Nigeria Lost Its Big Achievements To Celebrities & Poverty Mentality

What do you do when you have no major accomplishment to celebrate, you beat your chests on achievement of other individuals. There are so many individual celebrations in Nigeria, you would think poverty has been conquered. The further down we dig into abject poverty, the more people you see thanking God for success as millionaires and billionaires. The cognitive dissonance is so obvious, a blind man can feel it.

Social Media has created many celebrities including, real and fake attention seekers harping to increase their profiles in order to sell themselves. This is not particular to Nigeria alone but for a Country that had very high prospects only to stumble from the verge of becoming the Regional Power after Independence: it is pathetic. We no longer celebrate big accomplishments since there are none. They have been dwarfed by personal individual aggrandizement and obsession, worshiping hard currencies we do not print.

There are many projects to fund in our colleges that lack private and business sponsorships. They are all competing for the same Government grants and patronages while businessmen and Government ministers that should be encouraging and patronizing them go shopping abroad. From mask production in Aba as primary prevention to portable ventilators in Ilaro and Abuja at the terminal stage with about 70% success. Oh no, fake philanthropists would rather donate money into the hands of crony looters for recirculation back into their pockets.

Celebrations that we used to keep within the family have been turned into national and international projects. Nigerians beat their chests celebrating others' accomplishments because they come from our Country or villages while we are satisfied with no personal individual achievements of our own. Nigerians claim they are the most "book" educated while ignoring the cooperative achievements of Asians everywhere including those inside their own Country.

Look at each country in Africa, we can name individual achievements for Independence, not for personal gain or aggrandizement but to lift up the masses in education, industrial estates to provide jobs and mass housing. These individuals activists across Africa were assassinated for their efforts in Congo like Lumumba, impoverished in Tanzania like Nyerere or Mugabe's Zimbabwe, overthrown in Ghana like Nkrumah and indoctrination in Nigeria with oil income that has lost not only lts world lustre but gone into negative value. An ominous warning to all countries that depend solely on oil income has not and will never save you. Individual accomplishments have never lifted people up only when we all rise up en mass.

Nigeria is a good example of that self-centered behavior leading us one way into notoriety. All the advancement and contributions made as a people had been wiped out by individual greed. Two steps forward, three or more steps backwards. There is nothing wrong with individual incentive to accumulate wealth and respect within our communities but rewards and wealth are not limited to money alone. Deeds that create reputation live and remain with us dead or alive.

The Nigeria/Biafra War created an indelible Psychological disorientation from which the Country is still struggling to recover since the early 1970s. There is so much acrimony in the Country right now, only dreamers believe we can survive intact without some distance. One of the reasons for creating states and more states is that each would be able to control its internal political and economic affairs. Instead, it has created more hostile ethnicities never anticipated as "my people are killing my people".

There are more politicians gulping, looting and mismanaging each area than ever with little money left for infrastructure. The national pie has dwindled since the major source of income is oil from the Niger Delta. Instead of developing and diversifying that source of income, the area has been polluted and turned into an environmental disaster for the poor farmers and fishermen destroying their livelihood. Each sector or interest agitate for more salaries out of the dwindling pie as the powerful grabbed more.

Oil wealth or natural resources without turning them into final products were wasted. The income from natural resources is not to line individual pockets or a replacement for internal generated revenue to trade, provide needs and infrastructure. If anything natural resources enhance our tax base to increase international generated revenue. Nigerians would claim they pay a great deal of taxes but in fact, they pay very little and less than most African countries since we turn oil into free manna from heaven.

Therefore, the same oil income that built cities and countries all over the world has denied Africa its Regional Power. It also gave Nigerians false sense of security where prodigal children cornered money printed outside the Country in Europe, America and Asia. So there were few reasons to grow food and manufacture products when these could be easily imported from overseas with the same income they dictated to us.

Unfortunately, this is the same Country that excelled on cocoa, groundnut, coal and palm oil income. The progress made in one of the Regions alone raised the expectation of a Regional Power where Black people all over the world were proud to point to. It was an Era when big accomplishments were celebrated and Africans welcomed. But when Nigeria had no big accomplishment anymore, they started worshiping tiny little individual achievements, not only at home but as foreign refugees.

Children started pointing left fingers to their homes echoing denigration by tormentors in words only used during the time of slavery with pseudo science and religions as justification. How can anyone blame others for calling them names they themselves internalize. Foreign visas are dangled to attract the best and highly talented that claim they were appreciated and in hot demand only to be turned into surplus available workers when their temporary visas expire.

Foreign money they lack control over, do not know the dominating reason they are printed became gods to worship, demolishing the value of local currencies. Indeed, Nigeria basked so much in foreign income at one point, they wanted salaries paid in US dollars. Even one Head of State claimed his problem was not money but now to spend it.

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/287281/nigeria-lost-its-big-achievements-to-celebrities-poverty-m.html
Apr 22, 2020 | Farouk Martins Aresa

scoundrel:
It’s logical: the less people traveling on roads the less accidents possible. Forget the number of deaths from this disease, this lockdown period is the safest time man has ever come across in history. If not that news outlets only love reporting bad news they’ll inform us of this fact.

I thought as much.

There is always a silver lining to a dreaded disease like Coronavirus.

Number of daily accidents and deaths on our roads significantly down.

Randal:
JARA weldon for this apt analysis.

Thanks for the compliment. I culled it but did not write it.

The class of people most vulnerable are those older than 50. The older you are the worse it gets. Most of our politicians shut out of medical treatment abroad are in their 70 and 80s.

