Do Female Suicide Bombers Also Want Virgins?
By
Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States
Every right thinking person should abhor violence, any form of violence, especially, where such violence is visited upon innocent persons; But violence must be examined closely, to discern root causes and actions that could be taken, to prevent recurrence or repeat of such violence. The crises between Palestine and Israel, resurged again, with the suicide bombing undertaken by a Palestinian woman, who was said to be a mother of two children; The newswires proclaimed that "Mother of Two Kills 4 in Israel and that "Arabs were screaming, Jews were screaming," said a Palestinian witness.
But what is her "poor excuse?" Male suicide bombers, are supposed to be seeking seventy female virgin maidens as reward for suicide bombing? Perhaps now, that illusion or fallacy will be put to rest, at the advent female suicide bombers? The past efforts to ridicule or minimized the circumstances that lead to suicide and bombing must be re-examined.
Perhaps the real crux of the matter is land? Self-determination being sought by Palestinians from Israeli occupation and military, that continues to put Palestinians under the manacles of industrial-strength anvil? And as Mr. Yassin put it, "Resistance will escalate against this enemy until they leave our land," Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin; Is it helpful, to continue to pretend that suicide bombing is motivated by the magnet and lure of seventy virgin maidens, by amorously sedated male bombers? What now explains the increased participation, in suicide bombing by females? Seventy or eighty virgins? Or land?/dignity?
Unlike in the past, when Palestinian leaders would rush to condemn suicide bombings by Palestinians persons against Israelis, this bombing did not received such condemnations, this time, "Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie did not condemn the bombing as he has, after attacks in Israel. Instead he said Israel's military crackdown "does not help to achieve quiet" and called for a mutual cease-fire" The continued targeted killings and demolitions actions in Palestine by Israel, must have informed the Palestine leader's reactions. The bloodshed continues on both the Palestine and Israel sides, there is abundant pain waiting for both participants, unless peace is vigorously pursued and attained by Palestine and Israel; the female suicide bomber, was a very young woman, Reem Al-Reyashi, 22, professed love for her children, a 3-1/2-year-old boy and a girl of 1-1/2 years It was reported that "Reyashi, from a middle-class merchant family in Gaza, said in a farewell video she had dreamed since she was 13 of "becoming a martyr" Is this not very instructive? Better to die, than compelled living under excruciating and perpetual bondage?
She planned to be a suicide bomber, not a doctor, lawyer or engineer, what grievance did she have? Or was she just an unthinking and unreasonable Arab and hater of freedoms and liberty? A child from a middle-class family, would have reasons to expect more from life, what then could be the circumstances of her life, that at age 13, she thought of suicide? And how come the world is not in a hurry to find out her reasons? At such a tender age? She concluded by saying: "God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them." According to press reports, Israel has accused Palestinians of glorifying suicide bombers and international human rights organizations have called the bombings crimes against humanity. Palestinians say Israel's military crackdown provokes such violence. Charge, counter charge, recriminations? When will it end? who will yield? When will a compromise materialize?
Why would a woman, the giver of life, a mother of two children, want to kill herself? Or, want to kill other persons, in the first place? These are the questions, important questions, that I believe must be answered by the United Nations and many others, who want to promote peace in the world; Suicide bombing by females has taken an upsurge in Palestine and Chechnya, this phenomenon, defies the previous explanations, derisive explanations, as it were, that male suicide bombers were in search of seventy virgins promised and in wait, in the heavens, suicide bombers, we are told, are therefore motivated by the endless heavenly bliss, with seventy virgins.
These over-simplistic and derisive explanations, have sought to portray, suicide bombers as less than humans, without moral value and without a will or desire to live and let others live; But those who would commit suicide, in what they believe is a fight for their own land, a fight to end occupation, a fight for dignity and respect for their people, are people who have endured indescribable humiliation, those who have endured the overwhelming power of the military might of their adversary or opponents.
It is confounding, that the world appears to think very little of the fate of Palestinians, there is palpable frustration in Palestine, there is unbearable hopelessness, what is routine travel to work or trips to perform daily chores, are turned into insurmountable obstacle courses for the average Palestinian, families are routinely separated, homes are routinely demolished and there are targeted killings and arbitrary arrests of Palestinians by Israeli forces, there is the continued construction of the fence, wall and barrier by agent provocateur, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Mr. Sharon with winks and nods from Mr. Bush, have been acting arrogantly, particularly, since the Middle East power equation balance, has been abruptly tilted in Israel's favor, this has been made possible, by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
All entreaties to Israel, to cease and desist from the land grab and apartheid separations, which the fence or wall/barrier has created, has failed and so, the spate of violent actions, causing reactions, on the part of Palestine and Israel continues... Vicious cycle? When is the human race going to wake up to the unending scourge of abbreviated lives in Palestine? To the unimaginable sufferings and hardships that culminate into decisions to die by suicide, while taking others along? Suicide is made possible by existing circumstances of hopelessness and the conclusion that there is nothing to lose, just dying or that there is no prospect of a better life in Palestine, hence the perceived futility of continued existence?
Feb 2004
Friday, November 28, 2008
Is Secretary General Koffi Annan Of The United Nations a puppet?
Is Secretary General Koffi Annan Of The United Nations a puppet?
By
Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States
The United Nations have been variously described as a toothless lion at best and at worst, the UN is described as a puppet on a string, readily manipulated by the five permanent members with veto powers, veto powers? Please make that reserved arbitrary, undemocratic and discriminatory powers! And America is more egregious in these manipulations of the United Nations, a world body that ought to serve global interests.
Mr. Koffi Annan, the current Secretary General of the United Nations, has become a perfect illustration of the severe powerlessness and paralysis of this world body or organization, the UN has become emphatically ineffective; And examples of this UN ineffectiveness abounds, and it has been exemplified by the pre-invasion and occupation of Iraq, the associated rhetoric, accompanying action by America.
America bamboozled and cajoled the UN with manipulated intelligence, and then, denigrated the UN in bellicose language, America threatened the UN, while dangling the threat of making the UN a complete irrelevance, all these, while America sexed up and souped-up spurious information to drum up war against Iraq, America informed the world, that the only saving grace for the UN then touted by the US, will be UN’s willingness to demur and defer to the US planned invasion and occupation of Iraq and the US invaded and occupied Iraq without a UN made and legitimacy.
The United Nations feebly and reluctantly, or rather glibly, resisted America’s agenda for Iraq and by extension, America overall agenda for the entire Middle East region, it has since become glaringly clear, that the president Bush, with the so-called neoconservative agenda, agenda driven wrong headed policies geared to attain a "new world order" which is being pursued with Bush Doctrine of preemption, this so-called Bush Doctrine, has nothing significant, to do with whether Saddam Hussein misconduct or whether Saddam was undemocratic, or had horrible human rights record and every conceivable misconduct or whether Saddam actually possessed the ever elusive and ever shifting quicksand Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMD.
The false pretense used by America invade and occupy Iraq, was based on the worst case scenario, that was extrapolated by the Bush administration to the nth degree, to the effect that, Iraq possessed WMD and mobile chemical laboratories, with assorted weapons launchers that Iraq could launch against the US or Iraq’s neighbor in 45 minutes. All these, of course have turned out to be what the are only vivid imagination by the Bush administration officials, imaginations not based on facts or the truth or reality. America has always demonstrated complete disregard and contempt for the United Nations, for starters, America has neglected, failed and or refused to pay its dues and or meet its financial obligations to the United Nations, and yet, the UN continues to be firmly tied to apron strings of America, instead of America being suspended for non-payment of dues.
Ordinarily, one would have logically expected America to be sanctioned or censured for neglecting, failing and or refusing to pay UN dues and financial obligations, but instead, America simultaneously dominate and undermine the UN, when America pleases, the only time that the UN is considered relevant, is when the UN sheepishly do America’s bidding, it either that, or the US engages in undermining the UN and wishing the UN obsolescence or extinction and significant powerlessness and irrelevance. Here now comes, America, that loudly proclaimed the UN irrelevant, the US proceeded to give the UN a bad name, like the proverbial bad dog, in order to hang it! Now, America needs the UN to inherit the mess and quagmire, that the same America created in complete disregard for the UN and the entire world, in complete disregard for a good number of American citizen.
America does not want democracy or freedom for Iraq and Iraqi citizens, at least, not in any altruistic sense, America has stated categorically, an opposition to one person-one-vote or direct elections in Iraq, and this, notwithstanding the insistence by a majority of Iraqis led by Ayatollah Sistani, Who would have thought it possible? That America, a country that claim freedoms, liberties and democracies as prerogatives, would argue against direct elections in Iraq or anywhere else in the world for that matter?
Here we have Middle Eastern Moslems, demanding democracy, while the "civilized" westerly cultured Americans, are opposed to true democracy? America is insisting adamantly, on "elections" through caucuses or indirect selections of political leaders that would do America’s bidding, Iraqi political leaders that would be in obeisance to America’s whims and caprices! Simply put, America is looking for a puppet government in Iraq! A puppet government possibly led headed by the American token, Ahmed Chalabi or some other Iraqi who have cozy up to America.
Clearly, America is looking for an abridged, abbreviated and adulterated democracy, America is seeking a pseudo democracy and it will prefer a government in Iraq, that it can manipulate and control. The United States, in the face of the starkly naked reality and consequences of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, now, seeks UN’s endorsement, the US now seek to foist the reconstruction responsibilities, so that the ongoing nefarious activities by the US, the sour undertaking by America in Iraq will become the responsibility of the international community, the UN will now provide cover and legitimacy to a planned exit strategy by the US, that would look almost respectable.
Secretary General Koffi Annan of the United Nations, is conferring that legitimacy and respectability on America’s exit strategy and America’s unilateral cowboy and bully policies, that led to the debacle in Iraq, in the first place! These America policies, defied the United Nations, defied a majority of American citizens, it defied the entire world, it defied multilateral institutions and conventions, and worse, it defied international law! But now, Koffi Annan has agreed, with the America’s bad policies, by promptly endorsing or echoing the America election schedule for Iraq, by endorsing an American preferred type caucuses or indirect elections in Iraq, this indirect rule by American puppets in Iraq is for American benefit.
