Respect and Abuse!

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Read Time:9 Minute, 54 Second

In today’s Nigerian (and most African) society with everything going on, from politics to terrorism to religious and ethnic intolerance and corruption of epidemic proportions, it is very helpful if we as a people learn to start respecting other people’s opinions, views, position, outlook, and rights, etc.

Oftentimes disagreements and heated debates start between people because they have differences of opinions toward a certain subject. In my years in this world, and with my upbringing, education, and life’s experience, I have learnt that just because someone has a different opinion from your own does not mean that their opinion is wrong. An opinion is not a fact, therefore there is no right or wrong view – it is just that, an opinion. It is the same thing with a view; just because someone does not view something the way you should not degenerate into an argument or debate with them about why you are right, and they are wrong. Because they think you are wrong and they’re right.

Respecting other people’s opinions, views, rights, and dispositions also show that one is well mannered and that one shows respect for that person as well. If someone has a different opinion than yours and you reply with “I understand and respect your opinion” rather than replying with your opinion and why it is right and why they are wrong, the person who has a different opinion than you will respect you in return.

I have for most of my short life believed in respecting people. And by that, I am saying that one should treat other people as one would like to be treated. One should expect them to be as good as oneself, as smart as oneself, as caring and so forth. And one should respect their right to have an opinion.

But I think that opinions should not be free from criticism. And they should only command what respect they have earned. In other words, if one respects another person and that other person does not return the respect, then, they do not deserve the respect that has been shown to them, and the respect should be withdrawn.

In our Nigerian society, one of the reasons why we find ourselves in the dire situation and environment that we are is that acute absence of respect for everything we do. It is plain DISRESPECT! I am not talking about the Respect we often mouth in our culture, e.g. respect for elders. Look at it the following way:

We do not respect each other, and that is why people appointed or elected into positions of trust and authority decide to take us for granted and steal public funds meant for the development and betterment of the population at large.

Our rulers (I really hate calling them leaders, because, in the real sense, they are not leading anybody) do not give us respect. Yet, we respect them a lot, in fact, we treat them like gods. If they respected us, they will not be treating their people like they have been doing for over 50 years. They will not be stealing our money; they will not be cheating and riffing or gunning their way to power; they will be providing us with good governance because we trusted and respected them; and to crown it all, if these people respected us, they will not be tempting us to vote for them by distributing rice, garri, bread, palm oil and vegetable oil and a few Naira to us. It is people you do not respect that you induce with such mundane things (maybe not to some people), but you see, they know what they are doing. They have made sure we are in perpetual poverty of stomach and mind and that’s where they left us, so come election times, they will meet us in the same position and we will be susceptible to their bribes. It never fails to work. We will even maim and kill for them to get to power.

We do not respect human life, even our own life, and examples are replete on our streets and roads – governments and officials with responsibility refuse to fix the roads; careless driving; ignoring safety rules while carrying our normal daily chores, selling fake drugs and fake or substandard equipment just to gain an advantage and make money; your mechanic cheating you and putting the same part he told you is faulty back in your car despite collecting money for a new one. All these show lack of respect for you and your life.

We do not respect authority – we flout the laws of the land (criminal, traffic, etc) every day; politicians and leaders flout the Constitution to which they have sworn to uphold every day; even those expected to uphold and enforce the laws flout the law because they do not care, hence the chaos and anarchy we have in our society.

We do not have any respect for human and civil rights. Again, this is exemplified in our every day trudges as we struggle to escape poverty and oppression.  Our police and other law enforcement and security agencies are more of instruments of terror and oppression of the masses by the rulers than providers of safety and security and services to the people they proclaim to serve.

All tiers of government – executive, legislative, judiciary and civil service – have turned themselves into demi-gods, whose words and deeds are rarely challenged, and if challenged, because there is no respect in the land, the challenger will be the victim of the most vicious campaign of calumny and personal attacks one has ever seen. Even in the most elitist of societies, the West, there is still a lot of respect from the upper class for the lower class, such that everything is provided for the less fortunate in the society, and thus have no cause to complain of marginalisation or oppression. These so-called elite (if indeed, we can call them that) plough enough back into the society to reach everybody. This is because they respect human life; respect the right to life and to good decent living for everybody irrespective of social status; respect the right of the individual and the collective; respect the environment, etc

We do not have respect for our environment, the very environment that is the very source and sustenance of our existence as human, and that is why you see piles and mountains of litter and refuse all over the place. We dispose of our garbage anyhow we want it; we do our body functions anywhere we see to do it; we do not give any thought to the effect of the noise from our generators (a result of lack of provision of electricity by our leaders) either to ourselves or to our neighbours.

When you have a section of the society behaving with impunity and reckless disregard for our sworn Constitution, no matter how imperfect it is; law and order; rule of law; governing, legislative, judicial, and electoral systems, it is marked disrespect for the people they are supposed to be governing. That means your rulers take you for granted; they are insensitive to your plight and condition of living. You die of poverty, you die, what concerns them?

After you have blown your sirens to force people to give way to you, what happens when you have left office? After all, power and positions are transient. The people you disregarded and disrespected on your way up are the same you’re going to meet on your way down.

Another proof of the elite/government disrespect for the common man by whose grace they are in power id the preponderance of uniformed authority. I went to a function hosted by a uniformed agency just las week and I was awed by number of “uniformed authorities” that were present – the Police, Traffic Wardens, the DSS, the SSS, the Armed Forces, the Road Safety, Customs, Immigration, Prisons, NDLEA, VIO, Peace Corps, Rescue, Fire Brigade, Civil Defence, Man O’War, Vigilantes, NURTW, ACOMORAN, the States’ owned traffic and environmental services, etc. If you are not intimidated by these numbers of uniforms on the roads and in the community, one must be a hardened criminal. And some of these agencies even have different uniforms within the same agency, e.g. the Nigerian Police – regular, MOPOL, SARS, Rapid Response, Anti-Terrorist, Anti-Kidnapping, etc. It is crazy and oppressive and disrespectful to the common people, who are bullied, ravaged, brutalised and taken advantage of daily, by several of these agencies. And we say we are a democracy!!!