You prepared your beds, now you may die or get well in the same bed at home.

Nobody remains young forever. Covid-19 turned the young and the restless leaders, politicians and business men and women of yesterday into elders of today. While they stuffed their retirement nest eggs with money, they neglected senior or geriatric care in their own countries. They rely on the hospitals where they have no rights, accessibility, control compared to what they have as privilege and political clout at home.

Local Hospital & Convalescent Centers No More A Presidential Snub

Political and business men of timber and Calibre are back into African Teaching Hospitals they have ignored until this Coronavirus strikes. This is what it takes to realize they have been patronizing the wrong hospitals overseas at the risk of their own personal health.

Many of the African University Teaching Hospitals are well equipped and staffed by the best talents in the world. If they do not have a specialty or the doctor you want, she could be flown in. Yet, African Heads of State ignored and underfunded them so that they could patronize overseas countries with similar talents or with less skills.

Those who anticipate the future usually plan ahead, not only for themselves but for the children that would benefit from their foresight. We now realize that we have to also plan within our communities that is within our control to be beneficial to all. This Covid-19 exposed the flaw in selfish gratification that money can buy you everything. You can only reap what you sow at home.

Many African leaders always pledge to build good hospitals and schools but we know none of these crucial institutions was good enough for them or their families for use. They actually left the goods ones they met unmaintained as many deteriorated. They can always waste their countries' resources to get the most expensive care they want and train their kids abroad because they can. The serious issue before Covid-19 has turned to jokes on them.

Coronavirus fear overrode their greed for African loot. Realizing discrimination in the healthcare system against the poor and those squandering loot and talents, it prompted reaction during Presidential campaign by Bernie Sanders. If this type of discrimination is left unchallenged, poor and working class Africans would suffer the same fate as they seek treatment anywhere.

Some Africans living overseas are still blindly propagating ignorance to the massive demonstration in defiance of authority against unequal treatment and neglect, not only in Covid-19 lockdown but during Ebola. Even Frontline health care workers are speaking out to persuade and inform the public of the indifference to their own health risk at work.

We see how healthcare and treatment became a priority for the young and the rich that can afford special care while the old are left untreated only to die like animals. This is not new, circumstances brought it to the forefront. However, many overseas countries claim they have universal medical care. Since the old and minorities are part of the Universe, they must be included in their hospital treatment.

The exorbitant amount paid by African leaders on a single trip was more than enough to build a virgin Teaching Hospital in South Sudan for all. Suddenly, African leaders have realized the need for first class Hospital and Convalescent Centers even if built in South Sudan after many Presidential planes carrying Head of States were refused touchdown. Most reasons are headache, stomachache, blood tests and medical checkups that could be done anywhere.

Nobody remains young forever. Covid-19 turned the young and the restless leaders, politicians and business men and women of yesterday into elders of today. While they stuffed their retirement nest eggs with money, they neglected senior or geriatric care in their own countries. They rely on the hospitals where they have no rights, accessibility, control compared to what they have as privilege and political clout at home.

If that is not foolishness, it is self-hate. This and other diseases will challenge the vulnerability of old age when our immune system is weaker and less able to fight off diseases as we did in younger age. Covid-19 has tuned more of those over the age of 50 into self isolation like those with existing medical conditions like diabetes, emphysema, asthma, lupus etc.

Overseas countries will not open their best Medical Centers to African leaders unwilling to pay for their treatment. It is in the interest of the Governments to make as much money from African leaders to defray the cost and subsidized healthcare overseas. Money needed at home to retain our medical and engineering talents needed for infrastructure.

Indeed, one of the main feats in medical history is the construction of sewage systems by Engineers in the 19th century to prevent common infectious diseases. Cleaners are now worldly celebrated and protected as doctors and nurses needed in this period of greater need. If you cannot pay them as in foreign economies, appreciate and treat them well.

We know some countries dangle visas in time of need to attract Investments of large deposits of money and talents; only to find ways of kicking them out at the end of their contracts, "temporary" visas and by Naturalization Reviews of those that considered themselves full citizens. They see their fellow humans as disposable items: contractors or casual workers hustling for any job when their visas expire.

Encourage Health Workers who are always at the forefront and in close proximity to those infected by diseases, always there with or without pandemic. They are driven by duty to serve, save and protect lives. However, they are not paid according to our useful duties in time of war or epidemic. If that is the case, soldiers and health workers fighting wars should become millionaires and billionaires, not the businessmen or politicians.

Politicians and businessmen must realize the fact that cleaners and roadside mechanics are as useful and deserve the same treatment they seek in Foreign Hospitals, at home. In countries where resident doctors work longer hours than the public realize in their training, they end up making minimum wages. On top of that they owe heavy student loans and have to take out insurance against litigious societies. They still come home.

So, one doctor blurted out: you need medical care, go to your lawyer. African medical workers can be better accommodated in African countries even if they do not face the heavy burden of foreign doctors that come back home to contribute their talents. Those seeking medical treatment abroad launder money that should be used to provide adequate care for all since everyone has God-given talent to contribute.

Apr 3, 2020 | Farouk Martins Aresa
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/286627/local-hospital-convalescent-centers-no-more-a-presidential.html

If the home and origin of Christianity and Islam are closing down their Churches and Mosques, turning them into Hospitals, why is it such a big deal in the country of Hypocrites.

Xisnin:
They should remain there till the season is over.

Right, they have no better choice. The lesson is for those that cannot wait to venture out. Sadly, even highly trained professionals wasting talents outside.

