Wednesday, March 2, 2011

How Long Will Libya's Qaddafi last??

Libya's strongman and despot who is now holed up in Tripoli, has the
whole world against him. Since February 2011, the people he has
oppressed for 41 years seemed to have woken up as one man and now are
ask for his departure as leader of Libya.

But, geographically, to his west, there is recently liberated
Tunisia, and to his East, his country men asking for his ouster after
41 years of autocratic rule. The South of Tripoli has mostly
uninhabitable and inhospitable desert. So, Tripoli is essentially
under siege, with Col. Muammar al Qaddafi and his family trying to
whip up support even as defections start reaching his inner circle.

Supplies will soon run low, and Tripoli cannot be an island unto
itself for too long in a modern world. The Libyans, have strongly said
they want their country to remain united, hence, they will seek to
break the current siege and smoke out the Qaddafi family from their
hiding hole.

The international community is documenting atrocities committed by
mercenaries hired by the Qaddafis, and irrespective of the outcome,
Muammar Qaddafi will have to face charges in front of the
International Criminal Court in the Haque, Netherlands.

Calls have also been made to bring further charges for the 1988
Lockerbie bombings in Scotland, widely believed to have been planned
by Qaddafi.

Whatever the outcome, Qaddafi's time to leave power has come. Any
atrocities he commits hence will be akin to giving fodder to
prosecutors, and will only make his defense in the ICC more
difficult.

He should follow in the footsteps of Ben Ali of Tunisia and Egypt's
Hosni Mubarak, step down now, only, his scenario will be closer to
that of his erstwhile protege, Charles Taylor of "Blood Diamond" fame.

Fru Ndi drops out of Presidential Debate in Cameroon

With the presidential elections to be held, around November 2011 fast
approaching in Cameroon, pressure has been mounting on incumbent
despot, Paul Biya to resign. John Fru Ndi, who led the push to multi
party politics 20 years ago stands accused of using the same heavy
handed techniques like the man he once planned to beat at the ballot.

But a new development seems to have sprung that has rendered Fru Ndi
absolutely irrelevant in the upcoming presidential elections. Over the
last 5 months, Cameroonians have seen an unprecedented rapprochement
between the ruling regime's Paul Biya, and Ni Fru Ndi. This is viewed
as very suspicious, and shortly after their numerous meetings, Fru Ndi
embarked two weeks ago on a national tour, not to rally forces against
Paul Biya, but against ELECAM, the monitoring body.

Why would an "opposition" candidate lead his party and followers in a
blind chase? Many Cameroonians lost their lives while being led by Fru
Ndi against Paul Biya, when he launched his party, and also during the
"Operation Villes Mortes" If Fru Ndi is getting pecuniary rewards as
is highly suspected from Paul Biya and is misleading millions of
Cameroonians, then he is doing a great disservice to Cameroon.

A cursory look at the raging debates taking place in Cameroonian
online fora thankfully shows no one
Is giving anu serious thought to Fru Ndi. He is now in the same
status as Paul Biya, an old scornful despot who needs to be sidelined,
so that the SDF can be reinvented, and seek a fresh mandate from the
people.

The regional leader of the SDF for the East Region was summarily fired
without due process. Many other shortcomings have compounded over the
years to weaken the SDF and its leader, to the point that they are no
longer taken seriously by active users of the Cameroonian blogosphere.

The real opposition in Cameroon is now represented by Kah Walla, Brice
Nitcheu, Hon. Nintcheu, Tobie Mbida, Chief Ayah Paul Abine and others
who are mounting pressure on Biya to retire to his exqusite Chateau on
lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Biya and Fru Ndi belong to the past, a few paragraphs in the history
books. The next glorious chapters of Cameroon's history will be
written by a new breed of politicians and activists, some of whom were
mercilessly beaten by Biya sponsored thugs on the 23rd of February,
while Fru Ndi failed to condemn the acts of aggression.

