World is on the razor’s edge
SOMEtHIng momentous is about to happen to the world; but it’s difficult to place quite what it is or what shape it will take. The situation helps to stress just how insignificant each country is in the matrix of world politics.
A few days ago Saudi Arabia shared intelligence with the United States that it had credible information that Iran was about to attack it.
In response the US said it was concerned by the intel and would do anything to defend Saudi Arabia and all its allies in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine is escalating and Iran has been identified as the supplier of Kamikaze drones that have wreaked havoc in major Ukrainian cities where they have hit strategic targets such as power stations and water plants. Ukraine itself, it seems has not been a sitting duck, considering it hit Russia’s elite Black Sea fleet and, according to Russia, with a little help from the British.
The United Kingdom has been fingered as the mastermind behind the sabotage of the nordstrom subterranean pipeline that supplies gas to Europe.
Russia has summoned the British envoy to Moscow.
no one knows what this tiff will lead to.
In the background, China, a new and formidable superpower, is flexing its muscles as it eyes a swoop on taiwan, a territory it claims to be its own.
The US is watching this carefully and has promised to defend taiwan in spite of its long-held policy of “strategic ambiguity”.
All isn’t well in the US itself in the backdrop of the Midterms – the elections that determine who controls Congress between the Republicans and the Democrats.
When political commentators talk of electoral fraud, intimidation, polarisation and electoral violence, they are not usually talking about American elections. They are talking about countries in African and South America. But here are some nuggets from a speech by US President Joe Biden:
On electoral violence and the attack on House Speaker nancy Pelosi’s husband in their home, Biden noted that the hammerwielding assailant had asked “Where’s nancy? Where’s nancy?”, the same words used by the rioters on January 6 at the Capitol.
“We’re facing a defining moment. We must, with one overwhelming, unified voice speak, as a country, and say there’s no place for voter intimidation or political violence in America.”
On electoral outcomes Biden said: “As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America, for governor, Congress, attorney general, secretary of state, who won’t commit to accepting the results of the elections that they’re running in.
“That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American. As I’ve said before, you can’t love your country only when you win.”
The Question is: “What happens when America’s Liberal democracy crashes, as it is wont to?”
Will America be riddled with civil war?
Will China emerge as the sole superpower?
And what would this mean to the world?
Africa seems insignificant in this whole matrix but that is a deception.
The continent is right in the thick of things.
Many proxy wars will be fought such as are happening in the DRC and in Ethiopia.
to sustain their own livelihoods both Western and Eastern countries will grapple for Africa’s resources.
This they will do by weakening governmental systems on the continent. This they have already done through impossible loans, sanctions and puppet regimes that they are installing all over the continent.
The world is on a razor’s edge. This calls for Africa to wake up and assert its own significance in all this by speaking with one voice.