A land where just about anything grows, tropical weather all year round and the coastal areas surrounded by water.

Heaven helps those who helped themselves.

sweetluv26:
may God keep them safe

I say Amen!

But Omo Atojubole mo bi obe dun. Sorry I do not understand English. It literally means children going from one house to another in the days food was surplus, it's that kid that claim one soup or gravy is sweeter.

But that is not what it means in Yoruba. In
Yoruba it means greed, avarice and truant.

If Africans think they are going to be saved by foreigners, they will meet their poison outside.

In Italy, they had to decide whether to treat their elderly or the young, they sacrifice their elderlies for Coronavirus.

Should they care about Africans?

Coronavirus fears for Italy's exploited African fruit pickers

As panic buyers empty supermarket shelves across the world, are the agricultural workers who fill them being protected?

by Elisa Oddone Aljezeera

Turin, Italy - As Italy's north struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus, fears are growing in the south for thousands of migrant workers, mostly from Africa, who pick fruit and vegetables for a pittance and live in overcrowded tent camps and shantytowns.


The health infrastructure in the south is not as advanced as that in the north, and a vast infection outbreak could be devastating.

"Coronavirus cases have steadily increased also in other regions in Italy over the past weeks," said public health expert Nino Cartabellotta. "There is a delay of around five days compared with the north, although we are witnessing the same growth curve across the country."

In the north, foreign farm workers hailing from Eastern Europe have returned to their home countries, choosing to risk poverty over disease, and there are no new arrivals.

But fruit pickers in the south are stuck in camps, often lacking water and electricity and facing exploitation.

Italy is not alone.

Migrant workers are exploited across the European Union, forced to work endless hours and denied minimum wage or safety equipment, research by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights shows.

Now, the coronavirus pandemic endangers them further.

In 2016, Coldiretti, a farmers' group, estimated that there were around 120,000 migrant workers in Italy, mostly from Africa and Eastern Europe.

Some 2,500 African crop pickers work in Calabria's Gioia Tauro plain, a farming hot spot in the south known for tangerines, oranges, olives and kiwis and for being an infamous mafia stronghold.

Agricultural employers often work by the "caporalato", an illegal employment system in which labourers are exploited for little pay.

Two weeks ago, the region had no known coronavirus cases. Today, there are at least 169.

Last summer, the largest shantytown in the plain was shut down. Italian civil defence built a new camp with running water and electricity a few metres away from the old informal settlement, but equipped it with just 500 beds.

This tent camp was eventually sanitised on Sunday, after repeated calls from humanitarian associations and the town's mayor.

Although hygiene conditions are better than in the nearby slums, strongly advised social distancing measures are almost impossible to implement.

workers amid the coronavirus
A migrant agricultural worker walks in the former shantytown of San Ferdinando, near the infamous Rosarno mafia stronghold. The informal settlement was shut down in 2019, but similar camps have recently emerged in the area [File: Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera]
After the old shantytown was evacuated, its residents were not provided alternative housing, save for a small tent camp, forcing many to look for new improvised shelters somewhere else.

In the neighbouring towns of Taurianova and Rizziconi, two overcrowded slums hosting 200 people each have emerged. Migrants live in shacks built from cardboard, wood, plastic and scrap metal.

Potable water and electricity are nowhere to be found. Workers build makeshift toilets or simply relieve themselves in the fields.

"This requires an immediate intervention from the authorities to put these people in a condition of safety and dignity," Francesco Piobbichi, who works with Mediterranean Hope FCEI, a project run by Italy's Evangelical Church Federation, told Al Jazeera. "These workers are key to fill supermarkets' shelves with fresh fruits and vegetables. We cannot deny them protection amid the emergency.

"Our protracted attempt of dismantling the slums now needs a drastic acceleration. We are telling the civil defence, the government and regional councils they need to provide these workers with a housing solution as soon as possible to avoid the spread of the infection."

There are some 35,000 empty houses in the agricultural plain. Aid agencies say that instead of investing in more camps, workers should be allowed to use these homes.

Hand sanitiser has been distributed at settlements, said Andrea Tripodi, mayor of San Ferdinando, adding he also managed to secure gloves and finalised the purchase of cameras with a thermal scanning system to quickly identify people with a fever - one of the coronavirus symptoms.

"We certainly need more measures and other devices amid this health emergency, also to prevent social tension from rising," Tripodi said. "We are doing everything we can. We are also collecting soaps and shampoos to distribute among the workers. But we are left alone."

Aid groups, meanwhile, are busy raising awareness.

"But it is really complex to explain to them that they need to wash their hands for about 25 seconds when they lack water in their settlements because the prefecture dismantled their camp's illegal connection," Piobbichi said, adding that the current nationwide lockdown restricts the movement of both aid workers and migrants.

In the southern province of Foggia, 500 kilometres north of Gioia Tauro, thousands pick tomatoes, olives, asparagus, artichokes and grapes in the country's largest agricultural plain.

"The situation has become a race against the clock," said Alessandro Verona, a health worker with the humanitarian group INTERSOS. "We are expecting a peak of the pandemic in Apulia towards the end of the month or beginning of the next."

Apulia has more than 200 infected patients. But like in Calabria, no infection has yet been confirmed among the migrant workers.

"We are making blanket prevention activities across all settlements. We have reached around 500 people so far. Still, this is not enough."

In many of these settlements, water shortages are common and in emergencies people resort to farm water.

