ileke di

true. what the author was referring to were common  themes found across the continent

bro your right would watch the video when i have time.Have you by aby chance read the destruction of black civilization by chancelllor williams

The foregoing observations suggest that the constitution of any people or nation, written or unwritten, derives from its customary rules of life ; and that what we now call "democracy" was generally the earliest system among various peoples throughout the ancient world. What was a relatively new development was absolute monarchy.
Among the Blacks, democratic institutions evolved and functioned in a socio-economic and political system which Western writers call "State- less societies" or "Societies without chiefs." When these societies were referred to as "primitive" democracies, the writers are in fact doing the very opposite of what they intended . Far from being just a descriptive term for backward peoples, "primitive" also means "the first," the beginners. Moreover, many of these "stateless societies" were states in fact without necessarily conforming to a predetermined Western struc- tural pattern of state. Indeed, what is called a "stateless society" in Africa
would hardly be classified as such in the West, for the Western definition of a state does not include the requirements of one man as its executive head-a state being any collection of people occupying a given territory, and living under their own government independently of external control.
These facts are set forth at the outset because both the constitutional system and its offspring, African democracy, originated in "chiefless societies." And, what is even more significant, democracy reached its highest development here where the people actually governed them- selves without chiefs, where self-government was a way of life, and "law and order" were taken for granted.
The basic structural outline of these states remained the same throughout Africa . There were the usual variations and exceptions. The amazing thing was and is the uniformity-amazing how the most basic elements of ancient black civilization could have been held on to, conti- nent-wide, by all of these dispersed and isolated groups in spite of the continuing impact of unimaginable forces of destruction .
The lineage ties and responsibilities and the age-grade or age-set system were the earliest institutions through which the African constitu-
tion functioned, and out of which its democracy was born . It was a network of kinsmen, and alleged kinsmen, all of whom descended from the same ancestor or related ancestors . All might live in the same community or state, but they were often scattered far and near in separate and independent societies.
The ancestor from whom they claimed descent was always "great" because of some outstanding deed or extraordinary achievements . These generally grew in magnitude as time and the generations passed, thus causing the true achievements to be overlaid by the false claims growing out of praise songs. Each generation of poets and storytellers gave the imagination full range in Romantic glory . Myths were born in this manner, and the later concepts of both royalty and divinity gained support from the same source. In contiguous independent chiefdoms the lineage was the powerful factor in providing the basis and incentive for the later formation of kingdoms and empires . No people in African
history used the concept of kinship ties more effectively then the Lunda in the remarkable expansion of their empire. Even more remarkable than the territorial expansion of the Lunda empire was their idea of a nation as one big brotherhood.
Accordingly, instead of first attempting to conquer and annex by force, they would approach independent states and seek to demonstrate from oral history that all of them were merely segments of a common lineage, all brothers in fact. It appears that the majority of states believed in the principle of a common ancestry and readily became members of the empire . Some required more facts before they were convinced, still others were not convinced or preferred to remain separate and independent. These were generally conquered and given a lower status in the nation than those who united voluntarily.
But we are considering lineage before the rise of kingdoms and in particular, the lineage as the governing and organizing force in states without chiefs or kings, where community consensus was the supreme law that anyone could ignore only at his peril.
There were interesting aspects to the many situations where a large number of these chiefless states were scattered over a wide territory, each independent of the others, yet all fully aware (and unlike in Lundaland, had to be convinced) that they belonged to a common lineage. Kinship found expression in trade and in temporary confedera- tions when attacked by external foes (those not considered to be
members of their lineage) . There were quarrels and warfare between these member states of the
common lineage . The highly humane aspect of African warfare that puzzled many Western visitors doubtlessly developed from the widespread recognition of lineage or kinship ties. For in the much heralded "tribal wars" the main objective was to overcome or frighten away the adversary, not to kill at all if it could be avoided . Hence the hideous masks and blood-curdling screams as they charged . Even when the enemy was defeated or completely surrounded, escape routes were provided, the victors pretending not to be aware of them. Indeed, there are reports of "rest periods," called when neither side seemed to be winning. At such times the warriors on both sides might meet at the nearest stream to refresh themselves, kid each other, and laugh at each others' jokes until the drums, gongs or trumpets sounded for the resumption of the battle. This was traditional Africa . How did it change to a warfare of killing, lineage or no lineage? How did it happen that even now in our modern and "advanced" civilization some of the most murderous and inhuman of wars are fought by Blacks against Blacks,and this in the face of their increasing awareness that they are in fact one people? It is quite clear that in early Africa "war" was not much more
than a frightful game when among themselves . Was the radical change brought about by the death-dealing incursions from Asia and Europe?
This raises other questions of great urgency : Are we really civilized today? Have we not substituted the trappings of civilization-our
triumphs in science, technology, and the computer "revolution" -for civilization ties? Suffice it to say that the steady weakening of lineage
ties and its spirit of unity was also a weakening of the sense of
brotherhood and unity among the Blacks. Today it finds little expression except in various languages or tribal groups, and these maintain it more
and more as a cohesive force to be used against all others.
Lineage, then, was the most powerful and effective force for unity and stability in early Africa, and this was so true that a state could be self- governed without the need for any one individual as ruler, chief or king. Everyone was a lawyer because just about everyone knew the Customary laws.
The age-grade or age-set (also called "class" was the specific organi- zational structure through which the society functioned .
Classification was determined by the period in which one was born. All persons born in the same year, or within a general but well-defined
period before or after a given year, belonged in the same age-grade . Each grade covered a block of years : Age-grade one might include all children up to age twelve; grade two, from thirteen to eighteen ; grade three, nineteen to twenty-eight; grade four, twenty-nine to forty; and grade five, forty and above. There was seniority within each grade according to age and intelligence . Intelligence and wisdom were supposed to match one's age. Stated another way, the African philosophy that accorded so much deference to elders was based upon the
assumption that, call other things being equal, those who were living in the world and experiencing life before others were born should know more than these others. This qualification is important because it was later applied in the election of chiefs and kings . Being heir to the throne was not enough. One had to meet other qualifications or be passed over. Therefore, being older or the oldest in one's group did not command the usual respect if one was lazy, a troublemaker or a fool .

