Is it Time for an African Spring?

Can the winds of change, perennially seen as superseding political barriers, truly transcend?
Can authoritarianism, cloaked in the thin veil of democracy, continue to deceive both a willing world, and the unwilling, unlucky participants caught in the crossfire?
Can power and vested interests, when so firmly entrenched, ever yield?
Recent history paints a startlingly contrasting answer to this multifaceted question; but we must ask-why does this work for some, and not for others? Why id Mugabe still firmly in control of Zimbabwe, and country he has devastated, while Mubarak is being wheeled into trial in a nation in which he oversaw at least some measure of progress and human development enhancement?

What are the tools that are used to preserve power?
What is the threshold of ruthlessness that must be crossed in some, but not other nations?
And why is this threshold permitted to be crossed with some populations, while violent upheavals and revolutions result in others?
What is the dividing line of humanity, what is the tipping point of collective action?

The BBC's Jimmy Kainja states that, "...an African Spring in the exact fashion of the Arab Spring would signify a step backwards - not a step forward...I previously argued that "the protagonists of the Arab Spring have more to learn from their sub-Saharan Africa counterparts than the other way round. The majority of sub-Saharan African countries peacefully did away with one-party-rule in the 1990s.""

The majority of countries in the region "did away with one party rule in the 1990's." This statement is both true and completely false; truth, a thin veneer painted on top of a reality of lies. The tide towards authoritarianism is increasing with time; the initial movements away from one party rule were in response to Western demands, back by structural adjustment loans and financing; they were not indigenous revolutions, indigenous movements; and thus, they have never been more than thin lip service. The governmental systems in most nations exist to serve the vested interests of a few; democracy and democratic elections acts as a trough for political patronage, not for the distribution of public goods to the majority of citizens. These vested interests are also the ones reaping the fruits of the newly energized economic growth of the continent, not the ordinary citizens, who continue to the blindly neglected and untouched by the hand of the state. And how? Governments have become adept at limiting the coordination goods, the ability of opposition groups to coordinate and scale dissent through strict media and political controls. What we have in nations such as Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia, is not democracy; development and progress, but surely not democracy. What we have in nations such as the DRC, Zimbabwe, and Angola is kleptocracy, not democracy. What we have in nations such as Mozambique and Kenya is limited progress, with vastly entrenched vested interests reaping the fruits of economic growth; democracy, with very limited development. 

I agree with Kainja that developing strong democratic institutions is the best way forward to establishing true democracy; however, this is simply not happening, has not happened, and is promising not to happen in many nations (there are certainly exceptions, Ghana and Liberia come quickly to mind). What, then, is the answer to a Mugabe, who shows no sign of relenting?

Kapuscinski

"The population of Africa was a gigantic, matted, crisscrossing web, spanning the entire continent and in constant motion, endlessly undulating, bunching up in one place and spreading out in another, a rich fabric, a colorful arras."
-Richard Kapucinski

"The Adventurer has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible."
-Conrad

Insecurity Ruminations

Insecurity is manifest to the human condition, whether this insecurity is found in the external circumstances of ones lives, internally due to psychological stress; this insecurity can be, and is, the combination of these specific factors. When applying a logical, "Western" academic framework to human insecurity in humanitarian/conflict situations, it is important to bear in mind our own psychological conditions, our own mental insecurities, and understand how these translate into our concern and our constructs for others' insecure physical situations. Important parallels can link physical and mental insecurity; these conditions are often thought of as outside our control, as something we must bear witness to, suffer through, however humanely or inhumanely this suffering might be; we, and they, are commonly seen as observants in the grand mechanisms of suffering; however, this is a rather simplistic view, one that takes the impetus away from action, from examination, whether this be self-or-other examination, and change as a result of this critical investigation.

A Long Term Solution

"Hatred will never cease by hatred." 
-Maha Ghosananda

Reading of the continued tribal/ethnic violence that has been wracking the newly independent nation of South Sudan in the last weeks; marauding groups of heavily armed warriors, seeking "retribution" through the barrel of a gun, pillaging, killing, stealing. My immediate intellectual response is to investigate: whose interests are really being served by these actions? Are there greater manipulations occurring at the hands of elites? Who is benefiting and who is losing from these actions? Though this might seem straightforward, there are often hidden and deeply powerful motives being served by violence; I do not believe that this case is an exception.
What these motives are, I am not certain, my only sources of information are Al Jazeera and the BBC; their inherent biases must also be taken into consideration; their lack of contact with villagers, embedding with national army units and UN units who have their own interests in the conflict, whether that be in prolonging it for self-perpetuation, or in ending it in the name of national and international harmonization. Thus, we must analyze the motives, the elite and organizational interests at play in this new struggle, while be careful not to overlook the most obvious explanations, which, in the wise words of the past, are often correct.
What manifests here is multi-faceted; as a result of decades of war and Western/Chinese/Malaysian/Indian involvement (no guns are manufactured, to the best of my knowledge, in South Sudan) there is a proliferation of arms in this nation, where traditional tribal justice and conflict is historically consistent and significant, but has not resulted in the widespread death rates of the modern era due to the modern arms now involved. We have a new nation state, struggling to define its own international borders, facing an increasingly hostile Khartoum. We have widespread poverty, illiteracy, one of the poorest regions on the face of the earth. We have international interest in mineral resources that are found in multitude under the soils of this new nation state. But we also have a deeper ethos that needs to be examined, an ethos of violence, of the acceptance of violence as a legitimate means of conflict resolution, the vicious cycle of this violence, I am sure comprehended, but not heard, not heeded; this circle, this cycle of violence requires a definite end point, a clean break in the wheel, or it will continue to manifest, to perpetuate itself into the future, with devastating results for those who are always affected the most by conflict; the most vulnerable, the citizens caught in the crossfire.
What creates an ethos of violence, of violent, seemingly disproportionate, response? This is cultural, historical, as well as a factor that has been manipulated by outside players for centuries in their own vested interests; where this cycle stops, where visionary, non-violent leadership takes control of a situation and charts a new path into the future, is yet to be determined, obviously complicated by the fact that the national leader was, in fact, the rebel army commander, and that these messages of peace require information infrastructure to be disseminated, which is sorely lacking in this newborn nation.

What lies ahead is unknown.

Levi-Strauss and Mattheissen

"Perhaps, then, this was what traveling was, an exploration of the deserts of my mind rather than those surrounding me."

-Claude Levi-Strauss

"Between clinging and letting go, I feel a great struggle."
-Peter Mattheissen, The Snow Leopard

Reflections on Retreat

We sit,
like a mountain,
still,
strong,
closing our eyes,
the thoughts assail.
Pain and pleasure,
gain and loss,
seeking, being, becoming.
We stay seated,
watch the magical display of the mind,
with strength, silence, openness, receptivity,
invite in pain, fear, sit with them, bow to them,
and say, yes, this too.
We watch the fleeting nature,
the transitions that we spend our lives trying to chase,
to hold onto so tightly.
And we stop,
we sit,
like a mountain;
a smile forms on our silent lips,
an opening, a glimpse of silence, freedom, space;
still,
strong.

Blessings

"May i be a guard for those who need protection,

a guide for those on the path,

a raft, a boat, a bridge, for those to cross the flood;

May i be a lamp in the darkness,

a resting place for the weary,

may I be medicine for all who are sick;

A vase of plenty,

a tree of miracles.

May I bring food to the hungry,

and sustenance and awakening,

enduring like earth and sky,

for countless eons,

until all beings are freed from sorrow,

and all are awakened.

-The Dalai Lama's Boddhistava Vows