Making money with Youtube from Cameroon and Nigeria

Many people visit Youtube to watch interesting videos. But do you
ever wonder who the people who put this videos up are? Do you know you
can actually strike it big and make lots of money with Google and
Youtube just by providing content, that is something interesting.

Chances are, if you think something is interesting to you, someone
next door or at the other end of the world may find that interesting
too.

Last year, my channel on Youtube had about 400.000 views. About that
time, I got invitations from Google to monetize about 3 videos. In
other words, Google will display ads relevant to the subject matter in
the videos and I will get part of the proceeds if there is a sale.

I accepted and never thought much about it. Instead, I worked on what
I felt passionate about, and saw my audience increase in size and
scope.

And this is not just any homogeneous group. It is mostly
intellectuals, professionals, and successful entrepreneurs in the
30-50 year old age group, a prime target for marketers.

So when my counter on Google Insight showed me on the 1st of March
2011 that I had reached 1million views, I was elated.

As an afterthought, I went to my Google account to see what if I had
made any money. I was blown away! There was a nice amount sitting
right there.

The money had started growing just over the past three months. Which
prompts me to write this to anyone with a cheap camera that can take
digital pictures or record short videos. There is money to be made out
there.

Here are some tips:

1. Always have your camera on you with a charged battery and empty
memory card. You don't want to have a dead camera battery or full
memory card when things get interesting

2 Shoot outdoors. Many interesting things happen outside and at times,
it may be something in the background that makes a video interesting.

3 A short description of your video gives it a context. Even self
evident videos can get some help with a short description.

4 Tags: Tags are used by search engines to locate your video. Make
sure you have appropriate tags, and use related tags, so that your
video is easy to find. Make sure you have more than three tags, and
try to be reasonable with the number you use. You don't want the
search engines getting confused and making your video less relevant
when they present results to queries.

5. Watch your views grow and make adjustments as necessary.

Remember, there is an acute shortage of videos from Cameroon, Chad,
Nigeria. Posting random videos of markets or street scenes from these
countries is a sure winner for the fortunate Youtuber.

Good luck and enjoy your success.

Understanding Qaddafi's mindset...

Libyan strongman, Col. Muammar al Quadaffi lives in a world all his own. He is not delusional, he is not a "mad dog" like President Ronald Reagan labeled him, he is just a relic from the past, a dinosaur, thrust in the full headlights of a bright and shiny new century. His main failing is not noticing change and riding the bandwagon when it came into town a long time ago.

There was a time when Africa was known as the "dark continent". Its peoples, were dark skinned, and depictions of what it looked like were done in black and white hand drawings by explorers. Owing to its rugged terrain, and difficult access, Africa still seems to trail the rest of the world in many respects, even though most of the continent gained independence from colonial powers roughly half a century ago.

Administering the affairs of an impoverished African village is difficult enough on any given day. When the colonial powers left, administrative units that went further than most tribesmen had ever been were left to be administered by the newly minted local authorities. This was too much for them, and so, to survive, they needed the technical expertise of those who had lived under such structured societies -the technical advisers were also known as "Cooperants" in Francophone Sub Saharan Africa.

Some early African administrators tried to break loose from this noose around their neck, and paid dearly. Patrice Lumumba of the Congo comes to mind. Others quickly understood the game and played along. These were the Idi Amins.

So, it is in this context, with no clear indication of what side will be left standing at the end of the day that Col. Muamar al Qaddafi seized power in 1969. A quick learner, he scoured the history books on ways to make his reign a dynasty, much in the same way as other like minded despots such as Idi Amin of Uganda, or Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi who proclaimed themselves "President for Life", or the Central African Republics megalomaniac and alleged cannibal, Jean Bedel Bokassa.

Qaddafi's unique flavor of eternal power was to make the people think he had given them power, he split up Libya in small councils to make them manageable. None of those could get too strong, none of those could give birth to any one individual who may be allowed to grow in stature, and influence to get to the point where they may rival the leader. He termed his new creation the Jamahiriya - a "State of the Masses". Officially, he holds no office, so cannot be challenged in democratic elections. Using a combination of oil money, a keen eye for trends and seeing opportunity by understanding and mastering how Sub-Saharan Africans think, he was able to extend his influence first, in the Arab World, where he met reasonable fellows with their feet on the ground, which made him quickly leave their company to forage South of Libya, where the word "accountability" only exists in dictionaries.