In the latter part of the thirteenth century David, King of Makuria, seeing no other way to forestall Arab occupation of his country, stepped
up his raids in Upper Egypt. The raids were easier to carry out because of the chaos that followed the triumphs of the Mamelukes in Egypt . But in 1272 the Blacks, in what I have attacked as the pattern of their own self-destruction, made the first major step to that end . The usual impatience of heirs to the throne soon enough found full expression in Shakandu, the King's nephew. He hastened to the Sultan of Egypt to secure an alliance and plan an invasion of his country that would assure his ascendancy to the throne. The Sultan had every reason to grasp this wonderful opportunity handed to him through the Blacks themselves . Not only would he be able to even scores with them, but he would also. be able to create conditions for Mameluke hegemony over their land Moreover, the African king had not only been raiding Egypt with impunity, but he had denounced the Treaty of 652 and refused to pay
the Baqt.Sultan Baibars, therefore, did not hesitate. He organized a strong invading expedition with Shakandu at its head and entered the Black Land . The struggle was long and bitter, as the Sultan's strategy in using his black army, along with Shakandu's own followers, made it appear to be civil war between Blacks. In the end the Sultan won through the black heir to the throne, and allowed him to be crowned king as his protege .
The dismemberment of the black kingdoms in the Sudan had begun . Now a rival tribute was exacted and almost doubled without any pretense of being an agreement of mutual exchange . The tribute exacted was harsh and the Blacks were promised nothing . The kingdom was then divided into two parts, the Sultan taking the northern region as his personal fief. Muslim rule now extended over Egypt and into the Sudan. The pattern was set that was to continue into our times and probably beyond: The Arabs in the Northern Sudan, while the Blacks were pressured into smaller and smaller areas in the Southern Sudan .
Once again, learning nothing from even just yesterday, the black leadership paved the way for further Arab advances into their country.
The black leadership's struggle for personal power and, above all, their own personal security and welfare, precluded their concern for the welfare and future of their people. They were quite willing and ready to welcome the Arabs arid to surrender their people to them in exchange for "high" office and limited consideration. The days of the black immortals seemed to have passed forever. Mental pygmies again occupied the throne once held by Menes, Piankhi, Shabaka, and Kalydosos .
In 1304, still another self-seeking black leader journeyed to Cairo to have himself crowned as the servant-king of the Blacks by the Sultan al Nasir. The Sultan sent an expedition to Dongola-a task now easier than before-and his new servant was crowned as King Amai .
It should be noted here that the Mameluke rulers' effective power was confined to Lower Egypt and that independent Arab tribes, of which the Bani Kanz were the most powerful, held all Upper Egypt . They were only nominally the sultans. In order to put an end to the endless coups and counter-coups among the Blacks, the decision was reached to overwhelm the South with united armies from both Upper and Lower Egypt and step up the Islamization of the Blacks, putting Muslim kings on the throne.
In1316 A .D.,the objectives were realized when Dongola was again razed for the fifth time and Kerembes, the last black Christian king, was put to flight. A black Muslim, Abdullah, was made king temporarily while awaiting the pleasure, not of the Sultan, but of the powerful Chief Kanz ad-Dawlah of the Bani Kanz Arab tribe . His pleasure was to put the Black Muslim king to death and assume the kingship over the Blacks himself. Over the Blacks? This statement is misleading. This was no longer the "Land of the Blacks." White and coloured Arabs now constituted the majority. Without this population base, the triumph of the Arabs in the Sudan could not have happened .
Yet the Arab chieftain's rule as king was short-lived because the Mameluke rulers played one group off against the other in an effort to defeat Arab objectives in one way or another. For one thing, they had been unable to break the autonomy of the Arab tribes in Upper Egypt, and these tribes were spreading over the Sudan and setting up their own kings. This was a further challenge to Mameluke rule in Egypt. Who, then, were the Mamelukes?
The Mamelukes were the whites who had been enslaved by the Arabs in their wild and amazing sweep out of their desert homeland to conquer all adjacent countries and establish a world empire with a speed that shocked the world. Theirs was the original blitz. The enslavement of prisoners of war, which was the way general slavery began, was the order of the day. Race had no bearing on the matter then. Whites, blacks, browns or yellows, all were made slaves if captured . The Arabs also made a practice of creating strong slave armies . The white slave armies were the Mamelukes. These, when stationed in Egypt, revolted, overthrew the government, and established their own line of ruling sultans. For this they were hated by the Arabs and looked upon with scorn, even though they had been converted to Islam . The white ex-slaves hated their former masters even more .
This white slave revolt and its historical significance are underplayed. Yet its impact was such that it influenced the course of modern history in black-white relations. The effect of that revolt on the black world was tragic. For the murderous onslaughts of the white slaves against their erstwhile masters so shocked the white world that the general enslave- ment of whites ended forever . On this the record is clear: White slavery ended after the Mameluke rebellion. Thereafter Black Africa became the exclusive hunting ground for slaves, a situation made easy by the developments outlined in this work. All the theories of inherent black inferiority stemmed from the urgently felt need to justify the success in confining slavery to the African race .
The answer to the riddle of the centuries can be traced right here, for that great change in human history when only Blacks were enslaved led to the general degradation of a whole people. The way was now open and easy for all the relevant branches of science and scholarship to proclaim theories on the inherent inferiority of Blacks. Far worse than this, since black populations were everywhere under white control, they could actually be forced into inferiority by a dehumanizing program "silently" structured in all institutions and phases of white national life . The Blacks were the immediate victims of those diseases born of poverty and planned deprivation . Undernourished and diseased mothers carried and brought babies into the world who were both physically and' mentally handicapped even before birth.
The Mameluke Sultan sent another expedition in 1323 to put the African king, Kerembes, on the throne, again, after his brother, himself, had deposed the Arab king only to die a few days later . The coups and counter-coups still seemed to be endless and not at all the presupposed political phenomena characteristically confined to the Blacks . Therefore, as soon as the Mameluke forces withdrew from the South, Kanz al- Dawlah returned, overthrew Kerembes a second time, and became king again. Meanwhile, another strong Arab tribe, the Guhayna, had been pouring into the Sudan in such great waves that they rapidly became the dominant Arab group below the Second Cataract . The kingdom known to history as Makuria was no more. It was the kingdom that,
The Two Who Carried On 155
Sudan Arabization and Islamization had another outcome : Not only did the Afro-Arabs consider themselves Arabs and bitterly resented being called Sudanese (Black), but thousands of the jet-black, unmixed Africans insisted on being classed as Arabs. They still do (this fact was settled beyond question during my field studies in the Sudan in 1964). This fact also confuses and frustrates the black world both in and outside of Africa. For who, now are our "African brothers?"

