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 Foreign Affairs › European & Arab Ancient Trade War On Africans Continues by nobaga(op): 10:58pm On Jan 20, 2019 |
African Economic and Trade negotiators need a touch of history not by miseducation or threat of war. Where are the children of the Zulu, Ashanti and Yoruba that stood down the British and fought gallantly against domineering the trade routes in Africa? It has been postulated for a long time by a few historians that religious capture of Africa was not by force but by persuasion or gentle religious conversions. Actually, nothing can be further from the truth over centuries. African Economic and Trade negotiators need a touch of history not by miseducation or threat of war. This is why Africans accept Structural Adjustment: devaluation of African currencies in countries with more gold reserves than foreign gold standard. It is no more only the Europeans and Arabs; but Americans, Russians and Asians are now principals and competing partners for the rush into African resources. By exchanging it almost for nothing paid in Zimbabwe dollars. The motivation of the Moroccan Army in the ancient invasion of Songhai was for the same economic greed to convert resources that had been exposed by Christian Muslims missionaries and our Emperors. One of the ancient trade routes for kola nuts and of course gold from Ashanti and Oyo regions into Gao opened before that of Oyo, Hausa States and Timbuktu route. Africa traded with one another horizontally in The Rainforest as freemen before contemporary notion as slaves sold vertically to the Middle East, Europe and Americas. Their presence was known and recorded in various terms by Herodotus, Ibn Battuta and later by Ahmed Baba. These Emperors and kings were what the British and Moroccan Army met, destroyed and whitewashed (as Hamitic). Chaka Zulu extraordinary accomplishment with locally made weapons, obliterated 1500 British soldiers and defeated their Army at Isandhlwana. This was the greatest triumph of an African Army against Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa. But then, the British always sought vengeance. The British never gave up, they had to send for reinforcement from home and locals, employed African soldiers against Africans to buoy their troops. In 1789 the British eventually defeated the Zulu at the Battle of Ulundi. In order to prevent more starvation of his people, the Zulu king ordered his warriors to stop fighting. British always use protectorate for self-economic interest. Ashanti forces in 1873, also surrounded the British protectorate that was too close for comfort, invaded and subdued them. After this remarkable initial success, the British forced Ashanti to retreat. The attempt to negotiate a peaceful resolution was rejected by the British commander, Sir Garnet Wolseley. In January 1874 a large British Army with African soldiers led by Wolseley fought into Ashanti land. They captured Kumasi, the Ashanti capital, ruined and set it ablaze. Jaja of Opobo that was one of the first African nationalist bypassing the British as middlemen to establish independent trade route to Europe as an indigenous produce export trader; used his influence and wealth from the palm oil trade to grab enormous political and military power. He was so powerful, in 1875 the British sought his Army’s help to prosecute the Ashanti War. Queen Victoria rewarded him with a sword of honor (Fajana and Biggs 1976:138). Appreciation for helping to put down his Ashanti brothers’ struggle against the British that came to divide African trade for the British. Today, rewards are from London School of Economics and Harvard. Contrasting Jaja and Nana with their contemporaries such as Sultan Attahiru of Sokoto, Oba Ovonramwen of Benin and Awujale Aboki Tunwase of Ijebuland, to mention but a few, fought relentlessly to defend the corporate existence and political sovereignties of their respective kingdoms. If open aggression failed then, Structural Adjustment and Devaluation are worse. Ironically, when the Yoruba in Ilorin wanted to subjugate their fellow Yoruba, they sought the help of some Fulani that backfired on them. They provoked united Yoruba Army led by Ibadan, halted at Oshogbo by soundly routing enemies out, to shambles. Surviving Fulani mercenaries were released back to their enclaves while their Ilorin Yoruba leaders were beheaded in Oyo. Indeed, when the Ijebu fought the British, if the Yoruba had united their Army the same way they did against Ilorin and their mercenaries at Oshogbo, to support their own blood and kin; Yoruba land could have been liberated from European Army’s devilish economic interest. Most Africans do not realize we spend disproportional part of our income buying ammunition from super powers that we can make ourselves in Africa. Countries like South Africa, Iran and India make their own. Actually, Iran did bluff that unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran don’t have to depend on the super powers for arms. So more African countries can start making their own arms too. Even Vice Admiral Michael Franken, Deputy Commander of Operations for US Africa Command (AFRICOM) that was at Fletcher Maritime Studies Program in the School of Government at Harvard in March 2017, wondered how Nigeria could possibly afford to buy the type of fighter jet requested to fight Boko Haram when it would take up most of its budget. The same money could be used to produce their own, fortify soldiers, for food, infrastructure and education. Usually, there are agreements in place with super powers that restrict buyers. Their fighter jets or advanced warships must not be retrofitted, adapted or produce spare parts locally. A country like Iran and others have violated each of these. Indeed, Russia and China copy US made fighters when available to them, through third parties or when bought directly. They then violate all the agreements that came with each. There is always the fear of one African ethnic domination over the other if manufacturing plant is located in one region. However, these plants can be divided into different locations so that they can create a balance just like the refineries of crude oil or industrial farms. If it is highly secretive, it can still be built in a central location, easily accessible to the whole country. Mind you, nobody is agitating for arms factory instead of food and consumer goods factories. Indeed, in a civilized world, neither super powers nor developing countries should champion arm production race. It only appeals to our animalistic instinct to dominate one another by force since the days of bow and arrows. Human, resort to force when our mental faculties have gone ballistic and we could not negotiate a peace or trade treaty. Instead of peaceful trade worldwide, we have skewed, unfair and unbalanced trade that favor the most powerful countries. Each time they negotiate with poor or developing countries, they always weld a big stick bragging they would “bomb the hell” out of us. As developing countries, Africa has hardly got a fair shake since the ancient times when we dominated the gold, salt and kolanut market. Nevertheless, as chivalry, guns and bombs replaced and dominated the trade route, peaceful trade faded in favor of domineering empires looking to capture natural resources and slaves. The more Africans resigned themselves to superior fire threats, the more their religious and domineering cultures entrenched themselves. They came to repress and dislodge our own civilization and replaced it with theirs, as peaceful co-existence within their protectorates. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Sunday, January 20, 2019 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/274836/european-arab-ancient-trade-war-on-africans-continues.html# 1 Like |
| Politics › This Year We Must First Create Peace Within Ourselves by nobaga(op): 2:24am On Jan 05, 2019 |
This Year We Must First Create Peace Within Ourselves Personal satisfaction leads to happiness. It creates an aura that can spread and radiates around people of goodwill, those seeking happiness and good health without greed in their lives. Some project this character to attract in disguise, take advantage of others’ weakness and create conflicts. This charade cannot be sustained for very long except to those seeking gain where they did not sow hard work or sweat hoping but wishing for miracles. Heaven only helps those who help themselves. The Troubled soul is a dangerous state of mind. If we do not have peace within ourselves, it is difficult to create peace you do not have for others. So, physician is asked to heal thyself before he can heal others. But physicians that work on women or deliver a baby they never had, must have been trained as obstetrician or gynecologist. The difference is training, skill, process of mind or purification peacemaker had within before he could find or create peace for others. What matters is our reputation because it outlives us. We can spend a whole lifetime building a good character for lasting reputation only to be destroyed in a day. This is the reason well-earned reputation is worth fighting for and preserving, even in the face of doubts and jealousy to destroy it. A good reputation can be tested. Indeed, jealousy may turn out to be a validation of success among your peers. It shows how far you have gone creating peace within. We know that a hungry man is an angry man, what about a well fed angry man? The ones that satisfy their anger on the misfortune of others. It takes the last straw to break the camel's back before a hungry man reacts. But it takes a flip of the finger, the whims and caprices of a well fed man to perpetrate calamity. Do not forget, it is much harder to build but easier to destroy. No amount of wealth can satisfy greed and power, even when well-fed man have both! Power and greed are insatiable drugs. It is peace within that lives and let others live. It has nothing to do with self-defense against those that came up in your face to take advantage of your gentility as a sign of weakness. But when you go after the meek and the weak because they are least able to defend themselves, you have issues and misplaced anger that must be ameliorated within you before you can create peace in and outside your communities. What does a man gain as a pastor, politician, imam or spiritual leader that command believers to eat grass, demands the sacrifice of their loved ones like a lamb or order affliction of pain or destruction only to satisfy his anger or indulgence as power drunk. The primordial instincts or hedonistic tendencies of a well-fed angry man is much worse than that of a poor hungry man. There are no people anywhere that cannot do more with peace, civility, love and happiness. The problem is well fed angry people feed on misery of others by creating chaos. They project their evil mind on others as survival tactics like blood sucking Vampire. It does not have to be, with all the privileges they enjoy. But the anger in them burns like a hot iron. They have no respite until they are delivered or cured of their afflictions. We have seen this throughout history. Sooner than later, it has resulted in uncontainable chaos beyond the capacity of the evil perpetrator. They beam false confidence as if everything on earth is within their power and reassure their minority base that whatever they agitate would never spin out of control even when they run the risk. But their immediate need for gratification overwhelms their deranged brain. Name any community, you will find a case in point. https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/274307/this-year-we-must-first-create-peace-within-ourselves.html# These