That syndrome called, “African Time” is another sign of our disrespect for time, punctuality and especially to the people waiting for you, at a meeting, function, event or anywhere. African leaders are particularly fond of disrespecting the people who put them in power by deliberately arriving late to functions they are invited to or that they themselves have called for. To them, it is a sign of weakness to arrive on time for a function. They take it for granted that the people waiting for them must not leave and must not start the function unless they arrive. It is arrogance and disrespect personified and taken to the highest level. But there we have it!

On the societal side, lateness for work (another form of African Time); indolence; shoddy execution of assignments, contracts, and jobs; cheating at examinations; demanding for bribes to perform services which are normally free; embezzlement of funds; all these constitute disrespect for societal and moral values. Such then beget petty corruption which then escalates gradually to the bigger and more fatal forms of corruption that is now pervasive and endemic in our society.

Disrespect is Disregard is Contempt is Disdain is Insolence is Scorn is Impudence is Impertinence is Impunity is Neglect!!

Please let us look around at the way we live our everyday lives in Africa, and you see and experience and suffer all the above and following daily: abuse of power; abuse of authority; abuse of position; abuse of office; abuse of privileges; abuse of opportunities; abuse of the public and the society; abuse of the environment; abuse of human and civil rights; abuse of property, abuse of justice; abuse of court processes; abuse of the Constitutional requirements and laid down procedures; abuse of political and electoral processes; abuse of education; abuse of freedom; etc. All these lead to lack of good governance and poor, visionless, and focus-less leadership.

On a more personal and individually human level, besides learning about oblique aspects of our psyche and background, here are other reasons why we should be open to understanding the differences in others:

  1. You’ll learn new things and make better decisions – for our leaders/rulers. That’s all the people ask for – make decisions that will better their lives.
  2. You’ll make more exciting friends – for our neighbours and people we interact with.
  3. You’ll be a more broadminded and progressive person – for our politicians, who are insensitive charlatans hungry for power but do not know how to use the power they acquired by hook or crook.
  4. You’ll feel better, more secure and satisfied – for the individual in the society, and for the leaders who will be able to walk freely amongst their own people, with no excessive security surrounding them to protect them from the wrath of the people.
  5. You’ll make the world a better place and will be remembered for your legacy – for our rulers, civil servants, and other public officials. Power is transient; make your tenure felt for good by the people, “the evil that men do, lives after them”.

Don’t these also apply to how we govern ourselves?

There is nothing to gain from disrespect and abuses to others, the society and the environment. We are the losers.

Tell the Truth always!!!!

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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The Looted Funds from Nigeria Have Found Other Destinations

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Read Time:3 Minute, 50 Second

“Nigerian treasury looters have found new destinations for their loot: Persian Gulf, India and China. This revelation came from former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador John Campbell, one of the speakers at the 2010 Achebe Colloquium on Africa,” a Nigerian newspaper, This Day reported two days ago, Sunday 5th of December 2010.

According to the report titled, “China, India, others now haven for Nigerian loot”, the funds looted from Nigeria are no longer going to Switzerland, France, United Kingdom or the United States. Instead, the new destination for Nigerian looted money is now Persian Gulf, India, and perhaps China.

This is exactly the point. Somebody is not doing the right calculation about the Nigerian pitiable situation, the artificial hardship that has been created for the Nigerian people.

The politicians are pretending to be gentle now as they beg to be voted into power, come 2011. But not sooner they have gotten the mandate will many become passionate looters of the Nigerian oil money and rubbing the nation’s name in the mud.

They think they have created a philosophy: “it’s the National Cake; you chop, I chop”. Well, it is because many Nigerians are not asking the right question: “how can you have your cake if you have eaten it?”

Any singular “Naira” that is burgled out from the Nigerian state and taken abroad for safekeeping is both a “double incident of loss” and a serious impediment to the Nigerians’ ability to develop their local system and depend on themselves. See the article, “Underdeveloping Africa through Corruption”, an extract from the research, “UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: My Hands Are Clean”.

Let’s get the mathematics clearer.

Firstly, the money in question was stolen from the public funds, meaning loss number one to Nigeria and Nigerians. Secondly, the guy who has stole the money think he is intelligent by taken the money to India or China, where it will eventually be invested to create job opportunities for the Chinese or Indian youths. That is the loss number two to Nigeria, because whatever China or India has gained in that regard, Nigeria has certainly lose.

If we further extend this argument, the situation will automatically emerge clearer. At least, to those who will accept the bitter truth that corruption in Nigeria is being deliberately used to punish the common people and deny them the ability to depend on themselves.

By siphoning the public funds meant for the creation of electricity, the construction of good roads and the provision of medical facilities, it means that Nigerians will have to depend on other people to provide them with their means of livelihood. Whereas the Nigerian people would have been able to satisfy their own needs, if the government had provided the needed facilities.

It can even be much simpler. Just because the person who is in charge of the power project has taken the project money to his private bank account in India or China automatically means that the Nigerian factory owner who produces toothpaste will have to generate his own power. Meanwhile, the individually generated energy is far more expensive and oftentimes hazardous to the environment, especially in the case of continues burning of diesel to power electric generators, not to talk of the noise and nuisance to the Nigerian public.

Quite apart from that, the consequence of the additional cost is that the aforementioned toothpaste will now become more expensive, so that the producer can recover his additional money. Yet, the real danger to the local economic development is only waiting at the corner.

According to several economic analysts, what really determines production is not necessarily the desire to produce, but the demand for the good that is produced. Therefore, for the singular reason that the Nigerian producer of toothpaste has increased his price will mean that he stands the risk of not, even, selling his product. This is because with the global economic competitiveness of the 21st century, a toothpaste producer in Italy who do not have to pay the extra cost for power generation, like his Nigerian counterpart will easily dominate the market, simply by selling at cheaper prices to the Nigerian consumers.

The real result from the above situation is that the Nigerian producer will eventually become jobless, because when his consumers can no longer afford his products himself would no longer have a reason to keep producing, thanks to the Nigerian corruption.