BLACK MAKURIA
Between 700 and 1200 A .D.,Makuria was more empire than kingdom. It was organized into thirteen major states with a subking over each and the "King of Kings" over all. The traditional African Council was the final authority no matter how powerful the king might seem to be . The great and colorful parasol of the "King of Kings" had to be wider than those of the divisional kings and theirs was larger than any lesser officials.
Cyriacus was "King of Kings" in 745 when Omar, the governor of Egypt, stepped up the persecution of Christians in Egypt in what amounted to a Muslim Holy War, destroying churches or converting them into mosques and even putting the Patriarch in prison . Since the Patriarch in Egypt was the head of all Christian churches in Africa, the Africans regarded this latest onslaught against the churches as an insult as well as a breach of the peace treaty, now almost a hundred years old. Strangely, the Muslims made Lower Egypt the area of greatest church destruction. When the arrogant Omar ignored all protests and pleas, the African king headed an army of 100,000 men and marched on the Arab center of power in Lower Egypt . The governor of Egypt quickly freed the Patriarch and promised to leave the Christians and their churches alone.
and progress was reflected in the advanced standard of living among the masses. The massive brickmaking industry had led to homes of brick and stone in cities, towns and villages-brick houses, and larger houses for the great common people . In the eighth century this was something for the visiting Arab scholars to write home about. (It would be some- thing to write about anywhere in this last part of the twentieth century .)Cyriacus accepted these assurances and withdrew his army from Egpyt.
It was during this period that an extensive body of church literature developed in the African language and the remarkable pottery industries were expanded ; painting, like writing, was stimulated by the Church, just as had been the case in temple art. Mining was a principal source of wealth, but agriculture was the basic national activity and there is evidence of the people's battles with the encroaching deserts. They followed the system of the "Mother Empire" and overcame certain arid areas by developing the system of terrace farming that was irrigated by water wheels constructed for high places . They were successful enough to produce -a surplus of agricultural commodities for export trade . Cotton had been produced from ancient times, and cloth making and other weaving arts were among the oldest crafts. That glass was made is certain, but the extent of this enterprise is not indicated by the archaeo-
logical findings. The reports of Arab scholars on the cities of the Blacks during these
early centuries are significant for two important reasons . The first is that, like the European explorers, "geographers" and others referred to earlier, they were not concerned with writing African history and nothing could have been farther from their intentions than glorifying the achievements of the Blacks. But their mission was to make factual reports on the conditions and exploitable possibilities of Africa to their home countries. Such reports would be the basis for future penetration, exploitation and conquest.
The second highly significant fact about the accounts of Abu Salih, Ibn Salim and other scholars between the seventh and fifteenth centuries A .D. is that, unlike the case of Egypt, none questioned either the
greatness or the origin of this black civilization . It was so clearly all- African that it did not seem to occur to these Arab writers that any other position was tenable. Those familiar with the traditional African religion might question whether Christianity was in fact external to Africa . In any case, the beautiful churches they saw spread over the "Land of the Black Gods" had become almost completely Africanized for those gods.
The prosperity the Arab visitors reported -the magnificent stone and brick palaces, temples, churches, cathedrals, wide avenues lined with palm trees, government buildings, public baths, water supply systems, beautiful gardens, countless craft industries, huge farms with extensive pastures where camels, horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats and pigs could
be seen grazing lazily-all this was reported as messages with an unwritten message: Such is this Black Paradise, Brothers of Islam . Come!
The prosperity in this center of the black world represented one of the last great epochs in the history of the Blacks . If near the final, it was also one of their finest hours on the stage of human progress . Here the measure of a people's genius could be taken without speculation . Here the message of who Blacks were was wrought in stone and iron for the succeeding generations of Blacks who were to lose their very identity in the blood and tears of unbroken oppression.
The Arab scholars were properly amazed at a way of life so superior to that of their own homeland . It was something to be amazed about . For there were not only public baths but public latrines, drainage and central water systems, but the most remarkable evidence of prosperity

HAVING LOST BOTH UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT, ETHIOPIA'S northern border had been pushed to the First Cataract at Assuan, and Necho II eventually became king of Egypt, beginning the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, 665-525 B.C. The Egyptian armies were increasingly made up of foreigners and enslaved Blacks . It was during this dynasty that the Assyrians were expelled again, this time by nationalistic Egyptians . The Blacks' loss of their beloved Memphis, Thebes, and even their Egyptian name now seemed to be final.
Other invasions came . The Persians under Darius the Great took over, and their domination of Egypt lasted from 525 to 404 B.C.,with the assistance of Greek mercenaries . They returned in 343 B .C . to reestablish their rule, but again for only a relatively short duration . Alexander reached Egypt in 332 B .C.,on his world conquering rampage . But one of the greatest generals in the ancient world was also the Empress of Ethiopia. This was the formidable black Queen Candace, world famous as a military tactician and field commander . Legend has it that Alexander could not entertain even the possibility of having his world fame and unbroken chain of victories marred by risking a defeat, at last, by a woman. He halted his armies at the borders of Ethiopia and did not invade to meet the waiting black armies with their Queen in personal command. Upon his death, one of his most outstanding generals became Pharaoh as Ptolemy I, thus beginning 300 years of Macedonian-Greek rule. Toward the end of Greek domination, the

