There were reports of babies out in the cold for hours in Houston. In Indianapolis, two dozen police officers used pepper spray to control an unruly crowd that pried shopping center doors off their hinges.

These were just a few of the scenes caught on video across America as people tried to get their hands on a pair of sneakers.

These instances point to a moral breakdown of our society, especially among young people with misguided priorities who are not held accountable for their actions. Morals have seemingly taken a back seat to things that are thought to be worth more than respect.

“These shoes have always had a place of value in black life,” said one young black male in response to the frenzy surrounding the release of the limited edition Air Jordan XI Concord sneakers by Nike.

Named after the legendary basketball player Michael Jordan, these prized kicks retail for over $200 a pair. Demand is so high that some pairs of these sneakers were sold on the black market for over $500. And getting them was considered worth the risk of freezing or getting arrested.

The sneaker riot, which was caught on video, is deplorable. The looting of mall kiosks, robbing of shoppers, forced entry into stores and trampling of shoppers are disturbing to watch.

How did America get here?

Young adults imitate what they see, and what they see is bad behavior being glorified, on reality television, in movies, in music videos, in video games and on the Internet. These mediums are rife with demeaning language and behavior, violence and examples of blatant disrespect towards others, yet some of the rawest and craziest acts on video are not derided for their incivility but lauded for how many “thumbs up” they get on YouTube.

Misbehavior is so prevalent that, in some households, it seems to be accepted as normal behavior.

The Occupy Wall Street movement provides another example of contemporary bad behavior. While claiming to support a middle class that, allegedly, can’t win playing by the rules, youthful Occupiers are nonetheless preoccupied with the forgiveness of their own school loans (often for useless degrees) and credit card debt and seem more interested in growing big government than helping anyone succeed. The entire Occupy movement seems like yet another instance of the take-what-you-want decline of society.

What’s worse is that Occupy efforts receive support and sympathy from President Barack Obama, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other prominent leftist leaders and celebrities. Their support for the Occupiers sends a message that it’s fine to be disruptive and not expect to be held accountable. Just last week, in fact, former Obama administration official Van Jones proclaimed that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was “the original Occupier” and warned that 2012 would be a “turbulent” year.

In the wake of the sneaker riots, several ministers and activists in Houston held a press conference to blame others for the action of the mob. They called for Nike and Michael Jordan to “do something,” giving those who actually caused the chaos a pass.

There is no excuse for this behavior. Individuals should be held accountable for their actions. Nike and Michael Jordan did nothing wrong and are not accountable for the misbehavior of others.

Why are black leaders largely mute about this bad behavior? Where were the voices of black leaders standing up against the “flash mobs” in 2011? Why isn’t the White House decrying its former colleague for publicly preparing for what he refers to, and one must assume, is hoping to help instigate, a “turbulent” year?

Actions have consequences. To continue on this destructive path will result in a bleak future that for many will include violent acts, incarceration and even early death. Our country is in vital need of a morality surge in which parents, grandparents, church members and lawmakers all play a role.

There are thousands of misguided youths who desperately need love, guidance and discipline on a consistent basis. This would help put them on a path towards personal responsibility and success.

A New Visions Commentary paper by The National Center for Public Policy Research. Deneen Borelli is a fellow for the Project 21 black leadership network.

1. His Story: An Anointing Message To Fathers for 2012
2. Black America Always Invests in the WRONG People
3. The Invisible Black Men
4. How Brothers and Sisters in the Black Community Can Help the Invisible Black Men

The questions within this statement was asked by Bro. Amenta at the end of his comment on the post: Boko Haram: The New (Black) African Al-Qaeda?. These are questions I have asked myself many times, in different ways over the years. Again they are timely and relevant.

As I was drafting a response last night, life happened. The baby needed attention. The Queen wanted some “stuff” taken care of right away. The little man had to be bathed, have story time and put to bed. Once it was all said and done… I was done! Off to bed I went with the intention of completing my response sometime today.

