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It’s been 10 long
years since the Palestinians and Israelis last came close to
establishing a permanent peace, in January 2001 at Taba in Egypt.
During my career in the Egyptian Air Force, I saw the tragic toll of
war between the Arabs and Israel. As president of Egypt, I have endured
many ups and downs in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Egypt’s decision to
be the first Arab state to make peace with Israel claimed the life of
my predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat. Ever since the day in 1981 that I
witnessed his assassination by extremists, I have tried to turn the
dream of a permanent peace in the Middle East into a reality.

Now, after a nearly two-year hiatus in direct negotiations, we are opening yet another chapter in this long history.

Many claim that
this new round of talks – which begins with meetings between President
Obama; Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel; the Palestinian president,
Mahmoud Abbas; King Abdullah of Jordan; and myself here on Wednesday –
is doomed to fail like all the others.

However, Obama’s
determined involvement has revived our hopes for peace and we must
seize this opportunity. The broad parameters of a permanent
Palestinian-Israeli settlement are already clear: the creation of a
Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with
Jerusalem as a capital for both Israel and Palestine. Previous
negotiations have already resolved many of the details on the final
status of refugees, borders, Jerusalem and security.

The biggest
obstacle that now stands in the way of success is psychological: the
cumulative effect of years of violence and the expansion of Israeli
settlements have led to a collapse of trust on both sides. For the
talks to succeed, we must rebuild trust and a sense of security.

How do we do this?
First, we must safeguard the peace process from further outbreaks of
violence. To that end Egypt stands ready to resume its efforts to
resolve the many difficult issues surrounding Gaza: mediating a
prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza,
bringing an end to Israel’s blockade and fostering a reconciliation
between Hamas and its rival Fatah, which controls the West Bank.

All this is
critical to achieving a two-state solution. The Palestinians cannot
make peace with a house divided. If Gaza is excluded from the framework
of peace, it will remain a source of conflict, undermining any final
settlement.

For an
Israeli-Palestinian peace to succeed, it must also be embedded in a
broader regional peace between Israel and the Arab world. The Arab
Peace Initiative, endorsed by all Arab states, offers Israel peace and
normalisation in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from Arab territory
and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. But in the
interim both sides must show that this dream is within reach. Arab
nations should continue to demonstrate the seriousness of their peace
initiative with steps that address the hopes and concerns of ordinary
Israelis.

For its part,
Israel should make no mistake: Settlements and peace are incompatible,
as they deepen the occupation that Palestinians seek to end. A complete
halt to Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem is critical if the negotiations are to succeed, starting with
an extension of Israel’s moratorium on settlement building, which
expires this month.

For both sides trust can be built only on tangible security.

Security, however,
cannot be a justification for Israel’s continued occupation of
Palestinian land, as it undermines the cardinal principle of land for
peace.

I recognise that
Israel has legitimate security needs, needs that can be reconciled with
the Palestinians’ just demand for a complete withdrawal from occupied
territory. Egypt believes that the presence of an international force
in the West Bank, to be stationed for a period to be agreed upon by the
parties, could give both sides the confidence and security they seek.

Finally, Egypt
stands ready to host the subsequent rounds of negotiations. Every major
Palestinian-Israeli agreement has been reached with active Egyptian
involvement, in close collaboration with the United States. The 2001
talks in Taba, on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, were the closest
that the two sides have ever come to an agreement to end the conflict.
Let us pick up where we left off, and hope that the spirit of
engagement that accompanied those last talks engenders success.

We live in a world
that is suffering from the bitter lash of extremism. A permanent peace
between Israel and the Palestinians would bring the light of hope to
the Middle East and to people everywhere. As someone who has witnessed
both the ravages of war and the hope for peace, I appeal to all sides
to make this new round of negotiations the one that succeeds.

(Hosni Mubarak is the president of Egypt) © 2010 The New York Times

If you google aso ebi the oyibo equivalent that confronts you is the word uniform.

