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Theresa May

Hildegarde The Arena
News junkies like this writer know and understand that across platforms, Western news agencies have for decades used the stereotype of poverty, disease, death, doom and gloom when describing the state of affairs in 99 percent of the African continent.

These are the stigmas that define the African narrative as each country, with the exception of less than a small number, is described as the poorest in the world, where people live on less than US$1 a day.

All these problems are blamed on poor governance. Inasmuch as Africa needs to put its house in order, the irony is that the very people that condemn it do not admit that they are part of the problem, and that they have worse challenges in some cases.

Back to the news narratives. Could these news organisations tell us what the hell is going on in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Europe? Despite the warmongering in other parts of the world, there are serious rumours of deadly war coming.

In the “Putin Interviews” with US film director Oliver Stone aired recently, Russian leader Vladmir Putin was asked: “In a hot war, is the US dominant?”

President Putin responded: “I don’t think anyone would survive such a conflict.” If there are no possibilities of war, why would that question even be asked? We are daily witnessing the escalation of tensions between these global powers, the most recent being the downing of some fighter jets by the US.

According to reports by news agencies yesterday: “A US warplane shot down an Iranian-made drone operated by pro-Syrian forces in southern Syria early Tuesday, officials said, in the latest incident in rising tensions between the two sides.

“It comes days after a US warplane shot down a Syrian government fighter jet in the north of the country, prompting a furious reaction from Russia . . . prompting Australia to announce it was suspending its participation in air missions over Syria as part of the US-led coalition . . .”

One online reader quipped: “The USA is hell bent for war. Get ready because it is coming soon.” A political analyst and former American intelligence linguist, Scott Rickard, told Iran’s Press TV that the downing of the Syrian jet by the US is as an “act of war”.

Rickard is quoted as saying: “Well, unfortunately, the United States has gone so far as to shoot down a Syrian aircraft and this is obviously a huge act of war. This is very similar to what happened with the Turkish military air force when they shot down the Russian airliner in Syria . . .”

All this is taking place as the United States refuses to get out of its election mode that started in 2015. The hostilities are being heightened by US President Donald Trump, whose major objective is to do away with some of his predecessor’s policies. Last week, Trump demonstrated that not only should the embargo against Cuba stay, but he believes that he can undo Fidel Castro’s six-decade legacy and the resilient Cuban spirit.

Many American presidents desired that, but it was only the 44th US president, Barack Obama, who realised that it was time Cuba became part of the family of global nations – in its own right. It was going to be an arduous journey, but Trump, who loves to show off his signatures decided to stall it. Only time will tell.

Macron and his one-party state

Remember the hullaballoo when the Zanu-PF Government in the 1980s wanted a one-party state? It is now history, but France’s recently elected president, Emanuel Macron (39), is being accused of creating a one-party state.

A May 14 headline by France24 said so. It read: “On the first day Macron created a party, on the second a one-party state.” To the analysts, this was the death of democracy since Macron got more than three quarters of the legislators who would just rubberstamp his policies. This was also a sham victory where a small percentage of the registered voters exercised their constitutional right.

But as fate would have it, while celebrating the humongous legislative win, in the past two days, Macron lost three cabinet ministers. On June 20, his defence minister, Sylvie Goulard, resigned “over a fake jobs scandal”. Her party is being investigated for using “European parliamentary funds to pay staff based in France”. She was followed by the regional development minister who set up Macron’s political movement.

Yesterday, was another bad day for the president who has been at the helm for five weeks since his justice minister stepped down on allegations of sleaze.

Yet, they are the first to point accusatory fingers on African leaders. What duplicity!

Terror attacks narrative

War on terror started in 2001, and to date, there have been several deadly terrorist attacks in different parts of the world. It would be foolhardy to argue that terrorism is non-existent.

However, the million-dollar question is why the past few months have seen accelerated attacks in major European and UK cities and towns. The past three weeks, in particular, have seen satellite TV stations being in permanent “Breaking News” mode. What is going on? Are we getting the truth in this terror narrative?

Some analysts believe that although some of the cases are genuine, there could be some attacks which are trumped up as agenda-setting gimmicks.

This could be true. This writer has been asking why those who monitor terrorist activities and the perpetrators have been mum about the whereabouts of the woman who made headline news in 2013 after the terrorist attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

British national Samantha Lewthawaite, also known as the White Widow, just vanished into thin air despite allegations that she was the brains behind the attack in which dozens of shoppers were killed, and despite claims that, at some point, she lived in South Africa using a stolen identity.

Theresa May’s Waterloo

Two weeks since the British held elections that saw Theresa May’s majority evaporating into thin air, the UK still does not have a government, and May’s days are numbered as each passing day brings disaster upon disaster on the doorstep of No. 10 Downing Street.

How about this for a newspaper headline when things look so gloomy: “PM May’s ‘zombie’ UK government unveils Brexit laws?”

And, it does not look like she will have a government soon, and we all wonder for how long her Conservative Party colleagues will accept this scenario. Some are already threatening that she won’t be premier for too long.

Apart from the terrorist attacks, it was last Wednesday’s fire at an apartment block in London that sealed her fate. When a fire kills more than a hundred people, and a government that prides itself in efficiency takes forever to respond to people’s queries and needs, you become a conspiracy theorist.

If that 24-floor tower block housed Caucasians only, would we have seen the deplorable lethargy from May?

There are audible calls for her “to go”. Yesterday was dubbed a “day of rage” when protesters said her speech in parliament this week will be the last. So, how long will she ignore the calls?

Organiser Karen Doyle told RT that the Grenfell Tower fire amounts to “mass murder” and the British government should be held accountable: “We are furious. We are so furious at what happened in Grenfell – potentially 100 lives lost from negligence and disdain of poor and immigrant communities. We want to take that anger to parliament and we want to say that this government has got to go. This is the day Theresa May tries to get back to business as usual and we’re not prepared to let that happen.”

Analysts have also been quick to point out that the fire engulfed the building because of the type of cladding used when it was renovated, but isn’t it surprising to listen to Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond expressing doubt about whether the cladding material was banned or not?

There are also claims that the fire started on the fourth floor, but it is an allegation that has not been explored. Isn’t this important information? We ask because we know that in that block of flats there were African Diasporans who need to be identified. Ethiopia has already said there are some of its citizens housed in the flat, that are not accounted for. Their families probably are not aware that they perished in the inferno.

But this chaos in Europe and the UK extends to Romania. Yesterday, the Romanian government lost power following a no-confidence vote in the prime minister.

It’s an understatement to call it a summer of discontent, and we remind our friends in the West: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”