From: Major ( Rtd ) Joel Rop P O Box 192 LITEIN Phone: 0729 549 379 Email:ropmajor@yahoo Facebook : Joel Kiprono Date: 22nd October 2013 To: ALL HIGH COMMISSIONERS AND EMBASSADORS IN NAIROBI OF ALL AFRICAN COUNTRIES Dear Your Excellencies, URGENT APPLICATION FOR VISAS ( REF: S O S LETTER TO AFRICA ) Attached please find my ‘SOS Letter to Africa’ for your action. I should be very grateful if you would urgently grant visas for me ( Joel Kiprono Rop ) and my assistant ( Kelvin Kiprotich ). My immediate plan within the next few weeks is to make a hasty ‘touch and go’ on as many African countries as possible in order to symbolically accomplish the following:- • Personally hand over the SOS Letter in the Office of the President in each country. • Mark the drive for the envisaged ‘African Nationality’. • Briefly and informally meet a couple of Civil Society Organizations; and also meet a few ordinary citizens in the streets/slums and in the country side. It really has to be a new dawn for Africa. Yours Sincerely, Major ( Rtd ) Joel Rop S O S LETTER TO AFRICA By Major ( Retired) Joel Rop, Kenya On 22nd October 2013 1.0: Lamentation of Africa Africa is reeling in perpetual slavery! The open-air slave trade in the last millennium, which was perpetrated by the rich world of that time, did not disappear despite being abolished in the late 19th century. The practice simply mutated and thrived in a more distinct and aggressive form as Colonization. Subsequently, the Continent was gradually and systematically subjected to a more intensive and deadly monster; i.e. Socio-Economic Exploitation. The developed parts of the world, in the West, North and East, are now relentlessly competing to exert their influence in Africa and to increase, in their own favor, the massive trade deficit already existing in the African countries. Alas! The current scramble operations and intrigues against the Continent are so intricate and powerful that the well-known former “Scramble for Africa” of the late 19th century would appear like just one of the battles in a massive war theatre. 2.0: Avenues of Exploitation of Africa by Rich Countries Anyway, the demonstrable achievements for the developed countries now include:- • Siphoning off the natural resources, i.e. minerals, oil and wood, from Africa at throw- away prices. In the process, they also engage the African labor force on pathetic servitude terms and conditions of work in the mines, oil industry and wood logging/timber business. • Supplying their insatiable consumer markets with agricultural produce obtained from the Continent’s arable land in exchange of ‘pea-nut’ dollars for the poverty stricken African farmers. • Dumping in Africa, duped as a ‘growing market’, all the manufactured goods ranging from simple pins, threads and second-hand clothes to sophisticated systems like electronic equipment, automobiles, ships and aero-planes. Consequently, Africa’s economy is now literally collapsed; and the last bits and pieces of the pristine and resourceful Continent have rapidly been consigned to a horrendous vicious cycle in the Capitalist-created and Western democracy- sustained Socio-Economic Limbo. The scenario of easy and steady colossal capital flight from Africa to the outside world has invariably established and periodically enlarged and reinforced the horrific situations in the vicious cycle; which include poverty, starvation, squalor, unemployment, corruption, dictatorship, human rights violations, civil war, piracy, perilous migrations, brain drain, etc. In fact, it is an historic societal vicious spiral! It is a classic inter-millennium crisis that menacingly evolved in the mid 2nd millennium AD and it will culminate in catastrophic fruition early this 3rd millennium AD; unless ………………………….. 3.0: Major Plan for Africa Come on Africa! It is a Continental State of Emergency. We can no longer sit back and make merry. We must urgently find solutions. Move now! I suggest we must go for a marathon two-month Emergency African Conference starting on Thursday 2nd January 2014 at the Au HQ in Addis Ababa to be attended by all kinds of elite from all the countries in Africa. The suggested crucial Items of Agenda to be placed on the table at the proposed Continental Emergency Theatre include: Socio-Economic Revolution, Political Revolution, Agricultural Revolution and Cultural Strategies. Each of the proposed items of agenda will be briefly explained in the succeeding sub-headings. 4.0: Outline of Socio-Economic Revolution in Africa i. Closing the Entire African Market to the outside world until favorable terms and conditions of trade are formulated and agreed at an appropriate international forum. ii. Promptly Establishing a Unified African Economic Zone. Virtually all the intra-African trade barriers must be demolished over-night; perhaps by 31st January 2014. 5.0: Outline of Political Revolution in Africa • Establishing one National African Government ( Executive, Parliament and Judiciary ). The Parliament will be based on the age-old, albeit malnourished, African political ideology of Gender and Age Democracy ( GADEM ); i.e. it will comprise three parties: namely Men Political Party, Women Political Party and Youth Political Party. Note 1: For details on this beautiful ideology, please refer to a book entitled: African Indigenous Political Ideology by Dr David G Maillu. The renowned African writer lives in Nairobi. Note 2: Unlike the lackluster Pan-African sentiment that has slowly precipitated over the last half-century, the above-envisaged Political Union of African countries will be an abrupt and pragmatic real-time search and rescue operation to evacuate the distressed Afri-nation from the sunken Socio-Economic Afri-wreck and