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A multi-ethnic country.

Friday, 1 October 2021 8:00

Due to its varied history, Trinidad and Tobago represents one of the most multiracial countries in the Americas.

The results of the 2011 census show the following ethnic composition: 35.4% of its inhabitants are of Indian descent, 34.2% are of African descent, and 22.8% are of mixed race while 7% are of other provenance, and 0.6% are white. In concrete terms, as shown by the census, the whole of the population is either Indian, African or of mixed race.
As to its religious profile, Catholicism was the religion practised during Spanish rule and maintained by the workers of French origin who moved to the islands. During the period of British rule, Protestantism and Anglicanism also made progress. The workers from India brought with them Hinduism and Islam, the latter being preferred by the Syrians and Lebanese who came to the islands while the Africans brought their own forms of cult. We may therefore note that Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam have the largest number of followers in the country and enjoy official recognition as the foundational pillars of Trinidadian national identity with their special days included in the holiday calendar. Nevertheless, there is also room for other religions.
Besides Anglican, Catholic, and Methodist churches and a Benedictine monastery, the Islamic mosques and Hindu temples, there are also other places of worship.

The 2011 census presents the following panorama: Catholics (21.6%), Hindus (18.2%), Pentecostals (12%), Anglicans (5.7%), Baptists (5.7%) and Muslims (5%). The three faiths have always been involved in political affairs and in society with the aim of guaranteeing interconfessional dialogue and reinforcing social cohesion.
As to its institutional profile, the separation of powers is guaranteed by means of a system of ‘checks and balances’. It includes a two-house system with 31 members in the senate (of which 16 are chosen by the Premier, 6 by the leader of the opposition and 9 by the President), while the House of Representatives has 41 deputies elected for five years. In its administration, the country is divided into 10 regions and 5 municipalities, while the island of Tobago enjoys its own autonomy.
The inhabitants number 1,341,465 of whom about 90% live on the island of Trinidad. It is also recorded that 50% of the total population live in rural areas while the other half are now established in the large cities like Port of Spain, San Fernando and Scarborough, the latter being the largest city on the island of Tobago.

The rate of urbanisation is very low at 9%, even though 2/5 of the population live in the urban area of the capital Port of Spain which, however, is considered more like a vast rural conglomerate than a real city, given the sort of dwellings that form the majority of the houses. Unlike Trinidad, the population of Tobago, from the point of view of ethnicity, is much more homogeneous since the people are mostly of African origin with their own language and culture. Some of the social problems that affect the country are organised crime and corruption. These two phenomena are closely connected and derive from the drugs trade for which Trinidad and Tobago represents an important logistical base for the routes between South and North America. Canada, the United States and Great Britain, supporting the local authorities, are together working to oppose this phenomenon. As well as drugs, local organised crime is also quite active in the trafficking of arms, wild animals, and even human beings. These criminal activities are facilitated by the porosity of maritime borders and the situation of crisis that has lasted for years in nearby Venezuela, influencing the dynamics of the islands. In the waters adjacent to the islands, there is also the problem of piracy claiming victims among the local fishermen, while the problem of micro-criminality is a scourge within the cities where there is a high level of homicides, kidnappings, theft, and robberies. This is an important critical issue both for the indigenous population and foreigners and, consequently, for the tourist sector.

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley.

As to its political profile, the country has for years enjoyed a valid system of democratic representation that guarantees the alternation of power, though this clearly does not make the system immune to a high level of corruption involving not only political representatives but
also its administrators.
In August 2020, Keith Rowely was reconfirmed as leader of the country with his PNM party (People’s National Movement) winning 22 seats, defeating the UNC (United National Congress), the main opposition party which won a total of 19 seats. Doubtless, the question of security is one of the main challenges being tackled by the government, besides the pursuit of neo-liberal politics, already inaugurated during the previous five-year period and furthered by the privatisation of the oil industry and accords of liberal commerce agreed with the major regional and global actors. Regarding its regional cooperation, the country collaborates with its neighbours, contributing substantially to aid efforts during the hurricane season.
The country is also associated with CARICOM, a regional organisation. In 2019, the government and opposition had completely divergent views as to what stance to adopt regarding Maduro’s Venezuela: the government declared it did not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries or, at the most, to act as a mediator within CARICOM, while the opposition allied itself with Guaidò. (F.R.)

Africa. The hippo and its passion for rivers.

Friday, 1 October 2021 8:00

It is one of the most iconic of the African land mammals. It lives in water but cannot swim. The hippopotamus implements strategies that enable it to stay afloat in all circumstances. Discovering its secrets.

Weighing up to and even more than 3 tons, the hippopotamus has serious flotation problems. The rhinoceros has the same problem but in the case of the hippopotamus, the inability to float is something of a paradox since it spends more than half its life in water.
There are but a few rivers and lakes in Africa that do not teem with hippos, one of the few mammals that may be considered amphibious.

Even though its skin is thick, it does not tolerate exposure to the sun. Since it is very permeable, the skin of the hippo leaves the animal dangerously open to dehydration. The pachyderm avoids this by staying in the water for almost the entire day. It is only when the sun has set that it leaves its comfortable environment and ventures onto land to graze and return to the water before the sun rises again.

Riverbed galloper
The hippopotamus carried out most of its physiological and social functions in water: there, the extremely territorial males actively show off their status and the other individuals manifest remarkable sociability, sharing a large number of restricted spaces with relative tolerance.
On land, instead, hippos carefully avoid any sort of social interaction, even with individuals belonging to the same herd.
In water they form couples and give birth; nevertheless, these large pachyderms are unable to swim.

The hippopotamus generally lives in the shallower parts of rivers, ponds, and lakes where the water level allows them to remain submerged and to come to the surface to breathe simply by raising themselves on their four legs. Even so, they are more comfortable where the water is rather deep. There, being unable to swim, the only means of locomotion available to the hippo is to ‘gallop’ on the bottom. It comes to the surface to breathe by thrusting itself upwards with its legs from the bottom and leaping to the surface. It was precisely its characteristic of galloping on the bottom that gave the animal its name, ‘hippopotamus’ which comes from the ancient Greek signifying ‘river horse’ (hippos = horse and potamos = river).
Nights are a time of much activity for the hippo and it travels great distances – even as much as 30 or 40 kilometres – to find the best pastures and fill itself with a quantity of fodder amounting to 2.5% of its body weight. It then returns to the water to rest, and sleep submerged.

An amphibious life
When it sleeps submerged, the animal is able to reduce its heartbeat to 25% of its normal rate, reducing the flow of blood to peripheral areas and concentrating the blood (carrying oxygen) in its vital organs. This process, called bradycardia, allows the hippo to remain submerged in a state of apnoea for as long as 5 minutes after which it automatically awakes and goes to the surface to breathe, usually with a noisy blowing of air from its nostrils.

