Active listening

There is a lot to be said for taking one for the team, this time he faced matters in the dark and capitulated. It took a certain amount of active tiiwii, otherwise known as tone deaf, applied with extreme prejudice, as in 'how else can I make a total prat of myself in public', for the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), a certain Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to truly consider, actually nominate and fully stand by the announcement and endorsement of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, for the fluffy role as Goodwill Ambassador for Non Communicable Diseases.

There is a world of a difference between being a full H.E, and being hastily recalled, demoted and affixed as charge d'affaires and/or second deputy in a back water, even farther from the Elizabeth Arden circuit before your career ends. Goodwill ambassadors do not have the same gravitas as career diplomats or even political appointees, yet like the former Diana, Princess of Wales who highlighted the case of landmines in Angola shortly before her death, they can generate headlines, fly the flag, raise eyebrows and temperatures.

Per the WHO website, their bespoke "Ambassadors are well-known personalities from the world of arts, literature, entertainment, sport or other fields of public life who commit to contribute to the WHO's efforts to raise awareness of important health problems and solutions”.

Fortunately for all, at least the 90- something-year-old Mugabe - did someone wake him up long enough to tell him the news? - Dr G's tone deafness in his sad bad mad selection did not last long. Within 48 hours of the remarkable announcement - brandished in Zimbabwe as a triumph of skillful lobbying over substance - the brave WHO chief rescinded his decision. For the record, unlike the Alabi's, DCEs who insist on being called 'hohnoraybles' and other elite craving Social Democrats who download their doctorates over the Internet and dispatch their children to private school paid for by the taxpayer to make up after the fact where their forebears could or would not, this Ethiopian brother is actually much accomplished. He was appointed by the WHO in May 2017 for a five year term. Before that, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Minister of Health for Ethiopia. Prior to that, he was Chairperson of the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and has led decisively in matters relating to health for new borns and young children.

This raises the issue and makes it truly underwhelming, that even disregarding what the cumbaya liberal left and hideous noisy rightly say about our Uncle Bobby, how on earth could Dr G have disregarded a WHO report published in April 2017? In the said document, the WHO's own representative in Zimbabwe is quoted as validating the abysmal findings. Due to and exacerbated by economic woes triggered by the deliberate, cynical and ongoing decisions of the fossil Mugabe, up to 10 per cent, being some 1.3 million of the 14 million citizens still left in the blighted country are suffering from active mental and emotional distress. In 2015, 96 per cent of the rural population was living on less than usd$ 1 a day. Experts at the World Bank and Medecins Sans Frontiers, whom Dr G must surely know or could have easily accessed, make disturbing correlations between the sheer economic deprivation of citizens living in Zimbabwe, the inability of the state to fund and pay for critical basic healthcare services and mental diseases.

It would be easy to dump on a Trump for not knowing the difference between Ghana and Guyana or being caught short on a La David, a soldier who was killed in Niger on active duty. However, when this level of poor grasp of the fundamentals and political economy is perpetrated by an esteemed brother like Dr G, similar to the petulant antics of Faure Gnassingbe in Togo or Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, both insist on playing with themselves and the obvious in public, then it requires calling out.

Speaking of our cousin, Faure, the next family meeting of the heads of state in this our blighted sub-region is exactly when? We seem to have made nice with our uncle Alassane of Cote d'Ivoire on matters of maritime borders and with that, lucrative commercial development of oil under water. Does ECOWAS have the wherewithal, with a close eye to real politic - we do share a border and active kinship with Togo - to tell Faure, 'ca suffit! assez! Will he listen?

Is it meaningful that the first visit of a senior US diplomat to Africa since President Donald Trump was appointed to office a year ago, saw their Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, visit Ethiopia, home country of the cotton wool eared Dr G?