The meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in progress in Iran is probably the most significant gathering of countries of the underdeveloped world after the so-called Cold War era.
Needless to say, there have been qualitative developments in the underdeveloped countries since 1961 when the movement was established, inspired by India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser and Yugoslavia’s Tito.
The leaders of day are much more sensitive to the exploitative relationship that exists between their countries and the imperialist countries led by the United States and Britain. 
They have also watched the claims of these western countries to the high ideals of democracy and free enterprise dissipate before their eyes in Vietnam, and in the wars the Americans and English manufactured in Iraq and Afghanistan.┬á The international media, though for the most part manipulated from the capitals of the imperialist countries, have given greater volumes of information that undermines the secrecy and deceit of the Americans and British war industry.┬á The citizens of the ‘developed’ countries see every day, their sons and daughters return from strange lands in coffins for causes they do not grasp.
The African, Latin American and Asiatic leaders are under greater pressure to deliver for their citizens the goods they promised at independence.  They want ways to circumvent use of food, medicine and arms by the Americans and British to gain unfettered access to the natural, human resources and markets of the former colonies.
The citizens of the former colonies have seen through the fa├ºade of gratuitous benevolence that the Americans and the British present.┬á The people are not easily bought by military bands and ‘maluti’.┬á They are now wondering what happened to the promise of assistance with anti-HIV drugs which will soon be for sale even to the poorest of the poor.
Wednesday night, Btv showed President Khama repeat the ritual of mockery of Zimbabwe elections before South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, who ought not to have been smiling after what happened in Marikana; 34 miners shot and killed by the police and many others arrested.
Perhaps President Khama would have done better, since Zuma was here for the official opening of an agricultural show, to enquire about the role of South Africa in facilitating American peddling of Genetically Modified Foods in the region.
But Zuma had cause to smile.  He had done his assignment.  South Africa will not allow agricultural goods produced in Zionist Israel on their markets.  Should any goods come from there they have to be clearly marked to show that they come from the Palestinian territories.
This is the third step in South Africa’s pronunciation of its policy towards Israel.┬á When Nelson Mandela took office in 1994, one of the first things he did was to dismantle the nuclear arms programme in which the Israelis and the Afrikaners before had cooperated. Trade in desert friendly tanks and other armaments would also be reduced or abolished.
The icing on the cake: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, also a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, rebukes participation in a meeting to be addressed by former British prime minister, Tony Blair.┬á There are loud pockets of opinion in South Africa that he should in fact be arrested for crimes against humanity for his collaboration with George Bush in lying to the world about the ‘clear and imminent danger’ of┬á an Iraqi attack using ‘weapons of mass destruction’.
At this eating occasion, foreign affairs minister, Phandu Skelemani is present and is Vice President, Ponatshego Kefikilwe.┬á It could only mean one thing; that Botswana obeyed the US call to its surrogates: “Do not go”.
Robert Mugabe was evidently impervious to the village games.  He arrived in Tehran to a warm welcome.  He has a special history with the institution.  He is a former leader of the second largest gathering of nations after the United Nations.
All the people who mattered attended.┬á Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-noon defied the western ‘bully’ countries and attended to plead for cooperation between that gathering and the United Nations in the resolution of the multiplicity of problems in the Middle East and elsewhere in the underdeveloped world where most of the problems that the UN handles occur.
Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khameini, spoke against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, most of which are in the hands of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries and Israel. He recommended a ban on nuclear weapons and described their use as ‘a sin’.
 He insisted that all other countries had a right to nuclear energy.
Iran’s president Amadinajad, receiving the leadership of the organisation from Egypt, commented that all centres of control of the world economy were in the hands of the western powers.┬á This should change, he urged.┬á Every other speaker called for the breaking of the monopoly of the western countries on the United Nations decision making bodies, especially the Security Council.
Newly elected Egyptian President, Mu hammed Borsi, broke with the mould and criticised the Assad regime in Syria for its manner of governance. The French and other western media celebrated as if sensing a cataclysmic eruption in relations at NAM. It was only fair comment by a member.
The Americans and the British are disappointed at the success of NAM because:
The gathering temporarily pre-empts their immediate plans to attack Iran under the pretext that the country is developing a nuclear weapon.  The Americans have now to return to the drawing board to fashion another strategy to attack Iran, perhaps starting by deflecting the attention of the world to defenceless Eritrea before turning to their real target.
The gathering foils the design of the Americans to foment civil strife through sanctions that are aimed at hurting the citizens of Iran.  Possible economic cooperation among the NAM countries will soften the effect of sanctions and kill American plans to isolate Iran.
The NAM meeting is likely to craft a plan for a political resolution to the war in Syria.┬á Such a plan is likely to produce an outcome that suits the peoples of Syria and the region depriving the Americans of the opportunity to gain quick access to the country’s oil resource at the expense of the Russians
The NAM gathering portends a consolidation of Arab defences against the military dominance of Israel and the United States in the region
The Americans bypassed the Security Council in order to attack Iraq and Afghanistan.  Most recently they have done the same to brace for attacks against Syria.  Iran would have been next.  NAM represents a formal alternative discussion group outside the UN and a Security Council that is held hostage by Britain and the US.  At NAM the Americans and the British have no bullying role to play except by proxy.  This NAM has demonstrated to the Americans and the British that the African, Asiatic and Latin American countries are now quiet prepared to put their interests ahead of those of the Europeans and Americans.
 By Friday night, the NAM participants had drafted a seven point paper that would summarise the proceedings of the meeting.
As Botswana celebrates the Simenthal and artificial insemination, the country might also benefit from a study of the possibilities that NAM has on offer.
(wordworks) 
