Skethces of Mali, acompanied by some some political ranting

 

Today looking at pictures from Mali I feel I should talk more about what's happening there now and less about the sketching, so for those interested here are some thoughts:

These pictures date back from four years ago when I was in Mali as part of an overland trip from the UK to West Africa. When I was there it was a safe country to visit and full of open and generous people.

Here are a few sketches of everyday life from a time, that though not long ago, I fear is quite different from now.

Now the country is in a state of turmoil, there is talk of long term U.N involvement. Like the war on drugs the war on terrorism, is actually a war on people. Nothing stimulates the growth of extremist groups like declaring war on them and using brutal force.

They say that U.N forces are necessary to protect us; not just the people of Mali but the people of the world from this global threat. The right wing extremists and the Muslim extremists are two faces of the same violent coin to busy declaring war on each other to see the irony of such an ill-founded engagement.

The Tuareg who live in the desert have often been in a state of rebellion in northern Mali. They hold themselves independent of any country and have been at odds with the national government's of the Saharan countries. The exception to this relationship has been Libya and the Gaddafi regime, Gaddafi offered support and championed the idea of an Islamic pan Saharan state.

The end of the Gaddafi regime and resultant fall out has led to Tuareg refugees returning to Mali. The increasingly unstable situation in the desert attracting many extremists. This is happening at a time of global recession, mass protest movements around the world and the revolts of the Arab Spring. In such times there is often a polarisation of factions, both sides becoming more extreme.

Many around the world have been calling there governments to question, a sense of egalitarianism bringing unity to differing creeds. Others have sort a return to religion or conservationism. I'm sure many will see the events in Mali as yet another dangerous African country going to pot and dominated by backward religious nuts. Many in Mali may also look to the warmongering West as a bunch of morally backward peoples here to bring yet more misery.

The real struggle against terrorism is the struggle of rationalism against a culture of fear. This is a battle against the haves and the have nots in which you, I, or the average man or woman from Mali are all in danger of becoming direction-less pawns in someone else's game.