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1st July, 2007 – Update: Two jobs Blair. It seems Blair will be off to Africa as part of the Africa Progress Panel, which he himself set up last year to monitor the progress of the G8 following Gleneagles. This panel will be charged with ensuring that the expected aid will come to that continent by 2010. He is also about to go to Jerusalem as the Special Representative to the Middle East any time soon. In fact he might have already gone. It’s been all quiet on the Blair front, while Brown and Salmond cope with the terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow. View Blair video on the Africa Panel.
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[Pic: Nelson Mandela & Tony Blair]
Excuse me for starting this page with a SCREAM at the nasties who can’t get through a day without lambasting Tony Blair. How the hell are they going to manage by the end of this month when he’s gone?!
Even a Labour MP had to criticise him on Friday’s Newsnight for NOT arguing with Thabo Mbeke over Mbeke’s softly softly approach to Zimbabwe. So she’d prefer him THIS TIME to go in six guns blazing? COME ON!
It’s clear as day: it really doesn’t matter whether Mr Blair intervenes or not. Whatever he does there are those whose one aim in life is to knock him down.
Don’t they get it? He’s already down … he just won’t die. But they’ve done their worst. He’s more or less gone; finito; political history. Stop your bleating, Kate Hoey. There is no “turnaround”, just work in progress with other African leaders. Or would you rather he went over their heads?
[Pic: Blair & South African President Thabo Mbeke]
These people who understand NOTHING about the niceties of basic courtesy much less political diplomacy make me puke!!!
Rant over. That’s better. Now – where was I?
- Click the picture with Mandela to view video of Mandela & Blair.
- Click the picture of Tony Blair to read his speech delivered in South Africa.
- View video of his entire speech in Africa
UNREALISTICALLY HIGH EXPECTATIONS OF BLAIR
First a word about the British attitude to Tony Blair’s approach and trip to Africa.
It’s simply not good enough for those who keep telling the PM that he has not yet done enough for Africa, to complain because he’s going there to visit lands where he has done MORE than any other international leader. Nor is it good enough to say – “well, when is it all going to be sorted?”
It’s going to take YEARS, decades even for many African countries to move out of third world status. But Tony Blair has been HUGELY instrumental in getting the process started. That’s the most we can ask of any leader, especially this country’s leader, who has led the battles on several grounds.
As he returns from his Africa trip there is a lot he can be proud of, a lot he will look on as incomplete, and perhaps more still which he will consider as yet to be tackled. That is to be expected; that’s life; normal progress. There is no magic wand. So, here’s a quick look at what he HAS done.
Libya – Sierra Leone – South Africa
1 Libya
First stop – Libya, where Mr Blair praised improved relations with Muammar Qaddafi.Big business deals were also signed including that of the oil giant BP confirming its return to Libya’s oil and gas fields for the first time in more than 30 years. A spokesman for Tony Blair, spoke of BP’s return at a briefing on Tuesday. BP has not operated in Libya since 1974, when the oil industry was nationalised. The group confirmed it had been in talks with the Libyan government over re-entering the country. BP’s move back into Libya comes two years after rival Royal Dutch Shell announced its return to the country, timed to coincide with Blair’s 2004 visit.Mr Blair became the first British leader in 60 years to visit Libya after Colonel Gaddafi abandoned efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction and handed over agents blamed for the bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie.British companies have been keen to exploit business opportunities in Libya since sanctions were formally lifted in 2003, with the country attractive in particular to oil companies.
2 Sierra Leone
In his visit to Sierra Leone, Mr Blair pledged $10 million for African Union peacekeepers.
Mr Blair said there had been “real progress” in Sierra Leone where he sent peacekeeping troops during his first term of office. Speaking after talks with President Kabbah and President Sirleaf, he said: “However ferocious the challenges are in this part of Africa it’s better to intervene and try to make a difference than stay out and try to cope with the consequences at a later time.”
Asked about criticism of his visit, Mr Blair said just a few years ago Sierra Leone had been in danger of being taken over by gangsters – while today it was approaching elections.
“I don’t say that is perfection, but I say it’s a darned sight better than it was before,” Blair said whilst continuing to tell “cynics back home” that “we should understand this does really make a difference to people’s lives and if politics is to mean anything at all it is coming and looking at the poverty and conflict in areas like this and doing something about it.”
The ‘Honorary Paramount Chief’ in Sierra Leone
Freetown, Sierra Leone – If Prime Minister Tony Blair has lost popularity on the world stage because of the Iraq war, no one has told Sierra Leoneans. Mr. Blair was greeted as a hero and crowned a paramount chief of the West African state rescued from civil war by British troops in 2000.
