In the Grandiose Parlor…

• Africa Unchained: Another Africa is Possible!
  “It is unwise to presume that the poor, be they illiterate, are bereft of inherent skills, experiences and talents that can be useful in building our communities. The same people are our heroes who daily create better livelihoods for their children. They fought colonialism and resisted slavery. How can we suddenly ignore them in our new struggles?…As we begin to fathom a new Africa, let us remember the wisdom of Albert Einstein that ‘the significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we were at when we created them…”
  

• Ruud Elmendorp: Poverty? or Savings?
  …Capturing the wealth at the bottom of the pyramid in Kenya – milk for loans?
  

• BBC: African amputees’ cup kicks off
  Africa’s first amputee football cup starts in Sierra Leone.
  

• International Herald Tribune: An African bishop pleads for acceptance of gays
  Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican archbishop for southern Africa and successor of Bishop Desmond Tutu pledges for gays.
  

• Jewels in he Jungle: Black History Month in Europe?? An introduction to the Invisible Ones
  The author, an African American resident in Germany, presents an interesting piece on the history of blacks in east Europe.
  

• Nigerian Village Square: A Bolekaja Presidency (7)
  Reuben Abati, one of Nigeria’s top-notch columnists discusses the continuing face-off between the Nigerian president and his deputy, quoting an opposition party in the country: “If President Obasanjo succeeds in coercing INEC [Nigerian electoral commission] to disqualify Alhaji Abubakar [Atiku, the deputy president], the unfolding scenario will result in consequences that will be too grave to contemplate, and the end result of which no one can predict”. Well, according to newspaper reports earlier today, Nigerian vice president Atiku has been disqualified by INEC…Does this disqualification mark the end of the face-off or simply shifts it into another gear?

“Sub-Saharan Africa is home to barely one-sixth of the world’s children younger than 15, but fully half the world’s uneducated children — the legacy of poverty, colonialism and historically inadequate schools,” according to a recent article by the International Herald Tribune (Education Blossoms in sub-Saharan Africa). The majority of this uneducated children are girls, and this is one of the reasons Winfrey Oprah partly bankrolled the Oprah’s Leadership Academy in South Africa, a $40 million educational institute built for girls in South Africa. The school stated its calender year on January 2, 2007.

According to Oprah: “The school will teach girls to be the best human beings they can ever be; it will train them to become decision-makers and leaders; it will be a model school for the rest of the world.” Eligible candidates must be gifted and from impoverished backgrounds.

This is an impressive gesture by any standard, and a head-scratcher as well: $40 million for a high school? Isn’t this an overkill? Could this cash be better leveraged than just investing on some 450 gifted students the school will produce every year? Hey, 40 million dollars is a ton of money and goodwill; it’s all good! Some are already starting the year on the right note.

Related articles:

Oprah’s Academy to Inspire Needy Girls

How much does a free education cost?

African Leadership Academy

Every now and then, I come across stuff that makes my blood churn and boil…this blog post – “Nigeria is the Big Skunk Slime of Africa” – is one of such instances.

The writer displays a gross lack of knowledge, for he should have realized that while there are several bad elements among its nationals, Nigeria has contributed immensely to the socio-political, and economic growth of the sub-Saharan African region more than any other African nation, including South Africa – the region’s so called economic powerhouse.

The blogger states: “Nigerians are universally loathed as the scum of Africa by everyone in the rest of the continent“. Yet these ‘scum of Africa’ have put their lives and resources on the line by participating in several peacekeeping missions in Africa. All Adam needs to do to purge himself of Nigerian-hatred is check this Wikipedia entry on Nigerian foreign affairs since 1960.

Where was Adam Ash, a self-proclaimed anti-Nigerian racist, when Nigerian was at the fore-front of the Anti-Apartheid movement? Well, I don’t think this matters much to Adam, since he calms to be an ex-citizen of South Africa…I guess he renounced his citizenship himself when the Apartheid regime died.

Despite my objections to the [tag]Heart of Africa[/tag] project; if there is one area the image laundering project needs to address is ‘perceptions’ such as Adam Ash’s. if Nweke, the Nigerian Information Minister, and his crew can do this successfully, he is worthy of a national award.

 UPDATE: The speech purportedly made by Botha is a hoax! See Sunday Times: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=308808 

However, the fact remains, Botha and his cohort built and maintained an evil empire, and this is no propaganda.  The reminants can be found scattered all over south Africa, just as the scars live on the bodies and psyche of the victims.

*************************