Gloria, sit up, go and do the research on Jason Russell and Invisible Children and their religious and political affiliations and then come back to talk to me, I have no time for this.
Thanks for the personal insults, I appreciate them, really. I would hate for my children to attend your classes, I can see you handing out cyclostyled "history" tracts from the '70s to amused youths.
"Cell phone culture"? Really, people still talk like this? What century are you living in? I bet you still have a slide rule. Take off your platform shoes, kick back, read a good book and enjoy the ride. Life is too short to look this dated. The Washington Post? Really, Gloria, Really? You ought to be embarrassed. I would say shame on you, but your utterances speak volumes for your ignorance.
- Ikhide
-----Original Message-----
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:34:53
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NYTimes.com: Kony Is Not the Problem
Ikhide,
Attacking ASUU, African intellectuals, yourself, and so on, is a good
strategy. This is the sort of thing that the western press adores. It loves Afrohaters and self hate.
In fact you may be called any day now to join the Washington Post or the Henry Louis Gates team
of b(l)ack biters. Your Twitter account and blog may work wonders.
Incidentally, not all people on a cell phone claiming to be children are children....
if you know what I mean. There are dangers out there in cell phone land.
Congrats on being included in the publication. I hope it is one of your brilliant pieces.
They should have asked your permission.
By the way was Kony12 not done by a group of liberals?
GE
www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali<http://www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali>
emeagwali@ccsu.edu<mailto:emeagwali@ccsu.edu>
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ikhide [xokigbo@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 3:42 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: Kenn Harrow
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NYTimes.com: Kony Is Not the Problem
Ken,
I don't know of anyone that would say, stop analyzing. There are many of us on the other hand who are now tired of the supercilious musings of many African intellectuals who mistake constant muttering for purposeful action. They have immersed themselves in a culture of despair because it helps them avoid real work and because it puts food on their table. We should stop enabling their bullshit. If they are that knowledgeable about the "devious ways" of the White Savior Industrial Complex, then it stands to reason that they should be in a better position than anyone else to lead Africa out of the mess she is in. Who do you think is running Nigeria today, unschooled dolts? Reuben Abati, PhD is now the bumbling face of a bumbling lootocracy pretending to be a democracy in Nigeria. Google him and his pretty essays (when he was hungry and angry) would put to shame the joint musings of Obi Nwakanma and Teju Cole. My point: We need to work on the notion of credibility. My generation of African intellectuals and leaders has no credibility. We are mostly bullshit artists who do not give a whit really about doing the hard work unless it lines our pockets. Why then spit in the face of those doing real work? When it comes to Africa, pretty much all the analysis has been done; what is sorely missing is real work. There is hope, soon Walmart will be selling self-governance packets along with phone card credits. The packet will contain light, water, roads, security alarm system and perhaps one of Nwakanma's books to remind us of when we used to be under the jackboots of African intellectuals and their agbada clad politicians ;-) Hmmm... maybe I should patent that. Ikhide, you are a genius, you are!
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com<http://www.xokigbo.com>
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide<http://www.facebook.com/ikhide>
________________________________
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NYTimes.com: Kony Is Not the Problem
ikhide
i have been criticized for publishing attacks on what i called the Genocide Industry when it comes to films and books about the rwandan genocide. i don't think you can lump me in there with those whom you dub the "liberal orthodoxy" who see their role as helping the helpless african.
i will be a cheerleader for your son; i certainly don't imagine i know the right answers!
but it won't help to ask us to stop analyzing. analysis isn't paralysis, but maybe the cornerstone for actions that will ultimately be beneficial.
ken
On 3/22/12 9:13 AM, Ikhide wrote:
Ken,
I am glad you enjoyed the piece. I wondered what you thought of it. Your response has crystallized in my mind one of the powerful forces mitigating against meaningful progress in much of Black Africa. Let us call it Paralysis by Analysis. You and many thinkers on your camp would prefer an unending analysis of the African situation couched in cliches - tribal conflicts, physical boundaries,ethnic tensions, etc, social and historical context etc etc while the place burns. It is a money maker of course. There is the White Savior Industrial Complex (Thanks Teju!) and there is the African Victim Industrial Complex, there is an army of intervention forces outside of the NGOs - the UN, the AU, the World Bank, IMF [insert your favorite alphabet soup here]. Meanwhile Africa burns and you all scoff at any attempts to help by anyone you have not blessed. There are no angels but you all. Why, Jason Russell should go touch himself in a dark dank cave, how dare he offer an African child a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt?
Kenn, did you notice how many times the piece by this "Ugandan journalist" used the term "child"? I counted in the dark, so forgive me if they are a dozen. I counted once, just once. Once. And the journalist used it in the context of a "child-soldier." My 12-year old child saw children, an adult saw a child-soldier. I am surprised you do not find that offensive. This journalist unwittingly does two things -demonize the already traumatized - and perpetuates a stereotype. See what I mean?
Kenn, I am increasingly convinced that liberal orthodoxy is hurtful to the cause of the advancement of Africa. If a white child, just one white child had been hurt by a maniac, we would not be having this conversation. We would not be holding colloquiums, book readings and associated nonsense, celebrating the fact that the jerk has moved to Canada and so is no longer a threat to America! I mean, you guys sometimes, sometimes I want to holler.
I repeat: Orthodoxy in thought and action will not liberate Black Africa. Many in our generation of African writers have simply been caught flat footed and winded by the powerful winds of change sweeping the world. And the hypocrisy is galling. While many of us in Africa and in the West feed off of the African Victim Industrial Complex writing pathetic scrolls about the white man's perfidy, my 12-year old son is using his smartphone to link up with millions of other kids to do something for a child. THAT, Kenn, is new, we must get used to it or be ignored. The orthodoxy in thought is something, no analysis of the power of social media in changing the world, none, just carping about white intentions? Who cares? Not my son. There may be hope; the children many African writers have muttered about for fat pay from our white friends may get relief, wow. We sit here fed and burped by the White Industrial Savior Complex and explode in rage when they offer a drop of water to your children.
I repeat: If you have never given a black child a t-shirt you have no moral right to rail against a white man for giving said child a Lakers t-shirt.
The more I think about it, the more I can say what we need more than ever is fresh new thinking AND action. We talk too much and we say the same things over and over and over again. Paralysis by analysis. More worrying is that there is a powerful bloc of the pantheon of orthodox thinkers who seek to block new debate, wittingly and/or unwittingly. The good news is that the forces of technology are sweeping them aside with mean bear claws ;-) I am happy.
Be well ;-)
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com<http://www.xokigbo.com>
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide<http://www.facebook.com/ikhide>
________________________________
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu><mailto:harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 8:10 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NYTimes.com: Kony Is Not the Problem
dear ayo,
the editorial is well written, and has the sophistication we rarely see in u.s. news reporting on africa, that is, it actually explains what political power struggles accounted for the lra, whom it served, whose services it rendered, and who profited from it. it doesn't detail how other groups also used child soldiers. and above it, it certainly says kony is a problem, but not the problem alone. i don't think you could have read the piece if you can ask that question.
it was written by a ugandan who comes from n uganda.
ken
On 3/22/12 4:08 AM, Ayo Obe wrote:
If Kony is not THE problem, is he not A problem?
Ayo
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama
On 21 Mar 2012, at 21:39, harrow@msu.edu<mailto:harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
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editorial in today's ny times
OPINION | March 21, 2012
Op-Ed Contributor: Kony Is Not the Problem <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/opinion/in-uganda-kony-is-not-the-only-problem.html?emc=eta1>
By ANGELO IZAMA
Long before Joseph Kony, people in northern Uganda were preyed upon.
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