well fed angry men started out as bullies early, in schools. Some tortured little animals and gradually move on to torture weaker classmates by making fun of them to destroy their self-esteem. The same self-esteem they lack only comes by destroying that of others for self-validation. They turn from mental abuse to physical abuse especially against those that cannot stand up to them and fight back. Remember now, they are bullies. Teachers might see them as boisterous or just rowdy before they realized they had a bully that would graduate into a thug. While some may drop out of school, those from privileged homes get away with abnormal behavior requiring early intervention for anger management. Once teachers and authorities overlook the dangerous trends, the evil grows in them. They enjoy the ability to create more mischief and get away with it. On the other hand, less privileged kids end up in reformed schools, treatments centers and correctional facilities. Sometimes on the streets. Unfortunately, for less abusive behavior than these privileged kids. While privileged kids make it to the best institutions inside or outside their country, less privileged children eventually drop out and may end up in jail. It is important that we realize that well-fed angry men did not suddenly become a narcissist, they started earlier and got away with it. Some have attributed their devious minds to certain genetic makeup or disorder. Do not bet on that. The main reason is impunity and the audacity by which they commit murder, brag about it and get away with it while others similarly situated languish in jail for the rest of their lives or head to the guillotine for the same offense. They are so sure of what they could get away with based on their experience, shady characters they admired as heroes and the encouragement they get from a narrow minority in powerful positions. Yet most people would not expect people in such exalted positions to condone these atrocities because of their positions and the righteous image they project. Nevertheless, they were the ones that use legal tactics, religious and immoral logistics to rationalize unbecoming behavior they condemned others for. They use the instrument of the system to protect themselves and their children but use the same system to cajole, threaten, prosecute and persecute others. The difference between a bully that wants power and a decent opponent boils down to consequences of their action. Bullies want to win by any means necessary to achieve their narrow personal goals while consequences to the majority are irrelevant. It is all about the reckless behavior to use any available means that is receptive at the expense of the masses. However, Nemesis, Karma or African Aiyelala always catch up with them. Most end up miserably eventually caged inside their communities or on the run for exile, disguising their appearance moving from one location to another for fear of been caught. It has been claimed that we need a strong system to prevent such well-fed angry men, they forgot that even the system itself could be corrupted! Most finally pay for their demonic deeds by the last straw that breaks the camel's back. When the hungry, cheated and dispossessed get angry and had enough. Unfortunately, revolt against them or jungle justice also claim innocent lives, they are called collateral damages. Well-fed angry men either lose power, get captured, incarcerated or succumb to suicide. They end up miserably. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Friday, January 4, 2019 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/274307/this-year-we-must-first-create-peace-within-ourselves.html# |
| Politics › This Gifted Showoff Teaser Is Infectious by nobaga(op): 6:55pm On Dec 26, 2018 |
.Published: Saturday, December 8, 2018 https://www.modernghana.com/print/902858/1/stop-gifted-showoff-teasers-daring-our-poor-majority-to-crime.html |
| Celebrities › Re: Stop: “gifted” Showoff Teasers by nobaga(op): 6:45pm On Dec 26, 2018 |
This is the season for giving to the less privileged, not for flaunting ill-gotten money or beating your chest until you face justice inside or outside Nigeria. Your admirers are feeble minded. |
| Politics › Re: Stop Gifted Showoff To Incite Your Poor Majority To Crime by nobaga(op): 2:58pm On Dec 08, 2018 |
Most celebrities cannot help themselves but remind others how far they have come from poverty |
| Celebrities › Stop: “gifted” Showoff Teasers by nobaga(op): 2:54pm On Dec 08, 2018 |
Stop: “gifted” Showoff Teasers Daring Our Poor Majority To Crime Philanthropy is not new in Africa, it is part of our culture. We pride ourselves by how generous we were to our neighbors and communities. There was a boss of ours that reminded us of this African way of life. People whispered behind his back that the children of his girlfriend he was sending to school were not his. He whispered back that if he could send the children of those he hardly knew in his community and children of his house helps to schools, why not those of his girlfriends. This is who we are as Africans. Many philanthropists that made their money through inventions, investments and sound management growing whatever they had into millions and billions in rich and middle class countries extend their riches to the poor, not only in their own countries but beyond. We still do not have enough of those in African countries despite the fact that we have more billionaires than small countries in Europe. Instead of giving back to the communities, Showoffs ridicule their communities, made up of mostly poor folks with their “gifted” presents to favorites. What are these “gifted” instigators promoting by humiliating those that cannot afford the presents they pompously display on social media to obsequious relatives, if not to drive those without their means to do the same by drug peddling, armed robbery or rituals. You do not have to go to social media for cheap publicity, go to your village and fund noble projects begging for sponsorships. Poverty is still rampant and getting worse in your communities. Indeed, “gifted” have overshadowed the humble ones feeding the poor, homeless and paying other people children’s school fees. This is how we grew up when the communities had less desperate, hungry and hardly homeless people. So the more impoverished the communities become, the more insensitive moneybags have become displaying their indifference or lack of candor. They can afford armed security but they set off the poor against the poor without it. How many countries where majority of their people are middle class display ostentatious and lavish “gifted” presents to relatives and friends to spite and tease the poor? It only happens in poor countries and communities with ghetto mentalities where majority of your folks cannot afford three square meals a day. Ironically, most of these people inciting the poor to crimes, daring us to match them, came from humble homes themselves. Since they acquired money by fame, hook or crook, they challenge others to salivate or imitate them in deeds beyond the means of folks in their communities. If you flash so called “gifted” presents on social media, you are asking, begging and calling for attention. Do not cry when you are deluged by beggars, do not hide or complain since you attracted them or those armed robbers in the first place. Beggars could only calculate your net worth by the way you presented yourself. Unfortunately, guilt by association, those struggling, managing their lives and cutting their coats according to their size, are also inundated for gifts. If you don’t give them what you don’t have, they call you stingy. There are other class of people that want to be seen within certain crowd, live in certain area and wear the same uniform they can hardly afford to parties. They are living up to the Joneses. It is vanity that has no substance. They not only fool many people, they also fool themselves until they end up in jail! Why do you have to record your outlandish exotic presents that are not manufactured locally creating jobs, on social media to spite or challenge decent folks? Especially in a community where most of the people are dirt poor. If you are not inciting armed and pen robbers, you are inviting reckless competition from struggling and hardworking folks to look for unscrupulous ways to follow your steps by any means possible. This show of decadence in the midst of poverty reminds us how they drove local manufacturers of automobiles, cotton or lace, tires, palm oil out of business in a race to the bottom. Even if the foreign cars are used products, as long as they are exotic and foreign, they would tickle your fancy. In the days Army took over by coup d’état, they started using locally manufactured cars. As they got entrenched, they moved up to imported luxury cars. Khaki boys in Mercedes! Since most African countries got their Independence in the fifties and sixties, taste and choice remain that of consumers of what we neither make nor produce. They buy jets and maintain them overseas. Producers of nothing have no fear of the days of reckoning in dwindling foreign reserves and orchestrated devaluation of their currencies. They are ready to justify anything no matter how detrimental it is to local economy. Policies that save local forex are disparaged and those encouraging moderation in using forex to spur local production are condemned. Yet, we have the few privileged minority gloating at the presentation of “gifted” to their relatives and friends in order to create jealousy, dare or challenge others to match them. These same drainage of foreign reserves had incurred jail sentences in the past. Again, now that forex reserve is open to these privileged few, they forgot Dr. Harold Shodipo, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and others that were jailed for the same but far less foreign currencies possession. We had a friend in those days who made a deal with his wife. During a wedding or ceremony, he would spray stupendously on her, knowing he would get his money back. Okay, if he did not get all the money back, the wife would at least spend most on him and the house. On the other hand, we have foolish people spending so much on food and drinks for everyone until they have little left for the following day. Some sane folks attend parties with plastic bags (doggie bags) in their decorated bags where they store some of the food and drinks for the day after. The reason we teach children about community service and some reputable universities demand community service for admission, is to instill some humane character so that their future can be better than ours. Most of our universities have no community service on their radar anymore. Those conspicuous spenders do not care about their own future or that of other people’s children. They only care about now and themselves. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Saturday, December 8, 2018 https://www.modernghana.com/print/902858/1/stop-gifted-showoff-teasers-daring-our-poor-majority-to-crime.html |
| Politics › Stop Gifted Showoff To Incite Your Poor Majority To Crime by nobaga(op): 10:23am On Dec 08, 2018 |
