American Oil Spillage & Environmental Racism; A Case Of Permanent Double Standards
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Have you heard the news? A British Petroleum Oil Drilling Rig Platform imploded and caught fire and sunk to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico last week. As a direct consequence, eleven workers missing and presumed dead, and fear of coastal pollution of coral reef and shrimps, lobsters, fish and other aquatic life in the Louisiana coast are said to be in dire straits and threatened with imminent decimation.
The news report regarding this accident, a major environmental disaster has been plentiful and the need for urgent action to stem the spread of the oil spill have been strident and vociferous and vigorous. It is only comparable to the extraordinary publicity and consequent demand for rapid response when a similar oil spillage disaster occurred on American soil through human error committed by the captain of Exxon Valdez oil spillage disaster of 1989m which spilled about eleven million barrels of petroleum crude oil near Alaska, in the United States
During the past nine days after the explosion, inferno and extraordinary environmental disaster, the BP damaged oil rig, was suspected to be spilling as much as 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day! And just when we thought this was monumental in itself, it now has tuned out, that the spill is much more astronomical! There is now and upward revision of the amount of barrels spilled per day; it is now estimated to be as more astronomically as high or higher than 5,000 barrels per day!
This monumental environmental disaster is getting worse. It is fast spreading in expanse, breadth and width and magnitude. Oil slick covering miles and miles of coastal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening aquatic life, particularly in the coastal waters of Louisiana.
President Obama has now drafted high powered American federal officials to the immediate scene and surrounding states which are threatened with immediate impact of this extraordinary environmental disaster. The United States Coast Guard has been actively involved in managing and overseeing this BP oil rig explosion, search and rescue of BP oil workers, as well as the oil spill emergencies which arose. And now, BP spending 6 million dollars a day to clean up the gulf of Mexico and there are indications that BP is increasing these daily expenditures even beyond six million dollars on a daily basis. BP has asked the United States government to commit money to the clean up and the management of the spillage and the US government has publicly rejected BP’s monetary request or aid. After all, it is public knowledge that oil companies and conglomerates have in the past several years, been awash in billions of dollars in revenues from oil explorations and prospecting, onshore and offshore, here in the United States and abroad, including Nigeria
The EXXON Valdez accident in which occurred in 1989, was blamed on the barge-ship captain, in essence, it was determined to be as a result of avoidable human error in judgment. And it will be recalled that EXXON spent billions of dollars and thousands of man-hours, cleaning up after themselves, subsequent to the accident and the environmental disaster which came about; there were miles and miles of oil slick and there were sorrowful sights of aquatic life and mammals drenched and soaked in greasy thick black crude oil. Despite these immediate efforts by EXXON, without prompting or nudging, there were nevertheless tons and tomes of litigations which arose from the EXXON Valdez accident and oil spill in Alaska.
Similarly, the BP oil rig accident and the resulting oil spillage, has met with immediate and prompt reactions. These immediate and prompt reactions were engaged in by BP on its own, and as a matter of fact, other oil companies are reportedly joining forces and resources and assets to aid BP in the clean up. It does appear that the giants of the oil industry have, as a matter of self-preservation, decided that it is their corporate self-interests, to curb and stem the unfolding oil spillage, in order to minimize, the damage to their collective image, reputation and public perception, more particularly so, as President Obama seemed to have caved to the Republicans in their demands for oil explorations and prospecting in the Gulf of Mexico, Virginia and elsewhere in the United States. The timing of the BP oil rig disaster, so close in time and proximate to President Obama acceding to the Republican Party 2008 slogan, “Drill Baby Drill” is rather a sad coincident. This is probably informed the wisdom of the oil industry, in the oil giants to quickly quietly manage the BP oil rig disaster, without a prolonged glare of the American public and press scrutinizing the spread of the BP spillage disaster. Which may as a consequence bring resistance to expanded oil drilling activities in the continental United States, and pressure to bear on President Obama to withdraw or reconsider the just announced expanded oil drilling activities in the US shelf.
Haven experienced and witnessed these two disasters and the extraordinary reactions, I feel compelled to publicly say that there is a double standards informed by the willingness of some, to devalue the humanity of continental Africans and peoples of African descent. Or what else explains the fact of the disparity in reactions and demands for solutions in tacking oil spillage say, in Nigeria, compared with similar incidents here in the United States, even when the acts of oil spillages are committed by the same multinational oil companies and conglomerates. Would BP have done these same things in Nigeria? Would BP have, without nudge, prompting and pressures, voluntarily committed and expended six million dollars a day, for ten days so far, to prevent, stem and curtail the spread of crude oil slick on Nigerian waters in the face of a similar accident, such as the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico?
The facts and the evidences supports my assertions here to the effect that there are egregiously offensive and criminal environmental degradations, and pollutions of lands, waters and airs in Nigeria and other oil producing nations in the world, and particularly so, in Africa and the less developed nations, where oil exploration and prospecting are undertaken by multinational oil conglomerates and oil corporations.
These oil multinational corporations, the richest companies in the world, are too often unconscionable in their complete disregard for the environments from which the obtain their wealth, through the drilling for the so-called black gold. These giant corporations despite their profits through oil, give very little thought to the golden the chicken which lays their golden eggs.
These oil conglomerates, through their profits, and despite such huge profits from oil from the lands in the nations which are degraded and polluted in unbridled unconscionable manner, these oil companies, have a rather very sanguine and unperturbed attitudes as regards the lands, peoples and governments in parts of the world, where these conglomerates or multinationals engage in oil drilling activities. These conscious complete and total disregard, for the lands, the peoples and governments, is informed by environmental racism.
And nothing else can possibly explain the double standards and disparity in reactions to identical accidents and incidents of oil spillage and gas flaring as practiced by oil multinational companies in Nigeria, compared with the rather dramatic war-room prompt reactions and crisis management, such as I have witnessed and undertaken by EXXON and BP in Alaska in 1989 and now, in the Gulf of Mexico respectively.
These giant oil companies and conglomerates are adept at polluting and degrading local environments without regard for the nations and the peoples who inhabit these now toxically polluted nations. In Nigeria for instance, giant multinational oil companies are disdainful and contemptuous of the lands, environment, the governments and the people. Foreign oil conglomerates routinely ignores court orders and judgments. The oil majors have been known to ignore congressional hearings and summons by the highest law making body of Nigeria, the National Assembly. The oil majors are law unto themselves and whenever these oil titans are required to comply with the laws of the land, they resort to using political pressures from their home governments in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Washington etc
Nations where rivers and seas have been polluted with frequent oil spillages. Nations where farmlands and fishing rivers and ponds are now replete with stagnant waters coated with slicks from oil spillages upon spillages for decades; with resultant stymied, stunted and stifled economic opportunities such as farming, fishing and routine of daily life and leisure.
There are documented facts and evidences of gas flaring in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, gas flaring which has gone on for 24 a day, everyday for several decades, resulting miscarriages, burning eyes, and many other health hazards which are now common in the Nigeria Delta. Nigeria is one of such nations where so much profits are derived by the oil multinationals, and yet, there remains abject poverty. And besides, these oil companies have for several decades been unwilling to voluntarily, clean up oil spillages caused by themselves. All this, despite my experience of haven now witnessed the double standards and discriminations of EXXON and BP reacting promptly and immediately to clean up after themselves, upon spillages, as was in Alaska and now, in the Gulf of Mexico
I take the view that Nigerians are human beings just like the Americans and Europeans, and therefore, entitled to live in a pollution free environment. And in this instance, what is good for Americans and Europeans in terms of pollution free environment, is certainly good for Nigerians as well!
Shell Oil or the so-called Royal Dutch Shell Company has been engaged in gas flaring for decades and decades in Nigeria. Shell Oil and other multinational oil companies which are engaged in oil exploration and prospecting in Nigeria, have been involved oil drilling environmental pollutions and degradations and have committed countless oil spillages and gas flaring in Nigeria and in the most reckless manner. These oil companies have no regard for the people and the environment in Nigeria and other less developed nations where these companies are engaged in oil drilling activities.
There should be a single and uniform standard in precautions taken to avoid oil spillages, oil exploration, prospecting and oil drilling negative environmental impacts. There should, similarly be, a single standard for crisis management methods, procedures, guidelines and rules in tackling the negative environmental impacts and adverse consequences of harvesting hydrocarbon energy and not the least of all these, is equality of resources which are allocated or earmarked for managing environmental disasters or crises, regardless of whether such disasters occurs in Nigeria, Kuwait, Venezuela, Alaska or Louisiana. All lives affected or involved should be accorded equal value and equal dignity and respect.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Ending The Slavery Blame-Game By Henry Louis Gates, A Rejoinder
Ending The Slavery Blame-Game By Henry Louis Gates, A Rejoinder
Written by Paul I. Adujie
It is with considerable agitation, and extreme irritation, with which I read Henry Louis Gates’ pedestrian essay on slave trade and reparations, published in The New York Times, titled Ending The Slavery Blame-Game.
Louis Gates is obviously seeking relevance and redemption after his arrogant altercations with a Cambridge police officer in 2009. Louis Gates it will be recalled, engaged in a shouting match in belligerent, intransigent and cantankerous manner, as he prevented a police officer from carrying out legitimate police work. At that time, it was pointed out by some, that Louis Gates was merely engaged in racial racketeering, as he accused the police officer of racism without basis. An accusation and serious charge of racism against a fine police officer, which was not based on the facts and the evidences.
Perhaps it is Henry Louis Gates’ calling card and nature, to make sundry conclusions while shirking away from the intellectual dexterity required to sift through facts and evidences, and engage in empirical analysis, particularly so, for anyone with pretension to academic credentials, and with desire to be taken seriously. In the all important matter of slave trade, slavery and overdue reparations, Gates has come with a claptrap and a hack job to absolve, exculpate and exonerate his historical tormentors?
Louis Gates lazily, engaged in this silly pretensions to rewrite and revise the well settled history of the profound evil of slavery, the worst evil, in human history, and yet, Gates offered obfuscations and parroting of recycled garbage, and sought to cover all these with his happenstance of being a Harvard University employee!
Gates’ inane contribution to revisionists efforts at retelling of the horrors and brutalities of slave trade is shameful. Gates writes about the slave trade as some sorts of friendly business transactions between willing seller and equally willing buyer, as would seller and buyer of pork barrels or barrels of sweet crude or commodities at the New York or Chicago Stock Exchanges; in which merchants of equal statuses seal deals with warm and endearing handshakes, with scheduled caviar and cocktails to follow.
Gates’ flimsy portrayals of Africans as conspiring, conniving and colluding collaborators, with those who came from thousands of miles to far away Africa, to kidnap, snatch and bundles and brutalize Africans into slavery, is an effort, which is worse than useless on the part of Gates. Gates’ melodramatic lies failed to inform his readers of Oba Ovoramwen of Benin, a king of the Bini Kingdom who was dethroned and exiled outside of his domain, because he opposed Europeans horrors and brutalities and oppression in his kingdom. And there were many others like Oba Ovaramwen and the Mau Mau, during slavery and colonialism, who opposed Europeans, and paid with their lives or were jailed by Europeans! Gates obviously have not read a single page about Belgian Congo and King Leopold?
Gates through his published trash and falsehoods, has joined resurgent revisionists and others, who seek to reconstruct and falsify facts and evidences of slave trade and the enslavement of Africans in the Americas, in Europe and in the Arab world.
Gates and others are merely engaged in spreading recycled garbage in their attempts to absolve, exonerate and exculpate Americans, Europeans and Arabs who originated and practiced for hundreds of years, the forceful enslavement of African. Gates in doing so, is lazily and spuriously relying on anecdotal nonsense such as an incident in which a continental African political office holder, Mathieu Kerekou who in 1999, 600 years after the fact, drops to his knees in Maryland, Baltimore in the United States during a church service as he “apologized” for continental Africans role in slave trade? The African, Gates’ anecdotal “empirical” point of reference, is held up as “evidence” as if he was an eyewitness or that he found an ancient document or some sorts of divine revelation which establishes the buffoonish assertions made thereafter? An academic relies on this?
Gates should be seen for what he really is; He is an apologist for the heinous crimes, horrors and brutalities which slavery was! Apologists for slavers and sundry revisionists such as Gates, pretend to reconstruct and retell what transpired during slave trade some 600 years ago? This revisionism completely ignores the evidence and facts of history, in connection with slave trade, colonialism, apartheid and racism. Anyone with half a brain should clearly see that slavery was designed and implemented by America and Europe for their own benefit and without consultations and without intents to benefit Africans. American and European economic growth depended on it. Gates and his revisionist crews, would want the world to believe that Africans sent memos and emails and tweets to command Americans and Europeans into slave trade, these poor hapless, harmless Christian Americans and Europeans, compelled into wickedness of slavery by those darn African elites! No one should believe Gates’ lies!
Slavery just like its twin evil, colonialism, was inflicted upon Africans without regard to the lives, interests and aspirations of continental Africans. Case in point is the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 during which the African continent and peoples were portioned between Europeans nations or powers. First among the sins of the Berlin Conference was the fact that no African or African representatives were invited. Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy etc were the nations in attendance.
The bulk of the internecine crises on the African continent today, are a consequences of that original sin by Europeans, in which lumped Africans or separated Africans arbitrarily, without care to similarities and or differences of the peoples of the continent, but instead, the emphasis was the interests and suzerainty of Europeans nations. Europeans sphere of interests, national and strategic, from raw materials to navigation “rights” throughout the African continent. America and European nations repeated and replicated this attitude of utter disregard and contempt for African during the Cold War, during which African nations were used and exploited in the chasms and schisms between Western nations on the one hand and Soviet Union East Europeans on the other.
Gates in arguing against reparations, sought to make exceptions the general rule. All through history, it is the case that in human conflicts and wars etc, there are traitors, collaborators and profiteers in every race, nation and continent. However, it is ridiculously absurd, for anyone with a scintilla of reason and logic, to seek to make traitors, collaborators and profiteers, the main story of any conflict or war. It is illogical to say that Haliburton Inc and BlackWater Inc caused Iraq war, because it received no bid contracts and profited from the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is equally illogical to blame Ahmad Chalabi an Iraqi exile and opportunist, for the predetermined invasion and occupation of Iraq by Bush-Cheney administration. Similarly, there are American citizens who have collaborated with Al Queida and Taliban in terrorism against America, but only an ignorant person and a complete fool, would believe that those American citizen collaborators whatever their excuse, share equal responsibility with Al Queda and the Taliban terrorism upon America, in design and implementations!John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla etc, are not the source Al Queda and Taliban's strength.
An example is the fact that some Jews may have been collaborators and colluded with Nazis and other Jew haters. But how does that excuse Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany? How do such roles played by collaborators and complicit Jews become the main story of the extermination of the Jews and Jewish Holocaust and reason to have denied reparations to the Jews? He engaged in his preachment with the zeal of a paid Holocaust denier and anti Semitic bigot!
