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There is no doubt that rioting in London and any sort of violence any where in the world is abhorent. It is, however, interesting to see how parts of the world that some may, without hesitation, associate with such societal break down and lawlessness are reacting to or perhaps more accurately making statements to score ”political” points.
The first of these statement was released by the Iranian government. It read:
“Iran has called on the British police to exercise restraint against people protesting over the killing of a Black man in London. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast urged the British government to order the police to stop their violent confrontation with the people, IRNA reported in the early hours of Tuesday. Mehmanparast asked the British government to start dialogue with the protesters and to listen to their demands in order to calm the situation down. The Iranian official also asked independent human rights organizations to investigate the killing in order to protect the civil rights and civil liberties.” More here
Not to be outdone, according to this article, the African Union has also made some statements regarding the London riots. It stated:
“ETHIOPIA. The African Union today adopted a unilateral resolution to deploy army troops and care packages to England as looting and violence spread from London to other major cities. Spokesperson Charity Khumalo said “We can no longer stand by while these savages tear themselves apart.”
The AU, meeting today in an emergency session to discuss the ongoing rioting in the UK, has declared that they will do “everything in their power to help bring civilisation to England”.
“It’s just so sad, you know?” said Khumalo, speaking from the organisation’s HQ in Addis Ababa. “Sitting here and watching them on TV while their society implodes. We cannot in good conscience remain idle and let it happen.”
The AU has announced a range of initiatives that Africans can get involved with to help alleviate the misery of the English.
“For instance, we have launched an ‘Adopt an English child’ programme,” Khumalo explained, showing journalists brochures featuring the faces of English kids. “If you donate a mere R50 a month, you can see to it that sweet little Johnny from Peckham receives a basic education, a pack of condoms and a pair of pimpin’ Nikes.”
It is clear that the comedy value of these statements (the AU statement is unverified of course) are priceless. However, I can’t help but think that many a time statements made in jest tend to have a certain level of truth to them. In some ways these statements point out certain ironies that come to the fore once in a while. The London riots is one such event. After the condemnation of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia etc for cutting social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook during their social unrest, it was a surprise to me to hear the British Press openly discuss limiting their use as a way of curtailing communication amongst the rioters. Perhaps, the most shocking of all was the consideration given to possibly bringing in the British army to ”police” the streets of London as an alternative to a rather ineffective police force.
As a commentator stated, rather poignantly in the comment section of this article – London Riots: What are the underlying causes of the riots? – “Often in life whilst you may have a finger pointing at others you do tend to forget that the other 4 fingers are pointing back at you!”
Related Article: London Riots: 10 ways Africa must help England
Photo credit: Nico Hogg
Sumitted by M. Payne
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