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Friday, February 24, 2012

Blair Underwood Has Living Relatives In My Village

See full video here.

Incompetence and Witchcraft In Africa

I do not like reporting on stories of witchcraft in Africa but this one is so dumbfounding that I cannot help but comment on it. The new witchcraft story from Africa is from Ghana but it is not being promoted by Ghanaians. It is being promoted by Ghana's losing soccer coach, Goran Stevanovich, a Serb. After a dismal performance in the just ended African Nations Cup, he is now complaining that the poor performance was due to witchcraft. How come that it is only in Africa that bad performance is attributed to witchcraft rather than incompetence? The man should be fired - immediately.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

What Is Democracy?

It is what happens before, during, and after elections - from local to national level. Democracy has been popularly understood by some African leaders as elections and so the electioneering has come to represent the most important element of democracy in much of Africa. However, what happens before, during, and after elections are critical to democracy. In fact, elections do not matter if dictatorial tendencies are the modus operandi before, during, and after elections. I have increasingly come to see that where people are not allowed to express their disapproval of governmental actions openly, especially after elections, there is no democracy. When democracy is defined as elections it begins to give the impression that anyone who wins an election, even by crooked means, can do whatever they want with the country, as people like Paul Biya, Mugabe, Yaya Jammeh, Abdoulaye Wade, and others are doing. They become kings after elections rather than listening to people. Democracy exists where politicians can be forced to change course of action even after elections. Where people are not given the opportunity to vent their displeasure with government actions, as is currently the case with Senegal, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and a host of other such rogue states, there is no democracy. Democracy happens where people are free to protest without the government sending the police to teargas and bludgeon them. In Africa, therefore, dictatorships are passing for democracy because the ruling elites have come to define democracy as elections.

Abdoulaye Wade is Crazy

How else can I explain a person who built a monument to African Renaissance, harped about democracy, and is now doing this. Also see the video below.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Paul Biya's Emasculation of Cameroon

Most Cameroonians agree that someone like Biya would not be president in any other country but Cameroon. If it were in countries like Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Nigeria, or Kenya, Biya would no longer be presidend. These are countries that have learned not to tolerate the rapacity which regimes like Biya's perpetrate against their people. On top of the fact that Biya has repeatedly rigged the electoral process in Cameroon to impose himself on the people, it was recently reported that he gave a national address from a foreign country. That is, his February 11, 2012 address to the nation was a taped address. At the time of the address he was somewhere in Europe and the people of Cameroon did not know why. It is only in Cameroon that a purported leader could address his people from a foreign country without any explanation. It is now being reported that Cameroon, a very resource-rich country in Africa, is now begging for international aid to feed its starving people. That Paul Biya has taken such a rich country and turned it into a beggar is astounding! It is only in Cameroon that such travesty can happen while the people just sit on their misery. It is often said that a country gets the kind of leader it deserves. This may perhaps be correct. However, I am not quite sure what Cameroonians have done to deserve a rapacious plunderer like Paul Biya. Perhaps their docility and willingness to settle for the lowest common denominator is to blame. Perhaps Biya has effectively taught them to think so low of themselves that they now think that their proper place in the world is to be beggars, in spite of their enormous wealth. How else can one account for such an apparently thorough emasculation of such a proud people?

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Appetite, Slavery, Colonialism, and Neo-colonialism

A European observer once wrote about how Africans came to be hooked on European goods such as guns and gunpowder, tobacco pipe and liquor, linen and silk cloths, mirrors, sewing needles and threads, among others, and how this appetite for the European enticed Africans to sell their kith and kin to Europeans as slaves. I quote him here:
"Once accustomed to having these different articles from Europe, the Africans on the coast as well as those farther inland could not and would not do without them and thought incessantly about how to obtain the things which could be exchanged for the desired goods. Therefore, the entire land was from then on divided into small regions which were hostile to one anther, and all prisoners which they took were sold either to the black slave traders or were immediately taken away to the European slave ships. sometimes, if such spoils of war were lacking, and they needed new supplies of goods, their chiefs, who exercised despotic power over their subjects, would seize which of them was most dispensable. But it often happened that a father was dragged away from his son, a man from his wife and a brother from his brother to be sold at the slave market. One can easily understand that all these lands found themselves in a most miserable state."
I often wonder whether this is why most of our leaders still adore foreign goods to the extent that they often steal from their people to buy these things. I wonder whether this is why many African leaders continue to kill their peoples to this day so that they may have the opportunity to indulge in these things which they hardly attempt to develop in their own countries. could it be that the logic of the slave trade still has a role to play in African politics today? Could African leaders and the elites who work for them be suffering from addiction to European goods? 

Finding the African Dream In Guinea

Mouna cyber cafe
Read the story.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Zambian Soccer Team: The Triumphant Return Home


Virgins Wanted - In Nigeria: Women Only, Please

Umuahia — WORRIED by the high rate of moral decadence in our society, celebration of nudity , prevalence of sexual abuse, prostitution and promiscuity particularly among youths, a non profit-making organization known as Purity Word International, has moved in to salvage the messy situation and restore human sanctity.
Addressing a world press conference in Umuahia, the International Coordinator of the group, Mr. Prosper Egekwe, lamented the near-absence of virgins nowadays, and said the group was poised to identify virgins with a view to celebrating and rewarding them at the eve of their marriages.
He said the reward of virginity would however be limited to girls as it would be medically difficult to determine "an undefiled young man", adding that before one is qualified for the award which he said would be announced soon, she has to be examined by a team of medical experts to confirm her claims of virginity.
The born again ex-movie producer said the objective of the movement was to promote purity among youths and save the next generation from the army of sexually transmitted diseases ravaging mankind by celebrating those who keep their virginity until they are legally married.
He frowned at the rate our society celebrate nudity in the name of home movies by the entertainment industry which he said has misled so many young people who now take after wrong characters as role models.
Asked why delving into the unpopular crusade, Egekwe said illicit sex is the dragging force behind other vices in society, expressing hope that if the war against the scourge is won there will be future for human race.
" Some men get drunk today so they can be bold to stand before a lady while some steal to maintain their girl friends", he said.
The Purity exponent further lamented the abuse of Valentine's Day by youths who he said had converted it into a celebration of lust and sexual madness instead of a day of showing true love to humanity without sexual undertones.
Egekwe said the maiden edition of World Purity Day would be held in Umuahia today (Friday), and subsequently on the 10th of every February, adding that membership of the movement cuts across different religions as no religion according to him encourages sex outside marriage.
He also said the group which would set up its brigade in schools would celebrate and reward outstanding students, adding that Purity Account will be opened in partnership with some banks for the beneficiaries to encourage responsible living among students but added that any one found engaging in cultism or alcoholism will lose ones benefits.
The group he further said would be involved in rehabilitating repentant prostitutes and fighting the cause of innocent rape victims.
He said that such rehabilitated repentant commercial sex workers would be assisted to acquire some vocational skills, and empowered thereafter to save them from slipping back to their old life, while adding that such people will also be placed on salary scale for the first six months after their training until they are well established.

Mandela's Face On South Africa's Money: Well Deserved

Many unworthy African dictators have imposed their faces on the bank notes of their countries. That can hardly be said of Nelson Mandela who is universally recognized as one of the foremost statespeople of all time and in Africa in particular. In fact, it can even be argued that, as things stand, South Africa does not deserve to have Mandela's face on its money given that the society which he worked so hard to create is being corrupted by political opportunists.We urge the deletion of faces like those of Omar Bongo of Gabon, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, and other unworthy candidates from their countries' bank notes.
http://seniorjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/madiba-mandela-bank-notes-new-50-rands.jpg