Category Archives: Political thoughts

The Sudanese Revolution

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Perspectives from Khartoum, March-April 2022

I have come to Khartoum for a cultural mapping. The European Union has decided to expand its support of the Sudanese cultural sector. The EU, wired to support the state of Sudan, has no partner to work with since the military coup of Oct 25, five months ago: it does not recognize the military government. After several months of efforts to help reconstitute a civilian government, the EU delegation in Sudan has decided to increase its assistance program towards the support of civil society. One of the components of civil society is the cultural sector, supported over the past years through EUNIC. I am glad that sometimes the European Union does use its money wisely. My goal is to help them invest strategically into the cultural sector, in a way that builds it up instead of making it dependent on external funding.

As a result I’m in an intense round of consultations with all kinds of actors in this sector. Artists, directors of private organizations, commercial or non-benefit, institutions, researchers… everybody is speaking about the political and economic crisis, and are thinking about what the cultural sector can do to contribute to an outcome. In the following I will present some of their views on the double failure of the state and the economy, and how they are reacting to this crisis now. But first an explanation about the current situation in Sudan.

El Mek Nimr avenue, Khartoum. Photo by author
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A Plan for the Future of Humanity

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The five posts below are the first of a new series called ‘A Plan for the Future’ which I’m publishing on substack. Please sign up here.

1. Time to replace the state

10 March 2022

The world is going up in flames, but our states are getting ready to fight each other. It is time we humans reorganize to get rid of our states. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change really pulls on the alarm bell, but our governments seem not to be listening. We should be radically cutting our emissions, reorganizing the global economy and preparing for extreme climate events. Instead, Western governments are rearming, getting ready to pump even more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, reallocating funds to armies and warfare and doing nothing to curb the growing inequalities in the global economy.

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Le Somaliland, la démocratie africaine aux 30 ans d’isolement

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For the full article (in French) see The Conversation here. I also gave a 20-minute interview in French on the Belgian Radio programme ‘Au Bout du Jour’ by Eddy Caekelberghs on 28 Feb 2022 (link here)

Il y a trente ans, tandis que la Somalie sombrait dans la guerre civile, la partie nord-ouest du pays a fait sécession. Elle s’est déclarée indépendante sous le nom de Somaliland. Depuis, ce pays a construit un État, un ordre démocratique, sa propre monnaie et une économie. Il a surtout connu la paix, à la différence de la Somalie voisine.

Le Somaliland, grand comme la moitié de la France, est peuplé de trois à quatre millions de personnes. Il commande une position stratégique sur les rives sud du Golfe d’Aden, une des zones majeures du transit maritime mondial.

Depuis trente ans, ce pays cherche la reconnaissance diplomatique, en tant que bon voisin et en respectant les règles internationales. Pourtant, il n’est pas reconnu. Pourquoi ?

Le marché du bétail à Aynabo. Robert Kluijver, Fourni par l’auteur
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Don’t Look Down! The Western Defeat in Afghanistan and its Consequences

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The international intervention in Afghanistan since 2001 has been an outright disaster. After twenty years of chaos and warfare, the Taliban have returned to power. NATO members spared no expense: despite the most sophisticated warfare technology and special forces straight out of a Hollywood movie, they were defeated by men with Kalashnikovs on motorbikes. The US invested a trillion US dollars, and the rest of the world probably an equivalent amount, but the Afghan economy is in shambles and its population on the brink of starvation. Where did that money go? Not a single person in a prominent position in Western countries has been held accountable for what appears to be a giant scam, mostly in favour of the US Defense Industry and the private military sector.

Instead, the people and institutions involved in Afghanistan have moved on, and one barely hears about the country any longer. Whatever happens there now is considered the fault of the new government. Has anybody paused to think about this disaster, and try to draw some lessons from it? A public process in the democratic arena whereby accountability is sought and responsibilities assigned would help, at the very least, prevent a similar catastrophe occurring somewhere else.

There are other good reasons to reflect about what happened in Afghanistan. A new type of state has emerged within the current world order, and it may soon be joined by others. Simply ignoring it – ‘Don’t Look Down’ – is not a solution, nor is dealing with it by military means or by cutting it off from global financial circuits. A growing community of global citizens disenchanted with the current world order (not only ‘jihadis’) are extracting lessons from this defeat. That they cannot be seen or heard in Western centres of power (including mainstream media) does not mean they don’t exist.

President Bush addresses a joint session of Congress.

Humanitarian response to Afghanistan: to make us feel good or to support Afghans?

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Wed 15 September UPDATED ON 20 SEPTEMBER

Today I tried to send money by Western Union to a friend in Afghanistan. At their office on Louise square, Brussels, I was told that the Afghan government had banned transfers to the country. The director came to confirm that it had been a decision of the Taliban; the employee shook his head sadly in commiseration with the Afghans. Later I managed to transfer the amount on the company’s online platform. It was just not possible in dollars anymore, only in the local currency. That makes sense, because there are not so many dollars left in Afghanistan, and they are needed to buy things from abroad – such as food. Edit 10 November: my donation arrived in the Afghan bank but my friend had to come every day to stand in line, and each time he was told the money was there but they had no cash to pay him out. After three weeks I recalled the money and then sought out an Afghan money trader in Belgium that could send the money to my friend through the hawala system. Transfer costs are a bit lower than with Western Union and my friend could pick up the money from Kabul’s money market the same day.

The EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, said in a press statement this afternoon that a serious lessons learnt exercise was needed within the EU to reflect on the results of twenty years of statebuilding efforts. He also stated the EU should engage the new Taliban government (underlining it is not the same as recognizing them), overriding some member states who rather not even talk to the Taliban. He congratulated Europe on increasing the humanitarian aid available to Afghans to 200 million Euros. The Taliban government, in turn, yesterday thanked the world for the 1.2 billion USD pledged in Geneva to aid Afghanistan. But no European aid will be delivered through the Afghan government. The Ministries of Education, Health, Rural Development and others will have insufficient funds to confront the looming crisis.

A camp in the outskirts of Kabul for people displaced by the fighting in Southwest Afghanistan, visited in 2013. Photo by the author
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Policy paper: Engaging the Taliban

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Robert Kluijver, 25 August /1 September 2021

As the dust settles after the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government, diplomats, donors and aid agencies are already wondering: how will we deal with the new government? I argue here that the West should engage the Taliban for the sake of the Afghan population.

Street view in Kabul’s old city, near Asheqan wa Arefan; 2013 (photo by author)

The EU has stopped its development aid, as have USAID and other major Western donors. This aid provided more than half of the Afghan government’s budget and no Western donor wants to appear to be propping up the Taliban regime. Instead, more humanitarian aid has been promised by the EU (increasing it from 50 to 200 million Euros) which it plans to disburse through the UN, to help fleeing Afghans as well as those staying in the country. Humanitarian assistance is typically disbursed through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and is therefore seen as not supporting the government. This is highly problematic as I shall argue.

Likely security cooperation between the West and the Taliban

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Reflections on the crumbling of the Afghan state

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I first arrived in Afghanistan on March 21, 2000. I was immediately whisked into the office of the Taliban Deputy Minister for Culture, who warmly welcomed my mission to collaborate on the documentation and protection of cultural heritage. In the following seven months I occasionally worked with him and other Taliban authorities, mostly at the provincial and district level, as I surveyed Afghan monuments and archaeological sites and undertook some small-scale protection and restoration works. I lived in Kabul and moved freely, without needing any protection, through the city and the country, except in the Northeastern areas held by the opposition.

Visiting the site of Hadda in Eastern Afghanistan, Sep 2000. Photo credit Molly or Nellika Little

I found the Taliban personable and hospitable as only Afghans can be, but I also noticed they were often uncultivated and inept, and intensely disliked by my Afghan colleagues. I once co-hosted a political gathering of Taliban (for the opening of the National Museum in August 2000) and then noticed that usually calm Taliban contacts suddenly agitated for jihad and national cultural resistance (the museum was closed again after three days): to me an antipathetic group identity and project. Moreover the Taliban were clearly incapable of governing the country – in four years since they had gained power they had not restored any buildings, and only paved 20 km of road – and most Afghans I met ardently longed they would disappear.

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Understanding the current Somali political crisis

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Analysis by Robert Kluijver, April 28 2021
The crisis that is rocking Somalia now is caused by the unwillingness of President Farmajo, whose term ended on Feb 8, 2021, to allow a transition of power. If he continues to cling to the presidency, we may witness a disintegration of national security forces into clan-based militias that defend certain areas of Mogadishu, resulting in low to medium levels of armed conflict and permanent instability. The fragile political progress made over the past decade may unravel and the Somali economy may enter a phase of stagnation or decline. Mogadishu residents fleeing their homes to escape the fighting (60,000 to 100,000 on Sunday April 25, according to the UN) and the Al Shabaab attacks in Mogadishu on April 28 are a foreboding of what may come if this crisis is not rapidly resolved.

In the night of Tuesday to Wednesday 28 April, Farmaajo announced he would seek a new mandate from Parliament to solve the current political crisis through elections, overturning his earlier insistence that the extension of his mandate by two years, voted by the Lower House on 14 April, provided sufficient legitimacy for his rule. In the same speech he lashed out at his political opponents, accusing them of engineering the current crisis for their personal benefit. Far from conciliation, he did not suggest he would step down to allow a level playing field during the electoral process, which is a key demand of his opponents.

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L’Europe se trompe de politique en Somalie

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In English: Reconsidering EU policy options in Somalia

INTERVIEW SUR LA SITUATION POLITIQUE PUBLIÉE SUR RFI – 19 FÉVRIER 2021

Interview sur la crise électorale – Radio Vatican, 26 avril 2021.

Tribune / Opinion qui attend publication dans la presse francophone, rédigée le 11 février 2021

L’Union Européenne dépense depuis des décennies des milliards d’euros en Somalie, mais le bilan de cet engagement est plus que décevant. Si bien la société Somalienne, dynamique, connait un certain essor, le gouvernement de l’État fédéral et de ses états membres, que la communauté internationale s’est engagée à soutenir, reste paralysé par les luttes pour le pouvoir entre les clans. Ce gouvernement, dépendant de l’aide internationale et profondément corrompu, jouit de peu de soutien populaire, d’autant plus qu’il est incapable de démarrer le développement du pays exsangue. Ayant échoué à tenir des élections avant le 8 février, quand leur mandat est arrivé à terme, le Président Farmaajo et son cabinet sont même techniquement illégitimes : une bonne occasion pour l’Europe d’infléchir sa politique.

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The place of the Law in France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

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Today everybody, when speaking of Human Rights, thinks of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948, with its 30 articles. But this declaration took its name, the principle of its existence and several of its articles from the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen’ established by the National Assembly of revolutionary France in August 1789. Prior to that there were other declarations of legal/constitutional nature specifying rights of men, notably the US Declaration of Independence (1776, co-written by Thomas Jefferson who also helped write the French Declaration), the English Bill of Rights (1689),  the 1215 Magna Carta and even King Cyrus’ cylinder (539 BC) which proclaimed the freedom of the Babylonian people. But the French declaration, as the name indicates, was the first to be specifically concerned with the rights of the individual human being and put these at the centre of the political system.

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