This morning, by happenstance (if you believe in such a thing), I visited a Black based yahoo group I am a member of here in Ottawa. I hadn’t visited since the beginning of the year and had an unexplainable desire to do so. To my surprise there was this article from the blog Mind of Malaka posted there entitled: “You Lazy (Intellectual) African Scum!” It was so pertinent to this discussion, the comment by Bro. Amenta and what I was going to say, that I decided to share it here first, let it percolate for a few days, then complete my response. The sentiments in this piece could refer to any country in Africa, the Caribbean and Black community in North, Central and South America.

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”

My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.

“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”

Quett Masire’s name popped up.

“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”

At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.

“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”

I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”

The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”

For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”

I was thinking.

He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”

I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.

“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”

He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.

I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.

“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here)

Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.

I’ve been following the news events about Nigeria’s supposedly Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. However, something doesn’t sit right with me in the way the whole situation is being reported. Of course, western media as usual simplifies all conflicts into 2 opposing sides… in this case Muslims vs. Christians… with these Muslim extremists confirming all we are told to believe and expect from Islam.

The vast majority of us in North America, particularly of African descent, just shrug our shoulders, don’t seriously concern ourselves with African issues and just believe what they are told: “Africans are savages, ungovernable and tribal.” They don’t dig any deeper, to at least try to understand what is really going on in our Motherland. For example, the Obama administration’s policy of increased militarization in Africa via  AFRICOM … especially in oil rich areas… in an effort to counter the increasing Chinese colonization of the continent.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Nigeria is the largest producer of oil in Africa, as well as the 7th largest in the world (see here). What better reason ruse than to fight Islamic terrorism, can be used (by the so-called “Christian” West) as a justification for not only increasing security funding to the pro-American Nigerian government of Goodluck Jonathan, but to also send in US military advisors and special forces.

Here are 3 articles that dig a little deeper and provide a fuller perspective into the issues surrounding the recent sectarian violence in Nigeria:

1. Boko Haram: The answer to terror lies in providing more meaningful human security
2. In Nigeria, Boko Haram Is Not the Problem
3. Nigeria: The Next Front for AFRICOM

Please share any other articles you come across that will provide further insight into this topic.

The truth is out there.

To start with, the US pays the salaries for the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA, the national army of South Sudan), over $100 million in 2011 alone. Does a country really have independence when a foreign power pays its army’s salaries? Whose orders is the army really going to follow?

Today, thousands of UN “peacekeepers” are pouring into South Sudan. These “peacekeepers” are almost entirely from next door Ethiopia and are part of an Ethiopian military carrying out a counterinsurgency/genocide in the Ogaden in south east Ethiopia.

An Ethiopian military that has repeatedly invaded Somali acting under orders from the USA. The same Ethiopian army that six years earlier invaded Eritrea. “Peacekeepers” indeed.

The Ethiopian “peacekeepers” salaries, all their expenses actually, are being paid for by Uncle Sam. So the South Sudan military is paid for by the USA as well as the UN Ethiopian “peacekeepers”. With friends like this is it any wonder that South Sudan is disintegrating?

And now comes word that the Obama regime presently occupying the White House in the USA is planning on “selling” advanced weaponry to the SPLA. As every day hundreds of children in South Sudan die from lack of clean drinking water, food, shelter and medical care the USA’s answer is to provide jet fighters and bombers, the better to see Sudanese kill Sudanese.

What this is all about is the Sudanese oil fields in the Abeye region, basically right on the border between Sudan and South Sudan. The Sudanese oil fields are the only majority owned and controlled Chinese developed oil fields in Africa.

The “USA/UN” plan is supposed to see up to 10,000 Ethiopian military personnel under cover of a UN “peacekeeper” mandate take up stations around the Abeye oil fields, the better to one day control that oil.

Ethiopia is the USA’s local enforcer, cop on the beat/gendarme in East Africa and where better to use its services but around the only Chinese owned and controlled oil field in Africa in Sudan’s Abeye region.

The USA can kill two birds with one stone by destabilizing South Sudan. The first is by helping to instigate a series of ethnic bloodbaths in South Sudan, maybe ignite an outbreak of fighting between Sudan and South Sudan and under cover of which the Abeye oil fields, and the very vulnerable Abeye-Port Sudan pipeline will be attacked and damaged.

