August 20, 2009: The Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the libyan bomber of Pan Am flight 103, returned to a hero's welcome on his return to Libya after his release from prision on compassionate grounds. He is dying from cancer.
September 9, 2009: Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi again received a standing ovation, this time from a group of African Union MPs. Read the BBC article "Africa MPs cheer Lockerbie bomber".
Why would democratically elected members of the African Union give someone like Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, guilty of killing 270 people, a standing ovation? Are they renegades representing their own sentiments rather than the sentiments of their constituents or do they actually represent their constituents? What does Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi represent to these people that deserves this ovation?
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi probably represents the sentiments and feelings of the african people now just as the time of the Lockerbie bombings. There does not seem to have been much difference in favour of the african people between then an now.
There is a chasm between africa and the western world. This chasm is reflected by conflicting emotions between africans and westerners on opposite ends of this chasm. Many africans obviously connect with the experiences and feelings of Mr. Ali al-Megrahi while westerners are appaled, disgusted by such displays of cheering for a man who killed 270 people, most of them western.
Could the western reaction of being appaled, disgusted, be an unconscious act of putting on blinkers? Burying heads in the sand? Being in a state of denial? Let's try a simple test, everyone, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, culture or religion:
Step 1: Put your amygdala (the part of the brain that governs fight or flight decisions by reducing its thinking capability) to rest. In other words in your mind ignore your nationality, ethnicity, culture (only for this exercise)! If you can,
Step 2: Put yourself in the shoes of an african in africa (the writer of this post is not african). The rest of this post is phrased as if we were african.
Step 3: Ponder the question: "What is the future of africa? What is our future?"
African nations are among the lightest polluters on earth but will suffer the most from climate change.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8217449.stm). How can we africans help ourselves? Developed countries are spewing tons of pollutants that is affecting our world. Developing countries will increase their pollution levels. There are talks and discussions going on by the G8 and G20 on the subject of environment and climate control. We are not in these G8 or G20 talks and have no place in this discussion that effects us more than any other country. Our lives depend upon the decisons made by countries other than us. Our feelings for those countries depend upon how much they consider us in their decisions.
Step 4: Having gone through this exercise ask yourself how can we bridge the chasms between continents both in practical and emotional terms?
Me, I believe the only way to do this is by having a democratically elected world government above all existing governments elected by you and me, regardless of our nationality, ethnicity, culture or religion. For thoughts on how to get there see post One World Government .
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