The British intervention marked a high point in Blair’s Africa policy. “This was the last case of a successful liberal intervention before the Iraq debacle, and it was a success in that it brought about a dramatic military result,” says Tom Cargill, an expert at the Chatham House think tank in Britain.
In 2000, 800 troops arrived in Freetown to evacuate British citizens and secure the airport for UN peacekeepers. They were quickly drawn into fighting RUF rebels and helped end the brutal 11-year civil war.
Sierra Leoneans are vociferously grateful. Indeed, Mohammed Tejan wants Blair to run the place. “Now there is no one to look after us, we are like orphans,” he says. “Our government can’t do it, but the British can.”
“Tony Blair is a great man!” says Mohammed Kaloko, a young taxi driver. “The British support us with money, but our government just takes it and they steal.”
Under Blair, Britain has been Sierra Leone’s largest bilateral donor, annually giving $79 million in aid and $24 million for a military presence to train the 10,500-strong Army, which has in the past undertaken five coups. “While welcome in bringing about peace and security … [intervention] … failed to remove the underlying causes of the war: youth unemployment and corruption,” says Mr. Cargill.
In Freetown, decrepit roads and colonial houses tumble down deforested hillsides toward vast slums. Electricity and clean water are scarce.
Unemployment is near 70 percent. One in 4 children die before age 5; life expectancy is just over 40 years. Despite five years of peace, elections scheduled for August, and vast mineral wealth, Sierra Leone remains one of the world’s poorest countries.
3 South Africa
The Nelson Mandela get-together is compulsory and why not. Everyone admires Mandela, including Tony Blair. He is a great man to have on your side, too. Especially with a greeting like, “Hello Tony, how are you? Boy, are you getting younger every day”.
In South Africa on Thursday, Blair met with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, called for tougher action against Sudan over the crisis in Darfur, and emphasized the priority he has given to Africa during his tenure.In a speech at the University of South Africa, Blair said both the West and Africa faced two possible paths.
“One is chosen by countries like South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana and many others, reinforcing economic growth with good governance and the stamping out of violence and corruption,” he said. “The other, the path of Zimbabwe or Sudan, where bad government and violent oppression send the country’s economy spiraling down. Our choice is to support the good. Africa’s challenge is to eliminate the bad.”
Many aid experts expect Blair to repeat his calls for fellow leaders – most pointedly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who next week is hosting the annual G-8 summit – to step up their assistance to Africa.
WHY DO SO MANY IN THE UK LOVE TO CRITICISE BLAIR?
On the Africa issue, as on many others, it would seem, the expectations by some of the prime minister are contradictory. On the one hand most people recognise that he has shown great commitment to tackling the deep and important issues. On the other, they measure his success against a whole different benchmark than that for the rest of us. When he says he will do something, his home-based detractors expect it to be done yesterday, even if he has told them it’ll take until at least tomorrow ;0)
SUPERMAN – with a pocket full of Kryptonite?
This thinking seems to attach itself to Blair in a unique way. These critics seem to see him as superman carrying deadly kryptonite. And they wait, tongues hanging out for it to start to work on him. I can’t help feeling it’s because he’s still here and still comes up with the goods.
We Brits hate success, don’t we? Tch..tch… envy is SUCH a corrosive thing.
We should be more realistic in what we expect to see as a result of Tony Blair’s time in power. And if we did that – we would be proud and pleased.
All that one politician can do is the best he can do. That’s all most of us can strive for and expect as a measure of success in all facets of life, isn’t it? So why do we look for super human results from Tony Blair?
We’re talking about a huge continent; it’s not even Blair’s continent. He was not elected on the strength of what he promised to do about another continent. No politician ever is. And yet Tony Blair has brought important issues with wordwide impact out into the open in a way other politicians worldwide don’t even try. We should be proud of that.
DESTRUCTIVE CYNICISM
Even before he went there was much unrealistic nonsense about the reasons for his Africa trip including legacy, vanity, self-indulgence and future career prospects. This betrays the narrowness of thinking of his critics. I can think of many other reasons for his trip. What about encouragement, principle, inclusivity, continuation and monitoring of progress? What about keeping the issues in the public eye, even as he departs from a position of power, one which he has single-handedly crafted for the British PM? What about the fact that he CARES?
But then I naturally dismiss knee-jerk cynicism about politics and politicians; it would seem that many British people and certainly some in the press only feel grown up when they distrust. How very, very sad.
Mr Blair responded to his home-based critics on his trip to Africa in this way:
“The one thing I have come to despise more than anything else in my 10 years is cynicism”.
I empathise with his distaste of cynicism. Scepticism is to be expected when we judge that our politicians have not come up to the high mark which we or they might have hoped or expected. But there is something hopeless and destructive about cynicism per se.
