| Leave Emeagwali alone. If he has a large ego and he is able to utilize it to his own self-fulfilment what is your business here? Emeagwali is not the first person not to have a PhD after having tried. Many people do not get a PhD because they are not smart. There is, as many people know, a lot of convergent politics around getting a PhD. I was once told that playing the games, using the rules of graduate school politics, rather than what one knows- think thet know and do actually know- is the more reasonable key through making it in successfully graduating from American graduate schools. It may not always be that evident, but there is a tinge of real truth to this assertion. Some do play along this line and succeed. Others trust their own intuitions and efforts and succeed. Others carry on pursuing certain goals that they think would serve them best and end up lossing out! There is an imperialist impressario attached to who gets to be the virtuosi! The clime of the PhD world is not often made up of the best of the best- some are there and you wonder how they hell they got passed the hooks! Others simply refuse to abide by those subtle rules of apprenticeship overtly turning these tenets upside down. Among these some make it and some don't get through to their PhD promise land. Hanging Emeagwali on this count may not be very fair, because they may be more truth to his claims. How are we also sure that the mode of Emeagwali's reaction, did not also subsequently help to foster a better environment for recruiting and been leery with other Africans admitted to the UofM, as a way of saving face and a publlic relations stunt to disclaim such images such as made by Emeagwali, et al? By the way, the University of Michigan for all its name, used to be ascribed as hothouse of racism against minorities, especially aspiring and promising students and faculty. About a decade ago, Frank Ukadike, a Nigerian renowned film scholar and analyst, now at the Tulane University, focused on this issue, chronicling this incidence on a website at that University where he was denied tenure, in spite of his hardwork. Living in Michigan, even among folks who should and do know, it was not a secret that some departments at the University of Michigan frontally discriminated against minorities, especially blacks. It is good that Moses Ochonu graduated from there, but his alone cannot be used to counter a widely popular incidence, that even whites and Americans alluded to, at least those I knew and were familiar to that scene and privy to some of these happenings. Just the fact that Emeagwali did not get his PhD from there does not also entail that he could have had it from elsewhere, or got one even from Pepperdine! Or, even bought an honorary or those market doctorates Nigerian politicals are wont to rush for! He claims he has one, give him the benefit of a doubt before executing him on the cyberspace that he and Al Gore partnered to found!!! But this hell been unleashed about PhD is arrant nonsense. If you want to teach at a University, a PhD is definitely probably a should have in today's world. However, to be real, these credentials of relevance, indemnified through western norms of relevance, is not and should not the only qualitative markers of intelligence. As already highlighted here by Toyin Adepoju, the likes of Bill Gates, Mike Dell, and some of these folks dropped out of college to pursue their dreams of success. PhD is good, but it is not necessary for success. Many Americans laugh at the Africans overt and over investment in doing a PhD when they should be earning money with their already acquired qualifications. When you calculate the earning potentials and time it would take a PhD to finish and work, in many respect a young nurse who graduated with a B.S.N, would be making as much, if not more, at the time the PhD takes their first teaching appointment. On the long term, having a PhD does not actually enlarge and enhance one's earning potentials over time, compared to the huge investment and energies it takes. If Emeagwali is able to make $10,000 from a few hours of speaking engagement can write himself his meal ticket and still remain successful in paying his mortgages, and other expenses, I wonder why all these tirades against the man, who has appropriated the American dream, in the adept and creative ways he knows how. You guys are all crying wolves when the man is surely making tons of dollars in an hour than you make in half the year. Give it to him that he's got what it takes to survive. If his peddling does not hurt you, and does not even kill a fly, why waste your energies on this mindless orgies of trying to nail the man's coffin before his time. Look, when I was going up, there were all these Power Mike, Killiwe (whatever), these macho-men, that paraded themselves garnering money and fame, they tagged themselves with all kinds of power-names or "dynamo-flagging" all in the name of God knows what-money and fame. I never realized their social purposes until much later. They too served in some ways, both manifest and latent, the needs of society, creating entertainment, humor, and reduced social stress. Emeagwali's overt and subtle function may be missed, but within the complexities of a growing immigrant market, as well as a diverse American ambience, he serves his social purposes, much like a Letterman or Jay Leno. What I don't understand, is why such a fixation with someone people consider a fraud! Doesn't this over-killing attention grant a monumental legitimacy to that same fraud that is so despised? Emeagwali is not the worst criminal. There are Nigerians and Africans daily doing credit card frauds, wire frauds, medicare fraud, etc and they pass our critical lenses. This acrylic venoms against Emeagwali shows how much the African is ever so ready to make mince meat of another, especially one that so evidently outshining them. I am not saying there is no truth to what is been said about Emeagwali. However, back in the days the Irish or Italian immigrants in Boston would be leery to smear their fellow Irish or Italian involved in bootlegging during prohibition, or involved in crimes that so readily. I am not vetoing these reactions as appropriate either, but it is just the voraciousness of the act of disavowal that is so interesting, and how African immigrants engage in this on cyberspace, their churches, ethnic associations, that is all palpably intriguing. Further, if Emeagwali mythologizing is anything, I also encountered a similar strand in that book entitled: What would mother say? An autobiographical rendition of a Nigerian woman who migrated to America and the patent embellishment, and even sometimes outright errors elevated to the domain of facts. If anything this shows, there are so many Emeagwalis in our midst.