to immediately embark on salvage and rebuilding program of a modern Afri-Continent! • The existing independent African countries will dutifully and expeditiously transform into constituent States of the Federal African Nation ( FAN ). Each State will also elect its State Government based on the same afore-mentioned GADEM ideology of three political parties. • As part of the National African Government, a Continental African Defense Force ( ADF ) will be established. Initially, a one million-strong military force will be tenable. A large proportion (say 50%) of the force will invariably be Navy, because, after-all, the entire African territorial boundary lies in the international waters. And, owing to the huge support services required, possibly 30% of the ADF will be Air Force while the remaining 20% will be Army. Note 3: From the point of view of internal security, it is hereby envisaged that the colossal security problems, for instance, the armed conflict, political unrest, terror attacks, piracy, etc, currently prevailing in places like Somalia, DRC, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, Central Africa Republic, Darfur and Nigeria will largely dissipate because the various tendencies and demands for separatism, tribalism, sectarian political power struggles, etc, will have suddenly been overtaken by the events of the Continental Emergency Response. 6.0: Need for Agricultural Revolution in Africa This is an area that has persistently been my dreamland since 1998. It is always amazingly ironical that, despite the fact that the economies of many African countries have been described as agrarian, the Continent remains the only place on earth where video footage has regularly shown hungry people and livestock, malnourished deep to the bare bones, and often starving to death. Time has now come, I think, for this depressing international picture to cease within the first massive agricultural season; if at all we are to claim any measure of modern civilization. The second massive agricultural season, apart from sustaining the basic feeding program commenced in the first agri-season, will be devoted to establishing huge granaries at several locations in the Continent as an aggressive move toward maintaining adequate strategic food reserves. In the third massive agri-season, the Continent should embark on the promotion of agri-business among the subsistence farming masses of Africa. Note 4: “I think these are the critical first three paces of a 1,000-km journey on foot through the Wilderness, where manna occasionally rains from above, to the Canaan of abundant olive oil, bread, honey blended with butter, milk and fruits, where healthy human beings can actually grow wings and fly places including the outer space”. Anyway, once the dust raised on the floor of the Emergency African Conference by the foregoing items, under the sub-headings of Socio-Economic Revolution and Political Revolution, has settled, it is recommended that the issue of Agri-Revolution be placed squarely on the Continental Conference Table as a matter of utmost priority; and, I am sure, all the relevant details for successful farming in Africa will rigorously emerge. 7.0: Need for Cultural Awakening in Africa In order to put my in perspective, I shall briefly highlight only one aspect of the Culture; the need for an African National Language. For example, Kiswahili is one African International Language that has tremendously flourished over the last two centuries. It has considerable resonance in East and Central Africa, also along the entire East Coast of Africa and among the millions of Bantus as well as among many Arabs. Tanzania is perhaps the only country that has impressively developed the language. It is truly remarkable that in Tanzanian schools, students learn many subjects, including Mathematics and Sciences, in Kiswahili from the lowest to very high academic levels. Anyway, this is a clarion-call for fresh ideas on African Culture. Bring them to Addis in January 2014. 8.0: Future Hope and Potential for Africa I want to end this SOS Letter by saying that I see plenty of hope and potential for Africa; but the journey ahead will be very tedious and often torturous. Nevertheless, I think, human beings have the intrinsic social quality of wanting to help others, particularly in times of calamity. In that respect, I expect that each African country ( call it State ) will sacrificially contribute whatever is within their means toward the Continental common good. For instance:- i. Tanzania dispatches hundreds of thousands of Kiswahili teachers to schools and other institutions all over the Continent. ii. The African States that are economically strong will contribute the biggest share to the Continental Treasury. iii. A State that cultivates a lot of Tea will supply the rest of the Continent with high quality made tea. iv. And, so on and so forth. 9.0: Transient Conclusion I have at least three other successive letters to follow this one; but for now I want to run with this SOS Edition to as many African countries as possible within the next two months. Consequently, I urgently appeal to well-wishers to donate to a kitty to fund my travel and related expenses. You can send your donation to Standard Chartered Bank (Kenya), Account Number: 0100154972900 or MPesa to my phone number or purchase a bus ticket or air ticket. In the meantime, also expedite the spread of the contents of the SOS Letter through any kind of Media at your disposal. Yours Sincerely, MAJOR ( RTD ) JOEL ROP Phone: (Kenya) 0729 549 379 Email: ropmajor@yahoo Facebook: Joel Kiprono
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 14:05:36 +0000
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