Greetings all...

I hope that the thread has not been spoiled by the dialogue between nferyn and myself. That's just real talk and it's very important to have honest, penatrating, relevant dialogue to address the issues that are affecting our lives and the lives of our children and their children.

I am still very eager to hear ideas and solutions from anybody regarding how we can make the nations of Africa equal to any nation on the planet. I would like to hear anyone's ideas on what Africans and so called African Americans (and I really hate that term, but for the sake of simplicity..) should do to hold our leaders accountable for all the woes we have. As far as us in america, the tragedy that took place after the hurricane in New Orleans should have been enough to show the world that things are not as rosy over here as the rulers would like for you think.

I think it was Brazil, maybe two years ago, when there was massive civil unrest and dissatifaction amoungst citizens towards the leaders there. The people began to carry out physically harmless humilation campaigns against the leaders. They were heckled whenever they went to restaurants, stores, etc. I think some even got pelted with tomatos. I think things are better, now . Do we have to humiliate our leaders into action? I don't think they are all traitors (gawd, I hope not), I just think they have that old school mentality that does nothing to promote out the box and dynamic thinking, just promotes complacentcy and that "just wait and Pray for them" mentality.

Over here, most of the leaders are from that "integration" generation. ...Yeeeaaahhhh, that could be part of the problem... But, really, what can you say? I know many leaders on the Continent are educated in Europe. Could that be bad? Is it bad that most of us go to school with other nationalities and cultures. Does it make us complacent? I think only if we lost track of the reality and facts of the matter and fall prey to the dream of multiculturalism and diversification when we know for a fact that home is in shambles.

I think the youth have to take a proactive stance in creating the future we want for each other and our people. The only things that will keep us from creating a new world where everybody can live in peace, is own lack of discipline and ignorance. I am of the conviction that we need to start planning now.

I would love to hear everybody's ideas on how We can make Africa the envy of the world. If you are shy, Pm or email me and I will post your ideas for (although I don't think that is a problem for Nigerians ).

Let's just do the damn thang.

Ah - a great topic.

With will and unity, Nigeria could achieve 1st World Standards in 50 years. Why not? Japan did it. Germany did it after it was totally destroyed in World War 2.

Of course Japan and Germany had massive American Aid - which was given in order to fight communism.

Nigeria has more natural resources than Japan or Germany - so what have been the problems.

1. Colonialist Attitudes. The countries that have done best have never been colonised. Japan and China have done better than India and burma. Colonialism removes national self-reliance. The colonised people believe they are not the equals of the colonisers. They look to the colonial powers for solutions and instructions and wisdom. They obey the rules set by the colonial powers. They believe they can do nothing for themselves. Colonialist dominated governments ask permission to do anything, take instructions from western economists and bankers, build bolt-holes for themselves in the USA and Europe.

South America too has suffered from this, with the rulers and the wealthy exporting capital to Europe and the US instead of investing at home. People also demand less in colonised countries. If you think all you deserve is to live in a shanty, you will live in a shanty. If people say "This is intolerable! I demand better. " And keep saying it - they will get better.

2. Unequal Trade and Aid In the 1st World, when they produce a product, they pay the workers a decent wage, calculate the production costs, add a profit, and then set a price that covers all that.
In the 3rd world, we produce a product - say oil or cocoa, we pack it up, send it to Europe and they decide what they're going to pay for it!. That is a recipe for getting robbed! Do the Western nations send cars to Africa and say "Pay us what you can afford?" hell no! They do not sell below the cost of production - as we are forced to. What the west does is pays too little for African products to cover the wages of those who produce them. Then, when we cannot afford to purchase necessities with the pittance paid, they offer to lend us money to replace what should have been paid originally. This increases national debt. Until this form of exploitation is removed, Africa's wealth will continue to be sold for a pittance!

continued......

3. Being Slaves to Western Economists For twenty years the World bank and IMF have recolonised Africa and South America, imposing monetarist economic policies which they say will bring success. Have these policies brought success? No. They have produced the worst ever economic performance. yet they are still pushed. Why?

