RE: [Mwananchi] Galloway @ AU (WDC) Sunday - FINAL arrangements for Viva Palestina Convoy!
From: FELIX DIAWUOH (fad57@msn.com)
Sent: Sat 6/27/09 12:46 PM
To: mwananchi@yahoogroups.com; adc@adc.org; amnestyyorkpa@comcast.net; bangla-vision@yahoogroups.com; muslimsofcentralpa@yahoogroups.com; dc_ccmo@yahoogroups.com; communications@daralhijrah.net; isghgroup@yahoogroups.com; irna1@juno.com; horizons@isna.net; info@isb.org; laborpartypraxis@yahoogroups.com; bouiebus@msn.com; info@mlcmd.org; mas4freedom@aol.com; news@mpac.org; newsviews@masnet.org; reportersnotebook@yahoogroups.com; news@soundvision.net; srclaramohammedschool_richmond@yahoo.com; ksiblani@arabamericannews.com; muslimjrnl@aol.com; editor@muslimlinkpaper.com; tristatemuslim@yahoo.com; wisdom@twf.org; wpc@igc.org; wbixclass@yahoo.com
Dear African Compatriots;
Isn't it ironic that this Israel-hated British MP, George Galloway, will be speaking for Hamas terrorist led Palestinians cause at this time in the current events of the world? I think these so-called Peace, Anti-War and Justice activist groups, the United Nations, Human Rights watchdogs, and the World Media have been operating on a flawed premises for the utopian world peace and justice. What have been lacking in their premises are human conscience, logic, reason and facts of history as guides to understanding the differences bewtween good and evil. By default these groups and the World Body of the United Nations are betraying the actual victims of oppression and violence in the areas where deaths, misery and poverty occur every day in silence.
Just recount on the events in Iraq where over 200 civilians are dead in suicide bombings in the past week, in Afaghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban and Al Qaeda are still batlling with the democratic forces of freedom and equal rights for women rather than Sharia Law. In Iran, the Mullahs are cracking down and killing peaceful protestors as a result of flawed elections without shame.
Where are the demonstrations outside the Middle East by the so-called Peace and Justice, Anti-War and Human Rights groups protesting to support the freedom and democratic forces inside the most oppressive countries of the world? Are we losing the war for democratic freedom because of the infactuation by these international groups for the plight of the Palestians which have been their manrtra throughout the 60's. 70's, 80's, 90's and now in the decade of 2000 AD? Who wants more peaceful co-existence with its neighbors than Israel, considering the negotiations, appeasements and concessions offered to its committed enemies to destroy the only Jewish State in the Middle East? Will the human conscience prevail over hate in the Middle East as this human concience continues to battle between free thinkers and religiously motivated terrorist groups with Petro-Dollars financial support of their oppressive Regimes?
Please note that any crtique of this piece should also address why there has been silence on the part of these so-called Peace and Human Right groups on the victims of Darfur (hundreds of thousands being killed every year by the Sudanese Islamic Government- supported Jinjaweed Militia, the many avowed and known terrorist groups as well as the many other civil wars in Africa? Where are demontrations and speakers for the victims ot terror in the Western capitals except protesting against United Staes and Israel during Presdent George Bush Administration? Will the terrorizing of innocent civilians stop with the new President Barak Obama Administration and if not where do we go from here?
Unfortunately, we now have the President of United States who is not sure where he stands or does not have the political will to pursue between the forces of freedom and democracy versus Oppressive Governments and terrorist groups. Diplomacy, negotiations, and concessions are the weakest tools used in dealing with enemies of freedom and liberty throughout the modern history of the world at the expense of victims of terror and human rights violations.
Felix A. Diawuoh
The Free Africa Foundation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: adc@adc.org; AmnestyYorkPA@comcast.net; bangla-vision@yahoogroups.com; MuslimsofCentralPA@yahoogroups.com; dc_ccmo@yahoogroups.com; Communications@daralhijrah.net; isghgroup@yahoogroups.com; irna1@juno.com; horizons@isna.net; info@isb.org; Laborpartypraxis@yahoogroups.com; bouiebus@msn.com; info@mlcmd.org; Mas4freedom@aol.com; news@mpac.org; Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com; newsviews@masnet.org; RePortersNoteBook@yahoogroups.com; news@soundvision.net; srclaramohammedschool_richmond@yahoo.com; ksiblani@arabamericannews.com; MUSLIMJRNL@aol.com; editor@muslimlinkpaper.com; tristatemuslim@yahoo.com; wisdom@twf.org; wpc@igc.org; wbixclass@yahoo.com
From: peacethrujustice@aol.com
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:25:35 -0400
Subject: [Mwananchi] Galloway @ AU (WDC) Sunday - FINAL arrangements for Viva Palestina Convoy!
THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION
11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB 298
Silver Spring, MD. 20902
Rajab 1430 AH
(June 27, 2009)
Assalaamu Alaikum
(Greetings of Peace):
British MP George Galloway will speak tomorrow (Sunday)evening in the Washington, DC, area at American University, in the School of Public Affairs (aka, Ward Circle Building) located at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016. The program is scheduled to begin at 7pm, insha'Allah. Please pass the word and plan to attend what will no doubt be a memorable event!
Please be advised that registration has now closed, for those interested in traveling to Occupied Palestine as part of the Viva Palestina-USA humanitarian relief convoy. Contributions, however, can still be made to the cause. (See detailed info below on travel arrangements and other related matters)
For those planning to be in or around the nation's capitol on Friday, July 3rd, be advised that the crisis in Occupied Palestine (and this very special humanitarian relief effort) will be part of the agenda for the human rights initiative that a coalition of Muslim and non-Muslim concerned citizens are holding in downtown Washington on that day.
A press conference and rally will be held outside of the DC Convention Center at 3pm, followed by an evening program at the Historical Society of Washington, DC, directly across from the Convention Center. (Seating for the evening program is limited, additional info will soon follow, insha'Allah.) Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at American University!
In the struggle for peace thru justice,
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
Director of Operations
The Peace And Justice Foundation
From: USA Viva Palestina
To: usconvoy@vivapalestina.org
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009
Subject: [usconvoy@vivapalestina.org] IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING VIVA PALESTINA TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS
Dear Friends:
We’re in the last stages of processing the participant lists for the Viva Palestina USA convoy to Gaza! Our enthusiasm for this journey is hopefully matched only by your own as we near the departure date! Registration is now closed, but we need people to be donating and fundraising right up to the last minute. Every penny given prior to July 15th will count towards this convoy and we will collect your generous donations beyond that date for the next convoy!
We have a large delegation in excess of 220 people – a tremendous mark of success and of the degree of support for the mission - and we need that number of participants to be matched by a proportionately large amount of medical aid and vehicles.
We have been inundated in the past week with last minute registrations for the convoy and we are still processing that information. Many of you are writing and calling with questions about making final travel arrangements, to inquire about your status, or about the numbers of attendees, travel itinerary, etc. We are unable to respond to many of these inquiries until ALL of the applications have been processed and the final details of the convoy finalized, so please bear with us while we attend to those details. Additionally, for security purposes, limited information will be released about our travel and accommodation until closer to the date of our departure.
Our apologies if your communication has gone unanswered, but know that we are more than aware of the requests and are working hard to obtain answers to EVERYONE’S questions! However, in an effort to keep information and arrangements as organized and consistent as possible, please read the following updates closely:
INFORMATION ON WEBSITE
We have posted the previous listserv emails to the Viva Palestina webpage under the FAQ/Resources section. Many questions can be answered by reviewing those emails and by checking back frequently for new posts.
DONATIONS
Checks made out to IFCO - Viva Palestina in your possession need to be recorded by us AND by our fiscal sponsors, IFCO/Pastors for Peace, and next Friday is a public holiday! Please send them now by fastest post to our office:
Viva Palestina USA
West Polk St.
Suite 100-403
Chicago IL 60605-2085
ORIENTATION IN CHICAGO THIS WEEKEND!
All group leaders need to plan on attending the orientation in Chicago THIS weekend. We will have several sessions detailing information pertinent to the convoy and travel. We highly recommend one to two group leaders from every organizing area attend.
Please send the names, contact and travel information for each group leader attending from your area, and include whether transportation from the airport and/or accommodations are needed to fatima@vivapalestina.org immediately!
ORIENTATION IN NYC – JULY 3rd
We urge everyone to get to New York City on the afternoon of Friday, July 3 for registration and for a wonderful send-off event. We will meet at the historic:
House of the Lord Church
415 Atlantic Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1702
Once there and registered, we will be dispersing a great deal of information – legal and logistical. There will also be a legal briefing by our friends from the National Lawyers Guild, who have volunteered their time. NLG will also be on standby from July 17 to July 20, upon our return to the US, should there be any issues at that stage.
Overnight accommodation for Friday, July 3rd, and Saturday, July 4th, is being arranged and provided by our supporters in NYC. Please feel free to make other arrangements, and communicate them to us and to your group leaders during registration. Be sure, however, to arrange your travel to the airport if you do separate from the larger group.
TRAVEL
Those who registered online with Viva Palestina USA prior to June 20th AND who identified that they were traveling FROM New York City, JFK Airport, TO Cairo, Egypt with the convoy on the weekend of July 4th on their application have received a separate email detailing their travel arrangements through one particular travel agent. IF YOU DID NOT RECEIVE THAT EMAIL – sent earlier today - AND YOU SHOULD HAVE BASED ON THE CRITERIA JUST DETAILED, PLEASE EMAIL fatima@vivapalestina.org immediately. There will be at least TWO flights on which Viva Palestina convoy participants from NYC will be seated due to our large numbers but most of that group will be leaving JFK on the 4th and 5th of July.
Those who registered after June 20th and identified NYC as their departure city or who identified another city as their departure city or who have, either by prior agreement with us or in their application, arranged to travel separately due to extenuating circumstances, must make their own travel arrangements.
It is best for groups from particular areas to arrange for this purchase/travel IN A GROUP, if at all possible. To facilitate that and keep people both organized AND affordable, we have arranged for you to arrange and purchase tickets from: R. Crusoe & Son, 566 W. Adams St. #505, Chicago, IL 60661. Our gracious contact there is Katie Weber. Please send, via email to kweber@rcrusoe.com, your:
1) Contact information
2) City of departure
3) Desired date of departure
4) Desired date of return
You are welcome to make arrangements on your own or through your own agent, but we will need from you the details of the flight you are on and when it arrives in Cairo. This is necessary for us to deal with the relevant Egyptian authorities.
If you make alternate arrangements for travel (i.e. extended layover in another city, extending your stay in Cairo, traveling from Cairo to another city before returning to your departure city, etc.), note that Viva Palestina IS NOT responsible for you, your travel, or your arrangements once the majority of the convoy departs from Cairo on or around July 17th. Any legal, travel or personal issues upon your separation from the convoy are your own, though we will attempt to organize resources for foreseeable difficulties that severed travelers may encounter.
DOMESTIC FLIGHTS TO NEW YORK
If you choose to attend the orientation event on July 3rd and then fly from NYC to Cairo, arranging those domestic flights to and from NYC is your responsibility. Katie Weber, our agent at R. Crusoe & Son, can assist with booking domestic routes for groups traveling together and is also happy to deal with individual transportation needs, but may recommend booking certain domestic flights independently, as they may be more affordable and more easily accessible. You can contact her directly, but ONLY about the domestic flights or international flights that are NOT part of the block bookings we have secured through a separate agent from JFK to Cairo over the weekend of 4 and 5 July.
PAYMENTS
Payments to our agent, R. Crusoe & Son, for any flight arrangements may be made by credit card, or by check, if sent overnight to arrive on Monday, 29 July. Credit card details can be called in to (312) 218-0626 or sent via email to kweber@rcrusoe.com with:
1) Cardholder's name (as it appears on the card)
2) Credit card number,
3) Expiration date
4) Security code
Please identify that you are part of the Viva Palestina USA convoy. If you have not received confirmation of your payment or flight details, after sending in your payment information, please contact Katie at kweber@rcrusoe.com.
You will receive confirmation from an agent of the receipt of your payment and you will be issued with an e-ticket. Remember: Though most will leave on July 4th from JFK, due to our large numbers, some will leave on the same flight the following day. Several group leaders have been selected to assure your accommodations and travel arrangements are properly executed.
Also, for those who identified NYC as their departing location prior to June 20th, Viva Palestina paid a large deposit on seats to hold the reservation and to attempt to seat as many convoy participants as possible on as few flights as possible. If your organization has donations in its possession or has delegates attending with those arrangements, it is VERY important we recover that deposit, as it can be used to purchase aid! Late or non-payment will result in both them losing their seat on the flight and us losing a fair amount of funds that could be used for aid, and in both cases, the people of Gaza will be the ones who truly feel the loss!
ARRIVAL IN CAIRO
We have made arrangements for airport pickup for any larger groups arriving together who submit that information to us AS A GROUP. Details on alternate transportation will be given later or can be arranged by you once we release the hotel information.
ADMINSTRATIVE EXPENSES
Please bring with you the additional $100 in cash that we ask you to donate to cover the overall administrative costs of the convoy (on top of your personal travel expenses). We will collect it in NY or upon arrival in Egypt.
HOTEL ACCOMODATIONS
We are in the process of negotiating hotel reservations in Cairo and will provide all participants and group leaders with the NAME and ADDRESS of the hotel, along with all other pertinent details, by JULY 3rd, if not sooner, so that those who are arriving on different flights or who are meeting us in Cairo will be able to join the convoy in the days following.
INTERNATIONAL DRIVING PERMIT
We highly recommend you get an international driving permit. To do so visit the travel information site for the Department of State to obtain information regarding the application for an international Driving Permit or visit the AAA website to print the application form directly. The cost is $15 and we urge you to apply for one for driving privileges in Egypt, just to be on the safe side!
DECORATION OF VEHICLES
We are procuring large stickers with the Viva Palestina insignia to stick on the vehicles we are purchasing in Egypt. In addition, in many areas, individuals or organizations have specifically sponsored a vehicle. Some of those, for example, are in dedication to a family member or a village/town in Palestine.
We need you to send us those dedications - the exact wording in English and Arabic, where appropriate, as we are researching how best to get these dedications imprinted on nice stickers and to affix to the vehicles. (If anyone is in this type of business, please contact us immediately – usinformation@vivapalestina.org.) It is very important that the wishes of those who have sponsored with a particular dedication are respected.
DELEGATION/DELEGATE PICTURES!
We want to produce a publication for fundraising and commemoration after we return from Gaza – a virtual USA Convoy yearbook! To that end, we require from you a nice, print-quality image of yourself complete with your details: name, age, city/town where you live, and in 100 words (no more, please!) why you are undertaking this journey.
We intend these to form the opening pages, year book style, of the publication. Photos of your fundraisers, events, organizations, etc. can be sent as well. As soon as possible, before Monday of next week, send an email with your photos attached with "Delegate Photo" and your name in the subject line to usinformation@vivapalestina.org.
RECORDING YOUR VOYAGE
Nearly all of you will have digital cameras, video cameras, computers and other equipment. We want you to bring them and use it to record your journey. There will be internet facilities in Egypt and limited facilities in Gaza. You will be able to upload onto your blog - if you have one - onto the Viva website, onto other websites, onto Youtube.com and so on. In addition, we would like you to write down your thoughts of what you see in Gaza, what the people who you meet have to say, etc. This will be used on the website and in future publications.
There is no vanity about this: it is about ensuring that, whatever the coverage we get in the mainstream media, gets the word to as many places as possible. This is why you should be contacting the media in your area - TV, radio and press - to let them know you are going and to seek coverage. I know some of you have sent out local press releases. Please send us a copy so we can circulate to help others.
SECURITY
Though we do not anticipate any difficulties, to assure the utmost security, safety and comfort of everyone on this convoy, some information, such as hotel accommodations, exact time of arrival and departure, and itinerary details should NOT be shared publicly. Please use your best judgment and know that we are using ours. You will receive this information closer to the applicable time.
In sum, it is VERY IMPORTANT that we receive the following from you:
1. A FIRM COUNT OF THE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE ATTENDING THIS WEEKEND’S ORIENTATION IN CHICAGO, JUNE 27TH-JUNE 28TH, WITH ALL CONTACT INFORMATION, AND FLIGHT AND ACCOMODATION DETAILS.
2. ANY FUNDS GATHERED THROUGH YOUR DILIGENT FUNDRAISING EFFORTS AND EVENTS. PLEASE SEND THESE DIRECTLY TO OUR OFFICE:
47 West Polk St.
Suite 100 - 403
Chicago, IL 60605-2085
3. ALL PARTICIPANT’S FINAL TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS IF NOT ALREADY IDENTIFIED AS FLYING DIRECTLY FROM NYC TO CAIRO WITH THE JULY 4th WEEKEND CONVOY.
Much remains to be done and we ask for your confidence as we finalize details, your enthusiasm as the final days of fundraising and awareness-building approach, and your individual efforts to prepare your personal details for this journey.
In solidarity,
Viva Palestina USA
www.vivapalestina-us.org
usinformation@vivapalestina.org
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Michael Jackson And Triumph Of Black Musicians
RE: [Mwananchi] Fwd. Did Michael Jackson want to be white?
