International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[zepblackstar]

 


https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/935201052361674753

[VomKriege]

I mean, "we cannot shoulder all of world's misery" or however the idiom is translated in English is pretty standard across European politicians.
Macron has a few similar rough quips on various subjects and he seems it's part of the "honesty" package.

[Cerveza mas fina]

to be fair though, why would there be an asylum seeker from morocco

no war or nothing there im aware off

[Syph]

bad optics or good this week? the overton window shifts weekly in france, I can't keep up sometimes
hmm i wonder why the gulf countries don't take all those muslim refugees and why that isn't a bigger topic of discussion :thinkingemoji:

[Syph]

great interview

[benjipwns]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/28/the-true-story-of-the-fake-us-embassy-in-ghana

For a decade, the story went, there had been a fake US embassy in the Ghanaian capital. The fraudsters behind it had flown the American flag from their building and even hung a portrait of Barack Obama on the wall. The criminal network behind the scam had advertised on billboards and prowled the most remote villages of west Africa, searching for gullible customers. They brought them to Accra, and sold them visas for as much as $6,000 (£4,495).

...

According to a US state department statement, which had been published in early November, the fake embassy was operated by “figures from both Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings and a Ghanaian attorney practicing immigration and criminal law”. The American authorities supplied a picture of an old, two-storey pink building with a tin roof, originally captioned: “The exterior of the fake embassy in Accra, Ghana.” The caption was later changed to: “One of several buildings used by the disrupted fraud ring.”

Reuters reported that the Americans, with the help of the Ghana Detectives Bureau, had raided the fake embassy. Several people were arrested, and officials seized 150 passports from 10 different countries. The Ghanaian police did not distinguish themselves. The conmen eluded them long enough to move the operation out of Ghana, and get their associates out on bail. But, the US state department said, the number of fraudulent documents coming from west Africa had gone down by 70% as a result of this and other raids, and “criminal leaders no longer have the political cover they once had”.

The fake embassy became a sensation largely because the story was so predictably familiar. The Africans were scammers. The victims were desperate and credulous. The local police officers were bumbling idiots. Countless officials were paid off. And at the end, the Americans swooped in and saved the day. There was only one problem with the story: it wasn’t true.

Like everyone else, the director wanted to know about Sewornu’s bust. “I was receiving a lot of calls,” Sewornu said when we met earlier this year in an open-air restaurant near the police headquarters in Accra. “A reporter from BBC called me, a CNN reporter called me. The Ghanaian media houses were all calling to find out. I got calls from other police officers.” The US state department story had said that the scammers had also been running a fake Dutch embassy, so the Dutch called, too.

Sewornu was stumped. He knew nothing about any investigations into a fake embassy. He tried to find out which officers had been involved, but the police unit credited by the Americans, the Ghana Detectives Bureau, didn’t exist. Ghana’s national Swat unit, the CID and the Bureau of National Investigation all told Sewornu that they weren’t involved either.

It didn’t make any sense. The entire story seemed to be based on one source: the US state department website. And their source was the US embassy in Accra. “So I called the American embassy to find out, and my contact said: ‘I don’t know anything about it,’” said Sewornu.

When the Americans announced that her house was a fake US embassy, Lamptey was one of the last to hear about it. A friend called to say it was all over the internet, she said. “I was really annoyed. Because how? And from where?”

Lamptey said there had never been a police raid. Instead, after the story broke, she and the family marched down to the local police station to find out whether they were really under investigation. The cops told them there was nothing to worry about.

In the days after the story was published – and in the following months – Lamptey was plagued by journalists, all asking the same questions about her alleged life of crime. She has denied everything, every single time. In response to her denials, the US embassy doubled down on its story. “We cannot speculate at this time what has occurred at that building after the initial raid,” the US press attache told Ghanaian reporters in December 2016. “The photo used in the online article is of the building the criminal enterprise used to conduct their fraud operations.”

When we met, Lamptey still couldn’t understand why anyone had believed the story. Look at this place, she said. “If there was an American embassy for 10 years in this house, by now everybody would be in America!”

thank god they shut it down then

[Raist]

Thanks Obama.

