Annnnnd...here it is

This is Just Sad

'Lookis like a Winner!'

Well well well, after all the rioting and speculating, President Sirleaf of Liberia is predicted to be the winner of Liberian runoff Presidential election. With 86 presincts reporting, she is said to have more than 90% of the vote.

OH....MY....GOD

You know, when the people of Libya revolted against Gaddaffi I really did think they wanted a more tolerant leader. Maybe they do....but why this? You are looking at the back of a black Libyan. Since the revolts, there have been reports of migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and their passports being seized;thus barring them from returning to their homes. However THIS is wrong on so many levels. Arabs are already rumored to be racist against darker skinned individuals. Does THIS help that rumor and if it doesn't then why is this being done?
Disgusting.

Shady Shady Shaaaady!!!

I always knew there was something strange about diplomacy. I mean I love it. After all I'm a student of diplomacy, but there was always something about it that made me look at diplomats out of the corner of my eye. For example lets take today's shady shady shaaady case.
What happened? I'll tell you what happened. Esther Pascaline the wife of a Congolese diplomat to Romania has been arrested for smuggling over 18,000 cigarette packets. OH MY GOSH!!!!! Do you know what this means? It means that there were so many that the police stopped counting. You know how I know? I know, because every article says "over 18,000" which means that when investigators got to number 18,000 they were like "That's it I give up."
Pictures haven't been shown, because of Diplomatic Immunity of course. However, according to BBC Africa Mrs. Bombeto was using Diplomatic Immunity to smuggle Albanian made cigarettes to Romania. It was occuring at a frequency of once a week. She snubbed Romanian intelligence officers who wanted to talk to her, so they.......BROKE HER WINDOW!!! Yes guys they broke her window with a crow bar.
(Sidebar:How do you think they did that? Did they only use the crow bar once? Did they hit the car again and again with her standing behind it screaming "Stop!!! Stop!! I'll confess!!...just wondering.

Okay, so anyway when they broke the window they found over 18,000 cigarette packets.
She was arrested returning from Serbia. What a shame. She obviously doesn't have a legit. job...or maybe her husband doesn't give her "allowance" hmmmm. I'll keep you posted.

Oh no!!! You can't go.

Is the ANC innocent?

No Ladies and Gents you are not looking at an episode of "The Game" with Hosea Sanchez (a lot of us remember the scene with sushi girl in the stripper room of his mansion i know i do anyway...) you are looking at a picture from the 40th bday party of South African millionaire and business man Kunene. Picture below.

Kenny Kunene is a former convict turned business man who opened a nightclub called ZAR. Accusing Helen Zille, leader of the opposition party DA of trying to close down all nightclubs, Kunene announced that his club "belongs to the ANC." ANC South Africa's ruling political party. The ANC was not amused in the least and is now announcing that they don't condone eating sushi off of models' barely naked bodies. Mr. Kunene (picture below) said he won't be throwing sushi parties for long.

Hmmmm maybe the ANC party is just saying this, because of the upcoming election. Women make up a large population of the electorate and having their party's name thrown out in support of such shovenistic and defamatory activity can harm their party's name. Well, I still have my popcorn, because African politics is always entertaining and I can't wait to see what (because it will) happen next.

Very interesting video. Thanks Lamech! I really like this. People are excited about the World Cup (myself included). However, it seems that many times, in Africa, looking out for the small guy simply doesn't happen. Eg: Showing off, a sporting event of this caliber, but still using an incompetent electrical system (power outages!!!)
According to the NY Times, South Africa has been ranked very high for social inequalities. I have tried to get this video on the site, but for now the link is the only thing I can post. Stay tuned viewers, view the video via this link, and very soon you can see it here at the Zebra Stripe.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/06/23/world/africa/1247468111454/south-africa-beyond-the-world-cup.html#

Yar Adua...stepping aside?

In a statement that many of us thought that we would never hear, it has been announced that current Nigerian President Yar' Adua will concede his presidency to the vice president Godwin. Did you see it coming? I didn't. I mean I thought he'd create a temporary plan until the end of his term for the Vice President..(By the way this does mean that all the rumors that he's dead...ARE FALSE!!!) We all knew that the VP would get some political action. However, being that he was sick for what feels like a year and he still didn't make a statement, I didn't see this coming. Well I guess it's a new day for African politics. Everyone we can now cease from being angry about the vacuum in leadership. I do hope he gets well.

Bashir and the ICC, another round of battle (DING DING!!)

In an event that shouldn't surprise any of us, Sudanese leader King Bashir's genocide charges are being reconsidered. The ICC is considering adding three additional charges of genocide. The prosecutors at the ICC stated that Bashir's government sought to eradicate three ethnic groups: the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa peoples. It is noted that if these charges are brought against Bashir, it will mark the first time that ICC charges are brought against a sitting head of state. Since 2003 the UN has recorded approximately 300,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict.

Government officials have snubbed their nose at the possibility of change in the ruling saying that it is propaganda for Sudan's upcoming election in April. The African Union has continued to support Bashir since Bashir's arrest warrant in March 2009 and so have other leaders. This is apparent as Bashir has travelled to other countries, courting support. At the time of which reconsideration of his charges was announced, Bashir was in Qatar.

Post Apartheid......not really.

In South Africa, the educational system has been hit hard by racism which still persists way after apartheid has ended. Black Africans are said to be continuing to university in low numbers compared to whites and the few who are continuing are described as ill-prepared, and are not graduating. When a deeper analysis was performed, it showed that not only were the materials that the students used inferior to those of white students, but that the teachers were also ill-prepared, and/or were leaving class early to focus on projects/businesses of their own.

Reading about this, I couldn't help checking the date of the article as I felt like I was watching an "Eyes on the Prize" documentary of segregation in the American South. However, the problem can be compared to present day America, because just like in America, a system that doesn't care doesn't produce graduates or signs of promising students. I don't think anyone is naive enough to believe that after apartheid race relations will magically become 100% better than they were before. However, blatant apathy towards the promise of young Black Africans is too insulting to be ignored.