₦airaland Forum

bamidele029:
I think we need to do more than write letters

The pen is mightier than the sword.
,
One thing ANY leader of ANY country fears is to be put on blast on the world stage.

S/he doesn't want the world to know what's really going on.

Still, what's done in the dark will come to the light - sooner or later.

Dear Presidents/Prime Ministers,

On behalf of the poor people of Africa, I send you this protest letter.

We are angry. Yes we the people are very angry. We have endured your ill conceived, harsh and austere economic and social policies for quite too long. We have watched silently to see you and your cronies enjoy while we the masses continue to suffer. We have no jobs, no income, no savings and have no place to lay our heads while you and your selected few live in mansions at the expense of the very poor you are refusing to take care of. You have consistently ignored all our cry for help even though you know our plights very well.

Are you not appalled by the scale of poverty and the living conditions of the people? Are you not appalled to see children selling on the street instead of being in the classroom? Are you not appalled to see children sleeping rough on the streets of our capital cities and scavenging for food while you and you cronies frequent between five star hotels? Don't you care about the dignity of the people you claim to be serving?

For years you have asked us to sacrifice and even today we are still sacrificing, but anytime we look at you and your circle of friends we see that you are in a different suit, in a different four wheel drive, in a different hotel, and in a company of ladies, surrounded by bodyguards. How many more years should we continue to sacrifice and tighten our belts why you and your cronies enjoy from our sweat? We cannot continue any longer. No we cannot.

We are tired of all of you who call yourself leaders of the people. We are tired of the dictatorships, media censorship, torture, force imprisonment, wars and the political instabilities. We are tired of being refugees. We are tired of seeing our children die of preventable diseases. We are tired of sharing water from the same source with animals; water infested with bacteria and viruses. We are tired of lack of access to education, health, energy, food, medicines, shelter and clothing. We are tired of having to work with cutlasses and hoes in this 21st century. We are tired of having to rely on nature to plant our crops. We are tired of having to plant without fertilizers. We are tired of having to use 18th century seeds that yield next to nothing. We are tired of having to endure poverty, starvation, diseases, humiliation, torture, oppression, in your very hands.

Above all, we are tired of your excesses. We are tired of your corrupt practices and the looting of the treasuries. Your foreign bank accounts are swollen with hundreds of millions of dollars, pounds and Euros while hundreds of millions of people live on one dollar a day.

Despite the abundance of natural resources, poverty is sending many of your people into their graves at an early age and you are not bothered. The economic, social and political chaos and the failures written everywhere in the continent are the fruits of your poor and ineffective leadership.

When you meet to pick leaders from among yourselves who do you select? Is it not lifelong dictators, tyrants and kleptocrats with no credibility and what does that say about your judgment too?

We are tired of you using our money to procure arms for your own protection while children go to school barefooted and on empty stomach; while hospitals are without essential medicines; while factories are folding up for lack of electricity; and while harvested crops remain in the bush for lack of good roads.

In spite of the wide existence of technologies that you can adopt to turn the huge natural resources into material wealth to benefit us, you have rather opted for arms and military machines to kill and oppress us.

We are tired of your dithering. Even nations with little or no sunshine have access to solar energy and you what have you done with the abundance of sunshine found everywhere in the continent? We are tired of all your inactions, the wait and see and the do nothing approaches to problem solving.

There are many of you that we have not chosen or asked to lead us yet are carrying themselves as our leaders. Such people we demand should retire and allow elections to take place immediately. We demand an end to torture in Egypt and starvation in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. We demand an end to the dictatorial rule in Libya, Egypt, Cameroon, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda and the Gambia. We demand an end to the instabilities in DR. Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Northern Uganda, Chad and Madagascar. We demand an end to the genocide in Darfur and the killing of innocent children, women and civilians.

