I was going to write a post about Frances Mali intervention but realised i didn't know shit about it and wasn't in a place to be able to talk about it.
I will give those of you who don't understand it the low down. (or atleast everything i understand about it)
so Mali had been a one party for ages and was that way until 1991 (i think) and then a military coup took over everything (as it often seems to in Africa) they installed a citizen led government. that government held elections in 1992 and Alpha Oumar Konare was elected. Konare went through the maximum allowed term of two terms as leader mainly because the elections were crap and other political parties boycottted them. When his two terms were up he stepped down and a new leader stepped up. This was a pretty cool milestone because this was the first transition between two democratically (and i use that term loosely) elected leaders.
Anyway that sort of went on until Jan 2012 when a rebel army called The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) rose up and swept up about 2/3 of the country.
Malis north is mostly the sahara desert and the native population are the Tuareg who are nomadic and have had heaps and heaps of clashes with the rest of the more southerly populace over independence and racism.
So the Tuaregs among others liked the idea of an independant nation of Azawad so they rose up.
Al-qaeda and affliated groups sensed an oppurtunity to gather more people for the cause of jihad and salafi bullshit. So they started moving in. They have money so its tempting for poor maleese to accept food shelter and a brotherhood in return for jihad and a purpose in life.
So Al-qaeda moved into rebel held territories and started converting. The NMLA didn't like the salafi's but didn't want to open up a second front against Al-Qaeda so let them in. Now Al-Qaeda is quite well entrenched in Mali.
Enter France.
The Maleese government asked France for aid in its conflict against the NMLA and Al-Qaeda painting the both with the same brush.
France accepted.
Its yet to be seen exactly whether France is their for purely humanitarian reason or other reasons entirely. I had sort of imagined that this was just another Iraq or Afghanistan but as i was looking at Reports about Mali i saw this:
|http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/01/201312113451635182.html
People from Mali are encouraged to send texts in to Al-Jazeera who translate it and put them on the site. Apparently (according to Al-Jazeera) 2/3s of the population has access to mobile phones.
Anyway. only 4% of responses were negative.
This is an interesting conflict. We will see how it grows.
To follow up on my last post the show that i was supposed to do never fucking happened.
On New Years eve i got a call from the dude from an unknown number
"Hey Cameron! Yeah the show wont happen tonight. Sorry about it all i know you've been practicing but yeah something serious has come up and the party is off."
"Uh uh what? OK so.. Are you saying you want your money back?"
" No no no no. Don't worry about it i will just get you to do a show for me in the next few days"
"Ah ok. well sweet as i guess just call me when you want me to come in"
" Yep sounds good, also i lost my phone so don't bother texting it i'll send you a new number when i get a new phone."
I haven't heard from him since.
Its been 3 weeks now.
I would love to know what the hell was happening but I don't and i can't find out because i have no contact with him.
Its all very weird.
In other news i am moving back to New Zealand.
After months of trying to find a job and failing i have decided to come home and get a degree.
Yeah. Cameron going back to University who would of thought?
I can't get a job without qualifications and I don't want to work in shit jobs forever or follow the pipe dream of busking for a living. I'd like to change minds as that is the thing i find myself pretty good at and what i enjoy doing above all else.
I am going to be doing a history degree and working towards being a history teacher in secondary. I think i'll be a pretty fucking cool teacher don't you?
Anyway. I'm sorry this post has been a little dry but i just haven't felt like writing a blog in ages and i've been sort of working up the push to do one of these again. If you want to hear more from me put a few likes on the facebook post or better yet tell me what was good or what was bad. comments are great.
In the end i don't write this for myself and if i don't know if anyone is reading it i don't write them.
That wasn't meant to sound like a guilt trip but it sort of did anyway.
Welp. i'm off to go busk now.
Wish me luck.
Cam