[VomKriege]

to be fair though, why would there be an asylum seeker from morocco

no war or nothing there im aware off

It's not the worst monarchy but it's not exactly a free and open political society either.

bad optics or good this week? the overton window shifts weekly in france, I can't keep up sometimes
hmm i wonder why the gulf countries don't take all those muslim refugees and why that isn't a bigger topic of discussion :thinkingemoji:

I missed quite a few media cycles but I don't think most people give a rat's ass. There's more talk of Macron's visit to Africa and his one man show at Ouagadougou university (look it up, I'm sure an english outlet picked it up) as far as those things go. His position is not exactly controversial. Besides opposition parties in France are in total shambles and even the far left Insoumis are struggling despite the labor reforms in fact Mélenchon apparently had a bit of a meltdown over Venezuela on TV when confronted by Laurence Debray, the daughter of Venezuelian scholar Elizabeth Burgos and French writer Régis Debray -yes, the one who was a Che Guevara companion-. She's apparently pro-Macron and a liberal but still, you know, you can't just handwave her pedigree or her familiarity with Latin America. Besides the reform front is pretty busy at the moment. Domestic political headlines currently are more :

- The reform of public education : they're dropping the reform from the former administration that tried to get less days on the schedule in schools (all studies and observers agree that French education has burdened schedules for kids with no added efficiency and that it reproduces social inequalities instead of decreasing it) and the government trying to fix the national system managing the affectation to universities for students (last summer several thousands were left without any university to attend).

- The debate over the Glyphosat and the new formula of the Levothyrox (for Thyroid afflictions) which seems to provoke heavy negative effects for its users (though doctors don't agree whether they're nocebo rections and if it even matters). 3 millions people consume it in France and it's apparently the only product (or quasi) on the market. Merck still produces the old formula in France but it's all shipped to Italy and a class action is incoming.

- The upcoming reform of the national programs for labor training and apprenticeship. Basically every French employee is paying a share of his wages for professional training (alongside pensions and healthcare) and is entitled to total or partial funding to learn new skills every so often. It's filled to the nostrils with money and as you can imagine there's a cottage industry of licenced formation offices vying for subsidized courses, but the results for overall worker polyvalence leave to be desired (France notably has a tense labor market for heavy industry jobs, which are having a big rebound while specialized education is struggling to graduate enough people for a variety of reasons). Alongside with labor law and pensions, it forms the compact that is arguably the second huge french clusterfuck (with education) with tons of layers including the unions having a major say in any change.

- The planned decrease of the corporate tax cut down to 25%.

- Also the Montparnasse Railway Station, one of the major Paris railway hub (all express lines to the West and Southwest, including Nantes, Bordeaux & Toulouse) has suddenly had to shutdown all traffic (excluding public transport) at midday until tomorrow, stranding thousands  after a bug crashed the new control system for remote signalization. The station already had a 3 days improvised shutdown in August for another technical issue. The SNCF, hardly the most popular among users or seen in a good light with delays, is taking another round of heavy fire from the government for this.

To give you an idea of the common man issues here.

[VomKriege]

Other key topics : The French soccer team was picked in a very favorable group for the next World Cup held in USSR; the Tennis team won its tenth Davis Cup after many years of falling short; the rugby team is not doing great at all but we'll host the 2023 World Cup; the most iconic french rockstar Johnny Hallyday is in critical medical state.

And snow.

[VomKriege]

Former Yemeni president Saleh killed.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-yemen-security/yemens-ex-president-saleh-shot-dead-after-switching-sides-in-civil-war-idUKKBN1DY135

[Raist]

Brexit shitshow, Episode 67.

Today was an important deadline, for the UK and EU to sit down and talk about negotiations progress on key issues, in order to possibly move on to the next step.

It all started well with May conceding that a hard border between the RoI and NI will not happen, meaning that for all intents and purposes NI would still be part of the EU.
Well, that was until the leader of the DUP (ultra-conservative garbage-tier NI party who got 10 MP seats at the last snap election, with which May had to ally if she wanted to stay in power) said "nope" because they don't won't to "be separated from the UK".

So May backpedaled, the EU is like "well fuck you then" and the Irish MP is like "what the actual fuck"

[Valhelm]

holy fuck this Yemeni situation is crazy. Saleh was not just the former president -- he was the de facto leader of all parts of Yemen not controlled by occupying Saudi forces.

