Botswana-Africa's gem

 I have only visited Botswana once, ( Joan, my views: Search results for botswana (joan-myviews.blogspot.com), but the burning desire to return and explore more, increases daily. 

Yes, you guessed right! It was the animals that got me there of course, for, it has Africa's highest concentration of elephants and all the other wonderful animals you would want to see.

Since that initial visit, I have made it my business to learn more about the paradise I got a taste of, which has a population about the same size as my homeland Jamacia, and got its independence in 1966, just four years after we did, but importantly, remains Africa's most stable democracy and its safest country.

 As a proud descendent of the Mandingo Tribe from the Ivory Coast  (my grandmother told me and DNA confirmed it) , since I 'discovered' Africa,  I have wanted to tour the continent widely, but the Ivory Coast is not on my bucket list for that very reason, Safety.

Yes, the former colonial masters so divided the tribes of Africa  and planted such hatred among them, that many countries have been torn by civil war and the modern power-hungry leaders so evil, that they are unwilling to help their population ‘get over it' and move one.

But thank heavens, Rwanda did and is today a very stable and progressive country and one I would love to visit.

Oh boy, how I would also love to visit Mali which had one of history’s greatest and most intellectually-developed empires, but their constant infighting makes it impossible. 

And while I am at it, I shall complain about my great disappointment when I was going to Kenya in 2018, (Joan, my views: KENYA: THE MOST AMAZING OUTDOORS (joan-myviews.blogspot.com), at not being able to visit Ethiopia. For I actually bought an air ticket and obtained a visa to visit that next door country, but guess what, they started a civil war there😡. 

So not only did I lose my air fare (which was non-refundable) but also my visa fee, (US $50), as it is one of the few African countries which does not allow Jamaicans visa-free entry!

It all comes back to security when I travel these days, so my ancestral homeland Ivory Coast, has to sit on the back burner for a while!

 For in 2010, they had another civil war which killed thousands and left over half million people displaced and they have not been able to get their act together yet.

And talking about  wars, I consider a large segment of the Jewish population to be extremely evil because of their support for what the Netanyahu government is doing to the Palestinians, especially the women and children. 

However, what is happening in Gaza is nothing in comparison to what is happening in Somalia, where power hungry blacks have murdered an estimated million of their fellow Africans and today some four million people are said to be on the verge of famine.

What is especially disheartening too is how most of the world, especially the black world, is ignoring what is happening there.😨

But now, I want to return to Botswana, my model country.

Yes, that country is rich in diamonds, but what is outstandings and unusual,  is how  the government has always used its resources to develop its people.

So, it not only has low debt and Africa’s highest credit rating, but also, although 70% of the country is dessert, it gives its citizens free land, free healthcare and free education! In addition, university students receive $154 in allowances monthly.

Incidentally, it is the desert there which has created Botswana’s most important UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Okavango Delta located in the Kalahari Desert. This is a vast inland delta formed with the Okavango River. 

Yup, Botswana is so far up my bucket list, that its bursting.

 

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Athens is beautiful, warm and laid back

I had often heard that the Greek were in general nice people, but in my book, they are not only nice, but the warmest Europeans I have ever interacted with.

Anyway, according to Gabby, myj Jamaican friend who is doing her master's there, they prefer to be considered Balkans, not Europeans, despite, Greece being member of European Union.

Off to Greece we go

 So maybe that's why they are the least racist too!

As I am a cat lover, I was delighted to learn, that in most of Greece, there are no decrepit stray cats around. For the culture is, the people adopt them all and each one is provided with beds on the streets and are fed and looked after daily.

 So they love all humans too.❤️.

A 'stray' cat sleeps peacefully in his bed on the street.

Athens,  (population 4 million) is the graffiti capital of Europe and I hear they wear that badge proudly.  Moving around the city, you soon discover that very few walls around escape the graffiti artists' brushes😊!

Incidentally, as you probably know, Greece is the birthplace of the Olympics, and yesterday the Olympic torch relay that starts off the 2024 Summer Olympics, was lit  in Olympia.

 It will travel throughout Greece, arrive in Athens then sail across the Mediterranean to Marseille on May 9, to resume the trek through France.

The French leg will end  at the Opening Ceremony when the Olympic cauldron will be lit. 

As we Jamaicans dominate so much of the Olympics games, we spent a lot of time touring the marble stadium which was built in 330 BC and can accommodate 50,000 people.

We Jamaicans are at the marble stadium.

I am no Bolt but can pose like him😁

A nude athlete's rear view

Original athletes competed nude and their balls and penises are prominently displayed on the statues.

In the royal 'boxes.'