Because these policies enrich the western bankers and commodity brokers. African leaders accept them because otherwise they would default on loans already granted, or not get new loans, thus digging their countries in deeper.

What policies have the IMF pushed?

Cutting state spending, selling state assets to the private sector, cutting bureaucracy. Allowing free import of foreign goods.

Have the countries that have prospered followed these policies?

No. The EEC and USA set rigid tariff barriers to stop competing goods getting in. They do not cut government and welfare spending drastically. China and Japan do not follow such policies either.

Why don't IMF policies work?

Because they are based on a false Neo-Conservative model that has worked nowhere, but helps enrich bankers and large corporations. It is based on the model of 1840s Britain, where people were very poor, but big corporations, free of regulation, got rich, and gradually Britain grew richer. It doesn't work today for three reasons:

A) Britain had lots of CAPITAL from the Empire and the Slave trade to invest in industrialisation. Most poor countries don't have access to this sort of Capital to found new industries.

B) Competition. Britain and the US in the 1840s had no competition for the goods they produced in their factories. They could sell them all over the world, and make big profits. Start a small factory in Nigeria today, producing radios. It will produce say 500 radios a week. A big factory in Korea will produce 50,000 radios a week with more efficiency. Because of this, they will be cheaper than the Nigerian radios. The Nigerian radios will not sell, and the factory will close. Private capital will not take the risk again, so putting more money into private hands results in very little investment.

C) Depression The policies the IMF advocates for Africa are similar to the ones that caused the Great Depression of the 1930s. Cutting State spending on hospitals, education, infrastructure, throws thousands out of work and reduces the market for goods. Everyone suffers. producers, builders, market traders, transport. Money dries up and businesses close down for lack of customers.

So What policies have worked?

Countries that have been successful in climbing out of poverty have had either massive foreign investment, which Africa is not going to get on the scale needed. or they have had massive state investment in basic industries that has built up a firm base of basic industries. And this has happened behind strong tariff walls to keep out competing industrial products that would otherwise kill new local industries. This is what happened in Korea, China, Japan, and is now happening in India.

Until basic industries are operating, producing steel, plastics, components, radios TVs, vehicles etc. there is no base for further development. These industries can only flourish and grow to a size where they can compete on the world market if they are protected in the early stages. If you take a new local industry and make it compete with Japan or the US in an open market as the IMF wants, it is like taking a baby and saying "compete with George Foreman in the boxing ring". The baby has to grow first.

All successful economies have supported basic industries with import controls in the early years. They have flooded money into health, housing and education, and they have not allowed their economies to be exploited for foreign gain. This is the exact opposite remedy to those pushed on Africa by the IMF and western world.

Of course this needs honest government, whose first concern is not their own wealth, or the approval of Bush and Blair and the G8, but the welfare of the general population. A government that will negotiate tough trade deals with the west, that will pay in "debt" repayment only what the nation can afford (say 5-10 % of export earnings), and that will invest in health, education and a planned framework of new industry. Private business needs to flourish, but in an environment where there are basic industries and a trined workforce to build on.

Do that, and Africa can join the 1st world in a few decades. Keep going as we are, and Africa will still be seeking "AID" and famine relief in 50 years.

I just found this email in my inbox. Its a couple of days old and i decided to post it here, since I think it is relevant to the discussion. Lean manufacturing is definately something that needs to be addressed. Yeah, the japanese had massive amerikan funding, but they also developed "kaizen". I am not enough of an expert to explain kaizen, but it is kinda like, uh... I don't know, industrial chi or manufacturing bushido or something. Cut waste, defects, and inefficiancy in the factory to 0. In short, they did everything they could to master all aspects of efficient production. Anyway, read the email and try to attend the free web seminar.

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Dear S,

I started studying manufacturing performance 26 years ago this fall. We set out at MIT to perform the most exhaustive and accurate benchmarking of the world’s largest manufacturing industry – motor vehicles – because we believed this was the best proxy for manufacturing in general and believed that a sea change in manufacturing practice was occurring.

