UPDATED: Movie Review: "District 9"

This Sunday afternoon's TV schedule offered a choice between foorball and Hallmark Christmas movies. The former doesn't interest me and the latter sicken me, so I just about broke my wrist looking for something, anything else.

Imagine my surprise to find (on the Aboriginal People's Television Network!) an excellent but little-known sci-fi movie, District 9. Released in 2009, the film was directed by Neill Blomkamp, written by him and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. 

Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, it tells what happens when alien refugees -- in this case real aliens from outer space -- colonize an earthly city over which their spacecraft has been stranded. Multinational United (MNU) is the agency of the world government charged with giving them humanitarian aid. 

Wikus van der Merwe, played by novice actor Sharlto Copley, is a minion of MNU tasked with getting the loathesome "prawns", as the earthlings call the aliens, ready for resettlement in a new encampment to be known as District 10. District 9 is the story of how Wikus becomes infected with an alien fluid, slowly turning him into one of the reviled prawns.

District 9 was the first documentary-style film to be nominated for Best Picture Oscar, as well as three other Academy Awards. It didn't win any of them, not even the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, even though the CGI "prawns" and all the other SFX were beyond top-notch. 

The movie is just too politically incorrect. It was banned in Nigeria, for instance, because that country's government felt that it unfairly portrayed Nigerians -- the only humans who could coexist with the aliens -- as cannibals and savages. Imagine that.

Stateside, the many admirers of the "New South Africa" were upset that all the shacks in District 9 were actual shacks that existed in the slums of Johannesburg, which were to be evacuated and the residents moved to better government housing, paralleling the events in the film. Only one shack was created specifically for the movie.

Similarly, the mutilated animal carcasses in the background of many scenes were all too real and, with only a few exceptions, were already in the real slums and shacks used for the filming.

The MNU headquarters buildings shown in numerous scenes throughout the film are, in reality, the Carlton Centre complex belonging to South African state transport company Transnet. The shorter of the two buildings is actually the former Carlton Hotel which was mothballed in 1997 "due to low occupancy." When Walt stayed there near the end of the apartheid regime, he was warned not to leave the building except to catch an approved taxi in the daytime, and never at night.

15 years after the release of District 9, the question of what to do when a horde of alien invaders takes over your country is more germane than ever. Residents of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, where "encampments" of aliens and other undesirables were largely unknown in  2009, will feel uncomfortable watching this movie now. 

At the end of the film we are told that District 9 was dismantled, and its unwelcome residents moved to District 10, which is growing bigger and more foul every year. Let that sink in....

UPDATE ADDED at 1800 FMT: Our attention has been drawn to "Visit California: It's America's Future", a gem of a video just dropped by the Babylon Bee (natch!). Watch it and understand why the gliberals hated District 9.

VIDEOS (2): What happens when Canadians exercise their right to speak freely about illegal border jumpers and diversity

The anti-immigrant tide is rising fast in Canada, triggered (if you'll forgive the expression) by the waves of bogus "refugees" and asylum-seekers jumping acorss the border at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle QC illegally (or "irregularly", to use the government-approved jargon). It's costing Canuck taxpayers a fortune (even when converted into real dollars) to these economic migrants -- mostly black people from shitholes like Nigeria and Haïti -- free food, clothing, housing and other benefits while their phoney claims are being processsed.

As you'll see in the first video, one Québécoises is fed up, enough so to gatecrash a Liberal "summer corn roast" at Sainte-Anne-de-Sabrevois, in Québec's Eastern Townships, hoping to put a couple of pointed questions to le Roi Just In Trudeau. After all, Canada's a free country, EH, where one need not be afraid to say what's on one's mind. Here's what happened.



The irate taxpayer said, "I want to know when you are going to refund the $146 million we paid for your illegal immigrants!" She repeated this several times before being shouted down by the crowd of card-carrying Liberals. But Mr Socks did manage to reply without answering the question. "This intolerance towards immigrants has no room in Canada," he said. And then he played the liberal trump card, "Racism has no place here."

That's the liberal way. If someone disagrees with your "progressive" views on, say, immigration... or crime... or anything, call them a racist! Then, while your supports cheer and wet their pants in admiration of your virtue, sic security on them. So much for freedom of speech.

Which brings us to Maxime Bernier's now-famous six tweets in which he said that diversity was destroying Canada. See "Top Conservative says diversity will destroy formerly Great White North", WWW 13/8/18. As the Toronto Sun's Anthony Furey explains in our second video for today, M Bernier did no more than say what hundreds of thousands of dismayed Canucks figured out months and months ago. For his pains, he was denounced as... wait for it... a racist, an Islamophobe, the whole litany of leftist epithets.



What M Bernier said is right on the money, IMHO, but very few Canadians have the cojones to agree with him in public, let alone speak out themselves, for fear of the PC police, not just in the lamestream media but, in the case of Canada's so-called Conservatives, in their own party. Andrew Scheer, who beat M Bernier for the Conservative leadership in a rather fragrant election, would say only that M Bernier was speaking for himself, not the party. As for himself (Scheer), he can't tolerate intolerance, or racism, or Islamophobia, etc etc etc. What a wimp!

Further reading: "Is diversity really good for us? An American professor's view", WWW 18/8/18.

1000s of migrants turned back, left to die in desert

You think -- or rather, the lamestream media leads you to believe -- that the Paranoid States of America treats illegal immigrants badly? Being detained for a few weeks and then given a hearing, with at least a chance of being allowed to stay is nothing, nothing compared with what happens to border jumpers in other parts of the world. Like Africa, for instance, where this picture was taken.

This is what happened to more than 13,000 would-be "refugees" and aslyum-seekers who tried to cross from central Africa -- shitholes like Congo and Nigeria -- northward through Niger and Mali into Algeria, from where they would go to Libya, get on rickety boats and then be rescued by well-meaning Europeans and dumped onto the shores of Italy, Greece or Malta, who only occasionally turn them back. See "New Italian government turns back boatload of 'refugees'", WWW 11/6/18.