This will effectively end China’s most important energy development project in Africa.

Secondly, by cutting off Sudan’s oil supply the USA will put enormous pressure on the Sudanese government lead by President Omar Al Bashir. With his oil revenues halted Pres. Bashir will find it very difficult to maintain the standard of living many of his people have come to expect and this could seriously destabilize the government.

In mid 2011 South Sudanese officials were reported to have said that the USA had told them they didn’t need oil money to survive, they could depend on western aid. A fore teller of things to come?

Whether this all comes to pass or not, the one thing clear for the world to see is that the western supported independence of South Sudan is turning into a nightmare for the people of the region. Little wonder when one finds out who is actually funding, and now arming, the armed forces in the country.

The one thing that should be expected is a continuing “crisis management” policy by the USA in South Sudan, as in create a crisis and then manage the murder and mayhem the better to exploit the wealth of the land, or if necessary, at least deny it to your enemy.

And maybe even see the end of the long western vilified Sudanese government lead by President Omar Al Bashir in the process.

Thomas C. Mountain is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain@yahoo.com

Saludos,
Ana

If this works, if Tim Tebow  keeps winning games, keeps getting better, keeps forcing John Elway and John Fox to consider an alternative quarterback route to the Super Bowl, it won’t be some impossible-to-believe miracle, an act of a higher power.

Tim Tebow is not a religious symbol. He’s a shrine to the power of a strong, committed, passionate two-parent upbringing. Tebow’s birth, a product of his mother’s faith and refusal to listen to doctors advising her to abort, might very well have been a religious miracle. Tebow’s performance on the football field is testament to Bob and Pam Tebow and what they instilled in their youngest child.

At this moment, no one knows whether the Tebow experiment Elway and Fox have been pressured into undertaking will result in anything more sustainable than Tennessee’s Vince Young experience or Atlanta’s Michael Vick roller coaster.

What should be dawning on us, especially those of us who greeted Tebow’s Broncos career with scepticism, is that thanks to a rock-solid, two-parent upbringing, Tebow is quite different from Young and Vick in terms of mental and emotional makeup. Those differences raise the real possibility that Tebow is the athletic-freak quarterback an NFL franchise should embrace with a revolutionary offensive approach.

What do I mean?

NFL quarterback is a 24/7-365-day job that Vick and Young were unprepared for coming out of college. NFL quarterback is a position best played by young men who were raised by strong fathers. Quarterback is the ultimate leadership position. You have to be taught how to lead. You have to be taught how to prepare.

Vick and Young, athletic freaks on par with Tebow, do not have Tebow’s nuclear-family foundation. Vick and Young entered the league emotionally immature and with a set of values inconsistent with the values that lead to consistent, strong QB play. You can wing it in college and get by on sheer athleticism and talent. You can’t do that at the quarterback position in the NFL.

Tebow is the first super-athletic quarterback we’ve seen who also has the discipline to prepare as if he’s Peyton Manning. That’s a huge advantage. Tebow is winning because he curtails his mental errors. He’s thrown one interception and lost two fumbles since taking over as the starter this season. Denver’s winning formula is basic and old school. The Broncos stop the run, run the football and win the turnover battle. Young threw 30 interceptions in his first two seasons. Vick accounted for 53 turnovers in his last three seasons in Atlanta.

You can’t build a revolutionary offense around a quarterback who lacks the discipline or maturity to prepare. The Houston Oilers tried the run-and-shoot because they had Warren Moon, who was in his early 30s at the time.

Can Tebow withstand the beating he’ll absorb running the football? He’s 236 pounds and spends enough time in the weight room to be as yoked as a fullback.

Unlike Tebow worshippers, I’ve had no problem with Fox’s and Elway’s handling of Tebow. They didn’t draft him. He doesn’t fit their image of a Super Bowl quarterback. The Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer, and general manager Ozzie Newsome thought so little of Dilfer the Ravens acquired Elvis Grbac. The NFL is a tough, transparent business. It’s also a copycat league. There is evidence from 40-plus years of history that you win the Super Bowl with classic, pocket-passing quarterbacks. Can’t blame Fox and Elway for wanting one.