Stop: “gifted” Showoff Teasers Daring Our Poor Majority To Crime Philanthropy is not new in Africa, it is part of our culture. We pride ourselves by how generous we were to our neighbors and communities. There was a boss of ours that reminded us of this African way of life. People whispered behind his back that the children of his girlfriend he was sending to school were not his. He whispered back that if he could send the children of those he hardly knew in his community and children of his house helps to schools, why not those of his girlfriends. This is who we are as Africans. Many philanthropists that made their money through inventions, investments and sound management growing whatever they had into millions and billions in rich and middle class countries extend their riches to the poor, not only in their own countries but beyond. We still do not have enough of those in African countries despite the fact that we have more billionaires than small countries in Europe. Instead of giving back to the communities, Showoffs ridicule their communities, made up of mostly poor folks with their “gifted” presents to favorites. What are these “gifted” instigators promoting by humiliating those that cannot afford the presents they pompously display on social media to obsequious relatives, if not to drive those without their means to do the same by drug peddling, armed robbery or rituals. You do not have to go to social media for cheap publicity, go to your village and fund noble projects begging for sponsorships. Poverty is still rampant and getting worse in your communities. Indeed, “gifted” have overshadowed the humble ones feeding the poor, homeless and paying other people children’s school fees. This is how we grew up when the communities had less desperate, hungry and hardly homeless people. So the more impoverished the communities become, the more insensitive moneybags have become displaying their indifference or lack of candor. They can afford armed security but they set off the poor against the poor without it. How many countries where majority of their people are middle class display ostentatious and lavish “gifted” presents to relatives and friends to spite and tease the poor? It only happens in poor countries and communities with ghetto mentalities where majority of your folks cannot afford three square meals a day. Ironically, most of these people inciting the poor to crimes, daring us to match them, came from humble homes themselves. Since they acquired money by fame, hook or crook, they challenge others to salivate or imitate them in deeds beyond the means of folks in their communities. If you flash so called “gifted” presents on social media, you are asking, begging and calling for attention. Do not cry when you are deluged by beggars, do not hide or complain since you attracted them or those armed robbers in the first place. Beggars could only calculate your net worth by the way you presented yourself. Unfortunately, guilt by association, those struggling, managing their lives and cutting their coats according to their size, are also inundated for gifts. If you don’t give them what you don’t have, they call you stingy. There are other class of people that want to be seen within certain crowd, live in certain area and wear the same uniform they can hardly afford to parties. They are living up to the Joneses. It is vanity that has no substance. They not only fool many people, they also fool themselves until they end up in jail! Why do you have to record your outlandish exotic presents that are not manufactured locally creating jobs, on social media to spite or challenge decent folks? Especially in a community where most of the people are dirt poor. If you are not inciting armed and pen robbers, you are inviting reckless competition from struggling and hardworking folks to look for unscrupulous ways to follow your steps by any means possible. This show of decadence in the midst of poverty reminds us how they drove local manufacturers of automobiles, cotton or lace, tires, palm oil out of business in a race to the bottom. Even if the foreign cars are used products, as long as they are exotic and foreign, they would tickle your fancy. In the days Army took over by coup d’état, they started using locally manufactured cars. As they got entrenched, they moved up to imported luxury cars. Khaki boys in Mercedes! Since most African countries got their Independence in the fifties and sixties, taste and choice remain that of consumers of what we neither make nor produce. They buy jets and maintain them overseas. Producers of nothing have no fear of the days of reckoning in dwindling foreign reserves and orchestrated devaluation of their currencies. They are ready to justify anything no matter how detrimental it is to local economy. Policies that save local forex are disparaged and those encouraging moderation in using forex to spur local production are condemned. Yet, we have the few privileged minority gloating at the presentation of “gifted” to their relatives and friends in order to create jealousy, dare or challenge others to match them. These same drainage of foreign reserves had incurred jail sentences in the past. Again, now that forex reserve is open to these privileged few, they forgot Dr. Harold Shodipo, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and others that were jailed for the same but far less foreign currencies possession. We had a friend in those days who made a deal with his wife. During a wedding or ceremony, he would spray stupendously on her, knowing he would get his money back. Okay, if he did not get all the money back, the wife would at least spend most on him and the house. On the other hand, we have foolish people spending so much on food and drinks for everyone until they have little left for the following day. Some sane folks attend parties with plastic bags (doggie bags) in their decorated bags where they store some of the food and drinks for the day after. The reason we teach children about community service and some reputable universities demand community service for admission, is to instill some humane character so that their future can be better than ours. Most of our universities have no community service on their radar anymore. Those conspicuous spenders do not care about their own future or that of other people’s children. They only care about now and themselves. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Saturday, December 8, 2018 https://www.modernghana.com/print/902858/1/stop-gifted-showoff-teasers-daring-our-poor-majority-to-crime.html |
| Culture › Europe & Americas Stole And Denied Africa’s Civilization by nobaga(op): 3:46pm On Nov 11, 2018 |
Europe & Americas Stole And Denied Africa’s Civilization The reason the present looks bleak is the value Africans placed on the culture that are emulated and exchanged for gold, blood and sweat. So, they have new generation of Africans claiming they are tired of past history, but interested in the present. Some of the ways African children are demoralized and brainwashed to value every skin tone but their own black skin and proven brain power are to steal, obliterate and when everything fails hide their accomplished history and culture from them. Transfer of intellectual properties and natural resources without credit, conscience or payment is the greatest mistake of Africans. Those old enough remember how the British accused Americans of intellectual theft and the younger ones today are witnessing Americans accusing the Chinese and Japanese of intellectual property theft. One can only imagine the cost of these thefts from Africa by Europe and Americas if we put the theft of Africa’s intellectual and natural resources into the same perspective. Therefore, this is not about ancient history just to make African children feel good but on why your rich culture and invention are hidden from you. Before we move on, we must understand how the definition of black has changed over the years. This is intentional in order to hide the great work of black people in history. Ethiopia, Sudan and Meroe were at the forefront of world power and civilization. Egypt was a colony of Ethiopia. While it is a fact reflected in countries around Mediterranean Sea and the so called Middle East that there were European, Arab, Christian and Muslim conquests, they mixed and intermarried with the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Sudanese of Meroe. White and white blood could not produce colored Egyptians today. Aristotle, one of the greatest of Greek philosophers, wrote in Physiognomonica that "the Ethiopians and Egyptians are very black". Herodotus (also a Greek historian) adds that the ancient Egyptians had "black skin and wooly hair”. Luckily, they hardly penetrated their goal: honeypot of the real source of gold, iron and slaves until much later. Even then, most of them could not survive the tropical rain-forest because of Tsetse flies. The priests of Egypt cited from records in their holy books that in the former times they were visited by Orpheus and Musaeus, Melampos, Daedalos. Besides, the poet Homer, Lycurgus the Spartan, Solon the Athenian, and Plato the philosopher, Pythagoras of Samos and the mathematician Eudoxus, as well as Democritus of Abdera; Oenopides of Chios, also came to Africa. http://www.asante.net/articles/26/afrocentricity/ Africans are told of the richest woman and man of all times, the Queen of Sheba and Mansa Kankan Musa. Africans are so proud of them, they beam with pride of their intercontinental adventures carrying gifts of gold and diamond, the old currencies on which modern currency of gold standard was based. They spent so much, the African Queen and Emperor depressed world markets. Their lavish spending was legendary. The Queen of Sheba and Musa Kankan Musa were fools spending like drunken sailors while the rest of the world were tracing the source of their wealth to loot. Apart from Ethiopia and its colony Egypt; gold, diamond and ivory flourished further south into the Rainforest where the Great Empire of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Bornu sourced their wealth. African kings and queens are so rich; they always attract outsiders to honeypot. Ancient Zimbabwe was claimed as the work of some mixed race to deny Africans the credit. The largest diamond is “Star of Africa I,” or “Cullinan I,” weighed 530 carats, it is the largest-cut fine-quality colorless diamond in the world. The second largest stone, the “Star of Africa II” or “Cullinan II,” was 317 carats from South Africa. Mungo Park and other explorers that ventured deeper into the South, battled TseTse Fly and malaria before they could reap the booties they came for. Indeed, Kwame Nkrumah honored TseTse flies for their victorious battle against invaders which kept them abbey for a long time. But for TseTse Fly, invasion by the Moroccan into Songhai Empire could have gone longer and further South to capture the gold mines earlier. When you want to hang a dog, you give it a bad name. Every race around the world fought wars and conquered their neighbors as slaves. Slaves were demonized and treated badly, in most cases dehumanized so that they can be kept working in the most inhumane back-breaking tasks. As the cost and source of labor became scarce and too expensive within, Empires traded and looked for riches beyond their continents. Indeed, Emperors became hungrier for fame, riches and conquests. Slave trade took a sinister turn: as if it was not repulsive enough, when inter-continental conquests intensified into the 18th to the 19th centuries. For about five hundred years, the same Africa that was the source of Philosophy in Arts and Sciences was plunged into darkness by the inhuman treatment of man to man. Inhospitable and treasonous treatment had to be justified by dehumanization, bereavement of culture and civilization. Europe and America colonization in the form of trade were later repetition of the greed of Moroccan Army for African natural resources in Songhai. Africans cannot claim westerners sold them empty vanities in exchange for natural resources, especially if they are naive enough not to see through Structural Adjustment and Devaluations of their currencies in countries that gold reserves should have favored them with gold standard. Africa gold is everything westerners have ever wanted: apart from it natural resources, brain power, goods and services arduously supplied and for which little is paid. It’s mere logic that it is not how much you earn but how much is spent. No matter how much you have or earn, you can end up owing much more if you place enormous or greater value on what others produce but nothing or little value on what you produce or refuse to. It has been stated for centuries that if the Egyptians and Pharaoh understood how Moses predicted and save them from famine, they would not have treated the Jews so badly. Times and circumstances changed and ungrateful children ignore or forget the good deeds rendered to their forefathers. This is mainly the reason the next generation pay back the children of their African benefactors ungracefully. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Sunday, November 11, 2018 https://www.modernghana.com/news/896638/europe-americas-stole-and-denied-africas-civilization.html# 1 Like 1 Share |
