pendo89:

Are we therefore our own enemies of progress??

pendo89:


Why cant Africans think and develop themselves? Is it possible to do without western influence at all?? I have both Yes and No answers.
Why are we not taking advantage of Trade blocs? Cz we don't even know they exist !

morpheus24:

There is a huge deficit in continental awarness that stems from a lack of incorporating continental subject matters into educational curriculums to develop knowledge of Africans in general which would strengthen ties amongst the populous. Emphasis continues to be put on our differences rather than what we have in common.  This fact, coupled with an ongoing country by country struggle of national identity  hinders regional and continental integration. This is where I believe the problem lies. 
I think agree with you.

It is difficult to start from a fresh template of political or economic thought processes when most of your systems and structures have been borrowed or indoctrinated into 1st and 2nd world global systems that have not really taken into account the dynamism of African socio-political issues. We can develop ourselves and indeed we are striving to do so. What we struggle with is the methodology to adopt that will indeed fit in with our social values , structures and complexities.

This is tricky. Some African countries constitutions favour western Ideologies anyway. I think they need to begin there.

Many continue to advocate a complete diassociation from western institutions, western values and western economic models. If we are to follow this path then what alternate models do we build our economic systems on and how do we attempt to integrate these new found models into global structures as it is near impossible to exist without some sort of cooperation with the rest of the planet. We cannot be isolationist in the long term as this will undoubtedlly prove unsustainable.

True.The reason I said my answer is both Yes and No. The only questn in my mind is why the west seems to progress on their own without our input.Aren't we supposed to be independent not dependent. What would we do without the west? nothing except fight?
See how we go searching for 'expatriates' to do simple jobs. We allow them to think for us,discover and tap us to enrich themselves. And we remain as poor as ever.
Any time you hear a breakthrough on Africa soil,you are bound to smell western influence. Good,but it tells me that we Africans are sleeping.


There are several regional trade blocs that are currently fine tuning custom unions and tarrif free movements of goods and services which  are  mainly eas Africa's COMESA and southern Afirca's SADC, little can be said about ECOWAS for now. These economic integration policies are sure to  boost regional trade and inter Africa trade as well.  The stumbling block lies with governments strugglling with natinoal interets over a cohesive regional strucutre that is advantageious to all within that bloc.
True.
Its happending but its not happening fast enough.

The other school of thought hopes to build on already existing systems borrowed from western societies in terms of laissze affair private owned Capitalist models that feel that government is incapabel of driving efficiency in business and the emrging state capitalit model dominant in the Eastern part of the world that is hybrid of socialist and communist ideologies fused with capital controlled by the state. the idea is to modify these philosophies to fit African  contexts. The new information and semantic age we are evolving  into requires new thought processes against the old rhetoric of seperate and equalize.

Yes as always Africans love to copy paste.
communism and socialism are not ideal in my view. They end up giving rise to dictatorship , something we are too familiar with.
African leaders rule goverments the same way they run their own affairs at home. Like you said,a hybrid of socialist and communist ideologies fused with capitalism and modified to fit African contexts may be good.

Am now here thinking how difficult it is to intergrate these ideologies due to our deep cultural systems. They seem to form the core of everything we plan on doing.We build systems that incorporate our cultures. Some of which are enemies to progress. Its no wonder we find it difficult to co exist and instead of an African feeling at home in another african nation they feel like outcasts because the life and systems in place are just cultural based.
'Some cultures' in Africa must be done away with if we are to fit and embrace anything progressive. If not then we have no business trying to fuse anything.

pendo89:

Not only that,we are only interested in events happening in already developed nations when we should be focusing on emerging markets esp in Africa.
Africa is treasure land but we always wait to be 'discovered'. by the yeah who else but the chinese. And trust me they are occupying Africa like no mans' biz.

I always laugh when I see less qualified foreigners occupying big seats in some companies as skilled locals apply for visas day in and out,

We believe in prospering abroad and never Africa. With all the gold mines,oil,minerals,gas, etc etc ,why should we go play cab driver with our Masters?
The west want pieces of Africa and are making a mad rush to tap our resources from North to South ,East and West.
But Africans believe they cannot breakthrough.We lost hope.
We are a people without Identity. Shame.

Arosa:

If we start traveling there now, the locals would say Nigerians are taking our everything away. Africans don't like each other, they prefer Europeans and even Asians.

morpheus24:

There is a huge deficit in continental awarness that stems from a lack of incorporating continental subject matters into educational curriculums to develop knowledge of Africans in general which would strengthen ties amongst the populous. Emphasis continues to be put on our differences rather than what we have in common. This fact, coupled with an ongoing country by country struggle of national identity hinders regional and continental integration. This is where I believe the problem lies.

