Can history help us define British identity today, or is it part of the problem?

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Who do you think you are? Can history help us define British identity today, or is it part of the problem?

South Africa Rainbow Coalition seems to be working …….so far

President Thambo Mbeki of South Africa has consistent grown the economy for the last five years…. even after the Doomsday prediction that was the fashion then ,that the economy will collapse and the usual hurrahs from the Enlightened Right ,who always prevails with the status quo…Well so far..they are wrong. But really that is not the point.

This other weekend another bomb went off in Baghdad, some thousands of Iraqis died, 5 Americans and 2 Britons died, and the last two deaths is the news item. Iraqis body counts don’t matter in these things, but that is not the point, it is the pointless war, the(C) Prime Minister Tony Blair has dragged the British into in solidarity with her “senior” cousin across the ocean.

After the madness that was 9/11, The United States of America needed a war,any war, Afghanistan will not do, a big profile 4^th of July dance parade kind of War,Saddam walked into it, we all know that there were no weapon of mass destruction ,Saddam was just a two bit dictator with a bad p.r. department… heck what do you expect with clowns like “Chemical Ali” but Britain went into the War and are still bogged down in Iraq, with her master.

How times has changed. Britain the Empire that ruled over half the world at the height of her glory ,is now reduced to the lapping dog of neocon buffoons in Washington,DC ….

Britain was the last refuge of freedom loving people for the better part of the last 300 years, the Indians sent out of Uganda, the Hong Kong change over in 1997,the asylum seeking future prime ministers, the dissidents fleeing Russian now dismantled gulag, even the obnoxious French during Hitler’s War, name it ,Britain gave them succor and promptly betrayed them ,that obviously goes with the territory….

What about the colonies?

From Nigeria to Zimbbawe, Britain handed over to the parasitic elites in those countries, they empowered scoundrels, illiterates, unpopular candidates with the hope that they can always pull the strings of economic dictates from London (they still do); no colony was truly free of British manipulations

Take Nigeria ,a country of over 200 nations ,that had no reasons being together, with shoe strings it was bonded together and formed the largest black country on earth ,within seven years after her independence from Britain she fought a war and she has never been the same gain, her leaders (the ones agreeable to the British) were encouraged to loot the country blind………that may not be the point.

The Beatles were just four working class lads from the seedier side of Liverpool, they had to go to America to become royalties ,John Lennon, the Beatles front man was eventually gunned down in New York, not a few still think that he is a bona fide American hero…..even those who hadn’t seen Elvis in a while.

Britain in all fairness has done so much for the modern civilization as we know it more than any other people on earth ,she gave the world football and had only won the World Cup once ,Brazil where half the population go hungry daily had won it a record four times, a free country where human rights and the rights of individuals are a paramount pillar of the society but she runs a monarchy ,which is the basis for all inequalities on earth ,that people are not born equal …A lucky sperm and you are the Prince of Wales ,an unlucky sperm you are doomed in Finchley for generations, in Britain it is all about the rule of law but she has no written constitution.

by the way the Magna Carta was sealed by King John and his barons on a manic Monday of June summer of 15,1215

Her Oxfam has done so much for the Third World poor, but really they are poor in the first instances because the 3^rd World leaders are encouraged by The City to loot their treasuries in the first place, their leaders lived in the best neighborhood in Britain, but we give our widows mites to starving kids in Sudan, we encouraged Pinochet because he helped in the Falklands, but we hate oppressions and we cherish the rule of law……

Before the July bombings ,terrorism wasn’t such a big deal here, we somehow appease the Fundamentalists, we know some of those mullahs in those mosques were preaching intolerance, we were well aware that Heathrow was the gateway to the training grounds of Kabul, Sudan ,Yemen and other nearly failed states, but we believed erroneously and naively that by not antagonizing the fundamentalists ,they will never attack Britain ,we were wrong ,they attacked Britain.Afterall Maggie had Ronald Reagan to take care of such inconveniences ala Gadafi et al ,Blair now his Bush.

A nation that went to war in 1939, because some lunatic overran Poland, that lunatic would have been reined in much earlier if we had not been so British and wanted peace in our time, an ally that was aggressed, on her word of honour, to have descended to the depth of Clintonian speak politics, of polls and spins, where the end always justifying the means, we lost our moral banner as the leading light of the civilized world.