| Foreign Affairs › Europe & Americas Stole And Denied Africa’s Civilization by nobaga(op): 3:38pm On Nov 11, 2018 |
Europe & Americas Stole And Denied Africa’s Civilization The reason the present looks bleak is the value Africans placed on the culture that are emulated and exchanged for gold, blood and sweat. So, they have new generation of Africans claiming they are tired of past history, but interested in the present. Some of the ways African children are demoralized and brainwashed to value every skin tone but their own black skin and proven brain power are to steal, obliterate and when everything fails hide their accomplished history and culture from them. Transfer of intellectual properties and natural resources without credit, conscience or payment is the greatest mistake of Africans. Those old enough remember how the British accused Americans of intellectual theft and the younger ones today are witnessing Americans accusing the Chinese and Japanese of intellectual property theft. One can only imagine the cost of these thefts from Africa by Europe and Americas if we put the theft of Africa’s intellectual and natural resources into the same perspective. Therefore, this is not about ancient history just to make African children feel good but on why your rich culture and invention are hidden from you. Before we move on, we must understand how the definition of black has changed over the years. This is intentional in order to hide the great work of black people in history. Ethiopia, Sudan and Meroe were at the forefront of world power and civilization. Egypt was a colony of Ethiopia. While it is a fact reflected in countries around Mediterranean Sea and the so called Middle East that there were European, Arab, Christian and Muslim conquests, they mixed and intermarried with the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Sudanese of Meroe. White and white blood could not produce colored Egyptians today. Aristotle, one of the greatest of Greek philosophers, wrote in Physiognomonica that "the Ethiopians and Egyptians are very black". Herodotus (also a Greek historian) adds that the ancient Egyptians had "black skin and wooly hair”. Luckily, they hardly penetrated their goal: honeypot of the real source of gold, iron and slaves until much later. Even then, most of them could not survive the tropical rain-forest because of Tsetse flies. The priests of Egypt cited from records in their holy books that in the former times they were visited by Orpheus and Musaeus, Melampos, Daedalos. Besides, the poet Homer, Lycurgus the Spartan, Solon the Athenian, and Plato the philosopher, Pythagoras of Samos and the mathematician Eudoxus, as well as Democritus of Abdera; Oenopides of Chios, also came to Africa. http://www.asante.net/articles/26/afrocentricity/ Africans are told of the richest woman and man of all times, the Queen of Sheba and Mansa Kankan Musa. Africans are so proud of them, they beam with pride of their intercontinental adventures carrying gifts of gold and diamond, the old currencies on which modern currency of gold standard was based. They spent so much, the African Queen and Emperor depressed world markets. Their lavish spending was legendary. The Queen of Sheba and Musa Kankan Musa were fools spending like drunken sailors while the rest of the world were tracing the source of their wealth to loot. Apart from Ethiopia and its colony Egypt; gold, diamond and ivory flourished further south into the Rainforest where the Great Empire of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Bornu sourced their wealth. African kings and queens are so rich; they always attract outsiders to honeypot. Ancient Zimbabwe was claimed as the work of some mixed race to deny Africans the credit. The largest diamond is “Star of Africa I,” or “Cullinan I,” weighed 530 carats, it is the largest-cut fine-quality colorless diamond in the world. The second largest stone, the “Star of Africa II” or “Cullinan II,” was 317 carats from South Africa. Mungo Park and other explorers that ventured deeper into the South, battled TseTse Fly and malaria before they could reap the booties they came for. Indeed, Kwame Nkrumah honored TseTse flies for their victorious battle against invaders which kept them abbey for a long time. But for TseTse Fly, invasion by the Moroccan into Songhai Empire could have gone longer and further South to capture the gold mines earlier. When you want to hang a dog, you give it a bad name. Every race around the world fought wars and conquered their neighbors as slaves. Slaves were demonized and treated badly, in most cases dehumanized so that they can be kept working in the most inhumane back-breaking tasks. As the cost and source of labor became scarce and too expensive within, Empires traded and looked for riches beyond their continents. Indeed, Emperors became hungrier for fame, riches and conquests. Slave trade took a sinister turn: as if it was not repulsive enough, when inter-continental conquests intensified into the 18th to the 19th centuries. For about five hundred years, the same Africa that was the source of Philosophy in Arts and Sciences was plunged into darkness by the inhuman treatment of man to man. Inhospitable and treasonous treatment had to be justified by dehumanization, bereavement of culture and civilization. Europe and America colonization in the form of trade were later repetition of the greed of Moroccan Army for African natural resources in Songhai. Africans cannot claim westerners sold them empty vanities in exchange for natural resources, especially if they are naive enough not to see through Structural Adjustment and Devaluations of their currencies in countries that gold reserves should have favored them with gold standard. Africa gold is everything westerners have ever wanted: apart from it natural resources, brain power, goods and services arduously supplied and for which little is paid. It’s mere logic that it is not how much you earn but how much is spent. No matter how much you have or earn, you can end up owing much more if you place enormous or greater value on what others produce but nothing or little value on what you produce or refuse to. It has been stated for centuries that if the Egyptians and Pharaoh understood how Moses predicted and save them from famine, they would not have treated the Jews so badly. Times and circumstances changed and ungrateful children ignore or forget the good deeds rendered to their forefathers. This is mainly the reason the next generation pay back the children of their African benefactors ungracefully. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Sunday, November 11, 2018 https://www.modernghana.com/news/896638/europe-americas-stole-and-denied-africas-civilization.html# |
| Culture › How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back by nobaga(op): 3:58am On Nov 06, 2018 |
How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back https://www.nairaland.com/4829034/how-africa-civilized-europe-what Wealthy Ancient European intellectuals of Arts and Sciences in Greece and later in Rome, craved knowledge and civilization from African masters. Just as investors in search of fortune sponsored explorers into Africa. They went back home to educate their people in light of what they had learned in Africa. In view of the stories they heard from travelers, African civilization was beyond their imagination. In fairness to these early students of African masters, such as Thales of Miletus, Socrates, Isocrates, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diodorus, they gave credits to the dark skin, straight to wooly black haired Africans of Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and Meroe. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html 1 Like |
| Politics › Re: How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back by nobaga(op): 10:44pm On Nov 05, 2018 |
Once a people are stripped of their culture, language and pride; substituted with foreign culture, language and pride; they are slaves of the mind from one generation to the next. They arbor self-hatred for their own discoveries. It perpetuates and propagates itself as a virus until it consumes their being. The children of the subjugated also pass it on to their own kids and it goes on for generations. The conquerors need not work on the acculturalization anymore, maintenance is enough since it is already endemic.Deep! |
| Politics › How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back by nobaga(op): 8:41pm On Nov 05, 2018 |
How Africa Civilized Europe And What They Paid Back Wealthy Ancient European intellectuals of Arts and Sciences in Greece and later in Rome, craved knowledge and civilization from African masters. Just as investors in search of fortune sponsored explorers into Africa. They went back home to educate their people in light of what they had learned in Africa. In view of the stories they heard from travelers, African civilization was beyond their imagination. In fairness to these early students of African masters, such as Thales of Miletus, Socrates, Isocrates, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Diodorus, they gave credits to the dark skin, straight to wooly black haired Africans of Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and Meroe. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html They were educated in the skill of medicine, sciences, mathematics, philosophy and more. Only the privileged in their communities could be educated in Africa. There was no doubt or questions about the African civilization. Of course, some Africans had mixed complexions still reflected today throughout Africa. But to label them “white” or even “half-white” is a revision of facts and history to suit the narrow mindedness of 19th and 20th centuries Eurocentric racist-pseudo-scientists armoring African Arts and Sciences. So, that was ancient times, what happens to Africans now? Miracles are still happening in Africa that Africans do not appreciate, encourage, nurture or even reject. If you reject your own inventions, exchange your best and the brightest for vanity without substance, nobody would patronize yours. The first money most Africans make, is squandered out of their communities’ circulation, out of Africa. No wonder, descendants of Queen of Sheba and Mansa Kankan Musa, the 1st and 2nd world’s richest drunken sailors! Long before there was any European civilization, many had to come to Africa for study with the wise men of ancient Egypt, who were black, to train in medicine, mathematics, geometry, art, and so forth. When Isocrates wrote of his studies in the book Busirus, he said that “I studied philosophy and medicine in Egypt.” He did not study these subjects in Greece in Europe, but in Egypt in Africa. So, what are today Euro-centric(s) saying? The Greeks had no problem in stating their knowledge originated from an African origin; nowhere do they make references to “white deities” or “white leaders” amongst the black culture that gave them philosophy. ttps://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/egyptgreece/ The Egyptians were colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the leader of the colony. And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians were Ethiopian, the colonists still preserved their ancient manners and cultures. What were their skin color before they mixed with Europeans and Arabs? The primary aim of modern Eurocentric scholars is to completely expunge black Africans from the "map of human geography" and world history to kill the confidence of African children and assume superiority complex. The ideological position has been, and still is, that nothing came out of Africa but powerless, defenseless, uncivilized, barbaric and primitive peoples and ideas. https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-187012521/greek-philosophers-who-came-to-africa-to-study Once a people are stripped of their culture, language and pride; substituted with foreign culture, language and pride; they are slaves of the mind from one generation to the next. They arbor self-hatred for their own discoveries. It perpetuates and propagates itself as a virus until it consumes their being. The children of the subjugated also pass it on to their own kids and it goes on for generations. The conquerors need not work on the acculturalization anymore, maintenance is enough since it is already endemic. Barbarians: In order to understand how Barbarians changed from Greece to Rome and used to describe Northern Europeans outside of Greece and later outside Rome, we must understand that as soon as other Europeans aligned themselves with Greece and later with Rome, to fight and conquer their neighbors, they call the others Barbarians. This same word is now commonly used for those not aligned to western “civilization”! There were two kinds of writing which the Egyptians had, one was known as "popular" (demotic) learned by everyone, while the other called "sacred" was understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learned it from their fathers as one of the things which were not divulged, but only used as letters among the Ethiopians. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3A*.html There were Ancient African Writings all over the Continent called Proto-Writing (6000 B.C); Proto Saharan (5000-3000 B.C); Ekoi’s Nsibidi (5000 – Present); Medu Neter or Ta Merrian (4000 B.C – 600 A.D); Kemetic Hieratic (3200-27 B.C); Thinite (32-2700 B.C); Vai (3000 B.C – Present); Meroitic or Napatan; Ge’ez or Ethiopic, Sabean; Kimetic; Coptic; Old Nubian See slates and pictures http://www.taneter.org/writing.html Writing has been so conflated intentionally, new students would think it originated in Europe. Those that were taught how to read and write are claiming to be the inventors! See Meroitic Period (3rd century BC) of the Kingdom of Kush . The two scripts were Meroitic Cursive derived of Demotic Egyptian and Meroitic Hieroglyphics derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs . Meroitic Cursive is the most widely attested script, comprising most of all the inscriptions. Antedated by a century or more, the earliest, surviving Meroitic hieroglyphic inscription. See Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (ca. 50 BC) described the two scripts in his Bibliotheca historica , Book III (Africa), Chapter 4. Destruction of Writings, library and edifices of Egypt were preserved by some rulers and destroyed by others including Christians and Muslim conquerors just like the Taliban in in Afghanistan and Isis in Iraq. When Caliph Umar ordered his Muslim General Amr ibn al-As and his army of some 4,000 Arabs invaded Egypt (December 639 AD), he ordered "If it’s not in the Koran, it’s not worthy; if it is in the Koran, it is superfluous; burn it." Moroccan Army, after exhausting their riches and soldiers up North became hungrier for the riches in the South. Their Army destroyed Songhai Empire but could not get to their real source of wealth in the rainforest where the gold was mined and kept away. Belatedly, they realized that venturing into the rainforest posed deadly risk for their soldiers and horses. They left with what they could raid from Songhai but almost empty handed since they could not capture the goldmines. Africans in the rural areas are still lucky as long as they continue to retain their culture, language and pride. But as they move into the urban “civilized” areas struggling to replicate European and American cities and cultures in Africa, they loom into the danger of globalization. Well, there is nothing wrong with exposure to other world, the problem is who define and lead what Africa embraced and glamorized to them, instead of pride in themselves. Modernization and Invention is not new to Africa, but adaptation of vanity without substance is new. Path II: To Be Continued Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Monday, November 5, 2018 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/272322/how-africa-civilized-europe-and-what-they-paid-back.html# |
| Foreign Affairs › Re: Saudi Crown Prince - Leaders As Liars Abductors Pen & Armed Robbers by nobaga(op): 7:23am On Oct 27, 2018 |
This could also be about another leader we know |
| Foreign Affairs › Saudi Crown Prince - Leaders As Liars Abductors Pen & Armed Robbers by nobaga(op): 1:48am On Oct 27, 2018*. Modified: 7:37am On Oct 27, 2018 |
Saudi Crown Prince One of the Leaders As Liars Abductors Pen & Armed Robbers Dictators are easy to spot by their intolerance for journalists. Canada had raised concern about Saudi Crown Prince, only to retaliate. So, benefited from muted grace of doubt democratic leaders gave him. The politicians parading themselves as world leaders these days, not only in Africa, is frightening. Children would ask us how it got this bad if they ever make a better life than we do. It used to be communist countries that produced maximum leaders from militia, military or secret service. Theocracies take orders from God, which people have no choice but must obey. We now have democracies muscling press, suppressing votes by chicanery, hook or crook. As hypocrites, espousing some ideal principles while ruling like dictators and theocracies. All they have to do is hold the flag and declare themselves nationalists protecting “aliens” from coming into their countries. Nationalism and ethnocentrism sell everywhere from Europe, America to Asia. Yet these hypocrites point to Africa’s ethnic cleansing or South Africa’s xenophobia. If they are liars and cheats, their reign is justified by conservatives that favor their types and political cronies for appointments they can push forward to make the country adaptable to their agenda. The fact that the leader is a liar, cheat, abductors, minorities’ abusers or misogynists matter less compared to their privilege. They lose their moral bearings and justify their assaults on democracy they preach on the very essence of their prejudice. We have always known that conservative governments always push their power until the check and balance in their system curb their overarching tendencies. It becomes dangerous when their Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary are concentrated in the hands of conservatives. Nothing can check their free reign until the following election swings back. If the people are then tired of their extremist tendencies and tribal wars within parties, they may be voted out. African countries are filled with leaders old enough to be retired into senile homes. 85-year-old Paul Biya won in Cameroon. But as long as those younger than them take advantage of their reign to enrich their selfish pockets and interest, these leaders sit tight. They use these leaders as cover for those perpetrating the most heinous crimes. Indeed, they comfort one another by comparing which of the criminal leaders are worse: Lairs, Abductors, Pen or Armed Robbers. Developed countries sow the seed of discord and disruption in developing countries by supporting military coups, corrupt leaders and Vagabonds In Power as long as they get concessions, one-way free trade that favors them and their multinational companies like Enron in the name of self-centered liberalized trade and “democracy”. Any government that protests against exploitation of their masses are severely punished or overthrown. Ask for Lumumba! No, we are not getting to the end of the world. Intolerance is gaining strength and those on top of the world Order are losing grip of the same democracy they are now trying to curtail by voters’ suppression. The developing countries they invaded for cheap natural resources and labor are waking up and demanding a piece of the pie made impossible at home with their cheap natural resources and slave labor benefiting the countries of the neo-colonialists. Immorality has been with us for ages but outright in-your-face hypocrisy unveiled by the intolerance of religious men, known to be conservative all along, voting about 80 percent for conservative extremist candidates into governments. Do not forget these are the clergies that blessed slaves and promised them their reward in heaven. The more they profess support for the poor, the stronger is their support for conservatives or maximum rulers. Theocracy have a great deal in common with democratic dictatorship where minority find loop-holes to govern. More so, clergy immorality got exposed by unveiling sexual abuse either in the Catholic Church or in the Mosques. Again, the defense of the Catholic Church caught red handed is reform after it became known that the higher hierarchy covered up known sexual abusers in their midst and transferred them to other dioceses where they continued the abuse. They claimed other faiths are worse than them and their sins are less. So, what type of abuse can be strange to them? If the leaders are educated civilians, some folks rationalize their kleptomaniac tendency by claiming corruption is not stealing! When challenged that their leaders are drug barons, 419s and ritualists caught in Okija or Oshogbo shrines, they ask for proof. They breed civil servants that are so corrupt, no file will move without bribes which they claim is excused, as “family allowance”. Leaders lecture and denounce every ill in the community but theirs. If their leader and those surrounding him are pen robbers, they claim they are much better than armed robbers that kill people. These leaders may even be tough on drug dealers and armed robbers as in the Philippines; some use firing squads to end lives with justification that killers deserve to die. The armed robbers wonder aloud or if they are on trials, why leaders dodging taxes, stealing million and billions are getting away when all they stole was much less. If the leaders themselves are armed robbers or military that seized power at gunpoint or loot the treasury dry; they claim they are better than bloody civilians that promised everything but delivered none. These military men then start their own five or ten years development plans. Most of their plans usually follow the same blueprint of the civilians they overthrew. Since most are zombie soldiers, they look for obsequious civil servant willing to take orders. Sometimes it is hard to believe how dictators, liars, cheats and criminals justify and elevate themselves above one another and got to lead their countries. Ritualists would ask you if the wine and bread served in church is not a ritual from blood and flesh. They point to the stoning of the devil in Mecca as ritual. After all, Abrahamic religions follow the sacrifice of their sons to their God. If one son is spared in the Bible, there were many killed before him as rituals. No amount of barrier will keep western countries out of poor countries since their countries were developed with slave labor and cheap natural resources. These developing countries were disrupted, their leaders assassinated as we saw in Congo and Libya; then tumult planted within them by selling arms to opposing sides. Now that they want some of the relief enjoyed in the developed world, borders are shut and they are told they cannot come in: Fix your country! Reasonable people would conclude that there is no evil perpetrated on our fellow humans that these leaders cannot justify. We are falling into bottomless pit of violence in jungle fever where the survival of the fittest becomes the norm again, which we thought our civilized ways erased centuries ago. Those claiming they are “civilized” have been exposed as hypocrites electing despotic leaders in the so-called democratic countries where majority votes lose elections. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Saturday, October 27, 2018 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/271984/leaders-as-liars-abductors-pen-armed-robbers.html# |