Getting across the Mediterranean is nothing compared to the difficulty of getting across Algeria, according to the latest report to have the do-gooders and (((controlled media))) wringing their hands. In the past 14 months, newly-released statistics say, the Algerian government -- Algeria is a majority Muslim state, by the way -- has abandoned more than 13,000 people in the Sahara Desert, expelling them without food or water and forcing them to walk, sometimes at gunpoint, under a blistering sun. Some get their just desserts [Let's not make light of this. Ed.] and die.

Algeria has increased the number and rate of mass expulsions since last fall, as the European Union renewed pressure on north African countries to head off migrants going north to Europe. One of the "Brussels sprouts" (as Private Eye calls them) said the EU was aware of what Algeria was doing, but that sovereign countries can expel migrants as long as they comply with international law. Quite true. And that goes for the USA and even Canada, although Canuckistan's Liberal government seems unaware that they could actually close their border if they wanted to.

Algeria provides no figures for its involuntary expulsions, but the number of people crossing on foot to Niger has been increasing since the International Organization for Migration started counting in May 2017, when 135 people were dropped, to as high as 2888 in April 2018. In all, according to the IOM, a total of 11,276 men, women and children survived the march. At least another 2500 were forced on a similar trek into neighbouring Mali, with an unknown number succumbing along the way.

Just to be clear, the key word in the IOM's full name is "for" -- not "against". According to its own website, the organization "is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners...to [promote] humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all." That's "promote", meaning "encourage", "support", "assist", the opposite of "discourage" or "deter", in spite of the fact that literally millions of mostly Muslim economic migrants from the Middle East and Africa are overrunning Europe, to the detriment of all.

Further reading: "Merkel government could fall over failed open-border policy", WWW 19/6/18.

Canucks ask US Homeland Security to help turn back border jumpers

Canada's state broadcaster, the CBC, released a funny story yesterday, in the middle of a sleepy afternoon when no-one was paying attention. Regular readers of WWW may recall that the Canuck government has been affecting all summer long to be unconcerned about the 1000s of "refugees", asylum-seekers and other would-be immigrants who are crossing the world's longest undefended border to get into Canada's much-too-generous welfare programmes.

Most of the dark-complected illegal migrants being welcomed by the Mounties at an "unofficial" border crossing near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle QC are Haïtians and Africans. How did they get to that hole in the fence? Why, they came through the USA! Many of them, in fact, had lived in the Land of the Free for years before heading for the Land of the Free Lunch, in response to Justin "Junior" Trudeau's open invitation broadcast to a waiting world in response to President Trump's hint that the parasites had worn out their welcome in the USA.

As the number of illegals crossing from the USA into Canada keeps growing and growing, M Trudeau's Liberal government, facing a rising anti-immigrant backlash, keeps trotting out cabinet ministers and MPs to assure the angry Canadian public that Action is Being Taken and Everything is Under Control. But it's not Junior Himself who has to face the wrath of the people, nor is it Ahmed Hussen, the Somali-born Minister of Immigration and Refugees (sic). Noooo. It's usually poor old Ralph Goodale, the mild-mannered veteran who has the misfortune to be Minister of Public Secure and Civil Protection, which I guess means that the illegals are indeed a threat to the Canadian public, although of course Mr Goodale can't say that because of M-103. (Canucks will know what I mean.)

Poor old Ralph was again pushed into the spotlight -- like a deer transfixed in the headlights of an oncoming car -- on Sunday when he was interviewed by CBC News. He revealed that he had been having discussions with his American counterpart, Elaine Duke, the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, with a view to... errr... getting her to do something, anything, on the US side of the border to help stem the tide of illegal migrants.

Mr Goodale said he asked Ms Duke to consider alerting Canadian authorities when the US is about to make policy decisions that would affect the border, in order to give agencies such as border services time to prepare. He also warned her to keep a "wary eye" on the travel visas it issues to the United States. He explained that Canadian officials have identified trends where documents issued from "certain US embassies and consulates" are being misused. "We have asked them to go back upstream and examine the pattern of these travel documents being issued," he said, "and how come the people to whom they were issued appear to have had no intention of staying in the United States, but were simply using the documents as vehicles to get into the United States and then make a beeline for the Canadian border."

Not wanting to appear racist or Islamophobic, Mr Goodale declined to identify diplomatic missions that have been problematic, but CBC News is reporting today that one place where a lot of people seem to be getting visas to visit the USA with the intention of heading to Canada is... wait for it... Nigeria.

Mr Goodale and Ms Duke have apparently discussed other "joint steps to take to address illegal migration across their shared border." For instance, the Canucks have suggested, the Americans could put up some signs on their side of the border "with messages to dissuade those seeking asylum in Canada." Yeah, that'll do it, for sure! Can't you just imagine a US Border Patrol officer yelling at a busload of Africans, "Don't make me point at the sign again!"? Said Mr Goodale, "They're examining what they can do to communicate."

So, dear Canadian readers, you mustn't worry. Action is Being Taken. Everything is Under Control. Diversity is Canada's Strength! Vote Liberal!

See what African "refugees" are running away from

These lovely pix were taken in Oworonshoki, a district of Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria. They were published by CBC News in an attempt to drum up sympathy [or white guilt? Ed.] for the boatloads of African "refugees" and asylum-seekers who wash up, with other trash, on the shores of Europe every day, hoping to make their way eventually to the USA and Canada, where they believe a warm and generous welcome awaits them.

The sad tale told in voiceovers was that of a Lagos taxi driver who decided to try his luck in crossing the Mediterranean "in search of a better life." His journey did not end well. He was captured by Arab thugs and held hostage, before finding his way back home. The CBC's intrepid (and pale-faced) reporter picks up the story:

The ground is thick with mud and sewage. Wooden planks and tires scatter the slum, making a precarious pathway. "We have to walk," says Oluwaseun Femi Ijitola, a 34-year-old taxi driver known as Seun. "No vehicle can pass through."

There is a look of shame in his eyes as he surveys this forgotten corner of Lagos. On the water's edge of Nigeria's largest city, in the neighbourhood of Oworonshoki, people live in dire poverty with no sanitation, electricity or any other facilities, in ramshackle shanties covered with dirty tarpaulin and cardboard that barely keeps out the seasonal rains. Chickens, goats and dog scavenge on mounds of garbage. Empty plastic bottles float on the tide of the Lagos Lagoon.