Koffi Annan’s agreement with the Americans’ position is really not a surprise, he has simply regurgitated America’s famously acclaimed impracticality of direct elections of the one person one vote type, Mr. Annan perhaps in doing this, hopes to avert the probability of facing the Boutrous Boutrous Ghali treatment, as it is the case, that any UN Secretary General who confronts America with its UN bills and dues or with the truth, is soon to find the carpet pulled from under his feet, as it happened to Mr. Ghali.
Anyone who needed proof to the effect, that the United Nations and the United States is one and the same thing, should look no further for succinct examples. These occurrences emphasizes why the United Nations would remain a toothless bulldog, or toothless lion and an American puppet for the foreseeable future, I hope that a civil war can be avoided in Iraq.
Feb 2004
By
Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States
The United Nations have been variously described as a toothless lion at best and at worst, the UN is described as a puppet on a string, readily manipulated by the five permanent members with veto powers, veto powers? Please make that reserved arbitrary, undemocratic and discriminatory powers! And America is more egregious in these manipulations of the United Nations, a world body that ought to serve global interests.
Mr. Koffi Annan, the current Secretary General of the United Nations, has become a perfect illustration of the severe powerlessness and paralysis of this world body or organization, the UN has become emphatically ineffective; And examples of this UN ineffectiveness abounds, and it has been exemplified by the pre-invasion and occupation of Iraq, the associated rhetoric, accompanying action by America.
America bamboozled and cajoled the UN with manipulated intelligence, and then, denigrated the UN in bellicose language, America threatened the UN, while dangling the threat of making the UN a complete irrelevance, all these, while America sexed up and souped-up spurious information to drum up war against Iraq, America informed the world, that the only saving grace for the UN then touted by the US, will be UN’s willingness to demur and defer to the US planned invasion and occupation of Iraq and the US invaded and occupied Iraq without a UN made and legitimacy.
The United Nations feebly and reluctantly, or rather glibly, resisted America’s agenda for Iraq and by extension, America overall agenda for the entire Middle East region, it has since become glaringly clear, that the president Bush, with the so-called neoconservative agenda, agenda driven wrong headed policies geared to attain a "new world order" which is being pursued with Bush Doctrine of preemption, this so-called Bush Doctrine, has nothing significant, to do with whether Saddam Hussein misconduct or whether Saddam was undemocratic, or had horrible human rights record and every conceivable misconduct or whether Saddam actually possessed the ever elusive and ever shifting quicksand Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMD.
The false pretense used by America invade and occupy Iraq, was based on the worst case scenario, that was extrapolated by the Bush administration to the nth degree, to the effect that, Iraq possessed WMD and mobile chemical laboratories, with assorted weapons launchers that Iraq could launch against the US or Iraq’s neighbor in 45 minutes. All these, of course have turned out to be what the are only vivid imagination by the Bush administration officials, imaginations not based on facts or the truth or reality. America has always demonstrated complete disregard and contempt for the United Nations, for starters, America has neglected, failed and or refused to pay its dues and or meet its financial obligations to the United Nations, and yet, the UN continues to be firmly tied to apron strings of America, instead of America being suspended for non-payment of dues.
Ordinarily, one would have logically expected America to be sanctioned or censured for neglecting, failing and or refusing to pay UN dues and financial obligations, but instead, America simultaneously dominate and undermine the UN, when America pleases, the only time that the UN is considered relevant, is when the UN sheepishly do America’s bidding, it either that, or the US engages in undermining the UN and wishing the UN obsolescence or extinction and significant powerlessness and irrelevance. Here now comes, America, that loudly proclaimed the UN irrelevant, the US proceeded to give the UN a bad name, like the proverbial bad dog, in order to hang it! Now, America needs the UN to inherit the mess and quagmire, that the same America created in complete disregard for the UN and the entire world, in complete disregard for a good number of American citizen.
America does not want democracy or freedom for Iraq and Iraqi citizens, at least, not in any altruistic sense, America has stated categorically, an opposition to one person-one-vote or direct elections in Iraq, and this, notwithstanding the insistence by a majority of Iraqis led by Ayatollah Sistani, Who would have thought it possible? That America, a country that claim freedoms, liberties and democracies as prerogatives, would argue against direct elections in Iraq or anywhere else in the world for that matter?
Here we have Middle Eastern Moslems, demanding democracy, while the "civilized" westerly cultured Americans, are opposed to true democracy? America is insisting adamantly, on "elections" through caucuses or indirect selections of political leaders that would do America’s bidding, Iraqi political leaders that would be in obeisance to America’s whims and caprices! Simply put, America is looking for a puppet government in Iraq! A puppet government possibly led headed by the American token, Ahmed Chalabi or some other Iraqi who have cozy up to America.
Clearly, America is looking for an abridged, abbreviated and adulterated democracy, America is seeking a pseudo democracy and it will prefer a government in Iraq, that it can manipulate and control. The United States, in the face of the starkly naked reality and consequences of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, now, seeks UN’s endorsement, the US now seek to foist the reconstruction responsibilities, so that the ongoing nefarious activities by the US, the sour undertaking by America in Iraq will become the responsibility of the international community, the UN will now provide cover and legitimacy to a planned exit strategy by the US, that would look almost respectable.
Secretary General Koffi Annan of the United Nations, is conferring that legitimacy and respectability on America’s exit strategy and America’s unilateral cowboy and bully policies, that led to the debacle in Iraq, in the first place! These America policies, defied the United Nations, defied a majority of American citizens, it defied the entire world, it defied multilateral institutions and conventions, and worse, it defied international law! But now, Koffi Annan has agreed, with the America’s bad policies, by promptly endorsing or echoing the America election schedule for Iraq, by endorsing an American preferred type caucuses or indirect elections in Iraq, this indirect rule by American puppets in Iraq is for American benefit.
Koffi Annan’s agreement with the Americans’ position is really not a surprise, he has simply regurgitated America’s famously acclaimed impracticality of direct elections of the one person one vote type, Mr. Annan perhaps in doing this, hopes to avert the probability of facing the Boutrous Boutrous Ghali treatment, as it is the case, that any UN Secretary General who confronts America with its UN bills and dues or with the truth, is soon to find the carpet pulled from under his feet, as it happened to Mr. Ghali.
Anyone who needed proof to the effect, that the United Nations and the United States is one and the same thing, should look no further for succinct examples. These occurrences emphasizes why the United Nations would remain a toothless bulldog, or toothless lion and an American puppet for the foreseeable future, I hope that a civil war can be avoided in Iraq.
Feb 2004
America Is Afraid Of True Democracy
America Is Afraid Of True Democracy
Hence The Moves Against One Person-One Vote In Iraq!
By
Paul Adujie
New York, United States
This writer's condemnation or disapproval of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq is a matter of public record; In a series of articles, beginning with "No Tears For Saddam? How About The Principle?" this writer argued repeatedly against the wrong-headed hegemonic and imperialist policies that inspired America into the unbridled breach of international law and the consequent violation of Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political/economic independence.
Iraq was invaded and occupied, that is certainly bad enough! There was clearly the intention, on the part of the invaders and occupiers of Iraq, to usurp, Iraq's political, economy and strategic resources, even as the invaders and occupiers insisted that their motive and mission were honorable. Now, we must remember that the USA famously described the invasion of Iraq as motivated by the urge to export freedom and democracy to Iraq, hence "operation Iraqi freedom"? How then? America, the grandmother and grandfather of democracy and all good virtues, is now the exact antithesis of freedom, democracy and one person, one vote, which is a basic tenet of democracy.
Forget the caucuses and indirect elections, one person-one vote must be preferred and pursued vigorously, America must give Iraq democracy and freedom as America promised at the onset. Did America suddenly find democracy of one person one vote inconvenient and incompatible with American interests in Iraq and the entire Middle East?
There was no ironclad empirical data, to the effect that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD, which is supposed to be the real reason for American and British preemption in the first place? where are the WMD? The complete folly of preemption doctrine is now clearly established and America currently has 150,000 soldiers occupying Iraq, just as American taxpayers are being required to donate the blood of sons and daughters to a volatile Iraq, 522 dead and still counting, including a price tag of $20 Billion dollars a year.
Ayatollah Sistani and other Iraqis are demanding democracy, freedom and self-determination from America, America, self-proclaimed champion of freedoms and democracy, it is becoming clearer that the Americans are only interested in the political, economic and strategic control of Iraq... It is also clear now, that infrastructure or facilities for making beer or fertilizer were confused with WMD programs by the Western Intelligence Communities, the UK and the US never had any certainty about WMD that warranted the preemptive strike policy against Saddam Hussein and Iraq, or where is the WMD?
What were the Americans preempting? The Americans informed the world that Saddam Hussein had mobile WMD launchers, and a mere 45 minutes was all Saddam Hussein needed to strike Washington and London! Secretary of State Colin Powell presented CIA satellite images and other "concrete" and "incontrovertible" intelligence community evidence of Saddam WMD roguery and the necessity and urgency of regime change.
CIA and American/Western Intelligence Community have been wrong on the strength and weaknesses of the former USSR or Soviet Union, until it collapsed, the have been wrong repeatedly about Iraq pre and post invasion of Kuwait, all these are now being described as "massive intelligence failures" hence the questions that arises, did the UK and US government "sex-up" or "soup-up" WMD information against Iraq? Did the UK and US embellished and flowered information, to enable them accomplished a preconceived and predetermined mission? Or is it truly the case, that their "intelligence" are not as superb as the world have been led to believe?