| Politics › Re: Panic: Africa Western Tastes Incurred Odious Loans Now Chinese Loans by nobaga: 9:00pm On Sep 10, 2018 |
RIGHT OF REPLY Why no need to worry about debt sustainability and Chinese loan to Africa?http://www.ecns.cn/news/politics/2018-08-27/detail-ifyxikfc9643661.shtml |
| Politics › Re: Panic: Africa Western Tastes Incurred Odious Loans Now Chinese Loans by nobaga: 3:03pm On Sep 10, 2018 |
Short term exotic material wealth for a few right now, perpetual slavery for gullible majority that have their support. Which is worse, poverty or ignorace? . |
| Politics › Re: Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories by nobaga(op): 3:00pm On Aug 30, 2018 |
These borrowed habits and cultures dogged those that consider themselves “civilized” and passed it onto their children, including foreign languages at the expense of their own. It is not uncommon to find “educated” families unable to converse with their children in their own language. Much has been made about Mission schools forcing children to speak in English. Who forced them to speak English or French at home?Sey na lie? |
| Politics › Re: Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories by nobaga(op): 12:42pm On Aug 30, 2018 |
It may not be sexy enough for front page. |
| Politics › Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories by nobaga(op): 1:30am On Aug 30, 2018 |
Dollarization & Pauperization Of Countries Without Memories How did we get here, when can we get out and what foreign taste are you willing to give up? The best academic opinions on the dollarization of African currencies have shown mixed economic results and few benefit to a country that does not print its currency. It denies them crucial economic decisions that could only be taken at home but left to countries’ self-interest where dollars and euros are printed . Apart from dollarization in some African countries, others practically use dollars and euros for major transactions and purchases like cars, houses, school fees, rents and of course to pay foreign loans. Some of the citizens, vendors and traders openly reject local currency as worthless. It exacerbates the exchange rates creating local inflation that call for dollarization as a cure for the same problems created in the first place. Well, is that not the real reason for economic domination and helplessness over African future? African countries cannot trade between themselves without using currencies outside their Continent, only petty traders do. There is nothing African about international standard or international currency. China is finally breaking the European and American dollar and euro monopoly. Since we got used to everything imported, most of the money we make were spent on foreign goods and services. The more expensive they got, the harder it became to meet daily responsibilities with our meagre income. Ordinary pins and pencil, we had to import with dwindling income. In short, as consumers of everything foreign and producers of nothing, we became import dependent economy. We would rather buy used imported goods than produce our own at home. We simply could not sustain our “sugar tooth” anymore, so had to swindle, steal, loot or magomago our way to increase income to support our additions to foreign goods and services. It is not that we never tried, our local manufacturers were derided and looked down on as Ijebu and Okrika made. Recently we discover rice production within our countries, we are making progress. Can we go teetotal back to local consumption in order to save ourselves from reckless tastes for goods and services we refuse to make locally in sixty years since they are readily available outside? Before SAP (Structural Adjustment Program) and Currency Depreciation, we pride ourselves on “Being” good Christians and good Muslims. We became “civilized” by how much French, English and Portuguese we could speak and how little African languages we could think in or speak. People have forgotten that the best time most African countries had was when our currencies were at par with foreign currencies. It sounds like ancient history now. We then moved to a point when foreign currencies were regulated to preserve our foreign exchange to the time foreign currencies were totally banned. It was later relaxed and certain amount were allowed for travel, school fees and limited goods and services. We were still good up to this point because violations led to serious time in jail. Most sober Africans would tell you those were good old days. However, economists and exploiters preached liberalized and open market, free competition to spur production and ingenuity as the same argument used for SAP and currency devaluation. The losers started from devastation of the middle class to the working poor masses. Countries without memories are bound to repeat the same mistakes like a recurring decimal. The leaders that were united in the fight for Independence had a common bond to fight their oppressors and tormentors. Like other African countries, as soon as the colonial oppressors departed, leaders with foresight established industrial areas for workers, farms, schools and hospitals within their states and regions’ capabilities. Those that benefited from the hard work of Independence fighters became complacent enjoying what they consider their entitlements. Education was almost free to any level or supplemented with scholarships at the state and Federal levels. They got so used to all the freebies since they were recruited from colleges and universities after graduation. They then lost their thinking cap, waiting for paychecks without producing any tangibles. The vigor, exuberance and skills used to confront the colonial masters soon disappeared and replaced with bloated ego as long as they excel in western education and acquire foreign taste. They pride themselves as copycats of Western and to a lesser extend of Eastern civilizations. They threw their own culture, food, clothes and everything needed for survival at home, away. Since these could be easily imported, they got them until they could not do without their foreign goods. Call it sugar tooth. These borrowed habits and cultures dogged those that consider themselves “civilized” and passed it onto their children, including foreign languages at the expense of their own. It is not uncommon to find “educated” families unable to converse with their children in their own language. Much has been made about Mission schools forcing children to speak in English. Who forced them to speak English or French at home? Recently, some African glowed at the “perfect” accent of Kenya’s President at the White House. They forget that neither François Mitterrand, any other French President or Greek’s George Andreas Papandreou that taught in American university ever spoke English when they met USA or British leaders. Not the Russian or Chinese leaders. It became expensive to support this foreign lifestyle in local communities. Even when local food was cheaper at the local markets; Akada and Adaka preferred supermarket where foreign food is sold. Since we neglected what was ours, we patronized foreign clothes, shoes, English gold (exported raw from us), sardines (fresh fish exported from our waters), etc. This was how we increase production and jobs abroad and killed our local industries at home. The irony is that the only place genuine organic food is sold were at our local markets. Almost everything at the “so-so” supermarkets were canned. By the time they were opened, they must have spent ages locked up and stale. Most of them were exported from our shores as fresh fish turned into canned fish or our beef turned into corn beef. course, they were bought cheap and sold very expensive to us. It has got to a stage where Chinese products and food are sold cheaply to displace ours in our markets. Even worse, some of them were of inferior quality. They killed our textile material industry and some of the imported food were made of plastic. We were wasting good money (external reserve) to purchase inferior brands. Our import dependent economy has a long history but we lack memories and never learn from our past. It was illegal to drink our local gin since it would compete with foreign made. Tai Solari had to take local gin to police station to dare arrest! Each time before an election, citizens and even political cronies are suddenly surprised at the amount of dollars, euro and pounds that are circulating at these conventions. One would think they were sleeping before this time or their brain were on sabbatical. If any big spender is suddenly exposed or reported in the newspaper, they gasped. Bah! Europe and America have delegated us to be the producer of raw materials and appointed themselves as the manufacturers of finished products. It does not take much calculation to know that if you pay ten to hundred times more for finished products from what is paid to you for raw materials, you would become a debtor forever. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/269944/dollarization-pauperization-of-countries-without-memories.html# 1 Like |
| Crime › Re: Burial Of Khensani Maseko South African Student Who Committed Suicide After Rape by nobaga: 4:14pm On Aug 10, 2018 |
Rape no matter how you define it against man or woman is never acceptable or sexy. Even those in consentual rough sex revolt at certain point. Culturally men and women victims are viewed differently. This is why girls and women must be helped, trained and built to be stronger. Not to succumb to humiliation in what they consider the lowest point in their life. Humans have come out stronger in wars and other crimes. Suicide is a loss to everyone especially to loved ones. Stand up and fight back to help other victims. If everyone raped commit suicide, very few brave ones will be left. 2 Likes |
| Politics › Re: Nigeria: A Country Of Anything Goes No Discipline No Laws by nobaga(op): 8:35pm On Aug 07, 2018 |