And history also documents Africans American traitors who infiltrated the Civil Right Movement on behalf of the police, FBI and others who were opposed to equality for African Americans… these were nevertheless the exception to the rule. But imagine anyone demeaning the Civil Rights Movement and the horrors and brutalities faced by catapulting and vaulting these exceptions to the rule betrayers and treacheries by some African Americans as if it were the main story of he Civil Rights Movement gains and losses?
Louis Gates is essentially a hack job for those who have been forever opposed to reparations for over 200 years
Louis Gates is a flimsy and a self-loathing intellectual. His silly presentation seeks to absolve, exculpate and exonerate his white handlers of the egregious and heinous horrors and brutalities of slave trade.
Louis Gates is arguing that persons such as Thomas Hagan, the killer of Malcolm X, is reason to demean the horrors and brutalities which were visited on African Americans as they sought equality of citizenship in the United States.
The majority of African Americans were not conniving, colluding and betraying the cause of equality... but there were those who infiltrated the Black Panther, and other Civil Right Movement organizations on behalf of the police, the FBI etc to undermine the worthy cause of freedom and equality... imagine using the infiltrators and betrayers to define the era?
Henry Louis Gates emphatically used his stated conjectures as if they were sacrosanct and incontrovertible immutable evidences and facts akin to finding a smoking gun! Gates repeatedly used words, such as “significant” “considerable” “the truth” “90 percent” and Gates failed and neglected to substantiate such assertions. Failed and neglected to elaborate or provide his readers with sources and references for “estimates” as basis for his fawning didactic and pedagogic abracadabra!
Argument against reparations, Louis Gates flimsy presentation will fall nicely into the hands of those who have been opposed to reparations for slavery for continental Africans and peoples of African descent. The other side can now argue that slavery was caused by Africans themselves and as such, no need for apologies or reparations and compensations, and quote a “BLACK MAN” Louis Gates of HARVARD!
Slavery, colonialism, apartheid, the Cold War were all conducted over the heads and contrary to the interests of the governments and peoples of Africa, and the conduct of world affairs continues to follow that lopsided pattern of disregard and contempt for the Africans.
Louis Gates apparently does not possess the intellectual prowess. A robust and superb intellectual would seek empirical data. Gates apparently does not possess the intellectual rigor with which to engage in profound research and painstaking analysis of available data. He is instead, seeks to rely on his peonage, as such impose his baseless, hazy, lazy sweeping generalizations. Continental Africans and peoples of African descent must reject and resoundingly condemn Louis Gates for his revisionist reconstruction and reductive silly retelling of history through falsifications of the known world. Henry Louis Gates condescendingly, arrogantly and in utterly patronizing ill-manner, retorted in his silly-trashy essay, his preconceived notions of how he expect African Americans to misunderstand his blame the victim pseudo intellectual rewriting of the well known, well established horrors and brutalities of slave trade
Perhaps the onset of old age and dementia, intellectual declines and regressions, both physical and mental in nature, are demonstrably responsible for Louis Gates current affronts and assaults on continental Africans and peoples of African descent with his simplistic oversimplifications of the heinous crimes, horrors and brutalities of slave trade?
Perhaps Louis Gates seeks relevance and redemption from his racial racketeering and melodramatic episode of last year in which he labeled a police officer’s reaction to his unruly, ungentlemanly arrogant and intransigent behavior racism? Or is it the case that Louis Gates is an Uncle Tom, a House Negro and a mere token at the hallowed halls of Harvard University, merely speaking with his masters’ voice?
Written by Paul I. Adujie
It is with considerable agitation, and extreme irritation, with which I read Henry Louis Gates’ pedestrian essay on slave trade and reparations, published in The New York Times, titled Ending The Slavery Blame-Game.
Louis Gates is obviously seeking relevance and redemption after his arrogant altercations with a Cambridge police officer in 2009. Louis Gates it will be recalled, engaged in a shouting match in belligerent, intransigent and cantankerous manner, as he prevented a police officer from carrying out legitimate police work. At that time, it was pointed out by some, that Louis Gates was merely engaged in racial racketeering, as he accused the police officer of racism without basis. An accusation and serious charge of racism against a fine police officer, which was not based on the facts and the evidences.
Perhaps it is Henry Louis Gates’ calling card and nature, to make sundry conclusions while shirking away from the intellectual dexterity required to sift through facts and evidences, and engage in empirical analysis, particularly so, for anyone with pretension to academic credentials, and with desire to be taken seriously. In the all important matter of slave trade, slavery and overdue reparations, Gates has come with a claptrap and a hack job to absolve, exculpate and exonerate his historical tormentors?
Louis Gates lazily, engaged in this silly pretensions to rewrite and revise the well settled history of the profound evil of slavery, the worst evil, in human history, and yet, Gates offered obfuscations and parroting of recycled garbage, and sought to cover all these with his happenstance of being a Harvard University employee!
Gates’ inane contribution to revisionists efforts at retelling of the horrors and brutalities of slave trade is shameful. Gates writes about the slave trade as some sorts of friendly business transactions between willing seller and equally willing buyer, as would seller and buyer of pork barrels or barrels of sweet crude or commodities at the New York or Chicago Stock Exchanges; in which merchants of equal statuses seal deals with warm and endearing handshakes, with scheduled caviar and cocktails to follow.
Gates’ flimsy portrayals of Africans as conspiring, conniving and colluding collaborators, with those who came from thousands of miles to far away Africa, to kidnap, snatch and bundles and brutalize Africans into slavery, is an effort, which is worse than useless on the part of Gates. Gates’ melodramatic lies failed to inform his readers of Oba Ovoramwen of Benin, a king of the Bini Kingdom who was dethroned and exiled outside of his domain, because he opposed Europeans horrors and brutalities and oppression in his kingdom. And there were many others like Oba Ovaramwen and the Mau Mau, during slavery and colonialism, who opposed Europeans, and paid with their lives or were jailed by Europeans! Gates obviously have not read a single page about Belgian Congo and King Leopold?
Gates through his published trash and falsehoods, has joined resurgent revisionists and others, who seek to reconstruct and falsify facts and evidences of slave trade and the enslavement of Africans in the Americas, in Europe and in the Arab world.
Gates and others are merely engaged in spreading recycled garbage in their attempts to absolve, exonerate and exculpate Americans, Europeans and Arabs who originated and practiced for hundreds of years, the forceful enslavement of African. Gates in doing so, is lazily and spuriously relying on anecdotal nonsense such as an incident in which a continental African political office holder, Mathieu Kerekou who in 1999, 600 years after the fact, drops to his knees in Maryland, Baltimore in the United States during a church service as he “apologized” for continental Africans role in slave trade? The African, Gates’ anecdotal “empirical” point of reference, is held up as “evidence” as if he was an eyewitness or that he found an ancient document or some sorts of divine revelation which establishes the buffoonish assertions made thereafter? An academic relies on this?
Gates should be seen for what he really is; He is an apologist for the heinous crimes, horrors and brutalities which slavery was! Apologists for slavers and sundry revisionists such as Gates, pretend to reconstruct and retell what transpired during slave trade some 600 years ago? This revisionism completely ignores the evidence and facts of history, in connection with slave trade, colonialism, apartheid and racism. Anyone with half a brain should clearly see that slavery was designed and implemented by America and Europe for their own benefit and without consultations and without intents to benefit Africans. American and European economic growth depended on it. Gates and his revisionist crews, would want the world to believe that Africans sent memos and emails and tweets to command Americans and Europeans into slave trade, these poor hapless, harmless Christian Americans and Europeans, compelled into wickedness of slavery by those darn African elites! No one should believe Gates’ lies!
Slavery just like its twin evil, colonialism, was inflicted upon Africans without regard to the lives, interests and aspirations of continental Africans. Case in point is the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 during which the African continent and peoples were portioned between Europeans nations or powers. First among the sins of the Berlin Conference was the fact that no African or African representatives were invited. Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy etc were the nations in attendance.
The bulk of the internecine crises on the African continent today, are a consequences of that original sin by Europeans, in which lumped Africans or separated Africans arbitrarily, without care to similarities and or differences of the peoples of the continent, but instead, the emphasis was the interests and suzerainty of Europeans nations. Europeans sphere of interests, national and strategic, from raw materials to navigation “rights” throughout the African continent. America and European nations repeated and replicated this attitude of utter disregard and contempt for African during the Cold War, during which African nations were used and exploited in the chasms and schisms between Western nations on the one hand and Soviet Union East Europeans on the other.
Gates in arguing against reparations, sought to make exceptions the general rule. All through history, it is the case that in human conflicts and wars etc, there are traitors, collaborators and profiteers in every race, nation and continent. However, it is ridiculously absurd, for anyone with a scintilla of reason and logic, to seek to make traitors, collaborators and profiteers, the main story of any conflict or war. It is illogical to say that Haliburton Inc and BlackWater Inc caused Iraq war, because it received no bid contracts and profited from the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is equally illogical to blame Ahmad Chalabi an Iraqi exile and opportunist, for the predetermined invasion and occupation of Iraq by Bush-Cheney administration. Similarly, there are American citizens who have collaborated with Al Queida and Taliban in terrorism against America, but only an ignorant person and a complete fool, would believe that those American citizen collaborators whatever their excuse, share equal responsibility with Al Queda and the Taliban terrorism upon America, in design and implementations!John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla etc, are not the source Al Queda and Taliban's strength.
An example is the fact that some Jews may have been collaborators and colluded with Nazis and other Jew haters. But how does that excuse Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany? How do such roles played by collaborators and complicit Jews become the main story of the extermination of the Jews and Jewish Holocaust and reason to have denied reparations to the Jews? He engaged in his preachment with the zeal of a paid Holocaust denier and anti Semitic bigot!
And history also documents Africans American traitors who infiltrated the Civil Right Movement on behalf of the police, FBI and others who were opposed to equality for African Americans… these were nevertheless the exception to the rule. But imagine anyone demeaning the Civil Rights Movement and the horrors and brutalities faced by catapulting and vaulting these exceptions to the rule betrayers and treacheries by some African Americans as if it were the main story of he Civil Rights Movement gains and losses?
Louis Gates is essentially a hack job for those who have been forever opposed to reparations for over 200 years
Louis Gates is a flimsy and a self-loathing intellectual. His silly presentation seeks to absolve, exculpate and exonerate his white handlers of the egregious and heinous horrors and brutalities of slave trade.
Louis Gates is arguing that persons such as Thomas Hagan, the killer of Malcolm X, is reason to demean the horrors and brutalities which were visited on African Americans as they sought equality of citizenship in the United States.
The majority of African Americans were not conniving, colluding and betraying the cause of equality... but there were those who infiltrated the Black Panther, and other Civil Right Movement organizations on behalf of the police, the FBI etc to undermine the worthy cause of freedom and equality... imagine using the infiltrators and betrayers to define the era?
Henry Louis Gates emphatically used his stated conjectures as if they were sacrosanct and incontrovertible immutable evidences and facts akin to finding a smoking gun! Gates repeatedly used words, such as “significant” “considerable” “the truth” “90 percent” and Gates failed and neglected to substantiate such assertions. Failed and neglected to elaborate or provide his readers with sources and references for “estimates” as basis for his fawning didactic and pedagogic abracadabra!
Argument against reparations, Louis Gates flimsy presentation will fall nicely into the hands of those who have been opposed to reparations for slavery for continental Africans and peoples of African descent. The other side can now argue that slavery was caused by Africans themselves and as such, no need for apologies or reparations and compensations, and quote a “BLACK MAN” Louis Gates of HARVARD!
Slavery, colonialism, apartheid, the Cold War were all conducted over the heads and contrary to the interests of the governments and peoples of Africa, and the conduct of world affairs continues to follow that lopsided pattern of disregard and contempt for the Africans.
Louis Gates apparently does not possess the intellectual prowess. A robust and superb intellectual would seek empirical data. Gates apparently does not possess the intellectual rigor with which to engage in profound research and painstaking analysis of available data. He is instead, seeks to rely on his peonage, as such impose his baseless, hazy, lazy sweeping generalizations. Continental Africans and peoples of African descent must reject and resoundingly condemn Louis Gates for his revisionist reconstruction and reductive silly retelling of history through falsifications of the known world. Henry Louis Gates condescendingly, arrogantly and in utterly patronizing ill-manner, retorted in his silly-trashy essay, his preconceived notions of how he expect African Americans to misunderstand his blame the victim pseudo intellectual rewriting of the well known, well established horrors and brutalities of slave trade
Perhaps the onset of old age and dementia, intellectual declines and regressions, both physical and mental in nature, are demonstrably responsible for Louis Gates current affronts and assaults on continental Africans and peoples of African descent with his simplistic oversimplifications of the heinous crimes, horrors and brutalities of slave trade?
Perhaps Louis Gates seeks relevance and redemption from his racial racketeering and melodramatic episode of last year in which he labeled a police officer’s reaction to his unruly, ungentlemanly arrogant and intransigent behavior racism? Or is it the case that Louis Gates is an Uncle Tom, a House Negro and a mere token at the hallowed halls of Harvard University, merely speaking with his masters’ voice?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
A Dying African American Artistes-Musician Writes An Affecting Last Letter
A dying African American artiste and musician writes a moving letter in public spirited efforts to continue to help poor and disadvantaged children, even posthumously!
He was dying of terminal cancer, and yet, he was not bitter or engaged in self-pity, he instead, literally, reached out from beyond, in order to continue to help poor and disadvantaged children worldwide...
He was certainly an artiste with a socially relevant and significant work of charity. He will be remembered and endeared to our hearts as a selfless man... in an increasingly vain and self-absorbed world.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637388/20100420/gang_starr.jhtmlEdit
Gang Starr's Guru Dead At 43 - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
Guru, the founder of hip-hop duo Gang Starr, died on Monday at age 43 after a battle with cancer, longtime collaborator and partner Solaar said.
He was dying of terminal cancer, and yet, he was not bitter or engaged in self-pity, he instead, literally, reached out from beyond, in order to continue to help poor and disadvantaged children worldwide...
He was certainly an artiste with a socially relevant and significant work of charity. He will be remembered and endeared to our hearts as a selfless man... in an increasingly vain and self-absorbed world.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637388/20100420/gang_starr.jhtmlEdit
Gang Starr's Guru Dead At 43 - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
Guru, the founder of hip-hop duo Gang Starr, died on Monday at age 43 after a battle with cancer, longtime collaborator and partner Solaar said.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Youth Groups Ans Others Pooh-Pooh Babangida
Youth groups, others pooh-pooh Babangida
By Akpo Esajere (Lagos) Adamu Abuh (Kano), Jon-Abba Ogbodo, Terhemba Daka (Abuja) and Alemma Ozoriuva Aliu (Benin City)
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article03/190410?pdate=190410&ptitle=Youth%20groups,%20others%20pooh-pooh%20Babangida
A GALE of criticisms yesterday trailed former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida's reported claim in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at the weekend that Nigeria's new generation was incapable of steering the ship of state.