If Estonia overran Warsaw today, we would expect the US marines to help us with our press release, meaning waiting for George.W. mood swing and George W’s mood is an inverted fraction of Dick Cheney ,Laura and the twins and the old man in Kennebunkport.

We are really in a mess.

Britain couldn’t publish an ordinary cartoon ,which Denmark with lesser might militarily ,economically and politically did, Denmark choose honor over political expediency of the moment, if you must live in the West ,you must uphold the basic value structures of that society.

What exactly is our moral fiber as a people?

What has defined us most especially in recent times?

Maybe because of our need for unencumbered oil flow, Saudi Arabia, can annex the Cotswold.

Tony Blair will find a spin for it. We value our material comfort more than our spiritual and moral compass.

In recent past, Britain has acted like the 52^nd states of America, it has towed every policy double speak from White House, it might be more comforting if the politics of the present occupants of The White house has had the minutest tinge of statesmanship,but it usually diatribes of ill-thought ideas ,might is right WASP Virginia country state of mind of spoilt aristocratic oil capitalists, whose vision of the World is so narrow ,that they think Connecticut is West Of England. When Britain was under massive blitzkrieg of Hitler’s Army, she needed America but she still had values and respects, the World was readily behind Britain, because she stood for something, something intrinsically valuable to any civilized people of conscience and breeding, but can we say the same for today, even with having the Fourth largest economy on earth. Even with the FTSE doing so well, with the acceptance of Beckham and Posh Spice in high society, with Madonna speaking with an Etonian accent and being married to a local boy.

Something is still missing for such a matured civilization, we all agreed America is damned too young and too powerful ,Britain would have easily acted as a well mannered Uncle ,who has seen it all ,chaperon the mighty Joe around the china shop politics of oil ,two faced robbery of financial manipulation of Breton Woods and the obvious subjugation of every other race on earth, but she chose the role of a poor cousin ,always eager and ready for hand me downs .

Agreed most nouveau riche’ hardly listen to voice of reasons and restraints as the only World Super power is acting now, always towing the path of self destruction, but a firm word from most decent uncles has been know to do some goods, so if by 2050, China becomes the dominant power,we will all rush to learn Mandarin or Cantonese and our guy in 10 downing street say Euan Blair .will hurray every yeah of China?

The future look so near and it is ours to right it, if only ………… maybe that’s not the point.

Leonard Lawal,

Lagos, Nigeria.

+234-8068722749.

I AM NOT COMING TO DAVOS.

I AM NOT COMING TO DAVOS.

Those who know me will have a fit, laughing regarding the title of this piece.

He can’t afford Davos and possibly couldn’t get a corporate sponsor to get him to Davos.

So, they will say my not coming to Davos is not by choice, heck I am not even sure of a visa.

I am an African, from sub Saharan hell, those are people who actually need to network at Davos, but we are the orphans of the world.

Really.

Maybe really Davos has lost it lustre.Gone were days when Davos gathering were the Holy Grail, the mecca of the faithfuls of economic shamans, the Lourdes of hump backs and cripples looking for miracles in their country’s economic emancipation.

Who can forget the battle of Seattle so soon? No logo? Remember?

Statistics has shown that most of the WASP, Western English speaking nations dominating parley has consistently posted less economic growth than the behemoth of Asian erupting Mount Etna of economic growth. Most recently.

China has posted consistent growth in the last five years, Japan is not sleeping.

Take the Arab countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and others, they hardly rate mentions? But they provide the energy that fuels the economy of the West.

The norm amongst the uppity economic Moses of the West is that they still expect them to arrive on camels.

The United States of America is still building gas guzzling SUVs every year, without any obvious plan for alternative energy.

At Detroit car shows year in year out, Japan car makers keeps unveiling the next generation of cars fueled by alternative energy, I make bold that they already have a 10 year lead over the cars makers in the West.

I wonder how many countries they will have to invade in the next decade to keep the oil flowing from the Persian Gulf, because China consumption is getting insatiable daily, they too need to secure their oil supply, get the drift?.

