Two Ways of Begging on TV

Way Number 1:

 

Way Number 2

You be the judge.

 

Sepp Blatter Has Got To Go: He, Too, Is Corrupt!

The recent arrest of senior Fifa officials and their indictment in the United States of massive corruption have led many to wonder whether any of this corruption could involve Fifa President, Sepp Blatter. In other words, is Sepp Blatter as corrupt as those other high level Fifa officials who have been arrested? One way to respond to this question would be to say that no charges have been brought against Sepp Blatter and so the corruption does not involve him. This position would of course be correct in a legal sense because charges cannot be brought against him without probable cause. However, this legal sense is not the only way to accuse Mr. Blatter of corruption. Let me explain.

The leader of a corrupt organization could be accused of corruption by the very fact that the person leads a corrupt organization. And Fifa, as everyone knows, is a mafia and is run in that way. Like a mafia, Fifa is accountable to no one. When Fifa is accused of a crime, it does its own investigation and then hides the findings. Fifa is a scam. Its scam is especially displayed in how it cajoles countries to bid to host soccer events, gives the countries very little money towards the events, and then make huge profits out of such events. This is how a classic scam works: the scammer comes with promises of making you better off but leaves you worse off - like Fifa has done to all those countries that have been hosting the world cup. Its latest victim is Brazil. Fifa, supports slave labor. This is especially seen in what is now going on in Asia where those working to build the 2022 venues of the soccer world cup are currently being enslaved. Repeated complains about the treatment of these workers have drawn little response from Fifa. The corruption of someone who runs a mafia and scam like Fifa should hardly be in doubt. Doubting the corruption of Sepp Blatter is like thinking that the owner of a pornographic company is a paragon of virtue. That Fifa is allowed to continue doing business the way it is now doing, with Mr. Blatter at the helm, is the real scandal rocking world football right now. The man has got to go and the organization needs massive overhaul.
 

Funding Murder in Bujumbura

It is conventional for African dictators to be paid through international aid. That is what has been happening with Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi until recently when a lump sum European Union check of 2 million dollars failed to show up. This has forced the man to go to the people of Burundi, asking them to help fund their own oppression. In a shameless communique found on the Facebook page of the Presidency of Burundi, the man makes it clear that he is coming to the people to ask for money only as an after thought. He says he has received support from the "partners" (partenaires) of Burundi but now he wants the people of Burundi to chip in to support what he calls "grassroots democratic" ("démocratique basée" - in French) culture. So the questions that one may now ask are "who are these partners of Burundi who had earlier given money towards this "noble" project? Why did the presidency first rely on these friends rather than the people of Burundi?

Fortunately, Burundians have been smart enough to see through this ruse, and judging by the comments of Facebook, it is being rejected outright. They are refusing to fund their own murder. Let the international partners to murder continue to do so.

When the Born Again Christian President of Burundi Murders

Pierre Kurunziza is the current President of Burundi who is murdering people, just as Machiavelli taught, in order to keep his job. They say he is a born again Christian who travels with his personal gospel choir to prove his born again credentials. His wife is also reported to be pastor. Asked why he wanted to continue to be president of Burundi when he could not produce any substantial achievement in his nine years in power, he faulted the journalist interviewing him for focusing on the negative. So working to improve the lives of the people of Burundi is a negative in his sight and yet he is president. One of his friends is reported to have said that the man beliefs God wants him to remain president of Burundi. Perhaps it is customary for God to ask people to murder others to remain in power! This follower of Jesus would make born again Christians everywhere proud. But Machiavelli would be prouder!

Yahya Jammeh Between Humans and Allah

A recent ridiculous plan for West African leaders to pledge that they would run for only two terms as president encountered a snag when the presidents of Togo and the Gambia used that famous African trope of difference - each country is different and there should not be one rule for all. (Just as an aside, such an issue should not be based on pledge because it does not depend on the goodwill of leaders. It should be inscribed in the Constitution of each country and then followed). Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia's dictator who is now exhausting his fourth term in office, suggested that leaders should not be judged by term limits but rather by what they do for their country. He went on to state that he would remain president for as long as possible "if Allah says so". It is this claim about the willingness of Allah to allow Mr. Jammeh to be the eternal president of The Gambia that I want to briefly reflect on here.

Mr. Jammeh's reliance on Allah as sole determiner of his dictatorial plans raises the intriguing question of the source of political authority in The Gambia. In contemporary politics, most political leaders would like to claim that their mandate comes from the people rather than from God. However, Mr. Jammeh does not appear to think so, unless if we take his reference to Allah here to mean that he is equating Allah with the people of The Gambia (something he world reject). While it is a good idea for politicians to be accountable to Allah, if they so choose, my own preference would be that politicians should be accountable to the people they govern. The proper statement for Mr. Jammeh to have made should therefore have been that he would govern for as long as the people allow him. He should not bring in piety to undermine the role of his people in determining whether he remains president or not. If he wants to be a preacher, he should be leading a mosque rather than a country. Gambians need leaders who are accountable to them rather than to their own egos sitting in for God.