expansion of the Roman Empire had transferred the real center of power to Rome . Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome-the continuing process of transforming a black civilization into a near-white civilization long before the Christian era .
The Ptolemaic period had been largely one of confusion. The division
of power among the Greeks, Macedonians and Egyptians, and inter- marriages with the latter, joint rule, etc., made the Ptolemies, at times,
merely nominal rulers. There were times when a native Afro-Asian ruler gained the center of the stage as the star attraction, as in the case of Cleopatra. Upon her death, in 30 B.C, Romans assumed direct control, ruling the country for seven centuries, beginning their reign thirty years before Jesus Christ would be born in the same Palestine where Blacks had lived and ruled so long.
After this long period of domination, the Arab general Amr-ibn-al- As, entered Alexandria in 642 A .D. with only 4,000 men. The conquest of Egypt by the Muslim armies, which had reached Pelusium two years earlier, was not only to change the character of Egyptian civilization radically, but it was to have a `disastrous impact on the dignity and destiny of Africans as a people . The Arab conquest had opened the floodgates wider and Arabs poured in . Colonization and Islamization progressed. As Egypt became a main center of Arab power, this fact found concrete expression in Arab-Islamic expansion over North Africa into Spain, and southward into what remained as "The Land of the Blacks."
THE NEW BORDERLINE OF THE BLACKS
We have traced the ancient struggles between Africans, Mulattoes and Asians, where the Africans sought not only to resist conquest, but to retake the whole of Egypt. They succeeded at times, but finally lost all of Egypt, as we have seen.
Ethiopia now began at the First Cataract in the north and extended
south into present-day Ethiopia . It was now bounded by Upper Egypt, the Red Sea and the Libyan desert. These are rather general geographical designations without any precise meaning, for ancient Ethiopia had no precise southern boundaries . Ancient Ethiopians would say that their land included Egypt and was in fact without boundaries in Africa insofar as non-Africans were concerned . All of the European and Asian.
doctrines about "unoccupied" regions of Africa at any given period in history are quite meaningless and unacceptable to Africans . For to them, it is just as senseless as it would be to say to a farmer anywhere, "See here now! There are large sections of your land unoccupied and untended. So we'll just come in and take it!"
The Africans' area of great concentration was ancient Nubia between the First and the Sixth Cataracts . It was the land where they had developed the great civilization which they had extended over Egypt. Their work had been appropriated by the invaders as their own.
The geography of Nubia is the geography of much of present-day Sudan and beyond. The Nile flows through its sand and rock deserts with a series of falls and a number of rapids. The country is almost rainless. It is the land of the great Nubian desert . West of the Nile towards the Red Sea was the mining area, rich in gold . It was, even within the concept of these geographical boundaries, the heartland of the black world.
Already pushed by the invaders from the Mediterranean areas in the north, northeast and northwest, the Africans were to be further hedged in from the east and southeast as the Asian hordes continued to stream across the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and, much later, as the Dutch
Boers poured in from the southernmost tip of the continent .
SCRAPS FROM PREHISTORY
The stone age Africans lived about the same as stone age peoples all over the world. They were hunters, fishermen and craftsmen . Archae- ologists have dug up some of their tools and other artifacts at Wadi Haifa, Wawa, Sai Island, Wadi Hudi, the Selima oasis, Tangasi, Tagiya and other places. These areas are between the Second and Fourth Cataracts. Our discussion of specific, concrete evidence of early black civilization up to this point has been confined to the Egyptian north. Most notable among the Neolithic finds in the south were the beautiful, highly burnished, black-topped and red potterly bowls, jars, etc. The pottery was artistically decorated in wavy ripples or squares . Their earliest writing was in pictures. So many hundreds of these rock "messages" were found along the Nile through Nubialand that one may well wonder if these prehistoric "historians" had posterity in mind . While many of the pictures portrayed wildlife and other objects of interest in the environment, others went beyond this role of the artist
and recorded such historic facts as the conquest of Northern Nubia by the Nubian Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, Sneferu, in 2730 B.C.' This war left a vast wasteland and practically wiped out a civilization that had been developing before Neolithic times .
THE "CHILDREN OF THE SUN"
For one thing, the land to the south of Egypt had developed a strong economy that was continuously enriched by a thriving export trade in
paper (from papyrus), ivory, gold, ebony, emeralds, copper, incense, ostrich feathers (always greatly in demand), and its famous decorated
earthenware. A strong economy also meant a strong Ethiopian army, posing a threat even to an African-ruled Egypt . From the Egyptian viewpoint, the "Land of the Blacks" was a threefold threat . Historically, the Blacks who had fled below the First Cataract to escape the various, conquests never seemed to accept those conquests as final, and attempted to retake Egypt from time to time . (These repetitions are deliberate because nowhere in history is this very important fact clearly stated.)
But it is clear that, having reconquered the Asian-dominated Lower Egypt, the black pharaohs sought integration with the Asians instead of driving them out of the country . This policy of moderation and accommodation was apparently anathema to the "extremist" Ethiopians, proud Blacks for whom the prospects of having their children come into
the world with a color distinctly different from their own was at once an
insult to their watching ancestors, and an offense to the Gods them- selves.
This attitude might also explain the hostility of the Southern Blacks toward the Afro-Asian. The latter were not "true" Africans because they were becoming Egyptians, a mixed breed of many races . They were, therefore, traitors in the eyes of "true" Africans whose badge of eternal honor was the blackness of their skin. This was color racism, deeply rooted, for it sprang from religion: They were "Children of the Sun" blessed with blackness by the Sun God himself and thus protected

Hi i am trying to create a bit data structure to holds sets  but am trying to put in values into my memory but its not working out for me.sample i using a set of alphabets because it is small enough.

/*
* File:   main.c
* Author: stephen
*
* Created on November 20, 2011, 10:04 AM
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

/*
*
*/


struct bitset{
   int size;
   unsigned char *contents;
   


};

struct bitset * bitset_new(int size){
//   return -1;
   struct bitset *p;
    p == malloc(sizeof(*p));
    p->contents= malloc((sizeof(char) * size/ + (size%?0:1);
    return p;
   
   
}

// add an item, with number 'item' to the set
// (returns 0 if item is out of bounds, 1 otherwise)
// has no effect if the item is already in the set
int bitset_add(struct bitset * this)
{
    return 1;
     char *p;
    printf ("Please enter a line of text, max %d characters\n",
    sizeof(this->contents));
   
  if (fgets(this->contents, sizeof(this->contents), stdin) != NULL)
  {
    printf ("Thank you, you entered >%s<\n", this->contents);
   
  }
    if ((p = strchr(this->contents, '\n')) != NULL)
      *p = '\0';
     
    //return 0;
}



int main(int argc, char** argv) {

    //unsigned char a='a';
   // unsigned char b='b';
   // unsigned int m=1;
   // unsigned int j=0;
   // int c=m |j;
  //  int e= sizeof(char);
   
    struct bitset *p= bitset_new(26);
    bitset_add(&p);

   
 
 
   
    return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Theblessed:

[size=16pt]So sad to hear about his bad health.  We are praying for you, and that the Lord heals you in Jesus Name, Amen!

Yes, his situation calls for exhausting every avenue including spiritual healing.  But. has his family considered taking him for healing at the Synagogue Church of all Nations?

Then, I suggest they try God - he never fails! Please, take him to the Synagogue and get him healed, it will not cost them a dime! The Synagogue is not one of those Churches that charges people a walloping #60,000 (Thousand Naira) for healing no!

There are no charges in the Synagogue.  Instead of people contributing money to waste in hospital with little or no permament cure.  God's healing is a complete package therefore seek it but, you must BELIEVE AND HAVE FAITH in the Lord - that's all you're required to bring along. 

God bless you all!



[/size]

your a clown

Jenifa_:


Lol I like this.

are you sure it wasn't written sarcastically?

to me, it seems to put us in a good light. not a bad one.
it reads like something u would find in The Onion.

