Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

The tragedy of Somalia continues unabated. The country has not had a government since CIA-backed stooge and regional thug Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted way back in 1990. Last year a group of Muslim fundamentalists, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), broke out of its Mogadishu enclave and succeeded in seizing a lot of the south of the country. They weren’t very nice dudes – they were fond of chopping off people’s hands and banning entertainment – but, like the Taliban, they did bring stability to the capital and surrounding areas. People felt secure enough to walk the streets again and to travel even short distances without the inevitable intrusion of road-blocks manned by gun-toting militia members seeking donations.

The Americans though were not happy, claiming the Islamists were in cahoots with Al Qaeda.

Last December the Ethiopian army, with the backing of the US, drove the Islamists from Mogadishu. The Ethiopians have remained to back up a weak Somali transitional government. They are the Somalis’ traditional enemies and are not popular. They seem anxious to leave, but they have various jobs to do beforehand. They are supposed to be replaced by an 8,000 strong  African Union force but to date only 1,200 have shown up.

The city has returned to its former lawlessness, and in the last few weeks it is estimated that over 1,500 civilians have been killed in cross-fire between the Ethiopians, government forces, local clan militias and Islamic sympathisers. This has set in train one of the largest movements of refugees in today’s world, a veritable human flood which seems to have been ignored by the world’s media. These people are attempting to flee the mayhem, yet they often leave the city without proper food or provisions for areas of the country that are without infrastructure. They are often attacked and robbed by bandits on their way, and when they do find refuge they often have to deal with local traders who have increased prices for basics exponentially. There have even been reports of landholders charging refugees for taking shelter under trees on their land. They are prey to a cocktail of diseases including cholera. There have also been reports that the transitional government has deliberately prevented aid deliveries to camps occupied by people from areas viewed as sympathetic to the opposition.

And yet in all this, the refugees are the lucky ones. The old, the aged, and the very poor cannot leave the city. They remain trapped in the midst of the fighting. It is estimated that 600 people have died in the past few weeks from cholera alone. Many of the city’s medical facilities have been destroyed or looted and their personnel have fled, yet to reach them would involve a perilous journey from one neighbourhood to the next, each one guarded by its respective militias.

One of the causes of Africa’s poverty is the dearth of technology. A yawning technological gulf exists between Africa and the rest of the world, though recent studies on internet and mobile phone use suggests this is narrowing. One branch of technology the west has never been reluctant to give to Africa is armaments. The continent is awash with weaponry, some of it old Soviet material, but quite an amount is spanking new state-of-the-art kit. A small electricity generator for use with a pump costs about the same, maybe even less, than a sub-machine gun. Which does the most good?

The Horn of Africa was for years a play-thing of the superpowers. The world’s one remaining superpower is getting involved again not for any humanitarian reasons. Its president possibly doesn’t even know where Somalia is. The world’s next superpower, China, eyes Africa as a great prize as it offers the oil and minerals which it needs for its booming economy. However this is as selfish as America’s interest. And while the UN and African Union passes resolution after wordy resolution, the people of Somalia continue to die in droves – needlessly.  

I just wanted to remind readers that this coming Thursday, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day. This only affects proper newspapers, not comics written by chimps, one of which will appear, comme d’habitude, next Thursday.

I’m sure people will remember the Tetleys’ ads featuring the chimps from the late ’70s. Why do these remind me  of a certain long-standing newspaper in the Cavan area? Oops, sorry chimps.

Is there any truth in the report that May 25th will see the 5000th broadcast of Countdown and that Des O’Connor will finally fall apart prompting a need for a new presenter?

Returning to the subject of elections in Nigeria, I see that Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka has called for the elections to be re-run. He added that the victor of the “election”, Umaru Yar’Adua is a man of probity, and has added that he should not, therefore, want to steal victory by default from the Nigerian people.

But seriously, why is it that a proper election could not have been organised in Nigeria? The infrastructural problems are, admittedly, daunting but not insurmountable. Furthermore, let us look at some other countries in Africa, such as Mauritania and Mali. The former, though admittedly less populous than Nigeria, is  almost entirely made up of desert. Yet Mauritania was able to hold successful presidential elections which were acceptable to both victor and vanquished. The same infrastructural problems face its neighbour Mali which has also been able to pull off a calm and well-run election.

