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spears: eh! oh! eh! what have I done to merit these cruel sufferings?

federline: many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence.

spears: who is it that accuses me?

federline: it is i, even i, the federline.

spears: what! my enemy in person?

federline: no, not your enemy.

spears: i repeat it; my enemy; for you would not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a glutton and a tippler; now all the world, that knows me, will allow that I am neither the one nor the other.

federline: the world may think as it pleases; it is always very complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who takes a reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who never takes any. 

federline: baby, why are elderly people often called "old people" but children are never called "new people"?

spears: i dunno baby.

federline: people expect the country to be impoverished as a result of the war. but the opposite happens. there is money... are you surprised that the great powers, the united states, the european community, are willing to reconcile themselves to the current regime in nigeria even though it may be one of the worst tyrannies that the continent has seen?

spears: surprised, and at the same time not surprised. even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome. if you remember during the cold war, where the east played against the other and the third world nations played one ideological bloc against the other, both sides, both communist and capitalist worlds, were very fond of the strong man syndrome. a single individual to carry out their imperial will on that continent. the business world loved not to be accountable.

federline: however, all that world of theirs, the rivalry fell to pieces. gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. but it's sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms.

spears: exactly, we're moving toward democracy but maybe this is the person who will bring it. in the mean time, hundreds have been liquidated, torture continues. they have the reports from their embassies, their missions. they have their reports from the united nations human rights commissions, commonwealth, amnesty international, european union, they have all these reports. but that will to break with the past has not yet been thoroughly formed. and so they play it both ways.

federline: a mass movement from within!

spears: it's been difficult, and without a question i've had moments when i just wondered whether we're not really pursuing an impossible ideal.

federline: i know! you had the termination of one-party rule in malawe, namibia became independent, a movement was made toward ending the liberian situation. and dictatorships were just stumbling. ono fagindo had been killed in the meantime. this "emperor" bokassa had been dethroned. macazinguima had been carted off in equatorial guinea. it was a period of buoyancy.

spears: you suddenly remember that charity begins at home. it’s depressing from time to time.

federline: i want to recite you a quote from the book ake, "wherever you find yourself, don't run away from a fight. your adversary will probably be bigger, he will trounce you the first time. next time you meet him, challenge him again. he will beat you all over again. the third time I promise you this, you will either defeat him or he will run away. are you listening to what i'm telling you?"

spears: he was very prophetic.

federline: yes