We demand an end to the official corruption and graft in Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Angola, DR. Congo, Chad, South Africa, Kenya and Guinea. We demand an end to the eroding of democratic values in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon. We demand an end to the injection of tribalism in our politics. We demand an end to the use of the continent as a hub for cocaine shipment to Europe. We demand better public services now. We demand better education, health, transport and telecommunication infrastructures now. We demand affordable housing now.

We demand irrigation facilities, tractors, equipment and improved seeds for our farmers now. You've asked us to tighten our belts while you have loosened yours. This cannot go on any more. We are starving to death while you are developing protruding bellies. You are having lavish birthday parties while cholera and starvation is threatening us. Your greediness and insensitivity are forcing the best of your people to seek greener pastures abroad.

We demand a share in the revenue from the sale of oil, gas, gold, diamond, timber, cocoa, coffee, coltan, manganese, copper, bauxite and tin ore. We demand a say in the way your governments are run; a say in the way you and your ministers are selected. We demand a say in the way you spend our money; and a say in the way contracts are awarded. It is not going to be business as usual anymore. We demand change now. We demand probity and accountability now. We demand political action to solve the numerous problems facing we the people now.

Look at the world around you. Don't you see or hear what is going in Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America? Can't you see that you and your people are being left behind? When you meet with your colleagues in Africa or sit in your offices, how many of the things you see or use are made here in Africa? Aren't you ashamed that after ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty years in power your people still use hoes and cutlasses for farming, tools their forefathers used before they were colonised? Aren't you ashamed that after all these years of independence your people cannot feed themselves; cannot read and write; rely on handouts from Europe and America; and the youth are in a hurry to leave the continent for you? Can't you see?

Well, a word to wise is enough but remember that you can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. We are watching.

By Lord Aikins Adusei @ iloveafrica2..com

“There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.” - Mark Twain

In the face of sexual temptation - who is stronger-minded - men or women?

Nigeria's Economy Challenged As US Oil Exports Dry Up
By Robert Windrem

When the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 250 Nigerian schoolgirls last spring, many news reports noted that Nigeria had long been one of the biggest suppliers of oil to the United States, suggesting that economic relationship gave Washington a strong incentive to help track down the kidnappers.

That was wrong.

In April, the same month the girls were snatched from an elementary school in Chibok, only 4.5 million barrels of Nigerian oil arrived at U.S. ports, down from a record high of 40 million barrels seven years earlier.

And by July, the spigot was shut off completely. Over the next six weeks, not a single drop of Nigerian light, sweet crude arrived in the U.S. - all of it replaced at Gulf Coast refineries by fracked oil from fields like the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in Texas.

The big fat zero was a milestone not only on the United States’ journey toward energy independence, but a signpost pointing to a new world. With it, Nigeria became the first formerly flush oil producer to essentially lose its entire share of the U.S. market, leaving it scrambling for new customers, less able to fund its internal war on terror and less important to the U.S.

“Nigeria is facing a sea change in relations with the United States, a sea change in its geopolitical position in the world,” says Peter Pham, director of the Africa Program at the Atlantic Council, searching for words to capture the magnitude of the moment.

Experts are just beginning to sort through the implications of the U.S. switching from being the biggest single consumer of petroleum to a producer and - eventually perhaps - a competitor. They see Nigeria, which generates 70 percent of its budget from oil sales, as a test case that may hold important clues about how other oil-rich nations like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Russia will react as their oil-driven economies come under additional pressure.

“The collapse of the price of oil brought on by the rise in American production is fundamentally changing the world,” said John Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and now director of the Ralph Bunche Center at the Council on Foreign Relations. “This energy shift is akin to the collapse of the Soviet Union in its foreign policy implications.”

Daniel Yergin, an energy researcher with IHS Cera and author of “The Quest,” a history of oil and geopolitics, said that, in the near term at least, the road will remain rocky for the government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Nigeria as a country has three big issues: The loss of its biggest market in the U.S.; secondly, the price decline has really hit them; and the third thing is, of course, they’re suffering this insurgency in the north,” he said.

