LeBron James calls President Trump a ‘Bum’ and thinks Obama was the ‘best ever.’

LeBron James calls President Trump a ‘Bum’ and thinks Obama was the ‘best ever.’ His fans listen to him because he has a talent for basketball and buying huge mansions. The letter writer below, a sports journalist, tells the truth, the truth that applies to most celebrities on the left. It's a GREAT Letter to Lebron from former Houston news reporter Hal Lundgren.

January, 2019

Mr. Lebron James
The Los Angeles Lakers 
2275 E. Mariposa Ave. 
El Segundo, CA 90245

Dear Mr. James:

No one in my circles discusses French Modernist artists. That comforts me. Such a conversation would expose me as an illiterate on French Modernism, just as I am an illiterate on cooking and many other things. When I know nothing on a subject, my mouth stays closed. That's at least one difference in us. You are an economics illiterate. You prove it often. The dishonest ‘reporters’ who cover you want to be your buddy. They won't embarrass you by being honest journalists and treat your words as economics illiteracy. When you call Trump ‘a bum,’ none of them will tell you that statistics rank him as one of our best presidents for black Americans. His tax cuts and freeing us from absurd regulations have resulted in -- after only 24 months -- the lowest unemployment numbers EVER for Hispanic and black Americans, and one of the lowest numbers for women.

DURING THOSE 24 MONTHS, TRUMP'S POLICIES CREATED ABOUT FOUR TIMES MORE MANUFACTURING JOBS THAN WERE CREATED DURING THE ENTIRE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S EIGHT YEARS!

Remember during the Trump campaign when Obama mistakenly said, "What's Trump gonna do? Wave a magic wand? These lost manufacturing jobs aren't coming back." Just maybe manufacturing job growth depends on a president who knows what the hell he's doing as opposed to some smiling idiot who was nothing more than a community organizer. As a professional journalist, I cringe at some of Trump’s buffoonery, like repeating sentences and wearing us out with ‘great, fantastic’ and other empty adjectives. He is egotistical and bombastic. He was not my original candidate which just goes to show how wrong I was. But there’s no question his policies have helped many more minority Americans than Obama’s. It's not even close. Today, he’s working to free many black and Hispanic prisoners who, in his opinion, have been in prison too long for relatively minor offenses. 
Are you aware of that effort?

You need to look up Gross Domestic Product, adjusted for inflation, and learn what it means to everyday Americans. Learn what one GDP point means to employment, and see how Trump has kept the numbers climbing. Your  buddy Obama? In addition to being our worst foreign affairs president, and worst military commander-in-chief, his economic numbers all deserved an ‘F.’ He is our ONLY eight-year president who failed to give us at least one 3% or higher year of adjusted GDP growth. EVERY other president achieved at least one year of 4.28% or higher growth. Aided by Vietnam spending, Johnson had an 8.48 year. The best peacetime year, 7.83, belonged to Reagan. And Obama couldn't even score a 3?
Go ahead. Look it up.

You say you would talk to Obama, but not Trump? Why? Is it because you're a star basketball player, and you feel this God-given talent elevates you above speaking to the most powerful person on the face of the earth? How tragic that your ego is so misplaced. Obama had BY FAR the worst debt accumulation record of all our presidents in our history. His economic blunders added about $9 trillion to our debt. NO OTHER PRESIDENT EVEN CAME CLOSE! That's ALMOST as much indebtedness as ALL of the former POTUSes combined! This debt will fall to you, your children, and your grandchildren.

Poor families suffered most during Obama's tenure while he and his family were on VACATION, most of his time in office, on taxpayer funds! His awful job numbers forced a record number of people to receive food stamps. Black household income under Obama fell steeply as black unemployment rose. 
Oh yes, you can look that up, too. But the worst part of what Trump inherited is that Obama, like Bush and Clinton before him, thought bribes and sweet talk were the best ways to deal with North Korea. As the North Koreans neared being able to wipe out your present area of employment, Los Angeles, with a nuclear-tipped missile, Trump became the first president to stand up boldly to this rogue nation. Have you noticed North Korea, because of Trump, has stopped launching missiles over Japan? Noticed North Korea has released political prisoners? Noticed North Korea has returned the remains of U.S. Service members? Absent sturdy spines, Clinton, Bush, and Obama could not approach those major achievements.

Obama naively bribed the planet’s worst terrorist nation, Iran, with what was supposed to become a $150 billion handout, mostly in cash, and without notifying Congress. Did Obama not know many of those U.S. tax dollars would help fund Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism? Of course, he did. He just wanted to appease the masses.