The female hippopotamus may weigh as much as a ton and a half, making it one of the heaviest land mammals, together with the elephant (the female may weigh up to 3200 kg) and the rhinoceros (the female white rhino may weigh around 1600 kg and the black rhino male 1000 kg). However, if we compare the gestation periods of these giants, we see that there is a marked disparity between the hippopotamus ad other animals of the same size: while a female elephant has a gestation period of 22 to 24 months and a female rhinoceros 15 or sixteen months, according to its species, the hippopotamus has an unusually brief gestation period of around 8 months.
This short gestation period is one of the strategies employed by the hippopotamus to adapt to its amphibious life. A longer gestation with the consequent increase in the development of the foetus would increase the weight of the mother and compromise its already precarious ability to stay afloat. A reduced gestation, instead, allows the female hippopotamus to keep this further disadvantage within acceptable limits.

Africa’s most dangerous animal
Accidents between humans and hippos are numerous and often fatal. Among the records it holds is that of claiming more human victims per year than any other animal, including the great predators. Why is it so dangerous?The hippopotamus is a herbivorous artiodactyl that feeds exclusively on grass which it grazes like an enormous mower with its broad, strong lips.
Unlike most herbivores, however, it has a very particular set of teeth with lower incisors and highly developed canines (the lower canines may reach up to 50 cm), which are constantly kept sharp.

The enormous mouth may open as wide as 150 degrees and the jawbones have powerful muscles. The jaws are armed with powerful tusks that have no feeding purpose but serve exclusively to combat enemies, predators and rivals and are capable to cutting in two a crocodile or a fibreglass canoe.
The dominant male hippopotamus is extremely territorial in water; it tolerates other males only if they maintain a subordinate attitude and they do not hesitate to engage in violent fights with any who dare to challenge its hierarchical position. During these duels, they inflict deep wounds on each other with their sharp tusks, often leading to the death of one of the contenders.The females are especially protective towards their offspring and do not hesitate to attack to defend them from any perceived threat.It is well known that travelling on African waterways may expose one to the danger of becoming the object of the fury of these enormous mammals.

Hippopotamuses, moreover, are not confined to national parks or nature reserves but live in all sorts of environments where water and fodder are present. They are often found near villages and people often use the footpaths created by hippos to go to the rivers or move easily through the bush. This renders more probable accidental encounters with these animals. On land, the hippopotamus does not feel as comfortable as in water and this makes it particularly aggressive. A sudden encounter with a human blocking the road may cause the animal to become aggressive out of fear, or to trample the person with its three-ton body while attempting to return to the safety of the water.
A hippopotamus will never pretend to attack before doing so. Instead, it attacks with deadly intent, at speeds up to 45 kph, covering a distance of 20 metres in a second and a half or 10 metres in less than a second!

Gianni Bauce/Africa

Pope Francis. “To proclaim and share what we have seen”.

Friday, 1 October 2021 8:00

This year World Mission Sunday will be celebrated on 24 October. The theme the Holy Father has chosen this year is: ‘We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard’ (Acts 4:20).
A synthesis of his message.

In his message, Pope Francis says: “Once we experience the power of God’s love, we cannot help but proclaim and share what we have seen and heard.…Everything about Christ reminds us that he knows well our world and its need for redemption, and calls us to become actively engaged in this mission: ‘Go therefore to the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find’ (Mt 22:9).”

The Pope points out: “The history of evangelisation began with the Lord’s own passionate desire to call and enter into friendly dialogue with everyone… Experiencing the Lord’s friendship, watching him cure the sick, dine with sinners, feed the hungry, draw near to the outcast, touch the unclean, identify with the needy, propose the Beatitudes and teach in a new and authoritative way, left an indelible mark on them, awakening amazement, expansive joy and a profound sense of gratitude.”

The Holy Father said that “ With Jesus, we too have seen, heard and experienced that things can be different. Even now, he has inaugurated future times, reminding us of an often forgotten dimension of our humanity, namely, that ‘we were created for a fulfillment that can only be found in love’ (Fratelli Tutti, 68). A future that awakens a faith capable of inspiring new initiatives and shaping communities of men and women who, by learning to accept their own frailty and that of others, promote fraternity and social friendship (cf. ibid., 67).”

The Pope adds: “The ecclesial community reveals its splendour whenever it recalls with gratitude that the Lord loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19). ‘The loving predilection of the Lord surprises us, and surprise by its very nature cannot be owned or imposed by us… Only in this way can the miracle of gratuitousness, the gratuitous gift of self, blossom. Nor can missionary fervour ever be obtained as a result of reasoning or calculation. To be “in a state of mission” is a reflection of gratitude’ (Message to the Pontifical Mission Societies/Missio, 21 May 2020).”

“Even so, things were not always easy. The first Christians began the life of faith amid hostility and hardship. Experiences of marginalisation and imprisonment combined with internal and external struggles that seemed to contradict and even negate what they had seen and heard. Yet, rather than a difficulty or an obstacle leading them to step back or close in on themselves, those experiences impelled them to turn problems, conflicts and difficulties into opportunities for mission. Limitations and obstacles became a privileged occasion for anointing everything and everyone with the Spirit of the Lord. Nothing and no one was to be excluded from the message of liberation.”

The pope said that: “The pandemic has brought to the fore and amplified the pain, the solitude, the poverty and the injustices experienced by so many people. It has unmasked our false sense of security and revealed the brokenness and polarization quietly growing in our midst…”

“There is a temptation to disguise and justify indifference and apathy in the name of healthy social distancing, there is urgent need for the mission of compassion, which can make that necessary distancing an opportunity for encounter, care and promotion. ‘What we have seen and heard’ (Acts 4:20), the mercy we have experienced, can thus become a point of reference and a source of credibility, enabling us to recover a shared passion for building ‘a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources’ (Fratelli Tutti, 36).”

“Like the Apostles and the first Christians, we too can say with complete conviction: ‘We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard’ (Acts 4:20). Everything we have received from the Lord is meant to be put to good use and freely shared with others. Just as the Apostles saw, heard and touched the saving power of Jesus (cf. 1 Jn 1:1-4), we too can daily touch the sorrowful and glorious flesh of Christ.”

“There we can find the courage to share with everyone we meet a destiny of hope, the sure knowledge that the Lord is ever at our side. As Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves: the Church’s evangelising mission finds outward fulfilment in the transformation of our world and in the care of creation.”

“The theme of this year’s World Mission Day – ‘We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard’ (Acts 4:20), is a summons to each of us to ‘own’ and to bring to others what we bear in our hearts… Our life of faith grows weak, loses its prophetic power and its ability to awaken amazement and gratitude when we become isolated and withdraw into little groups. By its very nature, the life of faith calls for a growing openness to embracing everyone, everywhere.”

Pope Francis concludes: “On World Mission Day, we recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel… Contemplating their missionary witness, we are inspired to be courageous ourselves and to beg ‘the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (Lk 10:2). We know that the call to mission is not a thing of the past, or a romantic leftover from earlier times.”

“Today too Jesus needs hearts capable of experiencing vocation as a true love story that urges them to go forth to the peripheries of our world as messengers and agents of compassion. He addresses this call to everyone, and in different ways.
We can think of the peripheries all around us, in the heart of our cities or our own families. Universal openness to love has a dimension that is not geographical but existential.”