This is what Ijitola risked his life to escape when he became one of the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants attempting to cross the Sahara desert to get to Europe and the hope of a better life. "I have a dream of schooling abroad, and that is why I went to Libya," he says. Ijitola says the area is "very, very rough and tough" and unlocks a tiny padlock to his wooden shack. His wife and five-year-old daughter aren't here.
"I sent them to be with the mother-in-law," he says. "I cannot feed them."

Local "area boys" — as the criminal gangs that extort money and mete out casual violence are known — loiter outside, smoking marijuana and drinking beer.

Sad, isn't it? But who is to blame for the poverty and squalor in which Mr Ijitola and his sometime family live? Colonialists? Europeans? North Americans? Hardly! Nigeria has been independent since 1 October 1960. The Nigerians have had nearly 57 years to improve and build upon the functioning infrastructure that was bequeathed to them by the despised British. But have they done so? Nooooo! In fact, things have gotten worse, much worse.

Why do you suppose that things have gotten worse since Nigeria, along with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, became responsible for it's own destiny. The fact is that the average IQ on the Dark Continent varies between 60 and 80. People with such sub-normal intelligence are utterly incapable of creating or maintaining a white, Western-style society. If you don't believe me, go to Lagos. Or Harare, or Nairobi, or Johannesburg or Kampala or [That's enough festering African slums. Ed.] See for yourself.

Further reading (and viewing): "'Latest Research on Race', Prof. Philippe Rushton", WWW 12/1/17. Includes a 57-minute video which you should watch only if you can handle the truth. And don't get me started on IQ testing being Eurocentric and thus not fair to Africans. I spent years in Africa, in the "ed biz", and never met one (1) black African who could devise a "made in Africa" test which would be fairer. The best they could do, it seemed to me, was devise 78 ways of cheating on the white man's tests!

Pope Francis needs to be reminded that Islam is a false religion

More fallout from the Charlie Hebdo atrocity and the reactions of Western politicians, "Christian" religious leaders and the lamestream media. Provoked by "Must free speech include the freedom to offend?", posted here yesterday, seldom-heard-from Agent 12 (welcome back!) sent us a link to "Pope Francis, blasphemy, Charlie Hebdo, and the punch".

The article, from a blog for Dallas-area Catholics -- real Catholics -- argues that there can be no real understanding of the whole controversy until there is an acknowledgement that Islam is a false religion -- one that is to be tolerated, to be sure, but false all the same.

With the last few popes -- JPII, Benedict XVI and Francis -- visiting and even praying in mosques, and generally pushing the enormous lie that is false ecumenism, we shouldn't expect any such statement from anyone except the remnant of traditional Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants.

The blogger writes: The Church used to know these truths: you cannot blaspheme against the Church and the Lord, because both are true. The second is, error has no rights. Thus, both Charlie Hebdo and the Islamic maniacs who attacked them are both violently wrong and to be repudiated.

I, for one, have been sickened by this outpouring of support for a magazine few had heard of and few cared about. Our modern culture likes to pretend that freedom of speech is a sacred right, but when the knife comes to the throat, vague notions about liberty are not enough to sustain a person in resistance.

Liberals will inevitably fall before religious conviction, and that is why the West is in collapse: the West has rejected the religion that built her. Dark ages seem to loom ahead.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Walt's post "West reacts to Islamist killing of Westerners... ONLY Westerners" seems to have attracted the attention of the CBC's Rex Murphy. [Either that or great minds think alike. Ed.] Like Walt, Mr. Murphy has difficulty understanding why the killing of a dozen cartoonists and four Jews has caused such furious breast-beating and rending of garments, yet the massacre of thousands of Nigerian Muslims by Islamic fanatics has resulted in... crickets... Check out "Why isn't the world rallying against Boko Haram?", as aired on CBC's The National last night.

West reacts to Islamist killing of Westerners... ONLY Westerners

It took the "public" beheading of a couple of Americans and a Brit to get the Excited States of America and its camp followers (hello, Australia, Britain and Canada... and France!) into the latest phase of the Oil Wars. As long as ISIS -- an extremist band of Sunni Muslims -- was beating up Shia Muslims, Kurds, and other denizens of the sandpit, who cared? Nobody! That's who!

Last week, Islamic terrorists -- which is what they were, no matter what the Prez says -- killed, ummm, 17 French people (including 4 Jews), and the world went nuts. As discussed here at length [great length! Ed.], suddenly we we're all Charlie. Some of us even proclaimed "We are all Jews"!

Sure, the killings in France were tragic, outrageous attacks on free speech and Western values, worthy of condemnation and outpourings of grief and determination to resist. But... did anyone notice that in the same week, Boko Haram killes literally 1000s of people -- all African, mostly Muslim -- in Nigeria? "See Meanwhile, in Nigeria, militant Islamists wipe out town of 10,000">

Today comes news that there were three -- count `em, three -- suicide bombings in the same part of Nigeria. 23 people were killed and dozens injured when three female suicide bombers -- one only 10 years old -- blew themselves up [or were blown up by remote control] in crowded markets. 23 dead, added to the 2000 or so killed in Baga. Are people in Paris, Washington, London or Toronto taking to streets with signs reading "We are all African Muslims!" Errr, no.

Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Jos, accuses the West of ignoring the atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram. Speaking on BBC-TV's Newsday, he said the world had to show more determination to halt the militant Islamists' advance in Nigeria. Why, he asked, doesn't the international community show the same spirit and resolve that it did after the attacks in France? Walt will supply the answer. It's because the victims aren't Westerners, so who cares...

Archbishop Kaigama said facing down Boko Haram requires international support and unity of the type that had been shown after last week's militant attacks in France. "We need that spirit to be spread around," he said. "Not just when [an attack] happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Niger, in Cameroon. We [must] mobilize our international resources and face or confront the people who bring such sadness to many families."

Good luck with that. And I'm not talking about Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan [real name. Ed.] who is among those who doesn't seem to care. He has yet to comment on this week's violence, and BBC correspondent Will Ross says Nigeria's politicians appear more focused on next month's elections. Not like Western politicians, eh!

Have we forgotten the Black Muslims?