Remember the $800 billion of your, and everyone else's, tax dollars in his early stimulus for ‘shovel-ready jobs?’ Most of those tax dollars went to political cronies. He handed $500 million to Solyndra, a solar company run by HIS boosters. The company soon went bankrupt. Our half-billion in tax dollars vanished with it. (And Trump can't get 5.7 billion to build a wall to keep ALL Americans safe because he is asking to do it LEGALLY with Congress' approval.)

Trump is often obnoxious, but people with courage often have that hang up. Obama always talked big, smiled a lot, then feebly stood by and did nothing. A perfect example was when Putin infringed on Ukraine and annexed Crimea. What did Obama do?
Not one damned thing! One of Obama's most cowardly moves came when he warned Assad not to cross ‘the red line’ in Syria. When Assad ignored Obama’s warning, Obama once again did nothing; which Assad knew would happen. Now please Mr. James, be honest. If this happened with Trump in charge, do you really think this action would have occurred without some retaliation? Hopefully, you're not that naive. It makes me sad that you, as someone with a national voice, would be so ignorant of economics, and also of presidential decisions. I encourage you to do more reading and thinking as you watch the nation's GDP numbers improve, and minority employment rise.

Also See:

At the Threshold of Love

There's Future for self publishing in Nigeria

Criminal Code

It is a tragedy to remain in a world you cannot control and all the more tragic if you do not have control over your own life. People who have surrendered leadership of their lives to others are always at the mercy of those they serve.

Read about ‘Right to Try,’ which frees terminally ill people to sign a lawsuit waiver and take an experimental drug that might not be approved for many years. Democrats fought this sensible plan for years because it would cost them HUGE donations from the drug industry. In order to become at least somewhat intelligently informed, Mr. James, why don't you read about a Navy that Obama left to Trump that struggled with almost half its carrier aircraft unsafe to fly.

Read about Trump's giving the VA the right to fire any employee who neglects or abuses a patient.

Read about Trump's courage in challenging, actually demanding, NATO partners begin to pay their fair share rather than keep mooching off the U.S. You might also read the wisdom of two of the world’s brightest people, black intellectuals Dr. Thomas Sowell and Dr. Walter Williams. They have written numerous books. Sowell and Williams’ integrity, remarkable insights, and clarity of expression cause their common sense to soar off the page to readers, both Black AND white, I might add. Or, you could ignore vital Trump decisions, and remain an illiterate on both presidential achievement and economics. If you disdain knowledge, and keep calling Trump or any other U.S. president a bum (YOUR word) other people with normal intelligence might actually begin to wonder who the real bum is with a bigger mouth than Trump's!

Sincerely, Hal Lundgren

This article took some backbone to write. Every fact listed in this letter is verifiable but, alas, the people who should really read it will probably never do so, and will blindly go on thinking and believing whatever pulp news is fed to them via the liberal media, and will still vote for the so-called ‘free stuff’ until the money runs out. When reality hits them in the face, and in their pocketbook, they will wonder what the hell happened; and you can be sure they'll NEVER believe the truth and how wrong socialism is even with Venezuela a prime example at this very moment. We have fallen to a level I never believed possible in my lifetime. 
So sad!

Culled from Facebook

Criminal Code by Omoruyi Uwuigiaren

Omoruyi Uwuigiaren

A smart thief will not tell you that he or she is about to rob you, especially now that the internet has made the world a small place. All they need is a positive response from you. Some people say they cast spell on their victim, but I doubt. Most of the time, the victim is the problem. Some want to make profit without breaking a sweat while others are just naïve and innocent. So they open the door. The human want is insatiable. Unlike the thief who aggressively robs you of your belongings on the highway, the fraudster connects to your need. He uses your need against you. However, some are duped solely because they trust people. They assume every human being on the face of the earth is honest or deserve to be trusted. Life is no bed of roses. Fraud is all about influence. The fraudster connects to your need and strike. Near, far, wherever you are, make sure you verify before committing to whoever connects to your need.

Once they start introducing several formats and professionally linking them together, it means the victim has nearly or fully committed to them. All the victim’s details are in their hands and they will use the details to their advantage. Once you fall into their trap, it will take providence for the victim not to be swindled.

Also read:

Understand the true meaning of mercy and charity when a stranger is caught stealing eggs from a farmer. Help a baby named Thomas find his way home after he strays from his father’s boat. 

It is a tragedy to remain in a world you cannot control and all the more tragic if you do not have control over your own life. People who have surrendered leadership of their lives to others are always at the mercy of those they serve.

