Annan’s new assignment

Syria becomes the latest country to fall victim to the poison of international agent-provocateurs. They hide under various guises – from western propelled dictatorship the vaults are suddenly opened revealing horrendous records of the so-called human rights abuse. It feels like Christopher Columbus discovering what was there all along, all over again. The cycle is […]

Syria becomes the latest country to fall victim to the poison of international agent-provocateurs. They hide under various guises – from western propelled dictatorship the vaults are suddenly opened revealing horrendous records of the so-called human rights abuse. It feels like Christopher Columbus discovering what was there all along, all over again. The cycle is as familiar as the lines on our palms, a once ‘legitimate’ regime begins to tighten the noose against western capital and it has committed the first mortal sin opening its flanks to international gang-up. This is familiar road since the practical partitioning of countries fell out of vogue. Diplomatic war stokes chaos for international capital to find a ready market, everything falls out of place but business thrives and the people are left to pick the pieces. Need we reel out the statistics?

The modern face of imperialism is fought on the battlefields of injustice. Its infantry are the monopolistic media. They creep into a land at relative peace with itself and begin to sniff its weakest links. Once identified, they keep hitting at it until they identify a person or group to promote. From relative obscurity, the new icon of ‘democracy’ is popularised and the voice of the ‘legitimate’ government is stifled and subsequently totally obscured. Questions about how a ragtag shadowy group suddenly overthrows a well-trained army and where the weapons come from are lost in the fine print. We can only conjecture that the superrich media owners are also the lucky shareholders of the arms companies. A once peaceful nation is suddenly plunged into unmanageable chaos paving the way for  retired ‘global diplomats’ to return and finish the job.

Then comes international isolation for the regime in place. The New York guys in zany suits are suddenly busy. Soon, threats of fire and brimstone follow sanctions and members of the Security Council with their all animals are equal veto powers walk in for real-time horse-trading. When this begins to happen, a wise leader knows it is either time to buy a coffin or reach out to the last allies who can support the ignominy of exile. The next phase after that is the multi-pronged invasion. This involves full military action but also lopsided moral, physical and psychological huffing and puffing which goes with internationally sanctioned violence.

These new rules of international diplomacy works for international arms dealers as it works for those constantly researching into weapons of mass destruction to test their latest arsenal. The silent shareholders and their home governments are the ultimate winners here especially in a world struggling with so-called global recession. In countries under recession, big government is in, and big spending. Poverty is in too, albeit of a different level. The western world has developed a carapace against its own citizens dropping dead on the streets – except of course from drug addiction – it is called social security. The other parts of the world is not like that. People struggle to survive and they usually are on their own with God standing for them. Once regimes fall; venture capital comes in and changes time-tested rules. It proclaims ‘liberty’ a euphemism for chaos-induced fracturing of society and sudden death. Who does not know that death is the ultimate end for those uprooted from their traditional cushions of survival and left with nothing in return.

This explains why in fractured societies today the trending thing is religious fundamentalism. The hoi-polloi finally finds succour either in the utopia of theocracy or in the hereafter. A fractured society is a fertile recruitment ground recruiting ground heretical teachigs. The internet provides the recipe for DIY mass murder and the cache addresses of other weapons providers. What more it can be easily accessed via a mobile phone or a computer. Death is thus the cheapest thing available on the horizon.

I pity Annan in his new assignment to negotiate a glorified exit for Bashir Assad. Listening to the capital-controlled western media profiling Assad, you can see the disappointment of their masters in business and in government lamenting the jeremiad of a London-trained prince who has refused to dance to the tunes of western capital. The international parameters of what constitutes treason is changing.  When lopsided diplomacy, capital and military force is through with Syria, it would leave, just with the same urgency it left Baghdad and Tripoli creating jobs for the recessed technocrats with the capital and the implements for reconstruction. Local hands would be hired of course, and commission agents would be raised, but it is the people who will suffer. There is no hope for survival in a world of injustice. As for Anan, good luck on this new assignment  with the dusted zany suit – it is still a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Too bad,  the ball has been passed into Annan’s turf.