Besides issues that directly affect the Black community in Britain, of which of course there are many, one of the things that I find myself most passionate about is the Middle East. Its probably because it’s the region of the world, where I can see strong parallels between the behaviour of the West now, to that of their predecessors in relation to Africa half a millennia previous. In the year or two leading up to the invasion of Iraq, I found myself riveted to the 24 news outlets on satellite or the internet. This interest led me to conclude, well over a year before the actual invasion and with the US and UK denying that they wanted to invade, that Iraq indeed would be invaded and occupied. I have maintained a watchful eye on Iraq, although not with the intensity of before, because I think it’s the biggest British foreign policy disaster of my lifetime and that it will have an effect on the lives of all Britons for years to come.
Anyway, in the last few months, the intense seeking of news has been back. Not on Iraq, but on the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. This has been going on since last year and culminated in fierce fighting last week and Hamas eventually routing a numerically superior and better armed Fatah in Gaza. I couldn’t tear myself away from the TV over the weekend watching the events unfold and President Abbas setting up a new emergency Government of Fatah supporters and independents, which was immediately recognised by the US and others.
What one thinks of Hamas is irrelevant, the elections were ajudged to have been fair by international observers. The Palestinian people elected Hamas and the US and the international community have punished them ever since. It seems that democracy is only respected if the ballot results in a winner acceptable to the West. But why did the Palestinian people elect Hamas? They did so because they were fed up with the corruption that was endemic under Fatah. None of this matters to the West and they have continued to try and circumvent the will of the Palestinians and impose Fatah on them. They even took to arming Fatah to try and assist a military coup over Hamas, but contrary to the script Fatah lost in Gaza. The vast majority of the media have reported things rather differently, Hamas’ election victory is never mentioned nor is the fact the West ensured that Hamas could not properly use their mandate by starving them of funds. What we are presented with is a story of Hamas being the ones who tried to stage a coup, for which they will be punished with further isolation and starvation, while the West will present Abbas as a true democrat and his new and subsequent governments as legitimate. We are also presented with a picture of Palestinians as a people who are their own worst enemies, who would rather fight each other rather than concentrate on trying to secure a State for their people. Unless one has paid particular interest to the situation over a long period, it is easy to accept this as the truth.
It’s not hard to imagine how these geo-political machinations would have been played by the world powers of 500 years ago. Let us move from the Middle East to Africa. Its easy to see how one African leader would be set up against another, how the favoured leader would be given weapons to defeat his rivals and capture prisoners of war who would be sold to the sponsors, how the overwhelming majority of the population would suffer from and despise the internecine fighting and how the world powers would not care less, being concerned only by what they wanted in Africa, slaves. Such world powers would not admit to their populace, their downright greed and wickedness and would instead spin a version of events that saw the Africans themselves take a disproportionate share of the blame for their own enslavement, leading to their descendants being divided spiritually and emotionally, as well as geographically. Nah! Don’t be stupid, Griot, they’d never be able to manage that.
Peace
The Griot