The barrage of criticisms came from various groups and other eminent Nigerians who described him as short-sighted and his comments highly unpatriotic and provocative.
Leading the attack on the erstwhile military head of state was a group of young professionals under the aegis of Arise Nigeria. In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Ishaq Shehu, the group called on Babangida to withdraw from the 2010 presidential race because he has displayed an embarrassing ignorance of world affairs.
It also said Babangida not only abused upwardly mobile professionals who have contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria but that he also exhibited an embarrassing ignorance of modern governance.
Also, former member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, Nasiru Garba Dantiye, has advised the erstwhile Military President to drop his 2011 presidential ambition, saying he stands no chance of being voted for in a free and fair election based on his antecedents.
Dantiye, who spoke with The Guardian yesterday, recalled that Babangida inflicted hardship on Nigerians while in office, which dire situation remains till today, stressing that no reasonable Nigerian will cast his vote for Babangida.
Also, a member of the House of Representatives, Dino Melaye has faulted Babangida over a statement credited to the former military president to the effect that young Nigerians cannot run the country.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja Melaye, who represents Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, Kogi State, said Babangida's comment was an insult on the younger generation of Nigerians, including the former military president's children.
Babangida reportedly granted an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC ) during which he allegedly said nobody among the younger generation of Nigerians could govern Nigeria, hence his decision to return to Aso Rock.
"We have seen signs that they are not capable of leading this country and so we feel we should help them. May be it is because they were not given the proper education. I have spent 17 years outside office, but a country like Nigeria cannot be ruled by people without experience,'' the former military president was quoted to have said.
Arise Nigeria went on: "Babangida was quoted as saying President Obama of the USA was experienced to be American President because he was a member of a state assembly, the American House of Representatives and the Senate before contesting as president.
"This false account of Obama's trajectory to the American presidency is an embarrassment for a man who wants to be Nigeria's president. An average follower of American contemporary politics knows that Obama was elected into, and served in the Illinois State Senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and served from January 3, 2005, to November 16, 2008, when he resigned from office, having been elected president; elected as the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.
"Obama was never a member of the American House of Representatives as claimed by Babangida. This ignorance has only demonstrated that Babangida is out of touch with contemporary issues and lacks the mental alertness to be president of Nigeria at this challenging time. Babangida's discussion on the economy particularly on the exchange rate of the Naira shows a distressing lack of understanding of a modern economy and the dynamics that characterise it.
"It is also embarrassing that an aspiring presidential candidate will condemn a whole generation of Nigerian youths as incompetent of administering the country. As young professionals who have devoted our energy, resources and competences to the development of Nigeria, we make bold to say that Nigeria is blessed with so many youths who can successfully manage the affairs of the country. We state without any fear of contradiction that Nigerian youths have excelled in governance, business, sports, academia, technology, the sciences and indeed, every aspect of human endeavors to govern Nigeria."
It added: "While we are not advocating that elders in the country should vacate the scene for youths, we deplore the attempt by Babangida to condemn the entire generation of Nigerian youths in the desperate and self-serving attempt to justify his ridiculous entry into the presidential race."
On his part, Dantiye said: "How can any responsible Nigeria vote for Babangida as President? By indicating his interest to contest, he is simply telling us that he is coming to finish his unfinished business; he is coming to squander our external reserve that he depleted to less than $2 billion. Now he knows that it has been shored up to about $48 billion; he wants to finish the remaining.
"The beginning of Nigeria's problem was when he (Babangida) introduced the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). I was an accountant then, the value of the naira to dollar was 75kobo. Now you have to spare N150 to get a Dollar, and how are we going to develop? How are we going to be a great nation? How are we going to achieve Vision 20; 2020?"
The former federal lawmaker explained that Nigerians need a patriotic and selfless person to steer the affairs of the country, pointing out that a credible and progressive thinking Nigerian cannot vote for Babangida for any reason.
According to him, "many Nigerians will go on exile if the retired general emerged as the President of this country because his eight years rule only helped in killing the economy and people of Nigeria.
"Unless he is telling us he is going to rule while all Nigerians will depart and leave the country for him, but I am telling you if we are all serious, nobody is going to vote for him."
Melaye wrote: "The statement credited to Gen. Babangida that the younger generation can't rule Nigeria has a proportional relationship with the retardation associated with Babangida's age whose disparity between his official and real age is now manifesting.
"This negative sweeping statement against my generation, a more intellectually advanced generation, more versatile generation, a generation competing with the technological demands of recent times, a deprived generation, deprived by gerontocratic rulers, I mean the Babangidas of this world.
"This generation so insulted by IBB is the generation of his son Mohammed. It is also the generation of achievers like Obama, Fashola and others."
The lawmaker claimed that Babangida ran away from the Presidential Villa when democratic forces descended on him, stressing that he should not nurse the ambition of ruling in a democracy.
Melaye said: "The questions to ask this failed leader is how old he was 25 years ago when he forcibly became the president of an oppressed nation? How come a general ran away from war by unceremoniously moving out of the Villa and succumbing to the democratic and progressive forces who waged a holy war against his elongation and continued stay in office?
"A coward who hurriedly packaged an interim government and vamoosed, why are you (an anti-democratic element) now interested in assessing democratic powers by creating generational apathy and age cleansing?
"We cannot experience the satanic manifestations of the Babangida era again! Is it SAP or outrageous killings of veterans? May the souls of Dele Giwa, Mamman Vatsa and others not allow this to happen.
"My generation has hope and faith in Nigeria and Nigerians. The battle to stop Babangida and his likes is a battle of no retreat no surrender. No army of retired and expired military officers and politicians will bring back sad memories in Nigeria."
The above article was culled from The Guardian Newspapers of Nigeria...
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article03/190410?pdate=190410&ptitle=Youth%20groups,%20others%20pooh-pooh%20Babangida
By Akpo Esajere (Lagos) Adamu Abuh (Kano), Jon-Abba Ogbodo, Terhemba Daka (Abuja) and Alemma Ozoriuva Aliu (Benin City)
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article03/190410?pdate=190410&ptitle=Youth%20groups,%20others%20pooh-pooh%20Babangida
A GALE of criticisms yesterday trailed former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida's reported claim in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at the weekend that Nigeria's new generation was incapable of steering the ship of state.
The barrage of criticisms came from various groups and other eminent Nigerians who described him as short-sighted and his comments highly unpatriotic and provocative.
Leading the attack on the erstwhile military head of state was a group of young professionals under the aegis of Arise Nigeria. In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Ishaq Shehu, the group called on Babangida to withdraw from the 2010 presidential race because he has displayed an embarrassing ignorance of world affairs.
It also said Babangida not only abused upwardly mobile professionals who have contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria but that he also exhibited an embarrassing ignorance of modern governance.
Also, former member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, Nasiru Garba Dantiye, has advised the erstwhile Military President to drop his 2011 presidential ambition, saying he stands no chance of being voted for in a free and fair election based on his antecedents.
Dantiye, who spoke with The Guardian yesterday, recalled that Babangida inflicted hardship on Nigerians while in office, which dire situation remains till today, stressing that no reasonable Nigerian will cast his vote for Babangida.
Also, a member of the House of Representatives, Dino Melaye has faulted Babangida over a statement credited to the former military president to the effect that young Nigerians cannot run the country.
In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja Melaye, who represents Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, Kogi State, said Babangida's comment was an insult on the younger generation of Nigerians, including the former military president's children.
Babangida reportedly granted an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC ) during which he allegedly said nobody among the younger generation of Nigerians could govern Nigeria, hence his decision to return to Aso Rock.
"We have seen signs that they are not capable of leading this country and so we feel we should help them. May be it is because they were not given the proper education. I have spent 17 years outside office, but a country like Nigeria cannot be ruled by people without experience,'' the former military president was quoted to have said.
Arise Nigeria went on: "Babangida was quoted as saying President Obama of the USA was experienced to be American President because he was a member of a state assembly, the American House of Representatives and the Senate before contesting as president.
"This false account of Obama's trajectory to the American presidency is an embarrassment for a man who wants to be Nigeria's president. An average follower of American contemporary politics knows that Obama was elected into, and served in the Illinois State Senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and served from January 3, 2005, to November 16, 2008, when he resigned from office, having been elected president; elected as the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.
"Obama was never a member of the American House of Representatives as claimed by Babangida. This ignorance has only demonstrated that Babangida is out of touch with contemporary issues and lacks the mental alertness to be president of Nigeria at this challenging time. Babangida's discussion on the economy particularly on the exchange rate of the Naira shows a distressing lack of understanding of a modern economy and the dynamics that characterise it.
"It is also embarrassing that an aspiring presidential candidate will condemn a whole generation of Nigerian youths as incompetent of administering the country. As young professionals who have devoted our energy, resources and competences to the development of Nigeria, we make bold to say that Nigeria is blessed with so many youths who can successfully manage the affairs of the country. We state without any fear of contradiction that Nigerian youths have excelled in governance, business, sports, academia, technology, the sciences and indeed, every aspect of human endeavors to govern Nigeria."
It added: "While we are not advocating that elders in the country should vacate the scene for youths, we deplore the attempt by Babangida to condemn the entire generation of Nigerian youths in the desperate and self-serving attempt to justify his ridiculous entry into the presidential race."
On his part, Dantiye said: "How can any responsible Nigeria vote for Babangida as President? By indicating his interest to contest, he is simply telling us that he is coming to finish his unfinished business; he is coming to squander our external reserve that he depleted to less than $2 billion. Now he knows that it has been shored up to about $48 billion; he wants to finish the remaining.
"The beginning of Nigeria's problem was when he (Babangida) introduced the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). I was an accountant then, the value of the naira to dollar was 75kobo. Now you have to spare N150 to get a Dollar, and how are we going to develop? How are we going to be a great nation? How are we going to achieve Vision 20; 2020?"
The former federal lawmaker explained that Nigerians need a patriotic and selfless person to steer the affairs of the country, pointing out that a credible and progressive thinking Nigerian cannot vote for Babangida for any reason.
According to him, "many Nigerians will go on exile if the retired general emerged as the President of this country because his eight years rule only helped in killing the economy and people of Nigeria.
"Unless he is telling us he is going to rule while all Nigerians will depart and leave the country for him, but I am telling you if we are all serious, nobody is going to vote for him."
Melaye wrote: "The statement credited to Gen. Babangida that the younger generation can't rule Nigeria has a proportional relationship with the retardation associated with Babangida's age whose disparity between his official and real age is now manifesting.
"This negative sweeping statement against my generation, a more intellectually advanced generation, more versatile generation, a generation competing with the technological demands of recent times, a deprived generation, deprived by gerontocratic rulers, I mean the Babangidas of this world.
"This generation so insulted by IBB is the generation of his son Mohammed. It is also the generation of achievers like Obama, Fashola and others."
The lawmaker claimed that Babangida ran away from the Presidential Villa when democratic forces descended on him, stressing that he should not nurse the ambition of ruling in a democracy.
Melaye said: "The questions to ask this failed leader is how old he was 25 years ago when he forcibly became the president of an oppressed nation? How come a general ran away from war by unceremoniously moving out of the Villa and succumbing to the democratic and progressive forces who waged a holy war against his elongation and continued stay in office?
"A coward who hurriedly packaged an interim government and vamoosed, why are you (an anti-democratic element) now interested in assessing democratic powers by creating generational apathy and age cleansing?
"We cannot experience the satanic manifestations of the Babangida era again! Is it SAP or outrageous killings of veterans? May the souls of Dele Giwa, Mamman Vatsa and others not allow this to happen.
"My generation has hope and faith in Nigeria and Nigerians. The battle to stop Babangida and his likes is a battle of no retreat no surrender. No army of retired and expired military officers and politicians will bring back sad memories in Nigeria."
The above article was culled from The Guardian Newspapers of Nigeria...
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article03/190410?pdate=190410&ptitle=Youth%20groups,%20others%20pooh-pooh%20Babangida
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Kill The Boer! But So What If A White Racist Is Killed?
Kill The Boer! But So What If A White Racist Is Killed?
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Advocating rights and equitable treatment for everyone, ought to be second nature to all of us, sadly, it is often not the case.
White minority South Africans, land thieves hundreds of years since the Boers set foot on South African soil, now proclaim with unbelievable bravado and with a straight-face, that efforts at Land Reforms by Black South Africans, is “land-grab” by Black South African the true owners of the land! White South Africans undoubtedly have a gift of temerity of irony and extraordinary gift of oxymoron.
All human lives have value and ought to be accorded rights and equitable treatments by all. But all through history, continental Africans and peoples of African descent have been oppressed, subjugated, deprived of fundamental human rights and treated inequitably.
Many Black South Africans were killed during Apartheid illegal regime. Many Black South Africans continue to die from conditions which stems from economic inequalities and absence of opportunities for Black South Africans. Many Black South Africans still die, as a result of economic and social displacements, dislocations and misfortunes caused by historical racial disparities in economic, social and political circumstances in South Africa, which have put millions of Black South Africans in permanent disadvantage, in comparison with White South Africans. But who cries, who weeps and who mourns for these multitudes of Black South Africans, as crocodile tears is wasted and squandered for a known bigot and self-proclaimed racists Eugene TerrorBlanche?
One of the most notorious figures and openly racists and bigoted White South African, he campaigned for the outdated and archaic white racial superiority, and he had attempted to kill a black man and was briefly jailed some years past, and yet, his death received such attention which the death of a president of any of the nation on the African continent would not attract or receive the elaborate press coverage which have been wasted on a terrorist Eugene TerrorBlanche. But why the brouhaha and hula bally over this racist pig? Eugene TerreBlanche was convicted of beating a Black man into a coma and nearly to death, he thought nothing of Black lives and he contemptuously refused to pay them for hard work already done!
South African White Supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche died and was laid to rot, rut and decay, after a violent life filled with his hatred and bigotry which he directed at Black South Africans. But the western press have provided avenues for Eugene TerreBlanche hatred, bigotry and extremist racists views to survive him, instead of allowing his incendiary, highly flammable, and provocatively offensive to be buried with him quietly.
All of a sudden, platforms and podiums have been provided to White Supremacist and White racists and fringe groups upon which to proclaim their disdain, loathe, contempt and rejection of majority rule by Black South Africans.
