Op-ed submission by Project 21

Christmastime is supposed to be a time of good cheer, but what I have to say about it will likely offend some and infuriate others.

More often these days, it’s a time dominated by the concern: “What do I get the kids for Christmas?” A lot of parents plaintively searching for things they can ill-afford and – in reality – their kids really don’t need. But, for those unable to differentiate between wasting money, overspending and what a child really needs, the quest is on. Children really need something substantive and there is nothing more enduring than a fundamental understanding of what Christmas is about and the reason we celebrate it.

Christmas is about the birth of Christ. It is about the love of God for mankind. God sent His only Begotten Son, to be born of a virgin. Through His virgin birth, death and resurrection, we can have eternal life with Him if we confess, believe and accept Him in our hearts.

But too many parents only seem willing to sit with their children to watch imbecilic TV programs than discuss “Christmas Truths”. They will take their kids to Wal-Mart and Target before they take them to church. Some do go to church, but not not necessarily to learn of Christ. To them, it’s a Christmas obligation.

It’s all part of a larger problem of society being divided by educational preparedness. Children must be able to function on par levels to contribute to the continued devolvement of our nation’s intellectual ascendancy. I’m not against toys and gifts, but I am against ignorance. If children cannot read, write, speak or interact beyond the immediate environs of their neighborhoods, how will they be able to contribute to our tomorrow?

I was raised by a single mother who suffered an emotional breakdown when I was ten years old. Despite that, she never allowed her condition to excuse me from learning. I did not go without a toy, but the gifts I received -regardless of how basic – reinforced her belief in educational preparedness. They also came with the strict expectation that I excel academically. She and my grandmother set the bar high, and I was expected to respond.

Today, the bar generally seems to be lower. Children can repeat verbatim the words to dozens of stupid, worthless and – in many instances – vulgar, anti-social, misogynistic “rhymes” masquerading as music, but they have likely never read Charles Dickens or Mark Twain and or heard Bach or Brahms.

My grandmother used to say: “An excuse is the easiest thing in the world to find.” Parents today must stop making excuses for underperforming children. And to those parents who thump their chests with pride because they have a bumper sticker proclaiming their child’s honor status, they owe it to themselves to check the quality of the schooling.

In my office I have two old family photos – one from the mid/late 1880s, and the other from 1900. One was born a slave, while the two in the other photo were born just after emancipation. I was told that my relatives in those photos were able to read and write. For that era, it was a true gift.

Toys break and the newest electronic and computer games seem obsolete minutes after they are purchased. A truly valuable gift is a bankbook and savings account for a child to contribute to regularly – and to which there are strict guidelines for withdrawal. Too few children understand the value of money and the need to save it.

This Christmas, for those who choose not to share the Truth of Christmas, at least give children more than a video game or earrings. Give them something that, when they are older, they will still have.

Books don’t break and a penny saved is still a penny earned.

Mychal Massie is the chairman of the black leadership network Project 21.

Feliz Navidad!     Joyeux Noel!     Merry Christmas!

Op-ed submission by Project 21

Atlanta is called the “city too busy to hate.” But some political activists found the time.

Kasim Reed, a state senator, just won a runoff election to become Atlanta’s next mayor by a mere 714 votes. On Election Day, however, he received only 36 percent of the vote next to city councilwoman Mary Norwood’s 46 percent.

Reed’s campaign was boosted by activists who opposed Norwood because she would have become Atlanta’s first white mayor in 36 years. They felt the loss of a black face behind the mayor’s desk equaled a loss of black political power.

Changes in Atlanta since Maynard Jackson became the city’s first black mayor in 1973 helped Norwood’s political star rise. The city successfully lured major businesses (and the 1996 Olympics) and actually grew by 100,000 people since 2000 at a time when the populations of other cities declined.

According to University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock, “Black voters have been moving further and further out of Atlanta, and whites who wanted to be closer to work have been moving in.”

Norwood campaigned as someone who would represent all of Atlanta’s residents. She received prominent black endorsements. But, in the end, there were some who felt the main issue should not be schools, transportation, economic development or fighting crime. They only wanted a mayor who looks like them.

Several hundred votes kept Atlanta’s black political dynasty intact.

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was broadly supported by Atlantans of all races, but Morehouse College history professor Alton Hornsby, Jr. said: “Obama’s election last year was more of a fluke than any indication we are getting closer to post-racialism… The lid has been lifted on the truth that was already there.”

It would be bad enough for this to be an isolated case, but it is not. The former struggle to increase access for black candidates has morphed into a quest to retain political power:
 
*  In 2008, primary opponent Nikki Tinker ran a commercial comparing incumbent U.S. Representative Steve Cohen to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Cohen, who just successfully led the effort for Congress to apologize for slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws, was considered unacceptable by some simply because the district is 60 percent black and he isn’t.
 