Just one more thing before we close down WWW for the weekend.

It may have escaped the attention of a lot of people -- because the PC lamestream media don't like to draw attention to it -- but the fact is that Amedy Coulibaly, the accomplice of the Kouachi brothers who executed a policewoman on Wednesday as well the hostages taken in what France's president called an anti-Semitic attack on a kosher market on Thursday, was black. And Muslim. Yes, a black Muslim, and that's the truth.

According to a police source, he and the Kouachi brothers were all members of the same Paris jihadist cell that sent French fighters to Iraq a decade ago. France's L'Obs reports that Coulibaly spent time with Chérif Kouachi when they were both in prison in Fleury-Mérogis between 2005 and 2006.

Politicians and the lamestream press have been pissing and moaning about how this kind of thing could happen anywhere, which justifies the need for greater security, as well as greater efforts to integrate the self-segregating Muslims into the mainstream Western society, yada yada yada.

Indeed, there have been murderous attacks on innocent people, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, within the ten weeks last past in Canada, Australia, and France, not forgetting Nigeria, where a 10-year-old suicide bomber blew herself to Paradise along with 19 others, just today. And the trial of another Islamist fanatic for the Boston marathon bombing is about to get under way. So yes, it can happen anywhere, including the Paranoid States of America.

Oddly, though, there has been no mention, so far, of the Black Muslims. Have we forgotten about them? Several groups of "Afro-American" Muslim brothers are encompassed by the term "Black Muslims", but the one most people should remember -- especially in light of this week's events -- is the self-styled "Nation of Islam".

The Nation of Islam is a religious movement founded in Detroit by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930. Its stated goals are "to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans in the United States". However, its critics accuse it of being black supremacist and anti-Semitic.

After its founder mysteriously disappeared in June 1934, the Nation of Islam was led by Elijah Muhammad, on whose watch it split into a number of splinter groups. The most notable departure from the ranks was that of Malcolm X, who left to become Sunni Muslim. After Elijah Muhammad's death, his son Warith Deen Mohammed changed the name of the organization to "World Community of Islam in the West".

In 1977, Louis Farrakhan rejected Warith Deen Mohammed's leadership and re-established the Nation of Islam on the original model. He took over the Nation of Islam's headquarter Temple, Mosque Maryam, located in Chicago. The ultra-liberal, ultra-PC Southern Poverty Law Center designates the Nation of Islam as a hate group for its "racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay rhetoric".

Walt wonders what Louis Farrakhan has to say about this week's events in France and Nigeria. The silence from Chicago has so far been deafening.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, militant Islamists wipe out town of 10,000

The world... well, the Western world, at least... is getting mightily exercised about the death of a dozen French men and women, executed by two Islamic extremists for "insulting the Prophet". Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, says there is no more time for denial and hypocrisy.

Fingers are being pointed at Islamic fundamentalism, and rightly so, but the problem of coping with millions of outsiders who do not (in spite of what François Hollande and the Pope keep saying) share our core values.

The politically correct message is that not all Muslims are like that. Maybe so. Maybe... maybe... 99% of the followers of the Prophet wouldn't arm themselves with AK-47s and go out hunting infidels. That would leave just 1% -- 50,000 residents of France -- who might threaten the peace of that country. Food for thought...

Meanwhile, the militant Islamists who call themselves Boko Haram -- it means "Western education is forbidden" -- are laying waste to great swathes of northern Nigeria. They control 70% of Borno, the state worst-affected by their insurgency.

Today, a senior government official in the area said that fleeing residents told him that the town of Baga, which had a population of about 10,000, was now "virtually non-existent".

Musa Alhaji Bukar told the BBC's Hausa service, the town had been burnt down. Those who fled reported that they had been unable to bury the dead, and hundreds of corpses littered the town's streets, he said, adding that Boko Haram is now in control of Baga and 16 neighbouring towns after the Nigerian military fled.

The people of northern Nigeria are predominantly Muslim. Most of the 2000 or so people massacred by Boko Haram last year were Muslims -- the peaceful, non-violent kind. The Muslims who have joined the ranks of the Islamic extremists is certainly less than 1%. More food for thought.

Dark continent celebrates half-century of corruption and misrule

Africans from Casablanca to Cape Town are looking forward -- or maybe not -- to Sunday, when many of Africa's states will celebrate the 50th anniversary -- more or less -- of the "liberation" of the Dark Continent -- or much of it -- from the white settlers. If this sentence seems a little vague, that's because things in Africa are always vague.

A couple of African writers have noted that in throwing off the shackles of the European colonialists, the Africans (in the lands below the Sahara, at least) seem to have liberated themselves from the bonds of peace, order and good government -- indeed, of civilization itself. Vince Musewe (Zimbabwean) writes that "Africa remains in the economic backwoods and torn apart by civil wars, coups and counter-coups."

In Malawi (formerly known as Nyasaland, and before that British Central Africa) violence erupted during Tuesday's presidential elections. No-one was killed though, so that's considered a peaceful election by African standards.

In northern Africa, Al-Qaeda terrorises the Sahel region and is fomenting jihad against Christians in the Central African Republic and Mali south of the Sahara. That there hasn't (yet) been mass genocide is due mainly to the presence of armed forces from France, which happens to be, errr, the former colonial power.

A bit farther south, civil strife in the diamond-rich Congo (Kinshasa -- not to be confused with Congo Brazzaville) never seems to end. The UN has a token force in the Congo's far east, but local people seem to fear them as much as any of the other gangs of marauders.

In western Africa, Boko Haram continues to wreak havoc in Nigeria. #BringBackOurGirls slacktivism doesn't seem to have had much impact on them. Just yesterday, suicide bombers killed scores of people in marketplaces in two northern towns. The Disunited Nations is threatening to impose sanctions. US assistance in searching for the missing schoolgirls has been delayed by "technical problems".

Want more? In Zimbabwe, Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, once touted to by western liberals as a great freedom fighter and another Mandela, clings to power at age 90-odd, crushing opposition and establishing a de facto one-party state, while turning the former Rhodesia into an economic basket case.