The ordinary Nigerians deserve better, please do not take away their money and their means of survival.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Sudan: To Be or Not To Be

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Read Time:4 Minute, 15 Second

Sudan is one of the countries that will always remain indispensable in the African continent. It’s not just because a most renowned African civilisation, the ancient Nubian society once flourished there, or that it is the biggest African country; Sudan is of special important to Africa, both due to its strategic position and what it represents, historically and culturally. It’s equally important as a major destination for African scholars and historians who must dig up the remains of ancient Nubians, in order to authenticate the histories of African people.

Yet, Sudan is one of the countries in Africa that have hardly known peace, especially since these last few decades. Civil wars, genocides, religious scheming; some have even documented what they called “the Sudanese ethnic cleansing”, and those who claim to be the (international) watchdog for human rights have said it will never happen again.

Now the cloud is gathering once more and the indications are spreading both fear and deep apprehensions about the future of this African country.

“The upcoming 2010 elections and 2011 referendum in Sudan are the culminating events of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the National Congress Party and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement.  However, looking at 2011 and beyond, there is increasing concern that Sudan may revert to violence rather than move forward toward the sustainable peace envisioned by the CPA…”

At October 2009 when the United States Institute of Peace made the above report, some people would have concluded that it was still too early to judge. The vast African country is now a month and few days away from facing one of its most vital moments as a country, the referendum to decide the independence of southern Sudan.

“As January 9 approaches tension continues to escalate with accusations of voter intimidation, disputed bombings along the border and a wave of aggressive rhetoric stoking uncertainty on both sides of the still contested north-south border…,” Reuters, last Saturday, 4th December, 2010.

Below is an appeal by a Sudanese artist and advocate, Emmanuel Jal. He was a child soldier during the last Sudanese civil war, between the north and south of the country.

“My country is on the brink of war. On January 9, Southern Sudan will vote for its independence to be free from a government who has slaughtered and displaced our people for 43 years. The country is currently led by a regime bent on controlling oil resources.  80% of Sudan’s oil fields are in the south, making it a prime battleground to displace our indigenous people.  Both north and south are preparing for war, leaving innocent people at grave risk of major human rights violations. The last civil war between North and South claimed over 2 million lives, including my own mother. I have firsthand experience as a war child, forced to fight in the conflict and torn from my family. The time to prevent another genocide is now. I have a written a new single called “We Want Peace”.  It is a call for peace, protection and justice for all in my land, and also for an end to conflicts affecting innocent people all around the world. Thank you for joining me in my struggle.”

Come to think of it; what does independent Sudan or the united Sudan really mean?

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader while serving as the head of African Union last years was advocating for the united states of Africa. Whether his proposal was merely political or he truly meant what he said, especially that he latter called for the partitioning of Nigeria along ethnic or religious lines, people must understand that no singular African country is too big or so culturally complicated that it cannot be governed by one central government.

Instead, in Sudan, like Nigeria or Congo, there are enormous natural resources that there is no easier way to reap off those natural resources for the benefit of the capitalist Europe an America without playing ethnic and religious politics in those African countries.

In essence, whether Sudan remains one country or end up divided into one hundred countries, few questions will remain central. Are the local leaders truly ready to defend the interests and survival of their own people; are they willing to make little sacrifices, to shun the alluring proposals of moneybags western politicians and businessmen so that the local resources can be use to develop the local community? This is where the argument lies.

The problem of Sudan, like in many other African countries is not the geopolitical or cultural complicity of the country; it’s rather more of a leadership problem and the non-accountability of the leaders to the local people.

So, since it’s usually the failure at the central entity which causes its components to disintegrate, African leaders should defend the interests and survivals of their own citizens, irrespective of their ethnic origins, then those same citizens will reciprocate by protecting their national unity and collective aspirations as a people.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Ken and Sankara: Africa should demonstrate its Innocence

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Read Time:10 Minute, 16 Second

This is an extract from the research, “UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: My Hands Are Clean”, as was published on the 10th of November 2010. Images and footnotes are omitted; to know more about this (216 pages) research, see the book at www.unibook.com, www.amazon.com and at www.lulu.com.

–Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso) And Ken Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria)–

“It was exactly the 15th of October, 1987 that a young and upcoming leader, Thomas Sankara, was assassinated in his own country, Burkina Faso. As many experts tried to analyse the assassination saga, there was no lack of accusations and the pointing of fingers towards the Europeans and other Western powers. On July 2009, a documentary titled (in Italian), “Ombre Africane” (African Shadows) was aired by an Italian popular TV channel, Rai3. In the documentary, one army general from a neighbouring West African country was thrilled to talk about the assassination of Sankara and he did not hesitate from spelling out the details.

Below is part of the transcript from the documentary, as was published in many international news agencies. (Names were intentionally omitted. To know more about the story, follow the link in the footnote):

“France was totally involved (…) I was right there when Sankara said, ‘(…) you are my best friend, I call you my brother, and yet you assassinate me?’(…) made an irritated gesture and said something to him in French (…) then he fired a shot…”

Just as a reminder, Fidel Kientega was the foreign policy adviser to Thomas Sankara. In the interview he granted to a Gambian journalist, Bubacarr Sankanu on the 10th of January, 2010, he said of Sankara’s leadership quality:

“His children were pedalled to school on the back seat of bicycles. We raised concerns about their safety but Sankara said he wanted his children to grow up modestly like every normal Burkinabe child… Thomas set the pace for modesty and simplicity in leadership. He renamed our country “Burkina Faso” which means, “Land of the Upright People”. He himself lived and died by an upright example… Sankara died at the age of thirty eight (38) without betraying his cause…”

Now let’s get the point clearer. If truly there is anything to reveal about Sankara’s death, it is the fact that local Africans should take responsibility in most of the actions often deemed ‘Western infiltrations into the African system’. This is because the direct infiltrators are usually the African people, in the exception of few instances, like the case of a British machinery who was involved in a failed coup d’état (2004), against an African head of state. This is where the question of responsibility comes into play and equally brings to bear the often exaggerated African brotherhood. By common sense, the latter will have no meaning until Africans have learned to be their brothers’ keeper, watch each other’s back and defend their common interests.