*  Leaders of the Maryland NAACP in October voted overwhelmingly for a resolution to strip the governor of the authority to appoint the mayor of Baltimore should that office become vacant. Mayor Sheila Dixon, now convicted of embezzlement, was awaiting trial at the time. While her conviction is not a felony, she may yet be forced from office. Baltimore NAACP president Marvin L. Cheatham remarked to the Baltimore Sun: “Here you have a predominantly African-American city. What if the governor appointed somebody white?… Would he appoint someone Irish to be mayor?”  Maryland’s governor actually has no such authority. In fact, Dixon – then city council president – became mayor under succession rules when former mayor Martin O’Malley became governor.
 
*  This past August, the U.S. Department of Justice overruled voters in Kinston, North Carolina who voted overwhelmingly the previous November to have nonpartisan elections. The majority-black town, which must receive federal approval for any election changes under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was told by Washington that party affiliations were the only way blacks could elect their “candidates of choice.” No one there, by the way, can remember the last time Kinston voters elected a Republican.

Americans just elected the first bi-racial president. It’s obvious to even the most casual observer that most people have moved on from the identity politics of the past.

It’s a shame that some still embrace race-based politics and can amass and abuse political power. What’s even more shameful is that they were the ones who once demanded equality.

Project 21 member Council Nedd II, the bishop of the Chesapeake and the Northeast for the Episcopal Missionary Church, is the honorary chairman of In God We Trust , a group formed to oppose anti-religious bigotry.

Report that Zambia spent $13,000,000 on the trial of the former president Frederick Chiluba is disgustingly embezzlement in itself. Though, for those on the hooks-especially former presidents like him the likes of Daniel arap Moi, Benjamin Mkapa and Bakili Muluzi- it is but a volume of dithyrambs so to speak.

The former president was accused of embezzling $500,000 of public funds.

Speaking at a rally, President Rupiah Banda said the money would have been far better spent on schools, medicines and hospitals. If he knew this, what barred him from doing the right thing instead of coming with these homilies as he sheds crocodile tears?

Did the president disclose this to awe other countries from charging their former corrupt rulers implicated in many scandals involving millions of dollars from public coffers? Is he doing this knowingly after retiring, he’ll be facing the same? Isn’t this theft within theft?

You spend $13,000,000 to try the case involving $500,000 theft? Isn’t this selling the cow for the expenses of trying the case involving chicken theft? Isn’t this the sign of downright incompetence, bad governance and negligence, not to mention corruption within corruption? Isn’t this milking pauper drier and drier?

Did the authorities in Zambia try Chiluba pretending to dispense justice whilst it actually aimed at hoodwinking the world? Why isn’t the Zambian government interested in the $40,000,000 the London based court says Chiluba defrauded Zambia using UK-based accounts? Many thought Chiluba’s trial would set a precedent for other countries to follow. But sadly it didn’t. If it did, it set a very bad precedent of whitewashing, duplicity and complicity. If anything, this is but a bad precedent many have to avoid.

We thought when the hunters become the hunted, it means the hunting game is no more. But as things turned to be, we still need to hunt. Justice in Zambia is still largely still at large. Africa has had such misfortune. Every so often lights climbs up, dark, too, comes in. In the neighbouring Malawi authorities tried to pinned down its corrupt former president. But as I am writing, the case has been dragging feet ever since and nobody can tell exactly what will come of it. In neighbouring Tanzania, despite watertight evidence against the former president, the current one, knowingly how dirty mud his name is, does not like anybody to point finger at his predecessor.

Is this what happened in Zambia… the gap the death of Levy Mwanawasa created? For the vagaries displayed force you to remember Mwanawasa. Where is the lion we thought took over after another passed away? This way, we need to lend words from French philosopher, Voltaire: “…I would rather be led by a lion than by a hundred rats.” You know what?  Rats are renowned for eating everything they come across. A rat does not bother to die of just a piece of ground nut.

What’s more, for Banda to consent to this theft, he toes the line of many a Chiluba and he becomes even worse than him so to speak. He has created Finnegan after a mulligan. For Chiluba always denied whilst Banda speaks proudly as if this is fair and acceptable before poor Zambians. If anything this subjects Banda’s poor judgement-cum-bunkum to suspicion and pillory.

In a word, everybody is experiencing a how-can-Banda-mess-like-this shock. And this defeats the good record of his mentor- cum-predecessor, the late Levy Mwanawasa whose acts were exemplary and noble.

Will Zambians goof and allow themselves to be taken for a ride by consenting to this open theft within theft?

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.