John Kilduff, a veteran oil trader with Again Capital, agrees that Africa’s most populous nation faces “a rough decade” as it struggles to find new customers for the oil formerly exported to the U.S. In the interim, he said, he expects “economic upheavals and social unrest.”

The financial impact already is getting serious.

Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala announced last week that a 6 percent drop in oil revenue would force the government to cut non-essential spending, raise more revenue and spend half of its $4.1 billion sovereign wealth fund - down from $11.5 billion at the start of 2013 -- to cover budgetary shortfalls. There also have been calls for the government to print more of its national currency, the naira, to cushion the impact of the recent oil price declines, though Okonjo-Iweala has so far rejected them.

The government in Abuja is simultaneously struggling to address the violent Islamic insurrection in the north, where Boko Haram continues to terrorize the citizenry with bombings, butchery and mass abductions. The government recently announced it has authorized taking out a billion dollar loan from Western banks to finance the war against Boko Haram.

Will ‘bunkering’ of oil cease?

Campbell, the former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, says that the country could descend into chaos if the price of oil falls beyond its current $78-a-barrel price, because its finances already have been pushed to the breaking point by oil “bunkering” - or theft by Nigerian officials - which he estimates represents around 10 percent of Nigerian production.

“That oil finances the patronage, clientage network,” he said. “It is all illegal (but) it’s the grease to the system, and as the value falls … the grease dries up and the system doesn’t work.”

And Carl Levan, a professor at American University and author of “Dictators and Democracy in African Development,” says turmoil in Nigeria could quickly spread through west Africa, already beset by long-running civil wars, an Ebola epidemic and political crises.

Many observers say the shift in oil production also will have broad ramifications outside of west Africa. It could lead the U.S. to focus on new priorities -- including Asia - and make it less likely to intervene when faraway national or regional conflicts don’t threaten its economic wellbeing. That, in turn, could mean that small battles will become global ones, without a superpower willing to check them in their infancy, they say.

And the situation could get even worse for oil-reliant nations -- and regions. With U.S. production soaring at the same time its consumption is declining, the U.S. may become a competitor in the longer term, with an ability to undercut producers like Nigeria.

Although it isn’t discussed much in political debates, U.S. officials are well aware of the possible ramifications.

“A dramatic expansion of U.S. production could … push global spare capacity to exceed 8 million barrels per day, at which point OPEC could lose price control and crude oil prices would drop, possibly sharply,” the National Intelligence Council, the U.S. intelligence community’s internal think tank, said in its “Global Trends 2030” report in December 2012. “Such a drop would take a heavy toll on many energy producers who are increasingly dependent on relatively high energy prices to balance their budgets.”

The day of reckoning may not be as far off as 2030. As Citigroup noted in Energy 2020, its own analysis of the oil trade, issued early this month, “Eight years ago, in August 2006, the U.S. imported, net, a little over 13.4 million barrels a day of crude and products; recently the net import number has fallen to 4.7 million barrels a day.”

As a result of the shift, U.S. relations with oil exporters will grow far more complicated as the haves become economic have-nots. It’s already happening with Nigeria, says Pham.

Earlier this month, a delegation from the Council on Foreign Relations visited the Nigerian Embassy in Washington where they were lectured by Ambassador Ade Adefuye on the lack of U.S. support for his government’s operations against Boko Haram. Adefuye told the visitors that Washington at first refused to share intelligence with the Nigerian government and also withheld “lethal equipment that would have brought down the terrorists within a short time on the basis of allegations that Nigeria’s defense forces have been violating human rights of Boko Haram suspects when captured or arrested.”

The comments were posted on the front page of the embassy’s website, which Pham said wouldn’t have happened without approval from the Nigerian government. And the angry rejoinder itself wouldn’t have happened at all in the past, when relations between the countries were considered too important to risk ruffling feathers in Washington.

Pham suggested that the lack of oil trade also could lead the U.S. to step back or even away from Nigeria.

