Begin forwarded message:
From: Alamaine <fratl...@gra.midco.net>
Date: March 9, 2009 5:38:23 AM PDT
To: CTRL <c...@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ctrl] Caroline Sourt: Drug cartels in Guinea-Bissau are
reminiscent of the country's former colonisers |
Reply-To: c...@yahoogroups.com
Africa's first narco-state?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/06/guinea-bissau-drugs-trade
Guinea-Bissau hasn't seen much political stability since independence,
and
drug barons are making things even worse
Comments (3)
Caroline Sourt
guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 March 2009 07.00 GMT
Article history
The political turmoil in Guinea-Bissau cannot be blamed directly or even
indirectly on "the west" and its hunger for natural resources.
Contrary to
some of the comments posted on Norrie MacQueen's recent Cif blog,
Guinea-Bissau does not have oil, or anything else of great value to
industrial nations. Its biggest export is cashew nuts. Sadly, what
lies at
the source of Guinea's problems is shared by many countries on the
African
continent.
Guinea-Bissau has been independent for 34 years and during that time it
has had minimal political stability. Civil war and numerous coups have
left the economy of this small west African nation in ruin and the
country
is listed as the fifth poorest in the world by the UN.
It is an old story. Once in power, Guinea's leaders – President João
Bernardo "Nino" Vieira and the army chief, General Tagme Na Waie –
jostled
to shore up what they had and if possible, obtain more. In 1999, Na Waie
was one of the soldiers who removed Vieira from office and forced him
into
exile. But Vieira returned to Guinea and won elections in 2005, and the
subsequent divisions between the president and the army kept Guinea-
Bissau
in a permanent state of instability.
But there now emerges a much more sinister aspect to the tit-for-tat
assassinations of Vieira and Na Waie in February. The timed bomb used to
blow up the army chief points to outside influences, specifically the
Latin American drug cartels who are using Guinea as a transit point to
ship cocaine to Europe.
It is always tempting to blame former colonial powers (in Guinea-
Bissau's
case, Portugal) for the woes of the African countries they occupied, but
this acknowledges only part of the problem. Colonisers used ancient
tribal
feuds and the weakness they cause to their advantage with a divide and
rule strategy, and when they left, the divisons and fighting were
often on
a greater scale than before. Tribalism has been a factor in wars since
populations first began to divide themselves into specific groups.
Africa
is by no means the only place where people associate themselves with
their
community first and their nationality second: some second- and
third-generation Americans still do so, even in a country with a strong
sense of collective identity and nationhood. During the colonial period,
the violence was suppressed or at least controlled. After independence,
few countries – and certainly not Guinea – managed to pacify these
antagonisms.
Tribalism certainly played a role in the Vieira-Na Waie feud. Vieira
came
from the minority Pepel, coastal community. Waie and the majority of
fighters in Guinea's war for independance who are now in the army,
belong
to the majority Balante ethnic group that dominate Guinea's hinterland.
There are growing fears that Guinea-Bissau may become Africa's first
narco-state and the arrival of South America's drug barons – who are
using
the divide and rule tactics to great effect, as seen in February – has
been immensely damaging to the country's emerging democratic
credentials.
These tactics are unfortunately reminiscent of those used by Guinea's
European former colonisers.
Hope for Guinea-Bissau's future now lies on the shoulders of Raimundo
Pereira, the former speaker of parliament who was sworn in as the
country's interim president on 3 March. With international aid and
support, he has promised to hold presidential elections within 60 days.
With soldiers ever-present on the streets of Bissau, there is increasing
pressure for Pereira to begin reforms in the army, where 3,000 of the
4,500 soldiers are officers. But if Guinea-Bissau is to see any kind of
stability in the long term, the real battle will be to put an end to the
complicit drug trade.
--
... . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alamaine, IVe
"The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its
existence, rather a condition of it."
Friedrich Nietzsche
... . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, the material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research
and educational purposes.
------------------------------------
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
ctrl is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing
propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!
These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-
truths, mis-directions and outright fraudsis used politically by
different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the
spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, ctrl gives no endorsement to the validity of posts,
and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. ctrl gives
no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
There are two list running, c...@yahoogroups and
c...@listserv.aol.com, c...@yahoogroups has unlimited posting and is
more for discussion. c...@listserv.aol.com is more for informational
exchange and has limited posting abilities.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
Omimited posting abilities.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
OmYahoo! Groups Links
