The ghosts of unreason Part 2

Sometimes you come across stupidity so staggering that you are almost blinded by it. Your brain shrinks away from it and any prolonged exposure to it is like staring at a solar eclipse without those special glasses. You almost want to sit down and write poetry about it. You wonder if it should be stored in a museum and handled only by trained staff with special gloves so that one day thousands will make the pilgrimage and stand there in awe.
I'm talking of course about Gambia's increasingly unhinged president Yammeh (or something like that) He claims he can cure AIDS by rubbing paste on someone's body and he's given a few demonstrations- a creepy spectacle to put it mildly. Now this would ordinarily be almost amusing, but he's telling his patients to stop using retrovirals (you know, the ones which ACTUALLY WORK) while they are on his treatment and that becomes downright irresponsible and even criminal. The President also says he can tell someone's future just by looking into their eyes-something which should presumably come in handy when a coup plot is being hatched against him. Reminds me (slightly off topic) of an anecdote I read about some guy whose car got hit by another as the driver reversed out of the parking lot. The woman who caused the accident got out of the car and handed the guy her card- it read PSYCHIC.
Anyway if you ever need one more reason to despair about Africa, this man is it. Can you imagine such a deluded moron in a position of power? Can you imagine people actually believe him? I read with amusement and horror an editorial by the country's leading paper which called his AIDS 'cure' 'The greatest invention in modern history.' Even satire can only stand there wringing its hands helplessly. Where do you start? And of course he has refused to have this scientifically verified because it is obviously self-evident. He says he can cure AIDS so what more proof do you want?
Africa has also been sticking out its middle finger to those dastardly colonialists (They are everywhere- have you looked under the bed?) Recently there was what amounted to a vote of confidence for Mugabe when Zimbabwe was given control of a major UN environmental body just so that African governments could show they were 'independent' and wouldnt take any shit from people unless they were as black as they were. Well done guys! Want a cookie and a hug? While you are at it, can you let us know if you have more idiotic ideas in the pipeline? Please let us know in advance so we can prepare ourselves. "The environment has nothing to do with politics" one of the men in question said sniffily. I guess then you wouldnt have minded giving the post to, say, Apartheid South Africa? Yes, didnt think so.
Moving on to stupidity on a more minor scale, I'd like to write briefly about the Champions League final. I love Rafa Benitez but starting with Bolo Zenden was one of the worst decisions any coach has ever made. Moreover keeping a 4-5-1 thirty minutes after going a goal down was also fairly idiotic as was bringing on a rightback-an inferior one at that- with Liverpool still chasing the game. I was pretty gutted about the result especially because we dominated the game but that's life. Watching Pippo Inzaghi at work, I remembered that funny quote by a coach who said that he was born offside.
And in the Middle East we have the now almost mundane sight of Israel and Hamas at war. What really intrigues me about this particular battle is the fact that Hamas was already at war with Fatah- their fellow Palestinians. Not content with fighting on only one front, they then started lobbying rockets into Israel. Yes in the midst of a civil war with Fatah, they started taking on Israel! The mind boggles. I think there should be a Violence Anonymous sort of thing so we could have Hamas stand up and say:
"Hello everyone my name is Hamas ('hi Hamas!) and I'm addicted to violence..."

Reading: The world is flat by Thomas Friedman about how globalization and technology are making the world 'flat'. It's pretty interesting although Friedman is occasionally annoying (The comparisons with Columbus in the first chapter) I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in just how far technology and innovation are linking nations together- for example I had no clue that about half-a million Americans actually get their tax returns sorted from India because much of this work is simply outsourced from America and sent there.