You must be able to discern. You are always far enough to decide whether to fall or not. Most people who are prey are either greedy, want to get rich quickly or too carried away to look closely at the details. No fraudster is immune to errors. You are likely going to see their flaws. It stares at you in the face. Some people ignore the red flag because of what they hope to gain while others are just too naive to read the writing on the wall. The fraudster is not all knowing. He’s miserably prone to errors. Always he leaves you with a clue about who he is or what he’s about to do. You cannot encounter a fraudster and not notice some flaws like exaggeration, lies, money, anxiety, frequent outburst of anger (sometimes they abuse you), short fuss, display of idiocy, aggression, domineering tendencies, harsh or foul language, poor grammar, rush, slow to respond to your questions but quick to direct you to do the next thing on his list, sometimes they don’t bother to respond to your query, typographical errors and poorly written letters.

Whatever format the criminal presents to you, he unknowingly leaves trail of errors that should ordinarily give him away. You are to hit the delete button once you are exposed to such emails or messages. Don’t allow it to fester. You are his target. He wants your money and he is ready to do anything to have it. He doesn’t care if you go broke or bankrupt afterwards. So why do you spare him a thought? Why do you think someone with millions of cash under his nose will want to part with it so easily? Why do you want to become a distributor, middle man in a business that you have no knowledge of? Yes, of course. There is no harm in trying. Why not test the credibility of the business or the person before committing your finances?

You are presented with a business that you actually have no knowledge about. I expect a reasonable person to meet a professional in that field and solicit advice. It will save you loads of cash in the long run. The professional will be able to spot the loopholes in the whole package and things that you readily see as inconsequential that would have cost you your life savings. One of the reasons why many people fall into the hands of fraudsters is that they tend to go secret about the deal. They suddenly develop cold feet, and fear that telling anyone including their loved ones and partners would put the deal in jeopardy. They don’t want to be discouraged. They don’t want anyone to share the benefits with them. So they keep the deal to themselves. You only hear of the deal once they are duped.  

We are in a world where vanity is king. Many people want to break even, get rich over night, drive big cars and if possible build castles in the air. The more you channel your effort to your regular job or legitimate course, the lesser the chances of you getting swindled.

Study the dialogue below. It’s between a man and a fraudster. He wanted to swindle the innocent man. This is a very simple format but it will get some unsuspecting people in trouble.

A man called me today. He introduced himself as my former electrician at Iba estate where I live.(I have never lived in an estate or Iba estate. Not to talk of having something to do with an electrician there. That was a red flag.)

Initially I thought it was a wrong number, so I wanted to drop the call but when he called my name and mentioned my wife, I knew I was in for a hard time. (I cannot remember having anything to do with any electrician in the estate.) He said he has relocated to Niger state in far away northern Nigeria and now works with 9mobile, a leading telecommunications company in Nigeria. He wants to buy wire and cable for his company, 9mobile.

Then I asked, "Why do you need me? I don’t know anything about wires and cables. You are an electrician. Why not just go to Alaba Int'l and get the things you want?"

He did not respond to my probe.

Instead, he tried to continue with his gist, hoping that I will hook onto his story. And once you are in, you will be fortunate to get out unhurt. Then he said he is sending his colleague to Lagos with large sums of money and that he wants me to be the sole distributor of cables and wire to 9mobile.

“Me?” I asked, laughing. That sounds nice to any greedy soul, but I was not moved. Hearing the large sums of money made me feel sick and I wanted to quickly get off the phone. But if I do that, I would have missed valuable lessons and experience. So I played along.

“Yes, you, Mr Omoruyi!” he answered.

I smiled and threw out another question, "I hope I will not spend a dime in all of this? I am ready to help you, but I don’t have any cash to spend."

He became angry and yelled at me, "Mr Omoruyi, you went to school? Didn’t you?”

“Yes!” I answered, “I went to school.”

He barked again, “But I just told you that my colleague is coming to Lagos with large sums of money! Please get your pen and paper. I want tell you what to buy with the money and call me back in 3 minutes."

The call dropped.

The underlined words, phrase or sentences above were the errors and loopholes in his conversation with me. They are easy to spot. Who on earth will easily want to part with very huge amount of money, especially to a friend or person that he has not seen for years? No prior contact, no emails and no phone calls to explain his that someone will be visiting me from Niger state. Suddenly you put your mate at the office on the road from the far northern state of Niger to embark on a journey of nearly two or more days to Lagos to buy wire. Why will 9mobile, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Nigeria descend so low that they will require the services of a novice like me to supply wires when they can easily browse the internet and engage companies that can do proper business with them? Again, the distance between Lagos and Niger state is huge. No sane mind will come all the way from Niger state to buy mere wires and cables in Lagos state. Don’t they consider cost, stress and pains it will take them to undertake such trip? You don’t need to come over to Lagos state to purchase wires running into millions of naira. There are companies in Niger state, Kano state or the entire north that can get the load off your back.

