Mbeki The War Criminal

After ten years of denying the connection between HIV and AIDS, the South African government through their new Health Minister Barbara Hogan, has admitted their mistake. For a decade, their former President Mbeki and his puppet former Health Minister Msimang conspired relatively well to deny it. Their intellectual apathy, targeted myopia and general dis-ingenuousness played dangerously to help continue the pandemic. Pushing holistic approaches, which when used singularly, cannot be an effective treatment for the virus, they battered their nation with their fortified and unified ignorance.

It is now estimated that South Africa has the world's highest numbers of people infected with HIV. Somehow, I see Mbeki's hand all over this. Fine, there are all sorts of cultural and ethnic issues that one can interject into this conversation. However, the biggest player in all of this was this President who was willing to stand in some of the most influential arenas in the world, spouting his ignorance. He displayed a critical nonchalance towards what has soon become the primary problem in his country and the continent.

In a country rich with natural resources, he has cheated its most important resource, the people of an opportunity to make a critical head start in the fight against AIDS. Still bruised from the hands of apartheid, South Africa now begins to be battered by this pandemic in epic proportions. As it rises entwined in the cloak of traditional taboos, ethnic stigma has given way to disease segregation. Many have been victimized and vilified for having the virus or dying because of it. Mbeki's refusal to provide the pandemic with its correct place in the national agenda and dialogue created the black sea of death, now the calling card of the pandemic. There is blood on Mbeki's hands.

Therefore I hereby propose that we take his @#$ to the Hague. He deserves nothing less than a trial by jury. He should be tried by a group of HIV positive mothers condemned to death for lack of medication and intervention. His charges? Meticulous foolishness, coupled by wanton disinterest. I would appreciate seeing him respond to prosecution questions about the evidence he had. How he was able to dispute proven medical theories and science. I would pay to watch him wallow as he looks at the pictures of a thin hollowed out soul ravaged by AIDS. All I know is that my dream may never come true and he will have to wait for his trial with God. However I am comforted because I'd hate to be him when the verdict gets read.

Obama a Terrorist?

Overheard at McCain & Palin rallies recently has been the term "terrorist". This has been chanted enthusiastically referring to Barack Obama. Sarah Palin has used her platform to extend the following olive branch to her radical right friends; "Obama is pals with terrorists". Wow! Now that's truly American spirit. In the middle of two wars with some real terrorists trying to kill Americans and in order to get into the White House you stoop to calling the other candidate a terrorist?

A terorist is defined as; "a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism." Now, we all know this rationale doesn't make any sense. However, when you take into account Governor Palin's educational background -which reads like the credits of a movie;

• Hawaii Pacific University (Fall 1982),
• North Idaho College (Spring 1983 & Fall 1983),
• University of Idaho (Fall 1984 - Spring 1985),
• Matanuska-Susitna College (Fall 1985) and
• University of Idaho (Spring 1986, Fall 1986 and Spring 1987 ).

it is plain to see why the republicans are content to have her be the front runner of this foolishness. They need a fall guy/gal and she presents the perfect excuse if they have a bad showing.There are certain things that senator McCain cannot say given his experience and background. So, you have to have someone in your crew that can utter plain idiocies and get away with it. Good strategy on their part.

What's unfortunate is that Obama and Biden can't call her what she is without risking the wrath of empathetic voters. You see it would be seen as attacking a woman. How gallant would that be? So they have to stick to the issues. She cannot be termed a redneck, or a hick. The fact that she has been shooting game since she was three and has a lifetime membership to the National Rifle Association is immaterial. Her moose/elk burger, fisherman, snow-mobile background appeal to those that have 'red-neck' stenciled on their forehead.

That's where those of us that write come in. You see we can see past the facade of evil rhetoric, and vile vitriol. We can smell the false assault on our sensibilities. We can hear the wind whistling through the republican teeth as they pass the equivalent of verbal gas. We refuse to be appeased by people that have never had our best interests at heart.

Senator Palin's best chance of consistently visiting the White House is to do what we all do, get on the guest list.

Closing Statement

In his closing statement in the Presidential debate yesterday, John McCain said something like, "the country needs someone with experience with their hand on the tiller." Well like many, I was a bit confused. You see for a short moment there it sounded like he had meant till and just used a colloquialism. It would have been an appropriate word given the fact that -while supporting special interest groups- he and his party have robbed the American public for years.

I had to look it up and found the following in Wikipedia, "A tiller or till is a lever attached to a rudder post (American terminology) or rudder stock (English terminology) of a boat in order to provide the leverage for the helmsman to turn the rudder. The tiller is normally used by the helmsman directly pulling or pushing it, but it may also be moved remotely using tiller lines." So it appears that Mr. McCain was actually saying something quite deep. You need to be pausing for my however. Here it comes. However, who exactly did he think he was talking to? His boating friends, as they discussed their next yacht ride? His senate friends who commune in the summer on the waters off Florida's coast? Or was it the Harvard club types who meet for a brew after a day of crew? Exactly how does the common man connect with a tiller? Tell me John, how does Ms. Anna Mae Robinson from East Baltimore identify with your tiller?

It is for small reasons like this, that Senator McCain continues to exhibit why he is not fit to lead this country. Big statement coming, hold for it. He can't even speak regular English to regular folks. He has to use a word that emphasizes how polarized (distanced and disengaged) he is from the common American. I am a pretty educated fellow and even I -having inferred the meaning of tiller- still had to look it up. So now that you know what Mr. McCain was talking about, "what do you think?" Do you buy his analogy? Senator McCain believes that we need one of his hands, hopefully the one on the good arm, to be directing this country. His jabs at Senator Obama's experience and naivete -as he calls it- are becoming more common. Add Sarah Palin's country accent and annoying voice and you have a venom concerto with "Obama's naivete" its refrain.

Of course I had to look up the word naivete. I like words to be attributed and utilized correctly. Conjecture and inferences that are not rooted in directional proportion annoy me. Make any sense to you? Don't worry, me neither. The dictionary refers to naivete as, "The state or quality of being inexperienced or unsophisticated, especially in being artless, credulous, or uncritical." This description, if you may allow me to infer, sounds like Sarah Palin on her best day.

It would be naive of us to believe that Sarah could fill-in as president in Mr. McCain's stead. It would be naive of us to believe that John McCain does have four more good years ahead. We would be naive to envision that somehow the republican party has mustered a new strategy to dig us out of the black economic hole they have created. We would be naive to believe that the politics as usual stance will change -all of a sudden- when McCain is in office. It would be the height of naivete to actually believe that Sarah Palin is respected by conservative republicans. This country would be naive to imagine that after all these years in office, McCain suddenly is getting epiphanies about how to change the course of our economic, social and foreign affairs.

No, we need something just a little more radical than that, something that shows we are thinking outside the box. Something more than an African American running for president. That my friends, is an African American president.