That
in normal parlance means a single standard, a sameness or exactness
that identifies a group or a set of rules with uni implying one measure
or set of the same form.

In
Mao’s China where the ideology aimed to establish a utopian ideal of a
classless society the drab blue or black of the “Mao suit” was supposed
to be

the living embodiment of everyone being the same, no haves and have nots in the peoples army.

South
Africa’s militant labour unions often wear identifying uniforms as they
toyi toyi in protest, singing as they perform that acrobatic step of
throwing their feet in the air. Any visitor could be excused for
thinking this is a major boogie down party rather than a belligerent up
yours to the owners of industry.

For
Thailand’s red shirts there is no party going on, it is a serious
matter of political protest to peacefully topple the government in
power.” Fight and be tired for a few more days. This is better than
being tired for the rest of your lives due to injustice” ousted prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra told his supporters in April in the third
week of their mass rallies.

These
are none of the sentiments with which we associate aso ebi. Yes town
unions and ethnic groups in the home-away-from-home Diaspora will make
uniforms to identify their members as they meet weekly or monthly out
in the wide metropolitan denizens of Lagos or Kano to commune together
and maintain their links with their roots. In this sense tying the same
cloth worn in the same style, dissolves those divisions created by
income disparity.

Who
can forget President Goodluck Jonathan decked in resplendent Igbo
attire in a photo op uniform threesome welcoming Theodore Orji from his
political odyssey by way of the PPA, APGA and hopefully finally into
the PDP?

Textile mills all over the continent have been busy for decades rolling
out bales of cloth emblazoned with the faces of Kwame Nkrumah, Mobutu
Sese Seko, Robert Mugabe, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, Milton Obote,
to name a few. When we identify we go the whole hog, warts and all.
Supporters of convicted Bode George pulled no punches about showing
their colour at his trial and turned up to be identified.

Only
when it comes to sports like soccer do we share our allegiance and
accommodate different personalities and teams in one body.

But
that is aso ebi (family cloth) in the narrow definition, in the much
wider sense with which it now identifies every celebration or
announcement or launching, the purpose seems less about blending in
than about standing out. Nothing wrong with that per se, it is just
that the peculiarly Nigerian tension between being the same and yet
standing out as eminently capable of affording more, since that is how
we ‘measure’ a persons status, produces some interesting ironies.

A
man wants to attend the wedding of a lifelong friend. Before he invites
a female associate to accompany him he has to factor in how much the
aso ebi is going to set him back, what different and unexpected
categories of it might he be expected to put out for: jewelry, shoes,
handbag or all inclusive? The levels can be dizzying and impoverishing.

My life for your party?

The
organisation and security aspects of the celebrations of the well
heeled have taken on different dimensions in today’s Nigeria. There is
fear of kidnapping which has significantly altered the freedom of
movement of those whose means should have opened up new possibilities
for them. And those smartly turned out ushers at the entrance to a big
do are there to keep an eye out for the ‘uninvited’ who think that
wearing a version of the aso ebi will give them the opportunity to
drink and eat well for a day.

A friend described to me an encounter at a reception some ten years ago in Lagos.

Being
the host he had intended to save some bones for his guard dogs and
returning after seeing a guest off saw his driver and reminded him to
fill the bowl for the dogs. People who had been pressed against the
fence watching the festivities heard this and were incensed. Here they
were hanging around to see if any leftovers would come their way and
this man was saving food for a dog!

Levels; yes indeed, but it does seem that for a long time to come
the message for any young person starting out in this tough world might
be buy a sewing machine. In the immortal words of the late great Fela:
uniform na cloth, na tailor dey sew am.

Last Tuesday, the
long running battle of wits between the Oyo State government and the
leadership of the state’s chapter of the National Union of Road
Transport Workers (NURTW) came to a head when, in a moment of
reactionary impetuosity, the chairman of the drivers union wrote a
letter to traditional rulers and leaders of thought in the state
warning of an imminent collision between his men and state officials.

