Moonwalk

The bitter rivalry between nations and races goes way back to civilization and technology. The debatable issues of which race or nation is more superior have similarly been the crux of many fierce wars, conquests and adventures. Till today, there are those that are still of the firm opinions that religion is a tactical weapon of diplomacy in achieving submissions when and where brutal force had failed. If the end of the world tarries, that will continue to be a subject of contention and attrition.

The cold war between the former USSR and USA did not start with the meddling of the former in the latter's last presidential elections. To understand the crux of their beef, we must endure a trip in the time machine. Apart from docile China, both countries shared between them one third of the liveable land on the planet, leaving the rest of us to squeeze into spaces left over by the sprawling seas.

Furtherance to their ambition of owing the planet in an unequal proportion, the world was forced to run their governance along capitalism and socialism ideals as dictated by the two superpowers. Of course, it was not always the best for the rest of the world in terms of stable government but guess who benefit from the chaos, coup and wars? There were just three sources of buying arms for the rest of the world to self destruct: The Russians, Americans and of course, the unreliable black market.

In the early 60s, the batlle for supremacy moved into space conquest while the rest of the world was left to grapple with everyday challenges. In 1969, the world watched with abated breath as the Americans landed men on the moon. It was a small step for a man but a giant leap for mankind according to Armstrong on his first step on the dusty moon soil. What was however left unsaid was the sarcasm of defeat left hanging over the Russians. With the phyric victory, the disintegration of the monolithic USSR was only a question of when.

Take a deep breath, and think about the state of technology in early 60s, if you were born. Wire landline rotary telephone was the rave and rare in most homes; there were no fax machine or scan facility. There were no chips for the computer, and as matter of fact what you have in your today's iphone 6 dwarfs the entire computer in Nigeria then. The automobile then was just a box on four wheels compared to today's self-acting cars. It was however during this period that America accomplished the followings:

They built a space craft sophisticated enough to take three men to lunar orbit, a second craft ejected from the command module and was able to land two man on the moon. They came out and did their expeditions without forgetting to plant the America flag 'swaying' on non-atmospheric conditions. And the same craft took off vertically from the moon surface and rejoined the orbiting craft in lunar and they all landed safely in the Pacific....all in 1969!

Since then, American space exploration and ambition has been limited to near orbit 324 mile voyages compared to the over 225,000 miles traveled in 1969 to the moon! Followers of this article should not begin to read meaning into this, after all the Russians meekly accepted defeat in spite of their superior technology then and moved on, but not to the moon.

We may have been colonised by these folks but it is time we start taking their stories with a pinch of salt. We may not be smart enough to start a space program but we are also not that dumb not to decipher between a staged moon landing in an arid Arizona and the real moon. Or we may be forced into start

telling our own tales by moonlight too.

Mismatch

Barely out of the month of March, and Donald Trump is already marching us towards what could become a horrific war in the Middle East. The extent of the war will of course not be determined by the lack of focus and brevity in Trump's foreign policy-assuming there is one, but by the interplay of high network politics and religious rifts beyond human decency and comprehension.

Let me quickly walk you through this so as to avoid the landmines. The Assad family gained control of Syria in 1971, when Hafez al-Assad became president. In February 1982, he carried out  a nearly month-long military besiegement of Hama to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood’s anti-government uprising, leaving about 30,000 civilians dead.

When Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, his son and current president, Bashar al-Assad, took control of the country. In 2011, inspired by Arab Spring protests against then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrians took to the streets in anti-government protests.

As the anti-Assad rebellion grew, romance with Russia improves, The Isrealis/ Zionists  and Muslims got agitated  while local militias and Syrian Armed Forces defectors formed the Free Syrian Army – an armed group aimed at toppling the Assad regime. This completely changed the colour of the war as international interests represented by the Russians, Americans, Israelis, Iranians stepped in with superior firearms to paint Syria red.

Fast track to now, the argument is that Obama should have done something about it and did not. Trump promised he was not going to do anything about it during his campaign, yet he is leading the world into a treacherous battle that foes and friends are clearly not spelt out. Support for Trump intervening in this war is unfortunately total at home, sorry I mean in America.

Unfortunate in the sense that there are pressing civilian wars arrayed against Trump, and disarrayed contentious issues hanging on the legitimacy of his presidency that have come to impact on the country.

Today, there are over 600,000 homeless Americans, far greater than that number are unemployed and to get the number of those either on drug-abuse or dealing- you only need to quadruple that number. Infrastructures are on the decline while violence and race wars are increasing. And that figure in millions will be the number that will not have medical coverage by the time Trump is through with this war.The budget is revealing heavy bias for education as states departments are being short circuit for defence and meddling in affairs that are of no significance.

In fairness, Trump didn't cause this problem, he inherited it. But unlike the money he inherited from his rich father, he is beginning to escalate these problems by some rash decisions. Killing Assad will not solve the Syrian problem as antecedents have shown in Libya and even Iraq. Middles East acrimony is more spiritual than physical and Trump is in no position to understand either.

Lastly, the popular injunction is to love your neighbor as yourself, not more than yourself! We should leave NATO and the UN to handle neighbours' conflict, while we concentrate on severe issues at home like Boko Haram, Nepa, corruption...wait a minute.

Am getting confused, where is home to a documented immigrant?