Western press seem to be aggressively campaigning against the political leadership in South Africa, or why else is so much attention and publicity being squandered on Eugene TerreBlanche who was a violent man, a terrorist and racist with a twisted and warped sense of the place for Black people?
Eugene TerreBlanche was this man who eulogized and imitated Adolf Hitler, a man who operated Afrikaner Weerstands Beweging (AWB) a man who extolled a swastika-style insignia and blood red surround reminiscent of the Nazis. Eugene TerreBlanche’s burial, according to reports, are entrenched and ensconced in the past, as the burial party congregation burst into a passionate rendition of the
apartheid era national anthem, Die Stem and some gave Nazi-style salutes.
It is a surprise that these racists and violent extremists were actually in a church and one has to wonder what sorts of bible they read, in view of the fact that Eugene TerreBlanche was one of them, and he was a man who once threatened to wage war rather than allow black rule, riding his beloved horse like a Boer Napoleon. This is a reminder of the fact American and European slave traders were also bible hugging “civilized” “Christians” from the “bible-belt”! Pious congregation packed
President Obama upon visiting a slave dungeon in Ghana in July 2009 highlighted the fact that slave-traders from western nations actually built a still existing church atop of a slave-holding cell-dungeon. Imagine the absence of conscience on the part of slave traders who kept Black Africans, fellow human beings, in chains and manacles in death-defying conditions, while praise-singing their “Christian-God” as their human cargo await shipment across the Atlantic in filthily congested conditions
The prominence and high profile given to the death and burial of Eugene TerreBlanche, a nonentity, a bigot, a racist an ex-convict and terrorist, is clearly illustrative of the mindset of most in the western press, as exemplified by the condescending attitude by the BBC journalist Mr. Jonah Fisher as he crudely and rudely confronted and antagonized the African National Congress youth leader Julius Malema. News reports quoted Mr. Malema as accusing the journalists of treating him the way white people used to treat blacks, saying: “Don’t come here with that white tendency!” Why is it okay, for the BBC journalist to, in the name of press freedom, to heckle Mr. Julius Malema with the BBC guy’s alleged comments in which he persisted in interrupting and intoning that Mr. Malema spoke “nonsense and rubbish”? It is the case that western governments and western press have aggressively promoted the Zimbabwean opposition political party. It therefore comes as no surprise at all, that the exchange between the BBC Fisher arose out of criticism by Mr. Malema against MDC. The is alleged scene is said to have ensued after Malema criticized Zimbabwe's former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
Western press campaign against Mugabe of Zimbabwe is well known. There appears now to be shift of that campaign of calumny to South Africa. And perhaps Mr. Malema sees this pattern and strands and connections between the land issues in Zimbabwe between Blacks and Whites, as identical to the Land Reforms in South Africa between Blacks and Whites, which is now topical, controversial and current in South Africa. The BBC Mr. Fisher’s spirited defense of the Zimbabwean MDC opposition political party, may have conveyed and confirmed these suspicions. Mr. Malema’s views are therefore quite understandable in these contexts.
These views are understandable, bearing in mind that Eugene TerrorBlanche is being portrayed in the press as some sorts of national hero and an icon in South Africa. His sordid, violent, criminal pasts is glossed over, while he is being treated with kid-gloves and whitewashed to smell like roses! The press should be objective. The press may not abuse freedom of the press by advocating the cause of White Supremacists and hiding behind journalistic duties as cover for the dirty work of a party to contentious racial disparity in South Africa. Where is Mr. Jonah Fisher and the BBC’s substantive work on land redistribution in South Africa and all of Southern Africa?
Where have Jonah Fisher and the BBC substantively addressed the root causes of the economic disparity between Blacks and Whites in South Africa and Southern Africa? Black South Africans continue to bear the disproportionate burden of that nation’s economic and social conditions. All this, even after twenty years after the well reported and heralded flag independence of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe etc land and other levers of these economies remain in the hands of White minorities. When will Jonah Fisher, the BBC and western media as a whole focus on the roots of these contentious race relations in Southern Africa? These gaping wealth gaps, these land inequities and inequalities at large which put White at permanent advantages and Blacks remain disadvantaged, despite political independence and majority rule for more twenty years?
This mindset among some journalists in the western press, is surprisingly identical with the mindsets of those racist, thuggish, extremist, terrorist and violent Eugene TerreBlanche who clearly have an aversion to Black majority rule in South Africa and everywhere else. The Guardian newspapers in London reported that there were mourners from all over South Africa “Mourners rose before dawn and traveled from all over South Africa” “There were camouflage-clad men carrying pistols and little girls in their Sunday best. There were men on motorbikes in Hell's Angels-style black leather jackets. There were also many cars and pick-up trucks flying the pre-1994 national flag.”
Why is this dead terrorist and racist Eugene TerreBlanche such a cause celebre portrayed in glowing statesmanlike terms? News report about his death were couched in seeming referential terms, instead of describing him and portraying him as the terrorist, bigot and hate-monger that he was! Here are some excepts “it was easy to believe that this was a sepia-tinted bubble in which democracy and Nelson Mandela never happened. This community's long simmering resentments have been focused by the bloody killing of Terre'Blanche in his bed last Saturday. He was found beaten so badly that his face was unrecognizable, and his trousers had been pulled down to expose his genitals. Two black farm workers have been charged with murder.”
“Terre'Blanche was the talisman of hardliner opposition to the end of racial apartheid in the early Nineties. But he had been in relative obscurity since his release in 2004 after a prison sentence for
beating a black man nearly to death.” Jan Bosch, 52, from Vanderbijlpark, had left home at 5am. "I've been close to Eugene and in his heart many times," he said. "In his heart he was a good person. He was a great leader of our people." But would any journalist from any western nation describe Osama Bin Ladin in these same affable and endearing terms which are liberally reported here as appellations which were applied to this terrorist and violent extremist Eugene TerreBlanche?
The press reports of Eugene TerreBlanche death and burial, presented over and covert threats to the majority Black government in South Africa which is led by Mr. Jacob Zuma and judging by Mr. Zuma’s public pronouncements, he is already cowering, caving and yielding to extortions by the white minority and their agents in South Africa and outside of it. It surprised me to read that representatives of the government of South Africa actually attended the funeral service of a terrorist extremist bigot racist Eugene TerreBlanche! This is similar to having the representatives of the United States government attending David Duke’s funeral for whatever reason and for whatever political benefit or calculations!
And yet, Black South Africans politicians and ordinary citizens who attended Eugene TerrorBlanche’s funeral were sneered at and jeered and denigrated with dehumanizing names reminiscent of Apartheid era South Africa, so, why even bother? Why voluntarily mislead yourself into a known lions’ den? Here again is an excerpt of news reports “an AWB member, who did not wish to be named, said: "We're quite calm. We're not up to anything drastic. Not yet. You never know." Wearing a badge with the apartheid era flag, Jan Jacobs, 72, from Bloemfontein, said: "No one came with any weapons. We left them at home to be peaceful. We're not mighty enough to take on the blacks. God will do it for us."
"Eugene Terre'Blanche was a sober man and a fighter for his share of the land. That's what I'm fighting for. Anarchy developing in this black nation causes us to worry. I've got the bible: it says 2010 will be the last year."Asked about the African National Congress youth leader Julius Malema, who has been accused of inciting violence by singing "Shoot the Boer", Jacobs added: "I reckon he's going to be taken out very soon. It won't be a Boer. It will be his own people. I reckon that's what we need in this country.He added: "God separated us. We can't have a mix. The 'rainbow nation' could never be possible."
White racists South Africans are saying, spouting nonsense and spewing hatred such as some of the excerpts you have read above, and here is another excerpt, “Terre'Blanche's white resistance movement, the AWB. The AF believes South Africa was built on the blood and toil of the 17th-century white settlers from Holland and France, and was given away to the black majority by traitors who entered into negotiations with the African National Congress, such as the former president FW de Klerk.” "The real problem is President Jacob Zuma," said Bennie van Zyl. "He cannot be trusted” And yet, some persons are more troubled by songs by Mr. Julious Malema as inciting violence?
Some African commentators in reactions to the hoopla which followed the death of Eugene TerreorBlanche, made the following numbered statements
1. “Where was the outrage when a Black South African cameraman covering the Terreblanche's funeral was punched in the face? What relationship does SA have with Nazi flags/insignia? Even Germany is heavy-handed on the display of such flags.”
2. “It amazes me that in this day and age, there are still Africans who think that purveyors of deceit and distortion like the BBC, CNN and major Western newspapers actually operate according to journalistic ideals. These outfits are nothing but instruments of propaganda.”
3. “The trouble with us Africans is that we allow all these lying, intellectual frauds, who use airs of enlightenment to mask base racial agendas, to come to our lands and run roughshod over us”
4. “They talk down to Black people because Black people let them.
They are not Nigerians or Ghanians who fawn over every derelict and mass murderer with sickening congeniality” It might be added that continental Africans and peoples of African descent are too forgiving and have taken “Christian” forgiveness to heart too much. Africans and peoples of African descent, are too quick to forgive and forget our tormentors. See where Truth and Reconciliation Commission has led South Africa?
It should be clear to all that White South Africans in the main, still live in the past and that they yearn for the days of minority rule of the Apartheid era. White South Africans as exemplified by Eugene TerrorBlanche, are desirous of an environment in South Africa which will enable the minority white population to continue to oppress, intimidate and push the majority Black people around, and the resistance by Blacks South Africans to such oppressions, intimidation and contempt from White South Africans is what is motivating these sour attitudes on the part of White South Africans.
It has now culminated in the current attempt to paint and portray Eugene TerrorBlanche’s death as if politically and racially motivated. This have been so, despite evidences and facts to the contrary, to the effect that the dead man refused to keep his part of a contract of service for salary payment
Racial tensions have as a consequence have become elevated and have reached it highest level in as many years since majority rule dawned on South Africa some twenty years ago. Some White Supremacists, racial racketeers and charlatan Boers-Afrikaaners bent on exploiting innocuous death of a racist pig which Eugene TerrorBlanche was. There are now those inside and outside South Africa who seem intent on hijacking and derailing the previously scheduled World Cup Soccer in South Africa for June 2010, in the name of this worse than useless Eugene TerrorBlanche racist. Avenging the dead racist, resorting to vengeance and vendetta in the name of Eugene TerreBlanche has become common currency among racists inside and outside South Africa. High crime rate in South Africa compared to western nations, was used against South Africa, and then, Eugene TerrorBlanche death to spread fear of escalation of racial violence as well as, the new rumors about possibility of terrorists threats of attack or adverse events.
President Jacob Zuma is under tremendous pressure, and according to one commentator, Mr. Zuma is “himself is bowing to White Power.” Mr. Zuma himself does have his own baggage which predates the death of Eugene TerrorBlanche. It is the case that Mr. Zuma has had brushes with the law. He was accused of rape and corruption respectively, but eventually cleared. He once again, involved in recent scandalous relationship with a very young woman leading to old age fatherhood. All these, even as the Black majority in South Africa continue to suffer and endure hardships, inequalities and economic disparity in comparison with the White minority in South Africa. Land redistribution or Land Reform, more appropriately described, have remained untouched as a public issue imbued with fundamental effects
President Nelson Mandela, President Thabo Mbeki and now, President Jacob Zuma, have operated in conformity with the expectations White minority in South Africa, as well as, the expectations of European nations and the United States. The unpublished, unstated and understood agreement seem to be that Black South Africans would have flag independence and appear on the surface to be in-charge of political administration of South Africa, while the ownership and control of the land expanse which constitutes the geographical space which is also known as South Africa, remains in the hands of White South Africans an insignificant percentage of the total population of South Africa. White South Africans continue to control all factors of production, and all the levers of economic control of South Africa. Land, Machines, Tools and Credit and other wherewithal. It is now past twenty years post flag independence in South Africa. No efforts has been made to equitably allocate land resources. Efforts at Affirmative Action and Black Empowerment have been tepid at best. In another fifty years, if things are allowed to continue the way they are at present, everyone, including Black South Africans, would blame Blacks in South Africa for the lack of Land Reforms and absence of land rights for Blacks. Everyone would blame Black South Africans for lacking controls of land and credit and sundry levers of control of the South Africa economy.
There is no surprise in what is happening in South Africa and how the political leadership are reacting sheepishly and fawningly to these power pressures on them by White Power. South African political leadership are clearly afraid of being castigated and labeled in manner identical with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. President Zuma was severely damaged politically, before becoming president of South Africa. Given this background, it is understandable that Mr. Zuma is not assertive in matter of Land Reform or land equity. It also understandable that Mr. Zuma is unwilling to “rock-the-boat” for White Power, the “owners” of lands and credit in South Africa.
What has happened in Zimbabwe and South Africa post majority rule, is identical to what have happened in nations on the African continent. It is the case that most post colonial and post minority rule African political leaders accepted situations in which asserting the interests of their peoples in their newly independent nations were consigned to the dustbins, in favor of the “superior” national and strategic interests of former colonial powers also known as “mother-countries” And so it has remained, that most African nations still have political and business leadership mortgaged and beholden to outsiders.
There is little wonder therefore, that many African nations are where they remain in terms of political and economic developments, half century after flag-political independence. It is beginning to look as though, that African nations which received political independence in the preceding 25 years will not be much different. Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe are such nations in which Land Reforms which were widely discussed in pre-flag independence days and pre-Black majority rule days, have not been tackled since the dawn of majority rule and flag independence. As a consequence, there is an outward political paradigm shift, but the land and credit remains in the hands of the old minority White Power.
This sorts of control through land ownership and by the White land gentry in South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively, coupled with the vice grips of Whites over all aspects of the economies of African nations, explains the sorts of predetermined outcomes for African nations. These predetermined outcomes are really not different from the plights and predicaments of peoples of African descent worldwide. It is the case that there were no compensations and reparations paid to African Americans after the Emancipation Proclamation to officially end slavery and bondage of Africans to slavers in the United States. The American government finally issued a grudging apology for enslaving Africans and subjugating African Americans. The American government still considers reparations for these wrongs, non-discussable transaction.
It is the case that efforts at providing lasting structures for newly freed slaves, during the so-called Reconstruction Era, were not pursued to logical conclusions. It is the case that Haiti, nation of freed slaves was made to actually pay extortion money to France with the support of the United States, for daring to seek self-determination and political freedom-independence and Haiti has been undermined and manipulated since! This is identical to the current promotion and support of Mr. Ibrahim Babangida as candidate for the presidency in Nigeria in 2011, with ringing endorsements from manipulators outside Nigeria.
Nature, history and happenstances, have forever intricately embroidered the links between continental Africans and peoples of African descent in the African Diaspora worldwide. The plights and predicaments of continental Africans and Diaspora Africans, are similarly, identically interwoven and linked forever. We have had the same unsavory experiences from the same sources, be it slavery, colonialism or apartheid
It bears repeating here again, that the lives, the plights and predicaments of continental Africans and all peoples of African descent, are inextricably linked forever. Nature, checkered history of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and racism etc has ensured these natural and man-made links.