"The only efficient prevention measure is to take these people out of the ghettos as soon as possible, especially from the most crowded ones. If not, we will face an unmanageable situation. But only the government and the institutions are capable of such a thing," Verona said.

workers amid the coronavirus
Workers are seen in Localita Torretta Antonacci, ex-shantytown of Rignano. Thousands live here during the harvest seasons [Elisa Oddone/Al Jazeera]
In southern Campania, migrant workers are still gathering near large roundabouts of busy roads to meet their bosses. The region has now more than 650 infected patients.

Jean d'Hainaut, cultural mediator with the anti-exploitation Dedalus cooperative, said among the people his association supports, many are waiting for their asylum requests to be completed - meaning they lack a residency permit and cannot access basic healthcare.

Italy grants residency permits to migrant workers possessing contracts. But lengthy bureaucratic processes mean permits frequently arrive late, often towards their expiration. This process has been suspended amid the pandemic.

In November 2018, Italy passed the so-called "migration and security decree" drafted by former Italian interior minister and far-right League party leader, Matteo Salvini - a move that pushed hundreds of vulnerable asylum seekers onto streets.

The document cracked down on asylum rights by abolishing the "humanitarian protection" - a residence permit issued for those who do not qualify for refugee status or subsidiary protection but were deemed as vulnerable.

"Over 90 percent of the people we meet at the roundabouts hail from Africa's sub-Saharan countries. We are talking about a couple of hundred of workers, though numbers are difficult to pin down precisely," d'Hainaut says.

"We have been distributing a safety kit among workers for the past couple of years," he says. "This has now turned to be very useful as it includes gloves, paper-made protective clothing and protective masks."

The agency has decided to remain on the street to keep offering its services to the migrant workers whose daily job means survival.

"Last Thursday, I only saw around 20 people waiting for recruiters. The information campaign has been successful. Still, demand for workers has also decreased. I've asked the municipality to help distribute food," d' Hainaut.

"This would further limit people's presence on the street. I'd feel more reassured to tell workers to stay home while providing them with something to eat."


Antonello Mangano contributed reporting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/features/coronavirus-fears-italy-exploited-african-fruit-pickers-200318154351889.html

Does African lives Matter?

A mentally ill man died from dehydration, malnutrition and hypothermia "in plain sight" at an immigration centre, an inquest found.

Prince Kwabena Fosu's death at 31 was partly due to "gross failure" by agencies at the centre, the jury said.

Mr Fosu was left in an isolation cell for six days without bedding while he suffered from a psychotic illness.

The Home Office said the standard of care had been "unacceptable" and new safeguarding steps had been introduced.

Coroner Chinyere Inyama said that "almost unbelievably" Mr Fosu died "in plain sight" of many people at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51660696

The way Nigerians spit out money, ehn?

All the former Police Thief from Okiro to Balogun have shown us how they thief and Laundered their allocations.

On top of that junior officers on the streets delivered to them.

Can you imagine if all these allocations were used to start local factories for the equipment Nigeria needed from hospitals to other industries.

No O! We prefer new imports.

I am surprised this was published at this point and time. It could have been better as a retrospective study.

Does he or they know of the final outcome and how Coronavirus is going to play out in different people and country?

Ignorance is not limited to the uninformed and uneducated.

I completely agree with you that all reasonable Nigerians are working hard at Coronavirus.

But please understand that no matter how small those that believe in God, Sango, Chi or rituals in curing Coronavirus are; it only takes a small number of them to infect the majority.

Take those rejecting immunization in the Western world in the name of rights or religion for example, when their children succumb to mumps, diptheria, pertussis etc we thought were gone years ago, they infect the community.

The same was true of polio eliminated from Nigeria years ago, only to reappear in pockets of the country.

Again, I agree with you but fear the minority and their strong unrelenting belief.

whitebeard:
So it only the Nigerians that are waiting on pastors that u see..! Have u gone to labs to find out how much effort health practitioners (don't wanna say scientist (na whining be dat for naija)) are putting into finding a cure, not even a cure..a temporary solution to this menace.. even secondary school students gan are putting effort...u did not see them oh...it only the ones dat are in church u see...u now came and generalised everybody "Nigerians" are...

It is well OP

While every country in the world is brain storming with medical scientists and sociologists on ways do cure and prevent Coronavirus from spreading, Nigerians are being led by Pastors.

Heaven only helps those who help themselves. This is no miracle or joke O!

While every country in the world is brain storming with medical scientists and sociologists on ways do cure and prevent Coronavirus from spreading, Nigerians are being led by Pastors.

Heaven only helps those who help themselves. This is no miracle or joke O!

It has almost been a week since Coronavirus like Ebola before it raised it deadly head in Nigeria. Despite all the pleas to deal vigorously with Angela of death predictions and cure to attract followers.

They are out boldly again. Yet, they can not cure poverty and existing diseases.

Nevertheless, there are unscrupulous quacks jumping out to announce a cure by miracles. This may be expected anywhere, but Africans that have experienced Ebola devastated effects recently cannot be complacent. Those quacks that perpetuate poverty but cannot cure diseases rampant in their community, must face consequences.

No virus has affected business as much as Coronavirus.

It determines supply and demand of goods and services from China.

It determines the Stock Market.

It is shaping Politics.

There is news about one African student in Wuhan, China that recovered from Coronavirus prompting false news of African immunity.

Don't be complacent O!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anyone who comes into close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus is at risk for contracting it.

That said, it is true that Kem Senou Pavel Daryl, a 21-year-old Cameroon national studying in China, became ill after contracting coronavirus and was hospitalized. His recovery was not the result of a superior immune system possessed by people hailing from African countries but, according to news reports, rounds of antibiotics and other drugs.

