It seems the focus of NATO's wrath is to shift from Afghanistan to North Africa. Enter Jihadi-Terrorist, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, described as "An easily digestible Osama bin Laden remix". And so the motto 'The King is dead: Long live the King', applies in the field of counter-terrorism too. And hence a new 'King of Terror', bankrolled it seems from Quatar. More Cowboys and Indians cept this time the Indians are cleverly covering their hair to ward of errant fascinations. War on many levels it seems but where is Vidal Sassoon when you need him? Enter volunteers from the department of bearded wonders. A future role for Colin Farrell no doubt for how can the movies ape reality if reality refuses to ape the movies? Sometimes I wonder if this is war as entertainment just like during the Napoleonic era when pitched battles were observed by the gentry from safe distance. That's it war as spectacle driven by consumer-corporate greed and played out by the powers and their doppelganger Jihad i nemesis. 

Surely to God this is not the kind of 'Recollinisation of Africa' , any sane person would have envisaged? Re-enter Collin Re-Farrellinisation proceeded by Colon Re-Powelled on the bongos. We can only hope and pray that the entire affair is an elaborate showcase for Touareg music and the North African peoples who, unlike their Afghan counterparts, know how to sing and dance. Western music has become far too stayed and predictable and could do with being colonised by a Touaregic soundscape tsunami. Insha' Allah.