In the global economic meltdown, it is the case that continental Africans and peoples of African descent are worse hit in the economic recession depression. It may be recession for all other races of people, but, it is clearly economic and social depression for continental Africans and peoples of African descent.
There have been national and international structures which have ensured and continue to ensure the lopsidedness of allocation of power and resources based on race lines.
Marshall Plan was formulated and implemented post Second World War. Marshall Plan gave 16 European nations and Japan relief and reconstruction after World War II. Marshall Plan ensured delivery of water, orange juice, foods and home constructions and public infrastructures, including roads and bridges.
Conversely, however, after the emancipation proclamation in 1863 in America, there was compensation or seed money or any money to enable freed slaves to establish own economic independence or self-sufficiency, even at subsistence levels. Reconstruction efforts in the US which attempted to assist African Americans just freed from slavery were criticized and derailed, defeated and abandoned.
Similarly, at the end of slave trade, in which Europeans traded in Africans as if inanimate goods or commodities, during which European nations plundered, pillaged and deprived African nations of able bodied men, women and children, and as a consequence, deprived the African continent of her human capital and most productive segments of the African populations. Slave traders were not looking for the weak, the sick or the feeble to till lands and cultivate farms for slavers and their customers
When farming became mechanized... African Americans, Puerto Ricans and Mexican Immigrants who did all the hard labor farming to produce food for America, became unemployed and needed welfare; Welfare administrators broke families by insisting that for a woman to receive welfare, there must be no man at the home... welfare administrators came to look under the beds searching for men... welfare administrators humiliated welfare recipients (labor was cheaper in the south USA, because of the racial system in the south of USA, then racial progress drove the jobs abroad to Mexico, India and China
Meanwhile, Banks, Steels corps and large scale farms always received welfare/subsidies and humiliating these corporate welfare recipients was never on the cards
Even in America, the so-called greatest nation on earth and so-called sole surviving superpower, the plights and predicaments of African Americans is much more precarious than that of anyone else. The checkered history of African Americans have ensured this. Slavery, segregation, discrimination and remaining vestiges of racism
Fiscal Policy Institute in New York report 46% African American males are currently unemployed. This, even though, the current unemployment rate in the general population in America, is between 9.2% to 10.2%. There is a forever disproportionate impact upon African Americans, the downward spiral of the American economy in every recession or depression. This disproportionate impact, is a consequence and direct result of the lopsidedness of resource and opportunities allocation in America which have historically, been based on race.
What is unfolding in South Africa, is not quite different from how economic controls remains in white hands in post slavery and post slavery Africa and in all of Africa and within nations of peoples of Africa descent worldwide. Real power, economic and strategic powers resides outside native political leadership.
A minimal contemplative-deliberative effort is really all it takes. Think about it and you will understand it
See sources and useful link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/eugene-terreblanche-boer-...
Kwame Zulu Shabazz ??? via Msadiki Musego: Poverty in the USA.
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Advocating rights and equitable treatment for everyone, ought to be second nature to all of us, sadly, it is often not the case.
White minority South Africans, land thieves hundreds of years since the Boers set foot on South African soil, now proclaim with unbelievable bravado and with a straight-face, that efforts at Land Reforms by Black South Africans, is “land-grab” by Black South African the true owners of the land! White South Africans undoubtedly have a gift of temerity of irony and extraordinary gift of oxymoron.
All human lives have value and ought to be accorded rights and equitable treatments by all. But all through history, continental Africans and peoples of African descent have been oppressed, subjugated, deprived of fundamental human rights and treated inequitably.
Many Black South Africans were killed during Apartheid illegal regime. Many Black South Africans continue to die from conditions which stems from economic inequalities and absence of opportunities for Black South Africans. Many Black South Africans still die, as a result of economic and social displacements, dislocations and misfortunes caused by historical racial disparities in economic, social and political circumstances in South Africa, which have put millions of Black South Africans in permanent disadvantage, in comparison with White South Africans. But who cries, who weeps and who mourns for these multitudes of Black South Africans, as crocodile tears is wasted and squandered for a known bigot and self-proclaimed racists Eugene TerrorBlanche?
One of the most notorious figures and openly racists and bigoted White South African, he campaigned for the outdated and archaic white racial superiority, and he had attempted to kill a black man and was briefly jailed some years past, and yet, his death received such attention which the death of a president of any of the nation on the African continent would not attract or receive the elaborate press coverage which have been wasted on a terrorist Eugene TerrorBlanche. But why the brouhaha and hula bally over this racist pig? Eugene TerreBlanche was convicted of beating a Black man into a coma and nearly to death, he thought nothing of Black lives and he contemptuously refused to pay them for hard work already done!
South African White Supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche died and was laid to rot, rut and decay, after a violent life filled with his hatred and bigotry which he directed at Black South Africans. But the western press have provided avenues for Eugene TerreBlanche hatred, bigotry and extremist racists views to survive him, instead of allowing his incendiary, highly flammable, and provocatively offensive to be buried with him quietly.
All of a sudden, platforms and podiums have been provided to White Supremacist and White racists and fringe groups upon which to proclaim their disdain, loathe, contempt and rejection of majority rule by Black South Africans.
Western press seem to be aggressively campaigning against the political leadership in South Africa, or why else is so much attention and publicity being squandered on Eugene TerreBlanche who was a violent man, a terrorist and racist with a twisted and warped sense of the place for Black people?
Eugene TerreBlanche was this man who eulogized and imitated Adolf Hitler, a man who operated Afrikaner Weerstands Beweging (AWB) a man who extolled a swastika-style insignia and blood red surround reminiscent of the Nazis. Eugene TerreBlanche’s burial, according to reports, are entrenched and ensconced in the past, as the burial party congregation burst into a passionate rendition of the
apartheid era national anthem, Die Stem and some gave Nazi-style salutes.
It is a surprise that these racists and violent extremists were actually in a church and one has to wonder what sorts of bible they read, in view of the fact that Eugene TerreBlanche was one of them, and he was a man who once threatened to wage war rather than allow black rule, riding his beloved horse like a Boer Napoleon. This is a reminder of the fact American and European slave traders were also bible hugging “civilized” “Christians” from the “bible-belt”! Pious congregation packed
President Obama upon visiting a slave dungeon in Ghana in July 2009 highlighted the fact that slave-traders from western nations actually built a still existing church atop of a slave-holding cell-dungeon. Imagine the absence of conscience on the part of slave traders who kept Black Africans, fellow human beings, in chains and manacles in death-defying conditions, while praise-singing their “Christian-God” as their human cargo await shipment across the Atlantic in filthily congested conditions
The prominence and high profile given to the death and burial of Eugene TerreBlanche, a nonentity, a bigot, a racist an ex-convict and terrorist, is clearly illustrative of the mindset of most in the western press, as exemplified by the condescending attitude by the BBC journalist Mr. Jonah Fisher as he crudely and rudely confronted and antagonized the African National Congress youth leader Julius Malema. News reports quoted Mr. Malema as accusing the journalists of treating him the way white people used to treat blacks, saying: “Don’t come here with that white tendency!” Why is it okay, for the BBC journalist to, in the name of press freedom, to heckle Mr. Julius Malema with the BBC guy’s alleged comments in which he persisted in interrupting and intoning that Mr. Malema spoke “nonsense and rubbish”? It is the case that western governments and western press have aggressively promoted the Zimbabwean opposition political party. It therefore comes as no surprise at all, that the exchange between the BBC Fisher arose out of criticism by Mr. Malema against MDC. The is alleged scene is said to have ensued after Malema criticized Zimbabwe's former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
Western press campaign against Mugabe of Zimbabwe is well known. There appears now to be shift of that campaign of calumny to South Africa. And perhaps Mr. Malema sees this pattern and strands and connections between the land issues in Zimbabwe between Blacks and Whites, as identical to the Land Reforms in South Africa between Blacks and Whites, which is now topical, controversial and current in South Africa. The BBC Mr. Fisher’s spirited defense of the Zimbabwean MDC opposition political party, may have conveyed and confirmed these suspicions. Mr. Malema’s views are therefore quite understandable in these contexts.
These views are understandable, bearing in mind that Eugene TerrorBlanche is being portrayed in the press as some sorts of national hero and an icon in South Africa. His sordid, violent, criminal pasts is glossed over, while he is being treated with kid-gloves and whitewashed to smell like roses! The press should be objective. The press may not abuse freedom of the press by advocating the cause of White Supremacists and hiding behind journalistic duties as cover for the dirty work of a party to contentious racial disparity in South Africa. Where is Mr. Jonah Fisher and the BBC’s substantive work on land redistribution in South Africa and all of Southern Africa?
Where have Jonah Fisher and the BBC substantively addressed the root causes of the economic disparity between Blacks and Whites in South Africa and Southern Africa? Black South Africans continue to bear the disproportionate burden of that nation’s economic and social conditions. All this, even after twenty years after the well reported and heralded flag independence of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe etc land and other levers of these economies remain in the hands of White minorities. When will Jonah Fisher, the BBC and western media as a whole focus on the roots of these contentious race relations in Southern Africa? These gaping wealth gaps, these land inequities and inequalities at large which put White at permanent advantages and Blacks remain disadvantaged, despite political independence and majority rule for more twenty years?
This mindset among some journalists in the western press, is surprisingly identical with the mindsets of those racist, thuggish, extremist, terrorist and violent Eugene TerreBlanche who clearly have an aversion to Black majority rule in South Africa and everywhere else. The Guardian newspapers in London reported that there were mourners from all over South Africa “Mourners rose before dawn and traveled from all over South Africa” “There were camouflage-clad men carrying pistols and little girls in their Sunday best. There were men on motorbikes in Hell's Angels-style black leather jackets. There were also many cars and pick-up trucks flying the pre-1994 national flag.”
Why is this dead terrorist and racist Eugene TerreBlanche such a cause celebre portrayed in glowing statesmanlike terms? News report about his death were couched in seeming referential terms, instead of describing him and portraying him as the terrorist, bigot and hate-monger that he was! Here are some excepts “it was easy to believe that this was a sepia-tinted bubble in which democracy and Nelson Mandela never happened. This community's long simmering resentments have been focused by the bloody killing of Terre'Blanche in his bed last Saturday. He was found beaten so badly that his face was unrecognizable, and his trousers had been pulled down to expose his genitals. Two black farm workers have been charged with murder.”
“Terre'Blanche was the talisman of hardliner opposition to the end of racial apartheid in the early Nineties. But he had been in relative obscurity since his release in 2004 after a prison sentence for
beating a black man nearly to death.” Jan Bosch, 52, from Vanderbijlpark, had left home at 5am. "I've been close to Eugene and in his heart many times," he said. "In his heart he was a good person. He was a great leader of our people." But would any journalist from any western nation describe Osama Bin Ladin in these same affable and endearing terms which are liberally reported here as appellations which were applied to this terrorist and violent extremist Eugene TerreBlanche?
The press reports of Eugene TerreBlanche death and burial, presented over and covert threats to the majority Black government in South Africa which is led by Mr. Jacob Zuma and judging by Mr. Zuma’s public pronouncements, he is already cowering, caving and yielding to extortions by the white minority and their agents in South Africa and outside of it. It surprised me to read that representatives of the government of South Africa actually attended the funeral service of a terrorist extremist bigot racist Eugene TerreBlanche! This is similar to having the representatives of the United States government attending David Duke’s funeral for whatever reason and for whatever political benefit or calculations!
And yet, Black South Africans politicians and ordinary citizens who attended Eugene TerrorBlanche’s funeral were sneered at and jeered and denigrated with dehumanizing names reminiscent of Apartheid era South Africa, so, why even bother? Why voluntarily mislead yourself into a known lions’ den? Here again is an excerpt of news reports “an AWB member, who did not wish to be named, said: "We're quite calm. We're not up to anything drastic. Not yet. You never know." Wearing a badge with the apartheid era flag, Jan Jacobs, 72, from Bloemfontein, said: "No one came with any weapons. We left them at home to be peaceful. We're not mighty enough to take on the blacks. God will do it for us."
"Eugene Terre'Blanche was a sober man and a fighter for his share of the land. That's what I'm fighting for. Anarchy developing in this black nation causes us to worry. I've got the bible: it says 2010 will be the last year."Asked about the African National Congress youth leader Julius Malema, who has been accused of inciting violence by singing "Shoot the Boer", Jacobs added: "I reckon he's going to be taken out very soon. It won't be a Boer. It will be his own people. I reckon that's what we need in this country.He added: "God separated us. We can't have a mix. The 'rainbow nation' could never be possible."
White racists South Africans are saying, spouting nonsense and spewing hatred such as some of the excerpts you have read above, and here is another excerpt, “Terre'Blanche's white resistance movement, the AWB. The AF believes South Africa was built on the blood and toil of the 17th-century white settlers from Holland and France, and was given away to the black majority by traitors who entered into negotiations with the African National Congress, such as the former president FW de Klerk.” "The real problem is President Jacob Zuma," said Bennie van Zyl. "He cannot be trusted” And yet, some persons are more troubled by songs by Mr. Julious Malema as inciting violence?
Some African commentators in reactions to the hoopla which followed the death of Eugene TerreorBlanche, made the following numbered statements
1. “Where was the outrage when a Black South African cameraman covering the Terreblanche's funeral was punched in the face? What relationship does SA have with Nazi flags/insignia? Even Germany is heavy-handed on the display of such flags.”
2. “It amazes me that in this day and age, there are still Africans who think that purveyors of deceit and distortion like the BBC, CNN and major Western newspapers actually operate according to journalistic ideals. These outfits are nothing but instruments of propaganda.”
3. “The trouble with us Africans is that we allow all these lying, intellectual frauds, who use airs of enlightenment to mask base racial agendas, to come to our lands and run roughshod over us”
4. “They talk down to Black people because Black people let them.
They are not Nigerians or Ghanians who fawn over every derelict and mass murderer with sickening congeniality” It might be added that continental Africans and peoples of African descent are too forgiving and have taken “Christian” forgiveness to heart too much. Africans and peoples of African descent, are too quick to forgive and forget our tormentors. See where Truth and Reconciliation Commission has led South Africa?
It should be clear to all that White South Africans in the main, still live in the past and that they yearn for the days of minority rule of the Apartheid era. White South Africans as exemplified by Eugene TerrorBlanche, are desirous of an environment in South Africa which will enable the minority white population to continue to oppress, intimidate and push the majority Black people around, and the resistance by Blacks South Africans to such oppressions, intimidation and contempt from White South Africans is what is motivating these sour attitudes on the part of White South Africans.
