France is withdrawing from Mali. The Military Junta may not last. But France’s capacity to impose its will on its former colonies seems to be over.

After nine years of fighting Islamist rebels in Mali, 53 soldiers killed, and over ten billion euros sunk in the quick-sands of the Sahara, France says it is  pulling out of the country. The decision comes as 40 member states of the African Union are meeting with the EU in Brussels.

 

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Mayotte is not easy to find on the map.

By S.G. Kazolias. They are Black. They are African. They are serious practicing Muslims. They are French citizens. And they vote for extreme right wing anti-immigrant candidates. The “natives” of the French Indian Ocean “Department” of Mayotte launched a general strike February 22, barricading roads, occupying public facilities and shutting down the island. Basically, they want more generous French subsidies to Mayotte, more police, more infrastructure development and an end to lawlessness which they blame on massive illegal immigration.

The Maore demand the French President, or the Prime Minister, come to talk to them or they will take law into their own hands and, yes, get violent.

Recently elected President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, is a soft speaking man with a big problem not of his doing. He was in Paris Wednesday to speak to French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, about the problem: NATO’s war on Libya.

Mauvaise foi: that is what the French call a bare-faced lie you tell to a person you know is aware you are lying but you pretend everything is up front and normal. This year, in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya, the French have demonstrated they are the masters at mauvaise foi.

It is amazing to see how those in the mainstream press simply ignore anybody who leaves the ‘official frame’ set by the ‘respected authorities’. The limits of debate are narrow and ‘official speak’ is full of new euphemisms and phraseology with meaningless content destined to join ‘collateral damage’ in the dustbin of used spin. Let us look at some examples.