Four hundred years of oppression? Get over it.

Stephanie Nolen goes on a tear in the Globe and Mail today that is so lacking in self-awareness that it blows the mind. She, like virtually every other Canadian reporter anywhere near Africa, is focussed on Zimbabwe's election. Recent sham elections in Rwanda, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi have been ignored by the Globe and most other papers, but this election in Zimbabwe is under the microscope. Mugabe needs to go, explains this white North American reporter, because he keeps blaming white people for Africa's problems: "In his constant railing about colonialism... he keeps the country and the continent looking backward. Of course, many of Africa's problems can still be traced directly to colonialism, but today, most people would like simply to look forward."

You're not going to see a defense of Mugabe from this corner. All I'm saying is the white North American telling Africans to "get over" colonialism is like telling someone who just got shot to stop harping about the bullet wound.

Republicans are insane

The latest proof is the, seemingly serious, proposal that Condoleezza Rice be considered as a Vice-Presidential running mate for McCain. Says the Washington Post: "Speculation has centered on Rice because as a prominent African American woman, she would help balance out a GOP ticket that otherwise might appear too bland next to the excitement generated by either the first major-party black or female candidate."

This is the same thinking, I'm sure, that brought us the Allan Keyes campaign for Senator. Folks may recall that a dynamic up-and-coming African-American Democrat set his eyes on a Senate seat in Illinois. That Democrat recieved a real stroke of luck when his opponent, Jack Ryan, had to drop out when divorce documents revealed he was kind of, well, a "nasty freak". (and his wife was Jeri Ryan - Star Trek Voyager's Seven of Nine. Not relevant to the story but interesting for trekkies and fetishists).

Anyway... Republicans are cornered. How to defeat this up-and-coming Democrat? "Well," said they, "He's Black. We just need to find a black guy!" Because THAT somehow was the key. They promptly found Alan Keyes - a man with about as much following in the African-American community as FW DeKlerk.

Anyway, final results: Keyes gets 27 per cent. Up-and-coming Democrat Barrack Obama gets 70.

How do you think Condoleezza Rice would do?

If at first you don't succeed - interrupt

I've got really limited experience in public relations but one thing I was told was that it's bad form to crash in when someone is talking to a reporter. Listen, sure. Wait politely to respond with a scrum of your own, absolutely.

But interrupting or yelling at someone while they're talking just makes you look, well, crazy.

But maybe I'm wrong. NDP MPs seem to be doing it and doing it.

Why didn't we think of that?

David Olive notes in yesterday's Toronto Star that investor-owned oil firms are getting squeezed out of the business. Nationally-owned oil companies are the way of the future.

Wouldn't it be nice if Canada had one of those?