There is no doubt that someone somewhere could have been uncomfortable with Sankara’s philosophy and desire for his people, as an uncommon African leader. His drive to re-orientate his fellow countrymen and prepare them for a new beginning, renewing a fact that has become rejected, even by the Africans themselves, (that an African is beautiful and he can do it on his own). Considering the masquerading of the African political arrangement, the above could have made someone, far away, to call for the death of Sankara, but why should an African accept to pull the trigger and then tend to shy away from the responsibility later on? Why?

Let’s look at a different case with a similar story.

Naturally, there is no way that those who fight for ecological justice can be fighting for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, things can be different in Africa and excuses are never in short supply. That is how bad the African situation has become. Born on the 10th of October, 1941, in Bori, Niger Delta, Ken Saro-Wiwa was like every other Nigerian and African as it were. Yet, he not only understood the connection between a man and his natural environment. He equally upheld to the obligation of defending the latter for the good of everything that lives. This was the drive behind his strong will. It was the reason he chose to challenge Shell Oil Company, in Nigeria, for abusing the ecological system of the Niger Delta, through its decades of oil exploration.

Everybody knew that Ken’s campaign was a non-violent, yet he was considered a serious threat to one of the richest companies in the world and the largest army in Africa. On the 4th of May, 1994, he was arrested for the alleged connection in the death of four Ogoni men. And it was going to be doughty for him.

On his trial at a special military tribunal, the words of Ken were few. They were pure and full of human resilience. They were the type of words to remind the local people of their individual and collective responsibilities, towards their own community and survival as a people.

“In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger Delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side…”

Convicted by the Nigerian military tribunal, Ken and his eight Ogoni colleagues were executed on the 10th of November, 1995. And talking about history, as Ken had pointed out on his trial, that particular case was going to turn Shell to devil in the eyes of many international civil right and environmental activists. In reaction to Ken’s death, just after the news became available on the 10th of November, 1995, the Greenpeace Movement, an international organization which preaches against the abuse of ecological system quickly released the following statement:

“The blood of Ken Saro-Wiwa will permanently stain the name of Shell”

Different protests were staged against Shell in many places, including some countries in Europe, all to clear a point that the death of Ken was unjust. Some few individuals even stopped buying Shell oil because of the incident of 10th November, 1995.

There was the need for all that, no doubt. The angle of this argument, rather, is ‘if Shell can be blamed for Ken’s death’, what about the Nigerian politicians and other local elites who have accepted or chose to eliminate one of their own? What about their material benefits, their deliberate sustenance of corruption in the Nigerian system, so that the natural resources can be exploited for their personal interests, (against the collective interest of the ordinary people)? Do these actions not have any consequence on the local economic development; the orientation of the local population towards the perception of wealth creation and growth? Do these actions not say anything about the responsibility and accountability of the local people, as it concerns their local economic development?

In a real world, what kind of economic development will occur in most parts of the Niger Delta? A place where the ecosystem and the rights of the indigenous people have been overly abused? A people who have traditionally depended on their land and water have now become jobless. The fishes in their waters are suffocating from oil spillages; their farm crops are dying. The local atmosphere and land space is polluted and almost uninhabitable due to oil activities. Yet the oil money is not plough back for alternative occupation; infrastructures and social amenities are not developed. Is it not natural that the local youths would someday revolt? That violent activities like that of ‘the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta’ will emerge, destroying oil installations and kidnapping oil workers? That the violence control violence will not be equal to local economic development?

This is the sad equation in the Niger Delta; the people, their resources and their local development.

Now, the argument can better be understood. What actually led to the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa was not a mere selfish attempt to sabotage the activities of Shell Oil Company in their land, but that through those activities, their human rights and the right of their natural environment needed to be respected. This was supposed to be a legitimate fight for the Nigerian/African people and their governments, who should protect the local interests. Instead, a different action was taken and the consequence of that action, as it relates to local development cannot be hidden, not now, not ever.

I know that the aforementioned Ken and Sankara are by no means the only outspoken people in Africa, in connection to how things should go for the interest of the African people. But for the purpose of this discussion, I will try to connect the two to local development, as follows:

First, I would say that ‘evaluating the development of a place without placing such evaluation vis-à-vis the local people and their collective aspiration is a mere philosophy’. And for the local people to be fully involved in what can be regarded as their developmental project, it will mean they have to be conscious of the process that drives the project. This is where Sankara came into the discussion. As an individual African who wanted to take responsibility in his action and conviction, he encouraged his Burkinabe people to believe in themselves, as a people who are capable of developing their own society.

The above was to mean that the people of Burkina Faso no longer needed to wait for the French and the Americans to tell them what to do and how to do it, but that they, as a people should know what to do and to do it in their own way. After all, their social/economic development was to be about them and their well-being, as a people. Consider the following paragraph:

If Shell Oil Company was owned by Nigeria or from the Niger Delta, there is no way it could have acted in the Niger Delta the same manner it has done all these decades. Take it from me; I’m not trying to stage a racial argument here, but that certain things can be much simple to understand about this issue. A Shell Oil Company from the Niger Delta, even though driven by the desire to make money (with the Nigerian oil), would definitely consider the interest of ‘the local people and their natural environment’.

This can better be understood from Ken’s argument because it is very simple: ‘while the multinational oil companies can extract petroleum from the Niger Delta, they should not forget that there are millions of people who call that land their home’. So, it was a struggle to prevent more than 30 million Nigerians from loosing their home, just for the fact that petroleum has been discovered on their land. The British could have done the same, the Germans could have done the same, and the same goes for the Americans. This is not about selfishness but that a people who want to survive and be relevant in a world such as ours must learn to defend their local and collective interests.

Finally, these two different struggles by two different Africans would naturally have led to local development in their respective places. This is because if the African people are encouraged to believe in themselves and pursue a common goal, they will collectively win. And if the interests of local Africans are put into consideration by the multinationals companies, operating in the African soil, the results from their activities will hardly be detrimental to the African people and their natural environment.

Yet, some Africans decided, for their personal interests to eliminate Ken and Sankara. Therefore, the question of responsibility as it relates to African development/underdevelopment cannot be more relevant than in the above cases.” From the discussion, “MEETING ACTIONS WITH RESPONSIBILITY”, page 36 to 52.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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The News flow Controversy -Onwutalobi Anthony-Claret

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Read Time:13 Minute, 25 Second

The News flow Controversy: Evaluation of Imbalances, Inadequacies, distortions in International news flow and how it affects African development and democracy.