Six years ago, he noted the U.S. played a key role in negotiations between the Nigerian government and a group of insurgents known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who felt they had been left out of the economic boom fueled by oil production in the delta. When they rose up, a third of the nation’s oil production was cut off.

“The U.S. coaxed Nigeria into peace talks with amnesty payments, training, etc., (and) successive U.S. ambassadors were involved,” noted Pham. “Would they be involved again? Although U.S. companies, like Chevron would be affected, the U.S. oil supply would not. Would it be easier for a U.S. administration to not make it a priority?”

The answer to that question may be revealed soon. The Nigerian government’s agreement with MEND expires next year and must be renewed. It is not clear if the U.S. intends to get involved in those negotiations.

Pham also recalled that several years ago the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet helped coordinate a response to pirate attacks on Nigerian oil tankers, but has not been as forceful in recent months, despite an increase in the attacks.

“The pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are aggressive, but if piracy is not affecting our supply, there is a danger that our response won’t be as robust, particularly when there are so many other demands on a U.S. Navy that has fewer ships,” he said.

If the U.S. adopts a lower profile in Africa as a result of its diminished hunger for the continent’s oil, Nigeria and other nations will look to China and, to a lesser extent, India to take up the slack. Some experts believe that China may fill the void to some extent, both as a customer for African oil and as an investor and influencer.

Military analyst William M. Arkin is among them, saying the U.S. Africa Command believes that China is ready to step into a leading role in Africa, targeting its vast mineral resources. “China is exceeding U.S. investments in Africa and that, too, changes the geopolitics,” he said.

But Levan, the American University professor and Africa expert, says it is “questionable” whether India and China can make up for Nigeria’s lost U.S. sales, in part because refineries in both countries are set up to process cheaper heavy crude oil, not light, sweet crude oil. He also notes that India is more likely to get its oil from nearby Iraq and Iran, assuming the latter is freed from international sanctions, while China is looking to fracking to become energy independent.

Kilduff, the oil trader, agrees that China will not be the savior for Nigeria or other diminishing oil economies.

Source: thisdaylive.com

If you discovered that your BF/GF/Spouse is cheating or has cheated...what would you do?

Would you break it off or give him or her a second chance?

"Marriage should not be seen as a do or die affair in Nigeria. People should stop attaching too much emotion to marriage. If couples will keep their mind open and believe that anything can happen anytime, marriages in Nigeria will begin to survive. We should get more practical other than all the accolades we shower on romance and all." - Barrister Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Legal practitioner and Human Rights Activist.

In the candid interview below, Barrister Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi shares her thoughts on marriage in Nigeria.

It’s not been easy for Nigerian women but we are not giving up. Our society is not like that of the whites where gender equality is observed. Women in Nigeria are still largely denied and cheated, all in the name of culture. It’s been tough but we are not relenting; we will surely get there. More women are now conscious of their rights and they know how to defend them. More men are also aware of the peculiarity of the female gender and they are treading gently on this. However, it can be better and it must be made better.

Today, many marriages that started on good notes have collapsed and the Nigerian community is experiencing high rates of divorce. Several factors are responsible for this; poverty is a major challenge for most marriages in Nigeria. So also are intolerance, lack of understanding, societal pressure on the centrality of having children in marriage, our value system, stereotype of the role you expect a man or woman to play in marriage, external factors like undue interference by relations, and so on. I think we expect too much from marriage in Nigeria. I think people should stop seeing marriage as a do or die affair; it will make life more easier so that each person knows that you can opt out when it is time to do so.

People should stop attaching too much emotion to marriage. If couples will keep their mind open and believe that anything can happen anytime, marriages in Nigeria will begin to survive. We should get more practical other than all the accolades we shower on romance and all. It is better to be on the lookout for things that can make a marriage work, rather than over-assuming from the beginning and through it.

I am not against love but it should be love that is practical. If people will refuse to see beyond romance and blind love to practical things like the man or woman’s maturity, level of academic attainment, nature of the person, how tolerant, how understanding, the elasticity of the person’s sense of judgment, protectiveness, how much of security the man especially can give you as a man, his sense of responsibility and his definition of responsibility and, compare them to your own idea, there will always be a problem sooner or later.

