16 Beijings

The US Treasury Secretary's decision to put together a $700 billion rescue package to stop the meltdown of the US banking sector is 16.3 times the cost of the Beijing Olympic games and while the latter garnered worldwide acclaim, the rescue package, subject to approval by Congress, will generate dismay for the beleaguered US taxpayer. This will raise US national debt to $11.3 trillion. They say one has to speculate to accumulate and the bankers on Wall Street were given free reign to do just that. If Congress approve the rescue package as they are expected to, then we can expect to see tighter regulatory control. The necessary intervention by the US government has served to highlight the dangers of unchecked capitalism. What US taxpayers should ask Congress is why they should be expected to shoulder the collective responsibility of individual failures when they didn't get to partake of the eight figures bonuses that were doled out to executives whose gambles had failed quite spectacularly.

Interestingly, the country that has advocated regime change in countries it felt were not embracing capitalism sufficiently is urging similar government intervention in Britain, Japan, Germany and other industrialised nations - it's nice to hear that Germany has told the US where to go. The US government effectively nationalised Freddie Mac, Fanny Mae and AIG so when the likes of Bolivia and Venezuela continue their nationalisation of key industries, let us not hear a peep from the debt laden, capitalist to the north.

An election with no winners

, well that is the conclusion reached by South African Judge Johann Kriegler's concerning the Kenyan polls on 27 December 2007. The Electoral Commission of Kenya came in for a lot of flak which will lead to its complete overhaul, but I wonder in what guise the commission's chairman will be recycled.

I wonder if it was a case of not wanting to upset the precariously balanced apple cart.

Deal or No Deal

So Mbeki has managed to cajole Mugabe, Mutambara and Tsvangirai to sign a power sharing agreement. Should this be a cause for celebration for the long suffering Zimbabwean people? Judging by Mugabe's comments at the signing ceremony, I think it's a case of let's wait and see - he could not resist yet another swipe at the usual suspects. Although Zanu-PF's George Charamba was quick to point out that Zimbabwe was not Kenya, during a press conference at the AU summit in Sharm-el Sheikh, the power sharing agreement signed by Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC-M is modelled along similar lines to the one Kenya's Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga signed earlier this year. It would now appear that the African election model is vote, dispute the result then sign a power sharing agreement, eventually. Zimbabwe's cabinet is set to have 31 ministers, Kenya has 42. Mugabe will retain control of the JOC, but the reality seems to be the other way round. Tsvangirai wants to control the police and is set to control the finance ministry because the international community won't give Zimbabwe the aid the country desperately needs otherwise.

However, Zimbabweans will recall what happened when Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU was subsumed by Mugabe's Zanu after an earlier power sharing agreement and the subsequent atrocities that were committed in Matabeleland. So it remains to be seen how committed Mugabe is to making this latest agreement work.

The polls don't add up

Barack Obama had his best ever fundraising month in August when he raised $66 million compared to John McCain's $47 million, thanks to 500,000 new donors. This bettered BO's previous best of $55 million raised in February. His acceptance speech at the DNC was watched by 38.5 million Americans compared to Sarah Shrill Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC which was watched by 37.2 million Americans and the final of American Idol final, which was watched by 31.2 million. And yet the pollsters tell us that Barack Obama is lagging behind John McCain in the US presidential race - go figure.

Oh, the inanity

The American economy is floundering - gas prices are at an all time high, ever increasing numbers of American homeowners are having their homes repossessed and more Americans are receiving pink slips, the American military is beating a retreat in Iraq and America's standing around the world is at its lowest ebb and all the Republicans are concerned about are trivialities. The Republicans are trying to turn the November election into a personality contest - lets hope the American electorate doesn't fall for it.

Master bullshitters

Americans have perfected the art of bullshitting confidently. I discovered that when I worked for an American company and use to attend meetings where American colleagues would take up the time to talk about nothing and do it with such conviction that sometimes I had to pinch myself just to be sure I wasn't daydreaming. Interestingly, nobody would challenge said individual because of the confidence they exuded. However later on around the water cooler, there would be discussions about what was actually said and a unanimous consensus would be reached that the colleague had said much ado about nothing.

Later on, when I lived in the States I realised that bullshitting confidently is part of the American DNA. An unedifying consequence of this is the inability to tell it like it is - there's a tendency to put a positive spin on everything for example, when a well known fast food chain announced they were opening more outlets, the subsequent job creation was labelled manufacturing instead of service. The Republican nominee for Vice President spun her foreign policy experience to include trips to Iraq, Ireland and Russia whereas the actuality was she can see Russia from Alaska and she could see Iraq when she visited the Alaskan National Guard at a border crossing in Kuwait. Her so called trip to Ireland was no more than a refueling stopover. The White House likes to talk of victory in Iraq despite the widely respected General Petraeus' opinions to the contrary. And who can forget Dubya's premature Iraq Mission Accomplished proclamation on the deck of US carrier in May 2003.

All good things come to an end

and so it was that on the Arthur Ashe court at Flushing Meadows yesterday Rafael Nadal's winning streak, that had seen him claim the number 1 spot, a Masters shield and an Olympic gold, was brought to an end by Andy Murray. It was a match too far for Rafa who has had a very competitive summer since winning Wimbledon and I've no doubt that normal service will be resumed when they meet again.

As for Murray, the guy likes Flushing Meadows as he won the US Junior Open in 2004 and he has the game to beat the Fed. I had predicted he would win the US Open last year, it looks like I was a year out.

The problem with specs

As someone of the four-eyed persuasion, I have often been told that my spectacles make me look serious/studious and there's no doubting that people tend to think that those who are sight-challenged are intelligent and yet I haven't come across any empirical evidence to support this assertion. Spectacle wearers are expected to engage in intelligent discourse and impart pearls of wisdom - I expect many people had a reality check once Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President, opened her mouth.

Mother's Nature sense of timing

Well, you've got to hand it to Mother Nature because no sooner had the Gulf Coast marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina when she sent along Hurricane Gustav. I recall seeing on TV the desperation of those who couldn't get out of New Orleans and for a moment I thought of the similar desperation I had seen on the faces of refugees in Goma. How was it possible, I wondered, that the so called most powerful nation on earth could not channel enough resources to rescue those people who had survived the hurricane, but were in danger of losing their lives to the anarchy that ensued?

Dubya's administration woefully underestimated the response Hurricane Katrina required and things were compounded by the fact that most of Louisiana's National Guard were serving in Iraq. It took Dubya 5 days to get down to New Orleans while his Secretary of State was lectured by someone who was outraged that the Warrior Princess should be shopping for Ferragamo shoes on 5th Avenue, while the plight of the people of New Orleans was downplayed.

Hurricane Gustav has already forced Dubya to cancel his appearance at the Republican Convention and the Republicans have been forced to scale down a number of activities they had planned to mark John McCain's nomination to be the GOP's presidential candidate.

Mother Nature has sent the Republicans a timely reminder of how inconsequential we all are.