The author meant every word

more revealing is the comments page

@cap my brother you cant me this up lol
some things he said there are so true but am tired of telling my people to understand whats going on.

cap28:

But Neocolonialism could only work when applied to weak states, of which Africa has plenty. Some African rulers, buoyed up by Islam, Communism, or Arab Nationalism, could escape its grasp. Examples here include Nasser in Egypt, Gaddafi in Libya, and Mengistu in Ethiopia. Against such rulers, Neocolonialism could do little except play a waiting game.

Nor was Neocolonialism always negative. Under its first president Houphouët-Boigny, Ivory Coast saw particularly good relations with its ex-colonial power, France, and the development of the country’s coffee and cocoa crops, with a large influx of foreign labour from poorer Northern countries like Burkina Faso and French experts who helped run everything from the army and economic planning to the cocoa harvest. This gave the country one of the highest standards of living in post-colonial Africa, leading to the term “The Ivorian Miracle,” although problems started to set in following the slump in the price of its main export cocoa in the 1980s.

[b]Many of the coups and revolutions in post-colonial African history that otherwise look so random and pointless, and seem like the result of tribalism or over-ambitious army officers, start to make more sense in the context of Neocolonialism. Ivory Coast is a good example. In 1999, Houphouët-Boigny’s successor, Henri Konan Bédié, was removed by a coup; while in 2002 an attempted coup tried to remove Laurent Gbagbo, and ended up splitting the country into Northern and Southern halves. Unlike their esteemed predecessor, both these leaders succeeded in antagonizing France, most noticeably by attempting to shore up their positions through mobilizing resentment against immigrant labourers and foreign economic interests.

But old-fashioned Neocolonialism of the type that was behind removing Bédié and putting and keeping Mabuto in power in the Congo had to rely on low-key opportunism and subtle methods. The public back home could not be made too aware of the bribery, contacts with thugs and tyrants, weapons smuggling, and occasional employment of small groups of mercenaries. The environment of the Cold War also meant that Neocolonialism had to tread softly, so much so that even petty dictators like Robert Mugabe, who could benefit from the crutch of having a White population to oppress, were able to defy it.

But the soaring need for African commodities combined with the festering apathy of Africans, who, after 50 years of being tyrannized and brutalized by their own kind, have largely lost their faith in the dream of independence, has led to a major revamping of Neocolonialism, so much so that it has effectively become something else that can best be termed “Global-colonialism” because (a) it is designed to subordinate Africa to the global division of economic functions, (b) the moral justification for the system hinges on globalist “humanitarian values,” and (c) its chief agents are the key globalist nations, America, Britain and France.[/b]

The system retains many of the methods of Neocolonialism, including setting tribe against tribe, extensive bribery, weapons smuggling, and giving the green light to those with their own axe to grind. But there are also important differences:

Unlike Neocolonialism, which preferred long-term rulers and only sought to remove leaders who were uncooperative, Global-colonialism has a preference for shorter-term leaders and places more emphasis on elections. This actually creates more leverage as rulers constantly need the endorsement of the West. Even if elections produce the “wrong” result, they can always be declared invalid due to ballot fraud or corruption as these phenomena are always present in any African election.
While Neocolonialism tended to be low-key and avoided publicity, Global-colonialism is noisy and demonstrative. It always tries to involve the media, which is one of its key arms. [b](In the event that the individuals and groups it elevates turn out to be Al-Qaeda sympathizers or genocidal thugs, expect Orwellian U-turns and the full exploitation of the public’s short attention span and near total ignorance of Africa.)[/b]
Global-colonialism is prepared to use much greater military force. This includes the smuggling of larger quantities of arms than before, as well as higher calibre weapons, such as the Ukrainian tanks the U.S. was caught smuggling to the Southern Sudanese rebels through Kenya in 2008. It also includes direct military intervention of the kind that removed Gbagbo and prevented Gaddafi crushing the Libyan rebellion. There is a preference for air power and specialist ground forces rather than the kind of heavily involved military intervention that has occurred in other parts of the world. Cost may be a factor. Nevertheless, this is certainly a step up from the old days of “The Dogs of War.”
To justify such military action, “human rights” and “protecting the civilian population” are tirelessly invoked. However, such “Totalitarian Humanism” can be applied very selectively, as we see in the case of Ivory Coast, where massacres by the French- and UN-approved rebels did not result in any military action being taken except on behalf of the same rebels.
There is a willingness to change borders as seen in Sudan and the suggestion that Libya too might be partitioned.
Perhaps because the system is new, Global-colonialism places great importance on getting someone—indeed anyone—to sign the chit for its actions. This is supposed to give a disinterested gloss to any intervention. Ideally, the signer should be the United Nations, but other suitable candidates include the African Union, the Arab League, or even, I suspect, the local chapter of the Abidjan Boy Scouts.

http://www.alternativeright.com/main/the-magazine/africa-and-the-new-world-order/#disqus_thread

Mobinga:

Bros No! The code is correct.

See google : http://www.google.com.ng/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=9998017+*+999764

Besides one is 7 digits while the other is 6 digits.

It falls well behind the maximum value for Longs
Long.MAX_VALUE == 9223372036854775807

sorry its 9997647 not 999764 .Bro try the code and see the output .

yup your right it was an integer overflow but lol bad news, it works up till six digits but it returns the wrong output for seven digits.The reason is due to the digits that get multiplied for e.g your code would have o=9999979 and n =9467731 and gives 94677111177649 but the correct output should be 9998017 * 999764 = 99956644665999

for(long o = 9999999; o>9000000; o--){
for(long n = 9999999; n>9000000; n--){
long vin = o * n;

Mobinga:

Bros, because your using "is multiple of 11". Just study the code I posted. It works for all values.

thanks bro, i have studied it but if you implement it for when the digits is equal to 5 . The output from your code is 69970996 which is a product of 99994 and 92902 but the desired output should be 9966006699 and the factors are 99979 and 99681.