I can't run but can still pose on the gold medalist's stand.

(Incidentally, the great Lenny Kravetz will be performing there in August this year. He is being highly anticipated.)

Acropolis at night

 After leaving the ruins, it was off to the Acropolis museum which is just as enchanting.

 The museum is actually built atop other ruins and you can see them through the glass floors.

The ruins beneath our feet at the museum.

Replicas of the Greek gods inside the museum 

Thankfully, as there was a national strike of taxi drivers today so the lines in the museum were not too long!

You have to take the cable car to get to this beautiful Greek Orthodox church.

As you know, Greece is the birthplace of democracy (6th century BC). Tourists gather a outside the new  parliament building to observe the changing of the guards. This ritual takes place every hour. The old parliament building is now used as a conference cente

Incidentally, another thing I love about Athens is that it's streets are undulating like San Francisco, so you are forced to be fit😊.

 No stress. 

Also, there are no unsightly high rises. Nothing over around 20 stories, it appears 

Misc.

With Maddy from Afghanistan. ( He lives in Italy)

And Harris from Greece.

Random videos.

He is just too old!

I find the Republican party totally abhorrent.

But that’s the not the worse thing, for the reality is they are not only hazardous to the American nation and democracy, but America has such international influence, that another Trump or similar madman, could cause world chaos.

So why is it that the Democrats seem so determined to give them the presidency in 2024? For if they run Biden again, that’s exactly what they will be doing.

For Joe is just too old.

Yes, I know America has something called ageism which liberals love to throw around, but as a senior citizen, I claim privilege.

I am not saying that Biden is not a good president. He certainly is when compared to the previous one.

But we old people need to acknowledge that while we like to tell ourselves that we don’t feel any different than when we were 30 or 40 or whatever, that’s just fooling ourselves.

I was a great driver and loved the road, but do you think I would take on the job of a ride share or school bus driver? Of course not, for I recognize that I no longer have the agility nor quick response capability to do such jobs safely or even stay on the road too long.

Biden is clearly aging fast in front of our very eyes and unless the Dems find someone suitable and soon, they will have served the majority of the people in the country badly.

Elections are all about popularity and the vast majority of people polled say they don’t want Biden as he is too old to run again. I agree totally.

Of course, a similar number say they don’t want Trump to run again, but even if he does (hopefully he will be locked up by 2024 for trying to steal an election!), he can be beaten by any good candidate.

For what good policies do Republicans have to swing the independent voters?

Absolutely none.

Another negative for the Biden rerun, is having Kamala taking over if he drops down dead or is incapacitated.

Harris is ineffective as VP for the only job she had was to deal with the border issue and look at the mess down there.

Anyway, she was not even popular with Democrats during the 2019 primaries, for whereas in February 2019 she had 12 percent of Democrat voters and after insulting Biden in the debates it rose to 15 percent, by December, she had to drop out as she only had 3 percent support!

Come Democrats, you can do better than that.

As it stands, the only person who seems anxious to take on Biden is vaccine denier, Robert Kennedy Jr. And although his only claim to fame is the Kennedy name, according to the Washington Post, he already has 19% favorability rating.

Cleary democrats are desperate for someone else if Kennedy can poll so well so quickly!

Anyway, in 1992, Democratic organizer extraordinaire, James Carville coined the phrase; ‘it’s the economy stupid’ and it's as true today as it was then.

That is also going to feature way up in the issues in 2024 and with a paltry 1% GDP growth in the last quarter, that’s no recommendation for Biden. And with the serious discussions at OPEC about replacing the US$ as their trading currency, bank failures, (First Republic Bank on the brink now) things do not appear too rosy for the US economy in the short run.

Democrats need to tell uncle Joe thanks very much for pulling back the USA from the edge of international isolation and madness in 2020, but with all the challenges ahead, the job has to be completed by someone younger.

Not him, not Kamala. 

Link: https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2024/06/both-bidens-and-trumps-have-landed-usa.html?m=1

 

 

 

American/ Russian interefernce in elections

Even if the Americans have themselves had a record of sometimes “interfering” in elections in other countries, they have every right to be upset that Russia interfered in their presidential elections, as all the intelligence agencies have agreed happened. Interestingly, president Trump has time and time again, chosen to believe Putin's word, although he is ex and probably still KGB, while dismissing the evidence provided by 17 of his own intelligence agencies, but that's another issue.

Anyway, the difference between what the Russians did to the USA in their democratic elections and normal "interference,"  is that the US and Russia are currently the two most powerful superpowers in the world and if one can gain unchallenged influence throughout the world because it has its surrogate in power as the head of the other superpower, it would be terrible for the rest of us. 