In Africa, South of the Sahara, Libya's Qaddafi found that he could influence officials, right up to Presidents with liquid cash, guns and  vehicles. Many of the coups and wars that were fought in Africa from the 70s until as recently as the buffoon Dadis Camara of Guinea who had a short stint as president of his country, but escaped to Morocco with a bullet lodged in this head after an uprising. Charles Taylor, currently on trial for war crimes in the Hague had the Col. as his benefactor, and so did many others. With his growing influence, he increasingly saw himself able to rally votes on important issues not only in the African Union, but increasingly in the United Nations. This was a cause for alarm, for as votes in the U.N. go, Mali as a sovereign state had the same power as Norway, a much wealthier and powerful nation. Col. Qaddafi was playing with fire by influencing the leaders of poor nations.

So when protests broke out in Tunisia, then Egypt, he was quick to engage the Libyans in rhetoric. Saying things of no real consequence, trying to assuage impatient Libyan youths. What had transpired from those heady days, 41 years ago when he took over power to the present day is the nightmare of any despot. The people had found a way to get information about the outside world. They had seen a person that Qaddafi proclaimed was their brother - Barack Obama, become president of the United States. They knew there was a better world out there, now, they wanted out.

Qaddafi's sons knew it is too late also. The cat had bolted from the bag. Saif al-Islam, the heir apparent scrambled to the TV station in Tripoli and in a rambling video that looks like what a used car salesman would make in his bedroom to paste on YOUTUBE, half begged, and threatened the people to leave the streets. Needless to say, his call was not heeded and once more, Qaddafi the father had to step in to try his hand at the rhetoric that had proven so successful with his sub Saharan puppets. He made a surreal 23 second speech under an umbrella in dark alley. Not reassuring.

With every new development, he tried to put the spin on it. That is easy when you are painting pictures in the minds of some hungry tribal warlord who just wants an SUV and some guns to return to his fiefdom and kill or amputate the limbs of those who dare question him. Such people do not have the resources to verify the Colonel's claims, and even egg him on, provided he supplies them with cash and guns.

Now, with the full glare of the world's media scrutinizing his every move, his every utterance, down to the tiniest detail, Libya's Muammar al Qaddafi seems to be at his Alamo, his last stand and he is prepared to have those around him die for his selfish purposes. But this is where there is some misunderstanding. Autocratic African despots like him don't like to die. They would rather see others go to their certain deaths, and then cowardly seek to preserve their lives. That is what needs to be told to those around him.

Idi Amin escaped Uganda in 1979 to live a life of relative luxury in Saudi Arabia, feeding on bananas until he died in 2003. His first stop as he fled his country was naturally Libya.

Charles Taylor funded his 1997 presidential campaign with money from Libya, and survived the civil war in Liberia even though he sent so many of his countrymen, including child soldiers to their premature deaths.

Dadis Camara of Guinea gave the world a brief lesson in buffoonery before being retired with a bullet in his head. Ben Ali wisely fled Tunisia, and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt just disappeared from public life. But Col Qaddafi is more than just a pariah, he is radioactive, and no country will accept him in their jail. What to do with him is an enigma that will surely keep many diplomats and Think-Tanks sleepless at night.

After this rather lengthy look at this megalomaniac who is a relic of a time long forgotten, I may have sounded at times incoherent but I hope that if you take anything away, it is that Qaddafi WILL seek to preserve his life, and the only thing that made him tick, was his corrupt use of oil money on less enlightened but no less brutal tribal warlords who are slowly coming to the realization that the world is still a village, just a bigger one where people demand the same basic rights as they do in the dusty jigger filled streets in some forgotten part of Africa, and most importantly, that "accountability" is actually more than just a random word in a book they never bothered  to read.