Fb: just getting home from watching Disney’s “The Princess & The Frog” with my family. It is a crime if you do not take your little girls to see this movie. A great story and the introduction of a beautiful Black Princess… the SugarPlum loved it! The entire audience gave it rapturous applause at the end.
Asa: Not sure if I’m going to go see it. Here are a couple articles with a different perspective:
The Princess And The Frog Is Disney’s Queen Of Crap 
Now That Black Women Got Theirs Race Is Not Important 
Fb: asa, you can go see the movie… they won’t revoke your “Black card” for spending 90 minutes at a disney fairy tale. i have an 8 year old daughter who needed to see someone who looks like her live happily ever after… and disney more than brought that point home in the movie.
Asa: I’ll take your advice and go see the movie. I don’t have a daughter but I do have a son and I’ll take him to see it too. Then I’ll sit him down and explain to him that although he is a dark-skinned young Black man, he can get a Black princess too and live happily ever after. I will also tell him not to be ashamed of his “Black card”, which is his lovely dark black skin. Thanks for the perspective. Blessings!

I don’t usually comment on movies I haven’t seen myself. The above conversation was on Facebook between a friend and I. To be honest, I wasn’t trying to “bust his bubble” in regards to the movie. Since I haven’t seen it, but I consider this friend someone who is a critical thinker, I shared with him 2 thought-provoking articles by Brotherpeacemaker about the film. I was somewhat taken aback that he took offense to the articles and felt the need to defend Disney, as well as refer to my supposed “Black card”.

The converstaion brought home a couple of points to me. One is the issue of role models for our children. I believe in positive role models. Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the idea of role models, our children will have them. They will identify with and be influenced by those who they feel represents the best of themselves. The question then becomes who and what are they conditioned to identify with… to be influenced by? From the images that I see of the Black Princess in this film, she represents a dark version of Barbie or Elin Woods. Straight hair, straight pointy nose, red lips, thin physique. Most Black girls (and women) I know don’t conform to this image, but as my friend above is quick to state and re-enforce to his daughter, she is “a beautiful Black Princess”.

Then what does it also say to our Black boys. Unless you look like a Prince Naveen with straight hair, narrow nostrils and light-coloured skin, you are not good enough to get “a beautiful Black Princess” as a mate. However you can be a black villain, a black-skinned practitioner of black magic, since you do look more like a Dr. Facilier!

Can we really blame a Sammy Sosa if these are the messages we are condoning to be sent to our young Black men? (see here)  

Second, let’s not get it twisted. Disney didn’t make this film for Black audiences. They didn’t do it because of their concern of a lack of Black role models for little Black girls. They didn’t do it out of a sense of civic duty, so as to do their part to create a better and more inclusive society. They did it to make money. They did it to benefit financially from the notion of two little Black Princesses in the White House. They did it to cater to the dominant culture, especially the liberal, left-leaning, white progressives who will pay money to take their families to see this film and buy the merchandise, i.e., a little Black Princess doll for their little White Princesses as a Christmas gift. This targeted audience can then feel good (or better) about themselves, especially during this time of year, for promoting the illusion of diversity within their household, as well as living in the delusion of the American fairy tale way of life… “and they lived happily ever after…”

…and like sheep, negroes blindly follow along…

The epitome of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The man not only preached peace, it oozed from his every orifice. When the white establishment notched up its machine of violence and oppression, when the police were wielding their batons and letting dogs maul peaceful protestors, when white men bombed black churches under the cover of darkness and killed four little black girls, when defenders of white supremacy hid in the shadows and aimed their weapons of destruction at men who only wanted equality, Dr. King’s philosophy was to love those who meant us harm. Violence was not the answer. A true man of peace would know better.

When I think of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the last thing I would think of would be a person who would condone war as a means to peace. Although it is believed that war is an unavoidable part of the human social condition, people who initiate wars, people who contribute to wars, people who escalate wars, people who dream of wars, aren’t usually thought of as Nobel Peace Prize contenders. While we might appreciate our soldiers, nobody gets the Peace Prize for their ability to kill and win wars. If that was the case, J. Robert Oppenheimer would’ve won the prize for being the father of the atomic bomb. And companies like Lockheed and Boeing would be consistent Peace Prize contenders and winners for their latest and greatest killing machine with exponentially more fire power than last year’s weapon of destruction.

Normally, the Peace Prize is aimed squarely at people who have demonstrated an unwavering objective towards peace. Dr. King preached incessantly about turning the other cheek. One has to admit, that sounds like someone who is doing their damnedest to keep the peace and is worthy of being recognized as such.