When I look back on the past 26 years, I see what many members of the Lean Community with shorter careers may not. We have made terrific progress in improving design, production, and supplier management processes. As a result, defects in new vehicles and problems encountered over many years of use have fallen steadily. At the same time, the real, inflation-adjusted cost to the consumer of a given bundle of vehicle attributes has fallen year after year. These gains are not due to scale economies as in the age of mass production. They have occurred despite falling annual production volume per vehicle and shorter product lives as the auto industry has offered an ever growing variety of fresh models and options.

Even better, this triple win for the consumer -- better quality at lower cost with more variety -- has steadily spread across manufacturing in all sectors. In short, the world had gotten a lot better at making things in the past quarter century and there is every reason to think this will continue as we all learn more about lean process management.

However, when I contrast the brilliant manufactured goods all around us with the success we have as consumers in fully solving our consumption problems, the picture is much less bright. My goods are now a lot better than my consumer experience in solving problems ranging from shelter to mobility to healthcare to communication. I find myself in constant struggles with providers ranging from my car dealer to my health maintenance organization to retailers to airlines as I try to get all the goods and services in my busy life to work together to solve my problems with no hassle and at reasonable cost. In short, we are now in the age of lean production but are still stuck in the age of mass consumption and mass provision.

As Dan Jones and I thought about this issue as process thinkers it naturally occurred to us that the way ahead must center on better processes. After all, both consumption and provision of the goods and services we need are processes – complex sequences of interlocked steps that consumer and provider must perform. Indeed, we soon realized that the type of lean process thinking we have all become accustomed to in manufacturing has rarely been applied to the great majority of activities in our lives. Because 80% or more of what goes on in advanced economies is in the service and government sectors rather than in manufacturing, this suggests that there is a truly big opportunity to make all of our lives better if we can simply transfer the lean process knowledge of the factory to the rest of the economy.

Dan and I have now completed our effort to do this in our new book, Lean Solutions, and we would like to summarize our findings for the Lean Community. I am, therefore, conducting the first LEI webinar at 2:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time on November 15. Due to the rapid leaps in web technology delivered through our PCs (a great case of brilliant products connected and supported with lousy services), we can accommodate all members of our Community who wish to attend. Because this is a small payback to the Community for the great support LEI has received over the past eight years, the one-hour online event is free.

I will lead off with a slide show describing the principles of lean consumption and lean provision, which together can create lean solutions that benefit consumers, providers, and manufacturers. And I will give some great examples of firms who are closing the enormous gap between the consumer and the factory. We will then have a question-and-answer session during which you can email in your questions and I will try to answer them in real time.

I’m truly excited about the potential of lean consumption and lean provision to join lean production in making all of our lives better, not just as consumers but as providers and as manufacturers. I hope you will join me for the first LEI webinar on November 15 by going to www.lean.org to sign up.

Best regards,

Jim

Jim Womack
President and Founder
Lean Enterprise Institute

Feel free to forward this message to suppliers, customers, or colleagues who are implementing lean - or should be.

If this e-letter was forwarded to you, visit http://www.lean.org to subscribe. Use "Member Sign-up" at the bottom right corner of the homepage to get a free subscription and gain immediate access to all the valuable content on the LEI web site about implementing lean.
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As you can probably tell, i know next to nothing about manufacturing or industrial engineering. I'll learn, though. We all will. I will try to record the seminar audio for any that may want it.

Peace

Equality is not important. What's important is general well-being and happiness of the citizens of the country. If it means not being on par with the 'developed' world in some areas, and advancing beyond them in some other areas, then that's what we should be aiming for.

And more concise posts, to

It will happen in 140 years, according to stats i saw on MTV during Geldof's Raise,poverty has 2 be eradicated b4 we can be pals with first world cos greed is killin us,when the poor or hustla's,infact most africans want billions(like me) if poverty is eradicated, greed will subsidise and i knw we can be pals with 1st world countries

with our kind of leaders?
never!

hard but the truth

Prayer and Political Rascality

"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."
…Bishop Desmond Tutu

“Nigeria’s problem is not money, but how to spend it”
…the Gospel according to Gen Yakubu Gowon

Everywhere you turn, a Nigerian is praying. Whether on the mountains, in the synagogues, at stadiums or even in the government house, a Nigerian is praying.
Old men are praying, women are praying, doctors are praying, even atheists are beginning to pray. We love to pray, on our knees, on the road, in our cars, in schools; everywhere we are praying.
Political thieftains are praying, Governors are praying, legislathieves are praying, even the president has a special house of prayer!
Criminals are praying, those who jump bail are praying, fugitives are praying, this truly is the land of prayer!