I tried implementing this code for a five digit number but its giving me the wrong output.




public static boolean isMultipleOf11(int num){
return(num%11==0);
}

public static int Largest(){
int z=0;int big=0; ;
for(int i=99999;i>90000;i--)
{
for(int j=i;j>90000;j--)
{
//z= j*i;
if(isMultipleOf11(i)|| isMultipleOf11(j)){
if(isPalindrome(""+ j*i))
{

if((i * j)>big){

big=j*i;
}

}//palindrome if
}//outer if
}
}
return big;
}

omoto dun please i have a question for you

The "Mother of Cities," as it was called, was one of the chief centers of religion in Africa. The Blacks were a very religious people and had quite a number of religious cities, each one under the special patronage of a god, goddess or any number of deities . The gods and goddesses of Thebes were among the most important because their city was so important. Because religion to the Africans was far more than ritual reflecting beliefs, but a reality reflected in their actual way of life, religion from the earliest times became the dynamic force in the development of all the major aspects of black civilization .
The belief in immortality was a simple matter of course, and beyond
the realm of debate . This belief in life after death was the great inspiration for building on
so grand a scale, attempting to erect structures that would stand forever. Necessity, therefore, gave birth to the mathematical sciences required for building the amazing pyramids and the architectural designs for the most elaborate system of temple-building the world has ever known . As the City of Amon, the King of the Gods, and of his wife, the great goddess Mut, the temples and monuments to them alone had to be on a massive scale. There was also the war god of Thebes, the source of the power of the mightiest armies, the proudest and most fearless warriors . From this center of the empire alone, 20,000 war chariots could be put
Europe and Asia seized and transported from Africa as much of the
artifacts of its civilization as they could. Cambyses, for example, as early as the sixth century B.C.,hauled away over $100,000,000 of precious
historical materials from Thebes alone . Cambyses was only one of countless thousands who invaded the tomb repositories of black history
during each of the many periods of foreign invasions and foreign rule . For these tombs not only contained valuable historical records in different forms, but also great treasures in gold and precious stones . In these cases, the historical records were generallydestroyed incidentally, and not deliberately. The raids on graves and the great tombs were for the great treasures to be found there. But the stolen gold and other treasures were of no importance when compared with the mass of priceless historical materials that are scattered over Europe and Asia, some in museums, some destroyed or thrown away, all from from the heartland of black civilization . Today the descendants of the robbers still smugly declare, "The Blacks never had any worthwhile history ; if so, where are their records?"
The still interesting fact about Thebes is that many of its formerly great temples were prehistoric ruins even five thousand years ago . The most ancient temple at Karnak, for example, in what was the center of Nowe, goes back beyond the reach of man's records . No other city on earth ever had so many temples, and even today there are more ruins of temples there than anywhere in the world . Because of the splendor of their architectural designs and the colossal size of the structures, they, like the pyramids, became wonders of the world . Religion was not-only
the immediate occasion for the development of art and architecture, but it also inspired the drive for bigness, the grand design on a scale as huge as human skill and effort could achieve . Nothing less was befitting of the gods.
The keepers of the temples of Thebes and elsewhere became a powerful priesthood, thus indirectly reducing the power and influence
of chiefs and kings who, in traditional Africa, derived their real powers as the official intermediaries between the gods, sainted ancestors and the people. If an African king or chief had any real political power, it was acquired either by virtue of his religious functions or because of the
prestige of being a great general and victorious warrior. Otherwise, the Council was the constitutional center of power.
Moreover, religion became the basis of political power in a subtle and much more far-reaching sense . For back behind the impenetrable
I into the field. The hierarchy of deities not only included numerous
lesser gods and goddesses, but also a long line of venerated former kings, queens and ancestors. All of this not only inspired endless temple
building at Thebes but also a concentration on attaining the highest standards of excellence. This in turn called for reflective thinking, invention and discovery. Many of the temples were what we would call colleges, as the different fields of study were temple-centered. Here scholars from foreign lands came to study, and from here, religious ideas and architectural designs spread abroad . The early Greeks and Romans eagerly copied from both, reshaped them and made them integral parts of an "original" Western culture. During periods of decline or conquests,

The steady transformation from black to brown to white becomes even clearer if it is remembered that after the unification of the TwoLands, the whites of Lower Egypt had every legal right to travel and settle in black Upper Egypt . And while there was always a general opposition, there had been a steady infiltration from the beginning . They, like their Libyan kinsmen, always came in a manner that never caused immediate alarm: small numbers spreading out, and then gradually forming separate communities next to an African village, town or city . They became an integral part of life in the provinces, actively supporting the local chiefs (nomarchs), marrying into their families and, by so doing, in time becoming legitimate chiefs themselves . The Asian power base was thus firmly established in provinces, and established so slowly and without fanfare that it appeared to be an imperceptible development . The same changes had been taking place on the national level in some of the royal families.
Asians also marched across the desert from Libya where they had also replaced the indigenous Blacks and were now the dominant population .
phasized, to set the record straight.
There were also, for still another example, "Libyan dynasties," indicated by the Libyan names of the rulers . But who, now, were the Libyans? They were, first of all, Western Ethiopians, then heavily Berber, Mongolian, Arab, a sprinkling of Hebrews and other Asiatic peoples, and then, of course, the resulting Afro-Asians . The ethnic composition of Libya was about the same as that of early Egypt, with the exception that there were fewer Europeans and more Mongolians . Libya was once so nearly all-black that to be called a Libyan meant that one was Black. So the Libyan dynasties during this period could have been predominantly white, black, Afro-Asian or a combination of all three, depending upon what faction was in the ascendency at the time.

were carved in various dynasties . These could be thrown away . But what to do with the huge, monumental statues that were lined up outside of the most famous temples? The problem was solved by "passing" those Egyptian rulers who merely had "Negroid" features . Many of those with all-African faces simply had their heads knocked off. All to no lasting avail. The facts of history could not be completely changed.
One troublesome fact was that most of the greatest kings and queens of Egypt were Black Africans; so great, indeed, that their names were richly spread over pages that glorified the Egyptian past-their names, but not their African identity. In history these Blacks are simply Egyptians, and not Cushites, Ethiopians, or Nubians . This is still another technique for deliberately "losing track" of African history. But the archaeologists' spades just kept turning up statuettes and some remarkable portraits that frustrated some scholars while' others felt challenged and replied with a heavy artillery of misleading words and phrases. Regardless of what the field investigators found, the main work of reconstructing African history in the twentieth century is still in the hands of those who degraded it, white hands who still have the power
to shape it as they will. (3) Finally, the great revolt of white slaves (Mamelukes) in 1250 A .D.,and their murderous onslaughts against their Turk and Arab masters ended forever the general enslavement of whites, and thereafter led to a concentration on the enslavement of only Blacks. This changed the course of history and came to make the myth of racial superiority-inferiority, master and slave, appear to be a visible reality. Could there be any question about it? Even the slaves would realize that their actual situation was one of inferiority . And after centuries of bondage, the slaves generally came to believe that they were, in fact, inferior beings, and that their masters, by the very arrangements of life, were superior. For whether in Asia, Europe, South America, the United States or the West Indies, the story was the same: The essential links with their past were broken . All knowledge of former greatness was lost. Even their kinship and family relationships were destroyed along with their true names . They were not regarded as human beings. They became a race of outcasts hating themselves for being alive. The Caucasian triumph was complete.

