What a circus! Marco Rubio telling the West that “we” had better days when we simply colonised territories around the world. When we demonstrated might is right, those were the golden years.
The US secretary of state was at pains clarifying that Americans come from Europeans; we are one in culture, language, and values. “We belong together; that is our preference, but we can also go it alone if you are hesitant. You have allowed yourself to become weak, subscribing to ‘woke’ politics and allowing immigrants to run amok in your country. This must stop.”
I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist.
And just when you think it’s an alternate universe, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas goes a step further and perpetuates the lies and misinformation about the state of affairs in Russia and its impending economic collapse. We have been waiting for such a collapse for many years now, but alas. I say this only to demonstrate two things: reporting on the material facts in any conflict does not equate to taking sides, and secondly, I am sincerely worried about the immense loss of life on the part of the Ukrainians.
According to the official report post the conference, which I may add was a really objective and realistic account of world affairs at this particular juncture, it states that “promises to break institutional inertia and compel problem-solving on challenges previously marked by gridlock are inevitable.
“Yet, it is unclear whether demolition is really clearing the ground for policies that will ultimately serve the people. Instead, transactional deals may well replace principled cooperation, private interests may increasingly trump public ones, and regions may become dominated by great powers rather than governed by international rules and norms.”
Let’s be honest, we can already observe this reality. It goes further and states that “the report shows that the challenges are substantial. But it also reveals that actors still invested in the international order are organising, trying to contain the effects of wrecking-ball politics and probing new approaches that do not depend on Washington’s lead. Yet, containing the worst expressions of a policy of destruction will require these actors to step up, hone their tools, draw up new, more sustainable designs, and become bolder builders themselves.”
Europe, it seems, is moving in this direction but alas, some still want to hark on about the golden years and better days.
Canada, it seems, to me, to have caught onto the simple reality that relying on the current US administration will mean waiting for Godot.
We need to realise the very same logical crux. The African Union’s (AU) 39th Summit took place amid a genocide in Gaza and a myriad of insurgencies and coups throughout the continent.
One thing is certain amidst all these global uncertainties: there are no longer many presidents with pan-African ambitions. What a shame. The power of the AU remains with the AU assembly, and there are no efforts in sight for reform. It is made up of the heads of state, including the three longest-ruling non-royals in the world: Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (46 years), Paul Biya of Cameroon (44 years) and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (40 years). This is outrageous and unacceptable, but it occurs.
I say again, when will the day arrive when Africans won’t be divided and ruled because of power and money?
To the organisers of the old-age Munich Security Conference, job well done, but you know as well as I, the world is extremely unsafe, and the empire once known as the US is making it more dangerous for us all. And yet, some European leaders want to side with this madman, Donald Trump.
Instead of giving him a standing ovation, they should instead have had the balls to tell Rubio, and his boss Trump, to go and jump. This is not the time to reminisce about the golden years of settler colonialism and apartheid; this is a moment in our history to stand up and say: “We, the world, united in our diversity, recognise the injustices of the past, honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our world, and believe the world belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
- Dr Van Heerden is a senior research fellow at the Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at UJ
