Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ten factors that place the US in a success & failed state category

hi gloria
i hope you weren't being ironic. i admit poly sci isn't my field, but
like everyone i read my schmidt or krugman, and try to piece things
together. as i get older, i try to imagine what the long view is on
states, and it seems to me that the larger configurations, like empires,
might have been better than states. i don't mean imperial states like
england and france, whose colonies were conquered lands, but things like
the turkish empire or the austro-hungarian, or even yugoslavia. i don't
know the history as does an historian whether they were entities in
which minority populations were more likely to be accepted than in the
configurations post-world war one, in which they came to an end.
ultimately a certain pan-african vision might find some concordance with
what i am imagining.
all african states today represent something of this sort; i.e., a state
of many different peoples. one of the ideals in that is seen in
senegalese history, as mamadou diouf so brilliantly writes in his
history of senegal, where no ethnic group was able to dominate the
others, and so the various people were obliged to find a modus vivendi
that didn't mean complete harmony, but an acceptance of living with
others. where african states became subject to one ethnicity and its
domination, things didn't work so well. why the biafran war arose, why
the igbos became so much the victims of pogroms up north, why they felt
the need to break away, why the federal state would not permit it, why
the tensions between northerners, southerners, igbo and non-igbo persist
till today, this is something i am still trying to understand.

your question is THE question, how can we imagine a state in which there
is some principle besides Realpolitik. we had such hopes for obama when
he was elected; but his foreign policy is based not upon morality at
all, just upon realpolitik. the "moral principles" have to take the form
of international law, law against torture, indefinite detention, against
differentiating citizen rights from non-citizen rights, as though the
latter weren't human beings like us.
if we have signed international conventions, such as the convention
against genocide, and yet did our best, under clinton, to insure that
there would be no foreign intervention to stop the genocide, it goes to
show that without an external means of enforcement, laws by themselves
are empty.
we can sum it up in one word: guantanamo.
or in two words: abu ghraib.
why is cheney not in prison? or the rest of them, including bush, who
authorized those houses of torture?
why didn't obama shut down guantanamo when he came to office, when he
had campaigned on that principle?

states aren't moral, but we have to fight for moral principles, and the
more states become elevated into bastions of patriotism, the harder it
is to assert the need for principles that limit the power and authority
of the states.
i appreciate your voice every time you call out on the abuses of things
like drones. a voice in the wilderness? we can't stop speaking out, it's
all we can do.
ken