Nigerians are a people of prayer, they pray for light, water, good roads, drugs and a good education. When Abacha bestrode this country like a colossus, Nigerians prayed. When the bellview airlines crash of 22/10 occurred, Nigerians took it to the Lord in prayer. When Alamsco disgraced us all in London, you bet he just left it in the hands of the Lord to deal with his enemies in His time.
Just in case we were beginning to forget, Governor Boni Haruna of Adamawa state reminded us that only prayer could save Nigeria from all the problems bedeviling the nation. He further enjoined us to “engage in serious prayers and fasting and appeal to God for deliverance”.
Nigerians are even asked to pray for “dividends of democracy”!

Recent comments by our Government officials have begun to portray us as a nation in crisis, a nation of unserious and insincere individuals and sadly as a nation adrift in the ocean without a captain. The increasing recourse to “prayers” by our rulers has only exposed their crass incompetence and complete ignorance for the tasks for which they where elected to power.
Government speeches these days are never complete without the usual request for prayers, When the super eagles failed to make it to Germany 2006, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima told us it was the will of God and not our birthright. We do not even need to play at the nation’s cup next year since it is also not our birthright, let us go to the mountain and pray that the Lord will miraculously send the cup to Nigeria. Since Chief Bola Ige died, we have been told that God will fish out His killers.

I am not against prayer, far from it! In fact I believe in the credo that a prayer less Christian is a powerless Christian. But I am reminded daily that President Bush also prays, I know that Abraham Lincoln was a prayer warrior, George Washington prayed, and millions of Americans and Europeans pray daily. Why are our own prayers not answered by God? Is God blind only to African prayers? Do we accuse God of racism?
No! God has not been partial, infact He has been most magnanimous to our nation. Despite sharing the same Atlantic ocean with the southern united states, we have been spared the horrors of hurricanes. We do not have constant earthquakes like the Japanese, we do not have to look over our shoulders and place a whole nation on terror alerts. What else can we ask for?

The difference is in our attitudes and sincerity of purpose. While Governor Haruna has told us to fast and pray, his family does not need to pray for the next meal, Alamsco does not need to pray before going for a tummy tuck. The senate president did not fast before getting his new #40million naira toy, neither do children of ministers have to pray to study abroad. It is the common man who has to pray, it is he who is saddled with the responsibility of asking God for his next meal while Government officials feed fat on state resources.

General Yakubu Gowon set up Nigeria prays and has told us all to pray. We remember that it was he who dragged us into the 30 month civil war that the ndigbos are yet to recover from 25 years after. We remember that he it was who told us that our problem was not money but how to spend it. We also do not forget that he even proceeded to teach us how to spend the money by paying the salaries of civil servants in Gambia. We do also note that his government laid the foundation for the present rot that pervades our landscape. Rather than own up to his 9 years of misrule, he has enjoined us to pray!

Governor Haruna has told us to include fasting in our prayer. After six years in office, Yola still remains one of the most backward state capitals in terms of social infrastructure despite huge monthly allocations to the state. Electricity supply is epileptic, not once did water run in taps the entire one year I spent in the state. Thank God for the advent of GSM, yola is now connected to the outside world.

While Government officials enjoin us to fast and pray for our country, they feather their own nests in foreign countries. While students are praying against ASUU strikes, the president and vice president are busy building their own private universities. While patients are praying for simple chloroquine, Nigerian officials are doing tummy tucks and facelifts in European countries. While we are still praying towards the elusive house for all by the year 2010, government officials are awarding themselves government houses. While we are praying, the Edo state governor has just built the most fantastic residence anywhere in Africa for $250m. Yet we will still pray.