--- On Mon, 9/20/10, toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> wrote:
From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [NaijaPolitics] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
Cc: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com, "naijapolitics naijapolitics" <naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Monday, September 20, 2010, 4:30 PM
Tim Berners Lee has only a BSc in physics.His achievements are well known.He is actually a low profile figure who does not claim more than he has achieved. Emeagwali,on the other hand, has generated a spurious profile by claiming achievements he has not made. That is the problem here. Tim Berners Lee continues to work to drive innovation in his field. I am yet to see any achievement of Emeagaali's beyond the work that got him the Gordon Bell prize years ago.Berners-Lee is a well known figure in the information technology industry. The same cannot be said for Emeagwali. As I wrote earlier, a more realistic Nigerian contender is Kunle Olukotun, professor of computer science at Stanford and one of the first incubator of the Niagara microprocessor developed by Sun Microsystems. thanks Toyin
On 20 September 2010 18:51, menre ayes <Menreayes@hotmail.com> wrote: Dear Fellow Nigerians, I am responding to this post right now from a computer on the premises of the university where Tim Berners-Lee got his degree. We are proud of him and his achievements so far. We are proud of him, but recently he threw some challenges at us to go further with innovations. Let's give praise when deserved and blame when due.His invention concerns the Past, Present and Future of the Web. It's a lot of work. There is a difference in the meaning of the Internet and the Wold Wide Web (WWW). Read more about Tim in his book 'Weaving the Web', or get a copy of it from the link below at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Weaving-Web-Tim-Berners-Lee/dp/0752820907/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285003963&sr=1-2 The Founders of Google did not complete their PhD programmes. Today, they are billionaires and the world is proud of them. Tim worked on the Web project, while some other people worked on the Internet project. Like everyone else, Phillip Emeagwali may not be perfect, but his has contributed something remarkable to humans' knowledge. There is something in him for Nigeria to be proud of. The wolrd Wide Web is still in an evolutionary process, what then can we contribute? Menre Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali Dom Francis and Itaetim,
Emeagwali is a fraud because he claims achievements he does not have.
He claims to have many patents.
There is NO record that he has ONE PATENT.
You can research that yourself at the site of the US Patent Office.
He claims to be a Father of the Internet.
His accomplishments do not seem to support that claim.
The only accomplishment he can be credited with is the Gordon Bell Prize which as as far as I know,does not constitute being a Father of the Internet in his case.
If you want to read about real Fathers of the Internet read about Tim Berners-Lee,who I understand developed Hyper Text Transfer Protocol,which enables computers to communicate with each other in cyberspace.
Cut your claims of your accomplishments according to their reality.
thanks toyin On 20 September 2010 17:33, D Francis <dom-francis@hotmail.com> wrote: Common People Why must we focus on negativity?Please tell me what makes Emeagwali a fraud? Is it because he has not published a book yet?Is it because he no patent accredited to his name?Is it because he may or may not have a PhD?Is it because he charges to make speeches?
Is it because he has his speeches on the internet and people give him praises for the speeches? Many prominent visionaries we have today have same profile as mention above.
If every one us has the same understanding of where we should be or what we should be doing as Emeagwali does, we the blacks should be a force to be recon with in the world Please try to encourage and not discourage, only knowledge and intelligence can help black people move forward CheersDom Francis
From: OlaKassimMD@aol.comDate: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:48:46 -0400
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali
Dear All:
I have always stayed away from the Emeagwali controversy simply because
I do not enjoy watching Nigerians/Africans pull each other down--
(ala our famous PHD syndrome.)
