Useful Links

http://tw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,961156,00.html

http://www.namebase.org/xbit/John-Ackah-Blay_2Dmiezah.html

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=102836

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/16/60minutes/main554286.shtml

IBM and Ghana (Abena A)

K,
Ghana needs help Africa needs help this is great for Ghana The big concern is the
pastor/ his majesty, that every Ghanaian who knows him has nothing positive about him.
This is our fears We will talk more about the person involved in this great project.
Abena

IBM and Ghana (Kwabena A)

You were right on target on the clear warning about a certain individual. Anybody I know, who has crossed path with this person has an "interesting" opinion about him. How could you be wrong in warning your friend about him?
Nobody is against any helping hand to Ghana and Africa.

-----Original Message-----
From: ekgiyp02@nc.rr.com
To: kwabenaa@aol.com
Cc: asakw01@yahoo.com; egaisie1@yahoo.com; armah1osu@aol.com; eoasanteus@yahoo.com; asare@mac.com; AbenaA@aol.com; asaraa5@wfu.edu; QueezerA@aol.com; gasare@yahoo.com; jtamikajones@yahoo.com; kaybonsra@dccfh.org; ktf104@hotmail.com; gagaisie@netscape.com; adwoa_kye@yahoo.co.uk; hlamptey@msn.com; petelamptey@yahoo.com; ocrany@oracalimited.com; ato_waters@fanniemae.com; watersx21@hotmail.com; sant06@yahoo.com; kwasi.yirenkyi@alum.mit.edu
Sent: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: Ghana Trip Attachments

I want to apologize for morphing Kwasi's original msg. into an irrelevent debate. Let me clear the record. This project/ opportunity that Kwasi forwarded to us is very legit. It seems that my remarks about "His Royal Majesty Kinglsy Fletcher" has opened up the floor for some us to voice our reservations about corrupt African politics. This is fine, but I did not intend to distort what was meant to be a simple FYI.

Thank you,

Edgar Gaisie

P.S.

Lets keep the communication up!

----- Original Message -----
From: kwabenaa@aol.com
Date: Sunday, February 11, 2007 5:33 am
Subject: Re: Ghana Trip Attachments
To: asakw01@yahoo.com, egaisie1@yahoo.com, armah1osu@aol.com, eoasanteus@yahoo.com, asare@mac.com, AbenaA@aol.com, asaraa5@wfu.edu, QueezerA@aol.com, gasare@yahoo.com, jtamikajones@yahoo.com, kaybonsra@dccfh.org, ktf104@hotmail.com, ekgiyp02@nc.rr.com, gagaisie@netscape.com, adwoa_kye@yahoo.co.uk, hlamptey@msn.com, petelamptey@yahoo.com, ocrany@oracalimited.com, ato_waters@fanniemae.com, watersx21@hotmail.com, sant06@yahoo.com, kwasi.yirenkyi@alum.mit.edu

> Edmund, I'm not sure that the conversation needs to be posted on
> NPR. Ghanaian bloggers are the most cruel and crude that I've ever
> read. I'm sorry, but that is exactly how I feel about their
> ferocious attacks on one another. Their "debates" lack depth of
> thought. They degenerate into ethnic attacks for lack of
> communicati! ng skills

IBM and Ghana (Edgar G)

I was down with this until I read the name Fletcher...Don't know if you know this guy but he is an arrogant, self-ritcheous prick and a phony...at least that's the impression I got from those I know whom have attended his church.

Overall the project sounds great...keep me posted

About Barack:

Trust me Barack's black enough...truth is as a minority, the majority of us will vote for our own people unconditionaly. The candidate could be white with his last name "Black" printed on the ballet and we would vote for him by default.