A solution would be to revamp the current educational curriculums to incorporate subject matters that deal with general continental and regional issues from the primary up to tertiary levels of education and fostering exchange programs that move students through different countries and learning experiences. This is in line with how globally connected the world and indeed Africa is moving towards.

It is difficult to start from a fresh template of political or economic thought processes when most of your systems and structures have been borrowed or indoctrinated into 1st and 2nd world global systems that have not really taken into account the dynamism of African socio-political issues. We can develop ourselves and indeed we are striving to do so. What we struggle with is the methodology to adopt that will indeed fit in with our social values , structures and complexities.

Many continue to advocate a complete diassociation from western institutions, western values and western economic models. If we are to follow this path then what alternate models do we build our economic systems on and how do we attempt to integrate these new found models into global structures as it is near impossible to exist without some sort of cooperation with the rest of the planet. We cannot be isolationist in the long term as this will undoubtedlly prove unsustainable.

There are several regional trade blocs that are currently fine tuning custom unions and tarrif free movements of goods and services which are mainly eas Africa's COMESA and southern Afirca's SADC, little can be said about ECOWAS for now. These economic integration policies are sure to boost regional trade and inter Africa trade as well. The stumbling block lies with governments strugglling with natinoal interets over a cohesive regional strucutre that is advantageious to all within that bloc.

Its happending but its not happening fast enough.

The other school of thought hopes to build on already existing systems borrowed from western societies in terms of laissze affair private owned Capitalist models that feel that government is incapabel of driving efficiency in business and the emrging state capitalit model dominant in the Eastern part of the world that is hybrid of socialist and communist ideologies fused with capital controlled by the state. the idea is to modify these philosophies to fit African contexts. The new information and semantic age we are evolving into requires new thought processes against the old rhetoric of seperate and equalize.

igbo2011:

. . .I agree, we love Europeans more than our selves. We need to unite as one and do business with each other. It is a shame how Africans don't learn from our histopry. Divide and conquer will destroy us again if we don't unite.

igbo2011:

@isala_gan2
But the thing is the america and britain teamed up with france to keep africa down. I am afraid that china and the west MAY team up and that could lead to a genocide of africans.China has done bad things to tibet and the british did a genocide by dehumanizing the native americans. They are already dehumanizing us saying we have no history and are savages. They only portry us badly sso when they do thei evils then it will be justified.

I think that would be the start of world war 3. But the rate at which we are giving up resources I keep asking myself if we are reaping the benefits. Are our people finding jobs and are the living standards of those employed by these foreign companies improving?
We have this poverty and a struggling mentality. We embrace hardship and struggle cz we believe its part of life. Why then do Africans rush to marry more wives and bear many children as soon as their wealth increases? The more we earn the more burdens we embrace. We defeat our own selves! That's why I keep saying our mentality is founded on culture. Hard to let go and progress!!
I wonder which homegrown system can save us when we are all so culturally different.

We need to trust each other africans need to invest in africa we should do business with each other. Help each other get up. If all of africa united like gaddaffi wanted we would be a top 10 economy. But a nigerian break up would be bad then it is easier to control. America is about to attac0k iran. They can do the same to nigeria. As soon as goodluvk does his own thinng then we can be attacked in the name of humanitarian intervention. Remember the west has no permanetnt friends but permanent interests. They will turn on you very fast. South america is united. We need to unoite under kiswahili so we can face oiur common enemy.  South america used to be like africa but they have no more puppets. Chavez morales and correa said no to imperialism. The only anti imperialist we have is mugabe. We also have. A bad military we cannot defend ourselves but south america can


Tribes tribes are progress killer no. one. We want our our tribe to rule,to prosper to own wealth.Its got nothing to do with personal developments but tribal advancements.The day wel start thinking beyond tribes is the day we can confidently talk about a united Africa.
Did you say swahili? yes its spoken in EA. It unites the East. Is there a language which unites the west? What about South? Do you believe that a common language will unite us and make us to progress,if the poverty/struggling mentality remains the same?
Our Trading rules,policies,laws must be relaxed to make it easier for Africans to trade with one another.Blocs are trying but not enough.

Tribes tribes are progress killer no. one. We want our our tribe to rule,to prosper to own wealth.Its got nothing to do with personal developments but tribal advancements.The day wel start thinking beyond tribes is the day we can confidently talk about a united Africa.
Did you say swahili? yes its spoken in EA. It unites the East. Is there a language which unites the west? What about South? Do you believe that a common language will unite us and make us to progress,if the poverty/struggling mentality remains the same?
Our Trading rules,policies,laws must be relaxed to make it easier for Africans to trade with one another.Blocs are trying but not enough.

isale_gan2:

Igbo2011,
You're certainly an admirable person.