Only a devil with an iron fist can rule Nigeria and free the country from popular looters But for a country where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, someone like Saraki would not have a single supporter having burnt bridges all around him. One has to understand why he is still standing. The President, General Buhari won an election after several tries against Goodluck Jonathan that was rejected by the same people that elected him throughout the country in the previous election. |
| Politics › Nigeria: A Country Of Anything Goes No Discipline No Laws by nobaga(op): 7:28pm On Aug 07, 2018 |
NIGERIA: A COUNTRY OF ANYTHING GOES NO DISCIPLINE NO LAWS Nigeria is an African country that is too big to fail. If it fails, it is not only going to overwhelm the whole of Africa, its effect would be felt across Europe and America. Yet, it does not have to get to that stage except for some criminals at the helm of that Nation. It is difficult to envisage how a man that has been found wanting as a bank looter, state looter and President of the Senate looter remains untouched. But for a country where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, someone like Saraki would not have a single supporter having burnt bridges all around him. One has to understand why he is still standing. The President, General Buhari won an election after several tries against Goodluck Jonathan that was rejected by the same people that elected him throughout the country in the previous election. Again, Mr. Jonathan lost an election he should have won if he had been competent and firm with his ministers. They all had a free hand and stole the country blind. They literally turned the country into a bazaar where looters were outdoing looters. Nevertheless, he had a strong backing from certain section of the country that have sworn to oppose anything Buhari does. What most people feared most about Buhari was his dictatorial tendencies and a blind spot for his Fulani oligarchy. While he went almost overboard in trying to prove he is a democrat to appeal to western democracy, he failed to curb the destruction of lives and properties by Fulani herdsmen. Therefore, his foes exploit his lack of firmness which he had displayed in his first coming as a military President. At the same time we all justifiably criticized him for not taking immediate action against Fulani herdsmen. The combination of these double whammies have almost paralyzed his government to the chagrin of many especially his foes. While his lack of firm and adequate action on Fulani herdsmen has diluted support for him. What we have now with an ambitious Senate President is to violate all rules in Any Party In Power and even mixed messages to the Security Forces with one invading the National Assembly. Even worse, is where the order came from. If it is true that one of the Security Chief was arrested, we are on our way to chaos where the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing. The poor masses that are celebrating chaos, lack of discipline or respect for rules in the parties by political prostitutes jumping from one bed to another, may come to regret it if Buhari is pushed to exercise his power under the constitution and declare A State Of Emergency. The same people criticizing him for lack of action in a democracy would be the one protesting his lack of patience for due process. Let us be clear, Saraki and the Forty Thieves have abused due process. He has accumulated enough money to buy whoever tried to bring him to book; it could be the Police, the Judiciary or his rented crowd. One thing is clear: no country that has any sense of decency would have a man that has flouted the rules, regulations and laws so many times and would still be out free. Nigeria used to be the big brother that most people of goodwill throughout the world had hoped would bail out Africa so that the burden at the world stage would be less. It has not come to be, unfortunately the same country that used to accommodate all Africans, is now struggling to find find its feet on the ground. You do not want to hear what the youths call their country and could not wait to flee. Ironically, these are the same youths clapping and cheering their political prostitutes as they change from one party to another without any principle, ideology, discipline or rules. If the center cannot hold within a party, there is no way the country itself can be successfully managed. A country without rules, regulations or laws have no sins. What we have is a country of heavyweights that will eventually “sink the boat”. Ah ah! This is what we are longing for so that every village can go its own way like the Sudanese, Rwandans, Somalis and the Libyans. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa @oomoaresa |
| Politics › Democracy Rule Of Law & Religion In Trojan Horse by nobaga(op): 4:14pm On Jul 31, 2018 |
Democracy Rule Of Law & Religion In Trojan Horse How many countries in the whole wide world do you know where democracy, the rule of law and religion have ever been used to liberate Africans, especially the poor masses in Africa? Yet, the poor masses will rise up and defend African oppressors and looters by democracy and rule of law that they have never enjoyed. No, they are not insane. They are depending on promises of politicians, pastors and imams that in the year 3000, they will be liberated in paradise. This is similar to the pledges made to our fathers by the British, the French and the Portuguese. They were asked to join the Army in order to fight for freedom against Hitler in Europe when they were not free at home themselves. As good Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Europeans are still asking us to fight Jihad and Crusade in the name of God. However, one of the virtue of true democracy is when you see the highly placed, the rich and the powerful fighting for the rule of law and the Right of the poor masses. In many African countries and Nigeria in particular, we are witnessing the opposite trend. We are being told that until our own looters and oppressors are accorded the rule of law, the poor masses that make up the majority of Africans are not going to be free. Yeah right, tell the Libyans that! Supporters of Buhari and Jonathan have lost their sense of sanity. Whenever the Looters fight, it is the poor masses that cry the loudest for the rule of law and democracy they hardly know. We forget that Swahili proverb that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. We see politicians divide income within themselves from our resources and celebrate together. But during the elections, they send us out for fight for them even at the cost of our lives. What is the poor masses’ business or gain, you might ask. They believe in promises and aspire to replace the politicians one day and be in a position to scoop their own loot with the hope that, they too could be in the positions to bribe police and judges that would set them free. However, whenever looters win, it is the country that loses; that is us, you and I. The more loses and defeats obtained in our courts, the better for individual looters’ notion of the rule of law and democracy that cheat us of our fair share. Stop blaming prosecutors for fixed cases. When oppressors, cheats and dishonest politicians and their cronies get the lion share, the majority of the masses get crumbs that cannot create infrastructure, feed them and their families. Have you come to realize that those who preach democracy, the rule of law and religion conned us in Africa? Not only did they promise it would take Africa to paradise, they are the worst practitioner of their own teachings. Yet, they never fail to sanction or even wage war on those that deviate from what they preach to the rest of the world. Anytime anyone ever tell you about saner climes again, ask him where and for who? While young Africans are beginning to understand the hypocrisy and fallacy of religions used to bind and bond our grandfathers, many in the older generation, those in hardship, need or neglect are still stuck in the belief that there is democracy from a distant land that can liberate them from their misery. Mind you, we are all vulnerable to other means, especially if we have done everything in our power to succeed and failed. This is when we believe that the witches from the village have something to do with our misfortune. When we seek deliverance from local prophets and imams exploiting our weaknesses, we start looking for foreign doctrines and gods. Before then, ritualists and fake prophets must have done their numbers on us. There are highly educated folks, even specialist in different fields, when they encounter sickness, fall to the whims and caprices of miracle men. When practitioners of these amorphous doctrines are in the majority anywhere, democracy is the standard as long as it works for them. Once they feel threatened by the numbers of others they do not consider to be their own, they exploit all kinds of ways to reduce their voting blocs by delineating areas they can still win. Call it gerrymandering, votes redistribution area or voters intimidation by putting up obstacles that make it difficult or inconvenient to vote. Others used Electoral College. Are these the people we copy? African countries are not the only place the masses are manipulated but it is the only continent that has not produced a single successful black nation. Unfortunately, for no other reason than the domestication of the masses to the whims and caprices of their oppressors. Supporters of Buhari and Jonathan in Nigeria have lost sanity crying over what has never benefited them. If Africans do not like the way they are treated outside because they are denied fair process, the rule of law and democracy enjoyed by others, they need to establish one from their culture where Igbo have no king or Oyo Cabinet system. Until we do, foreign countries would throw it in our faces that we cannot govern ourselves. If it is not true, we would not be running to their countries where we sell ourselves cheap, crossing desert and sea at the cost of our lives. We have more Senators and politicians on mega salaries than United Sates. Africans, no matter where you are inside or outside Africa, must be careful when you espouse the same principle that they are going to use to crucify you. Never forget your own people that are less fortunate because of your temporary state of euphoria. It can disappear at the slightest miscalculation, change of fortune or opportunity they can seize on, to nail you onto the cross. Moreover, this mumurism has gone on for so long that sane rational people that would want to help, fear the same poor masses turning on them. If Africans are not willing to help themselves, nobody would. There is no amount of riches we could steal from Africans that would buy us the respect and freedom we deserve, even after all our achievement and contributions abroad. If you think this is solely about black and white, you are wrong. The people you consider your own have studied the best way to make you accept their oppression and read books that claim that the more deprived you are the more dependent and obedient you are to them. It is not by accident that those who oppressed the masses are loved if they ration needs like food, shelter and desire to them. They lounge for more from wherever each comes from. Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/268868/democracy-rule-of-law-religion-in-trojan-horse.html# |
| Politics › Brain Dead Cheering For Their Blood Sucking Local Champions by nobaga(op): 3:39pm On Jul 27, 2018 |
Nigeria got Independence in 1960. Progress No! Regression Yes. So why do you divide yourself into camps celebrating those sharing your future and fortune? Oh, waiting for your turn, eh? Wait O! |
| Politics › Unruly Politicians Get Celebrated To Strangle The Country Economically by nobaga(op): 12:52pm On Jul 25, 2018 |