People who often fail themselves in their own private lives set hurdles too high for others in order for them to fall and prove a point. It seems to be a characteristic of Blair’s British detractors which gives me no satisfaction. Of course the better balanced amongst us can just ignore such people – they are often failures themselves and need to show that the powerful also fail. But there is a corrosive effect on politics and commentary and on our own judgement.
It’s SO easy to criticise.
Read Mr Blair’s Speech urging Africa to “choose the right path”.
Blair’s Africa Legacy – Analysis by BBC correspondents of Blair’s record in four key areas: Sierra Leone, Darfur, Zimbabwe and Libya.
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE G8G8 – From 6th June
BRITAIN AHEAD OF ALL OTHER G8 COUNTRIES, SAYS OXFAM
An Oxfam representative said tonight that Britain has a better record than most on fighting world poverty.
Oxfam reference on how Blair needs to push others at next week’s G8Antipoverty advocates have criticized the G-8 countries for lagging far behind the promises they made when Blair hosted the Gleneagles G-8 summit in 2005. Among other pledges, the rich nations promised wide-scale debt relief and a doubling of aid to Africa by 2010, to $50 billion from about $25 billion.
Although there have been improvements – 22 countries have had their debt canceled and some 20 million more children have entered school, according to the aid group Oxfam – actual aid from G-8 nations decreased last year, and estimates show the G-8 missing their 2010 target by almost $30 billion.
Aid experts say that Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, has worked closely with the prime minister on poverty alleviation and will probably continue Britain’s leadership on African issues.
But many advocates believe it is Blair, scheduled to step down this month, who can best pressure other G-8 nations.
“Britain has performed well ahead of other G-8 countries, delivering large increases in aid,” Oxfam director Barbara Stocking said in a statement. “But despite a significant increase in aid last year, even the UK is still not definitively on target to meet its promises from two years ago. Other countries are way off track, and if Blair does not push them at the G-8 meeting in Germany, then his legacy in Africa will be at risk. Before Blair leaves office he must persuade the other G-8 countries to fulfill the promises they made in 2005.”
NUCLEAR OPTION?
President Putin is threatening nuclear war if the Americans continue their ballistic missile shield strategy in Poland. He describes the American palans as strategical war positioning rather than a pure defence system. And it seems any new Russian leader after the elections of next year will agree with him. He may well have an eye on the domestic election agenda, but his ‘divide and rule’ language is going to ruffle a few feathers at the G8.
I suppose it could be argued that anything that prevents an enemy’s missiles getting through gives the upper hand to the Americans – who could then say – “… see what they were up to? So now we have to retaliate.” And of course the “enemy” would be severely limited to try again.
Putin does not accept that Iran or any other Mid-East state will be suitably capable in the near future, so he argues that this is aggression against HIS country.
And although Putin has his fears about Al Qaida he also criticises American and British action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Distracting attention from the collapsing stae of democracy, presumably, has nothing to do with it? He awaits the usual suspects’ comments in western free states, mealy-mouthedly arguing – “well, he has a point, hasn’t he?” Probably won’t have to wait too long.
He certainly knows how to become the centre of attention. But how many other G8 states could get away with threatening colleague nations in this way? Today’s Telegraph suggests it is time the G8 became the G7. Might not be the happiest of G8 meetings for Mr Blair.
Meanwhile Russia has a near monopoly on much of Europe’s gas supplies. Not that THAT is in anyone’s minds!
Interesting stuff, politics.
POISONING RELATIONS
And as if he hasn’t enough on his plate, Mr Blair is being pressed by the widow of Alexander Litvinenko to get others at the G8 to support his push to Putin for extradition to the UK of the Russian suspected of the Litvinenko murder. The US ambassador to the UK has backed her call to our man. Of course Putin will dismiss THAT particular request out of hand, as he has already done. So much for the rule of law in Putin’s Russia.
Any more difficult jobs for Mr Blair to do in the next couple of weeks?
- Go to “Blair – A Call To Arms?” PM says – police v Human Rights?
- Blair in USA – “Good”, “Brave”, President?
- Blair – “I did what I thought was right” – Retirement
- Full transcript of Tony Blair’s retirement speech 10th May, 2007
- Leaders Deathbed Confession?
- Tony Blair to Iraq – No, No, No – yes, yes!
- All Ending In Tears” – Opinion – Brown & Blair
- “Tony Blair’s Successor – Leadership” – GB – the invisible man.
- David Cameron – Policy?
- “OK. I give up … sort of!” – Blair resignation plans, September 2006.
- British Coup – or – How To Kill Off The Leader and Get Away With It.
- View Tony Blair Videos
- View Prime Minister’s Questions from Parliament.
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