Mali
A rather fair exposé put in simple words of what is presently going on in Mali. Even though it doesn't say that the malian army collapsed after being trained by the US, thing which is rather worrying if we think to the afterrmath of this war once the french troops will be removed from Mali. In the same manner, it has been said that the terrorist islamist attack on the gas plant in Algeria was related to the events in Mali but such an attack so far away from Mali must have been planned a long time ago, much earlier than the blitz-krieg response of the french aviation stopping the descent of the Islamists towards the capital Bamako.
Like in Afghanistan, the terrorist groups are living out of smugglings, drugs and weapons traffickings and most importantly, in their mad attempt to impose their power, they invoke the charia to an amiable people unwilling to live by it. Like in Afghanistan they are backed up by foreigners, Libyans, Arabs, even people bearing english and canadian passports...
As always we, the French, are in the first line, quite alone, and quite mocked by an anglo-saxon world absolutely unaware of the forces at stake. While the war in Afghanistan was very far away from our modern world -both geographically and culturally, even though one can regret it- this once, the islamist threat is knocking at our door in a remarkable, cold, silent and hypocrital lack of response from the E.U. It is urgent to do nothing seem they all saying. In this regard the german attitude is especially unforgivable imo as would be laughable the inconsistency of the baroness Ashton were it not terribly worrying. The sheer idea of a common defence of the E.U. is collapsing and may never be a reality.
Anyway...
And just for once, an interesting broadcast of the program "c'est dans l'air"
http://www.france5.fr/c-dans-l-air/videos/38080
Edit for an interesting conversation I had with tarimanveri
Obviously, the most important things I should be wishing for for Mali are peace and stability, but nevertheless it's a huge relief to find out that the medieval manuscripts of Timbuktu most likely weren't destroyed in the conflict I'd been hearing.
I mean, as I'm sure I've written before, I am always on Team French Revolution, and as much as I cringe when I think about late-eighteenth century French peasants throwing their landlords' medieval records into bonfires, or, as in the case of the medieval archives from Rennes, making them into bullet and shell casings for use in the revolutionary war, I have to respect their desire and right to eliminate the instruments of their past oppression. On the other hand, I don't know enough about the situation in Mali to draw any comparisons (but it sounds like the retreating Islamist? rebel? forces didn't target libraries anyway), but losing these things now would have been hard to take. Historians in the European tradition have been so reluctant to even acknowledge the written legacies of ancient African states! They're only just now beginning to realize how much medieval documentation still exists! Not to say that it should be Europeans and North Americans writing Africa's history, but I think it needs to be written the better to maximally grind the boot of truth into the... groin of the not-nearly-dead-enough corpse of European imperialism and its erasure of that history. Then again, though, who am I to say what Africans should or shouldn't do with their history?
But yay, the manuscripts haven't been destroyed!
... Imma go work on my lecture about how romanticism and how it shaped European attitudes toward history and ethnicity and authenticity now. Because clearly, I am a child of the Romantics here.
This entry was originally posted at http://monksandbones.dreamwidth.org/704729.html. Talk to me here or there, whichever you prefer.
Tags: historically constructed dammit!, how gritty i really was, the best sandbox ever
Humeur actuelle: thoughtful
3 up on the floor | hear the fiddle playing( 3 up on the floor - hear the fiddle playing )
beix_brittany on le 31 janvier 2013 21:54 (local)
what Africans should or shouldn't do with their history?
It was not Africans but terrorist groups who wanted to destroy that part of the African written history.
And as a so-called European I wouldn't like a German or an English to come to France and tell me how to live(the last times weren't that good, remember). These terrorist groups living out of smuggling and drugs, people and weapons traffickings, are also composed of Libyans, arabs, people bearing canadian and english passports; They hate life and people, music and ancient civilizations, cut hands and feet in name of god, they are mad people, they had destroyed the ancient tombs in Tombouctou. Don't think "Africans" chose to destroy their history, because when you want to preserve it, what can you do with bare hands in front of mad people with guns? As in Afghanistan where Talibans were backed up by Arabs, Yemenits and Pakistanis(nothing to say about european people from maghrebin ancestry who went there for the jihad).
And you're right about the irrevelance of a comparison between people freeing themselves from oppression and bandits attacking people wanting to live in peace.
Edited at 2013-02-01 00:51 (local)
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tarimanveri on le 01 février 2013 01:18 (local)
I haven't been able to follow the situation in Mali closely (which is terrible of me, but I haven't had time), so based on what I had gathered I was thinking it was homegrown Islamists involved, not international terrorist groups. That's definitely different, and I don't think they should have the right to destroy the records of the past. But as you can probably tell from this post, the question of who does have the right to destroy historical records or lay claim to the past in other ways is a philosophical question I really struggle with...
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beix_brittany on le 01 février 2013 23:43 (local)
It's obvious that these operating terrorist groups had grown out of the libyan ruins especially its huge and, from now on, uncontrolled arsenal of weapons.