From: FELIX DIAWUOH (fad57@msn.com)
Sent: Sat 6/27/09 2:15 PM
To: mwananchi@yahoogroups.com
Rashid And George,
Thank you for bringing some human touch in the clueless world of media reporting and enertainment. As we all mourn for the passing away of another Black musical legend like Otis Redding, Sam Cook, Franco O.K. Jazz, Fela Ransome Kuti, James Brown etc.etc. and now Michael Jackson, many of us will thank God for giving us such great talented musicians of our Race. Music was their weapon for spiritual enlightenment, peace and harmony in the otherwise troubled world of violent conflicts, oppression, poverty and misery. Their music transcended Race, Religion, Gender and Politics. If God wanted them to be perfect, they would have come to us as Jesus Christ in purity.
However, they came as ordinary human beings with extrordinaly musical talents to cheer our souls and hearts.
As we all mourn for Michael Jackson's return to his eternity so suddenly, we should also reflect on the pains his bereaved family is going through. For his music and videos, thank God for the computer and DVDs technology we shall enjoy them for ever, like those ones of his predecessors who came into our hearts and souls and left us abrumptly.
Fela :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq7IPEJiRI8
Franco OK Jazz:http://www.kenyapage.net/franco/
Michael Jackson Moonwalk:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31573349#31573349
Michael Jackson As Human Being:
http://dennisprager.townhall.com/content/81c56ddf-a8d5-4de3-81fa-38d22b5ef001
Enjoy brothers and sisters.
Felix A. Diawuoh
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com
From: kaliro45@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:58:13 +0000
Subject: Re: [Mwananchi] Fwd. Did Michael Jackson want to be white?
George,
I was a fan of TP Ok Jazz and Madilu system- Those guys God bless them - they brought Joy to many Africans.
Back to Jackoooo- May the Almighty bless his soul- The fact that he sacrificed his natural looks to make others like you and me happy showed that he valued people and he wanted to give a unique type of joy. He was not selfish!!!!!!!!!
Jackooo Thank you for bringing joy to us with your great Music- Dance - We shall all miss you.
RIP.
Rashid
http://www.madilusystem.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npsb76_Uje4
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=related&search_query=madilu%20system%20congo%20zaire%20ndombolo%20soukous%20rumba%20africa%20guitar%20afrobeat%20salsa%20reggae%20makossa%20lingala%20dance%20werrason&v=Npsb76_Uje4&page=2
From: FELIX DIAWUOH (fad57@msn.com)
Sent: Sat 6/27/09 2:15 PM
To: mwananchi@yahoogroups.com
Rashid And George,
Thank you for bringing some human touch in the clueless world of media reporting and enertainment. As we all mourn for the passing away of another Black musical legend like Otis Redding, Sam Cook, Franco O.K. Jazz, Fela Ransome Kuti, James Brown etc.etc. and now Michael Jackson, many of us will thank God for giving us such great talented musicians of our Race. Music was their weapon for spiritual enlightenment, peace and harmony in the otherwise troubled world of violent conflicts, oppression, poverty and misery. Their music transcended Race, Religion, Gender and Politics. If God wanted them to be perfect, they would have come to us as Jesus Christ in purity.
However, they came as ordinary human beings with extrordinaly musical talents to cheer our souls and hearts.
As we all mourn for Michael Jackson's return to his eternity so suddenly, we should also reflect on the pains his bereaved family is going through. For his music and videos, thank God for the computer and DVDs technology we shall enjoy them for ever, like those ones of his predecessors who came into our hearts and souls and left us abrumptly.
Fela :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq7IPEJiRI8
Franco OK Jazz:http://www.kenyapage.net/franco/
Michael Jackson Moonwalk:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31573349#31573349
Michael Jackson As Human Being:
http://dennisprager.townhall.com/content/81c56ddf-a8d5-4de3-81fa-38d22b5ef001
Enjoy brothers and sisters.
Felix A. Diawuoh
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com
From: kaliro45@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:58:13 +0000
Subject: Re: [Mwananchi] Fwd. Did Michael Jackson want to be white?
George,
I was a fan of TP Ok Jazz and Madilu system- Those guys God bless them - they brought Joy to many Africans.
Back to Jackoooo- May the Almighty bless his soul- The fact that he sacrificed his natural looks to make others like you and me happy showed that he valued people and he wanted to give a unique type of joy. He was not selfish!!!!!!!!!
Jackooo Thank you for bringing joy to us with your great Music- Dance - We shall all miss you.
RIP.
Rashid
http://www.madilusystem.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npsb76_Uje4
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=related&search_query=madilu%20system%20congo%20zaire%20ndombolo%20soukous%20rumba%20africa%20guitar%20afrobeat%20salsa%20reggae%20makossa%20lingala%20dance%20werrason&v=Npsb76_Uje4&page=2
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Presidential Candidate Barrack Obama Funneled Grant Money to Afrocentric Anti-American Extremists
Presidential Candidate Barack Obama Funneled Grant Money to Afrocentric Anti-American Extremists »
October 13, 2008
Obama Mentor Frank Marshall Davis an Admitted Child Rapist
Somehow I missed this when it was published in August in the U.K. Telegraph:
Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's half-sister, told the Associated Press recently that her grandfather had seen Mr Davis was a "point of connection, a bridge if you will, to the larger African-American experience for my brother".
In his memoir, Mr Obama recounts how he visited Mr Davis on several occasions, apparently at junctures when he was grappling with racial issues, to seek his counsel. At one point in 1979 Mr Davis described university as "an advanced degree in compromise" that was designed to keep blacks in their place.
Mr Obama quoted him as saying: "Leaving your race at the door. Leaving your people behind. Understand something, boy. You're not going to college to get educated. You’re going there to get trained."
He added that "they'll tank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you're a nigger just the same."
It has also been established that Mr Davis, who divorced in 1970, was the author of a hard-core pornographic autobiography published in San Diego in 1968 by Greenleaf Classics under the pseudonym Bob Greene.
In a surviving portion of an autobiographical manuscript, Mr Davis confirms that he was the author of Sex Rebel: Black after a reader had noticed the "similarities in style and phraseology" between the pornographic work and his poetry.
"I could not then truthfully deny that this book, which came out in 1968 as a Greenleaf Classic, was mine." In the introduction to Sex Rebel, Mr Davis (writing as Greene) explains that although he has "changed names and identities…all incidents I have described have been taken from actual experiences".
He stated that "under certain circumstances I am bisexual" and that he was "a voyeur and an exhibitionist" who was "occasionally mildly interested in sado-masochism", adding: "I have often wished I had two penises to enjoy simultaneously the double – but different – sensations of oral and genital copulation."
The book, which closely tracks Mr Davis's life in Chicago and Hawaii and the fact that his first wife was black and his second white, describes in lurid detail a series of shockingly sordid sexual encounters, often involving group sex.
One chapter concerns the seduction by Mr Davis and his first wife of a 13-year-old girl called Anne. Mr Davis wrote that it was the girl who had suggested he had sex with her. "I'm not one to go in for Lolitas. Usually I'd rather not bed a babe under 20.
"But there are exceptions. I didn't want to disappoint the trusting child. At her still-impressionistic age, a rejection might be traumatic, could even cripple her sexually for life."
He then described how he and his wife would have sex with the girl. "Anne came up many times the next several weeks, her aunt thinking she was in good hands. Actually she was.
"She obtained a course in practical sex from experienced and considerate practitioners rather than from ignorant insensitive neophytes….I think we did her a favour, although the pleasure was mutual."
On other occasions, Mr Davis would cruise in Hawaii parks looking for couples or female tourists to have sex with. He derived sexual gratification from bondage, simulated rape and being flogged and urinated on.
I only found this Telegraph story after a new commenter named "Krys" dumped the text of this current National Enquirer story in the comments of an unrelated post.
This story has been known by the U.S. media for almost two months now, but I can find no evidence that any network or cable television news outlet, newspaper, syndicate, or magazine has reported on this. Does anyone believe for one second that if John McCain or Sarah Palin were mentored by an self-admitted child rapist and general pervert that it wouldn't be the singular focus of multiple news cycles, questioning how such a relationship was damage their delicate and emerging psychologies, rendering them too unreliable for the Presidency, or perhaps darkly suggesting that the candidate might have been abused by such a mentor themselves?
Instead, they buried the story, until once again the Enquirer shows itself to be the only U.S news organization with enough integrity to report a story detrimental to a Democratic Presidential candidate.
That doesn't mean the Enquirer has suddenly become more credible. It just serves to show you how partisan and unreliable the American news media is today.
Barack Obama's list of known mentors now includes child rapists ("Uncle Frank" Marshall), racists (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) and terrorists (Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn).
When is someone going to question how these associations must have warped Obama's views and render him unstable, and unsuitable for the Presidency?
Posted by Confederate Yankee at October 13, 2008 02:10 PM
Comments
Does it strike anyone else as kind of pathetic that the British media knows more about the man that's likely. . .unfortunately. . .about to be elected President of the United States than the American media?
Well, more than the American media lets US know, anyway.
Someone save me a good seat in re-programming class, will you?
Posted by: TheGonz at October 13, 2008 02:26 PM
Uh, take a real good look at a picture of Frank and a pic of Barack Sr. and then another of Barack Jr candidate for President.
Is Uncle Frank the kinda guy who would have scruples about hitting on his buddy's granddaughter?
"Uncle Frank" uh, yeah, sure.
Posted by: Rocky's Pal at October 13, 2008 02:59 PM
Well, the Brits, knowing all this, still prefer Obama, so... there's no surprises there.
Meanwhile, just mentioning this guy Davis and his association with Obaaa!ma is just full.of.hate. Hate! How dare anyone quote the British media? Buncha Anglo-supremists around here.
:o)
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at October 13, 2008 03:25 PM
The thing is that this was a childhood association -- one that was set up by his grandfather. Although this glues together some pieces of the puzzle, I don't think Obama's association with FMD should be put on the "bad choices" pile like Ayers. It should be on the "creepy" and "daddy issues" piles.
The bigger story is the media bias story. Why have we not had one TV documentary on "Who is Frank Marshall Davis?"
Posted by: AmishDude at October 13, 2008 03:59 PM
What a bunch of nice people old Barack hangs out with.
Posted by: Capitalist Infidel at October 13, 2008 04:20 PM
So when I went to college I was being trained to be a "good n*gger?"
Damn. How about all the other white guys?
People like Davis are so blind that it makes them stupid. Like all conspiracists, every tiny detail in the universe is another piece in the grand puzzle. A sparrow farts, and it's irrefutable proof of racism. Is he where Obama learned his infinite sense of self, his insatiable narcssissm?
Posted by: Steve Skubinna at October 13, 2008 04:26 PM
It continues to amaze me how many times the National Enquirer gets stories right, and then people report on their accurate story by saying 'The National Enquirer is not credible source.'
Posted by: Kevin at October 13, 2008 05:41 PM
"This isn't the Frank Marshall Davis I knew."
Posted by: Obama's Wall Street Contributions at October 13, 2008 06:00 PM
Well, The One did say he was different from all those other presidents on the currency. I do not recall Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, or Grant having their own pedophile racial awareness guide.
Son of a Hippie, mentored by Davis about how to be "authentic" in his racial attitudes, associates with Angry Left folks, runs as a Deocratic Socialist and wants to "spread the wealth around". Sounds like a veritable flag and apple pie candidate to me.
Posted by: Teleprompter Messiah at October 13, 2008 06:23 PM
This story borders on being sick!!
I've known poets, authors and the like, and some of them were really weird -- my wife and I kept them at arms length. Barak Obama was at a young and impressionable age when these encounters occurred, but I was a university graduate student (UC Berkeley) when my encounters occurred. At his age Obama didn't know any better !!!
Obama's problem is that he has virtually no ability to go back and rethink his past encounters with stalinist apparachiks like Frank Marshall Davis (let's include Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn even though they claim that they have no love for stalinism -- baloney -- stalinism is written all over their faces!!!)
Obama's problem is with a fundamental quantity called the truth, something his radical mentors considered malleable at best. Obama can't come clean about his involvement with non-repentant terrorists Ayers and Dohrn. He refuses to come clean about his involvement with the leftist blackshirts who go by the name of Acorn, and he refuses to come clean about his involvement with the most corrupt political machine in America run by Chicago mayor Richard Daley.
Those who vote for Stalinbama vote out of a sense complete denial of the facts that are now coming to the surface, no thanks to the US MSM Pravda.
Posted by: Mescalero at October 13, 2008 11:10 PM
Nearly all of Obama's formative relations were with pathological individuals and toxic ideas.
Frank Marshall Davis eagerly indulged himself with a 13-year-old girl in his charge. He had wide-ranging sexual appetites without scruples, and describes himself as bisexual.
Is there any reason to believe he would have restrained himself from indulging in a handsome teenaged boy in his charge?
For nearly two decades the Catholic church hemorrhaged hundreds of millions of dollars on the premise that sexual predation by grown men on teenaged boys permanently damages those individuals. The media reveled. They damned the church for willful blindness and covering up.
But of course, this would be different.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 03:50 AM
When you look at a young man's 'father figures', you see his role models. You see who he really is.
Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, and Bill Ayers are morally unhealthy human beings. They molded Barack's character. They informed his worldview. They nurtured him on their poisonous ideologies. There's no sign that he ever rebelled, or even sought out less contemptible exemplars.
On the outside, Barack may be smooth and sonorous. On the inside, he is a toxic stew of Davis, Wright, and Ayers.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 04:11 AM
On the inside, he is a toxic stew of Davis, Wright, and Ayers.
Evidence? For many years he's led a public life and has appeared calm and decent. Many wonderful people came from broken and miserable homes, or had parents who were felons or even Nazis. It is a testament to the human spirit and the power of love that a person can transcend their environment and grow to be a splendid person. To hear you call a decent man a "toxic stew" is appalling and totally unfair. And deeply un-Christian. Shame.
Posted by: richard at October 14, 2008 05:26 AM
richard,
Evidence?
His behavior.
Did he adopt Frank Marshall Davis' worldview? Apparently so. In his memoir, he reveres the despicable 'Frank' and quotes him approvingly.
Did he adopt Bill Ayers' worldview? Yes, he did. Obama joined Ayers on the Woods Fund. Ayers made him chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama funded Ayers and his radical associates via the CAC. They worked together on radical education policy and squandered 160 million dollars together. Obama's first political fundraiser was hosted by Bill Ayers. He only distanced himself when it became politically necessary.
Did he adopt Jeremiah Wright's worldview? Yes, he did. According to Obama, he sought out a spiritual mentor and a church where he felt at home. He found both at Trinity. For twenty years he sat in the pew as his 'pastor' spewed anti-American, white-hating filth. Obama brought his wife and kids. The only religion he ever exposed his children to was Marxism with a thin veneer of religion. Would he have done so if he didn't agree with it?
Have you heard the adage, "You know a man by the company he keeps"? How about "Birds of a feather flock together"?
That's evidence.
"Appeared calm and decent" isn't evidence. It's weak-minded bullshit.
Shove your ignorance and pretentious fake-Christian piety back up the hole they came from.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 06:04 AM
Richard:
"Those, then, are friends to whom the same things are good and evil; and those who are, moreover, friendly or unfriendly to the same people; for in that case they must have the same wishes, and thus by wishing for each other what they wish for themselves, they show themselves each other's friends." (Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book II, Chapter)
Apply that to the people that Senator Obama has hung around with most of his adult life.
Or, you can show yourself to be a partisan lefty hack and denounce Aristotle as a racist.
Your move.
Posted by: C-C-G at October 14, 2008 07:13 AM
In addition to his acceptance of the worldviews of the various thugs and perverts above, you also have OBama's self-proclaimed "moral compass," the race-bating lynching advocate, anti-Semite, and Louis Farrakhan fan Father Michael Pfleger, who has been Obama's mentor of 22 years.
Among Obama's acts, you can look to his work for the corrupt ACORN as a trainer and his recent attempt to slip them more than $800,000 in money through a front group, suspected millions in illegal foreign contributions, add to that Obama's attempt to subvert the Constitution by corrupting legal scholarship in an effort to run a sophisticated con on the U.S. Supreme Court, and his morally vacant support for infanticide.
Richard asks for evidence that Obama is psychologically a "toxic stew."
What more do you require, for his to be caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl? Both?
The men he sought out as mentors is evidence of Obama's internal issues. The three men who have been constants the longest in his life have been a terrorist (Ayers, at least 21 years, perhaps as long as 27 if they met when Obama was at Columbia), a cult-leading racist (Wright 21 years), and the aforementioned Pfleger.
He chose as his spouse someone who has racial inferiority issues severe enough she tries to work through them in her thesis, but obviously failed, as she was only able to recently become proud of her country as a grown woman... and only then because of a personal benefit afforded to her husband, suggesting her pride was merely bought.
Barack Obama's mind must provide for one hell of a couch trip, and the forces that made him no doubt shaped him into an excellent cautionary tale.
But what I find particularly interesting that the same people on the left who so hate George W. Bush for being an "extremist" look at the extremism that shaped Barack Obama, and twist that in their own minds to be a good thing.
If he manages to win the White House, the various pathologies imparted into him through this lifelong mentoring of racists, terrorists, radicals, sexual deviants and various flavors of communist and socialist extremists will only sharpen in the pressure cooker of the Presidency, and he will make increasing bad decisions.