President Barack Obama is no man of peace. He has demonstrated time and time again that he has no real desire to work for an end to war. His whole response to the status quo of inequality and subjugation is to look the other way or to simply do what the majority of people want in order to keep whatever remains of his popular appeal. For a black man to become President of the United States, it wouldn’t look good if he supported the black community. These days, a President of the United States has to keep the status quo of racial inequality that is becoming more and more popular as more people try to convince everyone that racism is a thing of the past regardless of the inequality that continues to manifest. A man of peace would not be afraid to talk about inequality because a man of peace isn’t searching for status or material wealth or power or anything else that might be an impetus for war.

A man of peace does not fight a war in an oxymoronic bid for peace. A man who fights war is a man trying to kill, maim, and obliterate his opponents into silence or submission. The peace that is gained is the peace of intimidation and domination. It’s the kind of peace that a parent might gain from their child with a painful slap across the child’s face. It’s the kind of peace a man or woman gains from their significant other when he or she is aggressive and regularly uses violence to enforce their way. It is the kind of peace that comes not from understanding but from overwhelming power and an ability to conquer. A man of peace does not stand up to accept a globally recognized prize of peace with a promise to escalate war.

If Mr. Obama did not hold the key to the most destructive war machine on the face of the planet, his appetite for war would be much different. But since we have confidence in our ability to kill with utter force, we can afford to escalate hostilities on armies with only a fraction of our troops, strength, destructive capability, or our wealth. It is always far easier to escalate war against people who are poor and a people who are believed to have no redeeming values. On the other hand, a man of peace would find a way to keep guns silent and keep destruction at bay.

When the Nobel committee announced that Mr. Obama was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, many people wondered why. He had no real record to point to show that he earned such recognition. Many people thought his selection was premature. But others said that he would earn his prize with his future decisions and accomplishments.  In the aftermath of Mr. Obama’s predecessor, a man who invited those who wished us harm to engage us in conflict with the infamous words “bring’em on”, nearly anyone who replaced him would have looked like a real peace prize contender.

But today, we see exactly what kind of man was selected. Mr. Obama is a man who refers to himself as a Commander in Chief at war. In many respects, he sounds exactly like his predecessor who professed to be a man of peace as he initiated two wars. Mr. Obama professes to be a man of peace as well. And as soon as he kills the enemies of the United States, as soon as we kill everyone who does not share the values or our high minded majority, we will have the kind of peace that is attainable only through conflict. But a man of peace knows that such a peace is a temporary thing.  A true man of peace doesn’t talk about peace while keeping the world’s mightiest war machine in his back pocket.

Afro-Portuguese riddymz

Source: Afro-Europe Blog

…or WTF!?

I am pretty sure that President Obama doesn’t want to be associated with Mr. Woods at this moment in time, especially when it comes to whom he should be taking advice from. Now I am not one to subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I also don’t believe in coincidences. This is pretty blatant sh*t!

The words of my grandfather reverberates in my mind as I look at this image: “You are known by the company you keep”.  

Op-ed submission by Project 21

It’s time the Obama Administration came under the scrutiny of its first special prosecutor.

Michael Mukasey, predecessor of current Attorney General Eric Holder, correctly appointed a special prosecutor to investigate if politics guided hiring and firing decision in the Bush Justice Department. Holder should follow his lead, but he hasn’t.

That’s why Obama must get involved.

On Election Day 2008, three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense allegedly viciously sought to intimidate voters outside a Philadelphia polling place. Bartle Bull, a veteran civil rights lawyer and aide to the past presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter and was an election observer that day, said: 

It would qualify as the most blatant form of voter intimidation I have encountered in my life in political campaigns in many states, even going back to the work I did in Mississippi in the 1960’s.

After five months of unanswered questions, the American people can tell a cover-up when they see one.  If the Justice Department had any credible reason for dropping the charges, what do they have to hide by providing those answers to Congress?

That’s why I recently, on behalf of the Project 21 black leadership network, sent a letter to Obama asking him to call for a special prosecutor. A fair and independent investigation of this apparent miscarriage of justice is necessary. It seems Eric Holder is incompetent, asleep at the wheel or engaging in a cover-up.

I am skeptical about how the letter will be received. After all, in just the past few weeks, Obama has engaged in a startling array of political feints betraying the transparency he previously promised:
 
*  As controversy rages over the professional conduct of climate scientists, Obama’s top science advisor – John Holdren – has testified before Congress about his disinterest in how bad data may be driving White House policy.
 
*  After liberals complained about Karl Rove citing it in the Bush Administration, the White House now says social secretary Desiree Rogers can use executive privilege to not testify about recent state dinner party-crashing.
 
*  Obama is hampering congressional efforts to investigate how Nidal Malik Hasan was able to murder 13 people at Fort Hood despite his well-known radical Muslim beliefs.
 