Because the country's been groaning under a Saudi assault for almost three years and is totally blockaded, millions are starving and a million more have been stricken with cholera. Because so few journalists or observers are able to enter Yemen, the true human cost of Saudi aggression is mostly unknown. Only the resolve of the Yemenis and the incompetence of the Saudis has prevented the country from being totally overrun.

A couple days ago, Saleh decided enough was enough. The country has been so ravaged and depleted that it's hard to know for how much longer the Yemenis can survive. Without the consent of the Houthi militia that makes up the majority his armed forces, Saleh tried to make some kind of deal with the Saudis to end the war immediately. This was seen as a betrayal by the Houthis, who seem to be less interested in short-term peace and more concerned with their long-term survival. So members of the Houthis killed him.

Anything could happen now. We don't even know who's in charge of Saleh's former territory. Saudi puppet Hadi is demanding Yemenis turn against the Houthis in revenge for this killing, but because the Houthis are essentially the military of independent Yemen this isn't a likely scenario. On twitter I'm seeing reports of clashes between Houthis and Saleh loyalists, but because they've lost their paycheck and their leader I doubt these loyalists will put up much of a fight.

The Houthis may very well seize control of the whole Yemeni government apparatus and escalate the fight against the Saudis. This will probably lead to major Saudi counteroffensive and lots of bloody fighting. All we know for sure is that the Yemenis' suffering will not be over very soon.

[Syph]

wow
yemen is gonna be the new syria
and by "new", I mean anyone remotely dialed in has known about the conflict for years, but the major networks and therefore the public are only soon going to start caring
sad

[Valhelm]

Libya is already the new Syria

It's great that people are aware of the horror show that nation has become, but I'm worried the new press attention could be used to justify another Western intervention that would fuck shit up further. There's a minute US infantry presence in Libya already, and with recent awareness of the Libyan slave trade the DoD could pretty easily get congressional authorization to escalate this presence.

[HardcoreRetro]

It's Sinterklaas in the Netherlands.

Happy black face day!

[Raist]

Moar Brexit entertainment.

Sturgeon (Scotland's FM) and Khan (Mayor of London) have jumped on the NI train. "If they get special treatment, why wouldn't we too!".
Other voices are starting to raise in Westminster, saying "well we just might as well stay in the single market, Norway-style then".


The Welsch and Scottish Parliaments are not too happy about current plans to transfer decision making in some areas (especially farming) directly from Brussels to Westminster, and see it as a de facto power grab that would go against the principles of devolution.


This shit is amazing

[Cerveza mas fina]

I can't wrap my head around the DUP, Brexit and everything.

They want out of the EU and support May in Brexit, but they won't accept a border between the Irelands or between NI and the rest of the UK.

Ergo they want somehting that is actually impossible. One of the two has to happen with Brexit, or there can be no hard Brexit. If there is not hard Brexit then Brexit is a joke if the UK will be delegated to the status of Norway and Switserland, where they pay and obay the rules, but have no say 

What a shit show.

And who called this? Everyone.

[Raist]

David Cameron [laughs]

[Corporal]

David Cameron [laughs]

If I remember correctly from the open mic incident during his last speech as a PM, it's more like [hums a tune from a TV show].

But yeah, everyone but the  Brexit nutters saw all of this coming. I'm amazed how many of those with a brain still absolutely insist in keeping calm and getting with it even now that the Project Fear angle has been dismantled and many if not all of the predictions are at the cusp of coming true.

[zomgee]

Russia booted from the 2018 Olympics.

https://sports.yahoo.com/russia-banned-2018-winter-olympics-pyeongchang-183735604.html

SAD

[Valhelm]

good for them but the IOC is still fucking awful

[Valhelm]

trump did it, the absolute madman

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/world/middleeast/american-embassy-israel-trump-move.html

[shosta]

somewhere john kerry is crying

[benjipwns]

Russia booted from the 2018 Olympics.

https://sports.yahoo.com/russia-banned-2018-winter-olympics-pyeongchang-183735604.html

SAD

they should hold their own winter olympics in Pyongyang with blackjack and hookers

wait, fuck, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Games

[agrajag]

