This brother brings a very beautiful perspective to the dialogue on race relations in America. Watch it, Like it, Share it, but most importantly, listen to him.
ON HONEST AND RESPONSIBLE DIALOGUE ON RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA (CONCLUSION)
Selma (2014) the movie is out. Snowstorm barrels into the Northeast. And the U.S. is not expected to fault Darrel Wilson, the Ferguson police officer that killed Michael Brown last August. From the Feds’ decision, it is fair to assume that there could be some similarities in the findings of the Feds and that of the St Louis County, Missouri on what actually happened in the altercation between Michael Brown and Officer Wilson. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. That is justice. And that is a closed chapter.
Meanwhile, once upon a time in the animal kingdom, a day came when all animals were reporting to the town hall for a general meeting. But the hen, which felt it had more ‘important’ things to do, absented herself from the meeting but pledged to abide by every decision reached at the meeting by those who attended the meeting. At the meeting, a decision was reached that a ceremony will take place and that the hen and her chicks will be killed to provide the meat for refreshment at the ceremony. The hen wasn’t present to object to that decision because she refused to attend the meeting. And as she pledged, she had to abide by the decision reached by others at the meeting.
Now, when you visit most of the think tanks in the District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago, and California, you will discover that the presence of African-Americans are close to non-existent in our country’s apex policy-making institutions where policies that govern this country are hatched. Some pockets of the Black people you will see walking the ‘corridors of power’ are mostly interns from Africa who are studying government-related courses here in the U.S.
Same goes for all the departments of the federal government at the levels of relevance where folks effect policy decisions. Most workers of African-American derivation you will see at these federal government agencies work administrative and general services jobs. And not top level positions where policies that govern the domestic politics of the United States are formulated. And same also go for state and local governments. And that, my people is a sad and hard fact.
Why so?
Continue reading “ON HONEST AND RESPONSIBLE DIALOGUE ON RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA (CONCLUSION)”
How the CIA lost an Asset
So a friend of mine recently developed an interest to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA. My friend is one of the smartest dudes on Earth and among the few men I revere. He has a sharp mind. He is so discerning of a person’s intentions you might think he has a degree in psychology. He is almost telepathic. And he is well lettered and has the mien of, well, the kind of professionals that are cast in the movies that work for the CIA. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be a great asset for the CIA.
I visited with him yesterday evening. By the time I got to his house, he had already browsed through the career page of the CIA’s website and decided on Political Analyst as the career path he want to pursue with the CIA. He had his resume tailored to meet the requirements of the job he want to apply for. And for the presumed questions the page indicated that he will be required to provide answers to as he proceeds in his online application, he had the answers ready. Then came the online application process itself.
Step 1 has to do with selecting 3 security questions from a drop down list and providing the answers, the purpose of which is to remind the applicant of their login info should they forget their username and or his password. That went pretty smooth.
In Step 2 the CIA website itself generated what to me is a simple alphanumeric username for the applicant. Then came Step 3.
In Step 3, the website requires the applicant to choose his or her own password. And it demands that the password contain lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and specifically, 2 special characters.
Passwords to me is an illusion of security. Therefore I do not care much about making my passwords complex. So whoever anytime desires to hack into any of my numerous online accounts can do so easily. And I simply do not care. But Kinsella my buddy love complex passwords, not because he is concerned about someone hacking him. It’s just who Kinsella is. Complex. So when it got to the point of choosing the password for his CIA online application form, he came up with the strangest combination of letters, numbers, and characters I have ever seen, while being careful to abide by the password requirements of the website. After he “ENTERED” it, the website told him his password choice was mediocre and that he had to come up with something strong. He felt challenged and rolled out another combination he thought will take the guys at NSA forever to crack. Forgive my hyperbole. The second time the website told him his choice was very week. And this back and forth continued for a straight one hour. He will roll out a combination of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and 2 special characters and after entering it, the website will tell him that it was weak, very weak, or mediocre.