All this hoopla about Barack's "brothahood" is all just a smoke screen for what I believe to be the senator's true flaw...substance or lack there of. You see ever since Obama delivered that powerful speech at the democratic convention in 04', his buz has been at peak level. Senator Obama is an excellent orator, thus he is extremely effective in large crowds. He delivers a message of unity across party-lines, a theme that seems to be selling at the moment. But what about policy? for instance, what is the senator's stance on our economy? and what are his plans to improve it? I can live with Barack approaching this campaign as a Washington outsider, but at some point the ideological rhetoric will have to be backed up by an agenda with a clear objective...and maybe ...just maybe Obama will have a chance of pulling this off.

On a side note: As happy as I am for Barack and Hilary, is it just me or do you feel that during a time when the democrats have control of the congress and the oval-office is just ripe for the picking, that the party is taking a huge risk by promoting Barack and Hilary as their front runners? After all they would have to set a precedence in American voting history just to win what would have been close to a sure seat in the white house for the democrats this go round. They truly are the best candidates but Rudy Julliani (sp) is a white male. They have their work cut for them.

Talk to me,

Edgar

I want to apologize for morphing Kwasi's original msg. into an irrelevent debate. Let me clear the record. This project/ opportunity that Kwasi forwarded to us is very legit. It seems that my remarks about "His Royal Majesty Kinglsy Fletcher" has opened up the floor for some us to voice our reservations about corrupt African politics. This is fine, but I did not intend to distort what was meant to be a simple FYI.

Thank you,

Edgar Gaisie

P.S.

Lets keep the communication up!

IBM and Ghana (Kwabena A)

Edmund, I'm not sure that the conversation needs to be posted on NPR. Ghanaian bloggers are the most cruel and crude that I've ever read. I'm sorry, but that is exactly how I feel about their ferocious attacks on one another. Their "debates" lack depth of thought. They degenerate into ethnic attacks for lack of communicating skills. (Note here that I don't use the word "tribe" or its derivative: "tribal" - some of you know that I find that word offensive. It's used for animals, insects, and by our exploiters for Native Americans, Native Australians, and Africans. Go figure! Will someone tell me when s/he heard of Polish tribe, English tribe, Scottish tribe; German, Belgium, Italian, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, or Israeli tribe in the last century! I don't care how they spin the meaning of "tribe" in Anthropology, Sociology, or the Bible. It sucks! And you know what I mean)

I'll talk with several of you, individually, in course of time, and off the record. I know almost every one who is in on this conversation. I've always challenged most of you, my kids and you, my many nephews to stimulating debates. We don't get to meet often these days, so I felt compelled to write. Let's keep this conversation here for now. Of course I know how the internet works ... by now, this has leaked to a friend of a friend of a friend.

I'll give my opinion on the Kenyan for President later this afternoon. I need to catch a few hours of sleep before the cock crows, he-he-he. Yes I hear the cocks crow when I call my Mom in Ghana at dawn.
Talk with you later.

IBM and Ghana (Edmund G)

I think we need to copy the transcripts of this debate and post it on an NPR blog.

Nevertheless, I am moved by both sides of this debate. However, I have to second the countless gems Uncle Kwabenaa dropped in the previous email. I admit I do not no the details of this conference, therefore I am hesitant to dismiss its relevance. On the other hand the so called King affiliated with this project does seem a bit suspect. After observing his website, I noticed I could find endless information on "The King" and barely a sentence about the projects he spearheaded (mind you this criticism is coming from a self-proclaimed narcissist).

Oh and one last thing! Big Up to Barak Obama! Why in 2007 is the Black - American leadership saying he is not Black enough to represent the African American population? Don't let me get started! He is one of the most unique public servants to enter American politics, black or white. With that.... I step off my box of Tide.

IBM and Ghana (Kwabena A)

Hmm, Kwasi, I thought you just passed the press release, the program and the keynote speaker stuff to us. I guess you and I have to talk. I'm proud of how you think about Ghana and Africa. But I have reservations about certain things.

For the rest of the audience, my concern is the "Blay Miezer" type of dignitaries that I've heard nothing positive about for all the 22 years I've lived in this state with them (him). I applaud their desire to help Africa. I urge you all who can do something to do anything you can to help Africa. But be careful who your partners are, be they Ghanaians or not.

