In this age of banker-imposed austerity?
"A triumphal display, which included tanks, trucks with missile defense systems, and flyovers by fighter jets."
Thanks for helping out with the greenhouse gas problem.
"African troops join Bastille parade" Associated Press, July 15, 2013
PARIS — Troops from 13 African countries that took part in the French-led war against Al Qaeda-linked extremists in Mali marched with the French military during the Bastille Day parade in Paris on Sunday to honor their role in the conflict.
UN troops in blue berets who are helping to stabilize the west African nation of Mali also paraded with thousands of other soldiers down the Champs-Elysees Avenue in France’s annual tribute to military might.
Oh, is that what it has become? I thought it was celebrating some sort of revolution and independence, at least, that's what my history books and classes told me.
It marks the storming of the Bastille prison July 14, 1789, by angry Paris crowds that helped spark the French Revolution.
Yeah, but you know what? Given the current climate and circumstances in the world, what with people from Brazil to Turkey to Europe to Egypt to, well, anywhere on the globe these days, protesting or on the verge of protests, this would not really be a good example for the Amerikan ma$$ media to highlight. Incredibly, the Amerikan media and French government turned it into a pimping promo for the war on terror.
Despite the triumphal display, which included tanks, trucks with missile defense systems, and flyovers by fighter jets, the realities in Mali suggest that President Francois Hollande’s military intervention has had mixed results.
Remember way back when they said it was only going to be a couple of weeks?
The mission he launched in January helped the Malian government retake control of much of the country from extremists who had seized northern Mali and threatened the capital. The nation is to hold elections July 28, but tensions involving rebel Tuaregs in the north linger, along with political instability.
Are you French folk as sick of the Islamic bogeyman (justifies all the spying on you, of course) as this American?
Sunday’s events, however, focused on the positive.
‘‘It was a victory for Africa, a victory against terrorism, and pride that we must have,’’ Hollande said in an interview after the parade with television stations in the garden of the presidential Elysee Palace.
And I was silly enough to believe a French Socialist would be an agent of peace! He's only been a socialist when it comes to austerity for bankers!
Hollande oversaw the display of military might with Mali interim President Dioncounda Traore and UN chief Ban Ki-moon at his sides.
(Blog editors shoulders slump and sag. There are no good governments in the world)
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Related: Mali Post a Mile Long
Last time I saw anything about Mali since -- until the parade.
While we are down there:
"Groups decry Bashir’s Nigeria visit" Associated Press, July 15, 2013
ABUJA, Nigeria — Sudan’s indicted leader Omar al-Bashir arrived Sunday in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to a red-carpet welcome and a full guard of honor despite demands from human rights activists that Nigeria arrest him to face trial for genocide in Darfur.
Minister of Police Affairs Kenneth Olubolade was at the airport to meet the private presidential jet Sunday along with troops in ceremonial green and white uniforms and a military brass band.
‘‘Nigeria has the shameful distinction of being the first West African country to welcome ICC fugitive Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir,’’ Human Rights Watch said in a statement....
I've come to learn that HRW and Amnesty are nothing but Jewi$h-$pon$ored tools. Ever notice they always serve the agenda? Does there meek and muted criticism of USrael ever $tick?
Related:
Gunmen kill seven UN peacekeepers in Sudan
U.N. looking pretty week despite looking over the display of French military might.
Strife in Sudan
Slow Saturday Special: Sudan Story
Sunday Globe Special: South Sudan Scene
I'm not the partying type, sorry.
The African Union has urged its 53 member states not to cooperate with the ICC, a stand that Nigeria may cite as an excuse for allowing Bashir’s visit.
They understand one of their leaders could be next (if/when the West turns on them for whatever reason).
No Nigerian officials could be reached for comment Sunday. Some Africans charge that the European-based ICC is racist in targeting Africans.
Actually, I feel that way, too. The proof is in the prosecutions. Tin-pot African dictators who have been double-crossed and poor recalcitrant Serbs who won't get with the NWO program are put before the bar for war crimes, while Bush, Bliar, and the coterie of Israeli war criminal cabinets are nowhere to be seen.
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Related: Kerry Nags Nigeria
I'm sure he will have no problem with this.
"4 bombers in Nigeria get life terms" by Michelle Faul | Associated Press, July 10, 2013
LAGOS, Nigeria — A Nigerian court on Tuesday sentenced four alleged Islamic extremists to life in prison for two bombings that killed 19 people last year, the official news agency of Nigeria reported.
Prosecutors brought conspiracy and assault charges against the suspects, though Nigeria has strict new antiterrorism laws that make the death sentence mandatory for anyone found guilty in an attack that causes fatalities.
The fate of four other men accused in the same trial was not immediately known.
The eight are believed to belong to the Boko Haram Islamic sect that is terrorizing northeast Nigeria with attacks on schools.
See: Sunday Globe Special: Islamic Extremists Administer Lesson in Nigeria
Britain on Monday banned Boko Haram, making membership in or support of the group a criminal offense.
The eight had been found guilty of masterminding and carrying out an April 8, 2012, bombing on an electoral commission office that killed 16 people, and a July 10, 2012, bombing of a church that killed three.
They had also been accused of fatally shooting three police officers on May 23, 2012, and bombing a political rally that killed three people March 3 that year, though it was not clear on Tuesday if they were convicted in these cases.
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Also see: Nelson Mandela may soon go home to recover
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Memorializing Mandela
I guess I spoke too soon.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
What are Mandela’s end-of-life wishes?
"Greenpeace activists occupy French nuclear plant" Associated Press,July 16, 2013
PARIS — Greenpeace activists occupied a French nuclear power plant site before dawn Monday, an action intended to embarrass the government, which is intent on demonstrating that France’s reliance on nuclear power is safe.
Around 30 activists from the environmental group invaded state-owned nuclear power utility Electricite de France’s Tricastin power plant complex in southern France. They projected a video on the side of one of the plant’s buildings that said ‘‘Tricastin Nuclear Accident’’ and showed the image of a giant crack forming across the building’s facade.
They "invaded," huh?
France’s nuclear safety authority said that the intrusion had no impact on the plant’s safety. By mid-afternoon, all of the activists had been arrested and were being held at a police station, Greenpeace France said on its website.
France is among the most nuclear-dependent countries, with reactors producing about 80 percent of its electricity. In 2008, the Tricastin plant reported several incidents that angered antinuclear groups, including a leak of unenriched uranium into two nearby rivers and the release of radioactive particles from a pipe.
France's Fukushima!
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