Hine Ma Tov

I was at a delightful Israeli friend’s post-voting party yesterday, and remembered to ask her about a song that I’d always loved since watching the film Raid On Entebbe many many years ago.

The film is based on the real-life hijacking of an Air France plane with more than 100 Israeli citizens on board, by members of the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine, and the subsequent successful mission by the Israeli Defense Force to rescue them at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

The song Hine Ma Tov was sung by the soldiers on the airplane en route to Entebbe to free the hostages who were being held at the airport with the support of then dictator Idi Amin. The only video I could manage to find is not of good sound quality, but wait until about 20 seconds when the commandos get into full rhythm. It’s just beautiful.

The Hebrew lyrics are taken from the final verse of Psalm 133, and is popular at Jewish feasts.

Hine(y) ma tov u’ma-nayim

Shevet ach-im gam ya-chad

It translates more or less into something that is quite wonderful and sorely needed in the world today.

Behold how good

and how pleasing

if brothers (people) could sit together in unity.

Peace, out!

Gbagbo… just won't go

Is there something in the air or soil of Africa that nurtures despots, tyrants and just plain bad-ass politicians? Perhaps it’s the African sun? But whatever it is, I’m pretty sure that Africa hosts the majority of the world’s worst leaders [I use the word grudgingly].

The latest in a long line of despots whose minds have seemingly become frizzled by the African sun, and who refuse to relinquish their grip on power, is Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. This Bgagbo of shit joins an ignominious assembly of scumbags, who desperately cling to power, and whose utter disregard for humanity is legendary:

• Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe [30 years]
• Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan [21 years]
• Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya [41 years]
• Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea [31 years]
• Yoweri Museveni of Uganda [24 years]
• Paul Biya of Cameroon [28 years]
• Yahya Jammeh of Gambia [16 years, and oh, get a load of this cretin’s shameless vanity in insisting that he be addressed as His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh]

For a more comprehensive [but not definitive] list, which incorporates crackpots from all over the world, visit foreignpolicy.com. And this is just a list of the current filth that pollutes world’s political stage. Let’s not even consider the likes of Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and Jean Bedel Bokassa. The most striking thing about these scum of the earth, is that they would most likely have at some stage in their rotten lives, spoken out against European or Western imperialism and colonialism. So what turns self-proclaimed liberators into fascists?

Do we in South Africa have anything to worry about? Not with Jacob Zuma, I don’t think; it’s abundantly clear he’s just a puppet. However, with the likes of Julius Malema, idling in the wings, mouthing off about revolutionaries on the one hand and agents on the other, I think we need to be extra vigilant…