While other serious nations are praying for peace, Nigerians are still praying for electricity, good roads (and airports), food and water in the twenty-first century.
Despite the fact that Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world, we still have to pray for kerosene to cook, petrol to fill our tanks and gas to run our turbines.
With all the rivers and oceans that surround us, we still need to pray for portable water.
Despite the billions of naira voted for road construction this year, Nigerians still have to begin every road trip with a night vigil. Each time we travel by air, we must precede with a session of prayer.
Lecturers have to pray for salaries, doctors must pray for their allowances, NLC prays against fuel increase, graduates are praying for jobs, patients are praying for drugs, policemen are praying for #20; indeed everyone is praying.
Pensioners have been praying for years for their entitlements, they still have many more years to pray, infact they might even need to include a fast.
Every year huge sums of money are voted for providing social services, yet each time our elected (and unelected) officials tell us to pray.
While we are praying, They build houses in London and the USA. While we pray, their children study in prestigious foreign universities. While we are on the mountain, their wives and girlfriends are busy gallivanting around the world. While we pray for electricity, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar has a solar power generator in his house.


Even though our leaders know only God can solve our problems, yet they are quarrelling over who gets our votes in 2007. They do not want to leave office, perhaps they still want to pray more.
It is rumored that president Obasanjo is angling for a third term in office, maybe he has left the decision to God. All we can do is pray.


But I no longer live in Nigeria. I am fast forgetting how to pray. I don’t have to pray for water, I don’t have to pray for electricity, I don’t need to fast for good roads. I don’t need to visit my pastor before I travel, I don’t have to pray against armed robbers because they are not there.
I don’t need to pray for fuel for my car or gas to cook. I don’t need to pray against lecturers strike, I don’t need to pray for drugs because I have medical insurance.
I don’t have to pray for a house over my head or clothes to wear or food to eat. I don’t need to pray that George Bush will quit in 2007, I don’t need to pray against corrupt leaders for I know they will be caught and jailed. I don’t need to pray for good runways, I don’t need to pray against tokunbo aircraft. Indeed I don’t have to pray for a visa!

Not that I don’t pray at all, but I can channel my prayers to something more useful like praying for a wife and good children. I have time to pray for success in my exams because I don’t have to worry about praying for things that God has already provided but have been squandered by those who profess to rule us.

God answers prayers. That is why America is what it is today. That is why Nigeria is still together today and we are not being threatened by natural disasters and terrorists bombs.
Rather we are praying against those who have ganged up against our collective future, those who are in power only for themselves and their families and have constituted themselves a form of man-made natural disaster to our nation.
Interestingly they are the ones who are admonishing us the loudest to carry our problems to the Lord in prayer.

@ davidylan

wat else can i say. U have said it all. Very sweet post my man. U hit the nail on the head.

in 3025

when the western world back pedals or stagnates

Africa will be a first world country when

1) unites its economies and creates a EU type union with one constitution, one currency e.g United states, China, India,EU etc

2) Have educated leaders in power with western progressional ideas, who enrich themselves by enriching Africa... e.g invest in research and design, leads to inovation which leads to new technology which leads to new products which bring in lots of foreign money.

e.g from USA ...NASA space program,Internet, WMD(weapons of mass destruction), military equipment, biotechnology etc.
3) Stop Wars between its members, treat every citizen equal as African citizen... don't discriminate any one citizen of Africa on the basis of Race religion or color.
4) Harbor the educated and provided excellent centers to learn and educate each other.

4) The only way to for Africa to move forward is through education.

Good Luck.

we do not need weapons of mass destruction to be a world's economic power. in doubt? ask japan!

Africa cannot unite and form an EU like government, we are not yet ripe for it. that is the problem with ecowas today, thousands of illegal immigrants flood the country everyday unchecked leading to diseases, increased crime rate apart from skyrocketiing unemployment rates. each african country shld develop to the level of individual european nations b4 we think of a united AU! even the EU will not accept the poorer east european nations! They don't want a flood of immigrants taking away all their hard earned jobs and money!