The Hasan example is similar to the Black Panther case. Obama wants Congress to wait for his own Hasan review. Similarly, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is allegedly looking into what happened there, but the only people getting the OPR report will be Holder and his deputy. There is no guarantee anyone else will see it.

That’s why something more is needed – a special prosecutor.

Mychal Massie is the chairman of the black leadership network Project 21.

Oh, Mista (B)lack President, the first and onliest one, Neo for Niggas…I feel so much better about myself now that you in the White House.  I knows that you the President for ALLS the people, but I can just feel that special feeling you have for us every time I see you camel walk through the Rose Garden.

Though people been complaining about what you HAVEN’T done for us here at home, you jes showed ‘em wit your new domestic plan that added 35,000 new jobs for us. Sure, we gots to gots ta go Afghanistan, but hell, work is work, you feel me?!

So’, we gots to dig some ditches and might could catch some shrapnel in our azzes… at least we get some paper, plus 4 hots and a cot up in that bitch. Fo’rilla’, they say it ain’t much different than South Central on a Saturday night…’cept for the dry heat and the mouse-sized mosqutoes. But shit, that’s what guns are fo’!

Yes Lawd, you does look good in a suit and I feel your niggerish, cocky pimp-stride as you head toward the podium to talk that regal shit you talk. You ain’t carryin’ a tray and “fuck all ya’ll that think I should” is what you announce with each step.  “I AM the Leader of the Free Muthafuckin’ World BITCHES!”  and the hell if you don’t look the part.

There are times I must say, when your words, like the barbed wire ’round my back fence, leave me feeling knotty and all fuzzy in my dome piece.  But chu know, I take that as mainly my ig’nance of big things like strutural poverty, wars and genocide.

Not to complain, homie, but I swear I wished you’d put yo’ black glove on pushed jes’ a little harder on that health care shitty. I mean, my granny look like she got elephantiasis, her ankles are so GOT-damned big… AND she got what they call a “heart murmur.” Imagine that: like a heart can talk or somethin’. I tell you this medicine shit is complicated.

One thing I can’t rightly understand is how, if we truly are the greatest country on the planet, how come other countries have better, cheaper healthcare and dey live longer?! I saw parts of that medical movie by that bitch-type mu’fucka, Michael Moore, that showed how England, France and even muthafuckin’ Cuba(!) got health care that puts our shit to shame!! (I thought them fools jes played baseball and shit?!)

I mean, it costs a grand now just to take an ambalance to the hospital; in Europe, its like a cab ride. And those EU niggas live longer and some say betta. At least they not so fat.  I mean, Mr. Prez, why can’t we have what they have…or betta?! If we the best, our healthcare should be better, shouldn’t it??!!

But I know tho’ bro: first things first.  We gots to take care of Wall Street, the banks and shit, the credit card companies, cuz we is relying on them to give us that credit and that paper. I mean, where would we be without credit cards? I know I would be fucked up if I couldn’t charge all of my essentials to that plastic panacea?! Shit, I’d be fucked. And hell, a little interest is a small price to pay to get the really important things – like Xbox, Quiet Storm cd’s, diapers, formula, tuition – paid up and paid out. That shit is the real safety net a nigga needs in the 21st, right Prez??

If this Afghan thing don’t don’t work out though – I had a hernia operation and my sugar is bad – what I’m gon’ do? The rec center just closed down cuz of budget cuts and the Boys Club is busting at the seams. The good news is that they gon’ open a new detention facility on the outskirts of town and they might take me, hernia or no hernia. They gotta lotta beds up in that bitch so they gonna have a lot of jobs.

Still, I gotta funny feeling. Really, I’m scared. I’m going to church mo’ and mo’ and that helps. Like Phillip Bailey sung, “Keep—your—-head—to—tha—SKYYYYYY!!!” I’m doing it, boss! I’m keeping my head up, my fist down and banking my faith in the man upstairs and in you, brotha! I know you got our back.

Its kinda like what Michael Corleone said in the Godfather Part II: “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” I know thas’ why you got all those slew-footed demons and shystie muthafuckas up next to you. You wanna know how they think/what they gonna do – like Hyman Roth, when you told him you wanted to rock Pantangeli. That nigga didn’t know if he was comin’ or goin’…and you pumped the steel in that bitch in the end.

I can’t wait until you paint the White House B-L-A-C-K!! All of us waitin’ for that, waitin’ fo’ yo’ signal. We gonna march on the White House with Rev. Wright. Yea, everybody knows that lil skirmish was all pre-planned to throw the Devil off yo’ Afrocentrc scent. Yep, the Rev. got his youth brigade of Afro-wearing fist pumping Panthers ready to spout Mao and feed chicken wings to Michelle on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Stay black, Prez, and keep bein’ that Supa Spook by the door. We know the signal to Go Black is comin’ and we’ll be ready.