It is an unusual
step. But it is also a sign of how things have degenerated in the state
that prides itself as the political capital of the southwest. The only
thing that is sadder could only be the perception that the usually
unruly louts of the NURTW are actually more civil in this altercation
than officials of the state government.

As usual, the
crisis has its roots in politics and permutations of the state
governor, Adebayo Alao Akala to win a second term in 2011. The two men
at the head of the two contending agencies – Mr. Alao Akala and Lateef
Akinsola Oluwatoki, otherwise known by the fanciful moniker ‘Tokyo,’
can both trace their ascendancy to a certain notorious politician in
Ibadan, the late Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu.

Tokyo and his men
were the fists with which Mr. Adedibu ruled the roost and enforced his
dictates – including the elevation of Mr. Alao Akala (a former deputy
governor of the state) into the governorship office at the expense of
his then principal, Rasheed Ladoja.

When Mr. Adedibu
died, the state governor came into his own and Tokyo lost his major
backer. He also fell out with the governor. He was subsequently
arrested by the police for alleged murder and detained for months
before he secured his release.

While Tokyo was
away, his deputy was railroaded into office as chairman of the drivers
union. The man, Lateef Salako (aka Elewe-Omo), is seen as an ally of
the governor and things were going swimmingly well until Tokyo was
released. Since then, the man generally derided as little better than a
tout has kept to the sunny side of the law.

Rather than embark
on a street fight as expected to win back his headship of the NURTW,
Tokyo went to the law courts to pursue his case and the judge found in
his favour. Even when the other faction resisted – and police stalled
in carrying out the court order – Tokyo went back to the court to seek
an enforcement, which was also granted.

But rather than
allow this process to work itself out, the state government decided to
take the legally dubious step of suspending the state chapter of the
union.

It also transferred
the power to collect dues at parks – the lifeline of the union and its
leaders – to local councils, thus effectively neutering the legal
victories of Tokyo and his gang.

This action would
surely make any maximum ruler proud and does not fit a democracy, even
one as malformed as our current one. We can only wonder whether the
state Attorney General has any input in this action and speculate on
the kind of thinking that led to the pronouncement. The state
government cites the need to maintain peace and security in the state,
as one reason for suspending the NURTW, but the legality of this act is
doubtful and its import sinister.

Any overfed
executive could use this excuse to ban any other forms of association
across the country, thus denying Nigerians their right to association.

It could also be
used as a cover for cracking down on unwanted opposition. It therefore
deserves to be condemned and exposed for its dubiousness. If the state
government were truly desirous of ensuring peace, it should back the
court’s ruling on this case and allow security agencies to deal with
anyone found to be acting against public peace.

But the aggravation
by state officials should not be an excuse for the kind of threats
contained in Tokyo’s letter to state leaders. He should realise that he
would be the ultimate loser if his boys were to unleash mayhem on the
state as he has threatened. Why, his opponents could even now start
violence and blame him for it.

As he must have realised from his earlier actions, the legal process
actually does work. Tokyo should return to the courts to challenge the
suspension of the union he heads. He has the law on his side and he
should not allow shortsighted politicians to foul up his newfound
respect for due process. He appears to the saner head in this contest.
He should stay that way.

I
suppose that in order to eat meat and really enjoy doing so, many meat
eaters have to disconnect their minds from certain parts of the process
of choosing, killing, skinning and cutting up an animal.

That
has not always been possible. Even now, there are many people who just
go out, kill what they want to eat, and think nothing more about it.

Up
until about three years ago, you were considered with some degree of
disdain if you bought a chicken from Calabar’s Watt market and hung
around waiting to pay someone to kill it for you: Every well brought up
woman should know how to slaughter a chicken.