“Always, but especially in these times of pandemic, it is important to grow in our daily ability to widen our circle, to reach out to others who, albeit physically close to us, are not immediately part of our ‘circle of interests’ (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 97). To be on mission is to be willing to think as Christ does, to believe with him that those around us are also my brothers and sisters. May his compassionate love touch our hearts and make us all true missionary disciples.”

Morocco. Creating secure spaces.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

The Diocesan Delegation for Tangier Migrants is a church organisation that receives migrants in the north of Morocco. We paid them a visit.

The waters of the Atlantic Ocean encounter those of the Mediterranean off the coast of Tangier, the seventh-largest city in Morocco. We are travelling along a broad and quiet road accompanied by Sr. Immaculate Gala, a Carmelite of Charity of Vedruna and head of the Diocesan Delegation for Tangier Migrants (DDM).
Long before reaching the cathedral, we can see its white tower, smaller than the imposing minaret of the nearby mosque.
It was in this main church of the diocese of Tangier that the DDM took its first steps ten years ago on the initiative of the then bishop of the North African See Mons. Santiago Agrelo, to differentiate the aid given by the church to the local population through Caritas from the specific support given migrants. The DDM is still that secure space where the migrants are welcomed, listened to and can feel at home, as well as being a place where specific projects are carried out in response to the needs of the migrant population.

The DDM is open to all migrants without distinction. Those who wish to be accompanied spiritually are invited to speak with the priests of the seven parishes of the archdiocese.
” the services offered are not meant to substitute the rights guaranteed by the Moroccan state, whether as health or legal protection and we have close collaboration with the Moroccan organisations”, Sr. Immaculada tells us. In the four DDM centres – Tangier, Nador, Tetouan and Alhuceimas – and in Oujda, even though it is not yet part of the structure of the Delegation, tens of thousands of migrants have benefitted from its services, “But the strength of this initiative does not lie in its numbers but in the concrete persons and the human response given to their needs”, Sr. Immaculada adds.

The migrants who cross the north of Morocco form three categories according to their psychological state as they are about to make the crossing to Europe. The first is a state of anxiety in which one’s whole live is concentrated upon the crossing. These people are given humanitarian aid to meet their immediate needs. The second group consists of people who, without losing sight of their desire to cross the sea, approach it more peacefully. For these, the DDM develops accompaniment, education and training-projects. The third group is composed of people who have abandoned the idea of going to Europe and want to settle in Morocco. These are supported while they are becoming inserted in the world of work.

Tangier. Ongoing dialogue.
At the headquarters of the DDM in Tangier, we met the dozens of people who make up the staff of the centre. Each morning, the work of the day is planned and requests from migrants are analysed. After the first general meeting, other more specific meetings are held with the leaders of each area in which it is decided who is to receive help, how it is to be given and who is to follow up each case. This is important since money is never given to them directly. For example, migrants are taken to the pharmacy, for medical check-ups or to the supermarket, or the rent of their accommodation is paid. Says Eric Parfait Foufou Talla, a Congolese and member of the team: “This method of being close to the migrants, in continual dialogue with them to get to know them, has changed a lot during the pandemic. Shops and offices have been closed for months, the laundry and showers have been closed and contact with migrants has been taking place by telephone. However, essential services such as food aid have been kept going”.

Tetouan. “Women’s Space”
Early in the morning, together with Sr. Immaculada, we travel the 56 km from Tangier to Tetouan, close to the Spanish city of Ceuta where the DDM centre is under the responsibility of the Franciscan fraternity. The Costarican Brother who coordinates the service assures us that “The Church is the essential reference-point for the Moroccan population through Caritas. However – the Franciscan continues – there is a noticeable reduction of Sub-Saharan immigrants because the authorities are exercising greater control over illegal migration; there have been raids and undocumented migrants have been arrested. Security measures have also been significantly increased along the Ceuta fences and it is almost impossible to cross them”.

Last May, Ceuta has seen the arrival en masse of at least 8,000 people – including youths, women and children – in less than two days: Spain called out the army and has already sent back half of them. The crisis in Ceuta with less than 85,000 inhabitants is unprecedented. Never before has Spain had to cope with such a large number of migrants coming all at once into the territory after illegally crossing a border considered secure, especially on the Moroccan side.
In Tetouan there are plenty of rooms with a laundry and showers, Wi-Fi or recreational games where people can socialise, but they were closed during the pandemic and are only now tentatively starting to open and return to normal. In 2019, the DDM team launched the project ‘Women’s Space’, with workshops for sewing, painting and psychological counselling. “Some of these women became pregnant during the migratory journey in relationships that were not always wanted. By means of games, a massage workshop for children and other activities, we aimed to improve the emotional ties of the women with their children”, Brother Sergio informs us. The pandemic caused the project to be suspended but the Franciscan brother is determined to reactivate it. Besides welcoming, listening and giving humanitarian aid, the DDM in Tetouan collaborates with other organisations that accompany migrants who voluntarily agree to return to their own countries.

Nador. On the web
Following the coast road, we head for Nador, a city located close to the Spanish enclave of Melilla. We are welcomed to Nador by Fr Alvar Sánchez and he immediately invites us to visit the parish dedicated to St James the Greater, in the famous Spanish quarter of the city where the DDM centre is housed. Rarely has any parish space been so well used. Here we find the Baraka training centre, a sewing school for women, a hostel for migrants, meeting rooms and offices, together with a dining room for children and storerooms. Together with Fr Sánchez there are about 25 humanitarian and social workers who keep the many activities of the DDM going.

Fathers and sisters working with migrants in Nador

Here, the situation of the migrants is different from those in Tangier. It is a transit zone, close to the border and it is difficult to rent accommodation. A house was needed for convalescent migrants, women and children as well as a number of rooms where people could stay. However, most of the migrants live in the countryside or the ghettos around the city. A team was set up composed of immigrants who meet regularly to look into the needs of the migrant population; the DDM representatives also visit these places frequently.
Using the RefAid app, the Nador team has also developed a digital platform that collects data from more than 300 organizations in Spain and Morocco that offer help to migrants and can be contacted by mobile phone. The app is available in English, French, Arabic and Spanish. A further innovative project is the ‘West African Flyway’, started in 2018 in Guinea. In collaboration with other organisations present in the country, participated awareness sessions are promoted to inform and protect especially the youth, against the dangers of illegal immigration and protect them from trafficking networks. This project has been successfully implemented in Senegal.

Oujda. An oasis of reflection
The majority of illegal migrants enter Morocco across the Algerian border. In the Catholic parish of San Luis, there is an oasis of reflection and rest for them which was opened by Franciscan priest Antoine Exelmans. At present, an average of 100 immigrants pass through each month. Some make an emergency stop there, halting for a few nights before continuing on their way; others arrive sick or seriously wounded and these stay for longer. One wing of the building is reserved for a project with minors who are accompanied and are given basic training in the Moroccan centres.

Collaborating with Fr Exelmans are Sr María Ros Castello and Sr Montserrat Prats, from Spain, together with the French Sr Rachel Guillien, Consolata Sr Edwin Osaleh from Kenya, and some volunteers.
Sr. Montserrat Prats emphasises that “The purpose of the house is to create a peaceful space where immigrants can reflect on their plans for their future lives”, and Sr Maria Ros adds: “Some of them, after being here for a while, decide to return to their original countries, something that requires psychological preparation since they see this as a failure they have to face, they have to prepare their families. Others decide to get an education or a profession”.

