Thursday, April 21, 2011

Here's How to Help move the African Union Away from its Egregious External Strategy

I had the priviledge of going to the African Union for a visit, while in Addis for some capacity-building on peace and security of the AU, and I was pretty impressed with the tall building the Chinese are building for the AU.

Germany's GIZ is also building the AU's Peace and Security Department, and will be completed by 2012. It ought to remind the world, then, that the AU has "arrived" in grand style on managing peace and security.

What irked me, though, was my impressions when I landed in Addis eight days earlier. Given that I want this to be a positive thing, let me offer solutions for the way forward:

1.The AU should have some Memorandum of Understanding between itself and ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES that would enable it showcase the AU to regular and first-time visitors in the plane. Alright, show your movies, but have a twenty-minute video of what the AU is, what it does and where it will be in the future!!

2. The AU should arrange for EVERY BLESSED HOTEL IN ADDIS to host an AU flag. Have your regular flags, but for goodness sake, this is the diplomatic capital of Africa!

For now, this is what comes to mind. I hope African readers will help me with tips. Who knows, we can all one day petition both the AU, hotels in Addis and Ethiopian Airlines to get serious on promoting the AU as it should be promoted!

4 comments:

Mena UkodoisReady said...

Great Idea!!

But in what language?

Mena

http://efemenaoreoluwa.blogspot.com/2011/02/african-when-he-is-child-is-mostly.html

E K Bensah Jr said...

naturally in the official languages of the AU--English; French; Arabic. Thx for visiting!!

Anonymous said...

French and Arabic aren't african languages. We Ethiopians have our own script which is the only one in Africa and we have our own language too. But as a compromise, I would settle for English or may be swahili too due to the fact that swahili is spoken in two nations; but no for French and Arabic.

E K Bensah Jr said...

ok, anonyomous. Fair point, but let's then go by the UN languages. The official languages of the AU are arabic, french and english remember...;-)

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