Like Zimbabwe, most of the states of central Africa have failed, collapsed or are weak. South Sudan -- the world's newest nation! -- has collapsed into tribal war. Guinea, Niger, Mauritania, and Guinea Bissau are failing as a result of coups and civil uprisings. Walt's agent in Madagascar reports that water and power outages, banditry and looting are daily occurrences.

Corruption is out of control in every African state, with one or two possible exceptions. African society laughs at honest and accountable leaders and cherishes "big men" like Mugabe and South Africa's Zuma.

In Liberia, from whence Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei writes, about 75 people of Afro-American descent have held power for over 40 years, circulating the leadership amongst them to keep up appearances. The rest of the population still lives in poverty and hopelessness. Corruption is at its peak, casting doubts on the credibility of the regime and eroding public confidence in the state as a whole.

Conclusion: "Uhuru" (freedom/independence) remains an empty event for the majority of Africans. Why so? Could it be that the fact that blacks look like human beings and act like human beings, does not necessarily make them sensible human beings? This the theme of "Are we beast or man?", by Vince Musewe, an economist and author based in Harare.

Musewe quotes (with sorrow) from a speech made by former South African President P.W. Botha, speech made in that country's Parliament in 1987.

“We are not obliged even the least to prove to anybody and to the blacks that we [whites] are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the blacks 1001 ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood. We do not pretend like other whites that we like blacks.

"The fact that blacks look like human beings and act like human beings does not necessarily make them sensible human beings. If God had wanted us to be equal to blacks, He would have created all of a uniform colour and intellect. By now every one of us has seen it practically that blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other.

"They are good at nothing else, but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the black man is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence."

President Botha was a co-winner, with Nelson Mandela, of the Nobel Peace Prize, not because he changed his views on the fitness of blacks to run a modern nation-state, but because he worked with Mandela to ensure that the transition to "majority rule" in 1994 was as smooth and peaceful as possible, in the circumstances. Since then, South Africa has sliding the slippery slope downward, much like Zimbabwe, only not as quickly. It could take another 20 years or so under ANC rule before it hits bottom.

In his article, Musewe asks his fellow Zimbabweans: "What have we to show as a country since our independence in 1980?

"Horrifying corruption and outright theft, a leadership with an inexplicable obsession with luxury cars and sexual encounters, the destruction of prodigious value in all sectors of our economy, the use of arms of war against our Ndebele brothers and sisters, the decimation of agriculture and the dogfight over diamonds, the deliberate extermination of a national indigenous bourgeoisie, the destruction of our environment that is now happening particularly by small-scale tobacco growers and small-scale miners all under the name of indigenisation.

"In addition, just look at the dirt in our cities and townships, the noise that goes on daily, the potholes and sewage all over, the overcrowding and the common face of poverty, hopelessness and serious deterioration of our living standards. Look at our values and morals as a society and what we have become; the greed and selfishness all around us; all this, despite having the highest literacy rate in Africa!"

Can it there be said that Botha was fundamentally wrong or blinded by racism? Corruption, autocratic leadership, mismanagement, incompetence and misrule are the norms in today's Africa. Such is the fruit of the "liberation struggle" of the 60s which will be celebrated on Sunday.

African terrorists kidnapping schoolkids - 1973 version

In "Nigerian schoolgirls: we've seen this movie before -- literally!", I said the saga of the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by Boko Haram -- did I mention they're militant Islamists? -- reminded me of an incident depicted in The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Agent 3, who lived in that part of the world for some years, tells me I could have done much better. The plot of the 1980 movie, he says, drew heavily on an actual kidnapping on the night of 5 July 1973. ZANLA terrorists fighting for the "liberation" of Rhodesia abducted 292
people -- almost the same number as were taken in Nigeria -- mainly children, from St. Albert’s Mission near Centenary.

Click here to read the Wikipedia article on the Rhodesian Bush War. Under what the black terrorists called the "white settler regime", Rhodesia was the second-most prosperous country in sub-Saharan Africa, after the Republic of South Africa, which coincidentally was also run by the white minority. Many Rhodesians were concerned that "majority rule" would bring chaos, as resulted when the Belgian Congo was decolonized in 1960.

The Bush War involved counter-insurgency operations by the Rhodesian Security Forces against two rival terrorist gangs, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). In July 1973, ZANLA cadres, trained and supported by the Maoist Frelimo forces in Mozambique, attacked the school at St. Albert's Mission between Centenary and Mount Darwin in July 1973 and abducted 292 pupils and staff, whom they force-marched north into the Zambezi valley towards their base in Mozambique. This true story is almost exactly that told in The Gods Must be Crazy.

The terrorists were intercepted by the Rhodesian Security Forces, albeit without the assistance of the movie's bumbling but brave biologist. All but eight of the children and staff were recovered. Similar abductions were repeated over the following years and the security forces found themselves increasingly unable to prevent them.

The captured schoolchildren would be marched to ZANLA bases in Mozambique where they would undergo "political 're-education'" and guerrilla training. No mention is made of the girls being forced into marriage with the guerrillas, or worse, but unlike in Nigeria, the ZANLA terrorists were not Islamic fundamentalists.

Further reading: The St. Albert's Mission kidnapping is mentioned along with other incidents which occurred in Rhodesia in the months of July, 1890 through 1978, in the July 2013 edition of Contact! Contact!, a publication of the Rhodesian Services Association Inc. The online newsletter has all kinds of interesting factoids, photos, and Rhodie stuff for sale, so if you (like Agent 3) have some connection with the great country that has now become the far-from-great Zimbabwe, check it out.

Not easy to find closure in current news stories

Walt is having trouble writing trenchant commentary on current events. Making predictions is tougher than it used to be. (Lifetime pct .982.) Why? Because for a prognostication to be declared true...or not...one needs an end to the story, some kind of finality. And in the major stories of this year, we just don't find it.

Ukrainians are shooting each other in the eastern part of the country. Some of the shooters -- and some of the shootees -- may be Russians disguised as Ukrainians. Some of them may be Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Some may be Ukrainians who just wish they were Russians, although Walt can't imagine why. The numbers of dead, which were counted in single digits last month, are now counted in scores. No-one knows what Russia (meaning Putin) intends to do. The intention of the USA and the EU is obviously to do nothing.