We one thought Barack Obama might be the second coming of Jimmy Carter, but that was before we began to get a better understanding of the forces that shaped him.
You might be wiling to endanger your children's future by trusting that a man with such a deviant background can overcome a lifetime of corrupting anti-American influences, but I can't.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at October 14, 2008 07:36 AM
ichard,
Evidence?
His behavior.
Did he adopt Frank Marshall Davis' worldview? Apparently so. In his memoir, he reveres the despicable 'Frank' and quotes him approvingly.
You have no evidence Obama was molested by "Frank." He was ten years old. You realize how nuts this sounds?
Yankee, about "the extremism that shaped Barack Obama" - all I ask is, what are you talking about? How do you know this is what shaped him? How do you know about other, nourishing and loving people he knew who might have shaped him? It is all conjecture, what you want to believe, but there is no proof. It is scary and also dangerous, to build up such strong hatred against a man all based on association, when you have no idea how closely he was even associated with these people and what the effect of that association was. He's been in the public eye for four years (and actually far longer). How has he managed to hide even the faintest trace of this horrible toxic stew? Do you believe once he's sworn it it will pop out like in Alien? With all due respect, that is plain looney. You can find associations and experience in everyone's life and come up with reasons why anyone would be unfit for power. But it's not based on any reality except that of your own making. In other words, it's pure, unadulterated nonsense.
Posted by: richard at October 14, 2008 08:06 AM
richard,
How deep in denial would you like to remain? Barack Obama's life has been defined by serial associations with anti-American left-wing extremists. I certainly hope that the freshman Senator has had nourishing and loving people and his life, but that does not in any way excuse the fact that Barack Obama chose as his mentors the most extreme elements of the American left. He has not hidden "even the faintest trace"--obviously, we're talking about it now, and in some detail, and his supporters are doing their level best to suppress discussion of these troubling extremes that make up his record.
Granted, you and your fellow apologists have done all you can to make that discussion nearly impossible by chanting "racist!" anytime anyone has had the temerity to point out these proven and problematic associations, but that attempt to stifle debate doesn't make his extremist views and choice of mentors any less real.
Nothing is "popping out," instead, it's been trickling out over the past year, story by story, as a handful of reporters with intellectual integrity have sought to vet the candidate that most of the media would rather anoint than explore.
You do make one valid point that you can come up with reasons that anyone would be unfit for command if you try hard enough, but the fact of the matter is that extremism of association and deed are the constant in Barack Obama's life, and normal American views and associations are far fewer and farther between, and tainted.
I can understand how someone such as yourself may so swept up in the celebrity of Obama and the firsts he represents that you would will upon him suitability if you could, but the simple fact of the matter is that Barack Obama has a lifetime of associations with extremists, some of which are dubious legally and morally, and lacks any measurable leadership experience or any record of being able to work substantively on matters that require bi-partisanship.
You've spent considerable energy trying to minimize Barack Obama's decades of associations with racists, terrorists, radicals, and a child rapist, but you haven't done anything to examine or explain those associations.
Perhaps, sir, it is time you stop for a moment and try to understand why you can't bring yourself to face what made Obama head-on.
Like many Obama supporters, I suspect you'd rather minimize his problematic associations and positions than explore them, because if you look too closely, you'll find out that you can in no way support him, either.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at October 14, 2008 08:29 AM
richard,
There's plenty of evidence of long-term toxic associations. Perhaps you could point to an instance where he refused or rebelled or rose above those associations.
He prospered within one of the most corrupt political machines in the United States. Did he ever denounce or protest the corruption? Perhaps you could ask criminal slumlord and close Obama associate Tony Rezko. Rezko helped Obama buy property, and Obama directed millions in state funds to Rezko. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Perhaps you can point to the moment when an indignant Obama confronted his racist pastor?
Or a moment when he told his ACORN friends, 'Vote fraud just isn't right.'
Or the time when he said to Bill Ayers, 'I won't have anything to do with a man who engaged in acts of terror against my country.'
Or when he turned to Bernadine Dohrn and said, 'How on earth could you celebrate the Tate-Lobianco murders?'
Here's a lesson in common sense. You know a man by the company he keeps. Show me an example where Barack Obama demonstrated that he wasn't like the people he has chosen as his friends.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 08:32 AM
Lyly, you've really drunk the Kool Aid. How do you know what Obama said to Wright or to Acorn? All innuendo, all smoke - and where there's smoke, surely there's fire. McCain spent some of his impressionable years holed up in the Hanoi Hilton surrounded by communists. Maybe that rubbed off on him, too, and makes him unfit for office. But only a deranged fool would ever say something like that, because McCain has proved he's a decent man (until recently), a caring man and a rational man. We must form our judgments on what IS, on what a man actually does and says and stands for, and not on what our inner demons whisper to us.
Posted by: richard at October 14, 2008 09:22 AM
http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/275493.php
October 13, 2008
Obama Mentor Frank Marshall Davis an Admitted Child Rapist
Somehow I missed this when it was published in August in the U.K. Telegraph:
Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's half-sister, told the Associated Press recently that her grandfather had seen Mr Davis was a "point of connection, a bridge if you will, to the larger African-American experience for my brother".
In his memoir, Mr Obama recounts how he visited Mr Davis on several occasions, apparently at junctures when he was grappling with racial issues, to seek his counsel. At one point in 1979 Mr Davis described university as "an advanced degree in compromise" that was designed to keep blacks in their place.
Mr Obama quoted him as saying: "Leaving your race at the door. Leaving your people behind. Understand something, boy. You're not going to college to get educated. You’re going there to get trained."
He added that "they'll tank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you're a nigger just the same."
It has also been established that Mr Davis, who divorced in 1970, was the author of a hard-core pornographic autobiography published in San Diego in 1968 by Greenleaf Classics under the pseudonym Bob Greene.
In a surviving portion of an autobiographical manuscript, Mr Davis confirms that he was the author of Sex Rebel: Black after a reader had noticed the "similarities in style and phraseology" between the pornographic work and his poetry.
"I could not then truthfully deny that this book, which came out in 1968 as a Greenleaf Classic, was mine." In the introduction to Sex Rebel, Mr Davis (writing as Greene) explains that although he has "changed names and identities…all incidents I have described have been taken from actual experiences".
He stated that "under certain circumstances I am bisexual" and that he was "a voyeur and an exhibitionist" who was "occasionally mildly interested in sado-masochism", adding: "I have often wished I had two penises to enjoy simultaneously the double – but different – sensations of oral and genital copulation."
The book, which closely tracks Mr Davis's life in Chicago and Hawaii and the fact that his first wife was black and his second white, describes in lurid detail a series of shockingly sordid sexual encounters, often involving group sex.
One chapter concerns the seduction by Mr Davis and his first wife of a 13-year-old girl called Anne. Mr Davis wrote that it was the girl who had suggested he had sex with her. "I'm not one to go in for Lolitas. Usually I'd rather not bed a babe under 20.
"But there are exceptions. I didn't want to disappoint the trusting child. At her still-impressionistic age, a rejection might be traumatic, could even cripple her sexually for life."
He then described how he and his wife would have sex with the girl. "Anne came up many times the next several weeks, her aunt thinking she was in good hands. Actually she was.
"She obtained a course in practical sex from experienced and considerate practitioners rather than from ignorant insensitive neophytes….I think we did her a favour, although the pleasure was mutual."
On other occasions, Mr Davis would cruise in Hawaii parks looking for couples or female tourists to have sex with. He derived sexual gratification from bondage, simulated rape and being flogged and urinated on.
I only found this Telegraph story after a new commenter named "Krys" dumped the text of this current National Enquirer story in the comments of an unrelated post.
This story has been known by the U.S. media for almost two months now, but I can find no evidence that any network or cable television news outlet, newspaper, syndicate, or magazine has reported on this. Does anyone believe for one second that if John McCain or Sarah Palin were mentored by an self-admitted child rapist and general pervert that it wouldn't be the singular focus of multiple news cycles, questioning how such a relationship was damage their delicate and emerging psychologies, rendering them too unreliable for the Presidency, or perhaps darkly suggesting that the candidate might have been abused by such a mentor themselves?
Instead, they buried the story, until once again the Enquirer shows itself to be the only U.S news organization with enough integrity to report a story detrimental to a Democratic Presidential candidate.
That doesn't mean the Enquirer has suddenly become more credible. It just serves to show you how partisan and unreliable the American news media is today.
Barack Obama's list of known mentors now includes child rapists ("Uncle Frank" Marshall), racists (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) and terrorists (Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn).
When is someone going to question how these associations must have warped Obama's views and render him unstable, and unsuitable for the Presidency?
Posted by Confederate Yankee at October 13, 2008 02:10 PM
Comments
Does it strike anyone else as kind of pathetic that the British media knows more about the man that's likely. . .unfortunately. . .about to be elected President of the United States than the American media?
Well, more than the American media lets US know, anyway.
Someone save me a good seat in re-programming class, will you?
Posted by: TheGonz at October 13, 2008 02:26 PM
Uh, take a real good look at a picture of Frank and a pic of Barack Sr. and then another of Barack Jr candidate for President.
Is Uncle Frank the kinda guy who would have scruples about hitting on his buddy's granddaughter?
"Uncle Frank" uh, yeah, sure.
Posted by: Rocky's Pal at October 13, 2008 02:59 PM
Well, the Brits, knowing all this, still prefer Obama, so... there's no surprises there.
Meanwhile, just mentioning this guy Davis and his association with Obaaa!ma is just full.of.hate. Hate! How dare anyone quote the British media? Buncha Anglo-supremists around here.
:o)
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at October 13, 2008 03:25 PM
The thing is that this was a childhood association -- one that was set up by his grandfather. Although this glues together some pieces of the puzzle, I don't think Obama's association with FMD should be put on the "bad choices" pile like Ayers. It should be on the "creepy" and "daddy issues" piles.
The bigger story is the media bias story. Why have we not had one TV documentary on "Who is Frank Marshall Davis?"
Posted by: AmishDude at October 13, 2008 03:59 PM
What a bunch of nice people old Barack hangs out with.
Posted by: Capitalist Infidel at October 13, 2008 04:20 PM
So when I went to college I was being trained to be a "good n*gger?"
Damn. How about all the other white guys?
People like Davis are so blind that it makes them stupid. Like all conspiracists, every tiny detail in the universe is another piece in the grand puzzle. A sparrow farts, and it's irrefutable proof of racism. Is he where Obama learned his infinite sense of self, his insatiable narcssissm?
Posted by: Steve Skubinna at October 13, 2008 04:26 PM
It continues to amaze me how many times the National Enquirer gets stories right, and then people report on their accurate story by saying 'The National Enquirer is not credible source.'
Posted by: Kevin at October 13, 2008 05:41 PM
"This isn't the Frank Marshall Davis I knew."
Posted by: Obama's Wall Street Contributions at October 13, 2008 06:00 PM
Well, The One did say he was different from all those other presidents on the currency. I do not recall Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, or Grant having their own pedophile racial awareness guide.
Son of a Hippie, mentored by Davis about how to be "authentic" in his racial attitudes, associates with Angry Left folks, runs as a Deocratic Socialist and wants to "spread the wealth around". Sounds like a veritable flag and apple pie candidate to me.
Posted by: Teleprompter Messiah at October 13, 2008 06:23 PM
This story borders on being sick!!
I've known poets, authors and the like, and some of them were really weird -- my wife and I kept them at arms length. Barak Obama was at a young and impressionable age when these encounters occurred, but I was a university graduate student (UC Berkeley) when my encounters occurred. At his age Obama didn't know any better !!!
Obama's problem is that he has virtually no ability to go back and rethink his past encounters with stalinist apparachiks like Frank Marshall Davis (let's include Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn even though they claim that they have no love for stalinism -- baloney -- stalinism is written all over their faces!!!)
Obama's problem is with a fundamental quantity called the truth, something his radical mentors considered malleable at best. Obama can't come clean about his involvement with non-repentant terrorists Ayers and Dohrn. He refuses to come clean about his involvement with the leftist blackshirts who go by the name of Acorn, and he refuses to come clean about his involvement with the most corrupt political machine in America run by Chicago mayor Richard Daley.
Those who vote for Stalinbama vote out of a sense complete denial of the facts that are now coming to the surface, no thanks to the US MSM Pravda.
Posted by: Mescalero at October 13, 2008 11:10 PM
Nearly all of Obama's formative relations were with pathological individuals and toxic ideas.
Frank Marshall Davis eagerly indulged himself with a 13-year-old girl in his charge. He had wide-ranging sexual appetites without scruples, and describes himself as bisexual.
Is there any reason to believe he would have restrained himself from indulging in a handsome teenaged boy in his charge?
For nearly two decades the Catholic church hemorrhaged hundreds of millions of dollars on the premise that sexual predation by grown men on teenaged boys permanently damages those individuals. The media reveled. They damned the church for willful blindness and covering up.
But of course, this would be different.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 03:50 AM
When you look at a young man's 'father figures', you see his role models. You see who he really is.
Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, and Bill Ayers are morally unhealthy human beings. They molded Barack's character. They informed his worldview. They nurtured him on their poisonous ideologies. There's no sign that he ever rebelled, or even sought out less contemptible exemplars.
On the outside, Barack may be smooth and sonorous. On the inside, he is a toxic stew of Davis, Wright, and Ayers.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 04:11 AM
On the inside, he is a toxic stew of Davis, Wright, and Ayers.
Evidence? For many years he's led a public life and has appeared calm and decent. Many wonderful people came from broken and miserable homes, or had parents who were felons or even Nazis. It is a testament to the human spirit and the power of love that a person can transcend their environment and grow to be a splendid person. To hear you call a decent man a "toxic stew" is appalling and totally unfair. And deeply un-Christian. Shame.
Posted by: richard at October 14, 2008 05:26 AM
richard,
Evidence?
His behavior.
Did he adopt Frank Marshall Davis' worldview? Apparently so. In his memoir, he reveres the despicable 'Frank' and quotes him approvingly.
Did he adopt Bill Ayers' worldview? Yes, he did. Obama joined Ayers on the Woods Fund. Ayers made him chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama funded Ayers and his radical associates via the CAC. They worked together on radical education policy and squandered 160 million dollars together. Obama's first political fundraiser was hosted by Bill Ayers. He only distanced himself when it became politically necessary.
Did he adopt Jeremiah Wright's worldview? Yes, he did. According to Obama, he sought out a spiritual mentor and a church where he felt at home. He found both at Trinity. For twenty years he sat in the pew as his 'pastor' spewed anti-American, white-hating filth. Obama brought his wife and kids. The only religion he ever exposed his children to was Marxism with a thin veneer of religion. Would he have done so if he didn't agree with it?
Have you heard the adage, "You know a man by the company he keeps"? How about "Birds of a feather flock together"?
That's evidence.
"Appeared calm and decent" isn't evidence. It's weak-minded bullshit.
Shove your ignorance and pretentious fake-Christian piety back up the hole they came from.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 06:04 AM
Richard:
"Those, then, are friends to whom the same things are good and evil; and those who are, moreover, friendly or unfriendly to the same people; for in that case they must have the same wishes, and thus by wishing for each other what they wish for themselves, they show themselves each other's friends." (Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book II, Chapter)
Apply that to the people that Senator Obama has hung around with most of his adult life.
Or, you can show yourself to be a partisan lefty hack and denounce Aristotle as a racist.
Your move.
Posted by: C-C-G at October 14, 2008 07:13 AM
In addition to his acceptance of the worldviews of the various thugs and perverts above, you also have OBama's self-proclaimed "moral compass," the race-bating lynching advocate, anti-Semite, and Louis Farrakhan fan Father Michael Pfleger, who has been Obama's mentor of 22 years.
Among Obama's acts, you can look to his work for the corrupt ACORN as a trainer and his recent attempt to slip them more than $800,000 in money through a front group, suspected millions in illegal foreign contributions, add to that Obama's attempt to subvert the Constitution by corrupting legal scholarship in an effort to run a sophisticated con on the U.S. Supreme Court, and his morally vacant support for infanticide.
Richard asks for evidence that Obama is psychologically a "toxic stew."
What more do you require, for his to be caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl? Both?
The men he sought out as mentors is evidence of Obama's internal issues. The three men who have been constants the longest in his life have been a terrorist (Ayers, at least 21 years, perhaps as long as 27 if they met when Obama was at Columbia), a cult-leading racist (Wright 21 years), and the aforementioned Pfleger.
He chose as his spouse someone who has racial inferiority issues severe enough she tries to work through them in her thesis, but obviously failed, as she was only able to recently become proud of her country as a grown woman... and only then because of a personal benefit afforded to her husband, suggesting her pride was merely bought.
Barack Obama's mind must provide for one hell of a couch trip, and the forces that made him no doubt shaped him into an excellent cautionary tale.
But what I find particularly interesting that the same people on the left who so hate George W. Bush for being an "extremist" look at the extremism that shaped Barack Obama, and twist that in their own minds to be a good thing.
If he manages to win the White House, the various pathologies imparted into him through this lifelong mentoring of racists, terrorists, radicals, sexual deviants and various flavors of communist and socialist extremists will only sharpen in the pressure cooker of the Presidency, and he will make increasing bad decisions.
