I composed a set of comments on Mozambique's recent politics from the Samora
Machel Frelimino party era onwards in response to Keston's intriguing little
poem, then deleted my remarks as overkill of this delicate fragmented piece.
So I was glad to see Keston swing in with the investment situation. It was
unfortunately one of those cases where the interaction of left-wing over-
optimistic government met its own internalised inefficiency and inappropriacy
along with over-the-border right wing destabilisation of the most vicious
kind. The west shows clean hands, as usual, for the blood never shows on them
in that unique washbasin hypocrisy our elites go in for, where blood is sucked
out not spattered. Debt restructuring is now essential for so many African
countries. From all accounts, the Mozambique people are far better off than
in the worst days of Machel, who sought to impose unwelcome movements of the
population to make dubious policies work. But the history also shows that
when capitalist trading cooperates with small countries of course things get
better: the missing money starts flowing in. So African socialism (for all
its errors), which always meets a withdrawal of trade and investment support,
has never met a level playing field. In any case -- I am not the person to
comment, of course -- communistic idealism may not be the right kind of social
adjustment, for the heart of socialism is western; inspired adaptations of it
to African conditions -- Nkrumah, Nyerere, and Machel, for example -- have not
been successful: in those cases, they have been disastrous. I also nearly
posted a poem of my own, which points out western involvement in Mozambique's
misfortunes; but I forebear, because that really would be taking a move
towards ego that I am trying to avoid!
Great pleasure to see the wonderful Evan Parker referred to. I remember
appearing with him, with Anthony Barnett organiser/percussion/poetry, and
others in Norwich once. Evan took off into one of his virtuoso solos, full of
double tongueing and multi-registers. In the small audience two people in the
front row were noisily talking while the saxophone soared upwards and onwards.
Evan took his mouthpiece away for a split second to snarl "Shut up!" and then
resumed his solo instantly, almost mid-beat.
They shut up.
Doug
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