The civil war Syria sputters on. Obama drew a red line in the sand years ago, Assaf crossed it, nothing was done, someone may have used chemical weapons but we're not sure who and anyway they're not doing it now, the balance of power seems to have shifted from the Islamic extremists back to the Assaf government, but half the sandpit is still contested, and on it goes.

The Afghanistan war is over. Well...kind of. All the infidel invaders have gone home except the Americans, and they're supposed to leave sometime this year, except that the Americans want to stay but want the Afghans to ask them to stay (to promote security and democracy yada yada) which doesn't look like happening until after another free and fair election (LOL) which just took place but whose result is unknown as yet. Meanwhile the poor people of Afghan are being forced to eat grass, according to the International Crisis Group, which means the West should pour more billions of your money and mine down the rat hole, and on it goes.

The search for MH370 continues, with not one body or piece of debris found and about 3/4 of the Indian ocean floor still to be combed. (No-one is going anywhere near Diego Garcia though.) The Malaysian government has released a report of its enquiry into the plane's disappearance. The paper takes all of five pages to tell us that they haven't a clue -- something they might have admitted in the first week, saving a lot of bad publicity.

The search for the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls continues too. The Nigerian misgovernment says they haven't a clue as to where Boko Haram -- radical Islamic extremists, even though Obama doesn't like to say so -- has hidden the children, although they guess it might be in Nigeria somewhere. The USA may be sending drones to aid in the search, or maybe not, but no American boots will be on the ground, or maybe they will.

Having failed to bring peace to Israel/Palestine, John Kerry went on a tour of African hotspots -- South Sudan (Kerry went to Ethiopia -- close enough), Congo [which one? Ed.] and Angola, but not Nigeria -- yet the situation in Africa does not improve. Nor is the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls a unique incident. See "Nigeria schoolgirls just part of Africa's cruel history of child soldiers, enslavement". Aren'tcha sick of it? Walt is.

And there's one more piece of "news" -- speculation, actually -- which is freezing the cockles of Walt's heart. The "Lexington" column in week's Economist magazine predicts that Hellery Clinton is almost certain to be the Democratic candidate for the US presidensity. Why? Many democrats, "Lexington" says, have buyer's remorse over the Obama debacle, and reason that it's Mrs Clinton's turn now, before she gets older than Reagan. Besides, who else is there? Joe Biden? John Kerry? Senator Hasbeen? Congressman Nobody?

But it gets worse. The Republican front-runner, according to "Lexington", is none other than Jeb Bush! (Michael Moore will be delighted!) As with the Dems, it's hard to think of any other plausible candidate. So we have 30 months in which to contemplate a presidential election between (a) Bush and (a) Clinton. Please excuse me now; I have to go outside and be sick.

Nigerian schoolgirls: we've seen this movie before -- literally!

Boko Haram, the fanatical Muslim militants who kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls a few days ago, have released a new video showing most of the girls are still alive. According to their captors, the girls are being well looked after and have converted to Islam. And they will be released, the thugs say, in exchange for prisoners being held by the Nigerian government.

Walt wonders why no-one has yet made the connection between the tragicomedy unfolding in Nigeria this month and the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, a South African production starring Jamie Uys, the stunning Sandra Prinsloo and the little Bushman, N!xau, who plays the real hero of the story.

Since the IMDb plot summary misses half the story, Walt will explain the rest of it, and how it relates to the kidnappings in Nigeria.

The action takes place in the Kalahari desert, in Botswana, as Xi -- the Bushman played by N!xau -- encounters technology for the first time, in the shape of a Coke bottle thrown out of a passing plane. He takes it back to his people, who start to fight over it, so he decides to walk to the end of the earth to give it back to the gods who sent it.

On his trek, he meets Andrew Steyn (Uys) a shy and bumbling biologist (first seen analyzing elephant shit), who has himself just met and fallen for Kate Thompson (Prinsloo), who has come from the big modern city to the native village to teach school.

Meanwhile, in an unnamed neighbouring country [Agent 3 says it's meant to Angola. Ed.], a fanatical revolutionary has failed to overthrow the black dictator, and is fleeing to Botswana ahead of the dictator's incompetent security forces. In Botswana, the fanatic and his stupid and thuggish followers kidnap Miss Thompson's class of schoolgirls (and schoolboys), whom they force to march into the bush as hostages. Does this not sound familiar? Today, in Nigeria, life is imitating art!

"How does it all turn out?", I hear you ask. Well... Steyn and Mpudi (the coloured comic relief sidekick) and Xi cross paths, quite by accident, with Sam Boga and the kidnapped kids. They overpower the kidnappers using stupefying medicine -- Steyn is a biologist, remember -- and free the kids (and the lovely Miss Thompson), just as the Botswana police, led by a handsome white safari-leader, arrive to mop up. No-one is hurt and everyone is happy, including Xi, who eventually reaches the end of the earth and throws the Coke bottle over the edge.

Why has no-one drawn the parallel with this month's events in Nigeria? Could it be because The Gods Must Be Crazy was roundly denounced, from the day of its release, as being not just politically incorrect but frankly racist. The thuggish revolutionaries are black, cruel and incompetent -- just like Boko Haram. The Bushmen (so called in the movie although "San" or "Sho" are the PC terms) are shown as primitive and childlike -- which they were until very recently. The whities are portrayed as the only ones smart and brave enough to sort the problem out peacefully.

In short... whites civilized, blacks uncivilized. Well... sorry, my PC friends, but that's how Africa was at the time. Has it changed appreciably? Errr, no.

The Gods Must Be Crazy is very funny -- even if you're non-white -- well, and worth seeing. However, as sequels usually do, The Gods Must Be Crazy II sucks.

Further reading on WWW: "The kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls and the Mirror Image Fallacy" and "'Slacktivism' -- idle, impotent and irrelevant"

"Slacktivism" -- idle, impotent and irrelevant

Malala's doing it. Hellery Clinton's doing it. Michelle Obama's doing it.

Everybody's doing it. Except Walt. [And Ed. Ed.]

What's "it"? Why tweeting #BringBackOurGirls of course! The reference is to the dastardly kidnapping of close to 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by the Boko Haram.

