Libya’s Gaddafi and the shameful deals of the American city of New Jersey, etc
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
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Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine, The Black Business Journal, USAfrica e-group and Nigeria360@yahoogroups e-group
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February 21, 2011: As Libya burns and as the foundation of its brutal 40-year-old regime shakes and shudders, it is not just the thuggish family of tyrant Muammar Gaddafi who should be worried. It is also the many Westerns who collaborated with the tyrant and helped to keep him in power.
There’s a rekonin’ a comin’. For all those who did deals with the Gaddafi regime or turned a blind-eye to his brutality. Whose morality vanished in the face of his black-gold billions. Who, in the words of Bob Dylan, closed their eyes and pretended not to see the brutality and oppression of one of the cruelest governments on earth.
Many are known to us already, like BP who four years ago signed a $900 million oil exploration deal with Gaddafi. Of course there are the British ministers who gave Gaddafi advice as to how to have the Lockerbie bomber, Al Megrahi, released, which was one of Gaddafi’s principal conditions in doing the oil deal, as he made clear when he publicly thanked Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth after the mass murderer’s release. ”This step,” he said, “is in the interest of relations between the two countries… and of the personal friendship between me and them and will be positively reflected for sure in all areas of cooperation between the two countries.”
Most infamous of all is the Scottish government and its ‘Justice’ minister Kenny MacAskill who released Al Megrahi who continues to live peacefully in Tripoli, but perhaps not so peacefully now that his sponsor’s government is teetering.
Others who have worked with Gaddafi are not as famous but have been mentioned in the media, like Matthew Beckerman, the Jewish head of production company Natural Selection who accepted a $100 million investment from the tyrant’s son.
And then there are those who stood by, and now continue to stand by, as Libya burns, like my own home town of Englewood, New Jersey, that was the site of a major battle in September 2009 when Gaddafi, who owns the home right next door to me, tried to pitch a tent and move in for a few weeks. Our community came together and pushed him out. But the house, an official residence of Libya’s Ambassador to the United Nations, remains. It is sovereign Libyan territory and the Ambassador, whose boss and patron reportedly stolen tens of billions of dollars from the Libyan people, lives there completely tax free. We the residents of Englewood pay for his trash removal, police protection, and other basic services.
My city allows this shameful state of affairs. There has not been a lawsuit to try and push the Libyans out or get them to at least pay taxes in almost thirty years. When after Gaddafi withdrew and I continued the fight against the Libyan mission to try and push it completely out of Englewood, Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey’s Ninth District, who has not had a serious challenger in 14 years, first told the media “I hope everyone will be appropriately good neighbors.” Later, on 4 January, 2010, he took the unbelievable step of issuing a three-page press release attacking me and defending the Libyans right to remain in Englewood based on agreements between the Libyans and the State department that were brokered by Rothman himself when he was Englewood’s mayor. I responded in print by reminding Rothman that he represents the hard-working citizens of New Jersey and not the oil-rich dictator in Tripoli.
Englewood garnered world acclaim when it pushed Gaddafi out. Now our community is utterly silent against Gaddafi as Libya burns. Brave Libyan citizens are being murdered in the streets with large-caliber weapons. The number of the dead is growing by the day. Habib al-Obaidi, head of the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital, spoke of the bodies of 50 people, mostly killed by gunshots, being brought in on Sunday afternoon alone. ”The problem is not the number of those killed,” he said, “but how they were killed. One of the victims was obliterated after being hit by an RPG to the abdomen,” he said.
That’s right. The people of New Jersey, who already saw 30 of its citizens murdered among the 270 who were on Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, are subsidizing the diplomatic mission of a government that fires Rocket Propelled Grenades against non-violent, defenseless protestors.
Snipers are picking them off from rooftops and Kaddafi’s goons are mowing them down in the streets. But in the city of Englewood the Libyan flag continues to fly high and proud. I see it every day right across my yard. It makes me sick to my stomach. What a disgrace to our city to see the flag of a tyrannical regime, currently decimating its citizens by the hundreds, flying in a free city in New Jersey. That our Mayor, City Council, and police allow it without even a single legal challenge is a disgrace to a once-proud city.
I launched a lawsuit against the Libyans in Federal court only to see it quashed due to the Libyans diplomatic immunity. Imagine that. A terrorist-funding state that blows up airliners and kills its people in front of the world’s cameras can live tax-free in an American suburb, where there is no diplomatic interest, because of diplomatic immunity.
I am writing this column from Boston where I am attending a family wedding. I took my children today to the site of the Boston Massacre, in front of the Old State House, where on 5 March, 1770 British soldiers fired into a crowd of a hundreds of colonists, killing five. The event was the spark that would eventually ignite the American Revolution. As it happens, we Americans could not have achieved our freedom entirely on our own.
The French were instrumental in helping us defeat the British and it is a lesson we all ought to remember as Arabs throughout the Middle East rise with great courage to demand the simple freedoms for which the American patriots fought. They are our brothers and they require our assistance. And this is especially true of those who are fighting to defeat the man that Ronald Reagan famously and accurately called ‘the mad dog of the Middle East.’ Rabbi Boteach, author if several books and his latest being ‘Honoring the Child Spirit: Inspiration and Learning from Our Children’, is a commentator on public and religious issues.