It has now culminated in the current attempt to paint and portray Eugene TerrorBlanche’s death as if politically and racially motivated. This have been so, despite evidences and facts to the contrary, to the effect that the dead man refused to keep his part of a contract of service for salary payment
Racial tensions have as a consequence have become elevated and have reached it highest level in as many years since majority rule dawned on South Africa some twenty years ago. Some White Supremacists, racial racketeers and charlatan Boers-Afrikaaners bent on exploiting innocuous death of a racist pig which Eugene TerrorBlanche was. There are now those inside and outside South Africa who seem intent on hijacking and derailing the previously scheduled World Cup Soccer in South Africa for June 2010, in the name of this worse than useless Eugene TerrorBlanche racist. Avenging the dead racist, resorting to vengeance and vendetta in the name of Eugene TerreBlanche has become common currency among racists inside and outside South Africa. High crime rate in South Africa compared to western nations, was used against South Africa, and then, Eugene TerrorBlanche death to spread fear of escalation of racial violence as well as, the new rumors about possibility of terrorists threats of attack or adverse events.
President Jacob Zuma is under tremendous pressure, and according to one commentator, Mr. Zuma is “himself is bowing to White Power.” Mr. Zuma himself does have his own baggage which predates the death of Eugene TerrorBlanche. It is the case that Mr. Zuma has had brushes with the law. He was accused of rape and corruption respectively, but eventually cleared. He once again, involved in recent scandalous relationship with a very young woman leading to old age fatherhood. All these, even as the Black majority in South Africa continue to suffer and endure hardships, inequalities and economic disparity in comparison with the White minority in South Africa. Land redistribution or Land Reform, more appropriately described, have remained untouched as a public issue imbued with fundamental effects
President Nelson Mandela, President Thabo Mbeki and now, President Jacob Zuma, have operated in conformity with the expectations White minority in South Africa, as well as, the expectations of European nations and the United States. The unpublished, unstated and understood agreement seem to be that Black South Africans would have flag independence and appear on the surface to be in-charge of political administration of South Africa, while the ownership and control of the land expanse which constitutes the geographical space which is also known as South Africa, remains in the hands of White South Africans an insignificant percentage of the total population of South Africa. White South Africans continue to control all factors of production, and all the levers of economic control of South Africa. Land, Machines, Tools and Credit and other wherewithal. It is now past twenty years post flag independence in South Africa. No efforts has been made to equitably allocate land resources. Efforts at Affirmative Action and Black Empowerment have been tepid at best. In another fifty years, if things are allowed to continue the way they are at present, everyone, including Black South Africans, would blame Blacks in South Africa for the lack of Land Reforms and absence of land rights for Blacks. Everyone would blame Black South Africans for lacking controls of land and credit and sundry levers of control of the South Africa economy.
There is no surprise in what is happening in South Africa and how the political leadership are reacting sheepishly and fawningly to these power pressures on them by White Power. South African political leadership are clearly afraid of being castigated and labeled in manner identical with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. President Zuma was severely damaged politically, before becoming president of South Africa. Given this background, it is understandable that Mr. Zuma is not assertive in matter of Land Reform or land equity. It also understandable that Mr. Zuma is unwilling to “rock-the-boat” for White Power, the “owners” of lands and credit in South Africa.
What has happened in Zimbabwe and South Africa post majority rule, is identical to what have happened in nations on the African continent. It is the case that most post colonial and post minority rule African political leaders accepted situations in which asserting the interests of their peoples in their newly independent nations were consigned to the dustbins, in favor of the “superior” national and strategic interests of former colonial powers also known as “mother-countries” And so it has remained, that most African nations still have political and business leadership mortgaged and beholden to outsiders.
There is little wonder therefore, that many African nations are where they remain in terms of political and economic developments, half century after flag-political independence. It is beginning to look as though, that African nations which received political independence in the preceding 25 years will not be much different. Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe are such nations in which Land Reforms which were widely discussed in pre-flag independence days and pre-Black majority rule days, have not been tackled since the dawn of majority rule and flag independence. As a consequence, there is an outward political paradigm shift, but the land and credit remains in the hands of the old minority White Power.
This sorts of control through land ownership and by the White land gentry in South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively, coupled with the vice grips of Whites over all aspects of the economies of African nations, explains the sorts of predetermined outcomes for African nations. These predetermined outcomes are really not different from the plights and predicaments of peoples of African descent worldwide. It is the case that there were no compensations and reparations paid to African Americans after the Emancipation Proclamation to officially end slavery and bondage of Africans to slavers in the United States. The American government finally issued a grudging apology for enslaving Africans and subjugating African Americans. The American government still considers reparations for these wrongs, non-discussable transaction.
It is the case that efforts at providing lasting structures for newly freed slaves, during the so-called Reconstruction Era, were not pursued to logical conclusions. It is the case that Haiti, nation of freed slaves was made to actually pay extortion money to France with the support of the United States, for daring to seek self-determination and political freedom-independence and Haiti has been undermined and manipulated since! This is identical to the current promotion and support of Mr. Ibrahim Babangida as candidate for the presidency in Nigeria in 2011, with ringing endorsements from manipulators outside Nigeria.
Nature, history and happenstances, have forever intricately embroidered the links between continental Africans and peoples of African descent in the African Diaspora worldwide. The plights and predicaments of continental Africans and Diaspora Africans, are similarly, identically interwoven and linked forever. We have had the same unsavory experiences from the same sources, be it slavery, colonialism or apartheid
It bears repeating here again, that the lives, the plights and predicaments of continental Africans and all peoples of African descent, are inextricably linked forever. Nature, checkered history of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and racism etc has ensured these natural and man-made links.
In the global economic meltdown, it is the case that continental Africans and peoples of African descent are worse hit in the economic recession depression. It may be recession for all other races of people, but, it is clearly economic and social depression for continental Africans and peoples of African descent.
There have been national and international structures which have ensured and continue to ensure the lopsidedness of allocation of power and resources based on race lines.
Marshall Plan was formulated and implemented post Second World War. Marshall Plan gave 16 European nations and Japan relief and reconstruction after World War II. Marshall Plan ensured delivery of water, orange juice, foods and home constructions and public infrastructures, including roads and bridges.
Conversely, however, after the emancipation proclamation in 1863 in America, there was compensation or seed money or any money to enable freed slaves to establish own economic independence or self-sufficiency, even at subsistence levels. Reconstruction efforts in the US which attempted to assist African Americans just freed from slavery were criticized and derailed, defeated and abandoned.
Similarly, at the end of slave trade, in which Europeans traded in Africans as if inanimate goods or commodities, during which European nations plundered, pillaged and deprived African nations of able bodied men, women and children, and as a consequence, deprived the African continent of her human capital and most productive segments of the African populations. Slave traders were not looking for the weak, the sick or the feeble to till lands and cultivate farms for slavers and their customers
When farming became mechanized... African Americans, Puerto Ricans and Mexican Immigrants who did all the hard labor farming to produce food for America, became unemployed and needed welfare; Welfare administrators broke families by insisting that for a woman to receive welfare, there must be no man at the home... welfare administrators came to look under the beds searching for men... welfare administrators humiliated welfare recipients (labor was cheaper in the south USA, because of the racial system in the south of USA, then racial progress drove the jobs abroad to Mexico, India and China
Meanwhile, Banks, Steels corps and large scale farms always received welfare/subsidies and humiliating these corporate welfare recipients was never on the cards
Even in America, the so-called greatest nation on earth and so-called sole surviving superpower, the plights and predicaments of African Americans is much more precarious than that of anyone else. The checkered history of African Americans have ensured this. Slavery, segregation, discrimination and remaining vestiges of racism
Fiscal Policy Institute in New York report 46% African American males are currently unemployed. This, even though, the current unemployment rate in the general population in America, is between 9.2% to 10.2%. There is a forever disproportionate impact upon African Americans, the downward spiral of the American economy in every recession or depression. This disproportionate impact, is a consequence and direct result of the lopsidedness of resource and opportunities allocation in America which have historically, been based on race.
What is unfolding in South Africa, is not quite different from how economic controls remains in white hands in post slavery and post slavery Africa and in all of Africa and within nations of peoples of Africa descent worldwide. Real power, economic and strategic powers resides outside native political leadership.
A minimal contemplative-deliberative effort is really all it takes. Think about it and you will understand it
See sources and useful link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/eugene-terreblanche-boer-...
Kwame Zulu Shabazz ??? via Msadiki Musego: Poverty in the USA.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Haiti Donors’ Conference Held In New York
Haiti Donors’ Conference Held In New York
Written by Paul I. Adujie
The long awaited and expected donors’ conference for Haiti have taken place. There was an outpouring of very kind words of support and at the end, about $5 billion dollars in short term promises and pledges were made. In all, both short term and long term promises and pledges, put together, were up to $10 billion dollars, spread over several years. High hopes and expectations were boundlessly displayed
There were promises, promises, promises and more promises galore. Pledges, pledges and more pledges. This was the predominant sentiment in New York City on Wednesday March 31st 2010. Many nations and international organizations engaged in laudable promises and pledges as contributions to relief and reconstruction fund for Haiti. The atmosphere was almost festive and it had a feel of carnival.
There were repeated self-promotions by prospective donor nations and or organizations. There were tomes of platitudinous self serving or self aggrandizing pronouncements by those who were announcing these promises and pledges. It was essentially a made for media event. Those who witnessed the events were entertained by some representatives of prospective donors, who made statements as they were engaged in new product placements for their nations or international organizations. At some point, the product placement attitude felt overdone.
Despite these plenteousness of promises and pledges, many are skeptical about actual fulfillment of these pledges. These skepticisms are justified by past experiences in which donors make promises and pledges to the glare of television cameras and full court press and then, all is forgotten and nothing is done. There is no auditing or reckoning verifications to ensure follow thorough or satisfactory compliance with pledges
What is the value or benefit of unredeemed or unfulfilled promises and pledges by nations and international institutions or organizations? The intended beneficiaries to who donations would have been directed, are made to endure deferred or dead dreams and hope against dashed hope or frustrated expectations. It is hoped that past is not prologue in which loud promises and pledges are made, but remain unfulfilled or redeemed by donors, years and years after promises and pledges are made to loud applauses.
Outward demonstration of support for Haiti was pleasantly overwhelming. These were combined efforts by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki Moon, the United States Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton, and of course, her spouse, Bill Clinton, a former president of the United States, who incidentally, is, the United Nations’ special ambassador to Haiti, a position he held, even before the earthquake devastation of January 12, 2010. It is worth repeating here, that Mr. Clinton was in the process of corralling efforts and offering incentives to potential American investors in Haiti. These efforts by Mr. Clinton were beginning to create some buzz in the America media and press, just before the earthquake disaster. It is also worthy of note and mention, that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton celebrated or observed their honeymoon in the beleaguered , indomitable and indefatigable nation of Haiti.
It is hoped that the involvement of the Clintons, and the solemn public commitments made personally by President Obama on behalf of the people and government of the United States makes a difference, a positive difference in the present and future fortunes of Haiti.
The negative roles which the United States have historically played in the affairs of Haiti are beyond legendary. The manipulations, the direct interventions, the invasions and occupations of Haiti; the exertions of undue influence and unbridled pressures on Haiti by the United States and France, at various times, are historical facts and incontrovertible evidences in public domain for all to see.
However, in New York City, platitudes flowed endlessly and ceaselessly at the donors conference. But beyond that, hopefully, comes actual actions.
Supporting the people and government of Haiti in the continuing relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, will help to heal old wounds were inflicted on Haiti, wounds which have festered and left to linger for hundreds of years, after Haiti freed herself from political oppression and subjugation by foreign colonial powers. Supporting Haiti in this recovery and healing process will make the world a better place for all of us.
It remains now to be seen, what the United States would do this time, when all the cameras are gone. It also remains to be seen whether all the key players in this donor conference, with an atmosphere of a festival, ensures that the people and government of Haiti play predominant roles in the rebuilding Haiti. It is noteworthy, that there repeated nagging questions regarding accountability and transparency on the part of donors, as well as, the government of Haiti. The government of Haiti has promised good management of any donated resources targeted for relief, reconstruction and rebuilding of Haiti.
It is hoped as well, that donor nations, organizations and institutions allow the people and government of Haiti discretions in the planning, execution and implementation of the various revival efforts. It is hoped that donor nations and institutions are not fixated on repatriations of profits from relief, reconstruction, rebuilding and revival efforts, as it is too frequently the case in circumstances such as these.
Brazil, Canada and some European countries and in fact, many other nations, international institutions and multilateral organizations made promises and pledges. Haitians and all others who wish Haiti well, are cautiously optimistic and hopeful, that these donors actually deliver on their wonderful promises and pledges. Promises and pledges of aid donations are only as good, as the actual fulfillment. The world must support Haiti in ensuring fulfillment of these plentiful promises and pledges. Haiti’s recovery will be greatly assisted and facilitated by what the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Kim Moon described as international solidarity worldwide for Haiti. The world should not loose sight of these donors and their promises. And progress on the ground in Haiti should also be monitored, project by project, and frequent measurements of deliverables and successful outcomes.
The short term promises and pledges of $5 billion dollars gives reasons for Haitians, Haiti and all well-wishers of the people and government of Haiti to feel elated. Time will tell as to whom among the donors actually follows through, delivers, and commit the monies already pledged
During the donors’ conference in New York City, the United Nations, many nations and many, many international organizations and institutions boasted of being on the ground in Haiti for years, but, to what outcome? What are the measurable outcome for the average Haitian?
It is hoped that these new promises, pledges and commitments are redeemed, fulfilled and delivered upon. The relief, reconstruction, and the rebuilding of Haiti elicit the appreciation and gratitude of the people and government of Haiti and the entire world will be justly proud of roles in supporting Haiti
Written by Paul I. Adujie
The long awaited and expected donors’ conference for Haiti have taken place. There was an outpouring of very kind words of support and at the end, about $5 billion dollars in short term promises and pledges were made. In all, both short term and long term promises and pledges, put together, were up to $10 billion dollars, spread over several years. High hopes and expectations were boundlessly displayed
There were promises, promises, promises and more promises galore. Pledges, pledges and more pledges. This was the predominant sentiment in New York City on Wednesday March 31st 2010. Many nations and international organizations engaged in laudable promises and pledges as contributions to relief and reconstruction fund for Haiti. The atmosphere was almost festive and it had a feel of carnival.
There were repeated self-promotions by prospective donor nations and or organizations. There were tomes of platitudinous self serving or self aggrandizing pronouncements by those who were announcing these promises and pledges. It was essentially a made for media event. Those who witnessed the events were entertained by some representatives of prospective donors, who made statements as they were engaged in new product placements for their nations or international organizations. At some point, the product placement attitude felt overdone.