It is important that we learn to face reality and stop hiding behind some religious doctrines and all. As we talk now, 90 per cent of couples in marriages today are uncomfortable, yet, they will not leave. All because of their religious beliefs, the society and the culture. This is not supposed to be. Once you see that your marriage is suffocating you, be a realist and take a bow out of it.

What is the essence of being called a married person and then you are unhappy and you cry from being battered in different ways everyday? Is it not better to stay alive and be of use to yourself and the society than be dead prematurely or move about with burnt skin and other assaults in the name of marriage?

I am not saying people should not be married but they should be smart and have a better view of life. It is wrong to think a man cannot cheat on you when you can see that there are reasons why he can and you are not taking steps to help avoid this. If you just think it will not happen because he or she is a pastor or a moralist or something, you might just be mistaken because no one is infallible.

Source: Interview with Barrister Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Legal practitioner and Human Rights Activist conducted by Yemisi Adeniran / http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/most-marriages-today-are-uncomfortable /12/20/2014

Aprime:
Lol, I can't related with your topic yet.
I sincerely can't think of one hater in my family.

Lucky you!

My haters are most of my in-laws.

Very wicked people!

Why are some of your worst critics and haters related to you?

Whatever you've achieved is never good enough.

Most families have at least one relative whose modus operandi is to shoot people down.

While your best approach may be avoidance, there are certain times of year when there's no escaping these characters at big family gatherings.

How do you manage to keep sane?

Guinea Leader Warns Boko Haram Risks Spreading In Region

Paris (AFP) - Guinea's president warned Sunday that Islamic extremism risked spreading throughout west Africa and called on countries in the region to do more to help Nigeria in its struggle against Boko Haram.

Alpha Conde's comments came after the radical group kidnapped 185 people in northeast Nigeria on December 14, in a chillingly similar event to the April abduction in Chibok of more than 200 school girls.

"If there is a problem in one country, if we don't put out the fire it will spread to the other countries," Conde told TV5 Monde television in a Sunday interview.

"We hope that we will become aware of this and put an end to the danger of Boko Haram.

"Today it spreads to Cameroon, tomorrow it will be Niger, or Mali, or Guinea... It's not because we don't have common borders that we are not threatened."

Conde said African states had not helped Nigeria enough and needed to be "more responsible."

Boko Haram has carried out a series of abductions in Nigeria this year, boosting their supply of child fighters, porters and young women reportedly used as sex slaves.

The five-year uprising by the extremists has killed more than 13,000 people and forced more than 1.5 million others from their homes.

And the radical group has extended its activities beyond Nigerian soil, notably into neighbouring Cameroon.

But the threat in the region is not only limited to Boko Haram.

Islamists driven out of Mali's key northern towns by the French army last year, for instance, are now holed up in the desert and wreak sporadic violence.

Conde also said that presidential elections would still be held in Guinea in 2015 despite the Ebola epidemic, which has hit the country hard.

"Ebola will not stop us from holding elections. Ideally, we would like to defeat Ebola before elections," he said.

"We will give the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) all the means to hold elections" next year.

Extremists In Nigeria Lining Up Elderly And Shooting Them
By HARUNA UMAR

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria are turning their guns on elderly people, killing more than 50 this week in a new tactic that has instilled more fear in areas the militants call an Islamic caliphate.

Residents from five villages say people too elderly to flee Gwoza local government area are being rounded up and taken to two schools where the militants open fire on them. The villages are about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.

"What they are doing now is to assemble the aged people — both men and women ... and then they just open fire on some of them," said Muhammed Gava, a spokesman for civil defense groups in the area. More than 50 people had been killed at Government Day Secondary School in Gwoza, he said.

A villager who had fled said more elderly people are being gathered and shot at Uvaghe Central Primary School. The villager spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of endangering his trapped parents.