Enrique Bajo
Open photo: Tangier. © Can Stock Photo / Algeba

Actions cannot miss ethics.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

Advocacy is also defense when it acts to preserve the initial aims and values of modern discoveries.

According to legend, when Vladimir Lenin was asked how he planned to “hang all the capitalists” in the face of a rope shortage in the young Soviet Union, he replied “don’t worry comrade; the capitalists will sell us the rope.” Even Lenin was not cynical enough to think that democracies would sell out their freedom of speech. No one is rough enough to distrust the best modern finding and technologies to self-destruct by enslaving itself to the worst aims.

Uranium strength has become a destructive bomb; social networks spread fake news; pharmaceutical companies do not primarily intend serving public health but take advantage of people sicknesses. Pfizer achieves sales figures of 45 billion, Novartis 44 billion, Sanofi 37 billion, Merck 35 billion. The most common and in many ways every day very useful smart cellphone for every person is becoming a dictatorial tool.

Now it is Pegasus’s turn, a software intended to protect people from terrorism; it had become a spying terrorist tool. “A huge data leak suggesting authoritarian regimes were possibly using smartphone hacking software to target activists, politicians and journalists”, writes Katharine Viner, Editor in Chief of Guardian. And she goes on say, “The more we’ve learned about global surveillance, ever since the Guardian’s Snowden revelations in 2013, the more the world has become accustomed to the idea that governments, both democratic and otherwise, are keenly interested in using technology and the phones in our pockets to keep tabs on us.”

Her comment is already very disturbing, as she says, “NSO – the company producer – sells its software to 40 governments around the world (it does not say which ones), and says its purpose is to help them investigate terrorists and criminals. But a leaked list of tens of thousands of numbers, many belonging to people with no apparent connection to criminality, and forensic analysis carried out on some of their phones, suggests some governments are spying on pro-democracy activists, journalists investigating corruption, and political opponents.”

Moreover, she explains, “The phone hacking tool, Pegasus, can gather data, record video using a phone’s camera, activate the microphone covertly, and take screenshots and location information – all without the owner’s knowledge. A phone can be infected without its owner even clicking on an incoming call or message.”

However, more disturbing is the conclusion of her 23/07/2021 briefing. The title proclaims, “The Pegasus project: why investigations like this are at the heart of the Guardian’s mission,” and the conclusion calls, “yet for the Guardian, such investigations are at the heart of our mission. Because of our independence, we are able to investigate boldly,putting the truth ahead of the agenda of an owner, investors or shareholders […] so when important stories like this come along, everyone gets
to read them.”

You can perceive in her words a tune of satisfaction for having at hand such disturbing unethical behavior and a joy at finding them as a pride of her professional work. As an African Proverb says, “A roaring lion kills no game,” meaning, “You cannot achieve anything by mere talking about it.” Yes, denouncing illegal practices is good but not enough, even for newspapers and magazines a real advocacy would be building inside and around them a culture of ethics in action, because, as another African Proverb admonishes, “Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.” Meaning, “Do not look at your or others’ mistakes; look at what causes you and everyone to make such mistakes,” that it the lack of ethics in public and private behavior that is becoming “normal” today.

Jean Paul Pezzi

Kazakhstan. “The Heart of the World”.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

Right in the middle of Eurasia, in that mass of land known as ‘The Heart of the World’, we find Kazakhstan, impervious, legendary, and fascinating – the land of fiery bloody sunsets that bewitched the passage of many merchants en route to China by way of the silk road.

Its natural beauty, together with its varied landscapes, number Kazakhstan among the most seductive countries of Central Asia and make it the most flourishing country of the entire region.
The territory, so vast that it covers three different time zones, has an area of 370,373 Km2, sharing 1,500 Km of border with China to the east, with Russia to the west and north and with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan to the south.
To the north, where it joins Siberia, the border is not well defined, while to the east it is watered by the Caspian Sea.
Although its political confines make Kazakhstan an Asian state, its geographical peculiarity makes it transcontinental since it lies astride two continents: ‘Geographical Europe’, whose border is marked by the Ural River, and Asia.

The marvels of its territory, its hostility, and the variety of forms it presents, are profoundly intertwined with the history, mythology, and culture of the Proto-Turkish and Proto-Mongol populations who, in the second millennium BC, began to settle in those places which, until then, were considered ‘no man’s land’, giving existence to the ‘Empires of the Steppes’. In 1919, the territory definitively became part of the Kazak Soviet Socialist Republic and an integral part of the future Soviet Union. This change was such that it led to a process of industrialisation, urbanisation and the sedentarisation of the Kazaks. The Soviet regime isolated the elite of traditional society and tried to introduce egalitarian and socialist principles which were completely at odds with the hierarchical and traditional principles followed until then.
Moscow immediately set about making the country into a laboratory for social, cultural, agricultural, industrial, and nuclear experimentation with an impact that turned out to be negative both in social and environmental terms. There were several motives for the Soviets deciding to move in this direction, one of which was the geographical position of the country far from the lines of confrontation with the West. Because of this they made Kazakhstan the main centre of war materiel and experimentation of the Soviet Union. Besides the strategic motivations, others were purely economic and dictated by the desire to promote the development of the mining industry and heavy industry close to coal and oil deposits and to place virgin lands under cultivation.

Kazakh Yurts. CCA/cea

The process of industrial development generated considerable migration flows which helped to implement that process of demographic metamorphosis, thus transforming the region into a social laboratory within which the ethnic cultural and religious cross-breeding would produce the new man, Homo Sovieticus.
These transformations underwent a process of intensification during the period of the war to increase the workforce in the factories. This brought about the transfer of many Slavic and German workers’ families from the Volga. These were forced towards the north and northeast of Kazakhstan for fear they would collaborate with the enemy.
Then it was the turn of the Tatars of Crimea, the Georgians (after the revolution, they had set up an independent state and had fought against the Red Army), and the Muslims from the region of the north of the Caucasus Mountains. The Koreans received similar treatment between 1945 and the death of Stalin.

The Virgin Lands campaign was designed to utilize new land for agricultural production was launched in 1954.

The campaign launched by Nikita Khrushchev for the cultivation of the ‘virgin lands’ led to a further wave of colonists. The proportions increased in the seventies with the arrival of Ukrainians and Russians, motivated by the incentives offered by the government of Moscow to promote the plan to bring heavy industry closer to the deposits of coal, gas, and oil of Central Asia. These migratory policies made Kazakhstan the only Soviet republic where the people of the nationality after whom the country was called were a minority in their own country.
As regards agricultural experimentation, in 1917, the government of Moscow had already implemented a campaign of incentives to promote the cultivation of cotton, offering nomads and peasants apparently advantageous conditions. The situation began to worsen in the sixties at the time when the Soviet leadership made self-sufficiency its goal, making Central Asia the major supplier of the entire Soviet Union. To this end, the dissolution of the grasslands for the cultivation of cereals and wheat went ahead.

Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site was the anvil on which the Soviet Union forged its nuclear arsenal.

To increase the area under cultivation, mastodontic irrigation projects were carried out, changing the course of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers bringing water down from the eternal Himalayan glaciers and emptying into Lake Aral. Water drawn from the rivers to supply dams and irrigation canals excessively reduced their flow. This phenomenon, besides failing to sufficiently increase the waters of the lake caused, over a period of time, the drying of the river deltas, leaving behind stagnant wells and desert. The environmental impact of this project was sufficient to cause a 75% reduction in the surface area of the lake, the extinction of most of the ichthyofauna and serious harm to the ecosystem of the area that previously contained a high degree of biodiversity.
Kazakhstan was also the centre for the main nuclear experimentation laboratories of the Soviet Union, as well as the most important nuclear and missile firing ranges, for bombing exercises, for test-firing ballistic missiles and air defence systems. In addition, Kazakhstan houses the Baikonur space centre, a most important Soviet technological-military installation and, up to 1994, the base for launching all military, spy, and communications satellites. (F.R.)
Open photo. Credit © Can Stock Photo / Cobalt70

Colombia. Distant peace.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

Despite the peace accord signed in Havana, Colombia is still caught in the crossfire between FARC and ELN guerrilla groups. The death of the former FARC leader Jesús Santrich casts a dark shadow over the future of the Colombian conflict.

When the Havana peace agreement was signed in 2016, few people believed the fifty-year-long conflict would end. Today, as in the past, the fight goes on in many parts of Colombia. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Gulf Clan are the three groups fighting for control of the main illegal businesses of the country: trafficking in drugs and precious metals. At this moment in time, dissident FARC groups control most of the cocaine plantations on Colombian territory. At the same time, dissent against the peace agreement has spread to various parts of the country, especially along the border with Ecuador where the dissidents have allied themselves with the paramilitaries of the Comando de la Frontera.

Colombian Air Force Sikorsky UH-60L Arpía III

It is here that, in recent months, there have been new clashes with the ELN, the guerrilla organisation trying to gain control of the drugs trade in Colombia and Ecuador. However, it is on the border with Venezuela that the decisive contest is taking place. There, the ELN is facing up to the Gulf Clan, a group of former paramilitaries of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), that aspire to gaining the monopoly of the Colombian coca market.
The strength of these three groups lies in the support they are assured. The members of the Central Command of the ELN (COCE) were given political asylum in Cuba, one of whom was Pablo Beltrán, and in Venezuela, like the supreme leader alias Pablito. Havana is also the place where the ELN is engaged in peace talks with the Colombian state. Any eventual agreement with Bogota might fragment the organisation even more. In fact, the Fronte Domingo Laín which is active especially in the home town of President Maduro, has no intention of suspending the terrorist strategy practised in Colombia.

Colombian President Iván Duque.

There are reports from the Venezuelan border of new attacks on the oil pipeline such as that of Caño Limón-Coveñas, which bear all the hallmarks of Pablito. The combatants of the ELN demand millions from the foreign companies that manage these installations, guaranteeing in exchange the protection of the pipelines. A refusal to collaborate would be punished by the destruction of the oil pipelines. This is how the Fronte Pablito finances the war against the state of Colombia. For example, the Fronte Pablito was probably behind the bombing of the military barracks in Bogota, the attack on the Plaza de la Macarena or the Modelo Quarter of Barranquilla. The national police have been tracking him for some time but the base of Pablito is located between Guasdualito and El Perolin in the Venezuelan state of Apura, a stone’s throw from the border with Arauca (in 2020, the authorities confiscated a record 4 tons of marijuana there). The Fronte Domingo Laín has become one of the guerrilla groups most involved in drugs trafficking in Colombia. For this very reason, it has no intention of reaching a real peace deal with Bogota.

FARC leader Seuxis Paucias Hernández Solarte, also known as ‘Jesús Santrich’

The Colombian guerrilla war is now just a question of money. Suffice it to say that even the dissident FARC groups (such as El Primer Frente and the Segunda Marquetalia) have become drug trafficking cartels, strategically allied with elements of the regime of Nicolas Maduro. It was in Venezuela that Jesús Santrich, the second in command of the Marquetalia, disappeared in suspicious circumstances: this is said to have happened during a secret operation by the Colombian army. Other sources say it was the Guardia Bolivariana that did away with him.
Jesús Santrich was one of the outstanding exponents of the now extinct Colombian Revolutionary Forces (FARC).
For some time, the Colombian President Iván Duque claimed that Venezuela was even offering protection to the exponents of the Segunda Marquetalia, the armed group created by Santrich and Iván Márquez after they rejected the peace accord reached in 2016 between the FARC and the Colombian government.
The announcement of the death of the leader came by way of a communique issued by representatives of the Segunda Marquetalia in which it was stated that the ambush took place in the territory of Serranía del Perijá, a zone between El Chalet and the village of Los Laureles, inside Venezuelan territory, on the direct orders of the arrogant tyrant Iván Duque who “will not escape the already aroused anger of the people”. The communique ends with an invitation to all Colombians not to give up the fight until there is “a new government of the people and for the people, with no corruption or state thieves, as the fallen commander wanted”.

Mattia Fossati/CgP

Honduras. The Pech people. “We belong to the earth and to the earth we shall return”.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

The indigenous Pech people (one of the original peoples of Honduras), is one of the few with nomadic roots in Central America.
Their vision of the world is closely connected to the care and conservation of the Earth.

Their origin is not known for certain, but it is believed that the indigenous Pech group is descended from the Chibcha indigenous group of South America. It is believed that they first arrived in Honduras about 3,000 years ago from South America and settled in the territory at present occupied by the department of Colón and they gradually spread to other parts of the country. History tells us that, at the time of the Spanish conquest, the Pech were well organised socially, economically and politically, almost like the rest of the indigenous groups of Honduras such as the Tolupanes and the Tawahkas.

According to the accounts of the elders: “For four centuries, the Pech wandered in the jungles of Agalta, looking for hiding places to avoid being found by the colonisers and the Zambos who hunted them to sell them as slaves in the Antilles”.
The advantage of being a nomadic people and their strategy of ethnic-cultural survival allowed them to survive and keep intact their cosmogony, their social organisation, and their alimentary tradition.
Members of the Pech indigenous group of Honduras are also known as Payas, Poyers or Pahayas; nevertheless, these terms are not accepted by them as they mean ‘savage, uncivilised or barbarian’, words used by the Spaniards. They call themselves ‘Pech’ which in their own language means ‘people’ and, to refer to the rest of the population, they use the term Pech-akuá which means ‘the other people’ or Bulá which means ‘Ladino’.The Pech of Honduras, like the other indigenous groups of the country, despite having been culturised by the Spanish, have yet kept alive their traditions, culture, and language.
Their native Pech or Paya language belongs to the Macro-Chibcha linguistic family of some indigenous peoples of South America. Only half of the remaining Pech still speak the Pech language. Some efforts have been made by the community leaders to revive the language, but it is said that there has been insufficient help provided by the government.

