By Anon
“I also want to say that I agree with the sentiments of Damte and only hope that we can learn from one another.
The sad events that have taken place in Kenya over the last few days have just displayed to me that democracy in Africa may not necessarily be the answer for us which means that we have to find out what works for us, …..we have just been branded by the international community as another failed African state descending into chaos which means we have to go back to the drawing board.
When I say we, I mean we as Africans have to find a way what works for us. We have more than enough case studies to work from at least to ensure that this should never happen again. We need to find a way of ensuring that the people’s voice counts for something and not simply the elite in our society.
My fear is that as long as the gap between the rich and the poor remains, unfortunately the elite in power will always get their way. For this reason we as people on the ground need to ensure that we get as much out of the education programs and economic programs that are already in place. Let us at least move into a place where we are not simply dictated to what we should or should not do but reach a place where we hold our leaders accountable without any fear of repercussions.
But its not all doom and gloom! As Africans we have shown our resilient nature to the world as well and I do believe we will get out of this and only become stronger. To me it almost appears as if in order for Africans to move along we need to go through a travesty such as this, if only to ensure we do not make the same mistakes and seal all the loop holes that got us into the mess in the first place.
The recent events have also only served to reinforce what I have always felt about news that emanates from Africa, we need to really work on news for us by us, we can no longer rely on the international stations and media to report news in a way that reflects the African perspective. We saw how our own media houses let us down when we needed them the most albeit through no fault of their own. (Although I do still feel that they failed us one way or the other). For this reason I cannot wait for our own Pan African news station that the late Mohamed Amin is working on;
He believes “A24″ can be launched by autumn 2007, with TV and radio stations complemented by mobile and Internet services to take advantage of fast-expanding communications across Africa.
“It’s ambitious … but this continent needs its own voice. We think the time and technology is right now to launch an African version of Al Jazeera,†he said, referring to the Qatar-based pan-Arab satellite channel.
“All being well, we’re looking at fall 2007 to be on air… We’re not a PR station, it’s not to promote Africa but to show Africa through the eyes of Africans, the good and the bad.â€
http://www.chinadaily.net/world/2006-04/07/content_563010.htm
It will also open our eyes to all that is happening around the continent, we will be able to learn from each other see where others have gone right or gone wrong and see how we can improve the situation in our own countries. Too many times we close our eyes to what is going on around the continent simply be adopting the attitude of “we have our own problems to deal withâ€. So maybe this was a wake up call not only to Kenya but to the rest of Africa too, we need to wake up from our deep slumber and do something to save our continent. We have all it takes to achieve it, the rest of the world see’s our potential, I hope we can too.”
When I saw Kenya burn after an election, in the name of tribal rivalry, it took me back to what Gujarat in India underwent in 2002 when the whole state burnt, with government connivance, in the name of religious rivalry.
when will all of us learn that these religious rivalries are the fruit of fertile political minds bent on maintaining their own hegemony and therefore committed to exploiting every human fraility, physical and mental to do so.
we have undergone that trial by fire and continue to do so, victim of a political system under which one party demonises the most gentle religion in the world, Hinduism and the other party cannot oppose it because of its poor track record in dealing with religious controversies.
at the moment, Gujarat is willy nilly a “Hindutva” state; i will not call it Hindu as that would be an insult to the religion I was brought up in. and it is economic prosperity of the middle classes which is going to keep it so. it was the rising economics of the Muslims, gorging on gulf remittances, which had given the lumpen elements to savage them and their business establishments in 2002. when they will reocver, no one knows.
in this imbrioglio, our muslim leadership cannot escape odium. for instead of working for the betterment of their people, they waste time in promulgating ridiculous fatwas and conniving with other political leaders to establish vote banks, instead of prosperous educated communities.
may i appeal to kenyan thinkers to study the gujarat situation before going down the road to further social and economic destruction in the name of tribal rivalry.
I have disagree with “democracy may not be the answer”. It would be the answer if it was properly instituted. All we have seen is the bastardization of democracy on Africa. Even South Africa and Botswana could be questioned. Once we have a proper democracy, human rights, freedom of the press then our nations will take a step towards a better future.
DEMOCRACY MUST GROW AND SURVIVE.
Africa does need to find a way of making democracy work for it. We should not despair but find ways of channeling our ethnic diversity into institutions that always have the interest of the country at heart.
Multi-ethnic coalitions like NARC and ODM are not evil. If anything, they are a way forward. What is evil is the hijacking of the democratic process and that is where we ought to focus our energy; BUILDING AND PROTECTING STRONG DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS.
Once we have strong democratic institutions. Who controls them will not matter much.
Its happened. I have become cynical, the whole Kenyan election cabinet Kibaki Raila saga has left me drained. I embody cynicism.
The media has moved on there is alot of drama on our planet…God must be tired just looking down at us.
All the best A24 we need some/one/ thing with the stomach to keep an eye on events on the continent. Some/one/thing that is not fainthearted, or won’t sleep and yawn when one conflict after another arises, with despicable storylines, and hectic predictable themes.Trying relentlessly to look for the good stuff to keep from caving in with all the bad news coming in.
I’m tired and just need to see if another episode of NBCs ‘Survivor’ will provide me with clues or machinations on how to overcome opponents in this saga we call life. It actually takes some gumption to outlast others in winning the prize .
To Kenyans: how did we ever know we’d be the stars of this never ending soapie of African ‘Democracy Hypocrisy’, and that we would have our moment to shine brilliantly, if only for a week on the busy international circuit.
Responding to “Diary 10 – Africa needs to find what works for us “and the media bias concern, an innovative Kenyan has put up a site that I should say is quite interesting. The address is: http://runboard.com/bongasasa. It’s worth having a look. I see his idea being to encourage Kenyans to report on the good things happening in Kenya besides all the chaos. Notwithstanding though, he’s also captured of the negative news about Kenya. Anyway, over to you.
I think so too! this random thing must get to an end.
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