Government officials did not immediately comment on the reports.

Nigeria's military said soldiers are patrolling "in search of terrorists" and "to verify abductions" Friday around the village of Gumburi, where witnesses say extremists kidnapped at least 185 people a week ago.

Nigeria's military and government have been criticized for their failure to rescue 219 schoolgirls kidnapped from a town near Gumburi in April.

In separate attacks Friday, witnesses said Boko Haram struck at Damagum and Mamudo towns in Yobe state, bombing government buildings, the police station and military barracks.

The extremists suffered a setback when they attacked soldiers guarding a power station in Borno state, according to an engineer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said soldiers were warned in advance that the extremists were advancing and engaged the militants in fierce fighting that killed at least 70.

Extremists have killed thousands of people in a 5-year uprising that has driven some 1.6 million from their homes.

---

Associated Press writers Adamu Adamu in Damaturu, Nigeria, and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

Some people's parents can't afford higher education for their children.

And...some wives generally do whatever their husbands tell them to do...or...allow them to do.

Evidently, she's fed up and wants out of the marriage, so that she can pursue her education on her own.

One of the most important things a woman can do for herself is to make sure she gets a solid education, before she marries, if at all possible. If not, then, she should make it very clear to her fiance that she has every intention of pursuing or finishing her education, after the marriage...no Ifs, Ands or Buts. The fiance agrees and the wedding goes on. BUT...what if the fiance refuses to uphold his end of the bargain?

Example?

A 37-year old Nigerian-American teacher travels back home to marry his 27-year old girlfriend of 3 years. Her family was especially happy that he promised to educate their daughter up to the Master level. So was she. However, once they were settled, back in the States, he began to come up with all kinds of excuses not to fund her education...she wouldn't be able to take care of the house and go to school...the budget is too tight...the university is too far away and gas was too high right now...and so on and so forth. Finally, after almost 2 years of begging, he agreed to allow her to work and save up some money to help him fund her education. Well...it's been 13 years and she is still working at a local Walmart - her dreams of a university a distant echo in the past. So...now she's wants to file for divorce, so that she can achieve her dreams and take care of her two sons and her parents better.

Can this marriage be saved?

Problems Of Assimilation
By Brandt Williams

When Africans immigrate to America, they confront racism, perhaps for the first time. The longer they live in this country and become African-Americans, they realize they are identified more by the color of their skin than by their nationality. Race can complicate the process of assimilation for African immigrants.

Daniel Abebe is a professor at Metro State University in St. Paul. He says the American concept of race may be hard for African immigrants to grasp. Abebe says that's because no matter where in Africa you're from, in America, you're black.

"When someone just simply reduces you to 'you are black,' for Africans, that's a very difficult concept to welcome," says Abebe. "I had that difficulty earlier on. I kept saying 'I'm not, I am an Ethiopian, I have a culture. I have a language. What do you mean I'm just that?'"

Abebe came to the U.S. to study in 1967, went back to Ethiopia and then returned to the U.S. in 1990. He says when Africans were first brought to U.S. shores as slaves in 1619, they identified themselves by tribe or nation.

They were Yoruba, Ibo, Akan and Ashanti. Abebe says America sought to control the captive Africans by stripping them of their culture and language. And he says some African immigrants resist the label 'black,' because they see it as an attempt to rob them of what makes them unique.

Abebe says as time passed he has learned to accept this part of American culture. And so have other African immigrants.

"I have begun to identify myself as an African-American," says Kenneth Udoibok, who was born in Nigeria and came to the U.S. 21 years ago.

He says the process of becoming an African American has been gradual.

"Ten years ago I told people I was an African. Fifteen to 20 years ago I told people I was a Nigerian," he says.

Udoibok says although he identifies himself as an African-American, racism in America is still difficult to wrap his African mind around.

In Nigeria there are three major ethnic groups - the Yoruba, the Ibo and the Hausa. Udoibok is from the Ibibio, a subgroup of the Ibo. But he says he mostly lived around the Yoruba people.