By the way Osama Bin Laden has not been caught, Osama,he is no longer a spring chicken ,it is the Osamalets in suqs of Bagdad,Cairo ,Lahore that should be the worry.

If China energy consumptions continue at this rate, they may be a new Cold War along the faults of who controls the energy producing nations of the Gulf region, it is taken that United States dominates the scene for now, something tells me that it wont be so in 10 years.

Davos, World Economic Forum, which world? , how many companies and partners are represented from Africa?

Africa with her dubious huge debt burdens?

In the last 5 years they have been increment of over 1000 percent in number of people using mobile phones, of 51.8 million people ,of course mobile penetration is still higher in other regions of the world,15 per 100 people in Asia,48.8 in US ,55 in Western Europe, but Africa is still a very large market.

Nobody is thinking of putting of factories manufacturing the components of these devices in Africa like Nokia in Finland.

We are taken for granted, it is the same condescending and snobbish treatment apart from excruciating poverty and politics of divide and rule that turned Arabs to suicide bombers.

Africans may not continue to be so complacent very soon and it is not about installing some half baked “democratically” selected leader.

At Davos ,African poverty which we all know requires a new Marshall Plan size initiatives is not really on the agenda, people protest about “Cocacolarization” of the world, the whole world wearing the uniform of Gap, produced by 10 year old kids in sweat shops of Asia, Bill Gates Microsoft software dominating the computer word,(Bill gates has since done a lot of charity work in health care in Africa thru his foundation, thanks a lot ,Africa doesn’t need charity they need developmental loans ,aids in the real sense of it, this is what Europe and Japan got after the 2^nd World War ,when their economies were basket cases, the British Prime Minister ,Tony Blair may never have had an elementary school education ,if not for the thoughtfulness and generosity of those Plans.

In Davos,most of leaders from 3^rd World nations that got to attend at all ,are lackeys of the West ,who haven’t got the foggiest idea, why they are there at all.

Maybe the snows ,the good food according to Phillip Bowring in his article in International Herald Tribune of January 2005, (Africans especially are never comfortable with snows and cold,blackmen don’t really ski, we play soccer and box, how else can you let out a millennium of oppression),skiing and other social interaction has turned noble ideas on it head.

Davos has become a feel good reunion of old boy network groove ,where financial cartel leaders of the West come to trade stories about how they are ripping the rest of the off ,the well born, ,the privileged and a few outsiders who got lucky , coming to nearby Gstaad to ski and to sleep with their secretaries ,while the wife takes care of Mark 111 in New Hampshire suburb.

According to Bowring, check out the stats:

2000 participants in 2005:

Only 450 are not from non English speaking nations.

80 corporate partners: Only 10 from non English speaking world.

Obviously these companies are not Davos compliant, Toshiba , Acer ,Canon, Samsung, LG ,Toyota, Nissan,DocoMo ,MTN,etc .

Or may be those powerful companies from east Asia are frankly not interested, or the executives have no desire to ski or cheat on their wives.

The West has done a lot for the progress of mankind, really but somehow it has always been thru underhand tactis.Look at the enslavement of black people in America and the diasporas, look at the divide and rule of the oil politics of the Gulf, the colonization of Africa and Asia, the absurd pricing regime of primary products from Africa and the rest of the 3^rd World, if not for OPEC ,oil would still have been selling at $3:00 p/barrel, then they still find ways to rip off the producing nations ,come to Niger Delta in Nigeria ,a gold rush of bandits in safety boots .

During the cold war, legitimate leaders from Africa were overthrown to make room for lackeys of the West, remember Patrice Lumumba of Congo. Congo is still a basket case till the present day.

All of these are legacies of the greed and arrogance of the Western world that Davos has come to symbolize.

My take is that a Davos should hold in different locations yearly like in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil,Ajegunle in Nigeria,Kibera in Nairobi, in Calcutta….in Hillsbrow in Johannesburg…so that the rich elites will see for a week ,the direct and immediate consequences of a 26 year old WASP bond trader bailing out of Kaula Lumpur.

Leonard Lawal.

Lagos, Nigeria.

+234-8033274465.+234-8068722749