Information is power and the most critically sought commodity in today’s world. Those that control the information are usually seemed to be the most powerful in our contemporary society. Therefore, for the past thirty years, there has been a controversy resulting from accusation and counter accusation of imbalance flow of information from the west to south. The purported victims which are the developing nations have been raging bitterly over the news coverage of events in their continent and have denounced western newspapers, journals, and television outlets for their alleged sensationalism and anti-development bias (Legum & Cornwell, 1978). Due to this controversy, on several accounts, developing nations have attempted to engage the western nations through different channels to address the issue of global information inequality. One that may readily come to mind is the UNESCO meetings in 1969 (Sean , Elie, Sergei , & Somavia, 1980), 1974 (Mowlana, 1985), 1976 (Bandopadhyay, 2006) and 1980 (Tokunbo, 2000) consecutively, where the UNESCO group of experts on mass communication and society noted in its disturbing but revealing report that: What has come to be known as the free flow of information at the present time is often in fact a one way rather than a true exchange of information.


In retaliation, western world has equally charged the developing world of seeking to obstruct the free flow of information and insist to make no change in the information flow which they regard as a threat to the freedom to report, to print, and to broadcast news (Legum & Cornwell, 1978). This charge and counter-charge is far from abating and in fact is gathering momentum as it persists in many developing countries as they are well aware of the value of information in speeding material development and in maintaining power. In this paper however, the author will be discussing the developing world perception of new world information order, seeking to find what changes they expect from it. The essay will also attempt to identify the positions taken by these disputants by closely looking at the exchange of charges and counter-charges between those demanding balance in the news and those demanding journalistic freedom. And finally we will explore the issues underlying the dispute and attempt to proffer solutions where necessary.

 A Historical Perspective: News flow before World War II

The concept of imbalance in the media coverage and controversy over the international flow of news had been an important starting point in many of the deliberations concerning the national and international flow of information, culture and news. However, the significance of this controversy can be understood only be grasping the extent of the revolutionary changes that have been eroding the international system for the last thirty years.

Taking cognizance of the fact that in recent days, the world communication technology and the management of world information resources are clearly in the favor of the industrialized countries. (Legum & Cornwell, 1978), in their compiled report argues that western domination was actually the cause of disparity in both the economic and information order which they believed started after the World War II as described as the post imperial era. It was during this period that new ideas and forces took shape and power shift decisively to the west. They recounted that before the World War II , that western nations has no political power to impose their will on the non-western world and that the great power struggles of the European imperial era were all fought among the western nations themselves making it impossible for the west to dominate (Legum & Cornwell, 1978).

However, they believed that the industrial revolution had given the west a head start over the rest of the world in creating new wealth and accumulating great military power, which in turn resulted both in the expansion of European imperialism and in the rise of the United states, but one thing that stood very obvious within those period was also subsequent rapid growth of emerging powers like Soviet Union and China. These duos also become players in the center stage making the technological advances of the industrial revolution not remain exclusive to western possession.

News Flow after World War II

After the World War II, more events continue to unfold, developing countries began gradually to assume role in the central stage as major factor in world affairs. Suffice to note that the developing nation’s first encounter in dealing with the western world was recorded to be hostile, as they experienced the western domination on almost every international affairs which Roger Tatarian, former vice-president of United Press International (UPI), acknowledged then by stating that the imbalance in economic and information order is due to the military, economic and political power distribution in the western world. (Tokunbo, 2000). As things unfold, It becomes more clearer to the developing world that the western domination and control of information is not beneficial but later unhealthy to their growth given that this one- way flow of information inevitably reflects only the point of view, mentality, values and interests of these developed nations (Ochs, 1986).

Most importantly, they saw also repressive act of the western world where the major western media tend to treat the cultures of the industrialized nations as superior and place them at the top of this imaginary hierarchy, while the cultures of the developing nations are placed at the bottom of the hierarchy (Einer, 1965). For instance, we always see the journalist lump together the 54 nations of African continent as one while the continent is often portrayed as a crocodile-infested dark continent where jungle life has perpetually eluded civilization (Tokunbo, 2000). These gross misrepresentations and imbalance in the inter-national news flow was a big concern to the developing countries, therefore there was a burning desire for a radical overhaul of the present international information system to a new information order where free flow of information will be equitable and balanced. They wanted the world communication system to reflect the diversity and equality of all human races more just and more beneficial to the whole community of mankind. It was on this background that the New World Information and communication order (NWICO) debate was born. It was the greatest debates in the field of international communication in the 1970s and 1980s (Tokunbo, 2000).

NWICO debate: Objective of NWICO debate

From documented report of several media experts, they all noted that the fundamental objective of NWICO debate was to seek for transnational flow of information, to resolve inequality in information resources, to promote cultural and commercial values of information and maintain fairness in the news distribution (Tokunbo, 2000). It was indeed a hot debate as summed up by different sources. According to one document complied by one German scholar on this NWICO debate, He wrote that there was a consensus from the participants resulting in adopting the resolution at the 19th General Conference of UNESCO in Nairobi in 1976 and at the 31st United Nations General Assembly which was aimed in promotion of the development of national communication systems in the developing countries (Kleinwachter, Nordenstreng, Gerbner, & Mowlana, 1993).

Outcomes of NWICO debate

From the documents emanating from the debate, we assume that the case of the developing world was well presented, noting that some major powers were complacent but not completely satisfied of the decision made in the meeting which we believe was among the reasons that made the realization of the demands a tall dream. Aside this unsatisfactorily disposition of the west, some other issues cast doubt on the realization of the decision for example, within the framework of the resolution, there were some questions unanswered. Firstly, there was no proper definition of how the implementation process of the NWICO debate was to be carried. Secondly, the censorship and media accountability clauses of the NWICO were too ambiguous. (Tokunbo, 2000), (Fore, 1982).

Furthermore, there was underground quibbles and grumbling among the attendants from the west that, the NWICO demands were seen as purely the sole views of Souths elites. Immediately after the release of the resolution to the public, U.S. press reacted with rage, panic and considerable bias. Even the U S. newspapers accused UNESCO of encouraging censorship, state control of the press, licensing of journalists by the state, and, in general, of being the arch-enemy of freedom of the press. (Fore, 1982).

