As we draw close to the end of another year, it has been the practice of this column to do some review of the major events of the year. First and foremost this column together with its enthusiastic readers will express profound thanks, appreciation and gratefulness to the Almighty God for keeping, sustaining and bringing us to the end of another year and to the new year. Indeed it is a privilege not given to all who inhabited this planet at this time last year to be alive to the present moment. We who are alive owe God an unnquantifiable amount of thanks and gratefulness for allowing us to be alive to this present day. For this we shall continue to thank Him for his grace unto us, the wretched sons and daughters of his creation.
One of the major events that transpired in the year 2003 was the Anglo American aggression against a sovereign country, Iraq over the so-called weapons of mass destruction and infernal allegation for sponsoring and harboring international terrorists by the regime of former Iraq – President Saddam Hussein
We now know better that neither of these two infernal allegations have been substantiated after the invasion of Iraq. The question remains where are the weapons of mass destructions? As an international peace activist, the writer being passionate about world peace in general and peace in the Middle East in particular was deeply dismayed when the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” unleashed their highly lethalized brigandage against Iraq and dismantled a sovereign state in callous and blatant disregard and violation of all accepted norms of international standards and law.
Our personal diplomatic efforts to avert war ended in fiasco as none of the parties were ready and willing to hearken to the voice of reason. We recall that we interviewed the firmer ebullient British High Commissioner to the Bahamas Mr. Heigl on the crisis who furnished us with his country’s position on the conflict and which we featured in this column. We also delivered a letter to the Iraqi authorities urging them to fully comply with the U.N. resolution and to avoid giving any pretext to Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair of the U.S. and United kingdom respectively, who from all indication was spoiling for an all-out confrontation against Iraq.
Unfortunately our efforts did not bear fruits. We also warned against the likely consequences of “lebanonization” of Iraq, which we are currently witnessing today though at an incipient stage. However, we are strongly urging on the occupation forces to immediately hand over Iraq to the United Nations so as to restore legitimacy to that unfortunate country. That is the only sure way out of the current quagmire.
Year 2003 was also the year that saw the Liberian President Charles Taylor out of power and he is presently living in exile in Nigeria amidst calls by the International War Crime Tribunal in Sierra Leone for his trial. Mr. Taylor is an indicted war criminal who is alleged to be behind the brutal carnage in Sierra Leone. It is not expected that the Nigerian authorities will ever hand over Mr. Taylor to the War Crime Tribunal.
Surprisingly and quite ironically, Nigeria herself had committed one of the worst form of war crimes ever perpetrated on the face of the earth. During the Nigerian -Biafran war, millions of people from Eastern Nigeria were butchered and starved to death. Some civilians were randomly executed and buried alive and we never heard about war crimes charges against the then Nigerian military government. The British government of Mr. Harold Wilson supported and protected Nigeria against official international outrage and odium.
Year 2003 was also the year when Libya finally agreed to accept responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing of a civilian passenger airline leading to the death of hundreds of passengers. Libya also agreed to pay compensation to the victims of the bombing, thus engendering the lifting of sanctions by the United Nations. There is also a strong belief that the Libyan leader seeing the fate of Iraq was compelled to make further far reaching postures to the international community on its nuclear weapons programme. Libya was one of the most fiercely anti-western country in the Middle East and was actively sponsoring countries and organizations opposed to the western imperialism. Libya expelled the United States from the Wheelus Air Base in 1969 shortly after Col. Ghadafi came to power.
It is expected that Col. Ghadafi now wants a re-rapprochements of relations between Libya and the United States. The International Atomic Energy Agency led by Mohammed Elbaradei has certified that Libya’s nuclear weapon programme has been dismantled. It is expected also that the U.S. will remove Libya from the list of nations it alleges that sponsor terrorism and may even resume diplomatic relations with the North African country. Ghadafi’s interest now is in trade and investment and this is good and beneficial to Libya. We think Libya is taking a very good step in the right direction. We only expect that sufficient pressure need be exerted on other nations to abide by the terms of the international nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Iran, Israel, North Korea must be watched in this regard. States that enabled these other states to acquire equipment and materials for the development of these weapons must be discouraged and sanctioned.
Unprecedented crisis rocked Venezuela almost leading to the state of civil war in that country. Attempts by right wing political establishments to subvert democratic institutions failed and the revolutionary government of President Jugo Chaavez survived and weathered the onslaught although the oil market was threatened yet there was no major disruptions in the global oil supply despite the fact that three major oil producing countries encountered different problems e.g. Nigeria, Iraq and Venezuela.
The World Trade Organization much hoped-for ministerial meeting in Cancun Mexico in pursuance of the Doha round ended in failure owing to the uncompromising position of the western developed nations on the issue of reduction of farm subsidies to their farmers. The vexing issue of imbalance and inequality of the negotiating powers was effectively used by some developing nations to attempt to extract some concessions. One of the great lasting lessons of that failed WTO meeting remains that for the first time in the history of multinational trade negotiations, third world countries were able to put their house in order and presented a common united front on issues pertaining to their national interests. Credit for this must go to Brazil and her progressive leftist leader President Lula Inacio Da Silva. The meeting ended without any agreement and developing countries realized that henceforth their voice as a group will always matter in further multilateral trade talks within the framework of the WTO.