Initially, he thought it was a test to ascertain his level of enthusiastic about pursuing a career with the CIA and to determine how determined he is to overcome challenges and be better at generating a more complex set of combination of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and specifically, 2 special characters. But after an hour, it becomes a fruitless effort at satisfying some ludicrousness. His perception I must say. I was astonished at the CIA for that stupidity and was very relieved for my friend when he folded up his laptop and called it a day.
Now my friend’s experience could be as a result of a glitch on CIA’s website. But I strongly doubt that because up until that point of entering his choice of password, every other thing was working perfectly.
AS THE PRESIDENT PROPOSED, LET US REBUILD AMERICA
Washington DC and the political world is agog with punditry after the 2015 State of the Union Address by the President last night. Political pundits call most of his legislative proposals to Congress a political machinations which the president knows will not yield any credible policy dividend, but proposed them he still did so as to push the Republicans further right and give Democrats fodder to paint the Republicans as anti-middle class in the 2016 election.
This could be true. It could also be a wrong analysis. We stand to see which way Republicans will be leaning in days to come.
I am no Democrat. Neither am I a Republican. I am an independent intelligent man who knows that the president’s proposals are commonsensical and if Republicans can take him up on it, at least half the way, can re-position America back to global economic dominance – A unipolar world. We already enjoy military, political, and cultural dominance.
Take this line below from the president’s address for example:
“Twenty-first century businesses need 21st century infrastructure — modern ports, and stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest Internet. Democrats and Republicans used to agree on this. So let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline. Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year, and make this country stronger for decades to come. Let’s do it. Let’s get it done. Let’s get it done.”
Can you pause to imagine the genius of this proposal? Rebuilding America is not a Democratic Party idea. And of course it’s is not an Obama idea. It seems closer to an idea of Republicans of the past. GOD bless their soul. The Rockefellers, the J.P. Morgan Chase’, the Vanderbilts, and the Carnegies. These are men that built America and they were Republicans. In their wisdom, they understood that a country that enjoys modern infrastructural development is a country that enjoys economic prosperity. And they built America. The built the railways. They built the dams. They built up Chicago. And they also built steel plants and refineries all over America. They were geniuses and they were great statesmen. Traits that the present troves of Republicans apparently lack. If only they can relearn our history and model their ways according to the ways of past leaders of the party.
At this age and time when bullet trains and high speed rails is a sine qua non to national development and characterize developed economies in Asia, the most powerful nation on earth should not be found wanting. John Boehner, let us build America once again.
A CALL FOR BETTER GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE BY MEDIA HOUSES
I call on owners of media houses across the world to ensure that acts that violates the morality of mankind, such as the brutal killings of innocent civilians in Nigeria by Boko Haram, receives similar coverage as the coverage the terrorist attacks in France is receiving.
Some have argued that the terrorist attack in France is receiving more media coverage and global outcry because of the symbolism. That the attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on freedom of speech, which is a Western core value. To those trumpeting this line of thought, I say: freedom of speech is not a Western core value. It is a universal right of every mankind, an inalienable right given by God.
Meanwhile, even if the terrorist that struck Paris did so to attack Western Values, it is then pertinent for me to point out, for analysis sake, that Boko Haram’s mission, as has been reported in the news, is to stop “Western Way Of Life,” such as girl-child education, as practiced in Nigeria. There you go. Not as if I am endorsing girl-child education as a Western value in itself. It is a universal human value.
We are all humans. We all bleed red. And we are interconnected in some ways.
Covering terrorist attacks in France which claimed 17 lives around the clock while treating similar terrorist attacks in Nigeria which claimed far more lives as afterthought on TV doesn’t augur well for the human race. So is the global outcry and optics by world leaders. It sends signals that some lives are more important than others. And that certain things happening in certain geographical locations is of more concern to the world community than when similar things happen elsewhere. I choose to sound naïve. It is unfair. And it is this perception of unfairness that many a times causes us more harm than intended. Let us be wise in our conducts. And if these barbaric acts of cowardice and hate and intolerance should happen anywhere else in the world, God forbid, let us show the kind of solidarity in acts and deeds towards such, irrespective of the geographical location of where it happened.
