As far as enlightened self-interest is concerned, Hillel the Elder asked, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
If we're talking about the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK, not of the United States of Africa, or the Worlöd Bank, or the IMF, then how does "myself" apply? If you ask Liz Truss, she would say as always, for Britain. For Macron it would be La France. I remember when we were dancing because Barack Obama had been elected President of the United States of Africa, mentor Harvey Cropper kindly reminded us that he had been elected POTUS of the US, not of the African Union….
So what's "fantastic" or could be said to be fantastic about the polemical Ahmed Olayinka Sule's atrocious, low-grade, narrow-minded, parochial, hate-filled remonstration that so unsuccessfully aimed at tarring and feathering disparaging and disgracing our Hon. Brother Kwasi Kwarteng - God forbid, as a self-hating nigga?
Even in this extended attack on the Tory Government's Liz Truss's latest faux pas, David Lammy does not and would not ever sink so low as to attribute the UK's economic dilemmas on the colour of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's skin colour…
Kwasi Kwarteng has not risen or "fallen" due to his skin pigmentation, his race or his ethnicity. C'mon nor did Barack Obama. - if anything Kwasi Kwarteng is very much a cosmopolitan sort of fellow, of the type that Kwame Anthony Appiah has variously tried to define when talking about Cosmopolitanism
The only thing that baffled many who expected some kind of Labour / Social Democrats " Robin Hood" kind of taxation, is that Kwarteng, true to Tory form proposed - standard Republican / Conservative - including Swedish Conservative tax cuts for the richest - so that they can afford to employ more people etc…
This latest edition of Dateline London accords with Ojogbon Toyin Falola's succinct estimation: The market forces reacted unfavourably to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's medicine - and as for the general public, you know how it is, everybody much prefers the quick fix miracle if possible, prefers that to some bitter medicine
Whilst we are at it, also worth taking a look at last week's Dateline London
Fantastic!On Sat, Oct 15, 2022 at 13:08 Bunmi fatoye-matory <bun...@gmail.com> wrote:Folks,This is a fascinating piece about the short-lived Chancellor of Exchequer.*From: Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA**To: Uncle Kwasi*Dear Uncle Kwasi,Trust all is well with you. What an incredible month and a week it has been for you — appointed Chancellor on 7 September 2022, unveiling your mini budget on 23 September 2022, seeing the financial markets crash immediately and then getting your P45 on 14 October 2022. You must feel humiliated in getting the sack less than 24 hours after going on air to say, _I'm not going anywhere._When you were appointed Britain's first black Chancellor of the Exchequer, very few black people rejoiced at your milestone. Likewise, when you were sacked from your post 38 days later, very few black people wept at your misery. Undoubtedly, you were the smartest guy in the room; your razor-sharp intellect honed at Eton, Harvard and Cambridge contributed to your meteoric rise within the Conservative party. So why were many black people apathetic to your rise and fall?Uncle Kwasi, it is because you spent most of your political career denying your blackness. When the Windrush scandal exposed your government's hostile policy of wrongly detaining and deporting blacks who arrived in the UK from the Caribbean, you were dispatched to defend the government's position by denying the claim of institutional racism. You once argued that there is a consistent expectation in the media that MPs from ethnic minorities should engage with 'black' issues. You said, _The heart of identity politics, …. has dominated the left for a couple of decades._ When you said, _To expect all Chinese people to have the same views on political economy, ethics, religion would rightly be thought of as racist,_ you flung your race under the bus. To argue that you _Would only be able to represent privately educated, single, 40-something black men_ is not only ridiculous but also ignorant.It is undoubtedly a case of the chickens coming home to roost. In your dual role as the black face of the Conservative party and the Head Negro of the Liz Truss Plantation, you threw your people under the bus to gain political capital. Now your good friend, Prime Minister Liz Truss, has thrown you under the bus to save her political career. You will go on in history as the worst and the second shortest-lived Chancellor. Instead of being a modern Moses who could have helped deliver his people from the racial bondage of UKkk, you chose to be an Honorary White who used his privilege to deny his blackness. I have always said and will continue to say:It does not matter whether you went to Eton or No EtonIt does not matter whether you went to Oxbridge or No BridgeIt does not matter whether you speak the King's English or No EnglishIt does not matter whether you work in Goldman Sachs or No SachsAs long as you are black in the UKkk, you are nothing but a Ni&$$er once you turn your back.Uncle Kwasi, your political emasculation should serve as a wake-up call for blacks ready to sell their racial birthright for a mess of political, social and economic capital. I don't believe that a black person can be British. In my opinion, the term "Black British" is an oxymoron. One could be born in Britain, reside in Britain, marry a Briton or have a British passport, but as long as you are black, your nationality will always be questioned. Hence, the standard follow-up question to _Where are you from?_ is _Where are you from originally?_Despite spending your career denying your blackness, it's time to realise that you are black. Like the regular black person, you were the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Like the regular black person, you have been the fall person to clear your boss's mess. Like the regular black person, your mistakes have been projected on your race. Like the regular black person, you have been held to a different standard than your white counterparts. When your fellow Etonian Prime Minister Boris Johnson jumped from one scandal to another, he got a first, second, third and fourth chance, not so for you. No hell was let loose when George Osborne screwed the poor with his austerity cuts, but when you took money from the poor and gave it to the rich through tax cuts, all hell was let loose.In addition to denying your blackness, you also spent a sizeable portion of your life defending the ideals of the free market. In your book Britannia Unchained which you co-wrote with Aunty Patel, Dominic Raab, Liz Truss and Chris Skidmore, you argued that the British are among the laziest people in the world. You called for less regulation, low taxes and welfare reforms. You defended an economic ideology that screwed and is still screwing the have-nots. But if you had got your economics right, you would have realised that your proposal to take the necessities of the have-nots and give luxury to the haves through tax cuts is socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. The so-called market that has been feeding on the poor has now eaten you up. You became a sacrificial lamb that the high priestess of finance laid on the altar to appease the bloodthirsty market god. With the high priest offering you as a burnt sacrifice to appease the fierce god of the market, the financial markets could calm down. Only time will tell if your former boss and co-author of Britannia Unchained will also have to be sacrificed to appease the gluttonous market.Uncle Kwasi, I hope you will learn from your humiliation and advice Aunty Kemi, Aunty Patel, and Aunty Suella on the folly of throwing your people under the bus. In the meantime, I leave you with my version of Martin Niemöller's powerful quote:First, they came for the Caribbean immigrants, and I did not speak out—because I was not an immigrant.Then they came for the welfare recipients, and I did not speak out—because I once worked in the City.Then they came for the students, and I did not speak out—because I was a privately educated, single, 40-something black man.Then they came for the protesters, and I did not speak out—because I was in the Cabinet.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.I wish you all the best in your future endeavour Uncle Kwasi.Selah.Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA@AlatenumoOctober 2022*PS: the terms "Uncle" and "Aunty" are used as a mark of respect to you and your colleague's status*--
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