Despite these plenteousness of promises and pledges, many are skeptical about actual fulfillment of these pledges. These skepticisms are justified by past experiences in which donors make promises and pledges to the glare of television cameras and full court press and then, all is forgotten and nothing is done. There is no auditing or reckoning verifications to ensure follow thorough or satisfactory compliance with pledges
What is the value or benefit of unredeemed or unfulfilled promises and pledges by nations and international institutions or organizations? The intended beneficiaries to who donations would have been directed, are made to endure deferred or dead dreams and hope against dashed hope or frustrated expectations. It is hoped that past is not prologue in which loud promises and pledges are made, but remain unfulfilled or redeemed by donors, years and years after promises and pledges are made to loud applauses.
Outward demonstration of support for Haiti was pleasantly overwhelming. These were combined efforts by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki Moon, the United States Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton, and of course, her spouse, Bill Clinton, a former president of the United States, who incidentally, is, the United Nations’ special ambassador to Haiti, a position he held, even before the earthquake devastation of January 12, 2010. It is worth repeating here, that Mr. Clinton was in the process of corralling efforts and offering incentives to potential American investors in Haiti. These efforts by Mr. Clinton were beginning to create some buzz in the America media and press, just before the earthquake disaster. It is also worthy of note and mention, that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton celebrated or observed their honeymoon in the beleaguered , indomitable and indefatigable nation of Haiti.
It is hoped that the involvement of the Clintons, and the solemn public commitments made personally by President Obama on behalf of the people and government of the United States makes a difference, a positive difference in the present and future fortunes of Haiti.
The negative roles which the United States have historically played in the affairs of Haiti are beyond legendary. The manipulations, the direct interventions, the invasions and occupations of Haiti; the exertions of undue influence and unbridled pressures on Haiti by the United States and France, at various times, are historical facts and incontrovertible evidences in public domain for all to see.
However, in New York City, platitudes flowed endlessly and ceaselessly at the donors conference. But beyond that, hopefully, comes actual actions.
Supporting the people and government of Haiti in the continuing relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, will help to heal old wounds were inflicted on Haiti, wounds which have festered and left to linger for hundreds of years, after Haiti freed herself from political oppression and subjugation by foreign colonial powers. Supporting Haiti in this recovery and healing process will make the world a better place for all of us.
It remains now to be seen, what the United States would do this time, when all the cameras are gone. It also remains to be seen whether all the key players in this donor conference, with an atmosphere of a festival, ensures that the people and government of Haiti play predominant roles in the rebuilding Haiti. It is noteworthy, that there repeated nagging questions regarding accountability and transparency on the part of donors, as well as, the government of Haiti. The government of Haiti has promised good management of any donated resources targeted for relief, reconstruction and rebuilding of Haiti.
It is hoped as well, that donor nations, organizations and institutions allow the people and government of Haiti discretions in the planning, execution and implementation of the various revival efforts. It is hoped that donor nations and institutions are not fixated on repatriations of profits from relief, reconstruction, rebuilding and revival efforts, as it is too frequently the case in circumstances such as these.
Brazil, Canada and some European countries and in fact, many other nations, international institutions and multilateral organizations made promises and pledges. Haitians and all others who wish Haiti well, are cautiously optimistic and hopeful, that these donors actually deliver on their wonderful promises and pledges. Promises and pledges of aid donations are only as good, as the actual fulfillment. The world must support Haiti in ensuring fulfillment of these plentiful promises and pledges. Haiti’s recovery will be greatly assisted and facilitated by what the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Kim Moon described as international solidarity worldwide for Haiti. The world should not loose sight of these donors and their promises. And progress on the ground in Haiti should also be monitored, project by project, and frequent measurements of deliverables and successful outcomes.
The short term promises and pledges of $5 billion dollars gives reasons for Haitians, Haiti and all well-wishers of the people and government of Haiti to feel elated. Time will tell as to whom among the donors actually follows through, delivers, and commit the monies already pledged
During the donors’ conference in New York City, the United Nations, many nations and many, many international organizations and institutions boasted of being on the ground in Haiti for years, but, to what outcome? What are the measurable outcome for the average Haitian?
It is hoped that these new promises, pledges and commitments are redeemed, fulfilled and delivered upon. The relief, reconstruction, and the rebuilding of Haiti elicit the appreciation and gratitude of the people and government of Haiti and the entire world will be justly proud of roles in supporting Haiti
Obama Says Drill Baby Drill?
Obama Says Drill Baby Drill?
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin Republican presidential tickets aggressively promoted a no holds barred drilling of fossil fuels of the hydrocarbon type, wherever it can be found within and near the North American continental shelf. And in particular, they sought unrestrained drilling in places such as ANWR, Alaska, Florida, the Virginia-Maryland axis and the Gulf of Mexico etc
Conversely, Senator Barack Obama and Senator Joe Biden and in fact, Democrats and all liberal leaning politicians and platforms advocated utmost restraints in matters of unmitigated hunt and drillings for hydrocarbons and fossil fuels in North America and the Democrats were applauded by key environmentalists and environmentalist groups
President Obama as candidate was sanguine on matters concerning environment preservation and the consequences of eco degradations, with particular reference to the United States. Mr. Obama articulated superbly robust environmental stance. But now, there are baffling shifts and tinkering which have left environmentalists and others aghast. Tongues are wagging in connections with unburdening of oil companies in the business of explorations and prospecting for hydrocarbons or fossil fuels in the United States.
President Obama since occupying the White House, has moderated many of his policy positions or what some had assumed were his core beliefs. Many are left wondering what Mr. Obama’s motives are, in reference to these changes and shift away, from his policy stances, which had appeared heartfelt. Whatever happened to his concerns for fauna and flora, and oil drilling consequences or impacts on the environment?
There are indications that Mr. Obama has remained enamored and fixated on his rather idealistic hope for bipartisanship with his nemesis and opponents in the Republican party which has busied itself, and draped itself as the political party of NO, since the inauguration of President Obama
President Obama ought to know by now, that his hope for bipartisanship is forlorn. I thought President Obama ought to pronounce bipartisanship dead or impracticable or even impossible. Mr. Obama’s Health Reform Law as an American narrative was hijacked by Republicans and the Tea Party. And after the very partisan Health Care Reform Law bruising debates, why insist on nonexistent bipartisanship? What with all the nastiness which attended it and festooned upon it by the Republicans? The nastiness which were mostly from the Republicans and their Tea Party surrogates? It was the Republicans who falsely characterized and lampooned Mr. Obama’s efforts at creating a paradigm shift in health care delivery for all Americans.
The Republicans have fought and frontally attacked every policy program perspective of President Obama. Republicans have attacked and attempted to derail the second Stimulus Package, just as they have opposed, stalled and stymied implementations of sundry policies of Mr. Obama’s administration by refusing to consider Mr. Obama’s appointment and nominations.
In view of these purely partisan blockades of Mr. Obama by the Republicans, why does, and why would, Mr. Obama persist in his indomitable quest for bipartisanship? Why has Mr. Obama abandoned his previous position on drilling? Why has he abandoned or jettisoned cap and trade energy policy which he had supported? Even now, despite Mr. Obama’s unilateral truce and olive branch to the Republicans on this reversal of his energy policy stance, the Republicans were quick to reject Mr. Obama’s obvious deference to the Republicans. Mr. Obama is reportedly yielding so much grounds to placate and soften Republican oppositions. Republicans have been a destabilizing factor in every of Mr. Obama’s policy forays. Republicans are happy to keep the volatility between themselves and the Democrats alive with the hope of reaping electoral windfall in the forthcoming midterm elections in this Fall. The Republicans see election wins in every policy debate with the Obama administration. But bipartisanship still seems possible
As part of dividends from Mr. Obama’s triumphant victory from the hard fought battle over Health Care Reform Law, it was expected that more presidential confidence, swagger and even bravado, would return to Mr. Obama. And that he would become emboldened by the victory and buoyed in subsequent policy pursuits. Why then is Mr. Obama back slipping the American narrative into the back pockets of the Republicans once again? Why risk allowing Republicans to define and drive the energy debates as was the Health Care Reform Law national debate during the preceding 15 months?
What would it take to convince Mr. Obama already, that his bipartisanship idealism is moribund as far as the Republicans are concerned? It is quite obvious by now, that Republicans are only intent derailing the Democrats and their policy direction, for Republicans’ advantage. These are fights Republicans are glad to have and have been spoiling for such chances to scandalize Democrats.
President Obama and the Democrats’ political survival depend on the realization that there is a fight. And to prevail in these fights, the Democrats have to recognize that there is in fact, a worthy fight, ideological and cultural. What is more? The Democrats have to realize that the Republicans are splendidly uninterested in bipartisanship. The Republicans are unwilling to have fair and balance debates of the issues.
It is therefore quite counter productive for President Obama and the Democrats, to be veering to the right with hope of co-opting Republicans on public policy issues.
Clearly, Democrats must understand that the Republicans are desperate political orphans, after they, the Republicans were completely repudiated for their wrongheaded policies. Thereafter Democrats were rewarded by the electorate with a resounding mandate and so, the Democrats are the current incumbents, who must deliver on matters of pubic policies without ceding the public policy high ground to anyone else.
President Obama and the Democrats’ political fortunes, will be on the chopping blocks in the next elections and they will swim and sink depending on whether the electorate adjudge President Obama and the Democrats to have done right by the electorate. And not whether President Obama and the Democrats were fine bipartisan gentle-people.
In all of this, it must be borne in mind, that President Obama and the Democrats inherited two foreign wars with America wrapped in quagmires. As well as, a domestic economy in comatose condition, with the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates 100 years. President Obama and the Democrats must focused on cleaning the humongous mess which was created and left by the Republicans. The dexterity so demonstrated in these cleaning efforts by President Obama and the Democrats, is what they will be judged on.
The idea that President Obama and the Democrats seem intent on squandering their mandate, their goodwill and electoral wins, which were awarded to them by the electorate in the 2008 general elections is a bad idea. President Obama and the Democrats must stop trying too hard to act, be and seem like the ultra conservative Republicans who were appropriately and properly rejected at the polls by the American people on November 4, 2008.
President Obama is more effective when he is in fighting spirit, when he is decisive and unties his own hands. Obama wins when he ditches his entrenchments in his romantic pleas for bipartisanship with the Republicans. President Obama and the Democrats must cease allowing Republicans to hijack policy narratives.
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin Republican presidential tickets aggressively promoted a no holds barred drilling of fossil fuels of the hydrocarbon type, wherever it can be found within and near the North American continental shelf. And in particular, they sought unrestrained drilling in places such as ANWR, Alaska, Florida, the Virginia-Maryland axis and the Gulf of Mexico etc
Conversely, Senator Barack Obama and Senator Joe Biden and in fact, Democrats and all liberal leaning politicians and platforms advocated utmost restraints in matters of unmitigated hunt and drillings for hydrocarbons and fossil fuels in North America and the Democrats were applauded by key environmentalists and environmentalist groups
President Obama as candidate was sanguine on matters concerning environment preservation and the consequences of eco degradations, with particular reference to the United States. Mr. Obama articulated superbly robust environmental stance. But now, there are baffling shifts and tinkering which have left environmentalists and others aghast. Tongues are wagging in connections with unburdening of oil companies in the business of explorations and prospecting for hydrocarbons or fossil fuels in the United States.
President Obama since occupying the White House, has moderated many of his policy positions or what some had assumed were his core beliefs. Many are left wondering what Mr. Obama’s motives are, in reference to these changes and shift away, from his policy stances, which had appeared heartfelt. Whatever happened to his concerns for fauna and flora, and oil drilling consequences or impacts on the environment?
There are indications that Mr. Obama has remained enamored and fixated on his rather idealistic hope for bipartisanship with his nemesis and opponents in the Republican party which has busied itself, and draped itself as the political party of NO, since the inauguration of President Obama
President Obama ought to know by now, that his hope for bipartisanship is forlorn. I thought President Obama ought to pronounce bipartisanship dead or impracticable or even impossible. Mr. Obama’s Health Reform Law as an American narrative was hijacked by Republicans and the Tea Party. And after the very partisan Health Care Reform Law bruising debates, why insist on nonexistent bipartisanship? What with all the nastiness which attended it and festooned upon it by the Republicans? The nastiness which were mostly from the Republicans and their Tea Party surrogates? It was the Republicans who falsely characterized and lampooned Mr. Obama’s efforts at creating a paradigm shift in health care delivery for all Americans.
The Republicans have fought and frontally attacked every policy program perspective of President Obama. Republicans have attacked and attempted to derail the second Stimulus Package, just as they have opposed, stalled and stymied implementations of sundry policies of Mr. Obama’s administration by refusing to consider Mr. Obama’s appointment and nominations.
In view of these purely partisan blockades of Mr. Obama by the Republicans, why does, and why would, Mr. Obama persist in his indomitable quest for bipartisanship? Why has Mr. Obama abandoned his previous position on drilling? Why has he abandoned or jettisoned cap and trade energy policy which he had supported? Even now, despite Mr. Obama’s unilateral truce and olive branch to the Republicans on this reversal of his energy policy stance, the Republicans were quick to reject Mr. Obama’s obvious deference to the Republicans. Mr. Obama is reportedly yielding so much grounds to placate and soften Republican oppositions. Republicans have been a destabilizing factor in every of Mr. Obama’s policy forays. Republicans are happy to keep the volatility between themselves and the Democrats alive with the hope of reaping electoral windfall in the forthcoming midterm elections in this Fall. The Republicans see election wins in every policy debate with the Obama administration. But bipartisanship still seems possible
As part of dividends from Mr. Obama’s triumphant victory from the hard fought battle over Health Care Reform Law, it was expected that more presidential confidence, swagger and even bravado, would return to Mr. Obama. And that he would become emboldened by the victory and buoyed in subsequent policy pursuits. Why then is Mr. Obama back slipping the American narrative into the back pockets of the Republicans once again? Why risk allowing Republicans to define and drive the energy debates as was the Health Care Reform Law national debate during the preceding 15 months?
What would it take to convince Mr. Obama already, that his bipartisanship idealism is moribund as far as the Republicans are concerned? It is quite obvious by now, that Republicans are only intent derailing the Democrats and their policy direction, for Republicans’ advantage. These are fights Republicans are glad to have and have been spoiling for such chances to scandalize Democrats.
President Obama and the Democrats’ political survival depend on the realization that there is a fight. And to prevail in these fights, the Democrats have to recognize that there is in fact, a worthy fight, ideological and cultural. What is more? The Democrats have to realize that the Republicans are splendidly uninterested in bipartisanship. The Republicans are unwilling to have fair and balance debates of the issues.
It is therefore quite counter productive for President Obama and the Democrats, to be veering to the right with hope of co-opting Republicans on public policy issues.
