Let’s get Some Respect.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, sang Aretha Franklin in the sixties. The song became an anthem for Black America.

But shame on Black America, which while insisting on respect for its race from the rest of the world, has failed Africa badly. The NAACP should remember that democracy brings the very tools that allow dissent, that allows it to exist and to express its outrage. But the fact that this same democratic freedom is completely denied to the average African citizen does not seem to count.

That the NAACP, the official voice of Black America sees nothing wrong in cheering in support of tyrants such as Robert Mugabe speaks volumes for their collective morals. And makes a mockery of their claims to respectability.

Most of the African Union leaders are stuck in the same mindset. They are the old ones, who are still in Liberation Struggle mode. They refuse to acknowledge that African citizens are now fighting a new struggle - the one for real democracy. It’s a struggle that is being fought without the blessing of the old ones. It’s also a struggle that the new generation in the rest of the world also share, as their rights are eroded and their governments regulate more and more of their lives.

All of us want a new world order - one of peace, prosperity, cooperation and humanity.
It’s not going to happen if we leave the Old Ones in charge.