It seems that around 15 to 20 thousands manuscripts have been burned by the Islamists in the Ahmed Baba Center in Tombouctou (out of about 200 thousands which were evacuated prior to the last developments) but it is still too early to know the scale of the waste in terms of scientific interest of the destructed manuscripts.
See here: http://rhone-alpes.france3.fr/2013/01/31/destruction-des-manuscrits-de-tombouctou-reactions-lyon-191221.html
The people who perpetrated these destructions didn't give a thought to the fact of knowing if they had the right or not to destroy. In their mad mind they thought that any emanation from an ancient culture is evil and has to be destroyed. It is pure hate but also retaliation and a show of power.
Imo, the only excuse acceptable for destruction is when your very life is in the balance... Otherwise...
Edit : I would especially recommend you Pierre Boilley's works and interviews(on BFMTV-02.02.2013) about what is going on in North Mali. We have roughly 400 000 Touaregs there, demanding a better consideration if not their autonomy since 1962, AQMI is composed from Algerians of the ex-GIA, MUJAO as AQMI are presently trafficking hostages, ANSAR DINE has spitted in 2 forces, the moderate disapprouving of links with AQMI, the MNLA would be more political and activist about the autonomy of the north Mali. Except the Touaregs of the MNLA who would have to be brought at the peace negocations table, these terrorist groups are composed of several nationalities, they are drugs dealers too, the drug coming from South America, landing on small airports in the malian desert and moving up north towards Europe. They have the money and heavy weapons. Some are Salafists(some Malians have had their hands cut because of smoking or watching tv- music was banned just as it was in Afghanistan- it is the same retrograd forces at work-) but they mostly are bandits, by terror they nearly imposed their power on a country with religion for an excuse. We would have had a terrorist state in the center of the african continent and at the door of the Europe and the occidental world. They were descending like a flock of crickets toward the capital Bamako when the President of the Republic decided to answer the request for assistance from the Malian President (it was a desesperate call for help in fact, as the djihadists had invaded the northern Mali 10 months before and were suddenly pushing south without any move from the international community or the E.U besides some hypocrital condemning declarations(maybe, if Mali had been an oil or gas producer...). The international community planning vaguely a possible move during the middle of 2013.
The job isn't yet completed and Algeria or Niger doesn't want to hear anything about a possible Touareg autonomy upon the Azawad, in their mind a first step towards a new independant state in the region denying the present borders.
The rebel faction of the malian army has to be taken in consideration too in the future peace discussions; already this faction asks to fight along the french troops for the rest of the war so maybe there is hope in that regard.
Like in Afghanistan, the terrorist groups are living out of smugglings, drugs and weapons traffickings and most importantly, in their mad attempt to impose their power, they invoke the charia to an amiable people unwilling to live by it. Like in Afghanistan they are backed up by foreigners, Libyans, Arabs, even people bearing english and canadian passports...
As always we, the French, are in the first line, quite alone, and quite mocked by an anglo-saxon world absolutely unaware of the forces at stake. While the war in Afghanistan was very far away from our modern world -both geographically and culturally, even though one can regret it- this once, the islamist threat is knocking at our door in a remarkable, cold, silent and hypocrital lack of response from the E.U. It is urgent to do nothing seem they all saying. In this regard the german attitude is especially unforgivable imo as would be laughable the inconsistency of the baroness Ashton were it not terribly worrying. The sheer idea of a common defence of the E.U. is collapsing and may never be a reality.
Anyway...
And just for once, an interesting broadcast of the program "c'est dans l'air"
http://www.france5.fr/c-dans-l-air/videos/38080
Edit for an interesting conversation I had with tarimanveri
Obviously, the most important things I should be wishing for for Mali are peace and stability, but nevertheless it's a huge relief to find out that the medieval manuscripts of Timbuktu most likely weren't destroyed in the conflict I'd been hearing.
I mean, as I'm sure I've written before, I am always on Team French Revolution, and as much as I cringe when I think about late-eighteenth century French peasants throwing their landlords' medieval records into bonfires, or, as in the case of the medieval archives from Rennes, making them into bullet and shell casings for use in the revolutionary war, I have to respect their desire and right to eliminate the instruments of their past oppression. On the other hand, I don't know enough about the situation in Mali to draw any comparisons (but it sounds like the retreating Islamist? rebel? forces didn't target libraries anyway), but losing these things now would have been hard to take. Historians in the European tradition have been so reluctant to even acknowledge the written legacies of ancient African states! They're only just now beginning to realize how much medieval documentation still exists! Not to say that it should be Europeans and North Americans writing Africa's history, but I think it needs to be written the better to maximally grind the boot of truth into the... groin of the not-nearly-dead-enough corpse of European imperialism and its erasure of that history. Then again, though, who am I to say what Africans should or shouldn't do with their history?