Clearly, Democrats must understand that the Republicans are desperate political orphans, after they, the Republicans were completely repudiated for their wrongheaded policies. Thereafter Democrats were rewarded by the electorate with a resounding mandate and so, the Democrats are the current incumbents, who must deliver on matters of pubic policies without ceding the public policy high ground to anyone else.
President Obama and the Democrats’ political fortunes, will be on the chopping blocks in the next elections and they will swim and sink depending on whether the electorate adjudge President Obama and the Democrats to have done right by the electorate. And not whether President Obama and the Democrats were fine bipartisan gentle-people.
In all of this, it must be borne in mind, that President Obama and the Democrats inherited two foreign wars with America wrapped in quagmires. As well as, a domestic economy in comatose condition, with the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates 100 years. President Obama and the Democrats must focused on cleaning the humongous mess which was created and left by the Republicans. The dexterity so demonstrated in these cleaning efforts by President Obama and the Democrats, is what they will be judged on.
The idea that President Obama and the Democrats seem intent on squandering their mandate, their goodwill and electoral wins, which were awarded to them by the electorate in the 2008 general elections is a bad idea. President Obama and the Democrats must stop trying too hard to act, be and seem like the ultra conservative Republicans who were appropriately and properly rejected at the polls by the American people on November 4, 2008.
President Obama is more effective when he is in fighting spirit, when he is decisive and unties his own hands. Obama wins when he ditches his entrenchments in his romantic pleas for bipartisanship with the Republicans. President Obama and the Democrats must cease allowing Republicans to hijack policy narratives.
Catholic Sex Abuses; Imagine If The Abuses Were By Imams, Muslims?
Catholic Sex Abuses; Imagine If The Abuses Were By Imams, Muslims?
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Instead of apologies, remorse, regrets or contrition and atonement, the pope and the Catholic Church demeans victims of sex abuse scandal and critics of the church for its handling? Why did the pope and the Catholic Church expect adoration and adulation over these sex crimes against children?
The pope and the Catholic Church have resorted to blaming the victims and the critics who have expressed appropriate righteous indignation over the sex crimes against children which is an abomination and sin in any religion, culture and by any definition of human decency. The pope now accuses his critics of merely gossiping and seeking to intimidate him and the Catholic Church!
The long concealed crime sprees by pedophile Catholic Church priests have spread from nation to nation, and as the still unfolding sex abuse crimes burgeoned, the pope and the Catholic Church became defensive
Instead of embarrassment, shame, remorse and sincere contrition, there are attempts those in the Catholic Church who attempting fruitless spin doctoring to reshape the sex abuse scandal controversy. Some in the Catholic Church have taken to attacking and deriding critics of the pope and the Catholic Church. Even though the pope and the church have clearly dropped the ball in neglecting to tackle these sex crimes against children. Predator pedophile Catholic Church priests were not defrocked and dismissed.
These criminal priests were not reported for prosecution and imprisonments which they deserved. And worse of all, there were these elaborate and massive cover ups, in which predator priests were transferred from parish to parish, from locality to locality, and sometimes, across national boundaries in which the crimes were continued, and, all these, to the awareness and knowledge of the Catholic Church
I have had to endure a barrage of unfair attacks as criticisms for writing public commentaries in regarding the pandemic of sexual abuse of children by pedophile Catholic Church priests. Sex abuse of children by Catholic Church priests is a worldwide scandal which have raged in many nations, among them, America, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and quite likely, many more nations will be added to this list
Pope Benedict XVI the head of the Catholic Church worldwide has apologized for these shameful criminal defilement of thousands of children by Catholic Church priests worldwide. But some have thought that the papal apology was too little and too late, and worse, it was as if the pope apologized reluctantly and as if the apology came through clenched teeth.
The pope and the Catholic Church should, and ought to, quietly bear the shame of the crimes and scandals wrought upon themselves by the pedophiles and sexual predators amongst its flock. This is particularly so, in view of the fact that the church have long known of these sexual abuses directed at children and did nothing. The church instead, chose, in self-interested and collusive ways, to subvert justice and provide protections for these child molesters in religious garbs and robes. And yet, the pope and the church seem irritated and angry for getting bad press for these sex crimes? These sex crimes were committed by predator pedophile priests, which completely justifies the increased scrutiny of actions by the pope the church.
The pope and some in the Catholic Church obviously have and inflated and a very exaggerated sense of own sense of perfections. The pope and the Catholic Church have for so long spewed unreasonable, illogical and unnatural hypocritical moralizing about forms of sex by consenting adults. Then it turns out that unnatural imposition of celibacy and sexual repression upon Catholic Church priests, have managed to produce over time, criminally and morally bankrupt deviant sex with vulnerable children worldwide
The pope and the Catholic Church have lost their pretense to moral superiority. Their perennial holier than thou attitudes have been repudiated as what it really always was, hypocrisy!
And in all of this, it has become clear that this hypocrisy is a permanent feature of social, moral and religious arguments of our times.
In this era of renewed culture wars, the new crusade and epic contest or battle royal of moral and religious superiority between Christianity and Islam, the universality of virtues and vices is speedily becoming clearer to all. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 by those 19 hijackers from the Middle East, who happened to have been of the Islamic religion, it have become fashionable to stereotype and stigmatize Islam and Muslims with the generalizations of terrorism.
This have been so, even despite the fact that persons whose religious faith is not Islam and who are non-Muslims have been engaged in criminal actions with the intent to produce murder and mayhem and inflict so much violence on the human communities.
There are clearly Christians who are clearly unable to come to terms with the incontrovertible evidences and facts which have surfaced regarding these child molesters in the Catholic Christian Church. There are clearly those it appears, who pretend hypocritically, that these pedophiles and predators could not and do not exist within Catholic Church, which is known for being often hyperbolic in its claims to moral purity regarding matters of sex. As it turns out, the current pope and other leaders of the Catholic Church, have presided over a church infested with fiendish criminals in robes who deviously molested children. While pope and the Catholic Church have been implicated in shielding the criminals from punishments or sanctions richly deserved
All these should act as wake up calls to all of us humans to the fact that, there are persons in every community who engage in anti social behaviors, violent crimes and acts which fit’s the general descriptions of what the world now refers to as terrorism. Joseph Stack rammed his aircraft into a federal building in Austin Texas and some Christians sought to explain and justify such acts of terrorism as a legitimate way to protest taxation. “ Hence the article, “American Terrorists Suicide Bombers Are Engaged In Terrorism Or Protests” Joseph Stack religion and nationality were non-issues in comparison to the harping upon the nationality and religion of some others accused of similar public crimes, for instance, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. On the other hand, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and the Unabomber Ted Kyzinski never had their nationality and religion painted as factors in their lunacies
Similarly, there is clearly an absence of outrage and condemnations directed at Christendom and the Catholic Church in particular, despite this humongous controversy and worldwide scandal in which the pope and the Catholic Church have been embroiled. Where is justified righteous indignation directed toward Christendom, and the Catholic Church in particular? Where is our collective outrage?
Would the world’s reaction to these sex crimes, sexual abuse and molestation of vulnerable defenseless children have been different if the perpetrators were persons in-charge ministering to adherents of some other religious faiths? Would Christians, and in particular, the Catholic Church, have reacted more vociferously, stridently and with more vehemence to these criminal sex abuse of thousands of children worldwide were committed by a bunch of Imams Muslims and of the Islamic religious persuasion?
There are obviously those who pretend that Christians are superior to all else. And that crimes by Christians do have some logic to them, such as these pedophile priests. Or perhaps it is that Christian who commit terrorist acts or sex abuse of children are merely crazy lunatic, and Muslims who may engage in identical acts, are motivated by blood lust religious zealotry, after all, Islam is now in many minds, synonymous with violence and terrorism? Generalizations and stereotypes against Islam? You bet!
We are left to wonder what the deafening decibels would have been, had the abusers been Imams, Muslims? Imagine that in so many nations as, have clearly been the case here, with thousands of predator pedophile Catholic Church priests sexually molesting thousands of children worldwide? Is the Catholic Church tarnished forever as church which condones sex abuses of innocent children, as well as a church which knowingly concoct a worldwide racket to conceal the sex abuse and molestation of innocent children? Or, virtues and vices are actually universal and not peculiar to any nation, region or religion?
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Instead of apologies, remorse, regrets or contrition and atonement, the pope and the Catholic Church demeans victims of sex abuse scandal and critics of the church for its handling? Why did the pope and the Catholic Church expect adoration and adulation over these sex crimes against children?
The pope and the Catholic Church have resorted to blaming the victims and the critics who have expressed appropriate righteous indignation over the sex crimes against children which is an abomination and sin in any religion, culture and by any definition of human decency. The pope now accuses his critics of merely gossiping and seeking to intimidate him and the Catholic Church!
The long concealed crime sprees by pedophile Catholic Church priests have spread from nation to nation, and as the still unfolding sex abuse crimes burgeoned, the pope and the Catholic Church became defensive
Instead of embarrassment, shame, remorse and sincere contrition, there are attempts those in the Catholic Church who attempting fruitless spin doctoring to reshape the sex abuse scandal controversy. Some in the Catholic Church have taken to attacking and deriding critics of the pope and the Catholic Church. Even though the pope and the church have clearly dropped the ball in neglecting to tackle these sex crimes against children. Predator pedophile Catholic Church priests were not defrocked and dismissed.
These criminal priests were not reported for prosecution and imprisonments which they deserved. And worse of all, there were these elaborate and massive cover ups, in which predator priests were transferred from parish to parish, from locality to locality, and sometimes, across national boundaries in which the crimes were continued, and, all these, to the awareness and knowledge of the Catholic Church
I have had to endure a barrage of unfair attacks as criticisms for writing public commentaries in regarding the pandemic of sexual abuse of children by pedophile Catholic Church priests. Sex abuse of children by Catholic Church priests is a worldwide scandal which have raged in many nations, among them, America, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and quite likely, many more nations will be added to this list
Pope Benedict XVI the head of the Catholic Church worldwide has apologized for these shameful criminal defilement of thousands of children by Catholic Church priests worldwide. But some have thought that the papal apology was too little and too late, and worse, it was as if the pope apologized reluctantly and as if the apology came through clenched teeth.
The pope and the Catholic Church should, and ought to, quietly bear the shame of the crimes and scandals wrought upon themselves by the pedophiles and sexual predators amongst its flock. This is particularly so, in view of the fact that the church have long known of these sexual abuses directed at children and did nothing. The church instead, chose, in self-interested and collusive ways, to subvert justice and provide protections for these child molesters in religious garbs and robes. And yet, the pope and the church seem irritated and angry for getting bad press for these sex crimes? These sex crimes were committed by predator pedophile priests, which completely justifies the increased scrutiny of actions by the pope the church.
The pope and some in the Catholic Church obviously have and inflated and a very exaggerated sense of own sense of perfections. The pope and the Catholic Church have for so long spewed unreasonable, illogical and unnatural hypocritical moralizing about forms of sex by consenting adults. Then it turns out that unnatural imposition of celibacy and sexual repression upon Catholic Church priests, have managed to produce over time, criminally and morally bankrupt deviant sex with vulnerable children worldwide
The pope and the Catholic Church have lost their pretense to moral superiority. Their perennial holier than thou attitudes have been repudiated as what it really always was, hypocrisy!
And in all of this, it has become clear that this hypocrisy is a permanent feature of social, moral and religious arguments of our times.
In this era of renewed culture wars, the new crusade and epic contest or battle royal of moral and religious superiority between Christianity and Islam, the universality of virtues and vices is speedily becoming clearer to all. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 by those 19 hijackers from the Middle East, who happened to have been of the Islamic religion, it have become fashionable to stereotype and stigmatize Islam and Muslims with the generalizations of terrorism.
This have been so, even despite the fact that persons whose religious faith is not Islam and who are non-Muslims have been engaged in criminal actions with the intent to produce murder and mayhem and inflict so much violence on the human communities.
There are clearly Christians who are clearly unable to come to terms with the incontrovertible evidences and facts which have surfaced regarding these child molesters in the Catholic Christian Church. There are clearly those it appears, who pretend hypocritically, that these pedophiles and predators could not and do not exist within Catholic Church, which is known for being often hyperbolic in its claims to moral purity regarding matters of sex. As it turns out, the current pope and other leaders of the Catholic Church, have presided over a church infested with fiendish criminals in robes who deviously molested children. While pope and the Catholic Church have been implicated in shielding the criminals from punishments or sanctions richly deserved
All these should act as wake up calls to all of us humans to the fact that, there are persons in every community who engage in anti social behaviors, violent crimes and acts which fit’s the general descriptions of what the world now refers to as terrorism. Joseph Stack rammed his aircraft into a federal building in Austin Texas and some Christians sought to explain and justify such acts of terrorism as a legitimate way to protest taxation. “ Hence the article, “American Terrorists Suicide Bombers Are Engaged In Terrorism Or Protests” Joseph Stack religion and nationality were non-issues in comparison to the harping upon the nationality and religion of some others accused of similar public crimes, for instance, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. On the other hand, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and the Unabomber Ted Kyzinski never had their nationality and religion painted as factors in their lunacies
Similarly, there is clearly an absence of outrage and condemnations directed at Christendom and the Catholic Church in particular, despite this humongous controversy and worldwide scandal in which the pope and the Catholic Church have been embroiled. Where is justified righteous indignation directed toward Christendom, and the Catholic Church in particular? Where is our collective outrage?
Would the world’s reaction to these sex crimes, sexual abuse and molestation of vulnerable defenseless children have been different if the perpetrators were persons in-charge ministering to adherents of some other religious faiths? Would Christians, and in particular, the Catholic Church, have reacted more vociferously, stridently and with more vehemence to these criminal sex abuse of thousands of children worldwide were committed by a bunch of Imams Muslims and of the Islamic religious persuasion?
There are obviously those who pretend that Christians are superior to all else. And that crimes by Christians do have some logic to them, such as these pedophile priests. Or perhaps it is that Christian who commit terrorist acts or sex abuse of children are merely crazy lunatic, and Muslims who may engage in identical acts, are motivated by blood lust religious zealotry, after all, Islam is now in many minds, synonymous with violence and terrorism? Generalizations and stereotypes against Islam? You bet!
We are left to wonder what the deafening decibels would have been, had the abusers been Imams, Muslims? Imagine that in so many nations as, have clearly been the case here, with thousands of predator pedophile Catholic Church priests sexually molesting thousands of children worldwide? Is the Catholic Church tarnished forever as church which condones sex abuses of innocent children, as well as a church which knowingly concoct a worldwide racket to conceal the sex abuse and molestation of innocent children? Or, virtues and vices are actually universal and not peculiar to any nation, region or religion?
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