In another well researched article that included indepth investigations and interviews, titled INTELLIGENCE: Powell's Case a Year Later Gaps in Picture of Iraq Arms By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID E. SANGER featured in The New York Times, the following were disclosed: "Mr. Kerr contends that there were plenty of caveats placed on intelligence reports on Iraq by analysts who recognized the limitations of the evidence. But often their warnings were relegated to footnotes or buried in lengthy reports." "The political debate in coming months will focus on whether the administration knowingly dismissed those caveats, and whether it cherry-picked the evidence" http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/international/middleeast/01WEAP.html
"Already, the overestimation of Iraq's abilities has raised a fundamental question in Congress and among America's allies: how can a nation threaten to act pre-emptively against another government if the evidence of what kind of a threat it poses - and how imminent the threat may be - is so far off the mark? That question has been the subtext of Dr. Kay's comments" "The biggest surprise to American officials was a deal which the I.A.E.A. inspectors discovered before the invasion began and that the intelligence agencies had missed entirely: a contract with North Korea to supply Iraq with technology that could correct the missile problems"
"Dr. Kay told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the program he found was far less advanced than parallel projects in Iran, Libya and North Korea - where United States intelligence underestimated progress." " In a review that the administration has not made public, only one of 15 intelligence analysts assembled from three agencies to discuss the issue in June endorsed the white paper conclusion, a former senior intelligence official said in an interview this week. " On Secretary Colin Powell's testimony and presentation at the UN, these journalists reported that, Secretary Powell had claimed that "the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological weapons. "He called it "one of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons."
"One former senior government official cited the episode as an example of an underlying flaw in the administration's working assumptions" "Mr. Powell's case at the United Nations was supposed to be bulletproof: he had thrown out President Bush's own assertions, since discredited, that Iraq sought uranium in Africa, and he tossed away pictures of Iraqi "nuclear mujahedeen" when he concluded that the C.I.A. could not identify them" "They took every piece of information that proved their point and listed it," a former senior intelligence official who took part in the prewar debates said, referring to the senior C.I.A. officials whose analytical conclusions formed the basis of Mr. Powell's presentation. "They would disregard or make fun of any contrary evidence." "They forgot they were making mere guesses, and even guesses have to be taken with caution"
"Other officials, including some still serving in the administration, argue that Mr. Powell presented a case that paid too little attention to information that might have undermined the worst-case conclusions the administration was highlighting" "According to the interviews conducted by The New York Times, the administration's argument that Iraq was producing biological weapons was based almost entirely on human intelligence of unknown reliability. When mobile trailers were found by American troops, the White House and C.I.A. rushed out a white paper reporting that the vehicles were used to make biological agents. But later, an overwhelming majority of intelligence analysts concluded the vehicles were used to manufacture hydrogen for weather balloons or possibly to produce rocket fuel - a view now shared by Dr. David Kay the CIA American weapons inspector; The original paper was still posted on the C.I.A.'s Web site on Saturday"
"I'm not sure that they did a good enough job challenging conventional wisdom," said Representative Porter J. Goss, the Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. But more broadly, Mr. Goss said, despite the tone of certainty that infused Mr. Powell's presentations and other public pronouncements, the intelligence agencies were severely limited in their analysis by inadequate information about Iraq and what it intended" "Congressional officials involved in investigations of the C.I.A. and current and former administration officials, suggest that Mr. Powell's case was largely based on limited, fragmentary and mostly circumstantial evidence, with conclusions drawn on the basis of the little challenged assumption that Saddam Hussein would never dismantle old illicit weapons and would pursue new ones to the fullest extent possible"
"Even some Republican lawmakers are talking about a failure of egregious proportions - akin, some think, to the failure to grasp the forces pulling apart the Soviet Union in the late 1980's. President Bush is considering whether to order an investigation into the intelligence failure, an action he has so far resisted" "A year later, some of the statements made by Mr. Powell have been confirmed, but many of his gravest findings have been upended by David A. Kay, who until Jan. 23 was Washington's chief weapons inspector." "Mr. Powell's testimony, delivered at a moment of high suspense as American forces gathered in the Persian Gulf region, was widely seen as the most powerful and persuasive presentation of the Bush administration's case that Iraq was bristling with horrific weapons. His reputation for caution and care gave it added credibility."
But, it is now clear that the Americans presented witch-hunt as facts, in order to embark on a predetermined and preconceived plans, made before September 11, 2001, to remove Saddam Hussein in the US ambition to reshape the Middle East power structure.
Maureen Dowd writing in The New York Times a few days ago, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/opinion/01DOWD.html stated succinctly, that, America went to war on false premise, when she wrote, that the government is now just engaged in "damage control after David Kay's scalding admission that we flew to war on a false premise" "Dick Cheney & Company were so consumed with puffing the intelligence to try to connect Saddam with 9/11, Al Qaeda and nuclear material, they failed to challenge basic assumptions" "The closer the inspectors got to the truth that Iraq didn't have weapons, the more the Bush hawks asserted that only war would uncover weapons" "Saddam's old lieutenants have said that the dictator did not admit his paucity of weapons because he wanted his Arab neighbors to see him as a great leader and he hoped to deter America from war". "And the Bush hawks wanted to isolate themselves from less-paranoid allies. They had come into office itching to replay the '91 war and try out their democracy domino theory in the Middle East" "clash of civilizations and a battle of good versus evil" "The moral of Vietnam was supposed to be that we would never again go to war without understanding the culture of our antagonists, or exaggerate their threat to us."
No one could have said it better than Ms. Dowd of The New York Times has above, America flew to war under false assumptions, false intelligence, false premises and under cover or camouflage of democracy and freedoms for all Iraqi citizens, from a tyrannical irrational brutal messianic dictator, the veil of altruism, claimed by America, has been lifted, oil contracts, reconstruction contracts and refusal to hold direct elections, based on one person one vote, are clear indications of all of these.
There has never been an established connection between Saddam Hussein and Taliban or Al Qaeeda, there has never been an established connection between the events of September 11, 2001 and anyone in Iraq, there is no causal connection between the Saddam Hussein regime and Osama Bin Ladin, and yet, the regime change campaign was based on these erroneous or deliberate attempts to create a connection, even tenuously, between Saddam Hussein and "terrorism" hence the inflections of information on Saddam's alleged possession of WMD. Saddam Hussein is now in US custody, perhaps in a short while, say by Spring Time, Osama Bin Ladin will be "captured"? And President Bush can then say "mission accomplished" to the American voters? And pump their adrenaline through the roof, with 300 million Americans screaming, "we are number one!" President Bush, then makes himself, the luckiest American, assuring his re-election, revenge for President Bush the elder, which is the grand purpose of all this talk about WMD, regime change and American national interests laced in covered with democracy and freedoms for Iraqis?
For better and or worse, Saddam Hussein is no longer in-charge of the people of Iraq, America is now the defacto government of Iraq, America is the Monopolist of democracy and freedoms, America must now give democracy and freedoms to the Iraq people, anything less, will be foisting another type of dictatorship, upon Iraqi citizens, or the installation of an American puppet to rule and dominate Iraq for America's purpose, as Iraq is steadily led to the path of civil war and anarchy! I pray for the ordinary Iraqi citizens, they have become the pawns, as America plays ping-pong and Russia roulette with Iraq's present and quite literally, Iraq's future.
Feb 2004
Hence The Moves Against One Person-One Vote In Iraq!
By
Paul Adujie
New York, United States
This writer's condemnation or disapproval of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq is a matter of public record; In a series of articles, beginning with "No Tears For Saddam? How About The Principle?" this writer argued repeatedly against the wrong-headed hegemonic and imperialist policies that inspired America into the unbridled breach of international law and the consequent violation of Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political/economic independence.
Iraq was invaded and occupied, that is certainly bad enough! There was clearly the intention, on the part of the invaders and occupiers of Iraq, to usurp, Iraq's political, economy and strategic resources, even as the invaders and occupiers insisted that their motive and mission were honorable. Now, we must remember that the USA famously described the invasion of Iraq as motivated by the urge to export freedom and democracy to Iraq, hence "operation Iraqi freedom"? How then? America, the grandmother and grandfather of democracy and all good virtues, is now the exact antithesis of freedom, democracy and one person, one vote, which is a basic tenet of democracy.
Forget the caucuses and indirect elections, one person-one vote must be preferred and pursued vigorously, America must give Iraq democracy and freedom as America promised at the onset. Did America suddenly find democracy of one person one vote inconvenient and incompatible with American interests in Iraq and the entire Middle East?
There was no ironclad empirical data, to the effect that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD, which is supposed to be the real reason for American and British preemption in the first place? where are the WMD? The complete folly of preemption doctrine is now clearly established and America currently has 150,000 soldiers occupying Iraq, just as American taxpayers are being required to donate the blood of sons and daughters to a volatile Iraq, 522 dead and still counting, including a price tag of $20 Billion dollars a year.
Ayatollah Sistani and other Iraqis are demanding democracy, freedom and self-determination from America, America, self-proclaimed champion of freedoms and democracy, it is becoming clearer that the Americans are only interested in the political, economic and strategic control of Iraq... It is also clear now, that infrastructure or facilities for making beer or fertilizer were confused with WMD programs by the Western Intelligence Communities, the UK and the US never had any certainty about WMD that warranted the preemptive strike policy against Saddam Hussein and Iraq, or where is the WMD?
What were the Americans preempting? The Americans informed the world that Saddam Hussein had mobile WMD launchers, and a mere 45 minutes was all Saddam Hussein needed to strike Washington and London! Secretary of State Colin Powell presented CIA satellite images and other "concrete" and "incontrovertible" intelligence community evidence of Saddam WMD roguery and the necessity and urgency of regime change.
CIA and American/Western Intelligence Community have been wrong on the strength and weaknesses of the former USSR or Soviet Union, until it collapsed, the have been wrong repeatedly about Iraq pre and post invasion of Kuwait, all these are now being described as "massive intelligence failures" hence the questions that arises, did the UK and US government "sex-up" or "soup-up" WMD information against Iraq? Did the UK and US embellished and flowered information, to enable them accomplished a preconceived and predetermined mission? Or is it truly the case, that their "intelligence" are not as superb as the world have been led to believe?