As BBC News reported, Senou recovered after being placed in isolation for 13 days. “The CT scan showed no trace of the illness. He became the first African person known to be infected with the deadly coronavirus and the first to recover. His medical care was covered by the Chinese state.”

https://www.nairaland.com/5710820/coronavirus-not-genetic-curse-sin

Beware of fake news about African immunity. It is not true!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anyone who comes into close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus is at risk for contracting it.

That said, it is true that Kem Senou Pavel Daryl, a 21-year-old Cameroon national studying in China, became ill after contracting coronavirus and was hospitalized. His recovery was not the result of a superior immune system possessed by people hailing from African countries but, according to news reports, rounds of antibiotics and other drugs.

As BBC News reported, Senou recovered after being placed in isolation for 13 days. “The CT scan showed no trace of the illness. He became the first African person known to be infected with the deadly coronavirus and the first to recover. His medical care was covered by the Chinese state.”

Coronavirus is not a genetic curse or sin

The first case of Coronavirus in Nigeria was brought in by an Italian citizen. The test was confirmed by Lagos University Teaching Hospital Virology Laboratory Dept. on February 27, 2020. The mystery right now about Coronavirus is the admission by the best world medical scientists that they are still struggling with the etiology since countries without a link to China are discovering local Coronavirus within.

Some African students in Wuhan, China are begging their home countries to bring them home while others preferred to stay, saying they are well treated. African Embassies in China must seek the wellbeing of those African students that are stuck in Wuhan. Some of the African countries have been told that they will not be discriminated against at the hospitals in case of treatment. South Africa has resolved to bring willing students home.

During the Ebola trying period in West Africa, when there was no food for those kept in isolation, they broke out of the camps looking for something to eat. This led to anger against local and foreign health workers trying to contain them in quarantine on empty stomachs. We always wait until a disaster happens to rectify what we should have taken care of in the first place. The provision of food for folks in isolation is not difficult to anticipate.

African countries must increase and coordinate food storage to feed the number of people that will face quarantine later, to prevent spread. We cannot hold hungry people in isolation without an adequate supply of food. It almost truncated the gains made against Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Prevention can only be effective with food for those restricted to isolation or quarantine, especially with a virus that has no vaccine or cure.

We must be prepared and be ready as Nigeria did with Ebola receiving world accolades while the United States panicked. Africa’s strength must be locally demonstrated. Even with Ebola, it took Lagos State good old residual public health knowledge, lay people’s vigilance, contact tracing and a small University at Ede that developed local diagnosis machines to wrestle Ebola down. The diagnosis and tests were performed locally.

Dr. Rima E. Laibow attended a conference of African health ministers to foist NanoSilver as a cure for Ebola. Lagos State rejected Nano Silver as another foreign miracle drug savior for Africans. Heaven only helps those who help themselves. The cooperation in the communities shows that each and every one of us has a role to play. The time to prevent the deadly mortification of Africa by Coronavirus is now!

Nevertheless, there are unscrupulous quacks jumping out to announce a cure by miracles. This may be expected anywhere, but Africans that have experienced Ebola devastated effects recently cannot be complacent. Those quacks that perpetuate poverty but cannot cure diseases rampant in their community, must face consequences.

Those taking advantage of people’s fear to cause panic or proclaim fake cure for Coronavirus just to make money or attract followers must be held responsible and punished. Though Coronavirus is more infectious than Ebola, transmittable than the Flu and more lethal to health workers, it has no genetic peculiarity to one group of people or confers immunity on you because you are from a certain continent.

Equally notable, some countries have always weaponized infectious diseases like the Coronavirus Pandemic, against their political opponents to justify or blame others for any economic consequences. Ignorance, panic, denial, and fear of the unknown must not defeat knowledge, cooperation and transparency.

Stock markets can be driven up based on rosy forecasts and speculations but we cannot manipulate natural disasters outside our control. As long as there are lives, there will be people to trade at the stock markets. Japan has closed some schools, others have cancelled sports and religious activities. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has cancelled pilgrimage for those seeking the face of God in their country.

Nevertheless, those returning from affected countries including Middle East countries in North Africa should be thoroughly checked and put under surveillance. We must learn from the mistakes of the past and make places available for the sick and others that may need to be quarantined before they are released back into the communities. Community health workers and local medical scientists must lead these efforts.

The old Public Health ideology focusing on the most number of people that Prevention is better than cure still holds. Unfortunately, infectious diseases respect no border, barrier or continent. The only defense against Coronavirus is cooperation with world experts in sciences and sociology. Discrimination based on race cannot prevent environmental agents from natural movement and transmission.
Prevention and treatment of diseases should be available in all countries regardless of the resident’s status since it is the only way to protect citizens. We should not wait until an emergency and pandemic to spend money for the cure when less could have been spent to prevent diseases. We should have learned from HIV and various flu blowing around the world with birds and the wind as agents.

Health For All by the Year 2000 is now history. World politics has made it more difficult for the poor to get medical treatment in their own countries. Treatment and prescription drugs have to be prioritized on the Health Insurance they have. If the poor have problems getting care in their own rich countries, outsiders stand no chance.

Many African countries spend more on individual treatments abroad than in their countries’ hospitals. Health Education on the importance of handwashing, clean environment, well-prepared food must be re-emphasized in schools like the old good days where sanitary inspectors were powerful.

By Farouk Martins Aresa -February 28, 2020
https://thenews-chronicle.com/coronavirus-is-not-a-genetic-curse-or-sin/

Does anyone know what criteria is used to select those young girls to dance before the King of Swaziland?