Udoibok says there may be tension among the groups, even sporadic fighting. But he says that tribal tension is a far cry from white America's historic treatment of African Americans.

"The Hausa does not view Ibo as subhuman or inferior, neither does no tribe view the other as inferior," says Udoibok. "There's never been a law in Nigeria that portends to address one group as inferior to the rest of the groups."

Udoibok says dealing with racism in America has been physically and mentally taxing. He says only half-jokingly African-Americans should take time on a regular basis to see a psychologist. Udoibok says he hopes to eventually move back to Nigeria to continue his law practice and live out the rest of his days.

But some African immigrants don't see themselves returning home anytime soon, certainly not refugees from Sudan.

In Sudan, civil war between the north and the south has raged for many years. The north is dominated by Arabs and Muslims. In the south are Christians and followers of traditional religions.

Most of the Sudanese in Minnesota are from the southern part of the country, where they say their people are being forced to speak Arabic and follow Islam.

"By coming to America, it was my first time...to know that people are discriminated because of their color," says Ruey Dong, a Sudanese refugee. "Back home, we don't have that kind of discrimination."

Dong is one of several hundred Sudanese refugees who moved to Minnesota - he's been here since 1994. Dong is a member of a group based in Columbia Heights, which tries to help other Sudanese refugees adjust to life in America and Minnesota.

Dong sits with two other Sudanese men in a wood-paneled room in the organization's headquarters.

"We feel like black Americans feel. Like we are treated differently by white Americans," says Dong. "For example, you can be stopped on the street by police while you are driving - while you didn't do anything."

Dong says his group is trying to connect with African-American organizations. He says they look to African-Americans as allies in the fight against racism.

Thomas Riek came from Sudan in 1995. He says there's another important reason for African-Americans to help the Sudanese.

"Sooner or later after 20 years those kids, Sudanese kids, will not be called Sudanese kid anymore. They will be African-American," says Riek.

But to some Africans, that's not necessarily a good thing.

"If you heard my daughter talking, she doesn't talk like me. She got no accent, she's more or less African-American or American," says Jackson George, who came to the U.S. from civil war-torn Liberia in 1995.

Since 1980, the west African nation has undergone periods of war, instability and rebuilding.

George says he's interested in preparing his family and other Liberians for the day when they can return home, and do their part to put the pieces back together. However, he says time is running out.

"That is our fear, because our time is passing. I might not go back to Liberia, I might not even try to do it," says George. "But what about my daughter, who maybe after 20 years from now, there might be peace. Will she want to go back home? No. She doesn't know anything about it."

Daniel Abebe says young African immigrants are particularly apt to adopt African-American culture. He says young Africans can identify with black culture because in many ways it is very similar to their own.

Abebe says process of turning Africans into African-Americans is beneficial to each group.

"I think it's going in the direction that it should - the alliances between these communities - because I think ultimately they are going to become one," says Abebe. "Because society's going to force them to be one. Their issues are going to be similar. Their struggles are going to be similar. And ultimately, I think their successes are going to be shared."

Abebe says like other new arrivals to America, African immigrants have mostly migrated to urban areas.

He says there, African immigrants often come into contact with African-Americans, thus accelerating the assimilation process.

Source: minnesota.publicradio.org/features

khiaa:
I'm not being hostile, not intentionally, I'm just stating my opinions, I'm not being petty or hiding behind anything, I have been very open and clear with you, on the other hand why are you so sensitive?

I beg to differ.

And I'm not sensitive - just perceptive.

khiaa:
Did you or did you not say that you assumed I was Nigerian in one of your quotes to me, well I am letting you know that I am not.

Yes people are shallow all over the world not only in America like you made it sound like in your original post.
My point to you is to clean up your on backyard.

Oh yes...I did. I forgot about assuming you were Nigerian. Not good!

What's with the veiled hostility?

Whatever burr is up your butt - out with it.