We one thought Barack Obama might be the second coming of Jimmy Carter, but that was before we began to get a better understanding of the forces that shaped him.
You might be wiling to endanger your children's future by trusting that a man with such a deviant background can overcome a lifetime of corrupting anti-American influences, but I can't.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at October 14, 2008 07:36 AM
ichard,
Evidence?
His behavior.
Did he adopt Frank Marshall Davis' worldview? Apparently so. In his memoir, he reveres the despicable 'Frank' and quotes him approvingly.
You have no evidence Obama was molested by "Frank." He was ten years old. You realize how nuts this sounds?
Yankee, about "the extremism that shaped Barack Obama" - all I ask is, what are you talking about? How do you know this is what shaped him? How do you know about other, nourishing and loving people he knew who might have shaped him? It is all conjecture, what you want to believe, but there is no proof. It is scary and also dangerous, to build up such strong hatred against a man all based on association, when you have no idea how closely he was even associated with these people and what the effect of that association was. He's been in the public eye for four years (and actually far longer). How has he managed to hide even the faintest trace of this horrible toxic stew? Do you believe once he's sworn it it will pop out like in Alien? With all due respect, that is plain looney. You can find associations and experience in everyone's life and come up with reasons why anyone would be unfit for power. But it's not based on any reality except that of your own making. In other words, it's pure, unadulterated nonsense.
Posted by: richard at October 14, 2008 08:06 AM
richard,
How deep in denial would you like to remain? Barack Obama's life has been defined by serial associations with anti-American left-wing extremists. I certainly hope that the freshman Senator has had nourishing and loving people and his life, but that does not in any way excuse the fact that Barack Obama chose as his mentors the most extreme elements of the American left. He has not hidden "even the faintest trace"--obviously, we're talking about it now, and in some detail, and his supporters are doing their level best to suppress discussion of these troubling extremes that make up his record.
Granted, you and your fellow apologists have done all you can to make that discussion nearly impossible by chanting "racist!" anytime anyone has had the temerity to point out these proven and problematic associations, but that attempt to stifle debate doesn't make his extremist views and choice of mentors any less real.
Nothing is "popping out," instead, it's been trickling out over the past year, story by story, as a handful of reporters with intellectual integrity have sought to vet the candidate that most of the media would rather anoint than explore.
You do make one valid point that you can come up with reasons that anyone would be unfit for command if you try hard enough, but the fact of the matter is that extremism of association and deed are the constant in Barack Obama's life, and normal American views and associations are far fewer and farther between, and tainted.
I can understand how someone such as yourself may so swept up in the celebrity of Obama and the firsts he represents that you would will upon him suitability if you could, but the simple fact of the matter is that Barack Obama has a lifetime of associations with extremists, some of which are dubious legally and morally, and lacks any measurable leadership experience or any record of being able to work substantively on matters that require bi-partisanship.
You've spent considerable energy trying to minimize Barack Obama's decades of associations with racists, terrorists, radicals, and a child rapist, but you haven't done anything to examine or explain those associations.
Perhaps, sir, it is time you stop for a moment and try to understand why you can't bring yourself to face what made Obama head-on.
Like many Obama supporters, I suspect you'd rather minimize his problematic associations and positions than explore them, because if you look too closely, you'll find out that you can in no way support him, either.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at October 14, 2008 08:29 AM
richard,
There's plenty of evidence of long-term toxic associations. Perhaps you could point to an instance where he refused or rebelled or rose above those associations.
He prospered within one of the most corrupt political machines in the United States. Did he ever denounce or protest the corruption? Perhaps you could ask criminal slumlord and close Obama associate Tony Rezko. Rezko helped Obama buy property, and Obama directed millions in state funds to Rezko. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Perhaps you can point to the moment when an indignant Obama confronted his racist pastor?
Or a moment when he told his ACORN friends, 'Vote fraud just isn't right.'
Or the time when he said to Bill Ayers, 'I won't have anything to do with a man who engaged in acts of terror against my country.'
Or when he turned to Bernadine Dohrn and said, 'How on earth could you celebrate the Tate-Lobianco murders?'
Here's a lesson in common sense. You know a man by the company he keeps. Show me an example where Barack Obama demonstrated that he wasn't like the people he has chosen as his friends.
Posted by: lyle at October 14, 2008 08:32 AM
Lyly, you've really drunk the Kool Aid. How do you know what Obama said to Wright or to Acorn? All innuendo, all smoke - and where there's smoke, surely there's fire. McCain spent some of his impressionable years holed up in the Hanoi Hilton surrounded by communists. Maybe that rubbed off on him, too, and makes him unfit for office. But only a deranged fool would ever say something like that, because McCain has proved he's a decent man (until recently), a caring man and a rational man. We must form our judgments on what IS, on what a man actually does and says and stands for, and not on what our inner demons whisper to us.
Posted by: richard at October 14, 2008 09:22 AM
http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/275493.php
BLAMING AMERICA AND AMERICA’S SACRIFICE TO SPREAD FREEDOM
BLAMING AMERICA AND AMERICA’S SACRIFICE TO SPREAD FREEDOM AND RELIEF TO VICTIMS OF OPPRESSION AND MISERY IN THE WORLD
I wonder why Americans allow the mainstream media (and I mean NY Times , Washington Post, L/A Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN) to control what American public should hear and think when these media sources have always proved to blame America in spite of all the sacrifices this country offers to bring peace and prosperity to the rest of the world. Facts always abound as to how the enemies of freedom have and still continue to benefit from America benevolence but still propagate the blaming of America on everything that goes wrong in the world. The case in point is that, the terrorists and Rogue Regimes are still making efforts to acquire more lethal weapons to pursue their goals of killing more innocent civilians and blame their deaths on America. The chaotic events of the past and present in many parts of the world have been confronted by every U.S. Governments (Republican or Democrat) to minimize this danger in the world.
Please read my attached article on “The impotency of the United Nations to Control WMD Proliferation Saddam’s Nuclear Program” which I wrote way back in 2002 and make your own informed judgment. The present serious danger facing the world is how the Democrats are beginning to side with the forces of “blame America first” attitude. I am a product of American Peace Corp Volunteers in Ghana in the mid and late 60’s. These young American men and women had left the comforts of their lifestyles in the United States to live in a different cultural and climatic environment to teach us in High Schools in Ghana. Their sacrifice enabled many Ghanaian students including myself to proceed to Universities in Ghana and in my case was fortunate to pursue my graduate studies here in the United States.
Ironically, it is so hard for Americans to understand the political divide in the news and world events. This divide is between America’s good intentions but cannot be perfect versus America being painted by her enemies as the source of evil and chaos in many parts of the world. As we read about the polls of anti-Americanism throughout the world, the bombing of American Embassies, the burning of American and Israeli flags in many Islamic capitals, we are never shown the daily lines at American Embassies in many of these countries queuing for Visa applications to come to United States. Such balancing of news would expose the hypocrisy of anti-Americanism in the world. Americans at times take their democratic freedom for granted to criticize themselves and their Governments without considering the implications of given moral support to the enemies who feel justified to hate America. The critics of America refuse to acknowledge the line between perfection and imperfection of pursuing good in the chaotic world of hate and ingratitude towards American people and their Government.
How much more should Americans sacrifice to the rest of the world except fold her arms and say enough is enough and let the rest of the world fend for themselves? Is this possible and if not when will the mainstream media hold the terrorists, the dictators and oppressive Governments of other countries accountable for the violence, misery, and Human Rights abuses. The same terrorist groups and Governments kill their innocent civilians, deny the basic freedoms and prosperity to their own citizens are the very ones who blame their plight on America. It is therefore unconscienable for American citizens, the Human Rights groups, Anti-War activists, the academia and the Mainstream media not being able to see the implications of blaming America to embold the actual perpetrators of violence and Human Rights abuses.
Felix A. Diawuoh
08/31/08
I wonder why Americans allow the mainstream media (and I mean NY Times , Washington Post, L/A Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN) to control what American public should hear and think when these media sources have always proved to blame America in spite of all the sacrifices this country offers to bring peace and prosperity to the rest of the world. Facts always abound as to how the enemies of freedom have and still continue to benefit from America benevolence but still propagate the blaming of America on everything that goes wrong in the world. The case in point is that, the terrorists and Rogue Regimes are still making efforts to acquire more lethal weapons to pursue their goals of killing more innocent civilians and blame their deaths on America. The chaotic events of the past and present in many parts of the world have been confronted by every U.S. Governments (Republican or Democrat) to minimize this danger in the world.
Please read my attached article on “The impotency of the United Nations to Control WMD Proliferation Saddam’s Nuclear Program” which I wrote way back in 2002 and make your own informed judgment. The present serious danger facing the world is how the Democrats are beginning to side with the forces of “blame America first” attitude. I am a product of American Peace Corp Volunteers in Ghana in the mid and late 60’s. These young American men and women had left the comforts of their lifestyles in the United States to live in a different cultural and climatic environment to teach us in High Schools in Ghana. Their sacrifice enabled many Ghanaian students including myself to proceed to Universities in Ghana and in my case was fortunate to pursue my graduate studies here in the United States.
Ironically, it is so hard for Americans to understand the political divide in the news and world events. This divide is between America’s good intentions but cannot be perfect versus America being painted by her enemies as the source of evil and chaos in many parts of the world. As we read about the polls of anti-Americanism throughout the world, the bombing of American Embassies, the burning of American and Israeli flags in many Islamic capitals, we are never shown the daily lines at American Embassies in many of these countries queuing for Visa applications to come to United States. Such balancing of news would expose the hypocrisy of anti-Americanism in the world. Americans at times take their democratic freedom for granted to criticize themselves and their Governments without considering the implications of given moral support to the enemies who feel justified to hate America. The critics of America refuse to acknowledge the line between perfection and imperfection of pursuing good in the chaotic world of hate and ingratitude towards American people and their Government.
How much more should Americans sacrifice to the rest of the world except fold her arms and say enough is enough and let the rest of the world fend for themselves? Is this possible and if not when will the mainstream media hold the terrorists, the dictators and oppressive Governments of other countries accountable for the violence, misery, and Human Rights abuses. The same terrorist groups and Governments kill their innocent civilians, deny the basic freedoms and prosperity to their own citizens are the very ones who blame their plight on America. It is therefore unconscienable for American citizens, the Human Rights groups, Anti-War activists, the academia and the Mainstream media not being able to see the implications of blaming America to embold the actual perpetrators of violence and Human Rights abuses.
Felix A. Diawuoh
08/31/08
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Desiderata By MaxEhrmann
Go placid amid the noise and haste.
And remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others; even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their stories.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself to others,
you may become vain and bitter;
For always there will be greater and
lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievement as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble,
It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.
Many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
It is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly to the council of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune;
but do not distress yourself with these imaginings;
many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
Be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars,
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfortunately as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God,
Whatever you perceive him to be,
And whatever your aspirations in the noisy confusion of life,
Keep peace with your soul.
With all of its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
It is still a beautiful world.
Be careful. Strife to be happy.
And remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others; even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their stories.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself to others,
you may become vain and bitter;
For always there will be greater and
lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievement as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble,
It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.
Many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
It is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly to the council of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune;
but do not distress yourself with these imaginings;
many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
Be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars,
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfortunately as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God,
Whatever you perceive him to be,
And whatever your aspirations in the noisy confusion of life,
Keep peace with your soul.
With all of its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
It is still a beautiful world.
Be careful. Strife to be happy.
President George W, Bush First Anniverary Of Iraqi War Speech
Bush Marks Anniversary of Iraq War:Times Headlines-Bush Urges Unity on Terror:The Tyrant Is Gone but the Trauma Remains
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3 Moroccans Charged in Madrid Blasts; Police Find Ties to Al Qaeda
Criminal Case Against Aristide Planned in Haiti
more >
Following are President Bush's remarks today, as provided by the White House, regarding the war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism.
Good morning and thanks for coming. Laura and I are pleased to welcome you all to the White House. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. Members of my National Security Council are here, members of the administration, members of our armed forces, members of the United States Congress. Thank you for being here. Ladies and gentlemen. I particularly want to thank the members of the Diplomatic Corps who are here; thank the ambassadors for coming today.
We are representing 84 countries united against a common danger, and joined in a common purpose. We are the nations that have recognized the threat of terrorism, and we are the nations that will defeat that threat. Each of us has pledged before the world: We will never bow to the violence of a few. We will face this mortal danger, and we will overcome it together.
As we meet, violence and death at the hands of terrorists are still fresh in our memory. The people of Spain are burying their innocent dead. These men and women and children began their day in a great and peaceful city, yet lost their lives on a battlefield, murdered at random and without remorse. Americans saw the chaos and the grief, and the vigils and the funerals, and we have shared in the sorrow of the Spanish people. Ambassador Ruperez, please accept our deepest sympathy for the great loss that your country has suffered.
The murders in Madrid are a reminder that the civilized world is at war. And in this new kind of war, civilians find themselves suddenly on the front lines. In recent years, terrorists have struck from Spain, to Russia, to Israel, to East Africa, to Morocco, to the Philippines, and to America. They've targeted Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen. They have attacked Muslims in Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. No nation or region is exempt from the terrorists' campaign of violence.
Each of these attacks on the innocent is a shock, and a tragedy, and a test of our will. Each attack is designed to demoralize our people and divide us from one another. And each attack must be answered, not only with sorrow, but with greater determination, deeper resolve, and bolder action against the killers. It is the interest of every country, and the duty of every government, to fight and destroy this threat to our people.
There is no dividing line -- there is a dividing line in our world, not between nations, and not between religions or cultures, but a dividing line separating two visions of justice and the value of life. On a tape claiming responsibility for the atrocities in Madrid, a man is heard to say, "We choose death, while you choose life." We don't know if this is the voice of the actual killers, but we do know it expresses the creed of the enemy. It is a mind set that rejoices in suicide, incites murder, and celebrates every death we mourn. And we who stand on the other side of the line must be equally clear and certain of our convictions. We do love live, the life given to us and to all. We believe in the values that uphold the dignity of life, tolerance, and freedom, and the right of conscience. And we know that this way of life is worth defending. There is no neutral ground -- no neutral ground -- in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death.
The war on terror is not a figure of speech. It is an inescapable calling of our generation. The terrorists are offended not merely by our policies -- they are offended by our existence as free nations. No concession will appease their hatred. No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands. Their ultimate ambitions are to control the peoples of the Middle East, and to blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass terror. There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy. Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence, and invites more violence for all nations. The only certain way to protect our people is by early, united, and decisive action.
In this contest of will and purpose, not every nation joins every mission, or participates in the same way. Yet, every nation makes a vital contribution, and America is proud to stand with all of you as we pursue a broad strategy in the war against terror.
We are using every tool of finance, intelligence, law enforcement and military power to break terror networks, to deny them refuge, and to find their leaders. Over the past 30 months, we have frozen or seized nearly $200 million in assets of terror networks. We have captured or killed some two-thirds of al Qaeda's known leaders, as well as many of al Qaeda's associates countries like the United States, or Germany, or Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia, or Thailand. We are taking the fight to al Qaeda allies, such as Ansar-al-Islam in Iraq, Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. Our coalition is sending an unmistakable message to the terrorists, including those who struck in Madrid: These killers will be tracked down and found, they will face their day of justice.
Our coalition is taking urgent action to stop the transfer of deadly weapon and materials. America and the nations of Australia, and France, and Germany, and Italy, and Japan, and the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and Norway have joined in the Proliferation Security Initiative all aimed to bind together, to interdict lethal materials transported by air or sea or land. Many governments have cooperated to expose and dismantle the network of A.Q. Khan, which sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. By all these efforts, we are determined to prevent catastrophic technologies from falling into the hands of an embittered few.
Our coalition is also confronting the dangerous combination of outlaw states, terrorist groups, and weapons of mass destruction. For years, the Taliban made Afghanistan the home base of al Qaeda. And so we gave the Taliban a choice: to abandon forever their support for terror, or face the destruction of their regime. Because the Taliban chose defiance, our coalition acted to remove this threat. And now the terror camps are closed, and the government of a free Afghanistan is represented here today as an active partner in the war on terror.
The people of Afghanistan are a world away from the nightmare of the Taliban. Citizens of Afghanistan have adopted a new constitution, guaranteeing free elections and full participation by women. The new Afghan army is becoming a vital force of stability in that country. Businesses are opening, health care centers are being established, and the children of Afghanistan are back in school, boys and girls.
This progress is a tribute to the brave Afghan people, and to the efforts of many nations. NATO -- including forces from Canada, France, Germany, and other nations -- is leading the effort to provide security. Japan and Saudi Arabia have helped to complete the highway from Kabul to Kandahar, which is furthering commerce and unifying the country. Italy is working with Afghans to reform their legal system, and strengthening an independent judiciary. Three years ago, the people of Afghanistan were oppressed and isolated from the world by a terrorist regime. Today, that nation has a democratic government and many allies -- and all of us are proud to be friends of the Afghan people.
Many countries represented here today also acted to liberate the people of Iraq. One year ago, military forces of a strong coalition entered Iraq to enforce United Nations demands, to defend our security, and to liberate that country from the rule of a tyrant. For Iraq, it was a day of deliverance. For the nations of our coalition, it was the moment when years of demands and pledges turned to decisive action. Today, as Iraqis join the free peoples of the world, we mark a turning point for the Middle East, and a crucial advance for human liberty.
