Letters to the Editor
maureenodonnell
Published Letters: 582 Editor's Choice: 5
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Arlo Figg refuses to answe questions and knows nothing about Kenya
[Read the article: The race vs. gender war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's another day and I've just been reading all the posts at lunch-time. Last evening I asked Arlo Figg very straightforward questions about Senator Obama. He has not responded but continues to lambast the Clintons, for reasons best known to himself/herself. It's fairly easy to guess his motivation and his picture of an idyllic Kenya where everybody is living in harmony is so wrong that I could not give any credibility to anything he writes after that.
Just after Christmas 2007, the results of the Kenyan election were violently disputed between the Kikuyi and Luo tribes. People were burned to death in a church, many were made homeless, particularly women and children who feared for their lives. Fortunately, there is a lull now because of international pressure. The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, is still not happy. Speaking of President Kibaki, the opposition claim that, although there were secret ballots, Kibaki stole the election. I've just checked this in my local paper to ensure that I'm giving you the facts. This refers to Nairobi on l5th January 2008 "In Nairobi's Mathare slum yesterday. a crowd gathered outside a house that had caught fire due to an electrical fault and started chanting pro-Odinga slogans when journalists were spotted.
Members of Mr Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe who tried to pass through the crowd were kicked and punched".
Arlo Figg, you either haven't a clue about what's happening outside your own neighbourhood or you are misrepresenting what has been happening in Kenya. You have no problem with saying that Kenya is secular although I don't know that, not having read the Kenyan Constitution. Yet you have the nerve to paint a rosy picture of blissful harmony in Kenya although the tribal tensions within the country have erupted as recently as the last month. The former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is scheduled to visit Nairobi to try to calm the situation but his illness has delayed the visit. Go and check all of this on CNN or any other broadcaster that has reliable foreign correspondents.
Well, Mr./Ms. Figg please continue with your fabrications but don't expect anyone who is well-informed to believe them and I note that you are still unwilling to answer questions on Barack Obama. Never mind. If he is chosen as "The One", the Republicans will follow the trail with all the eagerness of sniffer-dogs. I must get on with my day now.
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To Thrasher
[Read the article: The race vs. gender war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I admire your stamina. You just keep on writing, regardless of any obstacles. You are not sneaky because you come right out with it. You don't like white people and have a particular aversion to white women. Although I'm white, there are lots of white women - and men - who don't endear themselves to me, for a variety of reasons. I wouldn't be too gone on Hillary Clinton either on some of her social policies but domestic policies are a matter for Americans only.
On the other hand, American foreign policy affects the whole world and the consensus in Europe is that American foreign policy over the last number of years has not only been appalling for the U.S. but for the Middle East. In the modern world, we are not living in our own cocoons. If the terrorists and fanatics are to be contained, the U.S. must not lose all respect among democratic societies. London was bombed and so was Madrid, we are all searched at airports and have to reach an airport hours before departure time so as to facilitate security checks. Hillary Clinton is a woman who, whatever about her personality - which wouldn't appeal to me - is competent and has "connections" all over the world. It doesn't really matter that she has those "connections" through her husband as she is intelligent in her own right. The fact is that Senator Obama may be well-known in Chicago but he is a newcomer to the world stage and we know little or nothing about him apart from what he himself has disclosed.
I think I understand your anger but you are in danger of blinding yourself with your own prejudice. Maureen Dowd, Gloria Steinem, Arianna Huffington, and, of course, Hillary Clinton are "privileged white womwn" but that is neither here nor there. Is HRC able for the job? Mitt Romney has won for the Republicans in Michigan. He frightens me with his talk that he would favour more Guantanamo Bay concentration camps, where suspected terrorists are locked up for indefinite periods without trial. This is against everything that the US is supposed to stand for but if the election comes down to roaring about who is too white, too black, not white enough, not black enough you might find that Mitt Romney is your next President and, although he is sixty years old, his hair is certainly black enough although his politics are those of George W. Bush.