What we can blame them for starting today in the aftermath of Denver’s fifth straight victory, a 35-32 shootout with the Vikings, is a reluctance to even consider the possibility that Tebow might be a game-changer, a new invention, reason to reevaluate traditional thought.

Tim Tebow might be Magic Johnson. Before Magic, no one imagined that a point guard could be 6-feet-9, not all that athletic and a mediocre jump shooter. Skeptics thought Magic might eventually move to the frontcourt. He became the gold standard at point guard, a five-time NBA champion, a three-time MVP and one of the five greatest players of all time.

Magic was a force of nature. He loved the game and the competition. He improved every aspect of his game and revolutionized point-guard play. He dumped his first coach and teamed with Pat Riley to build the “Showtime” Lakers, a dynasty that reflected Magic’s flamboyant personality, willingness to prepare and style of play.

Is Tebow the next Magic? It’s unlikely. But I now want to find out. I want to see the Broncos build an offense that caters to Tebow’s unique set of skills. If that’s an NFL version of the spread, then find an offensive coordinator familiar with the strategy and implement it.

As it relates to Tebow’s on-field performance, we should quit focusing on his “Tebowing” and spend more time celebrating his two-parent upbringing. Bob and Pam Tebow are far more responsible for Denver’s winning streak than any higher power.

Truly, the year 2011 was a year that empowered hoi polloi against hoit toity in many countries, especially in Africa. Time Magazine named “The Protester” as its Person of the Year. Indeed, thanks to tireless efforts and fearless heart of the protester, we evidenced strong men cascading like a cardhouse. It all started in Tunisia where on 14 January 2011, when a desperate young man Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after being fed up with police harrasments. Just two weeks of the commencement of the year, Zine Abdeen Ben Ali was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia after demonstrators toppled his government under what was later known as Jasmine Revolution.

The Jasmine Revolution became a political meme. It did not end up in Tunisia. A month thereafter, it swept Egypt where a longtime strong man, Field Marshal Mohamad Hosni Mubarak became another casualty. On 25 January 2011 all major Egyptian cities caught on fire of revolution that culminated on 11 February when Mubarak stepped down after noting that the wind of changes was not on his favour.

While new development was registering on Maghreb, Africa south of Sahara was not spared. One of its democrat-turned-dictator president Laurent Gbagbo was at it with his arch foe, current president, Allasane Ouattra who defeated him in polls. The capture of Laurent Gbagbo on 6 April 2011 and handing him over to The Hague on 29 November to face the music was something that marked some changes in SSA, which has defied logic by not being gutted down by Jasmine Revolution. It remains as the place with many stinking dictators that are still safer thanks to lacking enlightened population.

Going back to the year and some of its breakthrough, on 2 May 2011 the world was awaked by the news that the head of al Qaida Osama bin Laden was killed by American seals. The saying “Jeronimo EKIA” or “Jeronimo the Enemy Killed in Action” as it was coined by the Seals, became a hit of its own.

Before long, the wind of change was still blowing in Maghreb. For on 15 February 2011, it started pounding Libya as demonstration commenced in Benghazi. Ever since fierce fighting ensued between the soldiers of the government of the long time ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi coined the saying “zanga zanga”, namely surround them everywhere and kill them and the rebels in Benghazi. It took months to bring down the regime in Tripoli. On 20 October Gaddafi along with his son and chief of security were summarily killed as they were trying to escape after their convoy being attacked by NATO jets.

The year 2011 had another side of loss and gains in other circles. For it is in the same year on 25 September 2011 Kenya lost her beloved iconic daughter Nobel Laurete Wangari Maathai, who bravery fought cancer and later succumbed. That was a loss. The gains for Kenya in 2011 were immense.

The ruling about arresting Sudanese strong man, Omar Bashir, should he set foot on Kenya soil by a Kenyan judge, Nichola Ombija on Nov. 28, 2011, brought reliefs to Human Rights activists the world over, so as to uplift Kenya’s name internationally. Also the response of the judiciary to stick to its guns was a breakthrough.

