Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Trump: I have destroyed my ‘green card’ – Soyinka

Ken, Okey, toyin, Salimonu, Dan, O O, and all:

With my utmost regard to the octogenarian's action, the indomitable uncle has done something that leaves ashes in the mouth, to use JFK's popular phrase. It may not be all that bitter; it just does not taste good. Salimonu and a few others are right; as important as it is to express dissent, a more impactful way would have been chosen. Say, for example, WS chooses to call a conference focusing on how the African diasporeans should take advantage of the impending conservative governance in America and make intelligent decisions on how they could still survive or even to talk about how Obama's 8-year legacy could be preserved. That direction, to me, would have been more productive. 

The fact of the matter is Professor Soyinka does not need a green card to enter the United States or go anywhere in America or anywhere around the world at any time. Destroying the green card is a gesture in the paradigm of what my old high school principal used to classify as "primitive punishment" like, for example, asking a junior student to start drawing water into a large bowl with a teaspoon or kneeling down, closing his/her eyes and raising up his/her hands. We have not gained much, if anything, from such gestures. 

Besides, destroying a green card doesn't mean anything. It's like destroying your Social Security ID - it does not destroy your record of being the rightful owner of the document; it just relieves you of the weight of another additional paperwork in your wallet.  

Having said all that, I must admit that our hero has the alienable right to express his dissent in whatever manner he deems fit. We still love him, anyway, but I respectfully disagree with the action.

My point made!

 

Michael O. Afolayan

From the Land of Lincoln

 

On Saturday, December 3, 2016 6:08 PM, 'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I tend to see Soyinka's "green"-card action purely or primarily as a symbolism lacking the potential to impact anything significantly, especially in the USA. 

On Dec 3, 2016, at 1:54 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

Soyinka tearing his  green card would be a voice, an influential one one in some circles, out of the many raised agst Trump within and beyond the US, thereby contributing to building the wall of resistance to what Trump represents for the US and for the world on account of the effect of the US on the world.

thanks

toyin

On 3 December 2016 at 17:30, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:

This case of Wole Soyinka tearing his American green card as he vowed to do if Donald Trump should win the Presidential election is, to me, a storm in a tea cup. By tearing his American green card, is Wole Soyinka punishing Trump and the people of USA that voted for him? What does the people of US or Trump stand to lose if Wole Soyinka does not visit the US for the remaining of his life? What benefits or gains accrued to the US during the time Wole Soyinka retained his US green card and had used it on several occasions to visit the country?

It would have made sense to me if Wole Soyinka had torn his US green card in protest against those incarcerated in Guantanamo without trial since 2004 by each succeeding US government; against US police killings of unarmed black people; against government's policy that steers most black youths in the US into prison than into schools; protest against the invasion of Libya and killing of the leader, Kadhafi; protest against the retention and expansion of NATO after the end of the cold war that saw to the dissolution of Warsaw Pact; and in protest against economic sanctions against African countries that outlawed same sex marriages. Off course, the only logic behind the idea of not tearing green card in protest against the perpetration of the aforementioned evil acts is because Trump is yet to be the President. 

The global economic system which has been rigged against Black Africa was put in place in year 2000 and called Millenium Development Goal (MDG). It expired in 2015 leaving the economy of African countries worse than before year 2000 when the US also sponsored what was called African Growth and Opportunity Act (GOA) which has since been extended to 2025. Was Trump responsible for the economic and industrial backwardness of Africa?

S.Kadiri
 

---

Från: usaafricadialogue@ googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@ googlegroups.com> för Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 2 december 2016 10:44
Till: usaafricadialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Trump: I have destroyed my 'green card' – Soyinka

 

My people,

There is another view on this.

Here it is-

Dan Akusobi

7 hrs ·

Wole Soyinka and Sojourns: once a card holder is always a card holder.

My response to news Wole fulfilled his promise to ditch his USA green card.