The Palestinian Israeli questions remain unresolved as ever. We expected the Aqaba Road Map to peace launched at the exotic Jordanian Red Sea Port of Aqaba by the U.S. government would work. Mahamud Abbas affectionately known Abu Marzan was briefly appointed as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority to move the peace process to a more momentous effective level but he was virtually frustrated by Mr. Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO who used every conceivable ploy to undermine the sincerely and genuinely peace loving Mr. Abu Marzan. Rather than allow himself to be projected as “a Zionistt collaborator” and an “enemy of the Palestinian people” in their legitimate struggle for self determination, Mr. Muhammed Abbas (aka Abul Marzan) resigned. There was even a brief cease fire by the Islamic militant groups. However, the blood letting continued unabated. We hope that a just and equitable solution will be found to this lingering crisis. The writer will God-willing, embark upon an independent personal peace initiative for the region later in the year. Please stay in touch with this column. We have continued to oppose the death of any one in the region, be it the Israelis or the Palestinians for we are all created by one God. There was also Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM0 meeting held in Abuja, New capital of Nigeria, where the suspension of Zimbabwe was restated by Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Britain who are championing the suspension. Tension continues in the Chinese stait between the Peoples Republic of China and the Republic of Taiwan which China considers a renegade province. It is our hope that there will not be any escalation of this simmering conflict in that part of the world. The amiable Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. John Christien finally bowed out of office. A highly princpled statesman, the former Canadian prime minister will be missed by observers of international politics.
Cuba also experienced some problems following the summary trial and execution of some sea ‘hackers’ who hijacked a Cuban passenger boat and endangered the lives of those on board. The European Union led by that neo-facist prime minister of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar attempted to encourage Europeans to stop traveling to Cuba and suspended certain dealings with Cuba in an attempt to blackmail the Cuban government on alleged human rights violations. It remains to be answered, the question as to whether the hijacking of a ship on the high sea does not amount to terrorism?
One of the most unforgettable events of this year no doubt was the capture of former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole. This reminds us of how funny this life could be. Here was a highly feared leader who at a point had one of the largest army in the world and perhaps the most strongest military in the Middle East with the exception of Israel. He lost his regime, two sons and virtually everything. The leader who was commanding the world 4th largest military was captured with only three guns, and two men – he was armed with a pistol and his two body guards had two A-K 47s gun?
It is also worth knowing that the erstwhile charismatic British Prime minister, Tony Blair suffered in his popularity ratings terribly over the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair were referred to as “a bunch of white vigilantes” by some British clerics. The British people knew now without a shred of doubt that their leader, Mr. Blair lied to them while pushing the Iraq’s war agenda. Many American people equally believed the same thing with reference to President Bush since Iraq’s arms capability remains unproven. Undoubtedly a very wicked and brutal leader has been removed but we do not feel that the invasion was justified. However, we must watch and see how Mr. Saddam Hussein will be tried whether it will not amount to double face cry for those who wish to bring the Iraqi strongman before the International War Crimes Tribunal, had argued against the same, for any of their citizens.
AIDS/HIV continues to ravage mankind especially in sub Saharan Africa like Botswana, Zimbabwe Nigeria, etc. We hope that the rich and wealthy nations would extend a hand of help to Africa in the name of humanity. Massive food, air lift is needed in Malowi, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, etc. How can we spend 87 billion dollars to fight an unnecessary war yet not willing to commit even 2 billion dollars to effectively feed the living in God’s own world?
There was also a ballot cast in the state of California in the effort to the recall the former Governor of the state. Arnold Swarzenegger emerged victorious amidst scandals following stories from more than a dozen women alleging that Arnold Swarznegger groped or otherwise mishandled them.
The Colombian Civil War continues as the hard-line president of Columbia got tough on the rebels who had been fighting for over 39 years. The Fuerzas Armara Revolucionerios de Columbia (or FARC), (the revolutionary armed forces of Columbia) has been battling the Columbian government for many years. The right wing paramilitary groups agreed to lay down their weapons.
As far as the Bahamas is concerned, the Tourism industry and financial services sector remain buoyant. It is suggested that we use our culture to boast our tourism industry. Apart from the Christmas and Boxing Day Junkanoo festivals, it will be much better if the Ministries of Tourism and Youth Sports and Culture can organize cultural festivals periodically in the year and in different islands and use it to boost and move the tourism industry forward in the Bahamas.
We must conclude this review by expressing sincere thank to different organizations, local and international that invited me to deliver lectures or attend the seminars during the year. Special thanks goes to t the College of the Bahamas Union of Students (COBUS) that invited me to deliver lecture on the issues relating to the CSME, FTAA and globalization and the prestigious Kiwanis Club who also extended a speaking invitation to me, and to all other organizations. I feel highly privileged for the honour they bestowed on me by such invitations.
Finally, to all my readers I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
By Clement Chigbo, The Bahama Journal