Russia booted from the 2018 Olympics.

https://sports.yahoo.com/russia-banned-2018-winter-olympics-pyeongchang-183735604.html

SAD

they should hold their own winter olympics in Pyongyang with blackjack and hookers

wait, fuck, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Games

Has nothing on the Nazi Olympics of 1936.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics#Boycott_debate

Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler saw the Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy and antisemitism, and the official Nazi party paper, the Völkischer Beobachter, wrote in the strongest terms that Jews should not be allowed to participate in the Games

Jewish athletes from other countries (notably the US) seem to have been side-lined in order not to offend the Nazi regime.[6]

Those Nazis stooped to an almost Gamergate level of evil.

[Valhelm]

somewhere john kerry is crying

That little Kerry speech, given weeks before Trump's inauguration, was probably the most courageous moment of the Obama administration. Using such frank language to address the Palestinian situation is a huge break from previous presidencies and a necessary step to identifying and rectifying the oppression of Palestinians.

Hopefully future Dem presidencies can turn this rhetoric into actually humanitarian policy.

[Raist]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42249854

The government has not carried out any impact assessments of leaving the EU on the UK economy, Brexit Secretary David Davis has told MPs.

Mr Davis said the usefulness of such assessments would be "near zero" because of the scale of change Brexit is likely to cause.

He said the government had produced a "sectoral analysis" of different industries but not a "forecast" of what would happen when the UK leaves the EU.

Opposition MPs have been on the trail of the "Brexit impact assessments" for months. And when David Davis told them they didn't exist, they were quick to highlight some similar-sounding studies he had referred to in the past:

    October 2016, asked what assessment the government had made of the impact of Brexit on the economy: "We currently have in place an assessment of 51 sectors of the economy. We are looking at those one by one, but the aim at the end is that this will inform the negotiating approach so that no one gets hurt."
    December 2016, to the Brexit Committee: "We are in the midst of carrying out about 57 sets of analyses, each of which has implications for individual parts of 85% of the economy… everything except sectors that are not affected by international trade."
    February 2017, in a statement to MPs: "We continue to analyse the impact of our exit across the breadth of the UK economy, covering more than 50 sectors - I think it was 58 at the last count - to shape our negotiating position."
    June 2017, on the Andrew Marr Show:"That data's being gathered, we've got 50, nearly 60 sector analyses already done, we've got planning work going on in the customs, we've got planning work going on 22 other issues which are critical, 127 all told."

Downing Street told journalists: "We have been clear that the impact assessments don't exist. They're a specific thing in Whitehall terms. We think we have complied with the terms of the motion."

 

[Cerveza mas fina]

Clearly they exists but they are called differently, they just cant show them because then everyone would see how crap they are, but by not showing them we also know they are shit.

Brexit brehs

[Corporal]

Brexit is the gift that keeps on giving. How the Brits haven't tarred and feathered their political "elite" yet is beyond my capability for understanding.

Oh well.

[HardcoreRetro]

[Raist]

So Davis had some 'splaining to do to the Brexit Committee on how exactly it turned out that there were not really any excruciatingly detailed reports on the impact of Brexit on the UK economy. The Committee (with a Tory + DUP majority) found that he did nothing wrong. What a surprise.

Several MPs have officially asked the Speaker of the House for Davis to be charged with Contempt of Parliament. I'm sure that will happen

Brexit is the gift that keeps on giving. How the Brits haven't tarred and feathered their political "elite" yet is beyond my capability for understanding.

Oh well.

The British Way, Est. 1939.

[Broseidon]

i hate this stupid fucking country

[Corporal]

I move we refer to UK as "cuntry" instead. They are cunts, they love cunts, and even if you ignore everything else, their leaders are most definitely up there in the top ten of "vilest cunts ever to grace the international stage of politics".

No but seriously, if Davis survives this, all hope is lost. This is about as blatant as you can get. Not like there was much hope to begin with, all things considered.


I'm curious what will happen tomorrow, though. I kinda want DUP to dig their heels in and shatter whatever dealio May and the EU seem to have arrived at. Just for the lulz, by now. Everything is so comically inept and stupid. Doesn't feel real at all.