I
am the sort of person I’m talking about – the sort that glares down the
middle of a bone in the secrecy of her home, behind closed doors and
windows, sometimes armed with a knife, frustrated that the marrow won’t
detach with even the most fervent and unabashed sucking.

What
is that humbling thought that brings me to my senses? That makes me
give up my frustrated gagging over a piece of animal fat? The
realisation that I am actually sucking on an animal’s bone, and that it
is disrespectful to expect that like some baked biscuit that has had
its aesthetics and conveniences of eating considered, the animal’s
bones should make its marrows easily available for effective and avid
sucking.

The
animal was minding its own business after all. Going about its life
when someone dragged it away, slaughtered it and arranged it for sale
and did so in a way that I would not be reminded of death and pain and
open arteries and gushing blood. Wrapped it up nicely in cellophane and
stuck a supermarket name on it.

I have never killed my meat, and I am a coward. I never will.

It
is becoming fashionable among TV chefs to demand that their audiences
face the reality of what they are eating. It might actually do them
some good to understand keenly that an animal died to satisfy their
appetite. They must look the animal in the eye, take its life,
decapitate and dismember it, or they should have no right to eat it.

If this rule were applied, I would be the first person to stop eating meat.

My
neighbour Andrew Dunn is the Nigerian Country Director for the Wildlife
Conservation Society. He is a meat eater by the way. It was from him
that I first heard the story of Pierfrancesco Micheloni, some surely
eccentric Italian who follows migrating swallows from Europe all the
way to Ebbaken, Boje in Cross River State and back.

Pierfrancesco
is a birder and a conservationist who oversees three million roosting
barn swallows who fly thousands and thousands of miles every year from
Belgium, Spain, Italy, France and even Croatia to spend their winters
in the forests of Ebbaken. The British barn swallow (which overwinters
in South Africa) stops off to fatten up in Ebbaken before braving the
Sahara Desert crossing. It is incredible that a barn swallow would fly
that far, about 200 miles a day, over deserts and oceans, facing death
by storms and hunger, with no guarantee of making its destination. The
facts of this sort of migration are just amazing.

There
is something tragically comical about then imagining some Boki hunter,
without any inkling of how far the swallow has flown, finding his way
through the forest, whistling to himself, his stomach rumbling in
expectation of his dinner of foreign birds. It isn’t funny at all
actually. But every sincere meat eating Nigerian might laugh because we
know what we say and think about eccentric white men bothering
themselves about bush meat and other such things.

But
in our heart of hearts there must be some niggling about the sacredness
of life especially when we are presented with the details of how that
life is expressed.

Cross
River Gorillas are almost extinct. There are about three hundred of
them living between Cross River and Cameroun. But, if one goes to Amana
market situated between Ikom and Obudu, one can buy gorilla meat,
elephant and chimpanzee. If one finds elephant meat, it will most
likely have been killed by ivory hunters, who might have made a present
of the rest of the animal to a village near where it was killed.

The
layman’s rule of conservation is that people should not eat forest
animals or primates. Even pythons, that we love to hate, are
endangered. Porcupines, grass cutters, snails and many other available
rodents are the quick breeding alternatives.

Between
November and December 2007, Ebbaken locals killed thirty thousand
swallows for food, but since then and because of Pierfrancesco’s
initiative and the locals’ goodwill, the barn swallow’s place in the
world is secure for now.

But
of course that is not the end of the story, because vegetarians and
vegans and animal rights people will tell us that if we dare worry
about swallows and gorillas then we have a moral obligation to worry
about goats and cows and bush rats and crickets and rain termites and
the debate will go on and on until we are all forced to give up meat
altogether.

One step at a time is my suggestion. Some people will never give up
eating meat (“as surely as Adam and Eve were given dominion!”). Some
people believe it is “UnNigerian” to empathise with the life and pain
of animals. Some people believe that they need to eat meat to stay
healthy and some eat meat because they just love to eat meat. Whatever
the rationale, I propose that it is at least essential to think about
the life of the animal that one is eating.