2011 also saw Kenya entering Somalia to flush out al Shabaab. This occurred after thugs from Somalia entered Kenya and abducted three people, two Britons and a French woman who later died in the hands of her captors. This provoked Kenya so as to decide to take on al Shabaab under operation Linda Nchi or Protect the Country.

South of Kenya, it was all jubilations in Zambia, when on 23 September 2011 the opposition swept an incumbent president out of power. This was the second time for this nation to do so.

North of Kenya, in the Middle East, things were not so good. For the former president of Israel, Moshe Katsav was found guilt of rape and on 6 Dec 2011 he started to serve his seven year jail term in Maasiyahu prison. A week thereafter, former French president Jaques Rene Chirac (Bulldozier) was bulldozed before the court and found guilt thence, convicted for misappropriation of public funds save that, different from Katsav, he received a two years suspended sentence. Despite all, this was slap on the face.

The year wound up with the death of North Korean strong man Kim Jong Il on December 17^th, 2011 at the age of 69 like Gaddafi. A day after, on 18 December 2011 the world lost a great son Vaclav Havel the former president of Czechoslovakia (1989–19920 and Slovak (1993-2003).

Economically, the year 2011 evidenced turmoil in the Eurozone whereby three countries were on the verge of collapsing economically. These are Italy, Greece and Spain.

Tanzania wound the year with very heavy and brutal floods that claimed the lives of over 40 lives.

As for Uganda, it was relatively calm save that there were some sparks regarding gay rights and the death of Rwandan exiled Journalist Charles Ingabire, who was gunned down on November 30, 2011.

In sum, generally speaking, the year 2011 was intaglioed with many imbroglios and scenarios for my crystal ball. It was but a potpourri. It was not easy to define so to speak.

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.

A few weeks ago I took my 4 year old son Christmas shopping. At the church we attend, our family participates in a yearly charity sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse called “Operation Christmas Child”. We pack a shoe box with a variety of gifts, which is sent to children in “Third World” countries. I pack one for a boy while my wife packs one for a girl.

I took my son to help me pick out the gifts. I want to instil in him the understanding that Christmas isn’t about “him” getting gifts from Santa Claus, but that during this time of year it is more important to give to those who don’t have as much as we do. So as we shopped, we had a conversation about what Christmas really means and how we celebrate this season as a family.

I went on to explain that Santa Claus isn’t a real person but he is “pretend”. I impressed upon my son that his mother and I, as well as our friends and family members buy him the gifts… not only during Christmas but all through the year. I further explained that the reason we are buying these gifts for the boys and girls is that their family and friends don’t have the extra money to do so and there is really no Santa Claus to bring them presents.

I could see that he was listening intently while his little mind was processing what I was telling him. He understood what I was saying, but he still wanted to believe that Santa Claus must be real. That’s what he sees on television. That’s what he learns in school. That’s what people are always ask him: “what do you want for Christmas from Santa?”

Since that day we have had a number of conversations about the meaning of Christmas. If you ask him now what is Christmas, he answers that it’s Jesus’ birthday. If you ask, he’ll say that Santa Claus is pretend, although it is evident that he still wants to believe that he is real.  He’ll tell you that his mommy, daddy, friends and family buy him his gifts… that they don’t come from Santa. I explained to him that we give each other gifts just like the 3 wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus when he was born and as a way to remember that God gave us the gift of his Son Jesus.

At four, I don’t expect him to understand and accept it all. However, we’re not allowing him to be conditioned by our society’s values into being self absorbed and materialistic. Furthermore, I don’t believe it’s healthy for black children (especially boys), to be conditioned to believe that all good things come from a white man… a fat old white man with a long white beard at that. I believe it subconsciously undervalues their appreciation for the efforts of their parents (especially their fathers), it further undermines their own self esteem and respect for black men as a whole, and it grooms them to be easy prey for that seemingly nice (old) white man.

In his own way, my son does show us that he has an understanding of the true “reason for the season”: the celebration of the birth of Christ, the love of God, family and friends, and that it’s better to give than receive. So far he hasn’t asked us for even one present.