They are at present reduced to 11 territorial communities (8 in the department of Olancho, 2 in Gracias a Dios and 1 in Colón), plundered and threatened by greedy cattle ranchers, woodcutters and Mestizo landowners. They number about 5,200 people, many of whom experience great difficulty in obtaining the necessities of life since they no longer have rivers to fish in or forests where they can hunt, gather wild fruit, or find medicine.
They do not preserve their customs as they never developed them like sedentary peoples. Eternal wanderers, they have never built, and even now do not build impressive buildings. They have never cultivated orchards or fenced-off gardens because both plants and animals were always at hand in the rivers and in the mountains. To grasp and understand the spirituality of the Pech people, it is necessary to see it with nomadic mental and spiritual categories. From the sedentary viewpoint, they will always be seen as ‘lazy’, ‘beggars’ and indifferent to prosperity. In one of the local assemblies, Adrián Fiallos, president of the Pueblo Nuevo Subirana community stated: “They say we Pechs are lazy because we do not strip the mountains to raise cattle like the Ladinos but we do not cut down the forests because we are children of the mountains. We cannot live without the mountains”.

They grow cassava, maize, beans and bananas to survive. The extraction of liquidambar balm was one of their main sources of income until the Ladins invaded the forests. They are a nomadic people who are forced to live in small villages or hamlets invaded and attacked by the mirage of modernity. They have the Federation of the Pech Tribes of Honduras (FETRIPH) which unites them.
They assiduously attend church just as once they would go to their hierophantic places (natural places where transcendence is manifested), but they are neither Catholic nor Evangelicals. This is due not only to their freedom from dogmatism but “also because we are unable to explain how a God who is Father could allow the mountains to be taken from us and our rivers killed, all in the name of God“, comments Antonio from the Pueblo Nuevo Subirana community.

Liquidambar balm, a heritage of the Pech
The nomadic peoples did not need to domesticate plants or animals, but they discovered the medicinal and nutritional properties of the wild plants and animals.
The liquidambar is a tree that grows in the mountains of Central America between the altitudes of 700 and 1,400 metres, but there is no bibliographical documentation to show that any of the peoples of the region besides the Pech ever utilised the properties of this tree.
Colonial historians and anthropologists of the last century affirm that the Pech were extracting the aromatic balm of the liquidambar tree for ceremonial and medicinal purposes and bartered it among the Mesoamerican civilisations. In the Pech language, ejtamá signifies the liquidambar tree and ejtamatastá signifies the person who extracts the balm. As far as is known, no other native language of the region has a proper linguistic name for this precious tree, and still fewer use it either commercially or ritually.

In the course of time, western civilisation recognised this aromatic contribution of the Pech people and, ever since then, part of the perfume industry depends upon the ejtamá, though the main ejtamá extractors and traders are Ladins who use ancestral Pech technology and knowledge to extract this balm from the wild tree.
The Pech people of Honduras still keep alive their uses and customs. Music is an important part of their culture, especially among the elders who jealously guard and hand to the children and the young their ancient songs in the Pech tongue.
The songs are accompanied by music played on some of their native instruments such as: the Tempuka (a sort of long drum), the Arwa (a sort of Quena) or the Camachá (similar to maracas).
The organisation of the Pech indigenous group is exercised mainly by the women who have a very important role in the economic, religious, social, and working life of the community and their homes. The Pech women are also healers, shamans, tribal heads, priestesses, and counsellors. Within Pech society, the female figure is as important as the male but, after the conquest, the women lost much of their social values, even though they still have a role in the Tribal Councils.

Pedro Santacruz

The hard road towards Nation-Building.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

Kazakhstan achieved independence in December 1991 at a time when the dissolution of the USSR was inevitable. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Soviet leader of Kazakhstan since 1989 and President in 1990, was reconfirmed in 1991 following the independence of the country.

Nazarbayev, in taking on the leadership of the new state, was obliged to face all the problems inherited from the Soviet period; the first of these was the abundant nuclear arsenal that Kazakhstan possessed after the Soviet implosion, making the Eurasian country one of the major world nuclear powers. The new President immediately began a vast campaign of denuclearisation and disarmament that ended in May 1995 with the complete restitution to Russia of a large part of the armaments. Nuclear missile firing ranges on Kazak territory were closed and an attempt was made to take measures to manage the damage caused by the explosion of nuclear and hydrogen at the Semipalatinsk launch pad.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the founder and the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Besides the nuclear question, Nazarbayev had to deal with the problem of the ethnic minorities remaining in Kazakhstan, as well as religious groups. According to the previous Soviet census in 1989, the Kazaks did not make up an absolute majority of the population (40.1%), while the Russians numbered 37.4% (they are now 30%). These, together with the Ukrainians (5.4%) and the Byelorussians (1.1%), brought the Slavic inhabitants of Kazakhstan to 44.2%. This minority exerted a strong influence during the first years of independence on the internal as well as the international politics of Kazakhstan. To be precise, the high Slavic percentage of the population constituted a powerful unifying factor between the internal environment and foreign policies, especially as regards Russia, besides being a threat of separatism.
This, obviously, was not a simple challenge to be faced by the new President who found himself with a Kazak population reduced to less than half of the total and, to boot, a heavy migratory flow of Russians coming in from other former Soviet republics. The latter, since they did not find favourable conditions for re-entering the Russian Federation, took refuge in Kazakhstan since it was considered one of the most modern and flourishing centres, economically speaking, within which one could enjoy European culture.

Members of the Kazakh Parliament during a plenary session. (Photo Akipress)

From an economic point of view, Kazakhstan is the leading economy in Central Asia as well as the largest producer and exporter of oil within the ambit of the Community of Independent States (CEI-CSI). The riches of the country are closely related to income from its natural resources, mainly gas and metals. Apart from the divisions between Russians and Kazaks and other minorities present in the territory, the nascent state had to come to terms with its ethno-historic divisions. To tackle these questions and to avoid the break-up of the population, Nazarbayev immediately adopted a policy of national unity with which he sought to rebalance relations of power between the two parts, as well as to build up a model of Kazak society capable of harmonising greatly differing linguistic, cultural, and religious realities.
One of the chief acts taken in this vein was that of the transfer of the capital from Alma Alta – up to that point the main centre of the institutions – to the small village of Akmola where the modern capital Astana was subsequently built and now renamed Nursultan in honour of the former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The transfer of the capital, apart from conferring symbolic power on the inhabitants of the area, also slowed the separatist Slavic groups that were germinating in that area so densely populated by Russians and Ukrainians.

Astana, the work of the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa in collaboration with artists and intellectuals, was intended to represent, despite its usually low winter temperatures, the perfect model of the city of the future and to celebrate the growing power of Kazakhstan. A revolutionary city which, besides expressing the vision of its planner according to which humankind governs and guards nature, incarnates principles of environmental sustainability by breaking with the structure of cities of the past. Astana was planned, and built, in sectors with the quarters in a line, starting from the industrial district built around the railway station to avail of the transport facility. This was followed by residential areas with parks and gardens, the administrative areas of the government and the area reserved for the embassies.
Open photo: © Can Stock Photo / pincasso

Graphite at the centre of new political equilibrium.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

Besides lithium, another mineral occupies a central role for its use in high technology. China controls 70% of this mineral. In pursuit of the electric machines market.