In another well researched article that included indepth investigations and interviews, titled INTELLIGENCE: Powell's Case a Year Later Gaps in Picture of Iraq Arms By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID E. SANGER featured in The New York Times, the following were disclosed: "Mr. Kerr contends that there were plenty of caveats placed on intelligence reports on Iraq by analysts who recognized the limitations of the evidence. But often their warnings were relegated to footnotes or buried in lengthy reports." "The political debate in coming months will focus on whether the administration knowingly dismissed those caveats, and whether it cherry-picked the evidence" http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/international/middleeast/01WEAP.html
"Already, the overestimation of Iraq's abilities has raised a fundamental question in Congress and among America's allies: how can a nation threaten to act pre-emptively against another government if the evidence of what kind of a threat it poses - and how imminent the threat may be - is so far off the mark? That question has been the subtext of Dr. Kay's comments" "The biggest surprise to American officials was a deal which the I.A.E.A. inspectors discovered before the invasion began and that the intelligence agencies had missed entirely: a contract with North Korea to supply Iraq with technology that could correct the missile problems"
"Dr. Kay told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the program he found was far less advanced than parallel projects in Iran, Libya and North Korea - where United States intelligence underestimated progress." " In a review that the administration has not made public, only one of 15 intelligence analysts assembled from three agencies to discuss the issue in June endorsed the white paper conclusion, a former senior intelligence official said in an interview this week. " On Secretary Colin Powell's testimony and presentation at the UN, these journalists reported that, Secretary Powell had claimed that "the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological weapons. "He called it "one of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons."
"One former senior government official cited the episode as an example of an underlying flaw in the administration's working assumptions" "Mr. Powell's case at the United Nations was supposed to be bulletproof: he had thrown out President Bush's own assertions, since discredited, that Iraq sought uranium in Africa, and he tossed away pictures of Iraqi "nuclear mujahedeen" when he concluded that the C.I.A. could not identify them" "They took every piece of information that proved their point and listed it," a former senior intelligence official who took part in the prewar debates said, referring to the senior C.I.A. officials whose analytical conclusions formed the basis of Mr. Powell's presentation. "They would disregard or make fun of any contrary evidence." "They forgot they were making mere guesses, and even guesses have to be taken with caution"
"Other officials, including some still serving in the administration, argue that Mr. Powell presented a case that paid too little attention to information that might have undermined the worst-case conclusions the administration was highlighting" "According to the interviews conducted by The New York Times, the administration's argument that Iraq was producing biological weapons was based almost entirely on human intelligence of unknown reliability. When mobile trailers were found by American troops, the White House and C.I.A. rushed out a white paper reporting that the vehicles were used to make biological agents. But later, an overwhelming majority of intelligence analysts concluded the vehicles were used to manufacture hydrogen for weather balloons or possibly to produce rocket fuel - a view now shared by Dr. David Kay the CIA American weapons inspector; The original paper was still posted on the C.I.A.'s Web site on Saturday"
"I'm not sure that they did a good enough job challenging conventional wisdom," said Representative Porter J. Goss, the Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. But more broadly, Mr. Goss said, despite the tone of certainty that infused Mr. Powell's presentations and other public pronouncements, the intelligence agencies were severely limited in their analysis by inadequate information about Iraq and what it intended" "Congressional officials involved in investigations of the C.I.A. and current and former administration officials, suggest that Mr. Powell's case was largely based on limited, fragmentary and mostly circumstantial evidence, with conclusions drawn on the basis of the little challenged assumption that Saddam Hussein would never dismantle old illicit weapons and would pursue new ones to the fullest extent possible"
"Even some Republican lawmakers are talking about a failure of egregious proportions - akin, some think, to the failure to grasp the forces pulling apart the Soviet Union in the late 1980's. President Bush is considering whether to order an investigation into the intelligence failure, an action he has so far resisted" "A year later, some of the statements made by Mr. Powell have been confirmed, but many of his gravest findings have been upended by David A. Kay, who until Jan. 23 was Washington's chief weapons inspector." "Mr. Powell's testimony, delivered at a moment of high suspense as American forces gathered in the Persian Gulf region, was widely seen as the most powerful and persuasive presentation of the Bush administration's case that Iraq was bristling with horrific weapons. His reputation for caution and care gave it added credibility."
But, it is now clear that the Americans presented witch-hunt as facts, in order to embark on a predetermined and preconceived plans, made before September 11, 2001, to remove Saddam Hussein in the US ambition to reshape the Middle East power structure.
Maureen Dowd writing in The New York Times a few days ago, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/opinion/01DOWD.html stated succinctly, that, America went to war on false premise, when she wrote, that the government is now just engaged in "damage control after David Kay's scalding admission that we flew to war on a false premise" "Dick Cheney & Company were so consumed with puffing the intelligence to try to connect Saddam with 9/11, Al Qaeda and nuclear material, they failed to challenge basic assumptions" "The closer the inspectors got to the truth that Iraq didn't have weapons, the more the Bush hawks asserted that only war would uncover weapons" "Saddam's old lieutenants have said that the dictator did not admit his paucity of weapons because he wanted his Arab neighbors to see him as a great leader and he hoped to deter America from war". "And the Bush hawks wanted to isolate themselves from less-paranoid allies. They had come into office itching to replay the '91 war and try out their democracy domino theory in the Middle East" "clash of civilizations and a battle of good versus evil" "The moral of Vietnam was supposed to be that we would never again go to war without understanding the culture of our antagonists, or exaggerate their threat to us."
No one could have said it better than Ms. Dowd of The New York Times has above, America flew to war under false assumptions, false intelligence, false premises and under cover or camouflage of democracy and freedoms for all Iraqi citizens, from a tyrannical irrational brutal messianic dictator, the veil of altruism, claimed by America, has been lifted, oil contracts, reconstruction contracts and refusal to hold direct elections, based on one person one vote, are clear indications of all of these.
There has never been an established connection between Saddam Hussein and Taliban or Al Qaeeda, there has never been an established connection between the events of September 11, 2001 and anyone in Iraq, there is no causal connection between the Saddam Hussein regime and Osama Bin Ladin, and yet, the regime change campaign was based on these erroneous or deliberate attempts to create a connection, even tenuously, between Saddam Hussein and "terrorism" hence the inflections of information on Saddam's alleged possession of WMD. Saddam Hussein is now in US custody, perhaps in a short while, say by Spring Time, Osama Bin Ladin will be "captured"? And President Bush can then say "mission accomplished" to the American voters? And pump their adrenaline through the roof, with 300 million Americans screaming, "we are number one!" President Bush, then makes himself, the luckiest American, assuring his re-election, revenge for President Bush the elder, which is the grand purpose of all this talk about WMD, regime change and American national interests laced in covered with democracy and freedoms for Iraqis?
For better and or worse, Saddam Hussein is no longer in-charge of the people of Iraq, America is now the defacto government of Iraq, America is the Monopolist of democracy and freedoms, America must now give democracy and freedoms to the Iraq people, anything less, will be foisting another type of dictatorship, upon Iraqi citizens, or the installation of an American puppet to rule and dominate Iraq for America's purpose, as Iraq is steadily led to the path of civil war and anarchy! I pray for the ordinary Iraqi citizens, they have become the pawns, as America plays ping-pong and Russia roulette with Iraq's present and quite literally, Iraq's future.
Feb 2004
Paul I. Adujie Index of sundry articles at www.nigerdeltacongress.com
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/america_is_afraid_of_true_democr.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/is_secretary_general_koffi_annan.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/darticles/do_female_suicide_bombers_also_w.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/presidents_choice_of_transport.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/much_ado_about_religion.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/sarticles/signal_a_new_dawn_in_the_adminis.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/darticles/debt_forgiveness_disarmament_afr.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/what_does_obasanjo_stand_to_gain.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/anambra_state_vs_dr.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/tarticles/the%20private%20sector%20and%20corruption%20in%20nigeria.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/where_are_the_nigerian_volunteer.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/patriotism_is_not_a_dirty_word.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/asylum_is_for_saints_angels.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/nigeria_welcomes_commonwealth_he.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/earticles/embedded_journalism_objectivity.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/naira_20_years_of_devaluations_w.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/again_israel_defies_the_united_n.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/prophets_of_doom_an_adversary_co.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/american_arrogance_and_the_charl.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/mr_president_give_a_human_face_t.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/oarticles/of_some_nigerians_unhappiness_at.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/american_unilateralism_and_their.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/darticles/does_nigeria_really_need_british.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/karticles/let_us_ask_the_americans_the_sam.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/professor_wole_soyinka_as_charla.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/imperative_of_local_police_state.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/another_diplomatic_success_by_ni.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/nigerian_citizens_and_exit_visas.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/political_solutions_and_compromi.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/oarticles/of_special_relationship_with_usa.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/masterstroke_diplomacy_and_state.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/rarticles/rejoinder_to_mr_mustapha_shehu_a.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/nigeria_bans_foreign_music_on_ra.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/anambra_state_parochial_interest.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/tarticles/tough_rugged_cowboys_nigeria_and.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/what_is_true_democracy_in_the_wo.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/welcome_home_dr_rice_secretary_p.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/welcome_to_nigeria_welcome_to_af.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/quota_system_or_federal_characte.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/letters_and_viewpoints_4.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/is_secretary_general_koffi_annan.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/darticles/do_female_suicide_bombers_also_w.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/presidents_choice_of_transport.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/much_ado_about_religion.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/sarticles/signal_a_new_dawn_in_the_adminis.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/darticles/debt_forgiveness_disarmament_afr.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/what_does_obasanjo_stand_to_gain.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/anambra_state_vs_dr.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/tarticles/the%20private%20sector%20and%20corruption%20in%20nigeria.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/where_are_the_nigerian_volunteer.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/patriotism_is_not_a_dirty_word.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/asylum_is_for_saints_angels.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/nigeria_welcomes_commonwealth_he.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/earticles/embedded_journalism_objectivity.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/naira_20_years_of_devaluations_w.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/again_israel_defies_the_united_n.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/prophets_of_doom_an_adversary_co.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/american_arrogance_and_the_charl.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/mr_president_give_a_human_face_t.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/oarticles/of_some_nigerians_unhappiness_at.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/american_unilateralism_and_their.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/darticles/does_nigeria_really_need_british.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/karticles/let_us_ask_the_americans_the_sam.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/professor_wole_soyinka_as_charla.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/imperative_of_local_police_state.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/another_diplomatic_success_by_ni.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/nigerian_citizens_and_exit_visas.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/political_solutions_and_compromi.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/oarticles/of_special_relationship_with_usa.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/marticles/masterstroke_diplomacy_and_state.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/rarticles/rejoinder_to_mr_mustapha_shehu_a.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/nigeria_bans_foreign_music_on_ra.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/anambra_state_parochial_interest.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/tarticles/tough_rugged_cowboys_nigeria_and.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/what_is_true_democracy_in_the_wo.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/welcome_home_dr_rice_secretary_p.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/warticles/welcome_to_nigeria_welcome_to_af.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/particles/quota_system_or_federal_characte.htm
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/letters_and_viewpoints_4.htm
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Dr. Femi Babalola on Obama, Abortion & Gay Rights in America
Dr. Femi Babalola on Obama, Abortion & Gay Rights in America
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Lawcareer2007@aol.com
New York, United States
On Tuesday November 18, 2008, I read with considerable irritation and consternation, "The flip side of Obama" an article by one Dr. Femi Babalola, an Ophthalmologist and chorister in Nigeria’s federal capital territory, Abuja, an article in which he used the revered pages of The Guardian to ruminate ruefully about how his favorite political party in America, the Republican Party or Grand Ole Party (GOP) lost the elections, as he stated his blissful unawareness of how America works and or how he wish America should.