People;
It feels good to have a maternal home. That's how I remain a catholic and why I shunned Kumiyism and Redeemism and the Winners.
I cannot see myself belonging to a church that has no maternal home.
In my culture, we say when a child is maltreated in his home, he runs to his maternal home for safety. As a Catholic, Rome remains my maternal home in case. In Kumiyism, there is no Rome nor Roman nor England, no Mecca either.

In same way a lot of Nigerian Diasporans feel very good holding that green card thing.
Having USA or any other foreign country resident permit gives one some assurance of dual residence. So when Rice becomes N30,000 a bag in Lagos, I run back to U S where I can get it cheaper or free if I chose to go on welfare and live in a city like NYC.
For Wole Soyinka; A record on him indicating he once had a US green card that was not revoked by Obama or Trump whether he has the physical card or not, assures him he has a maternal home outside Nigeria whether he reaped it or burnt it. . It is a good feeling indeed to feel there is always an alternative to someone hing good.

The card; The U S green card, turn or thrown away, it only takes a phone call to get another in a week or less irrespective of who is the president of America.
Mind you the only difficult question needing an answer when you reapply for a copy of your green card is ; what happened to your card?
I lost it.
I reaped it when Hilary lost
I smoked it when I could not buy a cig
My dog ate it
My crazy wife or husband seized it
are all good and acceptable answers.
So we should feel for Wole because as a play write, he too can be a stage actor. For this Green card thing, he acted a major role.
Dan

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju I salute you, sir

Like · Reply · 7 hrs

Uche Obadike You mean he tore his green card?

Like · Reply · 7 hrs

Dan Akusobi Thanks Toyin. Longest time. I noted how busy you are in the arts forum. I read them but cannot always come up with responses soothing the pictures on the issues, as they appeared in my minds. Am still canvas and paint brush challenged.

Unlike · Reply · 1 · 7 hrs

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju great thanks Dan Akusobi

Like · Reply · 6 hrs · Edited

Write a reply...

Dan Akusobi Uche,
Seems so. Wole wanted to be like me. I don't take Hennessy and may not take beer. I had hoped Hilary would win the U.S. Election even though I suspected a disappointment was coming. I told some of my friends that I will drink a bottle of Heineken...See more

Unlike · Reply · 2 · 7 hrs

Uche Obadike Lol

Like · Reply · 6 hrs

Chiwuikem Ihediwa Who saw Wole tear the card? Now for you to tear the card you have to write/return the card to US Immigration. Then your name and information will be deleted. Wole did not do any of this and he is just playing games - very typical.

Like · Reply · 1 · 6 hrs

On 2 December 2016 at 08:04, olugbenga Ojo <olugbenga.ojo@gmail.com> wrote:

The great KONGI himself. When you are big you are big and by extension when you are large,  you are large.  I hope the cynics will find something else to discuss. This man had been there before many who are too young to know some things.
To those who could not do such a thing,  there is no problems. We all have our life to lead and it's the way we want it.

Ride on Kongi

Olugbenga

On Dec 1, 2016 5:17 PM, "Ekhator Godfrey" <godgate4luv@gmail.com> wrote:

[BREAKING] Trump: I have destroyed my 'green card' – Soyinka
John Abayomi / 2 hours ago


Shortly before the vote, Soyinka had vowed to give up his permanent US residency over a Trump victory to protest against the Republican billionaire's campaign promises to get tough on immigration.

"I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do," the 82-year-old said on the sidelines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg.

"I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I'm back to where I have always been" — meaning his homeland Nigeria.

The prolific playwright, novelist and poet won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and has been a regular teacher at US universities including Harvard, Cornell and Yale.

At the same time he said he would not discourage others from applying for a green card.

"It's useful in many ways. I wouldn't for one single moment discourage any Nigerians or anybody from acquiring a green card… but I have had enough of it," he said.

Soyinka, one of Africa's most famous writers and rights activists, was jailed in 1967 for 22 months during Nigeria's civil war.

He was reported to have recently completed a term as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs.

READ ALSO :  Soyinka green card threat dominates google search

AFP.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups .com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@go oglegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group /USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferen ces/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/op tout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@ googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/ group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/ conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@ googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@ googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/ group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/ conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.