Peace,

A True Believer

If Foday Sankoh, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Charles Taylor, Thomas Rubanga, Germain Katanga, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, and others were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), after their grand falls, for perpetrating crimes against humanity, what of those that supplied them weapons?

It recently came to light that a Paris Court convicted some bigwigs from French authorities for illegally selling weapons to some African warlords, specifically in Angola. If anything, this is an eye opener. They’re still a lot more criminals out thither that need to be indicted so as to do justice to the victims. For they cause myriad miseries wherever their weapons are delivered.

The son of former French president Francois Mitterrand and ex-government minister were convicted for their roles in illegal sales to Angola. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was given a two-year suspended sentence, and ex-Interior Minister Charles Pasqua was jailed for one year. They’re convicted of accepting bribes to facilitate arms deals to Angola in 1993-98, in breach of French law.

On the same breath, prosecutors accused Israeli-Russian billionaire, Arkady Gaydamak and French mogul Pierre Falcone, of being the key figures in the arms trafficking worth $790,000,000. Mitterrand, an Africa adviser to his father in the Elysee Palace, was ordered to pay 375,000 euros and Pasqua was fined 100,000 euros, while two years of his prison sentence were suspended.

They made millions. They’re ordered to pay just thousands? What a mockery!

The scandal was dubbed “Angola-gate” by the French press as details of murky deals involving politicians, businessmen, public figures and weapons were revealed. This is but a tip of iceberg shall the grim past of Africa be visited. The world is chock-full with such criminals whose bread comes by shedding the blood of innocent people. But who has the guts to agitate that those criminals be submitted to ICC simply because their greed enhanced many miseries in Africa?

Angola for long has been bleeding to death thanks to macabre business involving illegal arms that used to nourish UNITA.  True, Mozambique suffered the same fate alongside Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Somalia. DRC, as well, is still bleeding to death thanks to this menace of illegal-arms trade.

The West and some African accomplices such as Rwanda and Uganda guard this illegitimate way of making money and obtaining cheaper minerals so much so, that they never wants to talk about it. As such therefore, under collective responsibility, French authorities must be sued for the role their officials played. If governments whose officials participated in committing holocaust can be sued, what of those governments whose officials supplied weapons that caused much mayhem in Africa!? What adds injury to assault is the fact that the authorities were aware of this sacrilege.

There is another sad episode involving the UN peace keeping force, “the blue hermets”. Pakistani soldiers serving under the UN in DRC, were found guilty of supplying weapons to rebels in DRC in exchange for gold. When this came to the fore, they were repatriated to their respective countries. Since then nothing has ever been heard of them!

In 2007 Human rights groups in the lolling central African nation say Pakistani officers serving in the 17,600-strong force were involved in the illegal smuggling of up to $5 million US in gold from the trouble-plagued northeastern Ituri region. The shady deals saw weapons returned to rebels of the Front of Nationalists and Integrationalists (FNI), said by the Congolese government to be responsible for war crimes during Congo’s long-running conflict.

There are yet more crimes on top of arm smuggling. One of the more infamous was 2004 revelations that UN personnel had been involved in sexual exploitation of local girls and women, including rape and pedophilia. Can’t affected countries sue the UN? What pains is the fact that the same UN has maintained silence!

This year India canceled a new UN peacekeeping deployment plan in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to a scandal of sexual abuse by Indian troops in that country, said a local newspaper, The Asian Age on Sunday. “About 200 Indian Air Force personnel who had assembled in New Delhi for the assignment were asked to disperse after the new assignment was canceled.” Unnamed sources of the air force were quoted as saying that the UN Secretary-General Pan Ki-moon has urged India to take “disciplinary action to the maximum degree permitted by Indian law”, against those involved in the sexual abuse scandal.

Why should Indian law be applied whereby what was committed falls under international law? Why Indian law whilst the crime was committed in DRC that falls out of the jurisdiction of the Indian court? Hither is where ICC comes in. Why is the ICC agitating that Kenya must submit her post-election-war lords, whilst it turns a blind eye on UN attrocities in Africa?

Can’t Ki-moon’s words be admitted as admission before the court of law? Mark my words, this is the third time UN is caught off guard as far as committing crimes in Africa is concerned. Refer to what transpired in DRC in the early 60 when the first PM of DRC, the late Patrice Lumumba was felled as the UN, alas, was watching! The genocide in Rwanda persisted due to negligence and indifference of the same UN.

If the international community has failed to appreciate this by taking proper steps, why should it not squeeze responsible countries to redress the victims? It pains to see media from the same erring countries displaying grim pictures from the affected areas, as their countries pretend to extend support to peace whilst they actually are the beneficiaries-cum-obstacles to the same peace. Do you remember the role CIA played in ruining Africa? Can’t it be sued for this?