The evolution of the Egyptians as a nationality group is as interesting as their anti-African attitude, although the latter differs not at all from that of many mixed breeds with African blood elsewhere. It has been stated that the original Egyptians were black, half-African and half Asian. This general racial pattern changed, however, as the centuries passed along and more and more white conquerors, their followers and the other whites were attracted to the "Bread Basket on the Nile"-Jews, Syrians, Hittites, Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians,. Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Romans, et al.Intermarriages between conquerors and conquered con- tinued along with concubinage as a national institution . The direct result was that more and more Egyptians became lighter and near-white in complexion. In short, they did, in fact, become more Asian in blood than African. Yet this upper ruling class of near-whites was at no time more than a fourth of the population . For until the Islamic "flood" which began in the middle of the seventh century A .D., the vast majority of the Egyptians were what modern scholars like to characterize as "Negroid."4

nded.
But the Assyrians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans could make no such claim to support the myth of Caucasian superiority . For nothing seems
clearer from ancient records than that the whole ancient world knew of nothing more ancient than the black man's civilization .
The real challenge was standing there in monuments of stone which the Blacks had built on a scale that had withstood all passing ages .
To meet this challenge, the Asians and their Afro-Asian offsprings set about to do three main things : (1) They destroyed everything left by the Africans that indicated African superiority . (2) Where the temples, monuments, etc., were of such beauty and durability that destruction was less desirable than claiming the achievements as their own, African inscriptions were systematically erased and replaced with Asian and new Egyptian inscriptions that gave to themselves the credit for whatever achievements there were . Sometimes the inscriptions were so deeply engraved that effacement was impossible; so the workmen would have to conceal these by building stone casings around them .
The early African builders had been most exasperating, leaving their statues everywhere-flat noses, thick lips and all . Hundreds of statuettes

Good one mobinga , I have a question for you ,  my code outputs the right result until when my two  digits are 7 digit numbers but if i change my range for b it works.Question is there a blueprint to fix a range no matter the amount of digits.

Hi i am trying to get a picture into a file in eclipse.
I have saved the picture into a folder called pic1.


public class Sandbox {

static String FILENAME ="pic1\\input.jpg";/
static int MTU = 1500;

File file;
FileInputStream fin;

file= new File(FILENAME);
buffer= new byte[(int) file.length()];
fin= new FileInputStream(file);

omo to dun my mentor please how do i contact you .

for e.g in the church here, We have had countless cases of dead people raised from the dead.

WoW you cant make this shit up

Hi guys i have a written a code which does the following.
multiply two three digit numbers and finds the largest palindrome
i have the code written but i would like the house to implement it in different ways so we can all learn


public class LargestPalindrome {

/*
* a boolean method to check if a number is a multiple of 11
* it returns a true or false value
*/
public static boolean isMultipleOf11(int num){
return(num%11==0);
}
/*
* a boolean method is palindrome which checks if a string/number is a palindrome
* it returbs a true or false value
*/
public static boolean isPalindrome(String c)
{
for(int i=0;i<c.length()/2;i++)
{
if(c.charAt(i)!=c.charAt(c.length()-1-i))
return false;
}
return true;
}
// a method that multiply two numbers
public static int multiply(int a,int b){
assert( (a>=100 && a<=999 )&& (b>=100 && b<=999));
return a*b;
}
// a boolean method which chekcs if any of the two 3 digit numbers is a multiple of 11
public static boolean can11DivideOneOFtheNumbers(int a, int b){
return (a%11==0 || b%11==0);
}

/*A method which gets the largest palindrome number from the product of two three
* digit numbers.
* it returns an int .
*
*/
public static int LargestPalindrome(){
int a=999;
int b=999;
int sixdigitnumber=0;
boolean notfound=false;

while(notfound==false){

if(can11DivideOneOFtheNumbers(a,b)){
sixdigitnumber=multiply(a,b);

if(isPalindrome(""+sixdigitnumber)){
notfound=true;
}
else
{
/*
* checks if the int in b is still a three digit number
* if true it just subtracts 1 from it
* if not it subtracts 1 from int a and makes b=a
*/
if(b>=100)
b--;
else{
a=a-1;
b=a;
} // inner else
} //else
}//outermost if
else

// decreasing the b or a
if(b>=100)
b--;
else{
a=a-1;
b=a;}
} //end of while
return sixdigitnumber;
}//method
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub


System.out.println(LargestPalindrome());
}

}

kenjudy:

Uniting against the west is never going to solve our problem but making proper use of what the west gave to us which without we'll still be in darkness. I think the problem we all have as Africans is mixing personal grudge with public affairs which will always end us up dead or disorganised. Ghaddafi's son should go and mourn his selfish deceased, cos i don't see the capability of him defeating the west when his father and all his millitary power could not subdue,

Are you for real.What the west gave to us?

After what recently happened in Libya, one is apt to wonder what democracy really stands for. If democracy is the keyword used to justify the destruction of human lives and property, then God help us all!

Yes, the NATO-aided NTC rebels have apparently managed to do away with Muammar Gaddafi, and Ghana, among other African countries has, after a little hesitation, decided to do obeisance to the western powers by recognizing these anti-Gaddafi miscreants. The question now remains: does a post-Gaddafi Libya hope to become a land of milk and honey? Believe me, that would be a very tall order because actually, whether you like Gaddafi or not, Libya, by all appreciable standards, had the highest standard of living in Africa, under Gaddafi. If western-style democracy was a yardstick for determining developmental success, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries in Africa would not be in their present predicaments. Let's take a look at some of the comforts and benefits Libyans enjoyed under Gaddafi and draw our own conclusions.

When Gaddafi took over, Libyans had an average annual income of about $60. His government brought Libya from poverty and debt to prosperity and debt-free status education from the kindergarten stage through college was free. Health care was free as well. Under Gaddafi's oil-revenue-sharing program, each Libyan had $500 (five hundred US dollars) deposited into his or her bank account each month. After marriage, each couple was given as much as $60,000 (sixty thousand US dollars) to spend. Libya gave free land and seeds to anyone who wanted to take up farming as an occupation.

Water and electricity were free in Libya. Petrol/fuel was sold at 75 cents a gallon under Gaddafi. There was virtually no homelessness as everyone was given a home. Undernourishment in Libya under Gaddafi was as low as 2% - a figure lower than that of the world center of "democracy," the USA. For any medical care or health treatments that were unavailable in Libya, the Libyan citizen's full expenses for travel, treatment and accommodation to wherever was required for treatment were borne by the Libyan government. Before Gaddafi, literacy in Libya was only 10%. Under Gaddafi's leadership, literacy has risen to over 80%. Unlike some Arab states, women in Libya under Gaddafi had equal rights; not only as a philosophy, but in practice.