The history of Ghana, and presumably Africa, is fraught with those who came with the Bible, the Koran, the Tora, the Githa; with Colonialism, Imperialism, Socialism, Communism; with Democracy; with Instigation of Coups d'Etat, with Military Dictatorship; and now with "Good Governance for forgiveness of debt", all in exploitation of our human and natural resources. In Africa, you do not need letters of credit for the delivery of an AK-47 (automatic rifle) to your hut. But you will pay import duty on a bottle of Aspirin to your grandfather in Suhum.

"Forgiveness of debt": DEBT for which we have nothing to show; no airlines, railways, roads, bridges, hospitals, electricity, schools, libraries, pipe-borne water, sewerage. Nothing in return for our gold and diamond in the crowns of Queens in countries without a single diamond mine. Oil is siphoned from African rivers and lakes, farm lands and shores. Where did the debt come from? Who deposited the loan (for Ghana, for Nigeria, for Kenya) in the private accounts of the bad guys? What commission did the lenders take? How much of the principal was held back to service the loans? To insure the loans? As origination fee? Oh my God! We are bleeding with pain for the (mis)behavior of our contemporaries. We stood by as technologists and left politics to others. We focused on our research and paid no heed to the corruption. The legacy I want to leave with you is what Ronald Reagan said to (of) Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev: "Trust but verify". Where can we go from here?

Let us use our influences and our connections here, with our Majesties and their royal highnesses, in their petty kingdoms, to appeal to ALCOA to renegotiate the Volta Hydroelectric Power Contract of 50 years ago so that the people of Ghana can get a little bit more of the electricity from the Akosombo Dam. Just for home use. Let us appeal to Tyson chicken to invest in chicken/poultry farms in Ghana to provide jobs for the consumers of their product. (Imported Tyson chicken costs less than any chicken anybody can rear in Ghana). Let us appeal to Hershey of Pennsylvania to invest in pre-processing of cocoa in Ghana and/or Ivory Coast.

Earlier today, I coiled in a fetal position with chills as I listened to Senator Barack Obama declare his candidacy for the President of the United States of America. This is a Kenyan! He never forgot his roots. He visited his native land recently. Do we have a delegation of Africans in America to support his candidacy. This is a proposal for his royal highness to consider. If (when) Obama gets to the White House, unlike a certain country in the "middle east", will Kenya and/or Africa be ready to benefit from their native son's position? I doubt it.
God bless Africa.

Any Ghanaian
1) who cannot spell G-h-a-n-a-i-a-n (spelled in the article as "Ghanian") ... and I don't care what Merriam-Webster or anyone else thinks ...
2) and who thinks there are Africans in "Gahana" ...
3) and who thinks there is a "Shai Kingdom of the Republic of Ghana" today
is to be watched very carefully.

Ask any Ghanaian to tell you about Mr. Blay Miezer before you fall prey to another one of his kind!
Ghana's technological advancement cannot be planned from the pulpit!

Barrack Obama (Kwasi and Edmund)

K, so besides West, Sharpton, Dyson (thanks) and Jackson who else is credited with being the black leadership? Whenever I watch the news or listen to the radio those are the names that are mentioned. Who else is given the credit of being the black leader? Is Chris Rock right when he said it should be Pat Riley!!!! LOL!



Kwasi Asare wrote:

Sharpton and Dyson (for Edmund: spoke at NCCU graduation)? come on man please don't tell me the qualify as black leadership, intelligentsia, or the moral compass of black America and don't get me even started on Uncle Jesse...if I'm hanging out with Michael Essein and he gets shot, that doesn't make me the starting defensive midfielder for Ghana and Chelsea

Kwasi Asare


"Common sense is common, but it's just not common to everybody"
~Emmanuel Anoff

Barack Obama (Kwabena A)

Kwaku did not share his piece that he sent to me with the reading audience, as stimulating as his thesis on Obama was. However, Ed and Ed raised the same issues so I've decided to share my comment on Kwaku's text with all of you:

Obama's Presidential bid is not just an exercise in Black presidential aspirations. It is a continuation of the struggle for our grandchildren. He does not have to win the White House to take us a step closer to the "Promised Land"! (Yes, this is Black History Month in the US, for those of you listening in from UK, Japan and South Africa)

Kwaku, what you termed "White America", I believe will not be any different in 2012, 2016, or 2020 for Obama, or Jackson, or Sharpton. If any change at all, it will be a better chance for a Latino candidate than any other to win the White House.