Nigeria’s elections in mid April were a sham, a desperate vaudeville not worthy of the name of an election. Everything about it was shambolic. Nigeria’s a big country and there are large parts of it that are off the beaten track: in fact they’re off any track at all. The ballot papers didn’t even arrive in the country until the day of the election; electoral monitors who were supposed to ensure things went well were forced to hitch-hike to their posts; and so the elections didn’t start on time in many places, and in some they didn’t start at all.

Yet voting did begin on time in places viewed as ruling party or PDP  strongholds. Those who survived standing in wilting heat then found that there was no such thing as a secret ballot and that they had to cast their vote in full view of ruling party activists. In many places ballots not marked in the “right way” were snatched from the hands of would-be voters. Ballot boxes were often stolen, or stuffed with ballots filled out for ruling party contender Umarua Yar’Adua.

But what makes this election so tragic is that the ruling party felt it had to resort to such tactics. Yar’Adua was likely to have won even if the polls had been totally kosher, even though his party has overseen nearly a decade of mismanagement and corruption. The opposition was not exactly squeaky clean. Main contender, Muhammadu Buhari is an ex-army man who led a coup that toppled democratically elected president Shehu Shagari in the early 1980s. Former vice-president Attiku Abubakar had been accused of corruption by his former allies in the PDP after he fell out with out-going president Obasanjo. This was probably like the pot calling the kettle black, but it is doubtful that his hands were entirely clean.

There were no “tribal” or religious tensions, so often a problem in Nigerian politics, as all the main  candidates hailed from the Muslim north.  

And yet in spite of the glaring irregularities of the election a winner was announced. To everyone’s surprise Yar’Aduar won by a landslide and will be soon inaugurated president. The president of Africa’s most populous country though will lack legitimacy.

How is it that Nigeria, one of the world’s major oil producers, is still so poor, with many killer diseases still endemic? Perhaps the answer lies in another question. How come a small handful of Nigerians are so rich? Corruption is endemic at all levels, and as it is never  checked people at all levels want a bit of the action.

We must not sit back in self-satisfied comfort in the west. Can anyone in the west say with hand on heart that corruption does not exist here? Is it not just a question of definition or politely looking the other way?

I was truly saddened to learn of the death of Mstislav Rostropovich; indeed I found myself shedding a tear or two, for the world will not be as nice a place without him.

He was probably the greatest ‘cellist of the twentieth century. My reserve in calling him the greatest is that such a superlative accolade can only be enjoyed by one person, no matter how truly great they are, and I feel that Slava would have wanted to share it with some others, including Jacqueline Du Pre.

He was without doubt a genius, both as a ‘cellist and a conductor. His genius was as great as his genuine humility and his generosity of spirit.

The touchstone of true genius, I feel, is how it affects the world around them and how it inspires genius in others. The musical landscape of the late twentieth century is unthinkable without him. He was the dedicatee of over one hundred works, from composers such as Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Lutoslawski and Henri Dutilleux to living composers such as James McMillan.

And combined with all his other qualities was courage in the face of brutality, when he was expelled from the Soviet Union, stripped not only of his citizenship but in the time-honoured fashion of thugs and bullies everywhere stripped of his very existence. His records, and those of his wife Galina Vishnevskaya, were removed not only from sale but from the libraries of the radio stations and the catalogue of the state recording company Melodiya, while his role as first performer of works such as the Shostakovich ‘cello concerti was air-brushed out of all text-books and concert programmes.

A number of recorded performances stand out for me. One was made in the 1950s of Shostakovich’s ‘cello sonata (which wasn’t written for him, dating from 1934). He is accompanied by the composer himself, who was. through illness, no longer the virtuoso pianist he had once been. This recording, though scratchy and hardly high-fidelity, is magical.

Another recording, preserved now on DVD, saw Slava accompany Galina on the piano in a performance of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, while yet another DVD preserves his performance of Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto. The orchestra was conducted by a then very youthful Okko Kamu.

Goodbye Slava. You’ll be missed.

Apologies to the readers of this blog for my long silence. I have decided to take up again my electronic pen. It is not that I’m not busy with other work. Let’s just say that Spring is a time when the creative sap rises in the human body. I just love writing, and I hope that some of this enjoyment is transferred to my readers.

Once again my remit will be the whole world, and as a citizen of this planet nothing will be foreign to me. Let me warn people that those expecting uncritical and nauseating praise, lubricating the petty egos of local nobodies will be sorely disappointed.