He attempted blithely to make some informed comments on President-elect Barack Obama and the very nature of American politics, roles played by the two major political parties, Democratic Party and the Republican Party respectively. He confessed rooting for the Republicans based on their arch-conservative social policy agenda which reeks of moral certitude.
He informed his readers that he was dismissive of Mr. Obama’s candidacy. But alas, the world now knows that Mr. Obama prevailed against sundry opponents and those who under estimated and were dismissive of the then junior senator from Illinois; The world now knows about the cynosure with brilliance beyond incandescence, the man who is admired for his self-discipline and unalloyed singular focus, which in turn, has given America a rebirth and redemption and an opportunity to look good again.
There is one thing that I could not understand, actually more than one thing that numbed me upon reading Dr. Babalola’s article. It is this, in the past couple of weeks disgraceful and more disgraceful stories have been emanating from Nigeria, there was the Uzoma Okereke, a young lady who was beaten into a stupor and stripped of her clothes, by uniformed men at the behest of and supervision by a Nigerian Navy Admiral! Many Nigerians at home and abroad, including myself, found the brutality most reprehensible.
It gave us and Nigerian image a new damage and black-eye
Then as if on cue, or almost simultaneously, there was this heart wrenching story reported from Akwa Ibom where innocent Nigerian children are arbitrarily and in summary manner labeled and castigated as witches, then murdered, maimed and scalded by the moronic adults in these children’s lives, amply assisted by money grubbing pastors, so-called Christians too!
There are these Nigerian public officials, also known as corrupt rogues, who have plundered and pillage Nigeria with impunity, especially in the recent years, while the EFCC is being emasculated in the most brazen of manner.
There is this pervasive abundance of abject poverty in Nigeria, and, children are the worst victims. No child asks to be born, and no child asks to be neglected or abused; in Nigeria, where there now exists, cases of abuse and extreme neglect of children, children who are here, right in front of our physical eyes, are unprotected from abuse and neglect and the crudity that seems to always rear its ugly heard in our Nigeria. I do not live in Nigeria, and still, I find every story from Nigeria very depressing, to the extent that I want leave my abode thousands of miles outside Nigeria to return to Nigeria with the hope that some us can make a difference or play a role in changing the way things are currently in Nigeria.
In this midst of all this bad news from Nigeria, coupled with extreme hardship, suffering and hopelessness permeating children in Nigeria, Dr. Femi Babalola is more concerned with retrograde abortion rules and the safety of unwanted fetuses; His 17th Century abortion logic is so egregious, and particularly so, when just a few days ago, a report emanated from Nigeria, in which helpless and hapless children were being reportedly maimed and or murdered soon after such children are ignorantly labeled and castigated as witches, all in the name of the Christian God
Where is the morality and religion in Dr. Femi Babalola’s Nigeria, a nation that ought to be the beacon and shinning light for all Africans and peoples of African descent including Mr. Barack Obama on whom Dr. Babalola commented extensively?
There were these plethora reports regarding children in Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers States who were summarily and randomly branded witches and wizards, these children were branded like slaves or farm animals for the whole world to see! And as someone born in Nigeria, even though living thousands of miles away from Nigeria, I was embarrassed, ashamed and shocked to view the videos of these horrendous brutalities meted out to children in modern day Nigeria, Dr. Babalola’s Nigeria.
Dr. Babalola recounted how he did not wash his hands after a golden handshake from former President Bill Clinton, I recommend that he washes not just his hands, but remove the wax from his ears and wash his eyes; all this, just so, he can hear and see first hand, the extreme abuse and utter neglect of Nigerian children who are already here on earth, and while he should stop worrying about his rather romantic ideas about Nigerian, and for that matter, American fetuses!
Dr. Babalola betrays his blissful unawareness with his incongruous praise-like commentaries about the Republican Party, his Grand Old Party, GOP; as a result, I would like to remind him that the Republican Party, the party of former President Ronald Reagan, led the efforts that sustained Apartheid rule in South Africa and Southern Africa’s Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, etc; Ronald Reagan called it constructive engagement, an apparent willingness to engage in dinner jokes with Apartheid oppressors while Africans in Southern Africa suffered endlessly!
Republican policy pursuits regarding Africa have been repugnant, repulsive and reprehensible! Africans should be unwilling to forget these quickly.
She was pro-apartheid... she advocated "constructive-engagement" she was President Reagan's arrow head for warped-twisted foreign policy that was anti-African, anti-liberty anti liberal ideals of freedom and a world free from dictatorships.
Africans should be reminded of how Reagan and his Republican Party supplied the lifeline oils which lubricated Apartheid South Africa, as America and Britain sustained Apartheid regime longer than was possible, through the warped policy known as constructive engagement. And this is the same Republican Party which Dr. Babalola is nostalgic about?
Africans should be reminded of how liberation movements labeled terrorists by the US and the UK, the US under Reagan and the UK under Thatcher wanted liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe defeated. Those anti freedom, anti progress and anti democratic movement were eventually defeated. Lancaster House Agreement intended to provide economic relief and land redistribution-re-appropriation slated for post independence Zimbabwe were not adhered to; which in my view constitutes the origin sin, before today’s troubles in Zimbabwe.
There is for me, a clear difference between advocating abortion rights and gay lifestyle compared with recognizing the rights of those who desire abortions and gay lifestyle, a reading of Dr. Femi Babalola’s rueful ruminations, establishes him as neither knowing nor caring about such difference. He is simply happy to mouth how it is so Yuk and ughhh and disgusting these rights of others are to him!
There is a difference, I think, between advocating abortions and or gay lifestyles, as compared with a recognition of the right of women to abortions and the right of gays to a sexual preference; Dr. Babalola does not seem to have any qualms in suggesting the elimination or decimation of these rights.
I am not a woman, and I am not gay, nevertheless, I find Dr. Babalola’s complete disregard of women and gay rights unacceptably offensive
The learned Dr. Babalola wrote that women who carelessly get pregnant should not have abortion rights! But everyone knows that it takes a man and a woman to get pregnant or to have sexual intercourse without necessary precautions; Dr. Babalola thinks it takes just a careless woman!
These moralizing puritanical preachments belies the failures President Bush wrought on America and the world with his moral certitude of the gut convictions. Conservatives are too quick to spout moral certainty about social issues, such as abortion, they worry so much about fetuses or potential and indeterminate life, instead of lives which are already physically present here with us on earth. A poignant case in point is the news reports and a series of articles in connection with children in Akwa Ibom state; innocent children who were tortured, maimed, mutilated and some even murdered soon after such children were incongruously labeled witches!
What is reported to have happened to Nigerian children in Akwa Ibom reminder of brutalities of the 17th and 18th Centuries reminiscent of Salem Massachusetts Witch Trials or the Spanish Inquisitions in parts of Spain colonial empire, it is a shameful and embarrassing that this is happening in modern Dr. Babalola’s Nigeria. Why does a Nigerian medical doctor, an educated man no doubt, a member of the Nigerian middle class perhaps, think he needs to cry the tears of aborted American fetuses, even though Nigerian children are being abused, killed, maimed and neglected in real time and under his nose?
Please Google: What Does President Reagan's Death Mean to Nigerians, Africans and Arabs?
Paul I. Adujie is a Nigerian lawyer resident in New York, United States and a member of the International Bar Association
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Lawcareer2007@aol.com
New York, United States
On Tuesday November 18, 2008, I read with considerable irritation and consternation, "The flip side of Obama" an article by one Dr. Femi Babalola, an Ophthalmologist and chorister in Nigeria’s federal capital territory, Abuja, an article in which he used the revered pages of The Guardian to ruminate ruefully about how his favorite political party in America, the Republican Party or Grand Ole Party (GOP) lost the elections, as he stated his blissful unawareness of how America works and or how he wish America should.
He attempted blithely to make some informed comments on President-elect Barack Obama and the very nature of American politics, roles played by the two major political parties, Democratic Party and the Republican Party respectively. He confessed rooting for the Republicans based on their arch-conservative social policy agenda which reeks of moral certitude.
He informed his readers that he was dismissive of Mr. Obama’s candidacy. But alas, the world now knows that Mr. Obama prevailed against sundry opponents and those who under estimated and were dismissive of the then junior senator from Illinois; The world now knows about the cynosure with brilliance beyond incandescence, the man who is admired for his self-discipline and unalloyed singular focus, which in turn, has given America a rebirth and redemption and an opportunity to look good again.
There is one thing that I could not understand, actually more than one thing that numbed me upon reading Dr. Babalola’s article. It is this, in the past couple of weeks disgraceful and more disgraceful stories have been emanating from Nigeria, there was the Uzoma Okereke, a young lady who was beaten into a stupor and stripped of her clothes, by uniformed men at the behest of and supervision by a Nigerian Navy Admiral! Many Nigerians at home and abroad, including myself, found the brutality most reprehensible.