There have been disagreements in this matter, among old and valued friends. Those differences belong to the past. All of us can now agree that the fall of the Iraqi dictator has removed a source of violence, aggression, and instability in the Middle East. It's a good thing that the demands of the United Nations were enforced, not ignored with impunity. It is a good thing that years of illicit weapons development by the dictator have come to the end. It is a good thing that the Iraqi people are now receiving aid, instead of suffering under sanctions. And it is a good thing that the men and women across the Middle East, looking to Iraq, are getting a glimpse of what life in a free country can be like.
There are still violent thugs and murderers in Iraq, and we're dealing with them. But no one can argue that the Iraqi people would be better off with the thugs and murderers back in the palaces. Who would prefer that Saddam's torture chambers still be open? Who would wish that more mass graves were still being filled? Who would begrudge the Iraqi people their long-awaited liberation? On year after the armies of liberation arrived, every soldier who has fought, every aid worker who has served, every Iraqi who has joined in their country's defense can look with pride on a brave and historic achievement. They've served freedom's cause, and that is a privilege.
Today in Iraq, a British-led division is securing the southern city of Basra. Poland continues to lead a multinational division in south-central Iraq. Japan and the Republic of Korea -- of South Korea have made historic commitments of troops to help bring peace to Iraq. Special forces from El Salvador, Macedonia, and other nations are helping to find and defeat Baathist and terrorist killers. Military engineers from Kazakhstan have cleared more than a half a million explosive devices from Iraq. Turkey is helping to resupply coalition forces. All of these nations, and many others, are meeting their responsibilities to the people of Iraq.
Whatever their past views, every nation now has an interest in a free, successful, stable Iraq. And the terrorists understand their own interest in the fate of that country. For them, the connection between Iraq's future and the course of the war on terror is very clear. They understand that a free Iraq will be a devastating setback to their ambitions of tyranny over the Middle East. And they have made the failure of democracy in Iraq one of their primary objectives.
By attacking coalition forces -- by targeting innocent Iraqis and foreign civilians for murder -- the terrorists are trying to weaken our will. Instead of weakness, they're finding resolve. Not long ago, we intercepted a planning document being sent to leaders of al Qaeda by one of their associates, a man named Zarqawi. Along with the usual threats, he had a complaint: "Our enemy," said Zarqawi, "is growing stronger and his intelligence data are increasing day by day -- this is suffocation." Zarqawi is getting the idea. We will never turn over Iraq to terrorists who intend our own destruction. We will not fail the Iraqi people, who have placed their trust in us. Whatever it takes, we will fight and work to assure the success of freedom in Iraq.
Many coalition countries have sacrificed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the fallen soldiers and civilians are sons and daughters of Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We honor their courage, we pray for the comfort of their families. We will uphold the cause they served.
The rise of democratic institutions in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great step toward a goal of lasting importance to the world. We have set out to encourage reform and democracy in the greater Middle East as the alternatives to fanaticism, resentment, and terror. We've set out to break the cycle of bitterness and radicalism that has brought stagnation to a vital region, and destruction to cities in America and Europe and around the world. This task is historic, and difficult; this task is necessary and worthy of our efforts.
In the 1970s, the advance of democracy in Lisbon and Madrid inspired democratic change in Latin America. In the 1980s, the example of Poland ignited a fire of freedom in all of Eastern Europe. With Afghanistan and Iraq showing the way, we are confident that freedom will lift the sights and hopes of millions in the greater Middle East.
One man who believed in our cause was a Japanese diplomat named Katsuhiko Oku. He worked for the Coalition Provision Authority in Iraq. Mr. Oku was killed when his car was ambushed. In his diary he described his pride in the cause he had joined. "The free people of Iraq," he wrote, "are now making steady progress in reconstructing their country -- while also fighting against the threat of terrorism. We must join hands with the Iraqi people in their effort to prevent Iraq from falling into the hands of terrorists." This good, decent man concluded, "This is also our fight to defend freedom."
Ladies and gentlemen, this good man from Japan was right. The establishment of a free Iraq is our fight. The success of a free Afghanistan is our fight. The war on terror is our fight. All of us are called to share the blessings of liberty, and to be strong and steady in freedom's defense. It will surely be said of our times that we lived with great challenges. Let it also be said of our times that we understood our great duties, and met them in full.
May God bless our efforts.
March 21,2004
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Taiwan Election Proceeds Despite Assassination Try
3 Moroccans Charged in Madrid Blasts; Police Find Ties to Al Qaeda
Criminal Case Against Aristide Planned in Haiti
more >
Following are President Bush's remarks today, as provided by the White House, regarding the war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism.
Good morning and thanks for coming. Laura and I are pleased to welcome you all to the White House. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. Members of my National Security Council are here, members of the administration, members of our armed forces, members of the United States Congress. Thank you for being here. Ladies and gentlemen. I particularly want to thank the members of the Diplomatic Corps who are here; thank the ambassadors for coming today.
We are representing 84 countries united against a common danger, and joined in a common purpose. We are the nations that have recognized the threat of terrorism, and we are the nations that will defeat that threat. Each of us has pledged before the world: We will never bow to the violence of a few. We will face this mortal danger, and we will overcome it together.
As we meet, violence and death at the hands of terrorists are still fresh in our memory. The people of Spain are burying their innocent dead. These men and women and children began their day in a great and peaceful city, yet lost their lives on a battlefield, murdered at random and without remorse. Americans saw the chaos and the grief, and the vigils and the funerals, and we have shared in the sorrow of the Spanish people. Ambassador Ruperez, please accept our deepest sympathy for the great loss that your country has suffered.
The murders in Madrid are a reminder that the civilized world is at war. And in this new kind of war, civilians find themselves suddenly on the front lines. In recent years, terrorists have struck from Spain, to Russia, to Israel, to East Africa, to Morocco, to the Philippines, and to America. They've targeted Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen. They have attacked Muslims in Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. No nation or region is exempt from the terrorists' campaign of violence.
Each of these attacks on the innocent is a shock, and a tragedy, and a test of our will. Each attack is designed to demoralize our people and divide us from one another. And each attack must be answered, not only with sorrow, but with greater determination, deeper resolve, and bolder action against the killers. It is the interest of every country, and the duty of every government, to fight and destroy this threat to our people.
There is no dividing line -- there is a dividing line in our world, not between nations, and not between religions or cultures, but a dividing line separating two visions of justice and the value of life. On a tape claiming responsibility for the atrocities in Madrid, a man is heard to say, "We choose death, while you choose life." We don't know if this is the voice of the actual killers, but we do know it expresses the creed of the enemy. It is a mind set that rejoices in suicide, incites murder, and celebrates every death we mourn. And we who stand on the other side of the line must be equally clear and certain of our convictions. We do love live, the life given to us and to all. We believe in the values that uphold the dignity of life, tolerance, and freedom, and the right of conscience. And we know that this way of life is worth defending. There is no neutral ground -- no neutral ground -- in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death.
The war on terror is not a figure of speech. It is an inescapable calling of our generation. The terrorists are offended not merely by our policies -- they are offended by our existence as free nations. No concession will appease their hatred. No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands. Their ultimate ambitions are to control the peoples of the Middle East, and to blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass terror. There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy. Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence, and invites more violence for all nations. The only certain way to protect our people is by early, united, and decisive action.
In this contest of will and purpose, not every nation joins every mission, or participates in the same way. Yet, every nation makes a vital contribution, and America is proud to stand with all of you as we pursue a broad strategy in the war against terror.
We are using every tool of finance, intelligence, law enforcement and military power to break terror networks, to deny them refuge, and to find their leaders. Over the past 30 months, we have frozen or seized nearly $200 million in assets of terror networks. We have captured or killed some two-thirds of al Qaeda's known leaders, as well as many of al Qaeda's associates countries like the United States, or Germany, or Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia, or Thailand. We are taking the fight to al Qaeda allies, such as Ansar-al-Islam in Iraq, Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. Our coalition is sending an unmistakable message to the terrorists, including those who struck in Madrid: These killers will be tracked down and found, they will face their day of justice.
Our coalition is taking urgent action to stop the transfer of deadly weapon and materials. America and the nations of Australia, and France, and Germany, and Italy, and Japan, and the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and Norway have joined in the Proliferation Security Initiative all aimed to bind together, to interdict lethal materials transported by air or sea or land. Many governments have cooperated to expose and dismantle the network of A.Q. Khan, which sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. By all these efforts, we are determined to prevent catastrophic technologies from falling into the hands of an embittered few.
Our coalition is also confronting the dangerous combination of outlaw states, terrorist groups, and weapons of mass destruction. For years, the Taliban made Afghanistan the home base of al Qaeda. And so we gave the Taliban a choice: to abandon forever their support for terror, or face the destruction of their regime. Because the Taliban chose defiance, our coalition acted to remove this threat. And now the terror camps are closed, and the government of a free Afghanistan is represented here today as an active partner in the war on terror.
The people of Afghanistan are a world away from the nightmare of the Taliban. Citizens of Afghanistan have adopted a new constitution, guaranteeing free elections and full participation by women. The new Afghan army is becoming a vital force of stability in that country. Businesses are opening, health care centers are being established, and the children of Afghanistan are back in school, boys and girls.
This progress is a tribute to the brave Afghan people, and to the efforts of many nations. NATO -- including forces from Canada, France, Germany, and other nations -- is leading the effort to provide security. Japan and Saudi Arabia have helped to complete the highway from Kabul to Kandahar, which is furthering commerce and unifying the country. Italy is working with Afghans to reform their legal system, and strengthening an independent judiciary. Three years ago, the people of Afghanistan were oppressed and isolated from the world by a terrorist regime. Today, that nation has a democratic government and many allies -- and all of us are proud to be friends of the Afghan people.
Many countries represented here today also acted to liberate the people of Iraq. One year ago, military forces of a strong coalition entered Iraq to enforce United Nations demands, to defend our security, and to liberate that country from the rule of a tyrant. For Iraq, it was a day of deliverance. For the nations of our coalition, it was the moment when years of demands and pledges turned to decisive action. Today, as Iraqis join the free peoples of the world, we mark a turning point for the Middle East, and a crucial advance for human liberty.
There have been disagreements in this matter, among old and valued friends. Those differences belong to the past. All of us can now agree that the fall of the Iraqi dictator has removed a source of violence, aggression, and instability in the Middle East. It's a good thing that the demands of the United Nations were enforced, not ignored with impunity. It is a good thing that years of illicit weapons development by the dictator have come to the end. It is a good thing that the Iraqi people are now receiving aid, instead of suffering under sanctions. And it is a good thing that the men and women across the Middle East, looking to Iraq, are getting a glimpse of what life in a free country can be like.
There are still violent thugs and murderers in Iraq, and we're dealing with them. But no one can argue that the Iraqi people would be better off with the thugs and murderers back in the palaces. Who would prefer that Saddam's torture chambers still be open? Who would wish that more mass graves were still being filled? Who would begrudge the Iraqi people their long-awaited liberation? On year after the armies of liberation arrived, every soldier who has fought, every aid worker who has served, every Iraqi who has joined in their country's defense can look with pride on a brave and historic achievement. They've served freedom's cause, and that is a privilege.
Today in Iraq, a British-led division is securing the southern city of Basra. Poland continues to lead a multinational division in south-central Iraq. Japan and the Republic of Korea -- of South Korea have made historic commitments of troops to help bring peace to Iraq. Special forces from El Salvador, Macedonia, and other nations are helping to find and defeat Baathist and terrorist killers. Military engineers from Kazakhstan have cleared more than a half a million explosive devices from Iraq. Turkey is helping to resupply coalition forces. All of these nations, and many others, are meeting their responsibilities to the people of Iraq.
Whatever their past views, every nation now has an interest in a free, successful, stable Iraq. And the terrorists understand their own interest in the fate of that country. For them, the connection between Iraq's future and the course of the war on terror is very clear. They understand that a free Iraq will be a devastating setback to their ambitions of tyranny over the Middle East. And they have made the failure of democracy in Iraq one of their primary objectives.
By attacking coalition forces -- by targeting innocent Iraqis and foreign civilians for murder -- the terrorists are trying to weaken our will. Instead of weakness, they're finding resolve. Not long ago, we intercepted a planning document being sent to leaders of al Qaeda by one of their associates, a man named Zarqawi. Along with the usual threats, he had a complaint: "Our enemy," said Zarqawi, "is growing stronger and his intelligence data are increasing day by day -- this is suffocation." Zarqawi is getting the idea. We will never turn over Iraq to terrorists who intend our own destruction. We will not fail the Iraqi people, who have placed their trust in us. Whatever it takes, we will fight and work to assure the success of freedom in Iraq.
Many coalition countries have sacrificed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the fallen soldiers and civilians are sons and daughters of Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We honor their courage, we pray for the comfort of their families. We will uphold the cause they served.
The rise of democratic institutions in Afghanistan and Iraq is a great step toward a goal of lasting importance to the world. We have set out to encourage reform and democracy in the greater Middle East as the alternatives to fanaticism, resentment, and terror. We've set out to break the cycle of bitterness and radicalism that has brought stagnation to a vital region, and destruction to cities in America and Europe and around the world. This task is historic, and difficult; this task is necessary and worthy of our efforts.
In the 1970s, the advance of democracy in Lisbon and Madrid inspired democratic change in Latin America. In the 1980s, the example of Poland ignited a fire of freedom in all of Eastern Europe. With Afghanistan and Iraq showing the way, we are confident that freedom will lift the sights and hopes of millions in the greater Middle East.
One man who believed in our cause was a Japanese diplomat named Katsuhiko Oku. He worked for the Coalition Provision Authority in Iraq. Mr. Oku was killed when his car was ambushed. In his diary he described his pride in the cause he had joined. "The free people of Iraq," he wrote, "are now making steady progress in reconstructing their country -- while also fighting against the threat of terrorism. We must join hands with the Iraqi people in their effort to prevent Iraq from falling into the hands of terrorists." This good, decent man concluded, "This is also our fight to defend freedom."
Ladies and gentlemen, this good man from Japan was right. The establishment of a free Iraq is our fight. The success of a free Afghanistan is our fight. The war on terror is our fight. All of us are called to share the blessings of liberty, and to be strong and steady in freedom's defense. It will surely be said of our times that we lived with great challenges. Let it also be said of our times that we understood our great duties, and met them in full.
May God bless our efforts.
March 21,2004
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Politics Of The AIDS Epidemic In Africa
ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT
ISSUE/EDITION Nr 359 - 01/01/1999
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
________________________________________
________________________________________
Congo RDC
A population threatened
________________________________________
by L. Kalonji, Congo RDC, November 1998
THEME = AIDS
INTRODUCTION
For more than ten years, AIDS has been carving its way through Congo RDC.
The disease results in eventual death for all who catch it, and is decimating the population
- at the moment there's no known cure
AIDS doesn't manifest any initial signs or symptoms of infection. Because of this, the virus spreads rapidly, sometimes without even being noticed or detected. AIDS has made major inroads among the population and the situation is causing great concern. The terrible reality is that AIDS is much more than a simple disease and a health problem. The epidemic has major repercussions on family life and the entire community; on the country's social and economic development.
Significant statistics
The Central Office of the National Committee For Fighting Against AIDS (BCC/AIDS) was established on 31 December 1996. At that time, there were 38,000 AIDS cases registered with the Central Office, but the number could have been as high as 120,000 cases. Today, the situation is even more catastrophic. According to the same report, AIDS attacks mainly the 20-40 years age group. These are the very people who should be making a positive contribution towards their country's social and economic well-being. It's frequently mothers and fathers, hence, the most useful and indeed, important people in any society, who disappear, stricken with AIDS, leaving their children behind as orphans.
The report states that in Kinshasa, in the 20-29 age group, there are three times more women affected than men; young women especially, are vulnerable. But within the 40-60 age group, there are many more men affected than women. Men aged 60 upwards are primarily affected by AIDS.
The fact is: AIDS is definitely advancing at a rapid pace among the population, particularly since the cut-backs in awareness campaigns broadcast over radio and television. The BCC/AIDS has issued the following projections: For the period 1997-1999: there will be anything from 225,000-450,000 new cases of AIDS. The same Office foresees that if nothing is done to reactivate and strengthen the fight against AIDS, there could be more than 3 million cases registered for the period 1998-2002. During the same period, it is projected that 380,000-520,000 people will have died from AIDS, and there might be as many as 900,000-1,200,000 children orphaned.
The disease spreads
The AIDS virus can only be transmitted through sexual intercourse, or by receiving contaminated blood. Ignorance is the main reason why the disease spreads. People are frequently not aware that they are running any danger. You often hear them say: "This disease comes from the sorcerers who give it to bewitched people; it's obviously not for me".
Poverty is another reason why AIDS spreads. To justify the risks they take, prostitutes have been heard to say: "AIDS kills in the same way as hunger, malaria or any other disease".
Also, the two wars we have experienced, contribute to the disease spreading. War brings with it such evils as women being raped and uncontrolled population movements, both resulting in all kinds of disease. Prostitution and drug-taking are all contributory factors furthering the pandemic.