The lies, exaggerations, anger and errors were just too obvious. Sadly, there are people who will still fall for such a petty thief. Having considered all of this, I did not return the call.

Author Bio: Omoruyi Uwuigiaren is a Nigerian who writes middle grade adventure fiction and picture books. Some of his books include: The Adventures of Nihu, the City Heroes and other stories from the heart of Africa, the Mystery of Taiwo Da Silva, the Promised Land, Jane the Good Girl, Shadows in a River, the Little Okon and the Outside World, Giant in a Hut and the Little King. He is the founder of Ruyi's World of Books and Stories. His literary works and short stories have appeared on Moronic Ox Literary and Cultural Journal, Town Crier Times, the Story of a Writer, Qwerty Thoughts, the Guardian, and the Vanguard Newspapers. Download free books by the author here.

Many Stories, One Lesson

Between Facebook and YouTube, I really can't tell which has got the better part of my attention. As an internet citizen, I have a compound on Facebook, while as an addict of knowledge, YouTube subscription reflects heavily on my budget. I have lots of favorite clips on YouTube ranging from documentaries, interviews, Ted talks, stand-up comedy, sermons and tutorials.

Sometime last year I stumbled on a clip on YouTube where Daddy Freeze interviewed Timaya in his mansion. It lasted for about two hours, and I stayed up all night to savor every bit of it. Weird, right? Not at all.

Timaya told a story about hi short trip from Abuja to Lagos. Upon his arrival at the airport, he met unusual heavy security presence. After his inquiry, he was told that the security operatives were the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They had come to arrest former governor; Fayose of Ekiti state. While he sorted himself out, Fayose arrived at the airport and was immediately whisked away by the security men.

The arrival lounge was quiet. No one hailed or praised the former governor as usual. People only stood, watched and pointed. As Fayose and him made eye contact and slightly waved at each other, Timaya said he realized that this is the same man that his arrival on a place like this some months ago would have attracted crowd jostling to see him or welcome him because he was in power. Since he was no longer in power, people whom he thought really loved him have deserted him. As far as they are concerned, he was no longer relevant. The praise singers could no longer find their voices!

 Timaya told another similar story:

He had gone to visit his sister who had just been delivered of a child in one of the hospitals around Mafoloku, Lagos state. As soon as he set foot at the hospital, words quickly spread that he is in town. Not long after, the hospital was nearly shut down by the crowd that rushed in to see him. He was flattered by the overwhelming reception that he received at the hospital. After he managed to leave the hospital and find his way home, he got a call from his mother who was still at the hospital with her daughter.

"Timaya,” she began, “This people wey gather there, you think say them like you?"  She asked her son.

"But mama na my fans na."

"Same people wey dey hail you, na them go laugh you. Don't put it in your mind.

Work very hard. Just dey go your own because the day wey them no go see you again, they won't talk to you. Them forget about you. Them no go hail you."

Tai Solarin: Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are ready to take.

Bishop David Oyedepo: You were created for dominion, you are born to win.

Some days ago, global media went agog with the news of what has been termed the greatest comeback in sports history. Tiger Woods had won The Masters (his 15th major title) after missing in action for 11 years. Same Tiger Woods that 11 years ago had been dragged around by the media on his cases of infidelity in marriage which led to divorce, and consequently a slash on his net worth and performance in sports.

Different people had used Woods as a case study for their "From grace to grass" homily. If you wanted a good contemporary example of how "charisma will take you up, but character will bring you down", Woods was the flagship.  He paid dearly for his mistakes. Not many thought that he would bounce back.

11 YEARS LATER…Woods' story has changed. People are singing his praises. We're beginning to find motivation in his situation. I don't mean to say everyone celebrating Tiger Woods now is a hypocrite. I only mean to say life is tough. Never swell on the compliment or condemnation of people. Like the adage, success has many friends but failure is an orphan. So wisdom demands you don't attach too much to criticism or celebration. Always give your best. The constant in this life are you, God and your decision. Everyone else is a dependent or independent variable.

Set your priorities right and duly put things in the right perspective. When people praise you, appreciate them, but don't be a fool to think they've got your back forever. Also when they jeer at you, don't take it personal. Such is life. Learn from your fall and bounce back again as quickly as possible. Some people only have permanent interests. It is not dependent on you or what you are to them. Once they no longer get what they expect to receive from you, they move on.

No mentally balanced athlete will stop at the middle of a race to yell back at critiques, or return pleasant greetings of his fans, family and friends. Focus on your game and goal. Keep your eyes on the prize and don't lose sight of the finish line.

People will always be people. Don’t try to impress everyone.

…fathers will use you as an example to teach their sons.

…mothers will mention you in late night gist with their daughters.

…mentors will use you as a case study for their protégés.