It gave us and Nigerian image a new damage and black-eye
Then as if on cue, or almost simultaneously, there was this heart wrenching story reported from Akwa Ibom where innocent Nigerian children are arbitrarily and in summary manner labeled and castigated as witches, then murdered, maimed and scalded by the moronic adults in these children’s lives, amply assisted by money grubbing pastors, so-called Christians too!
There are these Nigerian public officials, also known as corrupt rogues, who have plundered and pillage Nigeria with impunity, especially in the recent years, while the EFCC is being emasculated in the most brazen of manner.
There is this pervasive abundance of abject poverty in Nigeria, and, children are the worst victims. No child asks to be born, and no child asks to be neglected or abused; in Nigeria, where there now exists, cases of abuse and extreme neglect of children, children who are here, right in front of our physical eyes, are unprotected from abuse and neglect and the crudity that seems to always rear its ugly heard in our Nigeria. I do not live in Nigeria, and still, I find every story from Nigeria very depressing, to the extent that I want leave my abode thousands of miles outside Nigeria to return to Nigeria with the hope that some us can make a difference or play a role in changing the way things are currently in Nigeria.
In this midst of all this bad news from Nigeria, coupled with extreme hardship, suffering and hopelessness permeating children in Nigeria, Dr. Femi Babalola is more concerned with retrograde abortion rules and the safety of unwanted fetuses; His 17th Century abortion logic is so egregious, and particularly so, when just a few days ago, a report emanated from Nigeria, in which helpless and hapless children were being reportedly maimed and or murdered soon after such children are ignorantly labeled and castigated as witches, all in the name of the Christian God
Where is the morality and religion in Dr. Femi Babalola’s Nigeria, a nation that ought to be the beacon and shinning light for all Africans and peoples of African descent including Mr. Barack Obama on whom Dr. Babalola commented extensively?
There were these plethora reports regarding children in Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers States who were summarily and randomly branded witches and wizards, these children were branded like slaves or farm animals for the whole world to see! And as someone born in Nigeria, even though living thousands of miles away from Nigeria, I was embarrassed, ashamed and shocked to view the videos of these horrendous brutalities meted out to children in modern day Nigeria, Dr. Babalola’s Nigeria.
Dr. Babalola recounted how he did not wash his hands after a golden handshake from former President Bill Clinton, I recommend that he washes not just his hands, but remove the wax from his ears and wash his eyes; all this, just so, he can hear and see first hand, the extreme abuse and utter neglect of Nigerian children who are already here on earth, and while he should stop worrying about his rather romantic ideas about Nigerian, and for that matter, American fetuses!
Dr. Babalola betrays his blissful unawareness with his incongruous praise-like commentaries about the Republican Party, his Grand Old Party, GOP; as a result, I would like to remind him that the Republican Party, the party of former President Ronald Reagan, led the efforts that sustained Apartheid rule in South Africa and Southern Africa’s Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, etc; Ronald Reagan called it constructive engagement, an apparent willingness to engage in dinner jokes with Apartheid oppressors while Africans in Southern Africa suffered endlessly!
Republican policy pursuits regarding Africa have been repugnant, repulsive and reprehensible! Africans should be unwilling to forget these quickly.
She was pro-apartheid... she advocated "constructive-engagement" she was President Reagan's arrow head for warped-twisted foreign policy that was anti-African, anti-liberty anti liberal ideals of freedom and a world free from dictatorships.
Africans should be reminded of how Reagan and his Republican Party supplied the lifeline oils which lubricated Apartheid South Africa, as America and Britain sustained Apartheid regime longer than was possible, through the warped policy known as constructive engagement. And this is the same Republican Party which Dr. Babalola is nostalgic about?
Africans should be reminded of how liberation movements labeled terrorists by the US and the UK, the US under Reagan and the UK under Thatcher wanted liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe defeated. Those anti freedom, anti progress and anti democratic movement were eventually defeated. Lancaster House Agreement intended to provide economic relief and land redistribution-re-appropriation slated for post independence Zimbabwe were not adhered to; which in my view constitutes the origin sin, before today’s troubles in Zimbabwe.
There is for me, a clear difference between advocating abortion rights and gay lifestyle compared with recognizing the rights of those who desire abortions and gay lifestyle, a reading of Dr. Femi Babalola’s rueful ruminations, establishes him as neither knowing nor caring about such difference. He is simply happy to mouth how it is so Yuk and ughhh and disgusting these rights of others are to him!
There is a difference, I think, between advocating abortions and or gay lifestyles, as compared with a recognition of the right of women to abortions and the right of gays to a sexual preference; Dr. Babalola does not seem to have any qualms in suggesting the elimination or decimation of these rights.
I am not a woman, and I am not gay, nevertheless, I find Dr. Babalola’s complete disregard of women and gay rights unacceptably offensive
The learned Dr. Babalola wrote that women who carelessly get pregnant should not have abortion rights! But everyone knows that it takes a man and a woman to get pregnant or to have sexual intercourse without necessary precautions; Dr. Babalola thinks it takes just a careless woman!
These moralizing puritanical preachments belies the failures President Bush wrought on America and the world with his moral certitude of the gut convictions. Conservatives are too quick to spout moral certainty about social issues, such as abortion, they worry so much about fetuses or potential and indeterminate life, instead of lives which are already physically present here with us on earth. A poignant case in point is the news reports and a series of articles in connection with children in Akwa Ibom state; innocent children who were tortured, maimed, mutilated and some even murdered soon after such children were incongruously labeled witches!
What is reported to have happened to Nigerian children in Akwa Ibom reminder of brutalities of the 17th and 18th Centuries reminiscent of Salem Massachusetts Witch Trials or the Spanish Inquisitions in parts of Spain colonial empire, it is a shameful and embarrassing that this is happening in modern Dr. Babalola’s Nigeria. Why does a Nigerian medical doctor, an educated man no doubt, a member of the Nigerian middle class perhaps, think he needs to cry the tears of aborted American fetuses, even though Nigerian children are being abused, killed, maimed and neglected in real time and under his nose?
Please Google: What Does President Reagan's Death Mean to Nigerians, Africans and Arabs?
Paul I. Adujie is a Nigerian lawyer resident in New York, United States and a member of the International Bar Association
Monday, November 24, 2008
American African Policy & President Obama
American African Policy & President Obama
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Lawcareer2007@aol.com
New York, United States
With the recent election of Mr. Barack Obama as president of the United States of America, it is my view that America is finally living up to its constitutional promise of equality of her citizens; wither race, color or creed etc. America in doing so, has allowed herself, in Christian parlance, to be born again. America has now partially atoned for the enslavement of Africans, and complete disregard of a large chunk of her human capital.
America has, with this singular act of electing a person African descent, permitted itself of a rebirth and a renewal, and how wonderful it is, as it is happening regardless of the cynicism which have arisen as a consequence of the checkered history and plight or precarious predicaments of people of African descent in America; against all odds, and epochs of dashed expectations borne of harsh experience of African Americans.
Race or color of skin, have unfortunately been how life is lived in America, and racial terms and themes have been pervasive in America, but, a person of African descent is now slated to become the 44th president of the United States, and not a moment too soon, this, after these hundreds of years in America, by people of African descent. Mr. Obama until his election as president was the only senator of African descent, out of 100 US senators. Even though African Americans, constitute more than 13.4% or about 40.9 million out of the US total population of about 306 million, with Caucasians population of 221.3 or 74% of the US population respectively.
President-elect Barack Obama’s ascension is at once aesthetically pleasing; it has a very decorative value and a symbolism; as well as substance in relation to human progress in America and the entire world hence everyone is agog, over Mr. Obama’s election. As the world knows, Mr. Obama is a first generation American with an African immigrant father; this therefore fulfils the ideals of America as a melting pot and a land of infinite possibilities. America is fulfilling its promise and she is at the cusp of realizing her full potentials.
This progress is even perhaps more meaningful, above and beyond, for African Americans, continental Africans and all peoples of African descent, worldwide; It must be stated quickly though, that the advantages and dividends to these Africans, that is, African Americans and people of African descent , and to continental Africans remain to be evaluated. There is an inherent are-we-there-yet question, which must be answered.
Is a color blind world in sight? There those revisionists who are already asserting that with the election of Mr. Obama as president of the United States, people of African descent, continental Africans, and more particularly, African American should no longer seek Affirmative Action Programs etc, measures instituted to redress historical injustices and such enduring vestiges which have negatively impacted, and continues to impact African Americans. This sorts of thinking, is to say the least, jumping the gun!
Regarding continental Africans, it is the case that historically it has been fashionable, romantic and even sexy, for some in America, Europe and elsewhere outside Africa, to ostentatiously and conspicuously publicly analyze the human condition in Africa and of Africans and they proceed do nothing, even as they pompously and condescendingly present the beggar –charity-basket case as situations of Africa, and the savior role Americans, Europeans and other non-Africans must play to set Africa aright. But these have historically amounted to loud talk and no action.
Could Mr. Obama be the true lover of Africa, and a doer, who would speak softly and carry a big bank-wallet of ideas? Hence he has refrained from the usual loud but empty public proclamations about matters pertaining to Africa?
Africa has always been exploited and then neglected historically; Africa was variously exploited for her human resources during slave trade, then exploited for her natural resources post-slavery and during colonial period; Africa is now exploited for her bountiful natural and mineral and or energy resources and cheap labor.
Africans should be reminded of how Reagan and Thatcher supplied the lifeline oils which lubricated Apartheid South Africa, as America and Britain sustained Apartheid regime longer than was possible, through the warped policy known as constructive engagement.
Africans should be reminded of how liberation movements labeled terrorists by the US and the UK, the US under Reagan and the UK under Thatcher wanted liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe defeated. Those anti freedom, anti progress and anti democratic movement were eventually defeated. Lancaster House Agreement intended to provide economic relief and land redistribution-re-appropriation slated for post independence Zimbabwe were not adhered to; which in my view constitutes the origin sin, before today’s troubles in Zimbabwe.