Computers, tablets, smartphones, and high-tech instruments, together with the principle of electrical energy transition, of the transformation of cities into ‘smart cities’, and the spread of electrical vehicles, have made lithium-ion batteries (which power such instruments, and the minerals which render possible the creation and function of such instruments) occupy a central role in the world of economics. This applies above all to the vehicles of future generations, which will soon become widespread.
Apart from lithium, about which much is said, another mineral that occupies a central role within this process, operating as a co-leader, is graphite. It is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity whose chemical-physical characteristics render it essential in various kinds of industries, among which are: the nuclear industry; the composition of lubricants, paints, and electrodes; and, last but not least, pencil production (continuous since 1550). According to some estimates, world production of graphite for batteries is around half a million tons per year and, by 2050, demand will reach 23 million tons.
Other data state that the amount of world stock needed in terms of minerals like cobalt, lithium, and graphite, which at the end of the nineteenth century was around 2GWh per year, could reach 2,000 GWh in 2030 and a quota of 30,000 GWh by 2050.

Today, China controls 70% of graphite mines whose production is around 780,000 tons. Other countries with much lower production are India, Brazil, Canada, North Korea, Turkey, Russia, Mexico, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. It is now clear that the growth in demand for graphite, correlated to that for batteries, is conferring unquestionable strategic importance on that industry, with China being the foremost both in raw material deposits and the creation of batteries and electric cars. In particular, as regards the electric auto market, China is reaching high numbers both in production and sales, due mostly to government incentives which enabled the Chinese industry to achieve 45% of the global market in 2019, amounting to 1.39 million units. According to some estimates, in 2025, sales ought to reach around 6 million vehicles, in line with the carbon elimination objectives set by the government of Peking. With such quantities, forecasts speak not only of exponential growth in the demand for graphite and other material for batteries in the coming years, but also for Chinese exports destined especially for the electric auto industry.

Therefore, it is clear that whoever controls these minerals, as well as knowledge of the engineering processes and design, has a net economic advantage. The advantage is also geopolitical since the new equilibrium is increasingly defined by the processes of technological innovation, and in particular, at this historical moment when the possibility of mobility is being gradually transformed and moving in the direction of electric motors. President Biden, in the USA, has already announced the construction of half a million electric stations in view of conversion in the short term. It is evident that this process will not reach full speed in less than a decade, but an analysis of the policies of the automobile companies shows that the evolution is in full swing. Volkswagen, for example, has decided that, in 2026, it will establish the final platform for thermic motors, the base onto which the auto industry will be grafted. It is obvious that if these trends become reality, the phenomenon of the electric car will soon expand on a large scale. It is not by chance that the three great blocs comprising the United States, Europe and China are developing their own strategies on how to manage the production and acquisition of batteries. Such competition is to be expected in the fierce contrast between China and the United States that has been animating the international scene in recent years, and has been strongly accentuated by the advent of the pandemic. The contrast is continually escalating and, despite approaches by three different presidents of the USA – Obama, Trump, and Biden – shows a line of continuity which is today culminating in a selective embargo as well as the development within the United States of new technological processes.

Meanwhile, whose market is envied by both the others and which, in 2020, overtook China in sales of electric cars, has drawn up a plan for the provision of strategic materials, one of which is graphite. To this end, some companies like Volkswagen intend to develop a closed-circuit production process that aims not only to free the consumer from the burden of disposing of batteries, but also to recuperate the material in them which could certainly represent the direction to be taken to achieve the desired European self-sufficiency.
For its part, China is aiming to create synthetic graphite and an agreement was recently signed between Shenzhen XFH Technology, a Chinese company that produces materials for lithium-ion batteries and the Chinese county of Pengxi, located in the south-western province of Sichuan, to build a production plant capable of manufacturing around 60,000 tons of graphite per year.
According to reliable analysts, the contrasts between these great blocs will lead to a progressive process of the dismantling of globalisation with the reorganisation of the lines of production on a regional scale where such materials as graphite will be at the centre of the new equilibrium.

Filippo Romeo

What was all that Biden-Bashing about ?

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

President Biden has taken a lot of stick over Afghanistan, some of it justified. From Tony Blair to the Tory back-benches, in Parliament and on the BBC, we have been treated to days of passionate denunciation of American withdrawal – announced, of course, long before the current rush to blame. A miasma of unreality and theatricality rose from all the understandable political emotion and anguish.

It is as if in Clausewitz’s account of the nature of war, his mixture of emotion, chance and rational calculation, the rational can simply be ignored. “War is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will”, Clausewitz wrote – to balance his war as ‘politics by another means’. The Taliban applied his lesson successfully.

From Trump to Biden, as a consequence of chains of policies, decisions, and mission-creep, and as a result of a successful insurgency against a corrupt government and foreign invaders, the US was finally forced to submit to the Taliban’s will, negotiating and implementing its own exit from Afghanistan. It is not Biden’s decision that will determine the outcome for thousands of fleeing Afghans seeking but the Taliban’s.

According to Aristotle, a dramatic tragedy needs to obey the three unities of place, time and action. Reacting to the retreat into Kabul airport, the flights and chaos of the last week in and around it, we find political leaders playing their parts in such a tragedy.

The G7, calling for the USA to extend the withdrawal time to allow more Afghans to escape, pitted NATO members against an American President, a President who rationally calculated that this course of action would escalate into a disastrous fire-fight with the Taliban lobbing mortars into the airport and fierce ground assaults on US forces trying to hold a perimeter (as Daniel Johnson indicates TheArticle 25/08). It is and was a tragic dilemma. But it was Biden who behaved like a rational statesman and refused.

It is perfectly understandable that denial and raw emotion prompted the positions taken up by MPs who had served in Afghanistan and played military roles in the tragedy. But it is not obvious why so many others took the opportunity to scapegoat Biden. Did they seriously think that more troops flown into Kabul airport would have kept it open for flights without it becoming a modern Alamo? Did they advocate a position they knew would be untenable to put pressure on the Taliban? Were they just ‘virtue signalling’, or in the case of Britain just trying to ‘punch above its weight’? And doesn’t the appalling ISIS terrorist atrocity at Kabul airport suggest at least one area of common concern between NATO and the Taliban that will require cooperation?

Perhaps the Biden-bashing sprang from deeper causes than his misjudging the resolve to fight of the Afghan National Army who in many instances fled the Taliban without firing a shot, or even his failure to foresee the corrupt government would collapse like the proverbial house of cards. Given the lack of clear and up-to-date intelligence from rural areas, a hasty withdrawal was inevitable.

The CIA can claim to have presented the Commander in Chief with sudden collapse as one of several possible scenarios depending on the amount of American force available on the ground and in the air.
But in a matter of a week or two abandoning a vast armoury of US military equipment?

Apart from Canada, all the loudly lamenting G7 members have at some point passed through a significant period of imperial ambition, and some have experienced imperial grandeur. Their dream of defying the victorious Taliban seems a post-imperial fantasy. Perhaps these Prime Ministers and Presidents still believe in some inviolable right to order the world and export Western values, and couldn’t recognise their own hubris and its consequences. Or perhaps we were watching a – deflected – fear of a US isolationism that long preceded Biden.

