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Tuesday Morning Starting Five: The Rest In Peace Omar Bongo Edition

Omar Bongo Ondimba, Africa’s longest serving leader, dies of a heart attack. (Reuters)

NBA Shows No Respect for Black Press. (LA Sentinel)

Mos Def is diverse to say the least. (USA Today)

Drake is killin’ the game right now. (Rolling Stone)

Kwame is still doing his thing…just not in the D. (Detroit News)

The Tampa Bay Rays leads the revival of the stolen base. (Canadian Press)

Mighty Mos and Slick Rick the Ruler…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Tuesday Morning Starting Five: The Rest In Peace Omar Bongo Edition”

  1. Temple3 says:
    June 9, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    On Omar Bongo:

    Not a great loss by any stretch of the imagination. Bongo was a hired gun for the French who was installed against the wishes of the people.

    Even Reuters peeped the game (sort of):

    French radio said the Gabonese defence minister had ordered the closure of air, land and sea borders. The mayor of the capital Libreville banned large gatherings and ordered nightclubs and bars to close as security forces patrolled.

    The government said it would respect the terms of the constitution, under which Senate President Rose Francine Rogombe, a Bongo ally in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), is expected to take over as interim leader.

    She should then organise elections within 45 days.

    Bongo carved out a strong relationship with former colonial power France, and French influence is likely to continue.

    French energy firm Total is one of the biggest investors in the country while the French military has around 1,000 troops stationed in the capital Libreville.

    “All the French are interested in is continuity. They want the same leverage as they had, so a known candidate from within the (ruling) clan would seem to be preferable,” said Hannah Koep, West Africa analyst at risk consultancy Control Risks.

    The French official who installed Bongo (and his name escapes me at the moment) is also dead. Still, the legacy lives on with the French desire to keep things as they’ve been for decades. It’s time for the French to get their ass kicked again.

  2. Mizzo says:
    June 9, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    I totally agree.

    Just gave him props for longevity brothaman. 40 + years is a long ass time–whether right or wrong.

  3. awb says:
    June 9, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    Mizzo,

    Huh?

    As for Kwame Kilpatrick. He’s a dumbass.nm

  4. Mizzo says:
    June 9, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    Dude became sick rich off oil at the people’s expense, but I’m not one to criticize anyone in death. That’s just me bruh.

  5. awb says:
    June 9, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    I wouldn’t honor them in death either. Different strokes.

  6. Temple3 says:
    June 9, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    You get no props for longevity if you’re protected by the French. If he didn’t have their protection, he would be have been beaten to death and had his body cut up and placed in a vat of acid by mercenaries — like Patrice Lumumba. Or he might have caught a bullet to the dome from his “own” soldiers like Anwar Sadat…or his airplane might have crashed like Samora Machel.

    Under no circumstances are long-lived protected men worthy of honor in my pantheon of African heroes. Bongo was bought and sold on the auction block of integrity.

  7. Mizzo says:
    June 9, 2009 at 8:10 pm

    You got that. I stand corrected.

  8. Miranda says:
    June 10, 2009 at 12:52 am

    I’m totally ticked by the Kwame article. LOL…don’t hate the playa, hate the game……he’s playing with the same rulebook Madoff’s wife is playing with….cant be mad at’em for that.

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