…consultants will sketch your history on the board for their clients.

…pastors will feature you in their Sunday school manual.

…public speakers will host events and presentations by your inspiration.

…bloggers will be grateful for your traffic.

Do what is right. Not what you like.

Culled from Facebook
Edited by Omoruyi Uwuigiaren

There’s Future for Self publishing in Nigeria.

I am a Christian. I write middle grade adventure fiction and picture books. Also, I write tract, pamphlets and little Christian books. Most of my books are in paperbacks and they are not published online. They are sold directly to schools in Nigeria. In Nigeria alone, I have been so fortunate to have my books published by: Learnrite Publishers, Apex Books Limited, Pekan Ventures, Net continental Publications and recently Human Change Communications Company. All these publishers distribute their titles directly to schools (public and private) in Nigeria. Also, I have two publishers overseas (Open Books and Bouncing Ball Books). One is defunct and the other is doing well. But someday our marriage will be over.

Today I self publish my books in Nigeria through my own outfit, Human Change Communications Company. I have been able to combine book publishing and evangelism successfully. While most of my books have themes and messages of love, charity, redemption and faith, my target is often children. I believe they are the future. They should have the best.

 One of my success stories is my recently published little book, The Promised Land. In the last one month, the paperback has sold over 500 copies in Nigeria. It’s only forty pages. I included questions and lots of activities. So it’s fun all the way!

As part of my mission to evangelize through publishing pamphlets, tracts and little books, I have made the Promised Land free online. You can download any format at free-ebooks.net and the PDF on my blog here. The Promised Land is not the only Christian book that I have published as paperback in Nigeria. Some of my books include: Money Not Enough, the Good Father, the Honorable Man, and Tales of Mr Townsend. Like my other books, they are all used in primary schools in Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Imo, Abia, Delta, Rivers, and Ekiti. Soon they will be on the internet for a token or free.

There’s a future for self publishing in Nigeria. However, it has a price. Doing business in Nigeria is generally harsh. If you are not tough, the sharks will swallow you! Like every other business, publishing or self publishing in Nigeria is tedious, rigorous and frustrating. You could be printing today and then be out of business in the next season. It is as simple as that. If you are not careful, you will run into debt as you try to satisfy your distributors and sales representatives.

If you hope to get something tangible out of self publishing, you must be prepared to have all the factors of production right under your nose!  Meaning, you must own a printing press, provide your own electricity, have a genuine source of finance that you can easily pull cash, be a friend of the paper merchant or you become a paper merchant yourself and lastly have loyal distributors and sales representatives. If all of these things are not under your control, book publishing in Nigeria is not for you. It will kill you!

It is not easy to be a successful publisher or self publisher in Nigeria. To get to the top of the food chain, you need to wield enough power and control very large number of people. It is the people you control that make the process successful. The lesser the number of people you control, the more likely you will struggle in the book industry in Nigeria. Because self publishing in Nigeria is very difficult, less people are willing to undertake the stress. Publishing is a goldmine that is deeper than the deep blue sea. If you survive the stress, you will become a very powerful person. To get to the top in the publishing industry in Nigeria, you must control people. Not just your employees who in my own opinion are the least on the list of people who must be under your control. You must stamp your authority. You control everything including the bank, paper merchants, printers, collators, distributors and reps. Nothing more, nothing less! 

Yes, you can achieve it! It is possible! Learnrite publishers did it! Net Continental publications did it! Pekan Ventures did it! You too can!

 Learnrite, Net Continental and Pekan were all once self publishers!

Omoruyi Uwuigiaren

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Buhari’s Low Bar of Governance.

Buhari has lowered the bar of governance so low that all it would take for any president who comes after him to impress us is to:

1. Constitute his cabinet within a few days of being sworn in

2. Appoint members of governing boards of government agencies in the first few months of being in power

3. Not be so incompetent as to appoint dead people in government—and living people without first consulting them

4. Periodically speak to Nigerians through the domestic media, not when he is abroad

5. Personally visit sites of national tragedy, show emotion, and make national broadcasts to reassure a grieving nation.

6. Have an economic team made up of economists and not, as Buhari has done, appoint a diplomat as an economic adviser and then push him to the gaunt fringes of the Vice President’s office.

7. Reflect token religious, regional, and national diversity in appointments.

8. Not lie shamelessly about self-evident facts.

9. Not budget billions for Aso Rock Clinic and yet starve it of basic medicines and then fly to London for medical treatment at the drop of a hat even for “ear infections” and “breathing difficulties”.

10. Not have a compulsive runawayist impulse that ensures that he travels out of the country at the slightest opportunity and for the silliest reasons.

