Democracy Fail – What the Coup d’etat in Mali Means

One of the leading presidential contenders, Yeah Samake, was interviewed by Marco Orman of PRI’s The World.  Samake was near the radio station when the coup occurred, but he appears to be actively working to stanch the downward spiral:

Samake: Every single day I meet with the five to six presidential candidates. We just formed an alliance called L’Association Pour Que Les Démocrates et Les Patriotes Sortent de la Crise.

Werman: And that literally means the association for the democrats and patriots to get out of the crisis, literally.

Samake: Yes, the military leaders now have no choice than working with the people to transfer power so that democracy can continue to flourish. And I believe in this. It picks people apart. We cannot live under dictatorship anymore. The power needs to be given to a transitional government that needs to work for the next nine months making sure that we can hold fair and transparent elections.

via Mali Junta Unveils Constitution And Promises Elections | PRI’s The World.

But Henry Glickman at FPRI concludes with this discouraging prognosis:

Time is not on the side of restoration of the integrity of Mali and liquidation of jihadist Islamism in the region.  New al Qaeda-type franchises will probably emerge in the Sahel region. The new Mali government, with or perhaps through ECOWAS, the US, and its European allies, all need to co-operate to address the demands of MNLA as well as the threat of AQIM.At present Mali faces a humanitarian crisis: cutbacks in trade and foreign assistance at the moment of threatened drought.  Added to its current political crisis, that is a recipe for more difficulties.

via E-Notes: The Coup in Mali — Background and Foreground – FPRI.

Unesco Backs Divisive Equatorial Guinea Prize – NYTimes.com

Is a prize that claims to promote African progress bad for human rights?  Unesco weighs both sides and comes out with a compromise that is ensured to leave everyone unhappy:

The wrangling over the award exposed the rift within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization between Western states, which worry that it will mar the agency’s reputation — if it has not done so already — and African member nations, several of which argued Thursday that the prize would serve as an element of pride for the African continent.

“We believe that the decision we’ve just taken will send a very important message,” said Zimbabwe’s representative to Unesco, David Hamadziripi. “That a lot of good comes out of Africa, and that Africa can and does contribute in international cooperation and is not just a recipient of the good will of others.”

via Unesco Backs Divisive Equatorial Guinea Prize – NYTimes.com.

Vimeo diplomacy: Making KONY 2012 (in)famous

Forget about Syria for a moment.  Did you know that the Obama administration sent troops to Africa.  The KONY campaign orchestrated by Invisible Children illustrates how social entrepreneurs are using tech as a tool to change attitudes and awareness of indicted war criminals.

But in this viral masterpiece, the power of NGOs is opening up to major criticism, as reported in WaPo today–as to whether these tactics are the right way to address the problem.  And the list of critics is growing (er, overwhelming).

There are a growing number of critical responses to both the video and the organisation. Both Chris Blattman and the team at Wrong Rights made a number of cutting observations in 2009 (this particularly video is the 12th installment of a long-running series, to which Invisible Children allocate a majority of their funding). We will update this list with new posts, articles and tweets that seek to take on this latest phenomenon in fundraising and advocacy, to make sure you get a balanced diet of KONY 2012.

via A reader’s digest of KONY 2012 | whydev.org.

Update:  Joshua Keating adds this take-down on FP.com from Michael Wilkerson that is the best overall analysis that I have read to date.

via KONY 2012 on Vimeo.

U.S. Group Offered to Aid Qaddafi, Documents Show – NYTimes.com

Not the first embarrassing leaked detail of someone choosing the wrong side–nor is it entirely surprising.  But still, an “oops”–

Now the confidential documents describing the proposed deal have surfaced on the Internet, offering a glimpse of how some saw lucrative possibilities in the power struggle that would end Colonel Qaddafi’s erratic reign. A Facebook page called WikiLeaks Libya has made public scores of documents apparently found in Libyan government offices after the Qaddafi government fell.The papers contained a shock for the Americans: a three-page letter addressed to Colonel Qaddafi on April 17 by another partner in the proposed deal, a Belgian named Dirk Borgers. Rather than suggesting a way out of power, Mr. Borgers offered the Libyan dictator the lobbying services of what he called the “American Action Group” to outmaneuver the rebels and win United States government support.

via U.S. Group Offered to Aid Qaddafi, Documents Show – NYTimes.com.