Why hide behind petty remarks?

khiaa:
Those are called pros.titutes.

What do you call women who marry men JUST for their money?

obongproff:
Dat ladies dont need a man to feel complete. Dat ladies shd have a life and a mind of dia own, dat ladies shd stop looking for Mr. Right and all dat. But d bad tin be say d whole article contradicts itself.

Very true!

khiaa:
Yeah you are right, some men will hit on anything in a skirt.

Yep...some women would sleep with Godzilla, if he had the cash.

No cash - no snatch!

khiaa:
LMAO
Yet you call American women shallow, and you can't use the Nigerian government for the lack of morals of some people.
Just as simply as some people can say American women should learn to keep their legs closed, this advice applies to Nigerian/African aswell.
No I am not Nigerian.

Some American women ARE shallow just like some American men. Shallowness is just another piece of the jigsaw puzzle called human. Do you deny it? And...isn't poor judgment one of the reasons that causes some women to drop their panties, on either side of the pond?

Btw...why are you telling me I can't use the Nigerian government for the lack of morals of some people?

And why are you telling me you're not Nigerian?

What fly is up your tail?

vivaciousvivi:
U are right about one thing OP, this is truly a rant

lol...his little feelings are more than a little hurt!

I wonder how many women he's called ugly.

wierdpsycho:
are you American?

Why do you want to know?

khiaa:
So what are the reason that some Nigerian women are in the deplorable conditions they are in, (single unwed mothers, multiple abortions, greed)?

There are some Nigerian/African women in the US who will not date/marry Nigerian/African men, why is that?

As a Nigerian (I'm assuming), I doubt you are ignorant of the reasons some Nigerian women fall by the wayside. Some of those reasons are not too different from those of American women...e.g... immaturity, poor judgment, lack of sex education and/or birth control, lack of parental involvement, peer pressure, poverty, victim of a sex predator, past molestation, broken home, etc. There's misery on both sides of the pond, among some Nigerian and American women.

Unlike Nigeria, the US has myriads of programs that serve to alleviate the 'deplorable conditions' some American women find themselves in - free of charge. However, you will still find some American living on the edge. Why? Either they're lazy and trifling or previously messed up, when enrolled in one of these programs. The administrators of these programs can be strict. Mess up and you're kicked out - sometimes permanently.

So...you ask why some Nigerian/African women in the US who will not date/marry Nigerian/African men.

My observations ...

SOME Nigerian/African women in the US say they will not date/marry SOME Nigerian/African men because...

...they're not as good-looking as American men
...they consider Nigerian men inferior to American men
...they want beautiful children
...they consider them too arrogant, pompous, jealous, possessive, abusive and deceitful
...they want to experience different dating options, just like Nigerian/African men
...they don't trust them, due to bad relationships, in the past
...they lie too much
...they openly express their dislike of Nigerian women and like for non-Nigerian women
...they aren't romantic
...they refuse to deal with Nigerian men's "Woman you must submit!" attitudes
...they've found that the average American man is 'house-trained'...e.g...he finds no problem pitching in to do housework, cook and help out with the kids
...they've found American men to be better lovers

Yields:
I'm still yet to come across a black woman who calls a black man ugly.

Keep living and surfing the net.

What you don't seek - you'll find.

Mondisweets:
Men have been choosing who to date/marry solely based on looks since 1206BC it was never shallow then, but when women decide to do the same its now shallow. Nawa ooo.

Very true!

It's way past time women gave men a taste of their own medicine.

It may make men think twice about calling any woman ugly.

Ilekokonit:
No Nigerian needs any incitement to curse Nigerian Lootocrats of ALL parties to hell fire.

Do you need any incitement to curse Politicians that have stolen the money meant for the welfare of millions of sick, hungry and dying children

In the past 10 years alone, 2 million Nigerian children have died before their fifth birthday as a result of corruption ??
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/164182-nigeria-anatomy-of-a-fecklessstate-by-larry-diamond.html

VERY GOOD POINTS!