Especially if the one that ends up with total power is Russia!

For Russia is by no means a liberal democracy and thus their holding sway over what happens in smaller and weaker states would be tragic for people in the free world, who could see the freedoms to which they had become accustomed, being gradually diminished.

I have been there and speak from personal experience on the front lines.

This was during the cold war era in my small island of Jamaica which lies only 90 miles away from Cuba. We were forced to go through four years of turmoil because the democratically elected government of the day decided it preferred the Cuban system of government and the socialist philosophy to the Westminster system of government under which it had gained power. And the Cubans were only too happy to assist them in every way possible to  take away our freedoms. For after all, Jamaica being the largest and most influential island in the English speaking Caribbean, would give them great leverage in their quest to have the then USSR dominate the entire region.

So we saw our island being flooded by thousands of Cubans supposedly coming in to assist in agricultural development and the health service. They however were under the command of a general named Ulysses Estrada who was allegedly the head of their intelligence agency, the DGI. Also assisting the Cubans but covertly, was the Russian KGB and I know that as a fact as I did have an encounter with one.

On the other side was the American CIA which had allegedly heeded the opposition party’s cry for help, but they apparently operated very covertly, for although I was often on the frontlines, I never encountered a CIA agent on the ground.

However, I say without apology THANKS TO THE AMERICAN CIA FOR ASSISTING US, FOR IF THEY HADN’T, JAMAICA TODAY WOULD PROBABLY BE LIKE VENEZUELA where food shortages, hyper-inflation, no press freedom, government sponsored aggression and the silencing of the opposition are the order of the day.

Worse yet, we could be like Cuba itself. I have visited that country four times since 1980, because of its physical beauty and the fact that I have close family there. Their life is one of absolute misery and the younger ones who were born after the revolution, do not even know that there is an alternative world in which people can criticize their government, read and write what they want or even better, get a passport and travel to any place they wish, as long as they have the money. Sad.

I therefore thank the Americans for “interfering” and assisting us in defeating the Cuban DGI and Russian KGB in the elections that followed our four year period of turmoil…1976-1980.

For reducing the world to a position where one of the two super powers dominates totally because it succeeded in putting its surrogate in power, is extremely dangerous for the entire world. For what Lord Acton said in the 1800’s is still relevant today. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Essay; 1 The Venezuelan experience

Every time I see the news coming out of Venezuela, it sends a chill down my spine. For events there today bring back the terrible memories of our own trials and struggles in the island of Jamaica during the cold war period, when the government of the day tried to impose socialism on the country. With that socialist thrust, came the threat of the loss of our sacred freedoms including freedom of the press, religion and association.

Our dangerous period begun with the imposition of a state of emergency under which, like in Venezuela today, opposition politicians and activists were arbitrarily detained without charge and attempts were made to prevent the independent press from functioning without governmental interference.

On another level, the experiment with socialism led to massive foods shortages, loss of tourism revenue, hyper-inflation, government-sponsored violence and general oppression. Eventually these rapidly deteriorating conditions led to an undeclared civil war in Jamaica which lasted some four years, causing the deaths of thousands of people.

In the wake of the decline in the economy and pervasive violence, came the self-exile of many of our most valuable people including professionals, both small and large entrepreneurs and many members of the middle class. Up to today, some 30 years later, the Jamaican economy still struggles because of the departure of such valuable persons.

During that period (from 1976-1980), the Michael Manley government was overtly propped up by the Russian KGB and Cuban DGI. The American CIA was also alleged to have been involved in assisting the opposition. If they did, I have nothing but praise and gratitude for them, especially today when I see how rapidly conditions are deteriorating in Venezuela .

At the time the disruptions were taking place in Jamaica, I had only recently become the mother of two young children but when I saw the threat to our freedoms which begun with the locking up of elected opposition politicians and activists, the threats to press freedom and other freedoms plus  how my family had to suffer because of the shortage of basic foods, I put my own safety on hold to get involved.

While the violent battles were being fought in the streets with weapons allegedly supplied by the covert agencies, I hit the ground taking part in the regular peaceful demonstrations while using both radio and the print media to not only spread the opposition’s position to the wider public but also to keep up the pressure on the government.

I have visited Cuba four times since 1980, (the last time being in 2014 when I went there to meet family that I had subsequently learnt lived there) when we held an election that ousted the socialist government from power, and every time I visited or see the news coming out of Venezuela today, I say a silent prayer of thanks that we were able to avoid their fate.

I continue to pray that the Venezuelan people will keep up the pressure and be as successful as we were in ousting the socialists and restoring democracy. And I hope that those who are in the position to assist them, will do so.