Love how some nutters are furiously masturbating over  Germany's Schulz advocating for a USE during the recent party gathering and on twitter. He's in the opposition, what else is he going to say and do during a party event like that. Like, duh.

[Raist]

So good old Theresa managed to calm the DUP down - for now I guess.

    Guarantee that there will be "no hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic and that the "constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom" will be maintained.

    EU citizens living in the UK and vice versa will have their rights to live, work and study protected. The agreement includes reunification rights for relatives who do not live in the UK to join them in their host country in the future

    Financial settlement - No specific figure is in the document but Downing Street says it will be between £35bn and £39bn, including budget contributions during a two-year "transition" period after March 2019

Need details on the first two, because that's as vague as it comes.


edit: well here's the whole damn thing.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/joint_report.pdf

[shosta]

ISIS no longer in control of any areas in Iraq; renames self to "ISS".

[Corporal]

So, who's next on the bash list? Maybe the Kurds? Or are we spinning up for some good old Iran/Isreal fuckery? Has been a while since the last time, and Trump is poking the bee hive. Plus what SA has been cooking up in Yemen and elsewhere. Ah, so many possibilities.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I still dont understand what the deal on Ireland is 

[Corporal]

I still dont understand what the deal on Ireland is 

Basically, it's the tacit admission by the Brits that they will eventually go for a Norway type dealio.
Stay in the customs union and obey all laws the EU deems important. No say in anything. And they will have to pay for the privilege, no doubt. Oh, and they can't get a deal as good as Norway, because Norway and quite a few other countries will drop kick the EU in the balls if that were to happen (and have veto power for their own little club anyway, with precious little interest to welcome a former big player that would completely dominate them).

Why? Because they agreed to honour the Good Friday Agreement that ended the troubles between Northern Ireland and Ireland. In writing. Beyond already having agreed to that as signatory of the GFA, mind.

Which will only work if A) there is no border between NI and I, and B) there is no border between NI and rUK. Which, in turn, requires rUK participation in the customs union, and from there it goes.

Note the wording above. Irrespective of the outcome of the talks. Even if UK is about to crash out to WTO rules, the hardest of Brexits.

Well, that's like 50% wishful thinking on my part, but I'm fairly sure there's a kernel of truth in there somewhere.

[VomKriege]

The relevant authority publicized the wealth statements of the French government. A third of the cabinet (12) has a milion of more in assets. The wealthiest is Muriel Pénicaud, the Labor Minister ( ) which used to be directing HR at Danone ( ), with an estimated 7,5m Euros (a big chunk in life insurances). Less surprising is the Ecology Minister, Nicolas Hulot, who used to produce and host a very popular exploration and nature documentary series though it's ironic to learn he has 8 gas powered vehicles (6 cars, 1 motorbike and a boat). Career politicians are on average poorer than the people coming from "the real economy".
The poorest minister is fittingly the one in charge of the Budget (basically subordinated to the Economy one), Gérald Darmanin (age 35) with less than 40k in various assets.

Christophe Castaner, recently elected at the head of Macron's party movement (unopposed and with Macron's backing in an election where only some of the party members were eligible to vote) but yet still keeping a position as a Secretary of State (Which in france are second tier cabinet offices), was pretty fed up about those questions "I have a loan and both my parents are dead".

There's not a ton of points of comparison to really say if it's really that egregious by French standard (sleazy businessman / conman Benard Tapie was once a Minister...) as up until recently disclosing wealth and assets wasn't standard. Not as bad as the USA Cabinet, I guess.

Macron is having a party for his 40th birthday at the prestigious Chambord castle and is taking his first week-end off for this. Official communication insists it's all paid on his own funds.

Also :
Far right FPÖ has been awarded the vice chancellery, foreign affairs, interior security and others in the latest Austrian cabinet. Christian-Democrat S.Kurz becomes chancellor at 31.
 

[Valhelm]

Revolutionary violence in Iraqi Kurdistan?? Reports on twitter of protesters opposed to the Barzani family's dominance storming government offices and burning images of Masoud Barzani.

https://twitter.com/AlSuraEnglish/status/943151219262087168

https://twitter.com/AramKrdstn/status/943083734101823488

Speculation online suggest these protesters are not affiliated with the radical PKK in Turkey and northern Syria, but instead are part of the democratic socialist Gorran movement that seeks closer ties with Baghdad and secular democracy at home.