However there are some instances when we must speak up or else
the work of our true heroes, --the genuine achievers become rubbished
by association when the falsehoods perpetrated by some of us are
finally discovered.
I was also for many years taken in by the Emeagwali Phenomenon and Internet
self promotion. I looked him up on the Internet and I was impressed by all the
citations.
In the summer of 2002, I was approached by the Executive of the Nigerian Community
Association in Toronto to help find a keynote speaker who can helpmotivate our youths
at the Annual Independence Day celebration, I had no other person in mind but Dr Phillip Emeagwali.
However, after finally tracking him down I was shocked when he informed me of the costs for him
to appear in Toronto to speak to our youths:
a) Two return business class tickets for himself and his assistant
b) Round the clock limousine service from the moment he lands at the airport until he departs.
c) $10,000.00 speaking fee.
d) Hotel Accommodation--two rooms
After pleading with him, he promised that he would grant some discount on his speaking fee
because he would be directing his message to Nigerian youths in Canada--but that the other items were not negotiable.
We never did agree on the percentage of the discount on the speaking fee.
For obvious reasons, I did not bother to call him again. I managed to persuade myself, even briefly
that I had chosen the wrong vocation. I should have specialized on being a celebrity:)
It was years later, that I finally discovered that I was one of the millions worldwide who have been
fooled by the Emeagwali Phenomenon.
Bye,
Ola
---- Original Message ---- From: Moses Ebe Ochonu < meochonu@gmail.com> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSent: Mon, Sep 20, 2010 9:58 am Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: Phillip Emeagwali Amiel,
With all due respect, I am very disappointed in your insistence that we honor Emeagwali's true "achievements" even after confirming for yourself that the man is indeed a fraud of immense proportion, a self-promoting genius who is, in his claimed field of expertise, a mediocre at best. I can understand Ikhide's frustration. The "debate" on Emeagwali's intellectual fraud has long been settled in the Nigerian cyberspace. Only the most fanatical Nigerian and African American sentimental (as opposed to a rational) investors in black scientific heroism, still take the fool seriously. And, of course, our people back home, for whom even the mere fact of foreign residency is a validation, let alone one that is backed by aggressively deceptive self promotion. Okay, let's do what you're asking us to do and strip away the lies, deceptions, exaggerations, false claims, and the entire intellectual pyramid scheme as someone called Emeagwali's internet based edifice of fraud. When we are done with that, we're left with:
1. A guy who FAILED his PhD qualifying exam TWICE at my alma mater, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
2. A guy whose doctoral research was subsequently evaluated by internal and external examiners and declared substandard.
3. A guy whose research won a minor THIRD PLACE prize in a very narrow field of applied computing. He was bumped to first place only when the teams ahead of him with higher computing speed won another prize and therefore forfeited the category to Emeagwali. In other words, he "won" by default. The prize had nothing to do with the internet or even computing as a field. It was for application of computing to oil exploration.
4. A guy who has no single published paper in a peer reviewed publication in his field
5. A guy who has no single patent or "patent pending" as he claims
6. A guy who has managed through internet trickery to get many media organizations, especially the black press, to buy into and as a result, validate his hoax. He then cites those naive, ignorant press validations, recycling them through links, which then show up on google and are then picked up by naive, hero-hunting black folks all over the world. As a fraud, it is very clever, but it is still a fraud and a huge one at that.
7. A guy who has parlayed his falsehoods into all kinds of lucrative speaking engagements in black America, Nigeria, and the Caribbean, deceiving our people who are hungry for heroes and collecting their hard earned money to make them feel good about themselves.
8. A guy who routinely goes around calling himself professor and Dr but who has never taught a university class, failed his PhD, and is not an academic.
I can go on, but let me not bore you with that your own research has revealed to you already. So, here you have a guy whose only achievement is the Gordon Bell Prize ($1000), which he won by default after coming THIRD and which he fraudulently calls "the Nobel Prize of Computing." I put it to you that there are THOUSANDS of Nigerians whose research have won such narrow prizes in their fields and won not by default or by coming THIRD but by beating the competition. They don't make noise or self-promote. They don't lie about themselves. They don't call themselves "Africa's greatest scientist," "father of the internet," etc. Even on this list, there are many scientists who have won more prestigious prizes and awards. Our own Joseph Igietseme recently led a team of scientists at the prestigious CDC to win a highly coveted award in the field of biomedical research. The man did not grab a megaphone to announce that he was the greatest African scientist alive.