This confusion reinvigorates the western nations suppressive desire to lead, who are already fearing that the hegemonic and monopolistic ownership and control of international communication systems and patterns of information flow were about to be destabilized and disestablished (Okigbo C. C., 1996). This fear prompted the infamous speech by Ronald Reagan the President of United States who spoke as quoted in the New York Times of September 22, 1987 saying that we cannot permit attempts to control the media and promote censorship under the ruse of a so-called new World Information Order, therefore confusion broke and Britain and the United States revoked their membership of the UNESCO and then walked out of the NWICO debate. Their withdrawal immediately weaken the organization political and financial strength as both countries are the largest financiers of the UNESCO.

On this account, the NWICO debate then suffered a big blow. Although UK later joined back to UNESCO in 1996 while US rejoined the organization in 2003, in a practical sense, some media expert claimed that the NWICO debate was a failure. But on paper, it was a success. Owning to the fact that all media outlets restored to status quo. Seeing this development, it was clear that it will not be acceptable by the developing countries. Therefore, the debate was far from over, considering the crystal evidence/facts that the Western media never deviated from their distortion of news and use of the pejorative adjectives and stereotypes when reporting news from developing world. (Fore, 1982).

Post NWICO debate

With the heat and attention generated by the NWICO debate, one may think that the western mass media may surrender to the pressure to at least engage the developing countries in a more acceptable standard, but on the contrary the Western media made no concrete effort to present the developing countries in its full flower. For example, we observed that the news of the Africa is still being infected with the prevailing wisdom of the 19th century. As re-cried by Tojo in his essay he opined that, it is quite disheartening to still see that at the dawn of the 21st century, the North and South are still living in Many Worlds, One Voice. The one voice is the one the industrially rich North has imposed through its claim to economic and technological superiority and hegemony. Thus, the new world order does not seem to guarantee economic rights, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, cultural pluralism, autonomy and sovereignty of the nations of the South. It is perhaps a new world order of military intimidation and bashing of the weaker nation states of the South (Sean , Elie, Sergei , & Somavia, 1980), (Fore, 1982).

Contemporary Perspective: What Next?

Is the demand for free flow of information by the developing world a legitimate one? Before rushing to a conclusion that the western mass media have indeed been above reproach in their handling of sensitive international issues, we would like to seek for more justification of the claim and know exactly what is meant when we talk about improving the free flow of information and what impact it could make in the developing world. Therefore it will be more logical to argue in the line of the importance of balance and free flow of information. On this ground, we should bear in mind that media has enormous influence in shaping the public perception and imagination of the situation in or around the world. So ignoring these facts will always cause a serious impediment to the international cooperation.

From many materials we have seen, we noticed that developing countries are not seeking for patronizing information to be disseminated about them but rather they seek for a balance and free flow of information where both good and bad sides of their stories are reflected in the information shared to the public. Since we have establish these fact, then it may be damaging to continue marrying developing nation with stories of economic degradation and political unrest which we believe will only continue to exacerbate the current mistrust and undermine the essence of professional journalism and inter-cultural communication that supposed to exist in professional journalism (Kleinwachter, Nordenstreng, Gerbner, & Mowlana, 1993).

Conclusion & Recommendation

It is a fact that the world’s communications system is dominated by western institutions. The reason for this imbalance as mentioned above is partly because those with greater power tend to exercise greater influence. Today, developing worlds are attempting to redress the balance in the flow of information. And the stronger the developing world grows, the greater will be its ability to achieve essential changes in the international communication system. But it is not enough to say the third world must wait patiently until it is strong enough to compel change. More serious attempt must be made to improve the situation without waiting for the balance in world power to change. Therefore, a more renewed effort should be in place to help redress the balance in the flow of information because the present system is unjust, and those who are champion of freedom must equally be champion of justice and therefore it becomes a necessity that they should lead in helping to reduce manifest inequalities in information flow.

Furthermore, it is obvious that we cannot afford to continue to ignore the fact that the present imbalance in the flow of information is a serious impediment to international harmony and cooperation so every effort must be made to see that these dispute is resolved in a manner that will be helpful to both participants.

References

Bandopadhyay, S. (2006). Fighting Homogenization: The global infiltration of technology and the struggle to preserve cultural distinctiveness. Noudettu osoitteesta http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=saptarishi_bandopadhyay

Einer, O. (1965). Factors Influencing the Flow of News. Journal of Peace Research, 1-60.

Fore, W. F. (1982). A New World Order in Communication. Noudettu osoitteesta http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1305

Kleinwachter, W.;Nordenstreng, K.;Gerbner, G.;& Mowlana, H. (1993). Three Waves of the Debate” The Global Media Debate: Its rise, fall and renewal. Norwood New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Legum, C.;& Cornwell, J. (1978). A Free and Balanced Flow. Report of the 20th Century Fund Task Force on the International Flow of News. Massachusets: D C: Lexington Books.

Mowlana, H. (1985). International Flow of News: An Annotated Bibliography . Haettu 2010 osoitteesta unesco.org: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0006/000653/065314eb.pdf

Ochs, M. (1986). The African Press. Cairo: The American University.

Okigbo, C. (1987). The News/low Controversy: Professional Journalists* Evaluation of News Imbalance. Noudettu osoitteesta http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/africa%20media%20review/vol2no1/jamr002001009.pdf

Okigbo, C. C. (1996). International Information flow and the challenge of the 21st century to communication research.” North-South Information Culture: Trends in the Global Communications and Research Paradigms. Ed. Uche, L.U. Lagos: Longman.

Sean , M.;Elie, A.;Sergei , L.;& Somavia, J. (1980). Many Voices, One World. Towards a new more just and more efficient world information and communication order. Paris: The UNESCO.

Tokunbo, O. (2000). Post-NWICO debate: Image of Africa in the Western Media. Noudettu osoitteesta Media in Transition: http://web.mit.edu/cms/Events/mit2/Abstracts/TOjo.pdf

Uche, L. U. (1996). North-South Information Culture: Trends in the Global Communications and Research Paradigms. Lagos: Longman.

