Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
"Action, like a sacrament, is the visible form of an invisible spirit" (bell hooks) || journalist || campaigner || @amnesty || Easily distracte

May 24, 2021, 8 tweets

1/. In 2009, I there was a commotion in the small Tuareg compound where I was staying near Aueglhok, northern Mali

3 boys had chased a deadly snake into a nearby rocky outcrop

Men gathered with sticks & takobas (swords) pushing dry grass into holes & crevices around the outcrop

2/. The men positioned themselves around the outcrop, waiting by each hole with their weapons raised

They then lit the grass

Snakes are v sensitive to smoke & before long the horned viper emerged from rocks to be swiftly battered to death

And I learned how to smoke out a snake

3/. I've been smoking out snakes ever since

Like everything in life, the answers we seek are usually in front of our noses all along

But sometimes - if something is being concealed - you have to smoke it out

Which brings me on to #DominicCummings!
#Cummings #CummingsTestimony

4/. "They cover up crime with scandal & cover up malice with incompetence. They want to appear inept, instead of as having a well-defined plan”

Since 8/3/20, I've been trying to make sense of the govt's seemly incomprehensible handling of the COVID crisis

5/. Call me old fashioned, but I just don't buy the idea of Dominic "##Cummings as whistle blower"

He clearly has got axes to grind, but I don't trust him

In 2019 , he refused to appear before Parliamentary Committee, so why has he chosen to appear now?

6/. We haven’t smoked #Cummings out

He is playing us: telling us only what he wants on record - painting a picture of chaos & incompetence

He has mentioned Ben & Marc Warner dozens of times but no one asks about that relationship & the links to #CambridgeAnalytica & #Palantir.

7/. “Sometimes, there is a subtle change in the wind, the clouds start to clear & the hunted becomes the hunter.” (Emerson Warner)

There are many ways to smoke out a snake

The simplest: Look them in the eye & ask them: “Are you a snake?”

You’ll know...

“Someone please ensure that they have the £530,000 within 24 hours & report back to me it’s been sent” #Cummings wrote to the CEO of NHSX in March 2020

@Dominic2306 tried to dodge contract rules & ordered officials to fast-track a grant to @OurWorldInData
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

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