Has Nigeria honored the genuine achievers in our midst? How about our own Oga Falola, has he been given a national award let alone being put on a postage stamp? How about Pius Adesanmi and many others who have been making us proud by hauling in prestigious literary prizes from across the world; have they been as much as recognized in Nigeria?
If we're desperate for heroes, why don't we honor genuine ones? Why validate liars and frauds like Emeagwali who have actually brought dishonor to the country as their claims have been serially debunked and have been sometimes generalized to Nigerians and "their 419 ways"? Remember that every time their false claims are debunked their nationality and Africanness are referenced. How can that be good for a country that has genuine scientific pioneers working in the most prestigious and cutting edge scientific institutions in the world (CDC, NASA, etc).
As we speak, there is another fraud who has similarly cast a spell on home audiences, hauling in cash and recognition. Dr. Gabriel Oyibo self-describes as a five time Nobel Prize nominee even though Nobel nominations are not revealed until at least a hundred years or so, and even though his peers cannot even vouch for the validity of his bizarre claims, which reside at the confusing intersection of religion, metaphysics, African history and mythology, and physics!
A trained physicist, the man, who cannot even hold down an academic job and has no impressive research pedigree to speak of, claims that he has invented a theory of everything, which he calls GAGUT! The Nigerian national assembly issued a declaration honoring him as a great African scientist! He, too, is on a Nigerian postal stamp!
Oyibo is in some respect even worse than Emeagwali since he actually has a PhD and used to have an adjunct teaching position that gives him a perfect cover to perpetrate his deception. At least Emeagwali is a good motivational public speaker and writer (which I think is his actual calling in life). The GAGUT man speaks in an incomprehensible metaphysical language that is clearly a sign of lunacy.
A country that honors frauds and ignores true achievers and truthful, quiet heroes deserves what is happening to her. On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Amiel Fagbulu <amiel.fagbulu@ymail.com> wrote:
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Amiel Fagbulu <amiel.fagbulu@ymail.com>
To: Ayoola Tokunbo <toks_ayoola@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sun, September 19, 2010 11:28:47 PM
Subject: Re: Phillip Emeagwali
Ayoola, Thank you for the answers you gave to my questions to Ikhide. To put the whole event in perspective please let me clarify what led to this Emeagwali thing. For some time now, at least two times a week, the local Federal Radio in Osun State (FM 95.5) has been broadcasting the names of some worthy Nigerians as promotional material for the 50th Independence Celebration. Wole Soyinka, Philip Emeagwali and Okonjo-Iweala lead the pack. It came as a shock to me when in a totally unrelated matter Ikhide in passing condemned Nigerians who were falsely misrepresenting themselves to Nigeria and specifically zeroed on Emeagwali. To me it was breaking news in that someone like Emeagwali,if what Ikhide said about him was true, being touted for honor nationally would bring discredit to our counrty. The only thing I knew about him was what I read in an international magazine several years ago. I turned to the internet and ran through the titles of the first two pages of the 28,400 search results from Google. The six or eight I browsed seemed to repeat and confirm the claims of this fellow. Since I access the internet mainly between 10:00 pm and 1:00 am Nigerian time every night, using a generator most of the time, I could not afford the time or the luxury of spending my limited resources digging further into this that night so I asked those questions. It seemed likely to me that those in charge of that promotional material could be in the same darkness that I was in. The intention was to get the facts and alert them since no sane person will like to expose this country to ridicule on such a grand scale on such occassion. The only response I got from Ikhide was a lot of negative things about myself so your response proved very useful. I have since gone further and my findings seem to tally with what you aided me with.. BUT I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS TO ASK Your categorization of this man is very helpful. Can we not strip down his falsehoods, remove the false parts of his half truths, and highlight his true achievement so as to see the true Emeagwali? Will there still be something concrete left at the end of it all to make him worth being held up as a worhy Nigerian? That is the way I look at events. If it can be done those who have researched him could try to present a Balanced Naration of Emeagwali's Achievements. On my part I am trying to alert those in charge of this honor thing to check the facts that I can now direct them to on the net if it is not too late. Cheers and thanks. Amiel
From: Ayoola Tokunbo toks_ayoola@hotmail.com.