Libyans had a direct participatory democracy based on people's conferences. The Gaddafi regime invested billions to bring fresh water from southern Libya's desert to coastal areas like Tripoli and Benghazi. This man-made river is a worldwide acclaimed achievement that stands as a testimony to Gaddafi's huge contribution to the economic development of Libya. Folks, note that this project which cost Libya about $35 billion (US dollars) was exclusively financed by Libya's Central Bank without borrowing a cent from abroad.

So, if these eye-popping achievements are not enough, then what exactly is the NATO agenda? What are they bringing to Libya that is better than what Gaddafi achieved? I sympathize with Libyans - and why not? In the name of western-style "democracy," a hitherto affluent African nation has decided to take a dangerous u-turn and thus join the large group of third world countries in Africa.

The western propaganda machine is so deadly that they pick and choose what to report to the outside world with regards to the situation in Libya. Whatever event goes against their interests and machinations is not reported. How can NATO bomb roads, ports, buildings and oil fields' equipment and yet claim to be assisting in a just cause? It's about democracy, they contend; and some of us have ignorantly bought into that nonsense! If this maze of confusion and corruption in Ghana is what democracy is about, I'd rather take a Gaddafi-type system any day. Ultimately, life is about the search for the best means of achieving improved and quality lifestyles. Did Gaddafi fail Libyans in that regard?

For NATO, it's been a job "well executed." They have managed once again to bring a strong and thriving economy to its knees. Even as these ignorant rebels chant and wave flags, they are yet to come to grips with reality; they do not realize that they are now in the full clutches of the west - they have now become YES-MEN; and would listen to and obey their NATO masters. As Ghanaians and Africans, we must honestly ask ourselves whether our so-called leaders have what it takes to stand up to the west when it comes to issues that are not in our interest. The usual "Uncle Tom" attitude exhibited by our leaders does not bode well for the African continent. What is the essence of the AU if our leaders cannot take an emphatic stand and come to the aid of one of their own in times of need? A bunch of "Uncle Toms," that's what they are!

Ghanaian and African leaders had better wake up and get their act together! If the Libyan situation has not served as an eye-opener to our recalcitrant and NATO-serving leaders, I don't know what will. God bless mother Ghana!

After what recently happened in Libya, one is apt to wonder what democracy really stands for. If democracy is the keyword used to justify the destruction of human lives and property, then God help us all!

Yes, the NATO-aided NTC rebels have apparently managed to do away with Muammar Gaddafi, and Ghana, among other African countries has, after a little hesitation, decided to do obeisance to the western powers by recognizing these anti-Gaddafi miscreants. The question now remains: does a post-Gaddafi Libya hope to become a land of milk and honey? Believe me, that would be a very tall order because actually, whether you like Gaddafi or not, Libya, by all appreciable standards, had the highest standard of living in Africa, under Gaddafi. If western-style democracy was a yardstick for determining developmental success, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries in Africa would not be in their present predicaments. Let's take a look at some of the comforts and benefits Libyans enjoyed under Gaddafi and draw our own conclusions.

When Gaddafi took over, Libyans had an average annual income of about $60. His government brought Libya from poverty and debt to prosperity and debt-free status education from the kindergarten stage through college was free. Health care was free as well. Under Gaddafi's oil-revenue-sharing program, each Libyan had $500 (five hundred US dollars) deposited into his or her bank account each month. After marriage, each couple was given as much as $60,000 (sixty thousand US dollars) to spend. Libya gave free land and seeds to anyone who wanted to take up farming as an occupation.

Water and electricity were free in Libya. Petrol/fuel was sold at 75 cents a gallon under Gaddafi. There was virtually no homelessness as everyone was given a home. Undernourishment in Libya under Gaddafi was as low as 2% - a figure lower than that of the world center of "democracy," the USA. For any medical care or health treatments that were unavailable in Libya, the Libyan citizen's full expenses for travel, treatment and accommodation to wherever was required for treatment were borne by the Libyan government. Before Gaddafi, literacy in Libya was only 10%. Under Gaddafi's leadership, literacy has risen to over 80%. Unlike some Arab states, women in Libya under Gaddafi had equal rights; not only as a philosophy, but in practice.

Libyans had a direct participatory democracy based on people's conferences. The Gaddafi regime invested billions to bring fresh water from southern Libya's desert to coastal areas like Tripoli and Benghazi. This man-made river is a worldwide acclaimed achievement that stands as a testimony to Gaddafi's huge contribution to the economic development of Libya. Folks, note that this project which cost Libya about $35 billion (US dollars) was exclusively financed by Libya's Central Bank without borrowing a cent from abroad.

So, if these eye-popping achievements are not enough, then what exactly is the NATO agenda? What are they bringing to Libya that is better than what Gaddafi achieved? I sympathize with Libyans - and why not? In the name of western-style "democracy," a hitherto affluent African nation has decided to take a dangerous u-turn and thus join the large group of third world countries in Africa.

The western propaganda machine is so deadly that they pick and choose what to report to the outside world with regards to the situation in Libya. Whatever event goes against their interests and machinations is not reported. How can NATO bomb roads, ports, buildings and oil fields' equipment and yet claim to be assisting in a just cause? It's about democracy, they contend; and some of us have ignorantly bought into that nonsense! If this maze of confusion and corruption in Ghana is what democracy is about, I'd rather take a Gaddafi-type system any day. Ultimately, life is about the search for the best means of achieving improved and quality lifestyles. Did Gaddafi fail Libyans in that regard?

For NATO, it's been a job "well executed." They have managed once again to bring a strong and thriving economy to its knees. Even as these ignorant rebels chant and wave flags, they are yet to come to grips with reality; they do not realize that they are now in the full clutches of the west - they have now become YES-MEN; and would listen to and obey their NATO masters. As Ghanaians and Africans, we must honestly ask ourselves whether our so-called leaders have what it takes to stand up to the west when it comes to issues that are not in our interest. The usual "Uncle Tom" attitude exhibited by our leaders does not bode well for the African continent. What is the essence of the AU if our leaders cannot take an emphatic stand and come to the aid of one of their own in times of need? A bunch of "Uncle Toms," that's what they are!

Ghanaian and African leaders had better wake up and get their act together! If the Libyan situation has not served as an eye-opener to our recalcitrant and NATO-serving leaders, I don't know what will. God bless mother Ghana!

thanks ekt