By taking on these imperialists, accomplices and conspirators, Africa can forge ahead. Failure to this, the same criminals and refuseniks will go on receiving short suspended imprisonments and soft penalties as others spring out.

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.

Every four years the world becomes captivated by the most anticipated and exciting international sporting event. No it’s not the Summer or Winter Olympics. It’s World Cup Football! Next year, starting on 11th June, the competition kicks off (literally) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The final game to crown the world champion will be a month later on July 11th. I am already planning (scheming) how I will take time off from work to watch as many matches as possible. I can already feel a sore throat coming on (wink).

It’s always difficult for me to choose a favourite because I like so many teams. Brazil, Nigeria, Argentina, France, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Paraguay, Mexico, Cameroon and South Africa are the teams I will be cheering for (lol), which is almost half of the teams playing!

It will be an amazing competition. Goooaaal!  

Group A                  
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B                   
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
France

Group C                   
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Group D                   
Germany
Australia
Serbia 
Ghana

Group E                   
Netherland
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F                   
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G                   
Brazil
North Korea
Ivory Coast
Portugal

Group H                   
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

or is he… as we Jamaicans like to say: “ ’im jus a fallah fashun! “

We all consider ourselves attractive… or at least want others to consider us attractive. There are billions of dollars spent for products and surgeries, by both men and women, regardless of race, creed, ethnicity, region and religion, in a personal effort to attain a semblance of what is considered attractive by the society at large. This begs the question: what is considered to be “attractive” by our particular society? Obviously, since our dominant community is eurocentric based and their influence is indeed worldwide, then European features are presented to us in daily images, whether on t.v. or in print, as the standard to which attractiveness is judged and therefore to be attained.

Straight hair (preferably blond), pointy nose, thin red lips, blue or light coloured eyes, white complexion, red cheeks, slim body, large but firm breasts, flat butt and long straight legs is the measure of perfect eurocentric beauty. Now most people in the world do not conform to this ideal image, however any combination which includes as many of these traits as possible, moves one up on the attractive-ness scale.

We see the effects of this within the black community. Black women sporting straight hair or weaves, with red lipstick, red blush on their cheeks, white powder to lighten their skin clour… and some even going so far as to wearing contacts to make their eyes lighter. Take a look at any fashion magazine, or magazine in general for that matter, which features Black models and/or female celebrities like Beyonce, and you will observe that the lighter the Sister and the more European features she displays, the more attractive they are considered… so the more prominent they are. Look at the cover of any issue of O magazine. Oprah’s skin tone is always “lightened up” with bright red lips, long straight hair and airbrushed to look thinner and firmer than she really is. I remember the buzz around the July 2008 issue of Italian Vogue which featured “Black” models. Click on the image below to see a preview of some of the pics. It’s interesting what is blatantly portrayed as black beauty.  

One of our more popular posts here is “Do Black Men Respond To Natural Hair”, which brings to mind the documentary produced by Chris Rock called “Good Hair”. It has been estimated that Black women spend an estimated $9 billion per year getting the kink out of their hair!

Growing up in Jamaica, I observed the issues around colourism in a neocolonial eurocentric society. Light-skinned women and men, with predominant European features were considered more attractive and therefore desirable. They were referred to as “Royals” or “Brownings”. Jamiacan reggae singer Buju Banton’s first hit in 1992 was a song entitled “Love me Browning”. Conversely, African features such as dark black skin, woolly hair, a broad nose and thick black lips were considered ugly. Here is an excellent and informative article about the issue of colour in the Dominican Republic where Sosa is from entitled: “Black Denial”.  

So really it’s no wonder that Sammy Sosa feels that to be considered more attractive, desirable and therefore acceptable by the society at large, including the Black community, he needs to lighten his skin and wear green contact lenses. Although the obvious poster child for this mindset was Michael Jackson, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us are complicit in some way in making it a “fashun”.

When he toppled the government in 1986 using Baganda, thanks to entrenching his rebels, as they were referred to then, in Luweero triangle, he promised them heaven after the hell experienced in Luweero massacres. To hoodwink them, buy time and loyalty, he restored their kingdom along with those of Toro and Bunyoro. When it came to Ankole kingdom, Museveni had some reservations. He did not like to become a subject of a traditional king whilst he’s himself an emperor. Since then, nobody knows exactly what made Museveni shelve his own king, if kingdom were a good thing and an “in-thing” Ugandans deserved. 

Recent revolts in Kampala that left scores dead and hundreds behind bars act as an early wake up call for Museveni to contemplate vacating presidency in lieu of staying put in his phantasmagoric world. Ugandans are now tired of Museveni and are ready to take on him. 

