Africa, China and the Middle East

Africa, China and the Middle East - the Old Shell Game
Commentary by Clive Edwards

“Indirect deaths from conflicts where small arms are the main weapons number in the millions when considering countries such as the Democractic Republic of Congo or Sudan, noted the report.

"These people die from dysentery, malaria and other preventable diseases when they lose access to health care and essential services as they flee their towns and villages," the authors wrote.

"Though people may not die from bullet wounds, weapons are ultimately responsible for their deaths.”

The above words of Finish Ambassador Pasi Paokallio at the UN small arms conference this week show his lack of cultural history. He has forgotten what the Soviets and the Nazis did to his country sixty years ago. He has forgotten that Finlanders were able to fight because they had small arms and knew how to use them. Of course, I guess the "white man's burden" is still a going concern with regards to Africa - a continent where dictatorships are the rule rather than the exception. Governments will always have small arms, not to mention tanks, planes and missiles. If the UN had its way all arms would be under UN control - an even worse situation (it's a whole lot easier for a dictator to take over the world after the UN has done the dirty work than to do it country by country like Stalin and Hitler tried to do).

The only thing that keeps us safe from our government (and the government next door) is small arms and lots of them in private hands who know how to use them. If the African people must run from their own governments and the militias their governments support I guess it's because first world governments give arms to third world dictatorships. What we need to do is give the African people the small arms with which to defend their towns and villages and possibly overthrow their governments.

Why won't this happen? From a Canadian perspective, because Paul Desmarais and his clan are well connected with such dictators. Sure, Saddam Hussein may be down for the count thanks to the Americans and no one else – least of all the Desmarais family business, Power Corp, and the European bank and oil company it controls. China badly needs a revolution before it can be considered a civil society but Paokallio doesn't mention the tens and possibly hundreds of millions killed by their own government in that part of the world. Instead he asks us to focus on the Africans while the real trouble for the world is brewing in the orient. An orient where the two Pauls - Paul Desmarais and Paul Martin are very well connected indeed.

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The Author can be contacted at clive(at)diArmani.com