This is the Christmas lesson we want him to learn and incorporate into his life.

Merry Christmas!

Glenn Beck was more ahead of his time than I realized in 2009 when he aired his first program to prove the existence of black conservatives.

Despite Beck’s assistance, we remain largely unseen on the news channels. As a black conservative advocate of how blacks should (and, in many instances, do) embrace conservative values for more than a decade, the media does not call us as often as it should.

Black conservative voices must become ubiquitous. We aren’t anomalies. The problem is that we aren’t being heard.

That’s a shame since it is precisely because black conservatives are infrequently invited to espouse our views that the misperceptions about black conservatives fester.

Some want this silence because the more we talk the less unusual it is to be black and openly conservative.

That’s why the left appears adamant in trying to silence black conservatives. After I appear on television, for instance, I can be assured pervasive and virulent e-mails meant to intimidate me are on their way. For instance:

“And you even with your straight-hair wig would have been mistaken for a welfare gal. Beck is using you. I hope it pays well.”

“…you display that sad self-hating stereotype black conservatives are known for by not recognizing your African heritage.”

An oft-expressed, but baseless, suspicion by slanderers is that black conservatives adopt the conservative position for attention. We are called on by factions of the right, they argue, as a sideshow to validate their bigoted and racist views… simultaneously selling out our community for financial gain.

If that’s true, whoever they think is passing out the paychecks forgot mine. Furthermore, I recognize my African heritage more than just every time I look in the mirror. I’m secure in my heritage and my beliefs.

But making a respectable name for ourselves isn’t helped when people such as Ann Coulter appear to validate the suspicion. On a recent edition of Hannity, she said “our blacks are so much better than their blacks.” For Coulter to seemingly take ownership of black conservatives had me throwing trail mix at my flat screen.

This type of flippant remark from a white conservative speaking for blacks whom she purports to support (or, in this case, approves of) unfortunately only justifies the accusation that black conservatives are indeed mere puppets.

MSNBC, CNN and other networks aren’t expected to look to the black conservative commentators to talk about how the Obama Administration has set the black community back. But what about the Fox News Channel?

Fox News has a steady stream of liberal black commentary on their roundtables as opposed to black conservatives. Juan Williams, for instance, shares the Sunday roundtable with Chris Wallace. Marc Lamont Hill is a consistent presence on The O’Reilly Factor and Jehmu Greene is a regular Fox News contributor.

Being a black liberal apparently does pay well, even on Fox News.

In trying to determine what prevents black conservatives from making the cut, I can only surmise that my comrades are also like me: modest in querying producers; afraid to appear arrogant or boastful; insecure about stature and dubious about appearing self-serving.

Likewise, is Fox News leery of being perceived as “using” us? MSNBC and Al Sharpton surely aren’t worried about this, considering Sharpton seems to be taking the race issue to the bank. Cha-ching!

But isn’t there room for a black conservative on The Five or as a foil to Sharpton? After all, respected conservative commentators… white, yellow, brown and black… are considered qualified to comment on issues revolving around the black community. Why aren’t black conservatives called more often to discuss policies pertaining to America at large?

I hadn’t realized that Glenn Beck needed a show to prove to America that black conservatives exist. To a more relevant degree, however, we still don’t.

Lisa Fritsch, a member of the Project 21 blackleadership network, is the author of “Obama, Tea Parties and God”. Her personal web site is located at www.lisafritsch.com.

The legendary Cuban singer, Cela Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, adds her rendition of Las Caras Lindas de mi Gente Negra.

Un cordial saludo a todos,
Ana

Wrangles evidenced recently between Kenyan Judiciary and the executive over the ruling that Sudanese strong man, Omar Bashir, be apprehended shall he visit Kenya, left many analysts flabbergasted. One judge, Ncholas Ombija, made a historical ruling when ordered the Minister for Internal Security to see to it that when Bashir sets foot on Kenyan soil, he be apprehended and handed over to The Hague to face the music. We used to read about such rulings made by European judges, famous ones being those that were made by Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu, and French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who in April 2008 and November 2006 respectively, indicted Rwandan President, Paul Kagame. When these two justices indicted Kagame, many people wrongly thought that this was a venue for only European judges. Now that Ombija has open Pandora’s Box for our bigwigs, who will be safe?