What do you think of the overwhelming propaganda targeting the break-up of our country?  It seems the USA and Western countries are very committed to that now.  I even heard Pat Buchanan on the current affairs show McLaughlin Group make the imminent breakup of Nigeria his prediction, on this weekend's episode.  I think we're screwed. You know our so-called leaders won't know when the rug is being pulled from under them.  And you have many of the disaffected unpatriotic fools, even on this very site, jubilating over the prospect of the USA dropping drones on their countrymen.  I mean, it is really shocking to me.  Of course these will be the same people who will be crying up and down when their cousins and uncles have been Abu Ghraib'ed.  We hope it doesn't get that bad.

paniki:

igbo2011 is the paranoid version of cap28

pendo89:

Justwise if you come across anything paranoid just counter it and educate us. All I know about Nigeria is based on what I read here because it comes from the source.
We can't build on anything paranoid. I know Africans love putting blame on the west. But if the so called west exploit us its cz we allowed them to.
Our governing systems are weak so why blame the west when we are the architects of our disaster.

justwise:

Do you know why many people are not remotely interested in African history? Because people like you are all out for peddle baseless and unfounded conspiracy theories just to satisfy your deluded mind. blah blah blah . . .

isale_gan2:

Am I supposed to give a shiit what a lowlife scumbag arse-hole like your ignorant self thinks of me.  I never even noticed you on this site before.  I guess you think you know me.  Sorry, dude.  I'm not remotely interested in you or your ramblings.  BTW, you're now a celebrity, since I just quoted you. lol.

pendo89:

Justwise if you come across anything paranoid just counter it and educate us. All I know about Nigeria is based on what I read here because it comes from the source.
We can't build on anything paranoid. I[b] know Africans love putting blame on the west. But if the so called west exploit us its cz we allowed them to.
Our governing systems are weak so why blame the west when we are the architects of our disaster.[/b]

igbo2011:

@justwide and @paniki
Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtZcjt28Oxg This shows how the west controlled much of south America before but now they are not colonizedd and they control theirselves. They have great leaders who stood up. All we have is Mugabe.
Go to his site: http://johnpilger.com/

Listen to people like Naomi Klein or Keith Harmon Snow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg6kPY7QC3M

These are some of my sources. CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, Fox News are all biased. Watch Russia Today for better news. Listen for the truth.

I don't blame the west for everything, we need to revolt against neocolonialism. That is what Mugabe is trying to do but he got sanctioned. But the minute that Nigeria goes against the west America will attack in the name of humanitarian crisis.

justwise:

Russia Today is your source of unbiased news? igbo2011 do yourself a favour and see your doctor, its important you do that.

igbo2011:

They are the ones who input dicatators like Mubuto, Comapre, or Outtara and back them up with weapons and troops. Look at what happened to Ivory Coast. Unless all Africans around Africa do this and do an African spring then it will keep on happening.

igbo2011:

@morpheus24
With leaders who serve the people will come opportunities for people to do great things. If all theAfrican corrupt leaders put their looted money into African banks then this can lead to economic growth because busnesses can grow due to loans.  Here are the things that we need:
1. Power: With power we will be able to start to manufacture products and make our own products instead of importing everything,
2. Roads: with a good road network then trasnporting things will be better. Also with all these death trap roads, morel ives will be saved.
3. Hospitals: Our hospitals aren't the best. Once we have great hospitals this can be a great industry. many nigerians go abroad for treatment when we should be treated in Nigeria
4. Schools: Our schools must teach everyon their true GREAt history and how much we did for this world. We must teach religion and ethnic tolerance and teach the kids how much bad things the Europeans have done and how we shouldn't trust foreignors. We should trust ourselvse more. Tis inferiority complex is hurting Nigeria's economy. if nobody will by Nigerian goods then Nigerians won't open up Nigerian businesses. All this importing is very bad, we should make our own things.
5. Military: We need a great military that puts a lot of money into making great weapons and planes to defend ourselves or Africa in general.
Those are in no order but with all of that Nigeria will be a haven. Too many foreign investors are coming to Africa for business, Africans need to invest in each other and buy each other's products. We need to go to tourism within Africa!!

naijababe:

Sounds like utopia. As idealist as it may sound, the biggest problem we have in Africa is a complete lack of selfless.