But yay, the manuscripts haven't been destroyed!
... Imma go work on my lecture about how romanticism and how it shaped European attitudes toward history and ethnicity and authenticity now. Because clearly, I am a child of the Romantics here.
This entry was originally posted at http://monksandbones.dreamwidth.org/704729.html. Talk to me here or there, whichever you prefer.
Tags: historically constructed dammit!, how gritty i really was, the best sandbox ever
Humeur actuelle: thoughtful
3 up on the floor | hear the fiddle playing( 3 up on the floor - hear the fiddle playing )
beix_brittany on le 31 janvier 2013 21:54 (local)
what Africans should or shouldn't do with their history?
It was not Africans but terrorist groups who wanted to destroy that part of the African written history.
And as a so-called European I wouldn't like a German or an English to come to France and tell me how to live(the last times weren't that good, remember). These terrorist groups living out of smuggling and drugs, people and weapons traffickings, are also composed of Libyans, arabs, people bearing canadian and english passports; They hate life and people, music and ancient civilizations, cut hands and feet in name of god, they are mad people, they had destroyed the ancient tombs in Tombouctou. Don't think "Africans" chose to destroy their history, because when you want to preserve it, what can you do with bare hands in front of mad people with guns? As in Afghanistan where Talibans were backed up by Arabs, Yemenits and Pakistanis(nothing to say about european people from maghrebin ancestry who went there for the jihad).
And you're right about the irrevelance of a comparison between people freeing themselves from oppression and bandits attacking people wanting to live in peace.
Edited at 2013-02-01 00:51 (local)
( Répondre) ( Fil) ( Link)
tarimanveri on le 01 février 2013 01:18 (local)
I haven't been able to follow the situation in Mali closely (which is terrible of me, but I haven't had time), so based on what I had gathered I was thinking it was homegrown Islamists involved, not international terrorist groups. That's definitely different, and I don't think they should have the right to destroy the records of the past. But as you can probably tell from this post, the question of who does have the right to destroy historical records or lay claim to the past in other ways is a philosophical question I really struggle with...
( Répondre) ( Précédent) ( Fil) ( Link)
beix_brittany on le 01 février 2013 23:43 (local)
It's obvious that these operating terrorist groups had grown out of the libyan ruins especially its huge and, from now on, uncontrolled arsenal of weapons.
It seems that around 15 to 20 thousands manuscripts have been burned by the Islamists in the Ahmed Baba Center in Tombouctou (out of about 200 thousands which were evacuated prior to the last developments) but it is still too early to know the scale of the waste in terms of scientific interest of the destructed manuscripts.
See here: http://rhone-alpes.france3.fr/2013/01/31/destruction-des-manuscrits-de-tombouctou-reactions-lyon-191221.html
The people who perpetrated these destructions didn't give a thought to the fact of knowing if they had the right or not to destroy. In their mad mind they thought that any emanation from an ancient culture is evil and has to be destroyed. It is pure hate but also retaliation and a show of power.
Imo, the only excuse acceptable for destruction is when your very life is in the balance... Otherwise...
Edit : I would especially recommend you Pierre Boilley's works and interviews(on BFMTV-02.02.2013) about what is going on in North Mali. We have roughly 400 000 Touaregs there, demanding a better consideration if not their autonomy since 1962, AQMI is composed from Algerians of the ex-GIA, MUJAO as AQMI are presently trafficking hostages, ANSAR DINE has spitted in 2 forces, the moderate disapprouving of links with AQMI, the MNLA would be more political and activist about the autonomy of the north Mali. Except the Touaregs of the MNLA who would have to be brought at the peace negocations table, these terrorist groups are composed of several nationalities, they are drugs dealers too, the drug coming from South America, landing on small airports in the malian desert and moving up north towards Europe. They have the money and heavy weapons. Some are Salafists(some Malians have had their hands cut because of smoking or watching tv- music was banned just as it was in Afghanistan- it is the same retrograd forces at work-) but they mostly are bandits, by terror they nearly imposed their power on a country with religion for an excuse. We would have had a terrorist state in the center of the african continent and at the door of the Europe and the occidental world. They were descending like a flock of crickets toward the capital Bamako when the President of the Republic decided to answer the request for assistance from the Malian President (it was a desesperate call for help in fact, as the djihadists had invaded the northern Mali 10 months before and were suddenly pushing south without any move from the international community or the E.U besides some hypocrital condemning declarations(maybe, if Mali had been an oil or gas producer...). The international community planning vaguely a possible move during the middle of 2013.
The job isn't yet completed and Algeria or Niger doesn't want to hear anything about a possible Touareg autonomy upon the Azawad, in their mind a first step towards a new independant state in the region denying the present borders.
The rebel faction of the malian army has to be taken in consideration too in the future peace discussions; already this faction asks to fight along the french troops for the rest of the war so maybe there is hope in that regard.