Let the debate continue. . .
IDEAS IS WHAT REPUBLICANS NEED TO LEAD
Call it manifesto, agenda, or ideas, every leader aspiring for a public office have one, which they market to the people, and upon election, hits the ground on Day One to start its implementation for the good of the people. The Republican Party in the 2012 general election perpetuated hate for Obama and making him a one-term president their agenda. That fell flat. However, repealing Obamacare sold for Republicans in the 2014 midterms and handed them Congress. But repealing Obamacare is not an idea. It is simply an act of trying to undo a necessary but not-so-perfect program which works well for majority of Americans and replace it with………….nothing.
The Republican Party now controls both chambers of Congress. But it requires ideas to lead. Ideas that can put folks back to work. Not just any other job. But good-paying career jobs. Ideas that can shore up the economy and spur the United States to reclaim from China the #1 spot as the world’s largest economy. Ideas that can make college affordable for all Americans that desires to earn a college degree. Ideas that can rebuild and modernize infrastructure across the country. Ideas that acknowledge that our veterans who put their lives on the line in both far and near countries for the freedom we enjoy deserves to have roof over their heads when they return rather than dwell in homelessness. Ideas that will work for all Americans irrespective of political party leanings, ideology, sexual orientation, race, or economic status.
So far it seems like there are dearth of ideas among the Republican Party fold.
It is easier to outline and in your arguments to the electorate on why they should choose you to lead, articulate your ideas to them before being elected to any public office. It makes the work easier for the public official to lead because he already have a manifesto that he campaigned on and which the population gave him/her the mandate to come on down and implement. So on getting to office, he runs with his manifesto. But when there was nothing that you ran on than vilifying the dude doing something, on getting to office, you may waste your first year in office because there is no clue on what is priority for the people and what is not. There will be many interests clawing for your attention. Political party interests. Special interests. Concerns to retain your seat in the next election cycle, and at the bottom of the list, concern for the welfare of the people and country.
Meanwhile, folks do get lost at the onset on how to lead and the direction to lead a country to. Both smart and dumb folks. But the good news is that smart people who have caught themselves clueless in the middle of the road do manage to recalibrate their steps and position themselves to implement well thought-out policies for the good of the people. And despite being somewhat lost at the onset, they succeeded at creating a legacy for themselves. I honestly hope, for the good of the country, that the GOP will find their way sooner than later.
AMBITION: WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
Senior Editor, TIME Magazine
Originally published on TIME Magazine on Sunday, Nov. 06, 2005.
You don’t get as successful as Gregg and Drew Shipp by accident. Shake hands with the 36-year-old fraternal twins who co-own the sprawling HiFi Personal Fitness club in Chicago, and it’s clear you’re in the presence of people who thrive on their drive. But that wasn’t always the case. The twins’ father founded the Jovan perfume company, a glamorous business that spun off the kinds of glamorous profits that made it possible for the Shipps to amble through high school, coast into college and never much worry about getting the rent paid or keeping the fridge filled. But before they graduated, their sense of drift began to trouble them. At about the same time, their father sold off the company, and with it went the cozy billets in adult life that had always served as an emotional backstop for the boys.
That did it. By the time they got out of school, both Shipps had entirely transformed themselves, changing from boys who might have grown up to live off the family’s wealth to men consumed with going out and creating their own. “At this point,” says Gregg, “I consider myself to be almost maniacally ambitious.”
It shows. In 1998 the brothers went into the gym trade. They spotted a modest health club doing a modest business, bought out the owner and transformed the place into a luxury facility where private trainers could reserve space for top-dollar clients. In the years since, the company has outgrown one building, then another, and the brothers are about to move a third time. Gregg, a communications major at college, manages the club’s clients, while Drew, a business major, oversees the more hardheaded chore of finance and expansion. “We’re not sitting still,” Drew says. “Even now that we’re doing twice the business we did at our old place, there’s a thirst that needs to be quenched.”