Burundi's Almost Overthrown President Playing Football

There is a report on BBC, complete with photographs showing the almost overthrown president of Burundi playing football even as his country goes up in flames. I am just not quite sure what to make of it. Perhaps for the president, nothing is as important as his physical health, not even the health of his country. He will therefore not sacrifice his physical health to look after the health of the country. After all, of what good is a sick president to a country?

What we see here is a microcosm of the larger issue of this man's focus on himself, the narcissism that is now throwing his country in turmoil. The image of the president, or more importantly, the body of the president, is more important than the body of the state. Or perhaps the body of the president is the body of the state so that when the body of the president can play football, it means that the body of the state is at peace. Following this reading of what is going on, the president does not see any difference between himself and the state, which explains why he thinks that he should remain president even though people are rejecting his bid. His equation of himself with the state makes it difficult for him to understand why people are protesting against his rapacity. It is a strange site to behold, a president playing while his country is in turmoil. It says a lot about why he should not be president even if he were to be legitimately elected.

Ecce Homo! (Photo from BBC Web page)

Hip-hop Goes Chichewa . . .

Or is it Chichewa that has gone hip-hop? Here is Fredokiss from Malawi rapping in Chichewa, a Malawian language.

 

What Is Racism?

The current spate of the murder of black men in America by white police officers, discussions with family and friends, and perusing of other sources have led me to think that the word "racism" is often used without a clearer understanding of what it is. So I looked at some ordinary definitions of racism and what I found was hardly satisfactory. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, for example, is virtually useless in this matter. This is one of its definitions: "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." And this is another: "racial prejudice or discrimination." Apart from the fact that this definition assumes the existence of "race", it does not tell us what racism is. The Anti-Defamation League, which specializes in dealing with issues arising from racism, also assumes race but also connects racism to hatred of the other. It says that racism "may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes." I called these ordinary sources because they do not demonstrate the kind of rigorous thinking about racism that one would expect from scholars and most people tend to get their information from them because they are easily available on the Internet.

Whatever the definitions from these ordinary sources may say, they do not speak to the critical issue about racism as it has been experienced under the modern condition. First, it should be stressed that modern racism is based on skin color or pigmentation. Racism is the ranking of human beings in society according to their skin colors and the setting up of social infrastructures to support that ranking. It is the belief that skin color determines degrees of humanity, such as saying that African Americans are three-fifths human because they are black. Second, this belief is hardly based on hatred. Hatred may be part of the history of the effects of racism but it is not racism. White people hate White people, Asians hate Asians, Blacks hate Blacks. This is hardly racism because it is hardly based on skin color. It may be related to ethnic hatred rather than to racism. When Immanuel Kant, David Hume, and Hegel pointed out that Black people were inconsequential in history, they had hardly met any black person and so theirs views could not be construed to be based in hatred. One may be justified that their views were based in ignorance rather than in hatred. It is very important, therefore, that racism should not be confused with hatred. Hatred is just an effect of racism rather than a cause. Third, racism should be differentiated from tribalism or ethnicity. In many African countries, people often discriminate against each other based on perceived regions of origin. However, this discrimination is not based on the ranking of human beings based on the color of their skin. I am not aware of African societies that built societal infrastructures to support such belief, either. Third, racism is not based on language, place of birth or local customs. To discriminate against someone because they speak a different language should not be considered racism. Fourth, racism did not lead to slavery. It would be a big misunderstanding to think that racism led to slavery. Slavery has always been about economics. This is why it was practiced in Africa and many other places around the world. It is only when the color of skin is associated with slavery that slavery may have anything to do with racism. In modern times, racism has been located around the color "black" and those who have promoted racism have been associated with the color "white".

The people against whom modern racism has been applied have been "black" people. "White" people have said that "black" people are lower in the human hierarchy because of their skin color and corresponding social structures have been erected to defend this claim. The case has not been reversed. In other words, "black" people have not posited that "white" people are lower on the scale of human hierarchy and have not built any infrastructure to support this claim. The point of this is simple: saying that black people are racist is not correct, as Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly saw. I say this because I have heard some people say that some black people are racist. I have heard Africans compare tribalism or ethnic conflicts to racism. Black people may hate White people but that is not racism. It may be hatred born of racism but it is not racism. Let us not confuse the facts.