To: amiel.fagbulu@ymail.com
Sent: Sat, September 18, 2010 7:50:48 PM
Subject: Re: Phillip Emeagwali
Amiel, The following might answer those questions you were asking Ikhide. Philip Emeagwali mythsThis page briefly addresses some specific claims appearing on Emeagwali's self-promotional website and elsewhere. For a more in-depth discussion of Emeagwali's "outright lies, half-truths, and numerous unsubstantiated claims," see the article Self-Promotion and Self-Authentication: "Father of the Internet" by Chioma Ezeilo. MYTH #1:
Emeagwali made the "world's fastest computation" in 1989Each year since 1987, the judges for the annual Gordon Bell competition have given out multiple prizes for supercomputing applications, usually including one for performance (fastest speed), and one for price/performance (best speed/cost ratio; specifically, "price-performance ratio as measured in megaflop/s per dollar on a genuine application"). Despite what you may have read on the Internet, the 1989 prize for the fastest performance was awarded not to Emeagwali, but to another entrant: In the performance category, we awarded the prize to a team from Mobil Research and Development and Thinking Machines Corp. [...] Their solution of a seismic data-processing problem ran at almost 6 Gflops on a CM-2 Connection Machine.
"Special Report: 1989 Gordon Bell Prize," IEEE Software, May 1990, p. 101 The winning speed of 6 Gflops was almost double that of Emeagwali's entry (3.1 Gflops, a speed that Emeagwali has repeatedly misrepresented as the "world's fastest"). The Mobil/TMC team achieved the best price-performance ratio too, but since no entry was allowed more than one prize, the price/performance award passed to Emeagwali (who also used a CM-2 Connection Machine) even though his score in that category was about 20% worse than the leading score: We awarded the price/performance prize to Philip Emeagwali [...] His model ran at a price/performance of slightly less than 400 Mflops per $1 million. While the Mobil/TMC team achieved almost 500 Mflops per $1 million, we decided to award only one prize per entry.
"Special Report: 1989 Gordon Bell Prize," IEEE Software, May 1990, p. 101 See the yearly results for the performance and price/performance categories. In no year did Emeagwali achieve what he claims he did. MYTH #2:
Emeagwali won computing's equivalent of the Nobel PrizeIn spite of efforts by Emeagwali and his admirers to hype up his $1000 Gordon Bell award as the "Nobel Prize" of computing, the rest of the computing world continues to associate that lofty label with the Turing Award, which Emeagwali has never won. The Gordon Bell prize, however, is just one of many other annual computing awards, respectable but not at all comparable to either the Nobel Prize or the Turing Award in prestige or prize money. Nor are the selection criteria analogous: Emeagwali was awarded for his performance in an annual competition, not in recognition of lasting contributions to his field. MYTH #3:
Emeagwali is a "Father of the Internet"1. Emeagwali's paternity claims to the Internet are judged and found baseless. Emeagwali has not shown any evidence that he was involved with ARPA or any other research organization or company connected with the genesis of the Internet, nor did he express his ideas in technical journals or any other channel through which he could have influenced the development of the Internet during its formative stages. 2. Is there a father of the Internet? A discussion of the main contenders: JCR Licklider, Bob Taylor, Paul Baran, Donald Davies, and Lawrence Roberts. MYTH #4:
The "Connection Machine" was invented by EmeagwaliA few Web sources expand the fallacy that Emeagwali created the fastest computer program, insisting that he was also responsible for the massively parallel supercomputer on which the program ran. However, the 65,000-processor "Connection Machine" that allowed such speedy computations was actually the brainchild of Danny Hillis and was built by Thinking Machines Corporation, the company Hillis co-founded. The fact is extensively documented on the web and is so well established that I won't devote more attention to it. MYTH #5:
Emeagwali has lots of patents or patent applicationsThe number of Emeagwali's patents or patent applications is sometimes claimed to be as high as 30. However, a search of the USPTO and esp@cenet patent databases (as of September 2003) reveals the true number to be zero. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has a fully searchable online database for all U.S. patents since 1976 as well as all current applications, simply has nothing on file for Emeagwali. MYTH #6:
"Dr." Emeagwali?Emeagwali is frequently referred to on his own and other websites as "Dr. Philip Emeagwali" or simply "Dr. Emeagwali." Though he did in fact enroll in a PhD program at the University of Michigan, he did not get the degree after failing his qualification examinations twice and having his thesis rejected by a committee of faculty members. Emeagwali subsequently sued the university, alleging civil rights violations and racial discrimination. His case was dismissed without trial. When Emeagwali appealed to a higher court, a three-judge panel rejected his discrimination claims unanimously. --
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