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USAfrica: As Egypt’s corrupter-in-chief Mubarak slides into history’s dustbin…. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/01/30/chido-nwangwu-as-egypt-corrupter-in-chief-mubarak-slides-into-historys-dustbin-egyptians-not-waiting-for-obama-and-united-nations/
Tunisia, Egypt . . . Is Nigeria next? By Prof. Rosaire Ifedi
Akwa Ibom Solidarity March: A condemnation of Governor Godswill Akpabio
Every Akwa Ibom State person (well, except his crumbs-from-table-eaters) can testify to the truth that Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio is the worst Chief Executive Officer since the State was created nearly 23 years ago. Under his administration, hundreds have been kidnapped, tens killed, many falsely accused of crimes with trumped up charges and locked up for months without trial—some are still in detention—Fabian Ekpenyong, Uboh, and Dr. Chris Ekong—just to name a few. In Akwa Ibom, the masses feel desperate and for a long time, they have been wringing their hands in the air with a feeling and tears of hopelessness.
This weekend (February 26, 2011 to be exact) all that is going to change because Akwa Ibom people have finally decided to take matters into their own hands by bringing their plights to the attention of the world through what they describe as a Solidarity March. The March will be staged in many cities across America, in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, London and other European Capitals. In Uyo, the Capital city of Akwa Ibom State, plans are still in the making for a march, despite directives by Governor Akpabio himself directing his security operatives to thwart the march.
The official reason given by the march planners states that it is a peaceful protest procession against the assassination of a paramount ruler by Governor Akpabio, whom Akpabio ordered assassinated on suspicion of being disloyal to his evil and vindictive regime and whom Governor Akpabio also suspected as a possible defector to the camp of those he perceives as opposition. On January 31, 2011, while emerging from the inner chambers of his palace to welcome those he thought were his august visitors, he was brutally murdered with an AK 47 riffle, shot at close range by paid assassins of Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio. But there are more reasons why others join the march.
As you read this, Akwa Ibom State is under siege. Those of us who live abroad are afraid to visit our dear State for fear of assassination and kidnapping. Those brazen enough to make the trip moves around the State with hired security. To some of us, our parents and relatives have warned us not to come “home†until Akpabio leaves the office. Once in-awhile, some of us would fly into Uyo unannounced and when we finally reach our different compounds, our loved ones would panic, due to the problem of insecurity. This was never the scenario before the year of our Lord 2007—the year Akpabio was sworn in as the Governor.
Before Akpabio was sworn in as the governor of the State May 29, 2007, anyone could freely express himself. There was freedom of speech and expression. Now, the masses can only discuss the affairs of the State in hushed, whispering, and sometimes difficult-to-hear tones. There is fear–real fear–in Akwa Ibom State. The only ones who are not afraid are members of Akpabio’s secret killer-squad, including those who make a living supporting Akpabio’s administration, even if such a support is faked just to get by.
While unemployment is as high as 80%, especially among the youths, Governor Akpabio is busy spending money on frivolous ventures that have so far yielded no return of any sort. Money laundering is a big problem. Hunger is the number one complaints of the masses, in spite of the nearly N2 trillion the State has received in both oil allocation and internally generated revenue. Other than a few haphazardly paved roads, anyone who visits the State would not fail to ask where the money is going.
Last Sunday, February 20, 2011, in a question-and-answer teleconference, which was called in by participants all over the world, a CPC gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Larry Esin, was asked; “Sir, if you become the next Governor of Akwa Ibom State, which of Governor Akpabio’s project would you like to continue?†Larry Esin scratched his head as if full of head-lice. He was stuck, because he could not name a single project, which he could truly be associated with the administration of Governor Godswill Akpabio. After a few minutes of rambling, Larry Esin gave up and was ready for another question from the participants; it’s that bad.
On top of all the sufferings posed by problems of insecurity in Akwa Ibom State, Governor Akpabio is crying and becoming a slave to his quest for a second term. And the people have been sending him covert signals that they don‘t want him again as their next governor.
But, like King Belshazzar, who failed to see the writing on the wall when suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lamp stand in the royal palace (Daniel 5:5–NIV), Governor Akpabio, instead, has misinterpreted the signal of overt gesture transmitted to him by the masses as a weakness and will often be angry over the good gesture. There are many of us who pray daily for his indignation, because in his Beatitudes, Jesus, while on the mountainside, told his disciples; “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment (Mathew 5: 22).
This weekend, the people will march as a demonstration to let the world know that all is not well in Akwa Ibom State. I will be marching with them in front of the city hall in Houston, Texas. We have invited the media with their cameras. We have invited our brothers and sisters from other parts of Nigeria. And we have invited our American friends. They will join us to raise an awareness to all the killings, kidnappings, and political assassinations that Governor Akpabio is known to conduct behind the scenes, away from the glare of the masses, the very group of people he swore to protect, but whom he is now on a crusade to eliminate from the face of the earth, so that he can continue to stay in power as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.
Written by
Thompson Essien
The Voice of the Poor Masses
Defender of the Oppressed
Social Critic
A native of Ibibio Nation of Ubium Republic extraction, now living in the safe and beautiful city of Portland, Oregon, where no AKPF, ADUMA, ADV, and Akwa Ibom State politicians can reach