misreads the dynamic of history and takes away agency from others. While many of us are appalled and outraged by the suffering…
At a fundamental level, the Nigerian political problem is straightforward but possibly insoluble. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the politicians showed such graft that the population revolted. The concept of governance was conceived as relatively straightforward. There was an existing economic and foreign policy consensus. This allowed the military to intervene. When the military played along with the consensus they had consent. When they went away from the consensus and ceased to build a consensus they began to rely…
I come to bury Gaza not to praise Hamas The evil that men do lives after them; In the newsreels and blog posts Whatever good is ever said of them is interred with their bones; So let it be with Hamas. The noble Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer Have told us Hamas was a terrorist organisation: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously has Gaza answered for it Through bombing and massacres. Here, under leave…
There is much that can be said about the Nigerian intellectual elite and its bankruptcy. First of all, there is the abiding sin of considering the country’s problems to be simple. ‘All we need are honest people’. Yet managing a company is less challenging than managing a country yet no one assumes that managing a large company simply requires only honesty! We need to evaluate the social conditions behind the ideology that dominates Nigerian intellectuals. The dominant ideology is…
Peter Zeihan talks about Nigeria in a talk titled ‘Nigeria, After America’1. This is an astounding exercise in complete ignorance. It seems that many in the Western geo-political talkspace have no time to study Africa or learn about Nigeria. We have David Oulaalou who knew nothing about Africa displaying this : ‘The rise of Sahel Alliance’ 2 where he thinks the recent revolts in West Africa are something new, having no knowledge of the liberation struggles of 60- 80’s….
https://images.app.goo.gl/umnFdah9yNF7qPCx7 Kingsley Moghalu: a deep shill for neo-cons and the ruining of the Nigerian economy Moghalu first of all shows himself to be a shallow thinker. He talks of US as based on freedom and liberty when as an African he ought to know it was based on slavery. He talks about replacing political appointees with technical specialists. This of course raises a question: technical people are also prisoners of political agendas. What we are looking for is…