These guys are Islamic extremists by the way. Walt points that out because the PC media, politicians and pundits seem incapable of saying the words "Islamists" or "Muslims" in referring to these terrorists. Even the CBC's Rex Murphy -- usually a straight shooter -- got through his 5-minute piece on The National on Thursday without once alluding to the religion which Boko Haram claim inspires them.

But I digress. Most of the girls are still "missing", with the Nigerian authorities professing to have no idea where to look for them. Nigeria's head nagger, Goodluck Jonathan, has appeared on TV begging for technology, weapons and, errr, money to help his army rescue the girls. He said nothing about returning the weapons, jeeps or whatever once the girls are found.

Meanwhile, all right-thinking people agree that, yes, Boko Haram are a bad lot, and shouldn't sell the girls into slavery, prostitution and/or marriage. Hence the hashtag. It has become fashionable, in the last couple of days, to scrawl the hashtag on a piece of cardboard, take a picture of yourself holding it, and post it in the social media, which Walt thinks ought to be called the "anti-social media".

Twittering, tweeting, retweeting... whatever you call taking the "action" just described is, you see, Doing Something. Posting a picture of yourself displaying #BringBackOurGirls shows support for them, you see. One cam imagine them seeing all the tweets on their iPhones, somewhere in the middle of the African bush, and being encouraged.

And who knows? Maybe the thugs who call themselves Boko Haram will see that 1000s of people have the courage to put these pictures online, and be motivated by compassion or fear to do what the hashtag commands. But Walt doubts it. For one thing, these Muslim terrorists -- don't forget it! -- don't look very literate. If they can read Hausa, which is written in Arabic script. Seeing signs in English -- the language of "boko" (= "book", = western/Christian education and culture) probably provokes them to fits of anger and/or laughter.

Tweeting #BringBackOurGirls or anything other expression of your "thoughts" on this or any other subject is a weak and futile gesture. It's like adding a few flowers -- possibly accompanied by a teddy bear -- to one of those "memorials" that spring up at the site of an accident or a crime.

You may think you're Doing Something when you tweet or twitter or throw more garbage on the heap, but really you're guilty of "slacktivism" -- making a small, meaningless gesture to show that you "care" and ease your guilty conscience. Why you or Michelle Obama should feel guilty about something which you had nothing to do with, and which has nothing to do with you, is another matter. But if you really want to help, find a better way.

"Like what?", I hear you ask. That's a toughie, but perhaps a donation to an organization like Amnesty International, or a reputable NGO working to educate girls in the third world, would do some good. Meanwhile, please spare us the vapid and ultimately useless tweets.

Further reading on WWW: "The kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls and the Mirror Image Fallacy"

The kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls and the Mirror Image Fallacy

BREAKING NEWS: "8 more Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by suspected Boko Haram gunmen"

In case you've been on another planet, the last three weeks have seen a horror story emerge from Africa -- where else -- that has provoked more than the usual amount of international interest and indignation. Some 230 girls in their mid-teens were kidnapped from their school in the state of Borno, in northern Nigeria. This happened on April 14th and none of the girls has been seen since.

Reports last week said that some of the girls were taken across borders into Cameroon and Chad. Others are said to have been forced to "marry" their abductors, who paid a nominal bride price of $12. Paying a bride price is still customary in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, although the girl's worth is nowadays calculated in cash rather than cattle.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said everything was being done to find the girls. Walt wishes him good luck [Geddit? Ed.] and will help by explaining who took the girls and why. Here's a CNN video that makes things pretty clear. [No. Clear, but not pretty. Ed.]



CNN and the rest of the lamestream media make it clear enough that the schoolgirls were taken by Boko Haram. The CNN reporter describes them as "jihadists". What that means -- and what the politically correct western media almost never spell out -- is that Boko Haram are Islamic extremists. Fanatically militant Muslims!

Walt has written about Boko Haram before. See "Nigerian archbishop says Boko Haram fanaticism increasing" and "Islamic extremists don't discriminate; they kill anyone and everyone".

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden", has attacked schools, churches, bus stations, anything and everything, all over the predominantly Muslim northern part of Nigeria. In a video circulating on the Net today, one of their leaders, Abubakar Shekau, said the girls should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married. "God instructed me to sell them," he said. "They are his properties and I will carry out his instructions!"

The other reason the lamestream media are downplaying the Islamic extremist angle is that these fanatics happen to be, errr, African -- as black as the ace of spades. So when attention is called to their race and their religion, it agitates the liberal one-worlders who believe that we are really all the same inside. To do so offends their naive notions about the Brotherhood of Man [and Woman? Ed.]

To aver that people are people, undifferentiated by race, religion, language and culture, is absurd. It is the Mirror Image Fallacy, writ large. The mirror image fallacy is the wrongly assumed belief that others share our thoughts, responses, and perspectives. That is just not so. The Islamic fundamentalists are nothing like us.

So when America and Britain offer to "help", to "facilitate" or "mediate" or somehow make a connection between Boko Haram and civilized people, they are committing what Charles Krauthammer called a "plural solipsism". In "The Mirror-Image Fallacy", penned for Time way back in 1983, Mr. Krauthammer concluded "To gloss over contradictory interests, incompatible ideologies and opposing cultures as sources of conflict is more than anti-political. It is dangerous."

Further reading: "The Mirror-Image Fallacy" is included in Charles Krauthammer's new book, Things That Matter (Crown Forum 2013),a collection of 88 of his columns spanning three decades. You'll find a review and some excerpts in "The Insights of Charles Krauthammer", by Lauri B. Regan on The American Thinker website.

Chaos in the CAR: an African mess gets messier

Sub-Saharan Africa is a mess. Don't let articles written by lamestream journalists wearing rose-coloured specs fool you. Walt's agents are everywhere (especially in southern Africa) and they send us the real news. With the exception of one or two countries, Africa and its people are in worse shape today than during the much-reviled colonial era.

One of the countries which is not an exception to the rule that Africans are demonstrably unfit to govern themselves is the Central African Republic. Walt has written about it before: "
"Pray for Syria" (has a map) and ""Christians attacked every day in Mid-East, Africa and Asia

The CAR used to be a French colony, called Ubangi-Chari, later part of French Equatorial Africa.