A strong case can be made in a debate over Obama's experience or lack thereof. Other than Vice Presidents (who aspire to be presidents), where does one train to become a President? Yes, the one institution I know is the Ghana Military Academy .

How old was Martin Luther King when he became, what I term, the "Moses of the Negro People"? He was about 25 years!

Several months ago when Mrs Clinton's name was the only game in town, I heard the same story that a woman cannot win the White House and if she becomes the Democratic candidate, the Republican boys will cream her! I'll leave others to make the case for Mrs Clinton, or we may return to her case in the future. The pessimism over Clinton and Obama has rekindled the "bring back Gore" campaign. Gore is doing an excellent job in the battle of ecology and industrial greed.

All well and good! My loyalties are clear. I can't wait to see a Democrat in the White House.

But, we must not forget that, the founders of this nation did not want a one party state. What happened in the last six years with a Republican White House, a Republican Senate, a Republican House of Representatives, that was gradually creating a Conservative Supreme Court, would make George Washington gather his bones and turn in his grave! Think about what has happened since November 2006. When the Senate and the House (Congress) went to the other Party, the White House paid attention! This country functions very well when the powers are separated. Akua, how am I doing on the Constitution?

In 1964, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) of Ghana, committed a political suicide when the party with it's overwhelming parliamentary majority proclaimed Nkrumah, President for life! The judiciary was hand picked by the President! The Parliament (Legislature) became the rubber stamp of the Executive. The economy went into a tail spin. And nobody could tell the President that "he had no clothes". In 1966, it took only one, a single foreign diplomat of a certain (unnamed) powerful nation, who was stationed in a neighboring country, with a few pounds/dollars to get a Colonel and a Major in the Ghana Army to set the country on a downward spiral with no recovery for 34 years of one coup e'etat after another.

Tip ONeill, former US Congressman and Speaker of the House of Representatives said that all politics is local. I for one, my special interest in Obama is that he has already moved the line of scrimmage one step forward to the "Promised Land", not for me and you, but for our grandchildren and their children!

Ed and Ed, I’m sure the reading audience enjoyed your commentary. I did. If Obama has announced his candidacy with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on a podium besides him, would that have made him "black enough" to those who see him as ... (whatever)? I've embodied the sentiments in your articles to a large extent in this response to my dear friend, Kwaku's, assessment of the Obama factor in American politics today.

There is a new world order. What happens in the American White House today reverberates through the corridors of the Castle in Accra, the streets of Abuja, and the alleys of Dar Es Salam. Do not sit idle.

The Darfour refugees in Chad, the Somalia refugees in Kenya, are you, you, you and me. They are the sisters and brothers of the African student you met at the party at the frat house. If it could happen in Nigeria(the land of Balewa), Sierra Leon(the land of Siaka Stevens), Liberia(the land of Tubman), and Ivory Coast (the land of Houphet Boigny) it could happen any where.

Talk with you later.