It is not as if US isolationism versus intervention was a new issue. Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff then US Secretary of State, and Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defence, along with Tony Blair and his chief of staff in the UK, Jonathan Powell, had debated the issue before 9/11 including drawing up criteria such interventions must meet.

Tony Blair’s wide-ranging 24 April 1999 speech in Chicago after the atrocities in Kosovo – justifying intervention and bombing – was a significant contribution. There was also the UN World Summit in 2005 on ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ that defined circumstances that required international intervention, looking back on the failure of any world power to intervene in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Blair, in a recent speech opposing American withdrawal called Biden’s use of the slogan ‘forever wars’ as ‘imbecilic’. But didn’t Biden’s decision to leave by 31 August comply with the very criteria for military action which Blair had proposed in his Chicago speech? In Chicago he had said “Third, on the basis of a practical assessment of the situation, are there military operations we can sensibly and prudently undertake?” Breaking the agreement to leave by the end of the month concluded with the Taliban would have been neither sensible nor prudent. It could not have succeeded without massive military re-engagement and loss of life.

The aura of unreality surrounding this widespread denunciation of Biden, the assumption that America has only to say the word and the date of the exit could be changed, may spring from elsewhere: delayed recognition that US isolationism is here to stay, or fear that the USA was changing its strategic priorities, turning its back on Europe to concentrate on China. Nothing new here. Blair’s Chicago speech ended: “I say to you: never fall again for the doctrine of isolationism.

The world cannot afford it. Stay a country, outward-looking, with the vision and imagination that is your nature. And realise that in Britain you have a friend and an ally that will stand with you, work with you, fashion with you the design of a future built on peace and prosperity for all, which is the only dream that makes humanity worth preserving”. There was surely some element of fear this was a fading dream lurking behind the attacks on Biden for his failure to consult with his allies.

Some clear and specific reassurances from the American President, if not some apology and explanation for the lack of consultation with his NATO allies, are long overdue. We must now respond to the consequences of the change in US priorities. But like COVID we are going to have to live with the Taliban More tragically, so are the Afghan people.

Ian Linden,
a visiting Professor at St Mary’s University,
London.

DR Congo. The President’s pastors.

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 8:00

The closest advisers of Tshisekedi are three Pentecostal pastors whom he trusts to increase consensus in the country and establish improving foreign relations with the USA and Israel.

From the time he took over the leadership of the country in January 2019, succeeding Joseph Kabila, Félix Tshisekedi surrounded himself with figures in whom he places complete confidence or, so to speak, unconditional faith.
His faithful advisers are, in fact, three Pentecostal pastors who exercise great influence in the country, and who Tshisekedi not only considers his spiritual guides but to whom he has conceded broad room for manoeuvre in the diplomatic decisions and the decisions regarding the political economy of his government.
The one he probably trusts most is Jacques Kangudia Mutambayi, for years his spiritual counsellor. Formed in the Church of God in Benin City, Nigeria, Mutambayi knows well the centres of Pentecostal power scattered throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Before moving to Kinshasa, he was a pastor in Benin and Burkina Faso.

DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi.

The acquaintances he established over time and the influence which developed in several countries today, enable him to bring the messages of Tshisekedi to the other presidents of the Pentecostal faith who govern in Africa. They are as such: the Ethiopian head of state – Abiy Ahmed Ali – whose party of prosperity takes its name from one of the pillars of Pentecostal theology; or the Ugandan President – Yoweri Museveni – who, despite being of the Anglican faith, has always cultivated close ties with the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches of his country, through his wife Janet.
In recent times, Mutambayi has become increasingly important for President Tshisekedi. He officiated at the funeral of his father Etienne Tshisekedi on 30 May 2019. Three months later, he assumed, by direct appointment, the directorship of the Ccm (Coordination pour le changement des mentalités), a centre established by Tshisekedi to train Congolese functionaries in anti-corruption procedures and, more generally, in more efficient management ‘closer’ to the citizens, of the cumbersome bureaucratic machinery of the country.
A fervent opponent of the widespread corruption that pervades all levels of administrative offices, Mutambayi supervises the vast network of NGOs, both local and foreign, involved on this front. His was the campaign, among many others, conducted to prevent the government from assigning to the Belgian company Semlex a contract for the production of Congolese passports.

Jacques Kangudia Mutambayi. The spiritual counsellor of the President.

In one of the most corrupt and disastrous nations of the world, in the bureaucratic and administrative sense, Mutambayi represents for President Tshisekedi an indispensable ally first, and foremost, with regard to the image he transmits of himself abroad. At home, instead, Mutambayi acts in a more direct way. He never loses an opportunity to turn to the President the sympathies of the vast internal Pentecostal and Evangelical community. This constant pressure on public opinion has shown itself to be decisive in the presidential elections.
Mutambayi admittedly knows how to speak to his people. This he does, not only from the pulpit of his majestic church, but also through the associations that control the means of communication that work in his favour. There are no fewer than six TV stations influenced by him among which are Puissance, Dieu Vivant, Message de vie e Armée de l’Eternel.
Equally influential by the side of the President is the figure of another pastor, Olivier Tshilumba Chekinah, who divides his time between Canada, where his church l’Eglise Nouvelle Vie, is based, and Kinshasa where he fills the role of presidential adviser.
Chekinah is the man who, during the years of Tshisekedi’s mandate, was mainly occupied with showing a positive image of the President in the eyes of the USA administration, using the excellent relations he has with Israel. It was he who had him take part in the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee held on 25 February 2020, in Washington. It was a ‘kermesse’ during which Tshisekedi announced the recognition of the state of Israeli by the Congolese government, and the launch of preparations for the opening of a DR Congo embassy in Tel Aviv, along with a financial office in Jerusalem.
While weaving his diplomatic network, Chekinah also sees to his own affairs, protecting the interests of various Canadian businesses that operate in the mining sector and in infrastructure, by means of his company OL Consult.
According to Africa Intelligence reports, it was he who presented to the President the heads of the Australian company Fortescue Metals Group, which had applied for the contract to develop the Grand Inga dam and is said to have been granted it in September 2020.

Roland Dalo, a pastor of the Centre Missionnaire Philadelphie a La Gombe and head of the Church of State.

In conclusion, there is Roland Dalo, a pastor of the Centre Missionnaire Philadelphie a La Gombe and head of the Church of State. Dalo was the assistant to the best-known Pentecostal in the entire African region, the Swiss evangelist Jacques Vernaud. Vernaud founded the Evangelical Pentecostal Church of the Congo in the sixties and, afterwards, in 1985, the first large church of this creed in Kinshasa, capable of seating 15,000 faithful.He is the pastor to whom the Congolese president entrusts the task of ‘making peace’ with those in the country who do not support him, including his most bitter rival in the presidential elections of late 2018, Martin Fayulu. On 3 February 2019, a few days after the president was installed, it was Dalo who officiated at a celebration in La Gombe to which the two rivals were invited to become reconciled after the battle of the elections.

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