What is new? Now, Obama is certainly not Reagan or Thatcher, so let us see? In some perverse sense, those like Reagan and Thatcher etc, with known aversion to fashioning humane and intelligent policies toward Africa and those apparent sworn aversion to happiness in Africa can be understood, as Africa is often said not to posses any national security or strategic interest to America and Europe, and needless to say then, therefore, Reagan, Thatcher etc or Sarah Palin, Governor of state of Alaska, vice presidential candidate for Senator John McCain, she it was said, who knew no distinctions between country and continent, when it comes to Africa, some make it plain that they have no stake in the outcome, or whatever become of our continent. So, what will Mr. Obama do differently?
The truth of the matter however, is, what affects Africa affects the world, whether it is an issue such as global warming, or Somali Pirates, the increasing costs of energy to power global economy or a genuine fight against extremism and terrorism, it is wiser to have a policy of all-for-one and one-for-all, a world of shared interrelationships and interconnectedness. It is hoped that people will stop seeing Africa as the inconvenient part of the global scheme of things
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy; when Mr. Obama visited Berlin, Germany to the thunderous applause more than 100,000, I was elated that he, a person of African descent was receiving all the accolades and attention, which his campaign garnered here in the United States, and then, abroad as well. But, this was tempered by my wonder about where he stood on matters Africa.
President-elect Obama formally announced his run for presidency of the United States on February 11, 2007 and his African Policy remained nonexistent or terse at best, whereas, he was professorial and esoteric on Israel, the economy and Mr. Bush’s two foreign wars in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. At the conclusion of the elections and Mr. Obama’s world acclaimed historic victory, led to more policy pronouncements on his part, and on the parts of those, with direct and indirect involvement Mr. Obama’s cabinet and White House staff selections.
And, former US Congressman and savvy political hand, tough political operative and tactician Mr. Rahm Israel Emanuel was selected by Mr. Obama to be his chief-of-staff, and Mr. Emanuel’s father in an unguarded statement, asserted that his son, will, as a matter of course, deeply influence a President Obama’s American-Israel policy; This led to a firestorm of criticisms, as part of the statement was pejorative of Arabs and, while creating the appearance that Mr. Obama will be hostage to his chief-of-staff regarding Israel Mr. Rahm Israel Emanuel was recently described by JTA.ORG as an
Attack-dog, policy wonk, enforcer and committed Jew
This incident is led me to revive what have been my publicized worry and wonder about President-elect Obama’s unstated/understated and generalized, or hazy stance, regarding what will be his US-African Policy, and what exactly in real or specific terms, his forthcoming administration’s African Policy would be or put in another way, why exactly was that not apparent or spelt-out, during the campaigns, as were other policies repeatedly mentioned in contemplation for a would be the United States African Policy during President Obama’s administration?
Should Africans and people of African descent just assume that the Africa and the Caribbean would receive better or favorable attention, and treatment, unlike what has been the case in the past? Should continental Africans and peoples of African descent have reasons now, to heave sigh of relief? Would this lead to more expectation fatigue?
Should very public demands be made? Should we be upfront like every other interest group? Or discreet lobbying is preferred? This puts in context, the Rahm Emanuel’s father’s statements regarding what would be America Policy in relation to Israel.
During the campaigns, Senator Obama, as he then was, visited and toured Europe (Berlin, London and Paris etc) He then visited Israel etc all well and good; but no visit to any part of Africa and no mention of what would be his US African Policy.
During the campaigns, I was enthralled and enthusiastic about Mr. Obama’s candidacy and the positive ramifications; when Mr. Obama won, I cried tears of joy, I entered euphoria and trance-like state and I remain ecstatic about the endless possibilities for America and the, all inspired by Mr. Obama victory and eventual governance; even still, I recognize that enormous economic and political challenges lay ahead, I recognize as well that color and racism in America have not suddenly ended or died and so, it not time just yet to go ahead on, to a fishing vacation.
During the campaigns leading to the elections, I can understand at the time, if some thought Africa was a delicate or even inappropriate distraction for candidate Obama, an issue that could have been amply exploited by his opponents and detractors. But, elections are over now, the Obama presidency policy-positions are being set on crucial issues; and besides, the candidate was emphatic about Israel, just as emphatic and matter-of-factly like the senior Mr. Emanuel
I am wondering whether there is a pattern here or why is Israel recurring? As it were during the campaigns and now, soon after the elections as well. The Reverend Jesse Jackson is not Mr. Obama’s father; he was not part of Mr. Obama’s campaign nor was he Mr. Obama’s Foreign Policy guru! And yet, a scathing and scalding article was published in the New Post Newspapers, in which the Reverend Jesse Jackson was portrayed as giving interview insight into what will be Mr. Obama’s scaled-down American most favorite-nation status in matters Israel. This, even though, Mr. Jackson was not part of Mr. Obama campaign apparatus or spokesperson for Mr. Obama except of course that the Reverend Jackson is a person of African descent, and had in the past made flippant statements about New York Jews. During the campaigns, it did appear as if there were attempts to label and portray certain persons in particular ways, in order to defeat Mr. Obama at the polls, Mr. Obama weathered the avalanche and the unrelenting storm and they rest, as it were is now history!
Mr. Obama will become the 44th president of the United States come January 20, 2009!
It is really nice to have the symbolism of President Obama as a person of African descent as president of the United States of America; he certainly must not be docile regarding Africa and beyond that, It will be really even nicer still, to begin to know what President Obama would do differently regarding the African continent, and Jamaica, Trinidad/Tobago, Haiti, Antigua, Cuba, Guyana and all the Islands and Caribbean nations etc which brims with peoples of African descent, AND, if not during an Obama presidency, when? When will the lot of Africans and peoples of African descent fare better in terms of US Foreign Policy?
I am aware of course, that Mr. Obama has in the past, visited Kenya, Ethiopia and I think Chad; but well before he declared his presidential ambition; It is also gratifying to note that while this article was already being written, Mr. Obama telephone President Yar’Adua, to discuss American-Nigerian bilateral issues, as well as, multitudes of issues concerning the African continent. This is a start, baby-steps perhaps, but a start nonetheless.
The world is keenly watching Mr. Obama with boundless optimism as he has motivated and inspired America and the entire world. He has demonstrated beyond words that he qualified, competent, disciplined and focused. He is clearly good for America and the world. There are of course extraordinary challenges ahead for his presidency.
I am eagerly anticipating his African Policy formulation and implementation
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy.
.
Paul I. Adujie is a Nigerian lawyer, resident in New York, United States and a member of the International Bar Association
Google: Adujie/Obama for commentaries through the US presidential elections
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/obama-in-berlin/?scp=1&sq=Obama%20in%20Berlin%20Adujie&st=cse
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm
Written by Paul I. Adujie
Lawcareer2007@aol.com
New York, United States
With the recent election of Mr. Barack Obama as president of the United States of America, it is my view that America is finally living up to its constitutional promise of equality of her citizens; wither race, color or creed etc. America in doing so, has allowed herself, in Christian parlance, to be born again. America has now partially atoned for the enslavement of Africans, and complete disregard of a large chunk of her human capital.
America has, with this singular act of electing a person African descent, permitted itself of a rebirth and a renewal, and how wonderful it is, as it is happening regardless of the cynicism which have arisen as a consequence of the checkered history and plight or precarious predicaments of people of African descent in America; against all odds, and epochs of dashed expectations borne of harsh experience of African Americans.
Race or color of skin, have unfortunately been how life is lived in America, and racial terms and themes have been pervasive in America, but, a person of African descent is now slated to become the 44th president of the United States, and not a moment too soon, this, after these hundreds of years in America, by people of African descent. Mr. Obama until his election as president was the only senator of African descent, out of 100 US senators. Even though African Americans, constitute more than 13.4% or about 40.9 million out of the US total population of about 306 million, with Caucasians population of 221.3 or 74% of the US population respectively.
President-elect Barack Obama’s ascension is at once aesthetically pleasing; it has a very decorative value and a symbolism; as well as substance in relation to human progress in America and the entire world hence everyone is agog, over Mr. Obama’s election. As the world knows, Mr. Obama is a first generation American with an African immigrant father; this therefore fulfils the ideals of America as a melting pot and a land of infinite possibilities. America is fulfilling its promise and she is at the cusp of realizing her full potentials.
This progress is even perhaps more meaningful, above and beyond, for African Americans, continental Africans and all peoples of African descent, worldwide; It must be stated quickly though, that the advantages and dividends to these Africans, that is, African Americans and people of African descent , and to continental Africans remain to be evaluated. There is an inherent are-we-there-yet question, which must be answered.
Is a color blind world in sight? There those revisionists who are already asserting that with the election of Mr. Obama as president of the United States, people of African descent, continental Africans, and more particularly, African American should no longer seek Affirmative Action Programs etc, measures instituted to redress historical injustices and such enduring vestiges which have negatively impacted, and continues to impact African Americans. This sorts of thinking, is to say the least, jumping the gun!
Regarding continental Africans, it is the case that historically it has been fashionable, romantic and even sexy, for some in America, Europe and elsewhere outside Africa, to ostentatiously and conspicuously publicly analyze the human condition in Africa and of Africans and they proceed do nothing, even as they pompously and condescendingly present the beggar –charity-basket case as situations of Africa, and the savior role Americans, Europeans and other non-Africans must play to set Africa aright. But these have historically amounted to loud talk and no action.
Could Mr. Obama be the true lover of Africa, and a doer, who would speak softly and carry a big bank-wallet of ideas? Hence he has refrained from the usual loud but empty public proclamations about matters pertaining to Africa?
Africa has always been exploited and then neglected historically; Africa was variously exploited for her human resources during slave trade, then exploited for her natural resources post-slavery and during colonial period; Africa is now exploited for her bountiful natural and mineral and or energy resources and cheap labor.
Africans should be reminded of how Reagan and Thatcher supplied the lifeline oils which lubricated Apartheid South Africa, as America and Britain sustained Apartheid regime longer than was possible, through the warped policy known as constructive engagement.