Some of the people used to wear huge lip plates as ornaments, to the delight of such as P.T. Barnum who brought them to America to exhibit as freaks. (Before you laugh, check your mirror for tattoos and piercings!)

We'll skip over the post-colonial episode of the Central African Empire, ruled by the Emperor Bokassa 1st who used to keep chunks of his enemies' bodies in the palace freezer so he could eat them later. Bokassa was overthrown with the connivance of the French -- because he was an embarrassment -- and the CAR hasn't had a stable government since.

One of the reasons for the CAR's instability is that it is one of those countries which is torn between the Musilm north and the Christian/animist south, like Mali, Nigeria and the Sudan. As I write, Islamic extremists, supported by invaders from Chad (another basket case), Mali and Libya, are invading the CAR's capital, Bangui. The customary raping, looting and pillage has ensued. Chaos reigns.

The French (embarrassed again) have put 1500 pairs of military boots (and counting) on the ground to combat the Muslim terrorists, but are far from clearing the area. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 refugees are thronging the cathedral and the airport, clamouring for protection from the savages.

Speaking of "savages", here's a quote from Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914, by Max Hastings (William Collins 2013):

Lucien Laby was in charge of an escort taking fourteen German prisoners to the rear, when their little column was suddenly beset by Senegalese troops determined to cut off the Germans' ears. After a violent scuffle, the colonial soldiers were driven back.

One big Senegalese saluted Laby and said wistfully, "O my lieutenant, you might have let me cut off two ears -- just two ears!"

A French army chaplain, while applauding the terror that such colonial infantry inspired among the Germans, deplored the difficulties of dealing with their wounded patients at his hospital: "The blacks from North Africa are almost as civilised as their Berber or Arab compatriots...[but] there are others from West Africa and the French Congo...who are very primitive indeed".

That was 99 years ago. As the French say, plus ça change...

Nigerian archbishop says Boko Haram fanaticism increasing

Walt is still checking stories on the persecution and killing of Christians. Last Sunday we told you how the Muslim extremists who call themselves Boko Haram had massacred 44 students at a college in northeastern Nigeria. Today, the Vatican news agency FIDES has a comment from Most Rev. Ignatius Kagama, the Archbishop of Jos and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.

Abp. Kagama averred that Boko Haram is becoming more fanatical. "In the beginning the aim of Boko Haram was to attack Christians in order to destabilize the community," said the prelate. "But now the ferocity of the members of this movement has no limits to the point of slaughtering even those who should be their fellow Muslims."

"Boko Haram has made further progress in the sophistication and ferocity of their attacks," he added, "but it is now made up of fanatics who have lost their original goal."

Walt isn't so sure about that last part, about "losing sight of their original goal". Is there goal not to exterminate all the infidels in Nigeria, and rid the country of every trace of Western culture and influence? Seems to me they're right on track.

I saw the behatted Nigerian president shaking hands with the Prez himself on TV just a couple of nights ago. I didn't hear O'bama say anything about sending US forces to deal with Boko Haram. So the slaughter of Christians looks likely to continue. Any Muslims killed in the crossfire will be just collateral damage.

Islamic extremists don't discriminate; they kill anyone and everyone

Walt has given up keeping score -- too many games in progress -- but notes two more massacres in Africa and Asia, and that's just within the last 24 hours.

As if the body counters in Pakistan weren't busy enough with last weekend's bombing outside an Anglican church (not forgetting this week's earthquake) they now have to hustle back to Peshawar, where twin blasts killed 33 people and wounded 70 today.

Although no-one has claimed responsibility for today's bombings, the style of the massacre -- suicide bombs exploded near a mosque and a crowded market -- is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the Taliban. In case no-one noticed, Reuters tells us "Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban."

Reuters also quotes "one woman in a long headscarf" ["niqab" surely. Ed.] as wailing "Who is burning Peshawar, who is burning Peshawar?" Answers on the back of a postage stamp to Mr. Nawaz Sharif, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in the most dangerous country in Africa [By whose account? Ed.] Islamist gunmen have attacked the Yobe State College of Agriculture in northeastern Nigeria, killing 44 students, or maybe it was 50. Casualty figures vary, but a local politician told the BBC that two vanloads of bodies had been taken to a hospital in the state capital.

The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory. Yobe state and most of northern Nigeria is under a state of emergency because of an insurgency by the Boko Haram group of Islamic fundamentalists.

They are fighting (so they say) to overthrow Nigeria's government and create an Islamic state. To this end, they've been attacking schools which teach "unIslamic things", regardless of whether the students are Muslims or "infidels". This, they say, will somehow weaken the Great Satan -- the USA -- and thus... well, as with most of what happens in Africa, the point is unclear.

Walt notes, however, that the majority of victims of today's mass killings were (probably) Muslims. Which proves that the Islamic fundamentalists are not anti-Christian, as many say. Well, not just anti-Christian. Seems as if they're against anyone and everyone who isn't Islamic enough.

"Islamicism" on the march in Nigeria

My earlier post contained a reference to Muslim extremism -- or "Islamicism" as Canadian Prime Minister Harper now calls it -- in Nigeria. Ed. tells me I should have given an example, so here's one.

You've heard of al-Qaeda and Hizbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, right? Add to your list of Muslim fundamentalist, Quran-inspired terrorist groups "Boko Haram". Boko Haram means “Western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria. A terrorist group proudly bearing this moniker claims responsibility for a rash of killings in Nigeria, targeting security officers, local leaders and clerics.

They claimed responsibility for a bomb that tore through the United Nations’ Abuja headquarters on Aug. 26, killing 23 people and wounding 81. It also has claimed responsibility for a bombing at the nation’s police headquarters that killed two people in June. And in the latest espisode of "holy war", 18 people were killed and 10 wounded in central Nigeria on Sunday night.
What's it all about? Boko Haram's stated aim is to implement a strict version of Sharia law in Nigeria. In that, they are united in spirit and in goals with those who wish to import Sharia (at least for Muslims) into the legal systems if the USA, Britain and Canada. Perhaps this is what Canadian Prime Minister Harper means when he speaks of "Islamicism" being the greatest threat to his country.