[benjipwns]

4% of Vietnam must be weapons smugglers or Vietcong still hiding in the jungles.

This is also a really strange question, as the number of people in the sample who could answer the question based on personal experience must be incredibly small.

[benjipwns]

MILLENNIALS

spoiler (click to show/hide)

is the sample of 50+ South Africans overly white or something?

[close]

[Brehvolution]

Why wouldn't millenials be happier? They've been given a tiny screen to look at half the day for free.

[Rufus]

This is also a really strange question, as the number of people in the sample who could answer the question based on personal experience must be incredibly small.

I was gonna say. Still interesting though.

[Raist]

UK 45% Life is better than 50 years ago, vs. 31% worse.

Yet 52% of these assclowns voted to leave the EU (after exactly 43 years of membership) because it has "ruined your country".

[VomKriege]

This is also a really strange question, as the number of people in the sample who could answer the question based on personal experience must be incredibly small.

I was gonna say. Still interesting though.

I mean it is obviously about representations and feelings. It's more to have some vague objective framing and a single point of reference even if a construct.

[Tokyosandblaster]

Wrong thread.

[Raist]

UK 45% Life is better than 50 years ago, vs. 31% worse.

Yet 52% of these assclowns voted to leave the EU (after exactly 43 years of membership) because it has "ruined your country".

that empire nostalgia

From the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony.

[jorma]

lol at those south korean millenials who think they have it worse than their grandparents.

[Rufus]

NIce spontaneous dementia, too. Learning from the best.

[HardcoreRetro]

I like this guy.

[toku]

https://twitter.com/demarionunn/status/944223378466050048

[benjipwns]

I like this guy.

best part was that's Miss Napa Valley 2012 faking broken English

[curly]

So the New York Times had an article about the Lebanese PM's resignation and subsequent detainment in Saudi Arabia. It's worth reading, but the gist is that the Saudis forced him to do it. Also the Saudis are idiots and actively destabilizing the region. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/24/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-saad-hariri-mohammed-bin-salman-lebanon.html

[Raist]

https://twitter.com/demarionunn/status/944223378466050048

https://twitter.com/guyverhofstadt/status/944475267111833600

https://twitter.com/guyverhofstadt/status/944651814292672513

https://twitter.com/mrjohnofarrell/status/944124469337116672

https://twitter.com/simonblackwell/status/944121514361868288


Brexit, the farce that keeps on giving

[Valhelm]

holy fuck Saudi Arabia may have just tried to do a coup in Jordan.

http://al-sura.com/jordans-king-arrests-brothers-and-cousin-in-suspected-saudi-led-coup/

If concrete proof is given of a coup attempt, Jordan might leave the Saudi fold just like Qatar did. This is like, late Habsburg Empire levels of headass foreign policy.  Blunders like this will only accelerate their decline.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42512946

[Syph]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42512946

on front page of drudge report right now as well

interesting to note that is was just a few weeks (months?) ago that ayatollah khomeni and former pres ahmadinejad were openly feuding

[VomKriege]

Colombia is apparently emergency shipping 55 tons of ham to Venezuela for the Eve. Ham is a traditional fixture there for the season but Portuguese suppliers refused to take orders this year. President Maduro blamed "international sabotage" and some major figures of his party mentioned... Can you guess ? US imperialists. Portuguese government stated they had no pull and no business to meddle with private exporters. Apparently the tab for last year is still due ?

[VomKriege]

Tamil movie star who played that cybord in that Indian movie you've at last seen a Youtube video of is entering politics :
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-politics-actor/tamil-film-star-to-enter-politics-in-indias-detroit-idUSKBN1EP03R

And former football striker George Weah has been elected Libéria's president. Apparently it's a much bigger deal for the media than his predecessor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was just the first elected female head of state in Africa, won a Nobel Peace prize and survived a purge by execution of almost the whole cabinet following a coup in 1980. Not to say she's a saint or anything (she's very much a politician, a part of the elite of his country, and an international technocrat) but it seems a little more momentous than a popular athlete playing well with the citizens ?