About Author:

Anthony-Claret Onwutalobi is a Nigerian activist and blogger Onwutalobi Anthony-Claret discusses the Imbalances, Inadequacies, distortions in International news flow and how it affects African development and democracy.

 

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Road to African integration proves grindingly slow

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The moment when Muammer Gaddafi, Libya’s leader, aspires for the creation of a single African nation has become a perennial irritant at African summits, eating into deliberations on more pressing crises of the day. Many of Colonel Gaddafi’s peers are still struggling to create viable nation states within territories carved out by Europeans in the 19th century. In that context, talk of a United States of Africa – a potentially unwieldy federation of 1bn plus people – seems distinctly premature.

In some ways, however, the Libyan leader is ahead of a game recognised since the onset of independence half a century ago as central to the continent’s development prospects, but on which little progress has yet been made. If African countries spoke with one voice, traded more among each other, and strengthened regional co-operation in keeping peace, they would go a long way towards overcoming the political frailties and economic fragmentation associated with their inherited borders.

To varying degrees over the past decade, regional economic trading blocs in south, west and east Africa have forged ahead with customs unions, eased working restrictions (in east Africa), and started planning common monetary policies and even single currencies.

Equally, in recent years the African Union has sought to enforce better governance, ostracising coup-makers, and this year ushering in new rules that allow unconstitutional behaviour by civilian rulers to be sanctioned too (although there has been only limited success in reining in the likes of Robert Mugabe).

Progress though is still hampered by lack of follow-through on the ground and fears among less developed countries, that they will be dominated by the big regional economic powers: Nigeria in the west, Kenya in the east and South Africa in the south. Moreover in a significant number of African countries the momentum towards further break-up is still greater than the other way round.

Idriss Deby, the President of Chad, warned recently that if South Sudan votes to secede at a referendum on independence due next January, it will be “catastrophic”. Transgressing the doctrine of the inviolability of borders would embolden separatist movements from Nigeria to the Democratic Republic of Congo and spark chaos, he warned.

Other Africans argue that until oppressed minorities first achieve a level of self-determination, free of oppression from centralised states, talk of greater regional integration will remain just that.

On average, only about 10 to 12 per cent of African trade takes place among other African nations according to a joint study published last month by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, and the African Union. “This is not an encouraging trend, especially when compared with other world regions,” the report says.

The continent’s infrastructure too is still geared towards exports. Railways and roads often lead to marine ports rather than linking countries over land. Even where there have been advances in harmonising tariffs and easing restrictions on the flow of people and goods, such as in the East African Community, reality on the ground often trails.

A recent study carried out by Rwanda’s private sector business association found the cost of trucking a container from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast to Kigali, the capital, 1,500kms and three border crossings away, can be three times the price of shipping the same container from the US. Bribery at weighbridges and roadblocks add more than $1,000 to costs. The same story is repeated across Africa.

The momentum though, is beginning to change. Institutions like the African Development Bank now prioritise infrastructure projects that foster regional integration.

The big African banks are spreading from state to state. Telecoms companies too, are harmonising their operations to gain economies of scale. And, when oil and gas investments are stripped out, South Africa is now the largest investor in the rest of the continent, not China, or the US.

Trade statistics do not capture a perhaps even bigger force, the informal sector. Until they were battered by competition from China, cobblers in the Nigerian town of Aba were exporting some 60m pairs of shoes around Africa. Their wares could be found everywhere from Kisangani in central Congo, to Dakar on the west coast.

For all Mr Deby’s fears, South Sudan is another place where regional imbalances are being addressed in spite of the status quo. It is not a member of the East African Community or even a country yet. But educated Kenyans and Ugandans, who lack jobs back home, have flocked there, making up for a desperate shortage of qualified local people.

The integration that is happening has been driven less by bureaucrats, and the likes of Col Gadaffi and more by business people – from suited-up executives to scrappy wheeler-dealers – who have spotted opportunities across borders and gone out to grab them.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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French President Sarkozy to push for expanded African role at UN

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday Africa should be represented on the U.N.  Security Council, promising to back reforms when France takes the helm of the G8 and G20 groups of big economies next year. Continue reading

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Beast in Denial -Rise of xenophobia around the globe

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It’s quite amazing to see how hard times and austerity can strike up the real beast in humans both in those that claim to be most civilized and their counterparts that are regarded to be less civilized.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Africa- Toxic ideology dump

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As part of the fall-out from the financial crisis, business schools are now seen as training grounds for what FDR once called malefactors of great wealth–the more prestigious the business school, the worse the malefaction obviously. Columbia University’s Business School Dean, R. Glenn Hubbard, served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush and has been one of the nation’s more intransigent defenders of free market fundamentalism. While it is difficult to rank people such as Hubbard in terms of the harm done to American workers, he surely is a finalist in the competition for evil economists.

Hubbard is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, one of the country’s foulest neoconservative think-tanks, and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal editorial page where he defended Bush’s tax cuts for the rich, scuttling the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and most recently defended the health insurance industry against even the mildest reforms.

Apparently not content to ravage American society, he has donned a safari cap and penetrated the Dark Continent in order to help the benighted natives achieve prosperity. For those who follow the activities of a-list economists, it should be well understood that “helping the Africans out of poverty” is a must for those aspiring to the Nobel Prize and other honors bestowed by bourgeois society.

Hubbard and fellow Columbia business school professor William Duggan (about whom later) have just come out with “The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty“, published by Columbia University Press. The book argues that aid to governments and NGO’s does not work and that a new Marshall Plan geared to small businesses is the key to success. While I doubt that anybody who reads this blog will be tempted to waste $22.95 on such nonsense, you can get an idea of what these evil professors propose in an August 2009 article by Hubbard on the Foreign Policy website.  Titled “Think Again: A Marshall Plan for Africa“, it makes the case for bringing Africa “back to life” in the same way that Europe was. Although I have become fairly inured to this sort of rightwing garbage over the years, Hubbard’s article took my breath away. It might have even been enough to make a Goebbels blush.