Africans should be reminded of how liberation movements labeled terrorists by the US and the UK, the US under Reagan and the UK under Thatcher wanted liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe defeated. Those anti freedom, anti progress and anti democratic movement were eventually defeated. Lancaster House Agreement intended to provide economic relief and land redistribution-re-appropriation slated for post independence Zimbabwe were not adhered to; which in my view constitutes the origin sin, before today’s troubles in Zimbabwe.
What is new? Now, Obama is certainly not Reagan or Thatcher, so let us see? In some perverse sense, those like Reagan and Thatcher etc, with known aversion to fashioning humane and intelligent policies toward Africa and those apparent sworn aversion to happiness in Africa can be understood, as Africa is often said not to posses any national security or strategic interest to America and Europe, and needless to say then, therefore, Reagan, Thatcher etc or Sarah Palin, Governor of state of Alaska, vice presidential candidate for Senator John McCain, she it was said, who knew no distinctions between country and continent, when it comes to Africa, some make it plain that they have no stake in the outcome, or whatever become of our continent. So, what will Mr. Obama do differently?
The truth of the matter however, is, what affects Africa affects the world, whether it is an issue such as global warming, or Somali Pirates, the increasing costs of energy to power global economy or a genuine fight against extremism and terrorism, it is wiser to have a policy of all-for-one and one-for-all, a world of shared interrelationships and interconnectedness. It is hoped that people will stop seeing Africa as the inconvenient part of the global scheme of things
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy; when Mr. Obama visited Berlin, Germany to the thunderous applause more than 100,000, I was elated that he, a person of African descent was receiving all the accolades and attention, which his campaign garnered here in the United States, and then, abroad as well. But, this was tempered by my wonder about where he stood on matters Africa.
President-elect Obama formally announced his run for presidency of the United States on February 11, 2007 and his African Policy remained nonexistent or terse at best, whereas, he was professorial and esoteric on Israel, the economy and Mr. Bush’s two foreign wars in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. At the conclusion of the elections and Mr. Obama’s world acclaimed historic victory, led to more policy pronouncements on his part, and on the parts of those, with direct and indirect involvement Mr. Obama’s cabinet and White House staff selections.
And, former US Congressman and savvy political hand, tough political operative and tactician Mr. Rahm Israel Emanuel was selected by Mr. Obama to be his chief-of-staff, and Mr. Emanuel’s father in an unguarded statement, asserted that his son, will, as a matter of course, deeply influence a President Obama’s American-Israel policy; This led to a firestorm of criticisms, as part of the statement was pejorative of Arabs and, while creating the appearance that Mr. Obama will be hostage to his chief-of-staff regarding Israel Mr. Rahm Israel Emanuel was recently described by JTA.ORG as an
Attack-dog, policy wonk, enforcer and committed Jew
This incident is led me to revive what have been my publicized worry and wonder about President-elect Obama’s unstated/understated and generalized, or hazy stance, regarding what will be his US-African Policy, and what exactly in real or specific terms, his forthcoming administration’s African Policy would be or put in another way, why exactly was that not apparent or spelt-out, during the campaigns, as were other policies repeatedly mentioned in contemplation for a would be the United States African Policy during President Obama’s administration?
Should Africans and people of African descent just assume that the Africa and the Caribbean would receive better or favorable attention, and treatment, unlike what has been the case in the past? Should continental Africans and peoples of African descent have reasons now, to heave sigh of relief? Would this lead to more expectation fatigue?
Should very public demands be made? Should we be upfront like every other interest group? Or discreet lobbying is preferred? This puts in context, the Rahm Emanuel’s father’s statements regarding what would be America Policy in relation to Israel.
During the campaigns, Senator Obama, as he then was, visited and toured Europe (Berlin, London and Paris etc) He then visited Israel etc all well and good; but no visit to any part of Africa and no mention of what would be his US African Policy.
During the campaigns, I was enthralled and enthusiastic about Mr. Obama’s candidacy and the positive ramifications; when Mr. Obama won, I cried tears of joy, I entered euphoria and trance-like state and I remain ecstatic about the endless possibilities for America and the, all inspired by Mr. Obama victory and eventual governance; even still, I recognize that enormous economic and political challenges lay ahead, I recognize as well that color and racism in America have not suddenly ended or died and so, it not time just yet to go ahead on, to a fishing vacation.
During the campaigns leading to the elections, I can understand at the time, if some thought Africa was a delicate or even inappropriate distraction for candidate Obama, an issue that could have been amply exploited by his opponents and detractors. But, elections are over now, the Obama presidency policy-positions are being set on crucial issues; and besides, the candidate was emphatic about Israel, just as emphatic and matter-of-factly like the senior Mr. Emanuel
I am wondering whether there is a pattern here or why is Israel recurring? As it were during the campaigns and now, soon after the elections as well. The Reverend Jesse Jackson is not Mr. Obama’s father; he was not part of Mr. Obama’s campaign nor was he Mr. Obama’s Foreign Policy guru! And yet, a scathing and scalding article was published in the New Post Newspapers, in which the Reverend Jesse Jackson was portrayed as giving interview insight into what will be Mr. Obama’s scaled-down American most favorite-nation status in matters Israel. This, even though, Mr. Jackson was not part of Mr. Obama campaign apparatus or spokesperson for Mr. Obama except of course that the Reverend Jackson is a person of African descent, and had in the past made flippant statements about New York Jews. During the campaigns, it did appear as if there were attempts to label and portray certain persons in particular ways, in order to defeat Mr. Obama at the polls, Mr. Obama weathered the avalanche and the unrelenting storm and they rest, as it were is now history!
Mr. Obama will become the 44th president of the United States come January 20, 2009!
It is really nice to have the symbolism of President Obama as a person of African descent as president of the United States of America; he certainly must not be docile regarding Africa and beyond that, It will be really even nicer still, to begin to know what President Obama would do differently regarding the African continent, and Jamaica, Trinidad/Tobago, Haiti, Antigua, Cuba, Guyana and all the Islands and Caribbean nations etc which brims with peoples of African descent, AND, if not during an Obama presidency, when? When will the lot of Africans and peoples of African descent fare better in terms of US Foreign Policy?
I am aware of course, that Mr. Obama has in the past, visited Kenya, Ethiopia and I think Chad; but well before he declared his presidential ambition; It is also gratifying to note that while this article was already being written, Mr. Obama telephone President Yar’Adua, to discuss American-Nigerian bilateral issues, as well as, multitudes of issues concerning the African continent. This is a start, baby-steps perhaps, but a start nonetheless.
The world is keenly watching Mr. Obama with boundless optimism as he has motivated and inspired America and the entire world. He has demonstrated beyond words that he qualified, competent, disciplined and focused. He is clearly good for America and the world. There are of course extraordinary challenges ahead for his presidency.
I am eagerly anticipating his African Policy formulation and implementation
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy.
.
Paul I. Adujie is a Nigerian lawyer, resident in New York, United States and a member of the International Bar Association
Google: Adujie/Obama for commentaries through the US presidential elections
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/obama-in-berlin/?scp=1&sq=Obama%20in%20Berlin%20Adujie&st=cse
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm
Thursday, November 13, 2008
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy
This incident is leading me to revive my worry and wonder about President-elect Obama’s unstated/understated and generalized or hazy stance regarding on what exactly would be his African policy; or put in another way, what exactly will be the United States African Policy during President Obama’s administration?
Should Africans and people of African descent just assume that the United States would receive better or favorable attention and treatment, unlike what has been the case in the past?
During the campaigns, Senator Obama, as he then was, visited and toured Europe (Berlin, London and Paris etc) He then visited Israel etc all well and good; but no visit to any part of Africa and no mention of what would be his US African Policy. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/obama-in-berlin/?scp=1&sq=Obama%20in%20Berlin%20Adujie&st=cse
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm
During the campaigns leading to the elections, I can understand at the time, if some thought Africa was a delicate or even inappropriate distraction for candidate Obama, an issue that could have been amply exploited by his opponents and detractors. But, elections are over now, the Obama presidency policy-positions are being set on crucial issues; and besides, the candidate was emphatic about Israel, just as emphatic and matter-of-factly like the senior Mr. Emmanuel
It really nice to have the symbolism of President Obama as a person of African descent as an American president, he certainly must not be docile regarding Africa. It will be really even nicer still, to begin to know what President Obama would do differently regarding the African continent, and Jamaica, Trinidad/Tobago, Haiti, Antigua, Cuba, Guyana and all the Islands and Caribbean nations etc which brims with peoples of African descent, AND, if not during an Obama presidency, when? When will the lot of Africans and peoples of African descent fare better in terms of US Foreign Policy?
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy.
Most sincerely,
Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States
This incident is leading me to revive my worry and wonder about President-elect Obama’s unstated/understated and generalized or hazy stance regarding on what exactly would be his African policy; or put in another way, what exactly will be the United States African Policy during President Obama’s administration?
Should Africans and people of African descent just assume that the United States would receive better or favorable attention and treatment, unlike what has been the case in the past?
During the campaigns, Senator Obama, as he then was, visited and toured Europe (Berlin, London and Paris etc) He then visited Israel etc all well and good; but no visit to any part of Africa and no mention of what would be his US African Policy. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/obama-in-berlin/?scp=1&sq=Obama%20in%20Berlin%20Adujie&st=cse
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm
During the campaigns leading to the elections, I can understand at the time, if some thought Africa was a delicate or even inappropriate distraction for candidate Obama, an issue that could have been amply exploited by his opponents and detractors. But, elections are over now, the Obama presidency policy-positions are being set on crucial issues; and besides, the candidate was emphatic about Israel, just as emphatic and matter-of-factly like the senior Mr. Emmanuel
It really nice to have the symbolism of President Obama as a person of African descent as an American president, he certainly must not be docile regarding Africa. It will be really even nicer still, to begin to know what President Obama would do differently regarding the African continent, and Jamaica, Trinidad/Tobago, Haiti, Antigua, Cuba, Guyana and all the Islands and Caribbean nations etc which brims with peoples of African descent, AND, if not during an Obama presidency, when? When will the lot of Africans and peoples of African descent fare better in terms of US Foreign Policy?
All eyes and ears are open regarding what would be President Obama US-African Policy.
Most sincerely,
Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States
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