We wonder if the Swazi young girls would sue African Kings for sexual harassment as victims in the future, condemn their culture that ask but not force them to take part in a parade? The problem with suppressing culture if it goes underground is men would look for other ways to legalize their boorish behavior. Otherwise, it would be applied unjustly against the poor and minorities finding them guilty of abuse outside their cultural base.

Your best friend already know her husband is bisexual. She may be keeping it a secret too. Do not disturb her peace, if she is uncomfortable with it, let her deal with it. Do not shame her by telling her what she already knows.

You women know better than men when your spouse is having an affair.

Heroes Reject Abuse & Pay Dearly As Sexual Capitalists Exploit It

If you hear the sacrifice ladies made and penalty paid after turning men down for sex, some may be surprised. Professional ladies have worked in circumstances worse than being underemployed like men. Some never practiced their career and others fired for not giving in to their boss. A high school senior girl came home crying to her mother that she got fired from her first job during vacation for rejecting her boss's sexual advances.

These ladies, though not unknown soldiers, are not notable. Many are too ashamed to come out and tell their stories. Other ladies give in to get or save their careers just as those that exploit the situation they find themselves in and secure whatever they want. The women that fight back lose promotions, careers or acting jobs; those that give in soar past them. All or which of these women deserve to sue and be celebrated more?

Sexual harassment and abuse have caught global awareness. African women are not left out. They are watching these cases keenly. The three factors that have historically doomed sexual-assault cases have been upheld in Harvey Weinstein’s case: 1. It happened many years ago 2. no physical evidence and 3. victims maintained intimate relationships after abuse. Ironically, it is also a fertile ground for Sexual Capitalists.

We wonder if the Swazi young girls would sue African Kings for sexual harassment as victims in the future, condemn their culture that ask but not force them to take part in a parade? The problem with suppressing culture if it goes underground is men would look for other ways to legalize their boorish behavior. Otherwise, it would be applied unjustly against the poor and minorities finding them guilty of abuse outside their cultural base.

Ashley Judd accused Harvey Weinstein of damaging her career after she rejected his sexual advances. There is power involved in every relationship, no perfect one. But strong men in privileged positions are not expected or supposed to succumb to the weakness of the flesh, no matter how powerful the seducers are. It is the price men pay for years of privilege and abuse of their subordinates that were mostly women.

We should not be surprised that Harvey Weinstein Jury gave mixed verdicts. It could have been worse for a poor man or minority. Even white mothers defend their boys and blamed the girls in skin tights for college rape. Sexual abuse does not easily stick on white men since they are found more credible in: he or she said. Most men, regardless of color, are infatuated with sexual capitalists until they get burned. Homewreckers or PlayGirls, Touch-and-Go, never accused PlayBoy owner Hugh Hefner of sexual abuse.

Oh, Bill Cosby forgot he is an African and got exploited by a sexual capitalist. He was convicted for pattern of abusive behavior, not for who brought him to court. Let us face it, most players are pretty and under 30. Youthful age buys them time to dazzle and move on to sustain the excitement. Some people get pleasure from stealing, even when they have money. Some men would literally die if their Homewreckers abandoned them.

Weinstein’s lawyer Donna Rotunno asked jury this question, if the ladies: “are not responsible for the parties they attend, the men they flirt with, the choices they make to further their own careers... the jobs they ask for help to obtain.” The problem is, if any of these goes the wrong way or the lady did not like it, no matter how good the man was, his head could be on the block. The jury only convicted on two of three charges.

Moreover, there are seducers that are so confident of their power, they go out of their way to test it. They attract men to get those desired positions, roles in movies or sleep their way to the top. It can also be used to blackmail girlfriends, husbands and wives, if Sexual Capitalists cannot get what they want. While we can surely blame the weakness of men in these cases, the significant women in their lives should not share their fault.

Stories of seducers that kept relationships going after the “abuse”, no longer a defense. Ladies love attention and do more than enough to be noticed by a man they kind of fancy. It does not mean they want to sleep with him, may just want to tease but there is always a start. The same way men admire ladies. The only problem is, teasing men you do not want. There are psycho-behavioral reasons for it, even in lower animal behavior.

Men’s defense that Kongi is a S.O.B with no conscience no longer holds. If every lady opened her mouth and spilled out who and when they were harassed or abused, many men would burn in hell. Cases get more complicated if we personalize a few cases in point. People would be driven to their corners of trust in allegiance to their victims.

Wait O! If you can die for your country fighting, why not for your families and your loved ones? Valentine died for love, Samson died for love and Hercules died for love! Some of us have attended funerals where we heard that the man died for his family. If it is not because of his lady, it must be for his children. Women would only die for their kids. If those children are better off without their father or mother is a billion cashistics question.

The women suffer more than men as victims of homewreckers but silently, so people may not notice. Some ladies may strike out against a powerful seducer of their men, call them names as if seducers care. The ladies are treated harshly by the community as if blood does not flow through their veins. There was a legal remedy for men against men luring wives from their matrimonial homes, known as Alienation of Affection.

The unsung heroes here never got the positions they desired or got favors for repulsing sexual abusers as those that suffered race or gender discrimination can sue. Now, the new verdict by which Harvey Weinstein was convicted gives women that were sexually abused the right to sue after they made-up and gained from their abusers. Meaning they can still sue at any point in relationships they admitted was later consensual. Danger?

Well, mothers that stayed with abusive fathers and made-up because of the children as they usually say and that needed the financial support of their husbands, can and do sue for past abuse when the children get older and their husbands become old and frail. Indeed, the children always favor their mothers in their older years regardless of their fathers’ love, care and attitude towards the families.