Hubbard starts from an absurd premise, namely that the African economy is “overregulated” and that markets have never been given a chance:

But take a look at the World Bank’s annual report, “Doing Business,” and you’ll realize that many African economies have never had a business market to fail — thanks to their governments’ dense, unnavigable regulations.

This certainly does not describe the continent’s largest economy: South Africa. Since the ANC took power, it has adopted an economics strategy that could have been drafted by Hubbard himself. The Growth Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) has embraced free markets for the avowed purpose of creating a local bourgeoisie of the kind that is supposedly necessary for job creation and prosperity. Indeed, it has brought prosperity to the few while the unemployment rate has soared to 23.5 percent. It is doubtful that stringent regulations have led to such a disaster. In fact, the main cause is a collapse of the mining and steel industries attributable to declining exports in a world economy suffering from the hangover brought on by one bottle too many of R. Glenn Hubbard’s snake oil medicine from the Bush years.

The other major economy is Nigeria’s, which is largely dependent on foreign oil companies. 80% of the Nigerian government’s income is from oil, and over half of all oil money comes from Shell.  And the last time I noticed, Shell Oil was not having a problem with overregulation.

The 500,000 tribal Ogoni of the Niger delta in southern Nigeria have watched as their traditional fishing and farming livelihood has been laid waste by Shell Oil’s extraction of oil, with full complicity of the national government, which has allowed large parts of the Ogonis’ homeland to be ruined. The Ogonis’ land has been contaminated not only by oil wells and pipelines, but also by gas flares that burn 24 hours a day, producing intense heat and chemical gas fogs that pollute nearby homes as they render farm fields barren and unproductive. The constant flaring of natural gas also contributes measurably to global warming. Several Ogoni who protested the ruination of their homeland and the impoverishment of their people have been convicted of false charges and executed.

Shell has extracted oil from the Niger Delta since 1958. Shell operates a joint-venture consisting of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Elf and Agip. Shell is by far the largest foreign oil company in Nigeria, accounting for 50 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production. Nigeria generated roughly 12 per cent of Shell’s oil production world-wide in the late 1990s.

According to one observer on the scene, “Rivers, lakes and ponds are polluted with oil, and much of the land is now impossible to farm. Canals, or `slots’, have permanently damaged fragile ecosystems and led to polluted drinking water and deaths from cholera. Gas flaring and the construction of flow stations near communities have led to severe respiratory and other health problems…”

Going from the ridiculous to the ridiculouser, Hubbard next makes the case for colonialism even more unabashedly than Niall Ferguson, or Cecil Rhodes for that matter. Referring to the concerns that pro-business policies would lead to a new colonialism, Hubbard assures his readers that this might be such a bad thing:

“Strong Businesses in Africa Will Be the New Colonialists.”

First, Africa was poor before colonialism, and for many countries, colonialism may well have made Africa richer. There were some exceptions, such as the Belgian Congo in the early 20th century, where forced labor for rubber extraction made the people poorer. But overall, Africans in 1960 were healthier, lived longer, and had higher incomes than Africans in 1900. Ghanaian economist George Ayittey calls the colonial era the “golden age of peasant prosperity” in Africa, when the vast mass of rural Africans joined the world economy for the first time. By 1960, this was even true in the Belgian Congo. The hospitals, ports, schools, railways, and roads of Africa date from the colonial era. Certainly Europeans benefited unfairly from colonialism, but for Africans the result was still an improvement over their former poverty.

You’ll notice how deftly Hubbard sidesteps the issue of slavery, which was essential to the colonization of the Western Hemisphere. If Africa was not being colonized in he same fashion as Jamaica or Brazil in the 1700s, it was still essential to the sugar plantations whose profits enriched Europe in this period. The loss of able-bodied men and women to the slave trade robbed Africa of the possibility of emerging as a relatively strong and self-reliant economic entity.

Hubbard moves from the ridiculous to the obscene when he describes Congo as “prosperous” in 1960, seemingly defined by the presence of “hospitals, ports, schools, railways, and roads of Africa date from the colonial era.” Except for the hospitals, every other sign of prosperity is associated with the extraction of minerals that certainly left Europeans richer.

But even more to the point, how in the world can one mention Congo, colonialism and the year 1960 in the same breath without referring to the overthrow of Lumumba in that year? Acting on behalf of Western corporations, upon whose behalf Hubbard has advocated forcefully for decades, the breakaway province of Katanga succeeded in ruining the chances of the Congo to benefit from its minerals. For the better part of four decades, the country was bled dry by a corrupt dictator supported by the West and by conservative think tanks in particular as a bulwark against Communism.

It is also of course worth mentioning that the Marshall Plan only succeeded because WWII destroyed so much of the European economy that it became ripe for a new cycle of capital accumulation. With funding from a cash-rich U.S.A., European corporations went into high gear supplying new markets for housing, automobiles, clothing, and other consumer goods. Furthermore, there was an added incentive to make the Marshall Plan work since it was necessary to stave off socialism. With the disappearance of the Soviet Union, there is little need to pump money into the African economy except, of course, on a strictly for-profit basis. Hubbard regards Zimbabwe as an abject lesson in the failure of statist economies, but he neglects to mention how fully integrated the country is in global markets, even on a basis that sounds like a Jonathan Swift satire:

Meals come only once a day for Helen Goremusandu, 67, and the six children she is raising. With prices for the most basic food products increasingly beyond her reach, that daily meal often consists of nothing more than boiled pumpkin leaves, washed down with water.

About a mile away, a Zimbabwean government grain mill is churning out a new product: Doggy’s Delight. Announced by its creators in January, the high-protein pet food is aimed at the lucrative export market, one of the dwindling sources of foreign exchange in a collapsing economy.

–Washington Post, March 3, 2008

Well, who knows. Maybe Hubbard believes that a Marshall Plan is best suited for boosting the sales of Doggy’s Delight. From the standpoint of comparative advantage, that’s what Africa seems cut out for nowadays.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Food in Nigeria – Nigerian Food, Nigerian Cuisine

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Read Time:14 Minute, 4 Second

The name Nigeria is taken from the Niger River, which plays an important part in Nigerian lives. Not only is it a transportation highway, it is an excellent source of fish, including carp, Nile perch, and catfish. It also provides the water needed to cultivate crops.

Continue reading

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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