2010 ends with a feeling of hope and excitement for the world as a really better place, especially for blacks, Africans, women and Arabs; the historically marginalised citizens of humanity!
I was born a refugee not so long ago, exiled in a country where I did not wish to stay. Paradoxically I felt happy to be a refugee in that country, because it implied that I had a different, anything but that country. It did not take long before I regretted that feeling, when my actual country turned into the most horrifying place on earth..
Later, I learned that women were inferior to men; blacks and Arabs, the inferior race who spent their time killing each other over race and religion or simply for no reason, dancing, singing and praying, without thinking of the next day. Presidents were all corrupt, died in power and were to be replaced by their children or brothers. My only chances were to migrate to the west where a better day of cleaning streets, waiting tables and harvesting apples awaited, far from poverty, hunger and conflict..
All those prejudices would mathematically verify as I grew up; Africans would sing, dance and pray today, kill each other the next day, and take comfort in their abject poverty. Family members who managed the breakthrough to the west would never comeback, or come overweight, prematurely aged and crispy, the once-a-decade times few of them could afford a flight ticket. Presidents would make godlike appearances accompanied with their spouses, sons and brothers and we would all cheer for them before they retired into their majestic castles; I loved them.
When my grandmother took me to church, the priests and nuns would be nice to me, they would teach me catechism and give me sweets. They lived in holy cathedrals, monasteries and convents, so clean and quiet you would hardly doubt the presence of a deity. They claimed they had come to help us find civilisation and God, I worshiped them.
As I came of age, I joined NGOs and I was introduced to people who would invite me to meetings and give me per-diems, they spoke nicely and eloquently, they were dressed in suits and drove big cars, they claimed they had come to help us get out of poverty and conflict; I joined them.
Everything was under control for over fifty years, until things started falling apart; the order established by God was upset; We learned that those godlike presidents were not so powerful when they were ousted by underdog young generations, their dirty secrets revealed, they castles soiled and left to ruin. The queens and princes that we once worshiped, lost their glow once they mainstreamed into the common of mortals and bowed they heads in disgrace; this time I pitied them;
The priests and their castles that had started emptying as Africans were slowly getting tired of the dances, songs and prayers, were completely dried when we learned that the holy men of God were masterminds of the conflicts and hatred among Africans and that their clean and quiet cathedrals, monasteries and convents were theaters of child defiling and intrigues; This time I hated them;
Finally the west that was once the dream of each one of us was overtaken by the East, demystified by daring African leaders, lost the monopoly of pride that they once wore in Africa, when their true intentions were brought to light by a young computer genius and their vulnerability exposed by a wicked financial crisis. This time I lost trust in them;
That was the beginning of the end; There were many firsts: women contested and occupied with success key positions in the political arena, Africa had its first woman president; a black was elected president of the most powerful nation of the world, a world cup of football was organised on African soil, and for the first time in history, African and world leaders took a pragmatic decision against another attempt by an African president to steal votes from the people…
Are the days of peer connivance among the old tyrants over? I don’t know, but I can’t wait!
Imagine a world where if you have your schengen visa application to denied by a moody diplomat, you can always have your visa to Dubai handed to you by a smiling, attractive young employee of Emirates Airlines; a world where if your project has been rejected by an arrogant western development partner, you can always make a 50-50 deal with a bowing Chinese contractor; a world where if the CIA puts you on an ‘axes of evil list’, you can always have wikileaks retaliate by exposing their ‘evil plans’ against the world and make them look the real bad guys; a world where if an African president attempts to cling on to power, he is unceremoniously removed by other leaders the world over. What a wonderful world!
The only looser of the year 2010 is Laurent Gbagbo, no one warned him that things had changed and that he was to serve as an exemple! The poor man found himself in the wrong Africa at the wrong time. Considering his friends Kibaki and Mugabe, he must feel rather short-changed…
So what’s next? Peace in Darfur after the referendum? The Cure for AIDS? Reconciliation between Israel and Palestine? End of global Warming? An African Permanent Member of the the UN security Counsil? end of poverty in sub-saharan africa? Things look up…
For heads up, you should know that an Arabic country, Qatar will be organising the world coup in 2022, this time Ghana will score the penalty kick, inshallah…