In the long run, AIDS can only be prevented if accurate information about the disease is disseminated, so that behavioural attitudes can be changed. Hence the importance of education. The population must be made aware about AIDS-related issues and how the disease is transmitted. To inform and to prevent: these are the main weapons in the fight against AIDS, coming before any drug or vaccine.
Indeed, one BCC/AIDS official puts it this way: "Don't let's try to hide anything. AIDS is spreading rapidly and is having severe consequences wherever it strikes. There's only one way to fight it effectively, and that's by preventing it. We've got to know how to do this for the best". Prevention comes before information and education. And how does one prevent AIDS? By abstaining from sex, or if you are going to have sex, then use a condom. Avoid all unnecessary blood transfusions. Keep to one partner.
For a number of years, the government, through the intermediary of organisations established to fight AIDS, has done its best to inform the public about the importance of correct behavioural attitudes so as to avoid catching the disease. Radio, television, the Press, music and songs are all used in furthering aw-areness campaigns. Luambo Makadi (now deceased) is a well-known Congolese musician. Everyone knows his song: "Watch out for AIDS". In this song, Luambo wrote: "Watch out for AIDS. Control your body - I'm certainly controlling mine."
Other media techniques are used: comic strips, pamphlets, magazines, drama productions, slides, posters for use in local communities etc. In this context, the best known audio-visual presentation is most certainly "AIDS And The Family", produced by the National Committee For Fighting Against AIDS. The success (or otherwise) of "AIDS And The Family" has been monitored among different sections of the population and in various localities. The whole programme with its 42 well-chosen slides and informative commentary has met with enormous success among many groups.
Government - Churches - NGOs
The authorities have taken a whole series of measures to prevent AIDS spreading. Blood donors are screened before giving their blood; this is now usual practice in most hospitals. Hospitals have the necessary basic equipment adapted to the tropical climate, for carrying out the tests and determining those blood donors who are HIV-positive.
The health authorities have given clear and precise instructions that all hypodermic needles used in dispensaries must be properly sterilised.
The government has also encouraged a comprehensive research programme into AIDS. Congo RDC was the first African country to organise (in 1984) such a programme. The programme is still continuing in Kinshasa General Hospital; at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Kinshasa; at the National Institute of Biomedical Research and at BCC/AIDS. Other countries such as the USA, France and Belgium enabled BCC/AIDS to establish a fund for its research work.
Let's face it. If individuals don't make any effort to prevent AIDS spreading, then no amount of effort by the authorities will have any success. Everyone must practice "safe sex" and avoid any behaviour likely to cause infection. Also, everyone must do their best to learn as much as possible about the way in which the disease is transmitted. They can then communicate this knowledge to their family, friends and neighbours.
The churches and the NGOs have an essential role to play in ensuring that the disease is curtailed. How do the churches do this? In addition to appropriate sermons and conferences, local churches organise meetings specifically dedicated to AIDS-related issues. The Catholic Church in particular has made a notable contribution with its service "Education for Life" establish by a Belgian nun, more than 20 years ago. This service provides young people and married couples with the help and guidance they may need.
As for NGOs and other organisations involved in the fight against AIDS, they are grouped in an umbrella organisation called: FORUM- AIDS. They organise awareness campaigns for specific target groups and care for those who are already ill with the disease. They don't have much in the way of funding for all this work and good will is not enough. There are presently 20 such associations - the most dynamic being "Women Plus" and the NGOs "AMO- Congo", "ALPHI Plus" and "PIAHO". All these organisations work to bring hope to those already ill with AIDS, and encourage them to live as full a life as possible. "Women Plus" has a Catholic section, (the diocesan CARITAS group), led by a widow, Mrs Mariane Djamba, whose members undertake to care for the sick and their families.
With those who are ill
Anyone HIV-positive needs a great deal of understanding, of support and of love. Daily contacts with such people give the carers the opportunity to show the sick, that someone is genuinely interested in their well-being, that someone really does love them. There's no need to be afraid of being next to them. Moreover, it seems that a psychological atmosphere of joy, peace and patience shown towards someone HIV-positive, can help the sick person fight against infection.
Sad to say, people with AIDS are left to fend for themselves. With their family's help, most try to go it alone. The same applies to orphans and widows. However, some organisations are doing their best to help AIDS victims and orphans whose parents have died from AIDS. But it's impossible to cater for all their needs. Funds are simply not available.
Let's take a look at one example: Father Paul Peeters is chaplain in Makala Sanatorium, Kinshasa and Kinshasa General Hospital. He's founded the organisation "Destitute and Abandoned Sick People" (MAI). MAI provides both spiritual and material care for those ill in hospital and at home. Members try to create an atmosphere, whereby the sick person can feel God's presence, and experience His consolation and hope. They encourage the sick to talk about their sufferings, their anxieties and their preoccupations. At the same time, they give appropriate advice concerning ways and means of improving and protecting their health. Material help, food and medicine are also provided.
More than two years ago, the various chaplains in Kinshasa's hospitals and clinics, together with the social services attached to these establishments, organised a series of training sessions for those who support the sick and who stay with them along the road of suffering. This is a real apostolate undertaken within the Church. Already, about fifty parishes in Kinshasa have groups of such people who are trained for this kind of apostolate. The carers minister to the sick at home, and then, when the disease progresses, continue to support their clients once they are admitted to hospital, bridging the gap between life at home and life in hospital.
False prophets and charlatans
AIDS exists in Congo and is obviously going to spread in the years to come. At the same time, there seems to be no immediate possibility of effective treatment. However, Congo's got an increasing number of traditional practitioners who pretend they've found a cure. From far and wide, both from home and abroad, people flock to these charlatans seeking help. Pastors of certain religious sects also say they can perform miracles and cure AIDS. All this does nothing to help those who are genuinely in need of help.
Everything said above leads to the clear conclusion that action must be taken at both a national and worldwide level. The Churches have an all-important role to play in facing up directly to the problems posed by AIDS in our midst.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
________________________________________
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement
ISSUE/EDITION Nr 359 - 01/01/1999
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
________________________________________
________________________________________
Congo RDC
A population threatened
________________________________________
by L. Kalonji, Congo RDC, November 1998
THEME = AIDS
INTRODUCTION
For more than ten years, AIDS has been carving its way through Congo RDC.
The disease results in eventual death for all who catch it, and is decimating the population
- at the moment there's no known cure
AIDS doesn't manifest any initial signs or symptoms of infection. Because of this, the virus spreads rapidly, sometimes without even being noticed or detected. AIDS has made major inroads among the population and the situation is causing great concern. The terrible reality is that AIDS is much more than a simple disease and a health problem. The epidemic has major repercussions on family life and the entire community; on the country's social and economic development.
Significant statistics
The Central Office of the National Committee For Fighting Against AIDS (BCC/AIDS) was established on 31 December 1996. At that time, there were 38,000 AIDS cases registered with the Central Office, but the number could have been as high as 120,000 cases. Today, the situation is even more catastrophic. According to the same report, AIDS attacks mainly the 20-40 years age group. These are the very people who should be making a positive contribution towards their country's social and economic well-being. It's frequently mothers and fathers, hence, the most useful and indeed, important people in any society, who disappear, stricken with AIDS, leaving their children behind as orphans.
The report states that in Kinshasa, in the 20-29 age group, there are three times more women affected than men; young women especially, are vulnerable. But within the 40-60 age group, there are many more men affected than women. Men aged 60 upwards are primarily affected by AIDS.
The fact is: AIDS is definitely advancing at a rapid pace among the population, particularly since the cut-backs in awareness campaigns broadcast over radio and television. The BCC/AIDS has issued the following projections: For the period 1997-1999: there will be anything from 225,000-450,000 new cases of AIDS. The same Office foresees that if nothing is done to reactivate and strengthen the fight against AIDS, there could be more than 3 million cases registered for the period 1998-2002. During the same period, it is projected that 380,000-520,000 people will have died from AIDS, and there might be as many as 900,000-1,200,000 children orphaned.
The disease spreads
The AIDS virus can only be transmitted through sexual intercourse, or by receiving contaminated blood. Ignorance is the main reason why the disease spreads. People are frequently not aware that they are running any danger. You often hear them say: "This disease comes from the sorcerers who give it to bewitched people; it's obviously not for me".
Poverty is another reason why AIDS spreads. To justify the risks they take, prostitutes have been heard to say: "AIDS kills in the same way as hunger, malaria or any other disease".
Also, the two wars we have experienced, contribute to the disease spreading. War brings with it such evils as women being raped and uncontrolled population movements, both resulting in all kinds of disease. Prostitution and drug-taking are all contributory factors furthering the pandemic.
In the long run, AIDS can only be prevented if accurate information about the disease is disseminated, so that behavioural attitudes can be changed. Hence the importance of education. The population must be made aware about AIDS-related issues and how the disease is transmitted. To inform and to prevent: these are the main weapons in the fight against AIDS, coming before any drug or vaccine.
Indeed, one BCC/AIDS official puts it this way: "Don't let's try to hide anything. AIDS is spreading rapidly and is having severe consequences wherever it strikes. There's only one way to fight it effectively, and that's by preventing it. We've got to know how to do this for the best". Prevention comes before information and education. And how does one prevent AIDS? By abstaining from sex, or if you are going to have sex, then use a condom. Avoid all unnecessary blood transfusions. Keep to one partner.
For a number of years, the government, through the intermediary of organisations established to fight AIDS, has done its best to inform the public about the importance of correct behavioural attitudes so as to avoid catching the disease. Radio, television, the Press, music and songs are all used in furthering aw-areness campaigns. Luambo Makadi (now deceased) is a well-known Congolese musician. Everyone knows his song: "Watch out for AIDS". In this song, Luambo wrote: "Watch out for AIDS. Control your body - I'm certainly controlling mine."
Other media techniques are used: comic strips, pamphlets, magazines, drama productions, slides, posters for use in local communities etc. In this context, the best known audio-visual presentation is most certainly "AIDS And The Family", produced by the National Committee For Fighting Against AIDS. The success (or otherwise) of "AIDS And The Family" has been monitored among different sections of the population and in various localities. The whole programme with its 42 well-chosen slides and informative commentary has met with enormous success among many groups.
Government - Churches - NGOs
The authorities have taken a whole series of measures to prevent AIDS spreading. Blood donors are screened before giving their blood; this is now usual practice in most hospitals. Hospitals have the necessary basic equipment adapted to the tropical climate, for carrying out the tests and determining those blood donors who are HIV-positive.
The health authorities have given clear and precise instructions that all hypodermic needles used in dispensaries must be properly sterilised.
The government has also encouraged a comprehensive research programme into AIDS. Congo RDC was the first African country to organise (in 1984) such a programme. The programme is still continuing in Kinshasa General Hospital; at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Kinshasa; at the National Institute of Biomedical Research and at BCC/AIDS. Other countries such as the USA, France and Belgium enabled BCC/AIDS to establish a fund for its research work.
Let's face it. If individuals don't make any effort to prevent AIDS spreading, then no amount of effort by the authorities will have any success. Everyone must practice "safe sex" and avoid any behaviour likely to cause infection. Also, everyone must do their best to learn as much as possible about the way in which the disease is transmitted. They can then communicate this knowledge to their family, friends and neighbours.
The churches and the NGOs have an essential role to play in ensuring that the disease is curtailed. How do the churches do this? In addition to appropriate sermons and conferences, local churches organise meetings specifically dedicated to AIDS-related issues. The Catholic Church in particular has made a notable contribution with its service "Education for Life" establish by a Belgian nun, more than 20 years ago. This service provides young people and married couples with the help and guidance they may need.
As for NGOs and other organisations involved in the fight against AIDS, they are grouped in an umbrella organisation called: FORUM- AIDS. They organise awareness campaigns for specific target groups and care for those who are already ill with the disease. They don't have much in the way of funding for all this work and good will is not enough. There are presently 20 such associations - the most dynamic being "Women Plus" and the NGOs "AMO- Congo", "ALPHI Plus" and "PIAHO". All these organisations work to bring hope to those already ill with AIDS, and encourage them to live as full a life as possible. "Women Plus" has a Catholic section, (the diocesan CARITAS group), led by a widow, Mrs Mariane Djamba, whose members undertake to care for the sick and their families.
With those who are ill
Anyone HIV-positive needs a great deal of understanding, of support and of love. Daily contacts with such people give the carers the opportunity to show the sick, that someone is genuinely interested in their well-being, that someone really does love them. There's no need to be afraid of being next to them. Moreover, it seems that a psychological atmosphere of joy, peace and patience shown towards someone HIV-positive, can help the sick person fight against infection.
Sad to say, people with AIDS are left to fend for themselves. With their family's help, most try to go it alone. The same applies to orphans and widows. However, some organisations are doing their best to help AIDS victims and orphans whose parents have died from AIDS. But it's impossible to cater for all their needs. Funds are simply not available.
Let's take a look at one example: Father Paul Peeters is chaplain in Makala Sanatorium, Kinshasa and Kinshasa General Hospital. He's founded the organisation "Destitute and Abandoned Sick People" (MAI). MAI provides both spiritual and material care for those ill in hospital and at home. Members try to create an atmosphere, whereby the sick person can feel God's presence, and experience His consolation and hope. They encourage the sick to talk about their sufferings, their anxieties and their preoccupations. At the same time, they give appropriate advice concerning ways and means of improving and protecting their health. Material help, food and medicine are also provided.
More than two years ago, the various chaplains in Kinshasa's hospitals and clinics, together with the social services attached to these establishments, organised a series of training sessions for those who support the sick and who stay with them along the road of suffering. This is a real apostolate undertaken within the Church. Already, about fifty parishes in Kinshasa have groups of such people who are trained for this kind of apostolate. The carers minister to the sick at home, and then, when the disease progresses, continue to support their clients once they are admitted to hospital, bridging the gap between life at home and life in hospital.
False prophets and charlatans
AIDS exists in Congo and is obviously going to spread in the years to come. At the same time, there seems to be no immediate possibility of effective treatment. However, Congo's got an increasing number of traditional practitioners who pretend they've found a cure. From far and wide, both from home and abroad, people flock to these charlatans seeking help. Pastors of certain religious sects also say they can perform miracles and cure AIDS. All this does nothing to help those who are genuinely in need of help.
Everything said above leads to the clear conclusion that action must be taken at both a national and worldwide level. The Churches have an all-important role to play in facing up directly to the problems posed by AIDS in our midst.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
________________________________________
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement
Debate On Leadership Responsibility In Ghana
Dear Patriots,
Thank you for your common sense exchanges of views in the atmosphere of mutual respect. This is a breadth of fresh air in comparison with the exchanges at many of our other debating African forums. We are proud as Ghanaians today because we debated on many concerned issues affecting the governance and leadership responsibility of our country at a time when the mere expression of one's opinion could result in torture, imprisonment or even death. We had few "Khaki Boys" issuing Decrees to govern the whole country. I am not trying to point out things that we do not know as Ghanaians but just to underscore the importance of such debates. Some of you spent and are still spending your precious time and expertise to share your views with the fellow Ghanaians. Since our destiny as Nation lies in our own hands, such your efforts cannot be underestimated. Thank you all for the good job.
The issues of Chieftaincy institution can be only divisive if we think about it in terms of modern western style political government systems versus primitive, archaic, or feudal type of governance. The worse destruction of our Africa dignity and heritage is the acceptance by default through the untested premise of modernization of copying our colonial masters. In so doing our post-Independent African political leaders have only done the greatest injustice to our traditional values and our dignity as Africans in general and Ghanaians in particular. They have been paying lip service to the Chieftaincy institution while crippling the institution from evolving itself. You may wonder why we were taught in schools and colleges in Ghana about the checks and balances in foreign democratic governments, socialism and communism but never had a course in Chieftaincy except for those of us who had the privilege to be raised up from within the Chieftaincy institution itself. Check out the many lessons that can be learnt for our proverbs, metaphors and parables from our oral history and folk tales. Again, nobody is advocating that we copy everything in the past, but why deny our people the right to learn from their own traditions and culture?
What Kofi and George are saying today, are issues we should have addressed long time ago. Our people living in the cities, towns and villages in Ghana have been governed on daily basis according to their traditional and cultural values but lacked the democratic power to force their elite political leadership to acknowledge them. The same way as we had the Indirect Rule under the British Colonial Administration, the dual power structures of the traditional and political rule which at times conflicted with each other as to the people’s interest, still exist today. This is why I read Kofi's article on "The Dawn of Ghana Renaissance” with sense of gratitude and appreciation. Better be late than never, Kofi. The Black Star of Africa will continue to shine in Ghana as we are still dedicating our efforts to keeping the Star shining. My next article will focus on the Chieftaincy as a governing institution.
Felix Amankona Diawuoh
The Free Africa Foundation.
Colorado Springs, CO
03/16/08.
Thank you for your common sense exchanges of views in the atmosphere of mutual respect. This is a breadth of fresh air in comparison with the exchanges at many of our other debating African forums. We are proud as Ghanaians today because we debated on many concerned issues affecting the governance and leadership responsibility of our country at a time when the mere expression of one's opinion could result in torture, imprisonment or even death. We had few "Khaki Boys" issuing Decrees to govern the whole country. I am not trying to point out things that we do not know as Ghanaians but just to underscore the importance of such debates. Some of you spent and are still spending your precious time and expertise to share your views with the fellow Ghanaians. Since our destiny as Nation lies in our own hands, such your efforts cannot be underestimated. Thank you all for the good job.
