Mariam Mariam
I am writing these lines in Room 613 of the Comfort Suites Hotel in Toronto, Canada. It is 11:41 am., which means that time will be 17.41 Hours in Nigeria. It is Tuesday, the 4th of March. The weather is said to be much better today, at minus two degrees. Four days ago, it snowed and the cold wind was lashing at our faces, with the temperature at minus 28 degrees! Considering that we came into Canada last week, with temperatures around 38 degrees at home, the weather is truly the most unfriendly aspect of the trip.
About two weeks ago in Ilorin, I had been discussing the imminence of this trip with Nurudeen Abdulrahim, and we had thought that I was going to write a piece from Canada, that will justifiable be titled “CANADA AT LAST”. This is because very early in the 1980s. I had won a Kwara State Government scholarship to study at the Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. As a result of a combination of circumstances in my life then, I did not take up the opportunity and do remember that the secretary of the scholarship board was a cousin, who felt disappointed that I did not. Thankfully, he would forgive me many years later, when he saw the progress that I made with my professional life.
So it was that I did not step into this country, Canada, for about twenty-seven years, until last Wednesday. I had been nominated to be part of a Nigerian delegation through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, to attend the World Mines Ministers’ Conference, a bi-annual gathering as well as the Producers and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Conference, which is the biggest gathering on mining development in the world. The Nigerian government’s vision of developing a selection of minerals: coal for power generation, bitumen and tar sand, tantalite, gypsum, gold was very well canvassed at the conference (this is a story for another day).
We have kept a very breathless pace of movement from one session to the other, during the past one week, enough time at least, for us to see how well Canada functions as a society. It was also useful to soak in the environmental factor in the psychological makeup of a people, I think. This is because the incredibly harsh weather obliges the entire community to work with a sense of purpose, and both the leadership and the led, cannot afford to take their eyes off the ball, in a manner of speaking, if the society is to successfully function. Canada succeeds in that sense, and for me, I have always been fascinated by the fact that it is so close to the United States, yet it makes an effort to preserve its own individuality. I was recalling in conversations with a couple of people here, that Canada opposed the American invasion of Iraq, and poignantly too, a cameraman that we hired also reminded us that seventy-nine Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. He then added that even the war in Afghanistan was also an American war, but Canada got sucked into it all the same.
The Canadian social security system, the pride of place occupied by the Canada Broadcasting Corporation in society, as a public service broadcaster, have more in common with the post-war setting in Europe, than the uncaring essence of the American capitalist system, in my view. It is also noteworthy, that the crisis which has hit the American economy has seen a strengthening of the Canadian dollar vis-à-vis the American, and in changing money to pick our bills, that fact was underlined for it. Professor Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist, was on BBC NEWSNIGHT, two days ago, making a direct linkage between the onset of recession in the American economy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Professor Stiglitz said that the total cost of the wars will reach three trillion dollars; he added further that the United States is spending four hundred million dollars per day, in those wars of aggression and occupation.
The imperialist system is a barbaric system, which is fundamentally opposed to human civilization. Otherwise, how can anyone justify the spending of three trillion dollars to fight wars of aggression, while in the United States itself, there are millions of people without access to health insurance coverage or are unemployed or living in poverty Or just fancy how the face of our world will change forever, for the better, if such huge sums are appropriated to help solve the problems of underdevelopment, environmental degradation and poverty. The absolutely immoral and depraved politicians who lead the imperialist countries have priorities of war and plunder because they cream off fabulous profits from selling arms or alienating the oil resources of countries like Iraq.
It is also testimony to their depravity that they continue to insist that the Zionist state of Israel has the right to defend itself in the occupied lands of Palestine. They have given the go ahead and abet the crimes which Israel commits each day with neo-Nazi relish, against the Palestinian people. Over the past four days, over one hundred Palestinians, including infants and children, have been killed by Israeli forces. However, the CNN has reported very sympathetically, only the death of two Israeli soldiers at the same time. And comme d’habitude, as the French say, Condoleeza Rice waits for the maximum number of deaths to be harvested by the Palestinians and she then flies into the Middle East to “strengthen” the “peace process”, that is a euphemism to get the Palestinian puppet leadership in Ramallah, to give further concessions to Israel. Hamas is told to stop the punishment of the people of the Gaza strip (whose systematic humiliation and incredible suffering is worse than the Bantustans under apartheid), by stopping the firing of Qassam Rockets. The Israelis get a rap on the knuckle in public and a pat on the back and active encouragement to continue more of the same in private.
Today Condoleeza Rice addressed a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader, Abbass, and she could not or in fact, refused to talk about the killing of the innocent Palestinians in the past couple of days; the war crime of a collective punishment of an entire people prohibited by the Geneva Convention was ignored, as she talked about the “collateral “deaths arising out of the “crossfire” between the crude Qassam Rockets and the arsenal of one of the most powerful armies in the world, the Zionist army of Israel, such a demonstration of inhuman indifference to the plight of a whole people underlines the depravity of these imperialist politicians.