11. Even pretend that the whole of Nigeria is his constituency—including those who gave him “97%” of their votes and those who gave him “5%” of their votes.

12. Add to the list...

Sadly, these are really basic things that we’ve had in previous governments that we thought were irredeemably bad. There is no greater evidence that Nigeria has regressed really badly in almost every index in Buhari’s less than 3 years of being in power than the reality of these grim facts. And he wants you to extend this national tragedy for another 4 years in 2019? Well, it’s up to you. If that's what Nigerians want, who am I to deny them the "luxury" to inflict self-violence on themselves?

Farooq Kperogi is a professor, writer, and columnist. Visit: www.farooqkperogi.com to learn more about him.

Rapid fire Thoughts on Libya: What Africa Needs to Do.

I was on a national radio program here yesterday to offer my thoughts on the recent tragedy of black slave auctions in Libya. Here we go.

1) I am shocked and outraged like everyone else but I am not surprised.

2) I am not surprised that black Africans are being auctioned in broad daylight in Libya because I am not divorcing what is happening now as we speak from the overall history of the Arab Slave Trade in black Africa.

3) It is more fashionable to talk about the trans-Atlantic slave trade which moved millions of black Africans to the Americas. The history of Arab enslavers of black Africans is not well-known. It is hardly present in the school curriculum in Africa.

4) Yet, Arab Slave slave traders and hunters preceded European slave traders and hunters in black Africa by seven centuries.

5) For seven continuous centuries before the Europeans, Arabs traded in black bodies, routed them through North Africa to be sold all over Arabia and the Middle East as slaves.

6) The reality of Arab slavery goes hand in hand with a certain imaginary of race. Blacks are deemed inferior. In many parts of North Africa, belonging to Africa is treated like a geographical indignity.

7) In essence, what is happening in Libya is to be seen within the framework of historical continuities going back several centuries. It is only more outrageous now because of the power of the image - CNN and social media have brought centuries of the treatment of black bodies in North Africa and the Arab world to your dinner table.

8) The African Union and many African states are jackasses with no political willpower or moral authority to do anything meaningful about the tragedy in Libya, hence the largely disgraceful response from Africa thus far. They have not even expelled Libya from the AU.

9) The European Union, the UN, the West are the congenital hypocritical jackasses we have always known. They are making perfunctory noise and expressing outrage. When they want results in Africa, they know how to get results. When Robert Mugabe began to target whites in Zimbabwe, they massed on him, choked him with sanctions, and hastened the course he was already on - the destruction of Zimbabwe's economy. None of them is talking about sanctions against Libya and expelling her from the international body politic - the victims are expendable black people who would have become burdens on White Europe had Libya not done the needful! Now they are saying that the Libyan authorities have reassured them that they are looking into the matter. Shior!

10) Africans looking up to the West and asking where is the outrage must, therefore, cut the crap. Africans in Paris, in London, have been marching and protesting. Where are the protests in the capitals of Africa?

11) The Nigerian President is yet to hear of what is going on Libya although someone who heard in his government has ferried Nigerians home from Libya. The Ghanaian President is heehawing and blowing hot air on Twitter with no real action. I am the one who should be blowing hot air on Twitter, not the President of an African state. Uncle Jacob Zuma was recently honored with a statue in Nigeria by one of the most irresponsible state governors on offer in Nigeria. He is still basking in the fact that Nigeria accorded him worth he does not have at home in South Africa so he is yet to hear about Libya.

12) These are the characters in charge of the state in Africa. They are the ones that the citizens of Africa should hold responsible. They are the ones we need to put pressure on to act decisively about Libya - starting with Libya's expulsion from the AU. After all, their misrule of the continent is why our citizens are crossing the Sahara in the first place.

God bless Africa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pius Adesanmi is a Professor of English and Director, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He was previously an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. He is the inaugural winner of the Penguin Prize for African Writing in the non-fiction category

Confronting Anti-black Racism In The Arab World.

The Arab slave trade is a fact of history, and anti-black racism in the region is something that must be addressed.

Migrant workers from African countries often face abusive conditions in the Middle East [AP]

In response to an essay I wrote recently regarding the "essential blackness" of the Palestinian struggle, I received this reaction, among others: "What about Arab anti-black racism? Or the Arab slave trade?"

The Arab slave trade is a fact of history and anti-black racism is a fact of current reality, a shameful thing that must be confronted in Arab societies. Though I claim no expertise on the subject, I think that applying notions of racism as it exists in the US will preclude a real understanding of the subject in the Arab world.