For decades, Museveni has dubiously been everywhere and everything in Uganda: in the seating rooms, bed rooms, even in the pubs. He tampered with the constitution to remain in power by producing and reproducing a host of pretexts all based on naked lies. Right now, Ugandans are tired of misrule and nepotism. This explains why youths in Kampala took to the streets after King (Kabaka) Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II was barred from visiting his subjects in Kayuga.

Though the cause of revolts may be lightly associated with this denial of the right of the king, the truth is, it is but a pretext. Ugandans are using this to take on their tyrant, who as time goes, keeps on changing into many things: from a freedom fighter to a dictator, not to mention his adopted name of “Kaguta” that signifies toughness. Is Museveni still tough really amidst corruption, nepotism, nihilism, humiliation and what not with regards to misrule and abuse of power? Time will truly tell.

By reinstating the king of Buganda, Museveni wrongly goofed believing he’d get away with it. How could he whilst he barred the same from vying for and political post? This is a constitutional right for every citizen of a free country! Did Mutebi accept this token knowing that time would come for him to strike back and get back his constitutional right? Is this what the youths that wrecked havoc in Kampala wanted him to pursue?

Museveni wrongly thinks he can outsmart Ugandans. How, if at all, he turned Uganda into a one party state, heading for a kingdom of emperor Museveni I, a banana republic of course? How could he whilst he is ruining Uganda using his dynasty? Will he neutralize this new awakening as he did with Kiiza Besigye?

Ugandans are not stupid and sheepish as people wrongly perceive. They know their dictator has ruined their country and reputation abroad. Refer to the Congo invasion whereby many innocent people were killed and their property was robbed. The majority in Rwanda will nary forgive him for siring his replica in a new draconic ruler whose struggles to grab power culminated in genocide and the destruction of this tiny nation.

As for Kenyans, Museveni’s attempts to annex Migingo Island do not augur well with them. If anything, in East Africa, he has a good relationship with Tanzania that cloned and exported him to Uganda, after Tanzania had a score to settle with Idi Amin after Milton Obote proved to be a failure. 

Aristotle had it that the worst form of inequality, is to try to make unequal things equal. For long, Museveni has posed as a messiah for Ugandans thanks to coming to power under the post-Amin euphoria-cum-phobia. Though Amin was kicked out by Julius Nyerere, Museveni still poses as the one who did it. He has used this to score many credits unworthily. No messiah has ever used excessive force or dubious means to attain his goals, emancipation as it is for Museveni. Basically, any meaningful and true emancipation largely depends on those it aims at emancipating. Ugandans are stating categorically that they don’t need Museveni’s emancipation. Instead, they need to be emancipated from Museveni and his cabal of looters. 

Though Mutebi has never put it straight that he aims at political power, shall people want and stand behind him, will he turn them down? He is a true Ugandan: educated, loved, and all in all, capable of unifying them especially at this very hour of need. One does not need a PhD in political science to tell that Ugandans are tired of a one man show. They need a new leader of their choice not that of the gun. They need and deserve a democratic elected leader. They are tired of a ruler superimposing himself on them. The two decades Museveni has been in power are more than enough. That’s why, in reality, things are likely to take a new turn.

Let us face it. Which is better; to have an emperor or a king? To me, Museveni I and Mutebi II are at par. The difference (and a good thing) is, Mutebi has never ruined and mismanaged Uganda. The former became a king by the means of his blood whilst latter by means of his gun. In this showdown, who will triumph between emperor Museveni and King Mutebi?

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.

I was about to do a post on the continuing Tiger Wood’s saga when I decided to watch BBC World News to get my morning international news information. They did a piece on Haiti’s child slaves known as “Restaveks”, (read news report here). I wonder what they would think of our fascination and insatiable hunger for daily gossip on the lives of celebs like Tiger Woods and wanna-be celebs like the Salahi’s, while we totally ignore the daily exploitation, abuse and hunger for basic necessities they face.

Oh Lord, while I’m on my beat
May I know that you’re with me,
And protect me as I go to guard
Other’s lives and property.

Help me to ignore those who scorn
And show me no respect,
But be mindful of all citizens
I’ve sworn that I’ll protect.

Be with my fellow officers
And guard their safety too.
May I always put my duty first
In the work that I must do.

May I not disgrace the uniform
But bring pride to the badge I wear.
That I’d be a good policeman, Lord
Would be my only prayer.

Amen

R.K. Cecil

Heartfelt condolences to the families of the four police officers who were ambushed and executed on Sunday morning.

Clockwise from top left: Lakewood Police officers Greg Richards, Mark Renninger, Tina Griswold and Ronald Owens.