(PS: I'm too tired to proof read this article ...good night ... you do the editing for me)

Barack Obama (Edmund)

It's too late! I've already posted our corespondence on NPR. Terry Gross will be contacting you all shortly: -)

About Barak Obama: African American leaders didn't come straight out and say Barack Obama isn't "Black Enough". The media has interpereted it that way and judging from earlier comments from the Black leadership I would have come to the same conclusion. I've heard Cornel West, Michael.....(Gentleman who spoke at Edgar's graduation), and Al Sharpton make comments on the level that Barack Obama does not fully represent the issues of the African American community, therefore he shouldn't be assumed as the favorite canidate. I truly believe that just because a canidate is black doesn't mean that he automatically earns the black vote. However, Barak Obama's politial career began in the black community on the south side of Chicago. Let's face it, he's no Alan Keyes and at the same time he is no Jesse Jackson. This is what makes him appealing to me. He's sympathetic to race issues, however, his rehtoric on race issues is current and does not mimic the traditional civil rights play book. Don't get me wrong he is still a politician and I'm sure he will make political decsisions that dissapoint me. However, I get the sense that he approaches social and political issues with a sense of pragmatism that is rare in liberal politics. On one other hand I can appreciate the resentment that must come from some of the black leadership. I can imagine being Jesse Jackson, having ran for president before and being an icon of the civil rights movement for almost 40 years. To have a newcomer like Barack Obama soak up all the attention with little opposition, I'd be a little resentful too. However, I believe that gap will close as 2008 approaches.

Bill Clinton has more political instincts in his pinky toe then his wife will ever have. She is extremely smart, however, she is a politician with no unique ideas of her own and I don't think she will make a good president. In my opinion black Americans don't owe Hillary anything for marrying Bill.

Barrack Obama

Edmund, I've _not_ heard that sentiment ("not black enough") from the African-American leadership (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, John Lewis, et al) about Barack Hussein Obama. I've heard that the polls indicate that Hillary Clinton has more support among African-Americans than Obama. It is not surprising.

The Clintons did quite a bit, if not a lot, for the African-American community. I heard someone say that Bill Clinton was the next best thing to a black president. I appreciate the loyalty of anyone in the African-American community who feels that Mrs Clinton has to be rewarded for her husband's good deeds. Obama came in after Mrs Clinton's camp has put out the prospects for her candidacy. It will take time for Obama to gain the name recognition and traction the Clinton's have. He is on his way.

I've no doubt that in the muddy waters of party politics, everything, including the kitchen sink will be thrown at the opponent. Why not hurt him by casting doubts about his faith, his blood line, his loyalty to your cause?

It is sad, isn't it? And if those accusations do not stick why not go deeper to hurt him. Is the issue because his mother is not of African descent? Is it because his father is not an American? Is it because his parents did not experience the pain and pangs of Government sanctioned racism and discrimination? Is it because his father did not have to use "Colors only" wash room? Is it because he or his father was not hosed in Mississippi or Alabama? Is it because he did not need the National Guard escort to enter Harvard?

Times have changed. Yes, we have a long way to go, but times have changed. A black woman has won the Oscar; a black man has won the Oscar. A black woman has been in outer space. A black woman has been shot and wounded in Iraq. A black man has died in Iraq. A black woman has been a Presidential candidate. Times have changed. But, yes, we have a long way to go.

Michelle Obama said (CBS) that her husband "being a black man Barack could be shot on his way to the gas station". She was speaking in the contest of what could happen to him as a Presidential candidate. She said they don't make their decisions "based on what could happen". It was not the truthfulness of her statement that shocked me as the body language of Obama, sitting beside her with his eyes glued to the floor! It's obviously something they've talked about and deeply buried in his mind (as if I know anything about psychoanalysis). How sad? How sad it is? Michelle was right. But if, God forbid, that would happen to another black man, on his way to the noble office of the Presidency of the United States of America that should not end the struggle. Their decision is not based on what could happen. May God protect this family.

Obama's success is the shot in the arm (no pun intended) that every African-American mother has been craving: the male role model for their sons. America, wake up! Charles Buckley did not want to be a role model. African American youth, let your "uncle" Obama be your role model!
Talk with you later.
Kwabena

-----Original Message-----
From: egaisie1@yahoo.com

Oh and one last thing! Big Up to Barak Obama! Why in 2007 is the Black - American leadership saying he is not Black enough to represent the African American population? Don't let me get started! He is one of the most unique public servants to enter American politics, black or white. With that.... I step off my box of Tide.