The Messiah Complex in African Politics

The messiah complex in politics is the feeling or conviction which, even though delusional, often leads politicians to think that they are the One and the only One through whom a country may receive salvation. Because a politician sees himself or herself as the only One through whom a country may receive salvation, they do all in their power to remain in power because, as matters stand, there is no one who can replace them. Anyone who replaces them will of course take the country down the wrong track and descend into hell! Nobody wants that! This messiah complex is by no means limited to African politicians as it is found all over the world, especially in the lives of dictators. The thing with dictatorship is that the dictator sees no viable future after him/her. Having been sent as the One to redeem his/her people, the dictator of course knows that no one else may receive a similar commission because there is only one Sender and the worldview under which they work is not heterogeneous. Some countries have attempt to address the messiah complex by instituting term limits for political offices. However, in some African countries like Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroon, those term limits are not worth the papers on which they are written.

The problem with the messiah complex is that ordinary people often do not recognize the messiah. They often see him or her as an ordinary person, prone to corruption like everyone else. They do not see the messiah, as the messiah sees himself or herself, as someone who has no sin. So ordinary people often have the effrontery to challenge the messiah's homogeneity. This is what is currently happening in Rwanda and Burundi - ordinary people, oblivious of the messiah in their midst, dare to think that he is an ordinary person, they dare harbor the wish to replace him. Since our hope for our politicians is not that they should enable us to go to heaven when we die, we need just ordinary, fallible people, to provide us bread and butter here on earth. We do not need messiahs. Is that too much to ask?

Why Some African Americans and other Diaspora Africans are Returning to Africa

That some African Americans are returning to Africa is not new but interesting in the 21st century. It demonstrates the disputed nature of African American presence in the United States.

Below is an excerpt from Africa Renewal Online:

A feeling of belonging

Mr. Thompson is one of the 20 or so African-Americans and other people from the diaspora of African descent who have found a home in this fishing community, attracted by the beaches and the peace and tranquility the town offers away from the hustle and bustle of Accra.

According to 2014 estimates, more than 3,000 African-Americans and people of Caribbean descent live in Ghana, a country of about 26 million people.

Whatever their motives, Ghana, the first sub-Saharan Africa country to shake off colonial rule 58 years ago, has become the destination of choice for diasporans looking for a spiritual home and an ancestral connection in Africa.

Read more.
 

Israel As Racist Society

When the retired Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, described Israel as an apartheid society, it was in reference to Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Such accusations have been brushed off on grounds of Israel's security. If Israel is mistreating Palestinians in order to  ensure its own security, on which grounds is Israel mistreating Ethiopian (Black) Jews? Many Ethiopian Jews and their supporters in Israeli society thronged onto the streets of Tel Aviv last weekend to protest the treatment of Ethiopian Jews as second class citizens in the land of their ancestors. This show of force was brought about by the ignominious assault of an Ethiopian Jewish soldier by a White policeman. One would think that the police and the military would be on the same side in a particular society because their goal is to protect the citizens of their society. That is not the case, however, when the behemoth of racism is the dominant modus vivendi of a people.

That Israel has become a racist society is one of the profound travesties of modern societies given that Israel has never been a racial idea. Israel's history is one of mixture of peoples from Mesopotamia to Africa. That it has become a racist society today is not only confounding but also shameful. Jews everywhere ought to protest this travesty.

Decolonization as Emancipation Proclamation Not Civil Rights Struggle

During the Civil Rights struggle in the United States, a leader such as Martin Luther King, Jr., saw the decolonization struggles around the world, and especially in Africa, as akin to the Civil Rights struggle in the United States. This interpretation of the connection between the two seems to have been accepted as legitimate. However, reading W. E. B. Dubois's The Souls of Black Folks that details the lives of African Americans just after the Emancipation Proclamation, one would see that decolonization in Africa has much in common with what happened to African Americans just after their emancipation than during the Civil Rights Movement. After the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans were struggling to find their feet in the context in which they had been thrust without prior preparation and Congress put many road blocks on their way to self-realization. Some of these road block torpedoed advances which African Americans could have made, thus contributing to some of the dysfunctions which we find today in America. In his essay, "On the Dawn of Freedom," Dubois narrates how political expediency on the part of Congress stifled policies that would have been far beneficial in providing African Americans with firmer footing in their move towards full citizenship in America. These policies, such as the creation of a national school system for the freed slaves, "a carefully supervised employment and labor office; a system of impartial protection before the regular courts; and such institutions for social betterment such as saving banks, land and building association, and social settlements. All this vast expenditure of money and brain," Dubois avers, "might have formed a great school of prospective citizenship, and solved in a way we have not yet solved the most perplexing and persistent of the Negro problems." But this was the road not taken and the effect of this road not taken can still be seen today.

A similar story can be told of most African post-colonial states. Post-colonial states were and are for the most part post-colonial only in name. In fact, they are the plantations of Machiavellian African elites and their foreign enablers who seek to put roadblocks on the peoples' path to well-being. The story of blacks in America after the Emancipation proclamation is very similar to the story of Africans in the post-colony. Perhaps more attention needs to be placed on this fact.

Black Mambazo and Salif Keita Against Xenophobia