AFrica needs to invest in education, let us have educated and seasoned leaders. those who have the interests of their countries at heart! Let us stop this idea that we have to be pro-western b4 we can develop, china is not and never will be and yet they ar the world's largest exporters of electronic goods including computers!
The so-called western nations are only after what they can get from us, our focus shld be on improving the lives of our citizens at minimum risk to us, i don't care if we get the technology from Iran or the USA or Russia.

the truth is the major western powers will never allow africa to rise because we are the reason they are where they are today, major world players today including the USA, canada, england, france are those who have benefited from slave trade and colonialism whether then or now in the form of neocolonialism. If Africa rises to the status of the Asian tigers then they know they are in great trouble!

davidylan:

we do not need weapons of mass destruction to be a world's economic power. in doubt? ask japan!

Africa cannot unite and form an EU like government, we are not yet ripe for it. that is the problem with ecowas today, thousands of illegal immigrants flood the country everyday unchecked leading to diseases, increased crime rate apart from skyrocketiing unemployment rates. each african country shld develop to the level of individual european nations before we think of a united AU! even the EU will not accept the poorer east european nations! They don't want a flood of immigrants taking away all their hard earned jobs and money!

Be carefull with your xenophobic depictions of immigration. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric right-wing anti-immigration parties use in Europe. The EU [b]is [/b]accepting and integrating the poorer Eastern European countries. These depictions of the consequences of immigration are not established facts, on the contrary. An integration like the EU does not need a specific level of economic development, but rather a normalisation of economies, infrastructure, currency and above all removing all internal trade barriers. As far as the economic actors are concerned, ECOWAS should be just like one country.

davidylan:

AFrica needs to invest in education, let us have educated and seasoned leaders. those who have the interests of their countries at heart! Let us stop this idea that we have to be pro-western before we can develop, china is not and never will be and yet they ar the world's largest exporters of electronic goods including computers!

I wouldn't use the economic development of China a good example to follow. The only competitive advantage they currently offer is cheap labour, at the cost of an ecological and social wasteland. Internal trade is what is needed. Intelligently set up tariff walls for goods and services that are internally produced and remove internal trade barriers untill those economic sectors are viable.

davidylan:

The so-called western nations are only after what they can get from us, our focus shld be on improving the lives of our citizens at minimum risk to us, i don't care if we get the technology from Iran or the USA or Russia.

The actors on the economic field are not the nations, but rather the multinational conglomerates, who use national and supra-national institutions to their own benefit. Corporations are by nature psychopathic and if their power is unchecked, they create havoc wherever they are not curbed. Strong institutions can help here, but individual nation states in Africa are too weak to effectively counter these forces. That's why Africa needs to go for supra-national institutions of their own (ECOWAS could be a prime target).

davidylan:

the truth is the major western powers will never allow africa to rise because we are the reason they are where they are today, major world players today including the USA, canada, england, france are those who have benefited from slave trade and colonialism whether then or now in the form of neocolonialism. If Africa rises to the status of the Asian tigers then they know they are in great trouble!

Yes and no. The rise of the West is largely (but not exclusively) built on the exploitation of the periphery. This has created unequal positions of power, but there is no manicheistic ghost in a machine steering all of this. It's a self-organising system that tries to perpetuate itself in the current status quo.
Economic development is not a zero-sum game. If Africa develops, the world is better of, only, it is not rational for individual economic actors to aid in achieving this goal.
There are other stable states that bring an overall better quality of life for everyone on the planet, but the chain needs to be broken and it will not break by itself. Internal development is the key.

very intelligent post nferyn, thanks for the corrections. well taken!
But i do have my doubts about whether Africa as a whole is ready to form a strong and united AU. provided , we need AU as a stronger voice for africa because nation states are too weak on their own, don't u think it's wiser to hold off for now? i mean, are we ready to absorb all nation states in Africa with the hydra headed problems of war, genocide, aids, ethnic militias and corruption? At least that is something the EU member nations do not have to worry about, besides joining the EU is not automatic, member nations are told to meet certain requirements b4 they can be admitted.