But what baffles me most, as a citizen of the world, is the naivety or stupidity of the very corrupt Palestinian apparatchik and the ruling regimes of the Arab world. Why do they so implicitly trust the United States to broker a sincere and just peace? Is it not obvious to them as it is clear to the whole world, that the United States is PERMANENTLY BIASED AGAINST the Palestinian and the Arabs? Can’t they see the way that the USA abets the crimes of Israel against the Palestinian people, such as the continuing occupation and alienation of land, the financing of settlements, and the arming of Israel, the acquiescence in its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons?
Can a ruling class be so unable to feel the pains of its own people as to continue to believe that succor will come from the power that is actively backing the source of those pains? Is it not clear to those who condemn terrorism around the world, that the imageries of hopelessness, anger and death that we see on television each day, are precisely the recruiting sergeants for extremist views and actions? It is a troubling world indeed, and one which increases indignation against the injustice which the imperialist world system perpetrates.
Equally significant, is the fact that one of the greatest anti-imperialist fighters of the past fifty years, Fidel Castro, has finally resigned his position of leadership as president of Cuba. For us in Africa, Fidel is a genuine hero, who contributed immensely to the straggle for African liberation. More than any other country, relative to its size and resources, Cuba contributed decisively to the national liberation struggles of the African peoples in Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Cuba helped to check the advance of the racist armies of apartheid South Africa, which would have stopped the declaration of Angolan independence in 1975. That was a decisive moments in African history which was captured very eloquently by General Murtala Muhammed in his famous speech at the 1975 extraordinary conference of the OAU.
It was also the Cuban Army which defeated the armies of apartheid at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, and that strategic victory would eventually pave the way for the independence of Namibia, through he implementation of UN Resolution 435. It has now become popular for the whole world to claim Nelson Mandela as a conscience of the modern world, but few people remember that he was imprisoned for 27 years and the ANC was banned for a long time. The imperialist countries were in bed with apartheid South Africa, while Israel was jointly developing nuclear weapons with its twin racist regime in South Africa. It was courageous and principled leaders like Fidel Castro, who stood with the fighters for African liberation. Cuba’s Revolution gave dignity to the black people of Cuba and gave dignity to the black people of Cuba and poignantly, the first Blackman in space was Colonel Analdo Tamayo of the Cuban Airforce! Cuba’s health care system is one of the best in the world and so is its education. Cuban doctors have gone around the world, helping the poor. The economy is in a bad shape because it has endured the blockage of the past forty-five years imposed by the United State. Cuba has also attempted to resist capitalist globalization, which is determined to reverse the gains of the Revolution and then return the country as the playground of casino gangsters!
From the perspectives of the interest of the African peoples, Fidel Castro is an unforgettable friend, while the Revolution that he led, became an inspiration fro those who fought to liberate Africa from underdevelopment and imperialism. I noticed that there were many advertisements about Cuban holiday destinations in Canada, it is testimony to the dignity and human decency of the Canadian people that they did not bow to American pressures over the years in respect of their Cuban policies. So the twenty-seven year wait to visit Canada has been worth every minute indeed.
On a last note, the main thing about these trips that I often undertake is that after the first few days, I begin to feel very home sick. There is an incredible pull from Nigerian reality that I long for very fervently, each time I travel abroad; the vibrant culture of Nigerian life; the comings and goings of social existence, the comfort of family life, and the pains and hopes of a country with limitless opportunities for development, unrealized because of the poverty of leadership. We have met members of the Nigerian community in Canada, some of whom have lived here for over a decade. To be honest, I think that the greatest courage anybody could muster is to be exiled (in whatever manner), from the realities of one’s own country. It is a form of courage that God did not give me.
It was the Nigerian poet, Olu Oguibe, who once wrote in one of his pieces, that “I am tied to this land by blood”. I feel tied to our homeland by birth, by blood, by emotions and by aspirations! We returned from the airport a few hours ago, to re-confirm our ticket and to be sure that we shall get seats on the flight to London, enroute to Nigeria. I really do miss home, the din of the laughter and argumentative exertions of my children and the incredible energy which Nigeria’s rainbow of colors generates in all of us. It is fantastic to get the opportunity to travel because we learn the essential unity in our collective humanity, we become better citizens of our beautiful world. But for me, there can be no substitute for the sea-kissed coasts; the rain-washed plateaus and the open grasslands of Nigeria, and its truly wonderful people. Ours is a troubled world alright, but I find my balance within it, in the settings of Nigeria; and I cannot wait to be back home.