More on Kenyan justice, this historical ruling did not augur well with the executive. When cornered the vulture cries wolf. Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs was quotes as saying that the government would not abide by the ruling of its own court. What a dangerous stance? The Minister went on saying that Kenya will abide by the position that was taken by AU opposing the indictment of Bashir. How can a free country endanger its freedom for the sake of an individual who is not its citizen? Legally and logically, the constitution of Kenya is above that of AU. Whatever Kenyans do, Kenya comes first. Even if we look at two international instruments playing in this fracas, why is Kenya upholding AU’s non-binding decision whilst it violates Roma Statutes that Kenya signed voluntarily? Why is it that Kenya wants to abuse its own new constitution before even it marks a year? Why doesn’t Kenya do like Uganda that distanced itself when Bashir was invited to a conference in Kampala. Uganda successfully avoided unnecessary legal and political wrangling.

Again, Kenya is a member of East African Community. Doesn’t it see that by doing what one of its counterparts avoided, it is offending the same counterpart? It is shocking and sad that the Minister does not get it that AU has lost its legitimacy so as to support illegitimate regimes, even when they have committed atrocities against their people as it is the case with Bashir. Many were shocked to hear such law-breaking and self-inculpatory words coming from the Minister. To add insult to injury, thereafter, the Minister for Foreign Affairs was dispatched to Khartoum to mend fences. If anything, though the government in Nairobi is still flexing its muscles, the dent… deep and humongous one… has already been made. Will it be wise for the government that came to power after vanguishing dictatorship to taint its image in the defence of a dictator just the same as the one it toppled? Isn’t this high order hypocrisy?

Will Kibaki uphold the constitution and serve the Kenyans that voted for him or trumple over it and serve Sudanese strong man, and for what reasons and gains? Chances are that the executive is waging a losing battle for its peril thanks to the fact that the justice made his decision based on the provisions of the new constitution. Therefore, whoever advises Kibaki should be wise to underscore the fact that, under the new constitution, nobody is above the law. If the executive is still thinking by using the past-frozen brain when the president was above the law and the executive above judiciary, needs to be told that things have long changed. Although Kibaki spoiled the party at the promulgation of new constitution by inviting Bashir, why should he add more salt to injuries? By then thanks to the euphoria Kenyans were in, he got away with it. Will he get away with it once again? The answer is nope. Logically, it doesn’t add up even make sense for Kibaki to dent his image siding with a stinking dictator indicted for committing genocide against his own peole. What transpired in 2008 seems to have not given a lesson to Kibaki and all those that think that they can take the hoi polloi for a ride.

Moreover, chief justice Dr. Willy Mutunga has already weighed in very heavily and categorically so to speak. Responding to rants that the executive were not thinking about complying with the ruling, Mutunga was quoted as thus: “The Judiciary and its officers shall not be intimidated to bend the law”. To make his message clear, Mutunga added that Kenya must choose between anarchy and the rule of the law. Suppose the executive stick on their guns, will the judiciary allow itself to be cowered or stiff its neck and therefore create a crisis especially at this time Kenya is at war with al-Shabaab? What is the right thing to do under such circumstances?

In essence, Kenya has nothing to lose by dumping Bashir. We all know that Kenya is a major economc and political player in South Sudan. Shall it keep on thinking it can serve two masters namely Bashir and South Sudan? It should not wonder when South Sudan decided to part ways with it. For the French sage has it that “les amis des mes sont mes amis”, namely the friends of my friends are my friends. What of the enemies of my friends? They are obvious my enemies.

In sum, let us face it: will the Kenyan executive seal ignore the truth and go on defending Bashir by violating its own constitution? What precedent does the executive make in the first place? What legacy is Kibaki making? It time to warn Kenya that doing Bashir’s laundry will leave it messy and stinky.

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.

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