A tale of three countries...and their colonial masters

Over the last couple of weeks, three countries have had very different experiences dealing with nations that, several decades ago, were their colonialist masters.

The Venezuelan President Chavez had to be told to "shut up" by the King of Spain after an outburst where he accused a former Spanish Prime Minister of being fascist. Some commentators consider Chavez very brazen standing up to the Spanish

In Chad, something very different happened. Several French and Spanish citizens have been detained, accused of allegedly trafficking children who they purported were from Darfur but are now said to be from Chad. French President Sarkozy flew in to meet the Chadian President Idriss Déby and within a day or two, more than half the number of accused were set free. Some commentators have kept the debate around the issue of trafficking while others simply consider Déby weak.

Of course there's the perennial UK vs. Zimbabwe debate, the latest being the question of the African-EU summit to be held in Portugal. With President Mugabe having being invited, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown threatened not to attend. While some sections of society have appealed to Brown to change his mind, others have accused him of hypocrisy. Regardless, it is interesting to note that in this case, it is the UK and not Zimbabwe that is feeling the heat.