The issues of Chieftaincy institution can be only divisive if we think about it in terms of modern western style political government systems versus primitive, archaic, or feudal type of governance. The worse destruction of our Africa dignity and heritage is the acceptance by default through the untested premise of modernization of copying our colonial masters. In so doing our post-Independent African political leaders have only done the greatest injustice to our traditional values and our dignity as Africans in general and Ghanaians in particular. They have been paying lip service to the Chieftaincy institution while crippling the institution from evolving itself. You may wonder why we were taught in schools and colleges in Ghana about the checks and balances in foreign democratic governments, socialism and communism but never had a course in Chieftaincy except for those of us who had the privilege to be raised up from within the Chieftaincy institution itself. Check out the many lessons that can be learnt for our proverbs, metaphors and parables from our oral history and folk tales. Again, nobody is advocating that we copy everything in the past, but why deny our people the right to learn from their own traditions and culture?
What Kofi and George are saying today, are issues we should have addressed long time ago. Our people living in the cities, towns and villages in Ghana have been governed on daily basis according to their traditional and cultural values but lacked the democratic power to force their elite political leadership to acknowledge them. The same way as we had the Indirect Rule under the British Colonial Administration, the dual power structures of the traditional and political rule which at times conflicted with each other as to the people’s interest, still exist today. This is why I read Kofi's article on "The Dawn of Ghana Renaissance” with sense of gratitude and appreciation. Better be late than never, Kofi. The Black Star of Africa will continue to shine in Ghana as we are still dedicating our efforts to keeping the Star shining. My next article will focus on the Chieftaincy as a governing institution.
Felix Amankona Diawuoh
The Free Africa Foundation.
Colorado Springs, CO
03/16/08.
Anti-Semitism-The Last Acceptable Predjudice'
Anti-Semitism-The Last Acceptable Predjudice'
Suzanne Fields (archive)
July 28, 2003 | printsf20030728.shtmlPrint
The "new" anti-Semitism is as virulent as ever, but it's often easy for Americans - Christian and Jew alike - not to notice.
Christians and Jews get along here. Evangelical Christians have become some of the best friends Jews have, and, for their part, most Jews are not as suspicious of Evangelical motives as they once were. Since the anti-Semites abroad regard America as the great Satan and Israel the little Satan, we all feel equal-opportunity hate.
Anti-Semitism is no longer the preserve of the Ku Klux Klan, the uneducated, the outcasts and the bigots of the night. The bigotries at home are nurtured now on the left, by domestic radicals allied with the usual suspects abroad. This is not easy for some of us to get used to.
Phyllis Chesler, a left-wing feminist, was a reluctant candidate to become a "professional Jew," as she puts it in The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It.
The role was thrust upon her by men and women she thought were her intellectual, emotional and social comrades in arms against injustice, but who took an irrational detour into vicious mendacity, spouting demented politically correct propaganda against Jews and Americans everywhere.
"I now find it necessary and sane to think tribally as well as internationally to think as an American and as a Jew who is concerned not only with justice for all but also with the survival of America and of the Jewish people," she writes. "Islamic reactionaries and Western intellectuals and progressives who may disagree on every other subject have agreed that Israel and America are the cause of all evil. Israel has fast become the Jew of the world - scorned, scapegoated, demonized and attacked."
Angry words, but amply documented. She shows how the new antiracist (so called) anti-Zionist shares a common hatred with the old anti-Semite. She won't separate anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism, but cuts to the core of obfuscation and hypocrisy, recalling how Martin Luther King, Jr. responded to a student who attacked Zionism: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."
She gets to the point of why Israel's enemies abroad, with no appreciation of the pluralism on which democracy thrives, hate America, too: "In many ways the state of Israel towers above its neighbors both morally, politically, and in terms of religious freedoms."
As a feminist, she's particularly outraged that many feminists have muted their criticism of Islamist misogyny, or how others are oblivious to their own self-interests. What could be more ludicrous, she asks, than to see grown men marching against Zionism behind a banner proclaiming "Queers for Palestine." Queer, indeed. If these men lived in an Islamic culture they would be harassed - or worse. Much worse.
Some of the enemies she identifies are familiar. Noam Chomsky, whose anti-Israel and anti-American books are best sellers on campus, catalogs the imperfections of American and Israeli democracies but forgives the total lack of democracy in Islamic countries. Edward Said, the "prestigious" professor of literature at Columbia University, compares the Palestinians under Israeli rule to the plight of the European Jews under the Third Reich.
What has emerged in the past decade is how the new anti-Semitism has become politically and psychologically respectable among western intellectual elites: "The American and European Left have made a marriage in hell with their Islamic terrorist counterparts."
The new anti-Semitism drips into the mainstream with surprising ease. Since she went to print, a popular columnist in The Observer, one of the most popular of Britain's liberal papers, piously announced that he would no longer even read letters to the editor about anti-Semitism if they were signed with Jewish names.
The Chicago Tribune, with several newspapers following its lead, only recently ran a particularly nasty political cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stereotypical hooked nose and the Jewish star sewn on his jacket, staring down with pleasure as President Bush satisfies his greed by paving "the roadmap to peace" with dollar bills. (The Tribune apologized for failing to recognize the anti-Semitic slurs.)
The Belgian affiliate of Oxfam International, organized to fight poverty, posted a cartoon on its Web site depicting a slice of orange dripping with blood-red juice: "Israeli fruit tastes bitter. Say no to the occupation of Palestine. Don't buy any fruit from Israel." The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization," protested on its Web site with a reproduction of a Nazi poster from April 1933: "Germans! Protect yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!"
The new anti-Semitism passes unnoticed among those who should know better. Writes Phyllis Chesler: "In a politically correct, multicultural world, anti-Semitism is the last acceptable prejudice."
Even in America, the land of the free and the home of the bravest.
©2003 Tribune Media Services
Contact Suzanne Fields | Read Fields's biography
Suzanne Fields (archive)
July 28, 2003 | printsf20030728.shtmlPrint
The "new" anti-Semitism is as virulent as ever, but it's often easy for Americans - Christian and Jew alike - not to notice.
Christians and Jews get along here. Evangelical Christians have become some of the best friends Jews have, and, for their part, most Jews are not as suspicious of Evangelical motives as they once were. Since the anti-Semites abroad regard America as the great Satan and Israel the little Satan, we all feel equal-opportunity hate.
Anti-Semitism is no longer the preserve of the Ku Klux Klan, the uneducated, the outcasts and the bigots of the night. The bigotries at home are nurtured now on the left, by domestic radicals allied with the usual suspects abroad. This is not easy for some of us to get used to.
Phyllis Chesler, a left-wing feminist, was a reluctant candidate to become a "professional Jew," as she puts it in The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It.
The role was thrust upon her by men and women she thought were her intellectual, emotional and social comrades in arms against injustice, but who took an irrational detour into vicious mendacity, spouting demented politically correct propaganda against Jews and Americans everywhere.
"I now find it necessary and sane to think tribally as well as internationally to think as an American and as a Jew who is concerned not only with justice for all but also with the survival of America and of the Jewish people," she writes. "Islamic reactionaries and Western intellectuals and progressives who may disagree on every other subject have agreed that Israel and America are the cause of all evil. Israel has fast become the Jew of the world - scorned, scapegoated, demonized and attacked."
Angry words, but amply documented. She shows how the new antiracist (so called) anti-Zionist shares a common hatred with the old anti-Semite. She won't separate anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism, but cuts to the core of obfuscation and hypocrisy, recalling how Martin Luther King, Jr. responded to a student who attacked Zionism: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."
She gets to the point of why Israel's enemies abroad, with no appreciation of the pluralism on which democracy thrives, hate America, too: "In many ways the state of Israel towers above its neighbors both morally, politically, and in terms of religious freedoms."
As a feminist, she's particularly outraged that many feminists have muted their criticism of Islamist misogyny, or how others are oblivious to their own self-interests. What could be more ludicrous, she asks, than to see grown men marching against Zionism behind a banner proclaiming "Queers for Palestine." Queer, indeed. If these men lived in an Islamic culture they would be harassed - or worse. Much worse.
Some of the enemies she identifies are familiar. Noam Chomsky, whose anti-Israel and anti-American books are best sellers on campus, catalogs the imperfections of American and Israeli democracies but forgives the total lack of democracy in Islamic countries. Edward Said, the "prestigious" professor of literature at Columbia University, compares the Palestinians under Israeli rule to the plight of the European Jews under the Third Reich.
What has emerged in the past decade is how the new anti-Semitism has become politically and psychologically respectable among western intellectual elites: "The American and European Left have made a marriage in hell with their Islamic terrorist counterparts."
The new anti-Semitism drips into the mainstream with surprising ease. Since she went to print, a popular columnist in The Observer, one of the most popular of Britain's liberal papers, piously announced that he would no longer even read letters to the editor about anti-Semitism if they were signed with Jewish names.
The Chicago Tribune, with several newspapers following its lead, only recently ran a particularly nasty political cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stereotypical hooked nose and the Jewish star sewn on his jacket, staring down with pleasure as President Bush satisfies his greed by paving "the roadmap to peace" with dollar bills. (The Tribune apologized for failing to recognize the anti-Semitic slurs.)
The Belgian affiliate of Oxfam International, organized to fight poverty, posted a cartoon on its Web site depicting a slice of orange dripping with blood-red juice: "Israeli fruit tastes bitter. Say no to the occupation of Palestine. Don't buy any fruit from Israel." The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization," protested on its Web site with a reproduction of a Nazi poster from April 1933: "Germans! Protect yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!"
The new anti-Semitism passes unnoticed among those who should know better. Writes Phyllis Chesler: "In a politically correct, multicultural world, anti-Semitism is the last acceptable prejudice."
Even in America, the land of the free and the home of the bravest.
©2003 Tribune Media Services
Contact Suzanne Fields | Read Fields's biography
CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE A JOY TO KNOW
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO BRIGHTEN A DAY
WITH HEART WARMING SMILES
AND WITH KIND WORDS THEY SAY,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO GENTLY IMPART
THE COMFORT IT TAKES
TO CHEER SOMEONE'S HEART,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO ALWAYS COME THROUGH
WHEN THERE'S ANYTHING
THEY CAN POSSIBLY DO,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO WILLINGLY SHARE
WHO KNOW HOW TO GIVE
AND WHO KNOW HOW TO CARE
WHO KNOW HOW TO LET
ALL THEIR WARM FEELINGS SHOW....
ARE PEOPLE THAT OTHERS
FEEL LUCKY TO KNOW .
AMANDA BRADLEY.
HOW TO BRIGHTEN A DAY
WITH HEART WARMING SMILES
AND WITH KIND WORDS THEY SAY,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO GENTLY IMPART
THE COMFORT IT TAKES
TO CHEER SOMEONE'S HEART,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO ALWAYS COME THROUGH
WHEN THERE'S ANYTHING
THEY CAN POSSIBLY DO,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW
HOW TO WILLINGLY SHARE
WHO KNOW HOW TO GIVE
AND WHO KNOW HOW TO CARE
WHO KNOW HOW TO LET
ALL THEIR WARM FEELINGS SHOW....
ARE PEOPLE THAT OTHERS
FEEL LUCKY TO KNOW .
AMANDA BRADLEY.
"AFRICANTRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, AMONG THE AKANS"
BY
CHRISTOPHERKWEKU RUTLEDGE
Introduction
I chose to do my research on African traditional religious beliefs of the Akans. The Akans is an ethnic group in Ghana, which I will talk about later. Some of the topics that I will discuss, in relation to African traditional religious beliefs, will be the Akan concept of the soul, the naming ceremony, the rites of passage, the Akan concept of God, the Akan’s spiritual significance of the Earth, the divinities (spirits), and the Ancestors.
Religion is atthe root of Akan culture and forms the basis of their life and thought. The term "religion" holds a very different definition in Africa than in most Western cultures. Traditional (indigenous) religious beliefs are a part of their culture, their customs, and part of everything they do. It follows individuals throughout their lives, and puts them in touch with the unseen powers.
Family in theAkan context doesn’t consist of only husband, wife, and children. Family lineage is traced back to God (Nyame), who is sometimes referred to as "The Greater Ancestor". The Akan family isan unbroken clan that includes not only the living, but also the deadand the unborn. The Akans make up about 65% of Ghana.
Soul
The Akan belief is that God is our creator. They believe that man has certain material and spiritual elements. He is made up of life soul(Kra), spirit (Sunsum), blood (Mogya) and family(Abusua). Every Akan belongs to a clan and is bound to tha tclan by blood relation. They believe that during the sexual act, anelement called Ntro or Sunsum (spirit) from the father mingles with the blood, Mogya, of the mother and this gives rise to conception. The third element in the composition of man is the Kra, life soul, which comes from God together with one’s destiny.
The Akanconcept of man’s dependence on God is further emphasized by the fact that God gives man the animating principle, the life soul called Kra, together with man’s destiny called Nkrabea. However, the destiny can be affected by their character. The giving of the Kra and Nkrabea by God is an acknowledgement of the limitation of human power as well as an affirmation of divine providence. The Kra (soul) is said to be the small bit of the Creator that lives in every person’s body, and returns to Him after death. It is supposed to act as the spiritual force of man’s conscience and influence all of his actions.
In earlier Akan traditional beliefs, the Kra was thought of as an ancestral spirit which left the Supreme Being in a farewell ceremony in heaven so that it might be reborn in a child of its mother’s family. The word Kra is believed to have been derived from the verb Nkra, meaning "to part or to leave".
Earlier traditional beliefs also held that the future child, who is already formed from the blood, Mogya, of it’s mother’s family and endowed with the Ntro, spirit of its father, is led by an akragya to Nyame. The akragya, or Kra progenitors, are seven planetary deities who assist the Supreme Being. A golden bath is brought in, which the akragya bathes the child by pouring water over it. Nyame then utters the Nkrabea, the message of destiny, then lets fall a sparkling drop of water from an adwera leaf into the child’s mouth, which is very similar to an African naming ceremony.
This is the"water of life", nkwan suo, which is believed to contain aliving image of Nyame, like the figure of a person in a mirror. The water then penetrates the whole body of the child until it is filled with Honhom (divine breath) and wakes up alive. Before the child leaves Nyame, it is given the Hybere or the command to perfect and complete its Kra. Because only a pure and unsullied Kra, consisting entirely of goodness, can become one again with the Supreme Being, otherwise it must be reincarnated.
The akragya as mentioned earlier, are seven planetary deities believed to assist the Supreme Being in dispensing the Kra’s (souls). The seven deities’ names are where we get our names for the seven days of the week, Sunday through Saturday. According to the day of the week that you are born on, you’re supposed to inherit the personality of the corresponding deity, which is why most Africans name their children (soul name) based on the day of the week they’re born on (natal day).
DEITY NAME
AFRICAN NAME
PLANET NAME
PERSONALITY
MALE FEMALE
AYISI KWASI AKOSUA (Sun) Sunday Pure, immaculate, and generous, like the Sun
AWO KWADWO
or
KUDWO (cood’-joe) ADWOA (Moon) Monday Calm, cool, peaceful, protective like the Moon
ABENA KWABENA ABENAA (Mars) Tuesday Fierce and warlike, like Mars
AKU KWAKU AKUA (Mercury) Wednesday Wise and learned, like Mercury
ABRAO YAW YAA (Jupiter) Thursday Greatness, like Jupiter
AFI KOFI AFUA (Venus) Friday Loving and full of generative force, like Venus
AMEN KWAME AMMA (Saturn) Saturday Experienced and mature, like Saturn
Names
The African names listed above are the names that most Africans, particularly Akans, name their children, sometimes referred to as their "Soul Name", based on the day of the week they were born on, the natal day. The naming of the child is usually done on the eighth day after birth in what is called a naming ceremony.
Names are very important and help to identify the Kra (soul) in the spirit world after death. Names are sometimes given to children from the names of prestigious ancestors. The naming ceremony is begun by pouring libation first. A leaf is then dipped in water, and the water is dropped onto the tongue of the child, and the words said are, "when you taste water, it shall be water". This is repeated three times. Another leaf is dipped in gin and the words said are, "when you taste gin, it shall be gin". This is repeated three times, and the child is then given a name. (This is a condensed explanation)
Ritesof Passage
The rites of passage are another aspect of African traditional religious beliefs that is practiced by the Akan. They believe that man’s life is a cycle of birth, puberty, marriage, death, and the hereafter. No one can stay in one state forever, but must move on to the next. The rites of passage are special rites that are performed to make the transitions smooth, harmonious, and peaceful.
The first rite of passage is performed at the birth of a child. After eight days the naming ceremony is performed as part of the birth rites of passage. The next rites of passage would be performed when the child reaches puberty or young adulthood. Rites are performed to initiate the child into society and make him or her into a fully developed person. The initiation rites acknowledge the child’s biological as well as social maturation. Society wants to instil in the children the ideals of manhood and womanhood.