On 6/6/14 3:36 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
> May I add two more questions to your profoundly insightful comment.
>
> Are their moral parameters within which a successful state must operate or does the end justify the
>
> means?
>
>
>
>
>
> Can a state be simultaneously a failed state and a strong state?
>
>
> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
> africahistory.net
> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
> ________________________________________
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Anunoby, Ogugua [AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2014 1:23 PM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ten factors that place the US in a success & failed state category
>
> What does failed state mean? When is a state a failed state or not a failed state? Could a state be a failed state and not a failed state at the same time? If the answer is "no", a state is either a failed state or she is not. If the answer is "yes", then "failed and "not failed" are poles on a continuum. Every state in this understanding must be a composite of "failed" and "not failed". If a state's location on the continuum leans toward the "failed" pole, she is a failing state. The opposite is also true. Then again what do "failed" and "not failed" mean? Whose definitions are in point? Is there a universal construct? Who may be the judge? Many commentators argue that a state is not a failed state if she consistently delivers agreed, expected benefits to its citizens and that citizens live up to their part of their bargain. The question arises what is the bargain? Who negotiated and agreed the bargain? Should it be binding on all and future generations?
> I will argue that the U.S. while not being a perfect state is not a failed state. I suspect that there are some who would argue that if she stays on her current trajectory, she might become a failing state.
>
> oa
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 9:57 PM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ten factors that place the US in a success & failed state category
>
> ' a strong state can put ungodly numbers of people in prison and manage it.' Harrow
>
>
> A surprising comment by a human rights advocate.
> Was Nazi Germany a successful state?
>
>
> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
> africahistory.net
> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow [harrow@msu.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 7:18 PM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ten factors that place the US in a success & failed state category
>
> taking each of gloria's points on what makes the u.s. a failed state might well be interpreting as evidence of the u.s. being the opposite of a failed state. a strong state can put ungodly numbers of people in prison, and manage it; can have ungodly numbers of people doing drugs, and still have a powerful economy functioning; needs a large debt to push the economic motor going, etc etc.
> every one of those points is built on something other than a failed state, but rather the "state" of today's economic and political order.
> what is a state, after all? isn't it the location of legitimate authority and force, the location of 90% of what the population internalizes about what behavior is necessary for an orderly society (following gramsci); the instrument that enables economically disparate classes to continue.... etc figure it out, the issue is not whether the u.s. borrows more or less, but what impact this has on the economy.
> following krugman, we haven't borrowed enough to drive the economic engine, and the failure of europe is precisely in borrowing too little ken
>
> On 6/5/14 12:00 AM, 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:
> Dear MamaProf. Gloria,
> After going through these factors, I couldn't shake the feeling that some of them bother on the trivial (as if you want to rub our conceptual inexactitude in our faces). It even seems to me that both sides of the factors cancels each other out in favour of regarding the United States as not anywhere within the rank of recognised failed states. Most of the factors on the successful state column are enough to overwhelm those on the failed state column. Political stability says a lot in characterising a state as failed, failing or successful.
>
> Ma, do those factors in the 'failed state' category give us a straighforward comparison between the US and Somalia/CAR/DRC/etc.? I doubt that.
>
> The failed state category is definitely not an absolute one. But I don't think it means what you are suggesting: that a country has some factors that characterise it as failed and others that make it successful (except we stretch 'fail' beyond the border of meaningfulness). It should be easy then to conclude that we know a failed state when we see one but that that assumed knowledge fizzles out with the burden of conceptualisation. That explanation has its own merit.
>
> An alternative explanation is to say that failure comes in degree to the extent that the political, economic and security framework of a state has ceased simultaneously to respond to concerted and focused statecrafting. 'Failed state' is a continuum that runs from failing to failed. Wikipedia alerts us to some indicators. First is the utility of signals like 'critical', 'in danger,' 'borderline' and 'stable' (the last, for me, does not enter the failure continuum). Second are the ecomomic, social and political indicators of imminent or full blown failure--demographic pressures, delegitimisation of the state, progeessive deterioration of public services, widespread violation of human rights, incidence of state within a state, acute interventionism, bla bla.
>
> Can you still clearly see the US on this continuum ma? I know this may not be all that helpful, given the debates that had gone before on this thread. But I am just trying to outline my gut feeling about this. Which returns me to the classic Augustinian definitional frustration with time: What then is time? If no one asks me, I know. If I wish to explain it to the one who asks, I know not.
>
> I think we know a failed state when we see one. I wish that explanation is enough to settle the matter.
>
>
>
> Adeshina Afolayan
>
>
> Sent from Samsung Mobile
>
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu><mailto:emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
> Date:
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ten factors that place the US in a success & failed state category
>
>
> Ten factors that place the US in a failed state category and ten that place it in the success column.
> Afro pessimists take note.
>
>
> A. Failed State Category
>
> 1. A gigantic debt of 18 trillion dollars and a debt per GDP ratio of almost 101%
> (Nigeria: 11%; Russia: 13.41%). Bankrupt municipal centers such as Nevada, Arizona,
> North Carolina, Maine, Illinois, California etc. Many to come ..... See Time. Vol. 175. no. 25. 2010.
> Catastrophic student debt, municipal debt and credit card debt.
>
> 2. Inability to keep the public safe on Sept 11, 2001; World Trade Center; Boston Marathon event, 2013 etc;
>
> 3. Inability to curb excessive greed in its banking and financial centers such that Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and financial entities generated a global financial crisis in 2008 with toxic financial instruments such as securitization.
>
> 4. 5% of the world's population consumes 24% of the world's energy.
>
> 5. 25% of the world's prisoners but 5% of the world population.
>
> 6. A retrogressive model for ' rendition' and torture programs at Guantanamo etc.
>
> 7. A massive divide between rich and poor: US Gini coefficient about 47 (Sweden is one of the least
> skewed at 23. South Africa is now probably one of the worst in the world at 63.1).
>
> 8. Vocal intolerant fringes such as the KKK etc; Assassinations of high profile leaders from
> Lincoln to JFK, MLK etc. High rate of shootouts and killings at places of learning and public
> places eg Columbine, Sandy Hook - Connecticut, fuelled by a gun toting populace.
> 20 students shot at Sandy Hook. Mass shootings now normal.
>
> 9. Politicians bribed by the corporations in national elections through campaign funds
> and the PACs; political gridlock. True democracy undermined by gridlock in its 2-party system. Corporations rule.
>
> 10. The world's largest consumer of anti-depressants, and hard drugs thus facilitating the massive drug cartels in the Americas
>
>
> B. Success Category
>
> 1. A thriving film industry, Hollywood , that has major impact and influence around the world.
>
> 2. Several nobel prize winners indicating excellence in economics, chemistry, physics and peace.
>
> 3. Readiness to contribute to international charitable organisations eg the Clinton Project;
> The Gates Foundation; Rapid response to external humanitarian crises. (Katrina was internal).
>
> 4. Political stability through free and fair elections on the average and a philosophy of democracy that has influenced multiple nations.
>
> 5. A magnet for streams of immigrants around the world and willingness to grant them citizenship -
> unlike countries like Japan for whom immigrants are anathema.
>
> 6. A major center of technological innovation and invention for most of the 19th and 20th century.
>
> 7. Fantastic infrastructure in highways and byways.
>
> 8. Institutions of learning that attract streams of international students and utilize state of the art multimedia techniques.
>
> 9. An influential music industry that has accommodated and spawned diverse musical styles
> from Jazz to Country to Hip Hop and more and influenced world music around the world.
>
> 10. Political stability. No military coups sponsored within.
>
>
> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
> Prof. of History & African Studies
> History Department
> Central Connecticut State University
> New Britain
> CT 06050
> africahistory.net
> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
>
>
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> kenneth w. harrow
> faculty excellence advocate
> professor of english
> michigan state university
> department of english
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--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu


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