The problem is also an internal one in that the countries' representatives need to sufficiently representative for their people's interest. The OAU would be too large a group to get any internal legitimacy. Withing the EU, three countries started the effort (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg) by joining in the Benelux economic cooperation union. Later France, Germany and Italy followed. Anyway, why not start by going for a union of Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria? There is enough relative stability there to at least start the effort.

another salient question to ask is, what happens to the exchange rate? the cedi or franc exchanges at outrages rates to the US dollar! what do you think that would do to an already weak naira? or are u assuming a new currency will change that?
besides, how many of these countries e.g togo, ghana have the foreign reserve that we have, they will just use our hard earned money as collateral to import and borrow!

davidylan:

another salient question to ask is, what happens to the exchange rate? the cedi or franc exchanges at outrages rates to the US dollar! what do you think that would do to an already weak naira? or are u assuming a new currency will change that?
besides, how many of these countries e.g togo, ghana have the foreign reserve that we have, they will just use our hard earned money as collateral to import and borrow!

That's why the first step needs to be monetary equalization. This is the main criterium that is imposed on would be EU member states. If they don't get their house in financial order (or at the level of the other partners), they cannot possibly integrate.

Concerning using your hard earned money: that's the price to pay: Spain,Portugal and Greece have benefited enormously from EU membership, but by allowing these economies to integrate and grow, you create an internal market.
If it weren't for the EU, European countries would still be vassal states to the US after WW2. Now the EU is largely self-sufficient and can easily cut itself off from world markets if the need would arise.

You should get out of your sovereign nation state thinking. The only country for which such a model would still apply is the US and then still.... The EU is not a real nation, but the member countries have given away a lot of sovereignty for the greater good. If only those stubborn Brits would realise that the Empire is no longer

When the global SYSTEM of racism[/color] (white supremacy[color=#000099]) is replaced with a global SYSTEM of justice[color=#000099][/color].

Edward Wil:

When the global SYSTEM of racism[/color] (white supremacy[color=#000099]) is replaced with a global SYSTEM of justice[color=#000099][/color].

Could you be a little more concrete. The definitons you link to are quite baffling and very hard to follow.

nferyn:

Could you be a little more concrete. The definitions you link to are quite baffling and very hard to follow.

Sure...it is not land the white people who practice racism (white supremacy) want...it is YOU...if you are a non-white person. They get control of YOU...then whatever land you think you own they own that too because they own YOU. The white people who practice racism (white supremacy) get control of you by getting control of how you use your time and energy. It is not a matter of land or gold or diamonds...it is a matter of controlling how YOU spend your time and energy. The white people who practice racism (white supremacy) get control of things in order to control people...and they get control of people in order to control things so they can control people better.

When will Sub-Saharan Africa be on par with first world countries?

As long as racism (white supremacy) exists worldwide non-white people will be subject to the POWER of the white people who practice it. The white people who practice racism (white supremacy) will give some non-white people more things than other non-white people...and let them fight over it. Or, the white people who practice racism (white supremacy) will get give some non-white people more things than other non-white people and start a fight over it. The whole idea is to control how the people use their time and energy.

The definitions may look or sound baffling because this is counter-racist language...language used to produce justice and in doing so eliminates the SYSTEM of racism (white supremacy). When you begin to talk this way, if you're a non-white person, white people immediately understand that they cannot continue to practice racism (white supremacy) if you do because the white people who practice racism (white supremacy) use words mainly to keep their victims, people they classify as non-white (not white), subject to their POWER.

The white people who practice racism (white supremacy) use two overall strategies against people they classify as non-white...deceit and direct violence. They use words mainly to deceive people. When they can no longer deceive you they come at you directly with violence. At some point they do have to ask themselves if this is violence just to get you to the point where they can use more words to deceive you. Historically this has been the case.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm sure if there are any white people who post to this site they will respond...or any non-white people "married" or dating any white people will also respond speaking against what has been stated. That is the effect of counter-racist language. You can also listen to the Counter-Racism Radio Network[color=#000099][/color] at your leisure.

It might take 300 years to fix the psyche of nigerians (and change its leaders! Please father help us remove those cartel of AGBEROS!) to get them to move in the direction we need to be moving because let's face it we are a mulish set of people but I think once we move in the right direction it will take less than 50 years.