Ironically, the mothers are also the ones that suffer when their husbands’ sexual indiscretion in the hands of sexual capitalists go awry. When wives and girlfriends act out in fear of losing their men, they have hurt the very people they are trying to protect. One wife reported her military man and his subordinate lover, only to get him fired. He lost his pension, home, more importantly, all the scholarships for the children.

Feb 26, 2020 | Farouk Martins Aresa
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/285523/heroes-reject-abuse-pay-dearly-as-sexual-capitalists-explo.html

10% Richest Africans Cannot Ignore The Ignominy Of Visas

African sojourns to western countries are being curtailed for fear of overwhelming their hosts with the "disease" of explosive population since many countries overstayed their visa and took advantage of birth tourism. We must learn from the hysteria to ostracize Africans with Ebola and how easily Coronavirus from China can be used like AIDS to stigmatize.

This existential threat to rich African politicians and their cronies that make up about 10% of their population can be turned to a blessing in disguise and improvise.

Necessity is the mother of invention. No one will allow others to mess up their countries the way you have messed up yours. Encourage good alternatives at home, improvise locally and develop your young people as your mirrors and future. Visa denial to foreign places, schools, especially hospitals must not be your death sentence if you change!

Those Africans that think what happened to the Jews, Japanese, Spanish, Arabs and other legal citizens or immigrants outside countries of origin cannot happen to them will be caught unprepared out of complacency. Wishful thinking, the way it is written, myths, “village people” and Voodoo will not deliver Africa.

But African mentality to just make excessive profit and apply for forex to blow abroad stifle local demand. We should not be satisfied to live outside our countries because of the fear of starving to death at home. People become more desperate when they are hungry. Patriotism to a country they cannot survive in, is the last thing on their mind. It is not about freedom or democracy. Abi, shey na democracy we go chop?

Unfortunately, after 60 years of craving foreign Investments and getting poorer, African elites/politicians see the salvation of their economies in the magnanimity and sympathy of the same Investments more than in self-Investment, reliance and discipline. They believe, as conditioned, that they are totally helpless. Miracle hands will appear from outsiders, not from within. Only God can save Africa. Guess who trained us that way.

It is political malpractice not to anticipate the end of legitimate visa to countries that have rejected your citizens, even after invading your own countries. True, we are there because they were here. But today, we crave to fly by 707 planes, wiggle through seas and deserts to get out. If you have the means to send your children to school and pay for medical treatment overseas, you can establish the same at home with the same money for more people.

The greatest amount of money should be spent on the greatest number of people, not on a few that have access to the national treasury. The richest top Ten-Percent of African population make enough to pull the rest of Africa out of humiliation, stigma, indignity and poverty if their expensive tastes are closer to the local population they serve; as those they aspire to be serve their people. The purchasing power of the top ten percent makes them more attractively susceptible to foreign indoctrination, influence and adverts than most Africans that lack the means, even if they so desire.

If these top ten percent only invested at home, more talented young people would stay rather than subject themselves to the risks and ignobility faced overseas, right from the airports. Unfortunately, those Africans inability to provide three square meals a day for a family or infatuation contributed to deserting a country. No continent would allow African population of 1.216 billion to overwhelm them. But when Africa is divided into countries, foreign investors have the choice to focus on those with the highest purchasing power.

How can average Africans spread purchasing power to pull one another out of poverty? The real demand comes from the people, as consumers. If Africans used that power to patronize local products, at reasonable prices it would create higher demand. The more buying power they have for local products, the more people are employed to satisfy high demand and less poverty in the land. Your demand is my job, my demand is your job.

What and who are the "educated consumers" right now? They are culturally western trained Africans, with the same desire as middle to upper classes, reflected in addiction for exotic tastes, gadgets, toys and travels. They create markets for Western goods and services in African countries. Since they can be exploited at home, there is no reason to welcome them overseas. African Governments can only incentivize local production but this demand is temporary. It is highly exemplary for most to lead by actions not words.

The population density in each country does not mean there are more ten-percenters. Even if only the rich ten percent of the population have the purchasing power needed to buy foreign goods and services. This is why they focus on Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Congo and Ghana as the countries with enough "educated consumers" to be courted since they think and act like foreigners.

Nothing drains the spending power of Africans more than foreign goods and services. So, folks wonder where poor Nigerians get the money to buy these exorbitant goods and services as the poverty capital of the world. It was Uncle Bola Ige that reminded us years ago that the GSM mobile phones that became the expensive pride of the elites in Nigeria were commonly used at Cotonou markets by sale-ladies.

If Nigeria is the world Poverty Capital, how can they afford so much foreign luxuries? Their top Ten-Percent are 20million of Nigeria's population. They are more than many nations. Look at the population and the percentage of their nouveau riche of about 20m with more elites than the population of some European and African countries. Even locally made products with little foreign contents are more expensive in Nigeria than in neighboring countries. Regardless of cheap local labor.

Most businessmen make more profit in Nigeria than anywhere else based on the demand of the top 20% or 40m folks. Though the cost of establishing their business or plant are greater in other African countries because of worse enabling environment. Nevertheless, they raise their prices higher in Nigeria because of 40m demands. Even when cassava was added to wheat, the price of their acquired daily bread went up.

What is next after acquired foreign daily rice at the expense of local rice, the poor would not be able to afford garri? Their intention has always been to raise prices because they can, since there are enough people to pay. So, we have locally made products selling at a higher price than foreign imports, encouraging more illegal imports.

