Here’s to Des

A slightly belated happy birthday to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was 80 years old on Friday. I can’t think of many prominent figures from Africa to whom one would gladly wish a long and peaceful life, but Tutu is surely one.

It is a moot point as to whether he is more of an irritant to the ruling ANC party in South Africa than he was to the apartheid regime. His latest howl of anguish came when the corrupt and morally bankrupt ANC connived with the Chinese to stop the Dalai Lama coming to Des’s 80th bash. But he has been slinging arrows in their direction for most of the past decade, always from a position of high principle.

I suppose some of you will have your doubts about him on the question of Israel, as he has been a proponent of disinvestment. But even here he has demanded an end to the nihilism of suicide bombings and, in what is a fairly anti-semitic continent, continually praised the Jewish support in  the struggle against apartheid.

So, I hope you had a good celebration, Mr Tutu, and keep sticking it to the Zimbabweans.