Why is that? Why are some people born with a fire in the belly, while others — like the Shipps — need something to get their pilot light lit? And why do others never get the flame of ambition going? Is there a family anywhere that doesn’t have its overachievers and underachievers — its Jimmy Carters and Billy Carters, its Jeb Bushes and Neil Bushes — and find itself wondering how they all could have come splashing out of exactly the same gene pool?
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SAY NO! TO “DEATH OF ANY KIND” FOR 54 YOUNG OFFICERS OF THE NIGERIA MILITARY
In this Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014 file photo, soldiers accused of refusing to fight in the country’s northeastern Islamic uprising appear before a court martial in Abuja, Nigeria. On Wednesday Dec. 17, 2014, the court-martial sentenced 54 soldiers to death for mutiny, assault, cowardice and refusing to fight Islamic extremists, connected to the soldiers’ refusal to deploy to recapture three towns seized by Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram in August, according to the charge sheet. . (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga FILE)
The Nigerian military should be ashamed of itself. It sent young officers that are less than 2 years old in the army to go and fight Boko Haram with little or no weapon. On the grounds that they do not have sufficient weapon to match those of Boko Haram or to competently carry out their orders, the young officers refused to embark on such “suicide mission.”
Nigeria military didn’t bother to provide the necessary equipment for the soldiers to carry out their mission nor did it bother to address the corruption in its system which gingers its leadership to divert money meant for military equipment to personal use. Rather it hastily court-martial these 54 young men, our youth, the future of Nigeria, for demanding true leadership, and have decreed to execute them by firing squad.
I call on every Nigerian and every man of goodwill in the comity of states to condemn this abortion of justice and ask for immediate release of those young men who stood up to demand responsible leadership in the Nigeria military.
ON HONEST AND RESPONSIBLE DIALOGUE ON RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA (Part I)
Not all white people are racists. Majority of white people are not. If all whites are racists and because of their racism chose not to vote for a Black man in both 2008 and 2012, we wouldn’t have President Obama, America’s first Black President. Even if every eligible voter from other ethnic minorities voted 100% for him.
Majority Of White People Are Not Racists.
The Black Man Is As Competent As The White Man In Every Facet Of Human Endeavor.
Racism Is A Costly Self-Inflicted Disease.
In times like these, we need to be unified at home so that we can present a common front to the world and defeat our enemies. For a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Not all white people are racists. Majority of white people are not. If all whites are racists and because of their racism chose not to vote for a Black man in both 2008 and 2012, we wouldn’t have President Obama, America’s first Black President. Even if every eligible voter from other ethnic minorities voted 100% for him.
Now know that racism denies the goodness, qualifications, and quality in the ‘other.’ Racism exalts itself and looks down condescendingly on the ‘other.’ Racism thinks itself intellectually superior and considers itself lord over the ‘other’ and even when it wrongs the ‘other,’ racism considers it scandalous to apologize for the wrong because it sees the ‘other’ as less human with no dignity. So, irrespective of how articulate, analytical, collected, handsome, cool, tall, and prudent President Obama has been, if all white were racists, those who voted for him in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections would not have done so. Simply because despite his (Obama) outstanding candidacy, his white supporters, if they were racists, would have been blinded to all the qualities which made him a better candidate than his opponents and could have chosen the wrong person at the wrong time to be the leader of the free world.
MAJORITY OF WHITE PEOPLE ARE NOT RACISTS.
Meanwhile, those white folks that jump to the defense of blatant racism by white police officers, anytime they (white police officers) take down another African-American man or teen, those folks are culprits.
Why do Fox News Network, folks like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and some right wing politicians jump out of their pants to defend criminals and rogue police officers who kill African-American men, simply because the perpetrators are white?
I will answer that question in the latter paragraph after the next.
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