By Farouk Martins Aresa https://www.modernghana.com/news/982421/10-richest-africans-cannot-ignore-the-ignominy.html

African Immigrants May Be Trump’s Next Target

The president has trained his nativist ire on Muslims and Latinos. Just in time for the 2020 elections, a new group appears to be in his sights.

Last week, Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering adding seven new countries to its travel ban. A majority of them—Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, and Nigeria, which is by far the most populous of the seven—are in Africa. The rationalization appears to involve terrorism. In the “counterterrorism” section of a January 17 speech, Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, declared, “We’re establishing criteria that all foreign governments must satisfy to assist DHS in vetting foreign nationals seeking to enter our country … For a small number of countries that lack either the will or the capability to adhere to these criteria, travel restrictions may become necessary to mitigate threats.”

Because the Supreme Court upheld Donald Trump’s travel ban in 2018 on national-security grounds, it’s not surprising that administration officials would cite that same rationale to expand the ban now. But the argument is weak. According to numbers crunched by the Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh when Trump first imposed the ban three years ago, not a single person born in Eritrea, Tanzania, Nigeria, or Sudan killed a single American in a terrorist attack on American soil from 1975 to 2016. (The same is true of Belarus and Myanmar, two of the other three countries Trump may add to the travel-ban roster. Two people from Kyrgyzstan, the final country, were implicated in deadly anti-American terrorism incidents during the period, according to Nowrasteh’s tally.)

A Wall Street Journal article on the potential travel-ban expansion suggests a different justification: Travelers from Eritrea, Sudan, and Nigeria are more likely than travelers from other countries to overstay their visas. But if that’s the case—as Tom Jawetz, an immigration expert at the Center for American Progress, explained to me—the answer is to train the U.S. consular officers who give out those visas to better determine who won’t return home, or to actually increase visas to meet legitimate demand. The answer is not to collectively punish the population of an entire country.

But if the Trump administration’s real motivation is to decrease immigration from Africa, then collective punishment has a certain logic to it. For several years now, Trump has trained his nativist ire on Muslims and Latinos. The travel ban suggests he’s adding a new target, just in time for the 2020 elections: Africans.

Iranians set a U.S. and an Israeli flag on fire during a funeral procession organized to mourn the slain military commander Qassem Soleimani.

According to the Pew Research Center, the number of black immigrants in the United States has grown fivefold over the past 40 years. America’s immigrant population from sub-Saharan Africa more than doubled from 2000 to 2016 alone. Trump’s allies have noticed. In her book Adios America, which Trump publicly praised, and parroted, when he launched 2016 campaign, Ann Coulter claims, “There were almost no Nigerians in the United States until the 1970s. Today there are 380,000.” This is a problem, she declares, because “in Nigeria, every level of society is criminal.” When 500 Congolese and Angolan immigrants showed up at the Texas border last June, Tucker Carlson warned that, because of “population growth … on the continent of Africa,” African immigration “could become a torrent” that could “overwhelm our country, and change it completely and forever.”

Trump himself, according to The New York Times, vented in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that on his watch the United States had admitted 40,000 Nigerians who would never “go back to their huts.” (Nigerian immigrants are actually twice as likely to have at least a bachelor’s degree as Americans as a whole.) During an immigration meeting in 2018, The Washington Post reported, Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and nations in Africa as “shithole countries.” Soon afterward, the White House unveiled a proposal to remake America’s immigration system. According to the Center for American Progress, it would have reduced immigration from sub-Saharan Africa by 46 percent, more than any other region of the world.

But while Trump’s animosity to African immigration isn’t new, it has never before taken center stage in his administration’s policies or his public rhetoric. Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign talking about Mexican rapists. He made building a wall on America’s southern border his campaign’s rallying cry. He responded to the December 2015 jihadist attack in San Bernardino, California, by demanding a ban on Muslim immigration. He made Central American immigrant “caravans” the heart of his get-out-the-vote strategy in 2018.

Since then, however, Muslims and Latinos have become less potent scapegoats. The Islamic State lost its final patch of territory last spring. There hasn’t been a jihadist attack as deadly as San Bernardino inside the United States since Trump’s election. And the number of immigrants being apprehended at America’s southern border has declined for seven straight months, mostly because Mexico has deployed its national guard to prevent Central Americans from reaching the United States. Last July, according to Gallup, 27 percent of Americans called immigration the most important issue facing the country. By December, the figure was down to10 percent.

So Trump is diversifying his array of immigrant threats. Singling out African countries could spark a public battle with the Congressional Black Caucus, Somalian-American Representative Ilhan Omar, and African American celebrities—just the sort of foes who rouse Trump’s base. Expect presidential tweets and Tucker Carlson monologues about Nigerian email scammers and crime rates in Lagos. In Trump’s ceaseless battle to terrify Republicans with the specter of an America no longer controlled by white men, a new front may be opening up.

African Immigrants May Be Trump’s Next Target

The president has trained his nativist ire on Muslims and Latinos. Just in time for the 2020 elections, a new group appears to be in his sights.

7:30 AM ET

Peter Beinart
Professor of journalism at the City University of New York
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/african-immigrants-may-be-trumps-next-target/605506/

They plant brain or lobotomy operation with Foreign Investment, Foreign Direct Investment, Single Economic Zone, Free Trade Zone, Devaluation, Structural Adjustment etc.

African professors passed it to their students and it goes forever until some AFRICANS wake up.

Africa is not poor, we are stealing its wealth ...
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/05/africa-poor...