dagblog - Comments for "Yet another coup in Africa"

We're all getting older,

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 10:12:12 +0000

We're all getting older, priorities & styles change, 2 years if COVID, et al...

The latest coup in West

artappraiser — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 08:30:47 +0000

In reply to Yet another coup in Africa

The latest coup in West Africa was met with dancing and live music in the capital Ouagadougou on Tuesday, where supporters of the military shrugged off the threat of sanctions and vented their frustration at former colonial power France. @D_J_Doyle has more. pic.twitter.com/Nos9IcU7BL
— Reuters Africa (@ReutersAfrica) January 26, 2022

found retweeted by Dr Remi Adekoya, who I follow. He's a Brit of Nigerian & Polish heritage and has a lot of followers from Nigeria as he tweets a lot about Nigerian history and culture; his main interest, tho, is classic western liberalism (and Enlightenment values) vs. the woke variety.

To both artappraiser and

Orion — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 06:17:58 +0000

In reply to You know half the stuff we do

To both artappraiser and PeraclesPlease:

I feel like what I'm posting here is altogether basically the same as what I did years ago, yet your response is so different. I really do appreciate the respect and the reception this time around.

As for men, it will work itself out. The whole problem would be alleviated if there were less guns around.

You know half the stuff we do

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 00:31:55 +0000

In reply to I have travelled to that

You know half the stuff we do her is boilerplate. Having something personal and emotional is a nice break. I.e. no need to apologize.

And yes, i contemplate the "what *does*;it mean to be male" bit in 2022 - in the US or outside of. A lot of our civilization was built on excessive hormones, and in a generation or 2 we're greatly trying an evolutionary switch. The pandemic has made it worse - hard to lead or contemplate - big picture stuff turns into basic hygiene concerns or putting out fires - don't see too much resolving*. Oddly the primitives with guns don't notice the quandary - they just function as usual, drag knuckles this way & that.

*Saw Kahneman - he seemed to think organizations play a role in boosting our contemplative side rather than our primary automated mode of functioning. But do corporations replace individual initiative?

I have travelled to that

Orion — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 00:04:42 +0000

In reply to nothing to say except wow,

I have traveled to that region multiple times, to the point that people who recognized me approach me in Engish. I would live there if I had the choice. It makes more sense than here. Internet access is intentionally limited but cable TV is widespread. That is a recipe for calm.

People avoid politics, still know how to deal with one another, to live communally. Outside of the city, people live as they have for maybe thousands of years and whatever stuff is going on in the news has no impact on them whatsoever. As Americans, there is something wrong with us.

I spent a whole day just washing dishes for my hosts. No one told me to do it faster or that I was stupid like back in the U.S. You see people smiling every day, whereas no one in America smiles anymore. All that money, the envy of the world, and we used it just to build walls between each other. We had a president who ran on building a wall between people. We have no idea who one another are and therefore just assume the absolute worst.

We drive ourselves insane with a bunch of stuff that is just designed to make life more complicated. They should be afraid but we are the ones with a culture of fear. Fear all the time of literally everything - of guns, of Covid, of politicians, of black people, of police, of obesity, of ourselves, of cancer, of drugs, of our own family. We don't know how to be human anymore.

A bit of an emotional rant there. My apologies. :P

nothing to say except wow,

artappraiser — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 23:05:30 +0000

In reply to The Ivory Coast is a bit more

nothing to say except wow, thanks for the interesting analysis

The Ivory Coast is a bit more

Orion — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 22:39:41 +0000

In reply to Yet another coup in Africa

The Ivory Coast is a bit more stable than it looks, but the way that it stays stable is probably a bit on the disturbing side:

ABUJA, Nigeria—One of the Burkina Faso president’s final acts in office was refusing to sanction the use of Russian paramilitaries on his soil.

The leader of this week’s successful military coup against him was the very man who tried to pressure him into accepting help from Moscow, sources in the former president’s camp told The Daily Beast.

A lot of unexpected stuff has happened since the end of the Cold War and one of those unexpected things appears to be that Russia has filled the void that countries like England once had in Africa. France still remotely has a presence in former colonies like Senegal, Mali and Cameroon, and Israel has a huge role in Cameroon's military force, but Russians have made their presence in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Congo and apparently now also Burkina Faso.

China in Africa was already a western headache but Russia in Africa may be a western nightmare. There's a South African TV show called Shadow (it's on Netflix) and Russian characters pop up regularly and are depicted commanding a whole lot more authority and menace than any of the Afrikaner characters. I figured that that was a holdover from Soviet sponsorship of Nelson Mandela and the fact that South Africa is generally more diverse than the rest of the continent but apparently it's on another level than just that.

CNN:

artappraiser — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:20:36 +0000

In reply to Yet another coup in Africa

CNN:

#Burkina Faso President Kabore detained at military camp, sources sayhttps://t.co/rkaylwOFYi
SLEDUJTE zpravy_24 a ceskezpravy_24

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— ZPRÁVY 24/7 (@zpravy_24) January 24, 2022