Our last issue was dedicated to change which comes with happiness, uncertainty, and sadness. This issue is dedicated to learning lessons from history. The just concluded Tokyo Olympics was fairly successful despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no massive infection of athletes and no boycotts and no massive doping scandals. Thanks to lesson learned from past experiences. However, it is regrettable that there is still some doping among athletes as well as corruption within the International Olympic Organization (IOC).
By Ocaya p’Ocure, social media commentator, Uppsala, Sweden
It was on a fine day, July 22, 2011, when a homegrown terrorist named Anders Behring Breivik killed 8 people in a bomb blast in Oslo, Norway. He then dressed as a policeman to access Utoya Island Village where he massacred 69 children and young people because they were members and supporters of The Norwegian Social Democratic Party Youth Union–locally known as–Arbeiderpartiet Ungdomsförbundet–(AUF).
Every four years, the world is treated to a sport’s extravaganza–the summer Olympics. It is replete with scandals, drama, exhilaration, utter failure, disappointment, etc. The organizers, the country and city hosts, the athletes, the trainers, etc., are all in the mix at the Olympics. While the Olympics is marketed as an international sporting activity aimed at cultivating excellence, friendship, and respect, and to contribute to world peace, it is all that and more.
The dalliance with the Strongman was bound to backfire. Soon Ali Mani found himself on the run. For a while he taught at the University of Illinois. He worked hard. Churned out publications like crazy. Became a popular and a much sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit. Soon he moved on to an Ivy League college as head of the Institute of Globality. Ali Mani had arrived. But now he was on his way back to Africa.
By Alem Gebriel, water resources Technical Director
The Ethiopian Dam currently under construction on the Abbay river, otherwise known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), has great benefits for Ethiopia as well as the two downstream countries: Sudan and Egypt. One major benefit is that it mitigates flooding in Sudan. Notwithstanding that, in recent weeks the Sudanese Foreign Minister Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi has been quoted to the effect as saying that the dam will endanger the livelihood of over 20 million Sudanese people.
By Jonathan Power, a weekly columnist on Foreign Affairs
The Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and withdrew, exhausted and demoralized, 10 years later. In Moscow a joke had long circulated: “Why are we still in Afghanistan?” Answer: “We are still looking for the people who invited us”.
The same is true for the Americans and NATO who are now moving through the exit door. They came to obliterate Al-Qaeda after 9/11, 2001.
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