The Worlds Largest Sandbox – NYTimes.com

Learning about UNASOG and the Aouzou Strip–and a UN success story that you have likely never heard about:

For no more than the top prize in a 1950s game show, UNASOG ended the Chadian-Libyan War, which ran between 1973 and 1989. This low-intensity conflict was fought over the Aouzou Strip, about as remote and empty a piece of real estate as you’re likely to find on Earth. As border lore goes, it is a fascinating example of what could be called transitional zones: disputed territories situated between competing powers, whose unique borders facilitate their slow, often contested detachment from one country to the other [2].

The Aouzou Strip — its name sounds like a turpentine-based cocktail drink, or a particularly painful bikini waxing method — is a giant slice of Sahara, named after a locality in its northwestern half. An elongated trapezoid on the map, as poorly demarcated as it is sparsely populated, you could call this 44,000 square-mile piece of desert the world’s largest sandbox. Its most remarkable feature is that it was deemed worthy to be fought over at all.

via The Worlds Largest Sandbox – NYTimes.com.

Some Aid Trickles Into Somalia, Surrounded by Death and Disease – NYTimes.com

Humanitarian crises can make the headlines–especially if there are cruel and horrifying images accompanying the catastrophe.  But Somalia appears to be a story that is losing attention, even as things continue to spiral downward with failed politics, ineffective governance, and a lawless operating environment for NGOs.  Jeffery Gettleman explains:

As the East Africa correspondent for The New York Times, my assignment has been to chronicle the current famine in Somalia, one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the last two decades, hitting one of the most forlorn and troubled countries in modern times. My job is to seek out the suffering and write about it and to analyze the causes and especially the response, which has been woefully inadequate by all accounts, though not totally hopeless.

via Some Aid Trickles Into Somalia, Surrounded by Death and Disease – NYTimes.com.

Criminal Court in Indirect Talks With Qaddafi Son, Prosecutor Says – NYTimes.com

Suddenly international justice might look better for Seif Qaddafi:

There has been speculation that Mr. Qaddafi, who has eluded capture by the rebels who overthrew Colonel Qaddafi in late August, may have undergone a change of heart about turning himself over to court custody after his father was captured, brutalized and killed while in rebel custody on Oct. 20 in his hometown Surt, an event captured on cellphone videos and widely circulated on the Internet.

“Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Seif,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said through a spokesman. “The office of the prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide.”

via Criminal Court in Indirect Talks With Qaddafi Son, Prosecutor Says – NYTimes.com.

Rachid al-Ghannouchi Imagines Democratic Future for Tunisia – NYTimes.com

Consider the future of Tunisia–including todays’s headline on the Sunday vote–as a model of Middle East democracy according to Rachid al-Ghannouchi, a well-known Islamic thinker:

Tunisia “is going to be a democratic society, a model in the Arab world,” he said, after a recent conference in Istanbul, where some of Turkey’s conservative leaders look to him as an inspiration and an ally. “The direction of Tunisia’s future is that it will be open to the entire world.”

via Rachid al-Ghannouchi Imagines Democratic Future for Tunisia – NYTimes.com.

NATO War in Libya Shows U.S. Was Vital to Toppling Qaddafi – NYTimes.com

The role that the US played was constant, irreplaceable, and vital–signaling that NATO may not be all its cracked up to be:

The United States military has spent just $1.1 billion in Libya, and in the words of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., “didn’t lose a single life.” He added that “this is more of the prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward than it has been in the past.”

Libya proved that the leaders of some medium-size powers can be overthrown from a distance, without putting American boots on the ground, by using weapons fired from sea and air with the heaviest load carried by partner nations — in the case of Libya, European allies and even some Arab states.

via NATO War in Libya Shows U.S. Was Vital to Toppling Qaddafi – NYTimes.com.

U.S. Advisers to Aid in Fight Against Lord’s Resistance Army – NYTimes.com

The US escalation in Africa raises a number of questions.  But first, the facts:

The deployment represents a muscular escalation of American military efforts to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army, which originated as a Ugandan rebel force in the 1980s and morphed into a fearsome cultlike group of fighters. It is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet known for ordering village massacres, recruiting prepubescent soldiers, keeping harems of child brides and mutilating opponents.

via U.S. Advisers to Aid in Fight Against Lord’s Resistance Army – NYTimes.com.

The head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Krony has been wanted by the ICC since 2005 and is clearly quite strange–not to mention ruthless.

Adding to the issue, Rush Limbaugh has weighed in–defending the Lord’s Resistance Army.  The Lede blog details the story as of 10/17, also reported in Mother Jones.