Marriage is the next stage. There are two types of marriage laws in Ghana: "marriage ordinance" and "customary law". Colonialism provided the marriage ordinance, where the wife assumes the husband’s name and title of Mrs. This type of marriage is terminated by divorce or death. Under customary law, marriage is the union between two families, and not even divorce or death can terminate the relationship. In Ghana, customary law marriages are predominant over the marriage ordinance. The criteria for a valid customary marriage are: the agreement for the parties to live together, the consent of the families and the payment of the bride price. The bride retains her family name, and the husband is the head of the household. Under the customary law marriage, the entire family and community participate in the ceremony.
The final rite of passage is performed at death. Funerals are great social occasions in Ghanaian society and usually involve the whole community. The appropriate funerary rite of passage for the deceased helps to strengthen the deep bond between the living and the dead. After the death of a person, offerings are made to his Kra (soul) to ensure that it does not lose its identity, for if so it would be useless as an intermediary between his family and God. There is a general belief that unless the appropriate ceremonies and funeral rites are performed, the dead will not be able to join the other ancestors. The Kra (soul) of the deceased if proved to be worthy, becomes the guardian spirit of the family.
God
The Akans have a "high" reverence for God and He is commonly referred to as Nyame. Although God is considered omnipotent and omniscient, the Akans have several "praise names" which vary according to His innumerous attributes. God is also perceived as an active Being who manifests Himself through what He does. Some of the various names and attributes are listed below.
•
• Odomankoma --- God is the author, owner and donor of an inexhaustible abundance of things.
•
• Borebore --- Excavator, Hewer, Carver, and Architect, which suggests creation by imaginative construction or thought.
•
• Ama Owia and Amasuo --- Giver of sunshine and Giver of rain, respectively. Sun and rain are two elements that sustain fertility and growth of vegetation for man and animals.
•
• Nya Amenekose --- God is the one in whom you confide the troubles that come upon you.
•
• Abommubuwafre --- The consoler or comforter who gives salvation.
•
• Daasebre --- He who is beyond thanks.
•
• Oteanankaduro --- He who knows the antidote for the poisonous serpent (used in healing).
•
• Nana --- The Greater Ancestor
•
• Nyame ne hene --- God is King.
Earth
The Earth is also revered by the Akans, and is believed to have a personality of her own. She is called Asaase Yaa among the Ashanti and Asaase Efua among the Fanti. Yaa and Efua being names given to children born on Thursdays and Fridays respectively. The Earth is personalized in the sense that like a mother, human beings depend on her for their sustenance. The Earth provides food, herbs and a home for man, and when death comes she makes available a resting-place for man. On her sacred day (Thursday for the Ashanti and Friday for the Fantis) no one is to go to the farm. A violation is believed to lead to fatal consequences.
SPIRITS
The Akans also recognize the divinities (spirits) as having major functional roles in God’s universe. They are usually associated with natural phenomena like the sea, lagoons, mountains, rivers, rocks and the Earth, which are thought to be their customary places of residence. There are also other categories of spirits such as tutelary gods, or clan gods who led the various Akan groups from their original home to their present settlement. The spirits’ duty is to also look after the welfare of human beings, giving them good harvest, children, etc…They also provide moral sanctions for society by rewarding or punishing where necessary.
ANCESTORS
This leads us to the ancestors. One of the most important aspects of Akan religionis the reverence of the ancestors. They are always held in deep reverence or even worshipped. The ancestors are the dead forbears oft he family. However, death does not necessarily confer ancestorship on a person. To be considered an ancestor, they must have lived an exemplary life, and have done much to enhance the prestige of the family, clan, or tribe. Ancestorship is also based on the assumption that those who held authority in life exercise the same authority after death; i.e. chief is a chief, priest is a priest, or police isa police.
The ancestors, the dead forefathers of the clan, have parental authority over their living descendants. They founded society, thus they still take active interest in the affairs of the living like providing them with children, giving good harvest and good health. They also provide the sanctions for the moral life of the group by laying down customs and taboos to govern the behavior of the group and to maintain its stability, as mentioned earlier.
It is believed that the ancestors are spiritual beings with the power to bring good fortune to the living, or if dissatisfied, show their displeasure by causing ill fortune, sickness etc… Prayers and sacrifices are most often offered to them to solicit their blessings and avert their curses. In addition, the ancestral spirits may manifest themselves inhuman form, in dreams, or by possession, and their spiritual presence may be invoked to assist the living. There is also the belief in the omnipresence of the ancestral spirits. This is made evident by daily acts such as the pouring of libation, and throwing on the ground the first morsel of food, as well as by periodic ceremonies like festivals, which are held mainly in their honor.
Throughout this research, I referred to the topic as African traditional religious beliefs, in relation to the Akans of Ghana. Although the traditional religious beliefs are not practiced exactly the same throughout Africa, there is an adequate amount of similarities among the various ethnic groups to safely use the term "African "traditional religious beliefs. This research has also been very interesting and extremely informative and is essential for African-Americans to read and comprehend in order to appreciate and better understand their culture. And I hope the reader will use the information accordingly. I would also like to note that this information would not be possible without the references cited, which follow.
*KNOWLEDGE IS POWER*
Bibliographicalreferences
Anti, K.K.1997. "Libation in the Old Testament and the Akan Life and Thought: ACritique".
� (http://cehd.ewu.edu/cehd/faculty/ntodd/GhanaUDLP/KKAnti/LibationIntro.html)
�
Apeadu, Nana.1996. "An Akan Queen Speaks: Indigenous African Extended Clan CultureHolds Wisdom for the World".
� (http://www.hinduismtoday.kauai.hi.us/ashram/March96.html#gen204)
Gyekye, Kwame.1996. "African Cultural Values: An Introduction". Sankofa PublishingCo., Accra, Ghana.
�
Meyerowitz,Eva. 1960. "The Divine Kingship in Ghana and Ancient Egypt". Faberand Faber Limited, London.
�
�
�
Updated: 9 May 2001
BY
CHRISTOPHERKWEKU RUTLEDGE
Introduction
I chose to do my research on African traditional religious beliefs of the Akans. The Akans is an ethnic group in Ghana, which I will talk about later. Some of the topics that I will discuss, in relation to African traditional religious beliefs, will be the Akan concept of the soul, the naming ceremony, the rites of passage, the Akan concept of God, the Akan’s spiritual significance of the Earth, the divinities (spirits), and the Ancestors.
Religion is atthe root of Akan culture and forms the basis of their life and thought. The term "religion" holds a very different definition in Africa than in most Western cultures. Traditional (indigenous) religious beliefs are a part of their culture, their customs, and part of everything they do. It follows individuals throughout their lives, and puts them in touch with the unseen powers.
Family in theAkan context doesn’t consist of only husband, wife, and children. Family lineage is traced back to God (Nyame), who is sometimes referred to as "The Greater Ancestor". The Akan family isan unbroken clan that includes not only the living, but also the deadand the unborn. The Akans make up about 65% of Ghana.
Soul
The Akan belief is that God is our creator. They believe that man has certain material and spiritual elements. He is made up of life soul(Kra), spirit (Sunsum), blood (Mogya) and family(Abusua). Every Akan belongs to a clan and is bound to tha tclan by blood relation. They believe that during the sexual act, anelement called Ntro or Sunsum (spirit) from the father mingles with the blood, Mogya, of the mother and this gives rise to conception. The third element in the composition of man is the Kra, life soul, which comes from God together with one’s destiny.
The Akanconcept of man’s dependence on God is further emphasized by the fact that God gives man the animating principle, the life soul called Kra, together with man’s destiny called Nkrabea. However, the destiny can be affected by their character. The giving of the Kra and Nkrabea by God is an acknowledgement of the limitation of human power as well as an affirmation of divine providence. The Kra (soul) is said to be the small bit of the Creator that lives in every person’s body, and returns to Him after death. It is supposed to act as the spiritual force of man’s conscience and influence all of his actions.
In earlier Akan traditional beliefs, the Kra was thought of as an ancestral spirit which left the Supreme Being in a farewell ceremony in heaven so that it might be reborn in a child of its mother’s family. The word Kra is believed to have been derived from the verb Nkra, meaning "to part or to leave".
Earlier traditional beliefs also held that the future child, who is already formed from the blood, Mogya, of it’s mother’s family and endowed with the Ntro, spirit of its father, is led by an akragya to Nyame. The akragya, or Kra progenitors, are seven planetary deities who assist the Supreme Being. A golden bath is brought in, which the akragya bathes the child by pouring water over it. Nyame then utters the Nkrabea, the message of destiny, then lets fall a sparkling drop of water from an adwera leaf into the child’s mouth, which is very similar to an African naming ceremony.
This is the"water of life", nkwan suo, which is believed to contain aliving image of Nyame, like the figure of a person in a mirror. The water then penetrates the whole body of the child until it is filled with Honhom (divine breath) and wakes up alive. Before the child leaves Nyame, it is given the Hybere or the command to perfect and complete its Kra. Because only a pure and unsullied Kra, consisting entirely of goodness, can become one again with the Supreme Being, otherwise it must be reincarnated.
The akragya as mentioned earlier, are seven planetary deities believed to assist the Supreme Being in dispensing the Kra’s (souls). The seven deities’ names are where we get our names for the seven days of the week, Sunday through Saturday. According to the day of the week that you are born on, you’re supposed to inherit the personality of the corresponding deity, which is why most Africans name their children (soul name) based on the day of the week they’re born on (natal day).
DEITY NAME
AFRICAN NAME
PLANET NAME
PERSONALITY
MALE FEMALE
AYISI KWASI AKOSUA (Sun) Sunday Pure, immaculate, and generous, like the Sun
AWO KWADWO
or
KUDWO (cood’-joe) ADWOA (Moon) Monday Calm, cool, peaceful, protective like the Moon
ABENA KWABENA ABENAA (Mars) Tuesday Fierce and warlike, like Mars
AKU KWAKU AKUA (Mercury) Wednesday Wise and learned, like Mercury
ABRAO YAW YAA (Jupiter) Thursday Greatness, like Jupiter
AFI KOFI AFUA (Venus) Friday Loving and full of generative force, like Venus
AMEN KWAME AMMA (Saturn) Saturday Experienced and mature, like Saturn
Names
The African names listed above are the names that most Africans, particularly Akans, name their children, sometimes referred to as their "Soul Name", based on the day of the week they were born on, the natal day. The naming of the child is usually done on the eighth day after birth in what is called a naming ceremony.
Names are very important and help to identify the Kra (soul) in the spirit world after death. Names are sometimes given to children from the names of prestigious ancestors. The naming ceremony is begun by pouring libation first. A leaf is then dipped in water, and the water is dropped onto the tongue of the child, and the words said are, "when you taste water, it shall be water". This is repeated three times. Another leaf is dipped in gin and the words said are, "when you taste gin, it shall be gin". This is repeated three times, and the child is then given a name. (This is a condensed explanation)
Ritesof Passage
The rites of passage are another aspect of African traditional religious beliefs that is practiced by the Akan. They believe that man’s life is a cycle of birth, puberty, marriage, death, and the hereafter. No one can stay in one state forever, but must move on to the next. The rites of passage are special rites that are performed to make the transitions smooth, harmonious, and peaceful.
The first rite of passage is performed at the birth of a child. After eight days the naming ceremony is performed as part of the birth rites of passage. The next rites of passage would be performed when the child reaches puberty or young adulthood. Rites are performed to initiate the child into society and make him or her into a fully developed person. The initiation rites acknowledge the child’s biological as well as social maturation. Society wants to instil in the children the ideals of manhood and womanhood.
Marriage is the next stage. There are two types of marriage laws in Ghana: "marriage ordinance" and "customary law". Colonialism provided the marriage ordinance, where the wife assumes the husband’s name and title of Mrs. This type of marriage is terminated by divorce or death. Under customary law, marriage is the union between two families, and not even divorce or death can terminate the relationship. In Ghana, customary law marriages are predominant over the marriage ordinance. The criteria for a valid customary marriage are: the agreement for the parties to live together, the consent of the families and the payment of the bride price. The bride retains her family name, and the husband is the head of the household. Under the customary law marriage, the entire family and community participate in the ceremony.
The final rite of passage is performed at death. Funerals are great social occasions in Ghanaian society and usually involve the whole community. The appropriate funerary rite of passage for the deceased helps to strengthen the deep bond between the living and the dead. After the death of a person, offerings are made to his Kra (soul) to ensure that it does not lose its identity, for if so it would be useless as an intermediary between his family and God. There is a general belief that unless the appropriate ceremonies and funeral rites are performed, the dead will not be able to join the other ancestors. The Kra (soul) of the deceased if proved to be worthy, becomes the guardian spirit of the family.
God
The Akans have a "high" reverence for God and He is commonly referred to as Nyame. Although God is considered omnipotent and omniscient, the Akans have several "praise names" which vary according to His innumerous attributes. God is also perceived as an active Being who manifests Himself through what He does. Some of the various names and attributes are listed below.
•
• Odomankoma --- God is the author, owner and donor of an inexhaustible abundance of things.
•
• Borebore --- Excavator, Hewer, Carver, and Architect, which suggests creation by imaginative construction or thought.
•
• Ama Owia and Amasuo --- Giver of sunshine and Giver of rain, respectively. Sun and rain are two elements that sustain fertility and growth of vegetation for man and animals.
•
• Nya Amenekose --- God is the one in whom you confide the troubles that come upon you.
•
• Abommubuwafre --- The consoler or comforter who gives salvation.
•
• Daasebre --- He who is beyond thanks.
•
• Oteanankaduro --- He who knows the antidote for the poisonous serpent (used in healing).
•
• Nana --- The Greater Ancestor
•
• Nyame ne hene --- God is King.
Earth
The Earth is also revered by the Akans, and is believed to have a personality of her own. She is called Asaase Yaa among the Ashanti and Asaase Efua among the Fanti. Yaa and Efua being names given to children born on Thursdays and Fridays respectively. The Earth is personalized in the sense that like a mother, human beings depend on her for their sustenance. The Earth provides food, herbs and a home for man, and when death comes she makes available a resting-place for man. On her sacred day (Thursday for the Ashanti and Friday for the Fantis) no one is to go to the farm. A violation is believed to lead to fatal consequences.
SPIRITS
The Akans also recognize the divinities (spirits) as having major functional roles in God’s universe. They are usually associated with natural phenomena like the sea, lagoons, mountains, rivers, rocks and the Earth, which are thought to be their customary places of residence. There are also other categories of spirits such as tutelary gods, or clan gods who led the various Akan groups from their original home to their present settlement. The spirits’ duty is to also look after the welfare of human beings, giving them good harvest, children, etc…They also provide moral sanctions for society by rewarding or punishing where necessary.
ANCESTORS
This leads us to the ancestors. One of the most important aspects of Akan religionis the reverence of the ancestors. They are always held in deep reverence or even worshipped. The ancestors are the dead forbears oft he family. However, death does not necessarily confer ancestorship on a person. To be considered an ancestor, they must have lived an exemplary life, and have done much to enhance the prestige of the family, clan, or tribe. Ancestorship is also based on the assumption that those who held authority in life exercise the same authority after death; i.e. chief is a chief, priest is a priest, or police isa police.
The ancestors, the dead forefathers of the clan, have parental authority over their living descendants. They founded society, thus they still take active interest in the affairs of the living like providing them with children, giving good harvest and good health. They also provide the sanctions for the moral life of the group by laying down customs and taboos to govern the behavior of the group and to maintain its stability, as mentioned earlier.
It is believed that the ancestors are spiritual beings with the power to bring good fortune to the living, or if dissatisfied, show their displeasure by causing ill fortune, sickness etc… Prayers and sacrifices are most often offered to them to solicit their blessings and avert their curses. In addition, the ancestral spirits may manifest themselves inhuman form, in dreams, or by possession, and their spiritual presence may be invoked to assist the living. There is also the belief in the omnipresence of the ancestral spirits. This is made evident by daily acts such as the pouring of libation, and throwing on the ground the first morsel of food, as well as by periodic ceremonies like festivals, which are held mainly in their honor.
Throughout this research, I referred to the topic as African traditional religious beliefs, in relation to the Akans of Ghana. Although the traditional religious beliefs are not practiced exactly the same throughout Africa, there is an adequate amount of similarities among the various ethnic groups to safely use the term "African "traditional religious beliefs. This research has also been very interesting and extremely informative and is essential for African-Americans to read and comprehend in order to appreciate and better understand their culture. And I hope the reader will use the information accordingly. I would also like to note that this information would not be possible without the references cited, which follow.
*KNOWLEDGE IS POWER*
Bibliographicalreferences
Anti, K.K.1997. "Libation in the Old Testament and the Akan Life and Thought: ACritique".
� (http://cehd.ewu.edu/cehd/faculty/ntodd/GhanaUDLP/KKAnti/LibationIntro.html)
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Apeadu, Nana.1996. "An Akan Queen Speaks: Indigenous African Extended Clan CultureHolds Wisdom for the World".
� (http://www.hinduismtoday.kauai.hi.us/ashram/March96.html#gen204)
Gyekye, Kwame.1996. "African Cultural Values: An Introduction". Sankofa PublishingCo., Accra, Ghana.
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Meyerowitz,Eva. 1960. "The Divine Kingship in Ghana and Ancient Egypt". Faberand Faber Limited, London.
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Updated: 9 May 2001
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