I spent much of much of my youth in the Arab world and I do not recall having a race consciousness until I came to the United States at the age of 13. My knowledge of Arab anti-black racism comes predominantly from Arab Americans. Like other immigrant communities, they adopt the prevailing racist sentiments of the power structure in the US, which decidedly holds African-Americans in contempt. This attitude is also becoming more prevalent in Arab countries for various reasons, but mostly because Arab governments, particularly those that import foreign labour from Africa and Southeast Asia, have failed to implement or enforce anti-discrimination and anti-exploitation laws.

In many Arab nations, including Kuwait where I was born, workers are lured into menial jobs where their passports are confiscated upon arrival and they are forced into humiliating and often inhuman working conditions. They have little to no protection under the law and are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, including extraordinarily long working hours, withholding of salaries, sexual, mental, and physical abuse, and denial of travel.

The recent case of Alem Dechesa brought to light the horrors faced by migrant workers in Lebanon. Dechesa, a domestic worker from Ethiopia, committed suicide after suffering terrible mental and physical abuse at the hands of her Lebanese employers, whose savage beating of her in front of the Ethiopian Consulate went viral last year.

Defining Beauty

An extension to Arab anti-black racism is an aspiration to all that our former - and current - colonizers possess. Individuals aspire to what is powerful and rich, and the images of that power and wealth have light skin, straight hair, small noses, ruddy cheeks and tall, skinny bodies. That image rejects melanin-rich skin, coiled hair, broad or pointy noses, short stature, broad hips and big legs. So we, too, reject these features, despising them in others and in ourselves as symbols of inferiority, laziness, and poverty. That's why the anglicising industries of skin bleaching and hair straightening are so profitable.

And yet, when Palestine went to the UN for recognition of statehood, the vast majority of nations who voted yes were southern nations. The same is true when Palestine asked for admission to UNESCO. In fact, when the US cut off funding to UNESCO in response to its members' democratic vote to admit Palestine, it was the African nation of Gabon that immediately stepped up with a $2m donation to UNESCO to help offset the loss of income. It was not Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait, or Qatar, or Lebanon, or Sweden, or France. It was Gabon. How many Palestinians know that much less expressed gratitude for it? So concerned are Palestinians with what the European Union and the United States think of us. So engrossed are we in groveling for their favour and handouts as they support a system of Jewish supremacy pushing our ancient society into extinction. We dance like clowns any time a European leader spares us a thought. Have we no sense of history? No sense of pride? No comprehension of who is truly standing with us and who is sabotaging us?

In a world order that peddles notions of entire continents or regions as irreducible monoliths, the conversation among Arabs becomes a dichotomous "Arab" versus "African", ignoring millennia of shared histories ranging from extensive trade and commerce, to the horrors of the Arab slave trade, to the solidarity of African-Arab anti-colonial unity, to the current state of ignorance that does not know history and cannot connect the dots when it comes to national liberation struggles.

Arab Slave Trade

When I was researching the subject of the Arab slave trade, I came upon a veritable treasure of a website established by The African Holocaust Society, or Mafaa [Swahili for "holocaust"], a non-profit organisation of scholars, artists, filmmakers, academics, and activists dedicated to reclaiming the narratives of African histories, cultures, and identities. Included in this great body of scholarly works is a comprehensive section on the Arab slave trade, as well as the Jewish slave trade, African-Arab relations over the centuries, and more, by Owen Alik Shahadah, an activist, scholar, and filmmaker.

Reading this part of our shared history, we can see how a large proportion of Arabs, including those among us who harbour anti-black racism, are the sons and daughters of African women, who were kidnapped from Eastern African nations as sex slaves.

Unlike the European slave trade, the Arab slave trade was not an important feature of Arab economies and it predominantly targeted women, who became members of harems and whose children were full heirs to their father's names, legacies, and fortunes, without regard to their physical features. The enslaved were not bought and sold as chattel the way we understand the slave trade here, but were captured in warfare, or kidnapped outright and hauled across the Sahara.

The race was not a defining line and enslaved peoples were not locked into a single fate, but had an opportunity for upward mobility through various means, including bearing children or conversion to Islam. No-one knows the true numbers of how many African women were enslaved by Arabs, but one need only look at ourselves to see the shadows of these African mothers who gave birth to us and lost their African identities.

But while African scholars at the Mafaa Society make important distinctions between the Arab and European slave trades, enslavement of human beings is a horror of incomprehensible proportions by any standard, and that's what it was in the Arab world as it was - or is - anywhere. There are some who argue that the Arab slave traders were themselves indistinguishable from those whom they enslaved because the word "Arab" had cultural relevance, not racial.

One-Way Street

This argument goes hand-in-hand with the discredited excuse that Africans themselves were involved in the slave trade, with warring tribes capturing and selling each other. But no matter how you look at it, the slave trade was a one-way street, with Africans always the enslaved victims. I know of no African tribe that kidnapped Europeans and put them in bondage for generations; nor do I know of an African tribe that captured Arab women for centuries and made them sex slaves.