Unruly Politicians Get Celebrated To Strangle The Country Economically Some have come out and boldly stated they are out to milk the country to death so that every region or each ethnic group can go its own way. In the meantime, they will remain parasites until the country is completely paralyzed. Indeed, some military/politicians have wondered out loud why the country has remained standing despite looting the treasury mercilessly.http://thenews-chronicle.com/?p=76402 |
| Politics › Highest Paid Politicians With Odious Loans by nobaga(op): 7:23pm On Jul 22, 2018 |
Highest Paid Politicians With Odious Loans Is it not strange that a country with the highest number of poor people in the world pays politicians with collateral secured loans from foreigners? We are not talking about paying teachers or civil servants, these are the highest paid politicians in the whole wide world. When asked why they go into foreign debt again, it is because there is not enough in the budget to pay looters and vultures that refused to pay civil servants so that they can loot treasury. It still remains a mystery why these politicians keep on receiving mega salaries for years from the budget supplemented by foreign loans since the country is broke. The poorer the country gets, the richer these politicians get and the louder the celebration by the masses for their mediocrity. Instead of resigning to crooks probing crooks, we want angels with equity to probe. Odious loan serve as an incentive not only for despotic government but also to corrupt democratic elected governments whose leaders benefit most from these loans by paying themselves outrageous salaries, fabricating foreign contracts payment most of which goes into their pockets as borrowers with complicit overseas lenders charging huge “service” feeshttps://www.modernghana.com/news/870013/highest-paid-politicians-with-odious-loans.html# |
| Politics › Re: Saraki Proves Odds Of Winning Against Corruption Is 1:99 by nobaga: 10:23pm On Jul 09, 2018 |
Like play like play, Saraki King of the Den of Thieves will become President of Nigeria. Coma see celebration, dancing and worshiping by the youths, old and dead. No be curse O! Na Fanta. Saraki Proves Odds Of Winning Against Corruption Is 1:99 by googi: 2:27am On Jul 08 |
| Politics › Re: Buhari Electoral Calculation: Fulani Marauders From Space by nobaga: 3:08am On Jul 02, 2018 |
Thank you! Whatever name you call it: this incessant killings because of cows demonstrate there is no compromise in values between the lives of privileged cows and those of human in our cultures. If you value the lives of cows more, stay away from those who value human lives more to avoid the clash of cultures. |
| Politics › Re: Oyinbo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap by nobaga(op): 3:11pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
True tok BabaRamota. Nobody starts at square one anymore. Even if you do, marketing and indoctrination is the key. As a very simple example, aspirin is African in origin. Foreigners evaluated, purified and studied effective dosage. We still do not know what we have and even lie and exaggerated what we have. We do not need to rediscover slice bread right now, we need to perfect it. Russia, China and Japan mastered American technologies and so can we. In the process, other discoveries jump up. The process you thoroughly indicated is too long. We can short cut it and move to the stage where Asian countries are. To hell with patent laws violated by every country including America. |
| Politics › Re: Ben Murray-Bruce: If Those 3 Million Super Eagles Jerseys Were Made In Aba... by nobaga: 2:52pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
Okay nah, stop fighting. Where do we go from here? Those smart Nigerians that are going to become millionaires from this are not arguing. Very soon, Okrika and Ijebu made will soon flood the market at home and abroad. Nigerians dey get sense small small since 1900. You refuse to buy your lace, they make lace in Nigeria and export it to Cotonou. You then buy imported lace from Belgium. Na lie, na Nigerian made imported back from Cotonou. The next thing is to copy their technologies. Nigerians will buy it if is marketed in Europe or America. Na who go buy Nigerian products unless it is exported and imported back in? |
| Politics › Re: Oyinbo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap by nobaga(op): 2:06pm On Jun 02, 2018 |
A little knowledge will not hurt you. It is better than none. Or read a couple of paragraphs at the beginning, middle and the end. Alejoc:hi |
| Politics › Oyinbo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap by nobaga(op): 1:04am On Jun 02, 2018 |
Oyibo Tired As Politicians Beg & Sell Themselves Too Cheap There is an adage that no matter how valuable you are, you get what you negotiate, not what you deserve. You may have heard those stories of Europeans and Americans shaming fellow African passengers on the planes on their way back home: how stupid many African leaders are. They are so stupid, they sell themselves short, too cheap and beg out of what is rightly theirs. The first story was some years ago about an American traveling out of Kenya. Then, there was another one out of Ghana. Later, others stories along the same line have come from Nigeria, Senegal and other African countries. The closest way to relate African politicians’ foolishness is how some school boys conspired with bursars to defraud their own poor hardworking fathers. Another was personal. One of our “small” uncle visited a “big” uncle. Small uncle was served with drinks and a full pack of cigarettes. As the big uncle stepped into another room for a moment, our small uncle stole half of the cigarettes in the pack. When he finished his drinks, he stood up to go. Before he stepped outside, big uncle reminded him that he had forgotten his cigarettes: yepaa, I had been stealing from myself! The embarrassment these oyibo subjected their fellow African passengers to paralyzed most. They did not know whether to laugh or cry at the “jokes”. Some Africans pretended to fall asleep with the hope that these oyibo people would stop since other people were listening. There is nothing these expatriates were bragging about that were not known or discussed in the African communities. It is the glee with which foreign investors expressed the fact that they made a killing in their deals that is both embarrassing and annoying. You cannot fight them on the plane or counter what you know is true. One of them actually summarized African leaders’ negotiation skills to be stupidly selfish and dirt cheap: natural resources, land, royalties, tax-free zones, exorbitant finished imported products eagerly brought in with incredible concessions at tax-free zones and allowed to do whatever they want in Africa. What do these African leaders get back? Peanuts! Gold for mirrors like past century. Everything they get back is usually less than five percent of what is given away. Actually, they know African leaders are so greedily stupid, they usually keep back about one percent because they know Africans would come back to beg for less than one percent more, of the bargain. Once they are thrown the bones like dogs, they would dance and worship their foreign portfolio investors. Please note that Congo is rightly renegotiating cobalt price with foreign investors. The fact is, most leaders have no idea or do not care about the value of what they are negotiating away. They go to their people and brag about how much foreign investments they bring into the country since nobody asks them how much is flying out of the country. When African experts lecture or write about business and economics, it is never from the perspectives of Africans. All their authorities and quotes are from International Monetary Fund, World Bank and of course foreign universities. Any contrary opinion and authority inside or outside Africa like OXFAM that points out the one sided deals they negotiated for their countries is dangerous to their ability to get kickbacks in foreign currencies in their self-interests. African and foreign businesses that generate sales outside each African country, are surprisingly the biggest looters of foreign reserves. If these companies are selling products like chocolates, coffee, beer, automobiles and cement outside their country, they should be a good source of foreign or hard currencies for their own government. No! They dip into limited foreign reserve locally, fighting for it like every Momoh, Emeka and Tunde or small businesses. What they promise is that by the year - when we are all dead and gone - they will be generating foreign cash for their home countries. Think about it. Those selling sugar and water in the name of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Fanta etc. claim they need our limited foreign reserve to import sugar from our sugarcane and Pierre water that cannot be readily made available at home. So they have to obtain them with our foreign reserve, haba! Though ignoramus when they are negotiating with multinational corporations, when buying their finished products, they know these manufacturers make more money from after sales from maintenance and of course from training their own staff, not African staff on technical details. This was the bone of contention between the British and Americans in the early century when British accused Americans of stealing their innovations. Now it is the turn of American claiming Japan and China are stealing American innovations. When are Africans going to steal British, American, Japanese and Chinese technologies? If these leaders were not so book-educated like a robot, we would think they would play the same game after their Independence in the late fifties and sixties. Sometimes one has to wonder which is more painful, African telling our leaders daily that they are selfishly stupid or Asians, Europeans, Americans, Lebanese and Arabs telling us our leaders are a special case of morons. Someone said Africans are good at diagnosing their problems when writing or out of power. Once they are put in the position of authority, they all mess up big time. This may be true in many cases. But please, give some credit to those that worked tooth and nail to make their countries better than we met it; against all odds. There are hard workers in every African country that will never be given the opportunity to rule, even if they contest. We all know the hard workers, five different types of professors, the sincere and patriotic Africans in each country. It is unfair to claim that people you know and refused to elevate to the position of power are just rogues like the rest of them. You shun them and prefer to celebrate rogues and vagabonds that give you “stomach infrastructure” and foreign motors/bikes while stealing you blind. Do not lump everyone together. Respect the dignity of labor. Even as gutter cleaners and farmers, we all have a role to play in life. Everyone cannot be a politician. When Prof. Soludo said the Paris Club odious loan could have been negotiated better by anyone, it was not out of spite but out of indignation. We had two Obasanjo and two Audu Ogbe we know very well. On their first outing, they worked diligently for the country but left office almost bankrupt and were humiliated by people for going back home broke up to today. The subsequent opportunity they got, they learned their lessons and looted us dry! Source: Farouk Martins Aresa Published: Friday, June 1, 2018 https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/266906/oyibo-tired-as-politicians-beg-sell-themselves-too-cheap.html# |
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