I think humanity has truly never known a holocaust of greater magnitude, savagery, or longevity than that perpetrated against the peoples of Africa. This Mafaa has never been fully acknowledged and certainly never atoned for - not that the wounds or enduring legacies of turning human beings into chattel for centuries can ever be fully comprehended or atoned for. But one must try, because just as we inherit privilege from our ancestors, so do we inherit their sins and the responsibility for those sins.

Gaddafi's Role

The late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi understood this and he used his power and wealth to try to redeem our shared history. He was the first Arab leader to apologize on behalf of Arab peoples to our African brothers and sisters for the Arab slave trade and the Arab role in the European slave trade. He funneled money into the African Union and used Libya's wealth to empower the African continent and promote pan-Africanism. He was a force of reconciliation, socialism, and empowerment for both African and Arab peoples. Gaddafi's actions threatened to renew African-Arab reconciliation and alliances similar to that which occurred at the height of the Non-Aligned Movement during the presidencies of Jamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

Thus, NATO's urgency to prevent "massacres" and "slaughter" in Libya was manufactured and sold wholesale. The fear of African-Arab solidarity can be seen in the way the US-backed Libyan insurgency spread rumours that "black African" mercenaries were committing atrocities against Libyans. Gaddafi became an even bigger threat when an agreement was reached with the great anti-imperialist force in South America, Hugo Chavez, to mediate a solution to the uprising in Libya.

Now both of these champions of their people are gone, and the so-called Libyan revolutionaries are executing "black Africans" throughout the country. Gone, too, is NATO's worry about the slaughter in Libya, and another high-functioning Arab nation lies in ruin, waste and civil strife - primed for rampant corporate looting.

I wrote previously that the Palestinian struggle against the erasure of our existence, history, and identity was spiritually and politically black in nature. So, too, are other struggles, like that of migrant workers throughout many Arab nations. These are our comrades. They are the wretched, exploited, robbed, and/or, at last, liberated.

I refer to Black as a political term, not necessarily a racial or ethnic descriptor. In the words of Owen Alik Shehadah: "Black People is a construction which articulates a recent social-political reality of people of colour (pigmented people). Black is not a racial family, an ethnic group or a super-ethnic group. Political Blackness is thus not an identity but moreover a social-political consequence of a world which after colonialism and slavery existed in those colour terms. The word "Black" has no historical or cultural association, it was a name born when Africans were broken down into transferable labour units and transported as chattel to the Americas."

But that word has been reclaimed, redefined, and injected with all the power, love, defiance, and beauty that is Africa. For the rest of us, and without appropriating the word, "black" is a phenomenon of resistance, steadfastness - what we Palestinians call sumud - and the beauty of a culture that is reborn out of bondage and oppression.

Right To Look The Other Way

Finally, solidarity from Africans is not equivalent to that which comes from our European comrades, whose governments are responsible for the ongoing erasure of Palestine. African peoples have every reason to look the other way. Ethiopians have every reason to say: "You deserve what you get for the centuries of enslavement and neo-enslavement industry by your Arab neighbours." African Americans have every reason to say: "Why should I show solidarity with Arabs who come here to treat us like white people do, and sometimes worse?"

Malcolm X once said: "If I was that [anti-American], I'd have a right to be that - after what America has done to us. This government should feel lucky that our people aren't anti-American."

We can substitute the word "Arab" for "American" in that sentence and it would be a valid statement. And yet, Africa is right there with us. African American intellectuals are the greatest champions of our struggle in the United States. The impact of solidarity from four particular individuals - Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, Angela Davis and Cynthia McKinney - can never be overestimated.

Last month, the former South African ambassador to Israel refused a "certificate" from Israel confirming the planting of trees in his name. In his letter, he called Israel a racist, apartheid state and said the gift was an "offense to my dignity and integrity". He added: "I was not a party to, and never will be, to the planting of '18 trees', in my 'honour', on expropriated and stolen land."

I would like my countrymen to think long and hard about this until they truly comprehend the humbling beauty of this solidarity from people who have every reason to be anti-Arab. I wish my countrymen could look through my eyes. They would see that black is profoundly beautiful. They would see that Africa runs through our veins, too. Our enslaved African foremothers deserve to be honoured and loved by their Arab children. And it is for us to redeem their pain with the recognition and atonement long owed. Arriving at this understanding is a good starting place for reciprocal solidarity with nations and peoples who are standing with us, in heart and in action.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan Abulhawa is a Palestinian writer and the author of the international bestselling novel, Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010). She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO for children. Follow her on Twitter: @sjabulhawa

Source: Al Jazeera