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The Reality: Africa and Asia: Why Asia Matters Most

 The Reality: Africa and Asia: Why Asia Matters Most As a student of International Relations and the fact that a keen interest in foreign affairs exists in me, I asked myself so many questions when I got Mr. Lee Kuan Yew book.  1. What is interesting is Africans always try to compare themselves with Singapore or Asia to a greater extent. What we do when we make those comparisons is we don’t look at who these countries are, and whether their circumstances are the same with ours. So, you are like a child who came up in a township, and from a poor family, trying to compare yourself with your next neighbor who has got a rich uncle or rich parents, thinking that your circumstances are the same, and trying to use that blueprint for yourself. You can’t.  2. Who is Singapore? What is Singapore? Where did Singapore come from? And what’s its position in the current value system? Singapore is a former British colony that currently repairs British, American ships. They are strategica...

Why Waging Global Boycott Campaign in Solidarity with Palestine Is Irreversible

 Why Waging Global Boycott Campaign in Solidarity with Palestine Is Irreversible  By Mu’az Ahmad “Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children”.~Nelson Mandela The people of Africa have a magnificently glorious tradition of struggle, not only for their own survival and freedom, but for the rights, security and future of all people everywhere. Taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by the South African government is a testament to the deep concern Africans share to all people everywhere, who are the victims of oppression and genocide.  Following the announcement of prominent rights activists from across the ...

The Jews and the Origin of Traffic in Secondhand Clothing

 The Jews and the Origin of Traffic in Secondhand Clothing  When the Jews landed in what is today called America, together with Christopher Columbus, around 1492, after they had been expelled from Spain on August 2, 1492, they were prohibited from settling among the people there—an order from the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, because of who they were.  Fortunately for them (the Jews), they already invested large amount of capital in the shares of the Dutch’s company. Henry Ford observes: “Nevertheless, they were forbidden to enter public service and to open retail shops, which had the effect of driving them into foreign trade in which they were soon exercising all but a monopoly because of their European connections.” “This is the only one of the thousand illustrations which can be given of the resourcefulness of the Jew. “Forbid him in one direction, he will excel in another”. When he is forbidden to deal in new clothes, he sold old clothes—that was the beginning of ...

Washington in a Unipolar World

 …on December 25, 1991–two years to the day after the Ceauşescus’ execution, twelve years to the day after the invasion of Afghanistan, and just over seventy-four years after the Bolshevik Revolution—the last leader of the Soviet Union called the president of the United States to wish him a merry Christmas, transferred to Yeltsin the codes needed to launch a nuclear attack, and reached for the pen with which he would sign the decree that officially terminated the existence of the U.S.S.R. It contained no ink, and so he had to borrow one from the Cable News Network television crew that was covering the event. Determined, despite all, to put the best possible face on what happened, he then wearily announced, in his farewell address, that: “An end has been put to the ‘Cold War’, the arms race, and the insane militarization of our country, which crippled our economy, distorted our thinking and undermined our morals. The threat of a world is no more.”  The above lines marked the be...

America Will Fall

 During the Cold War—1945 to 1991—Soviet Union not only suppressed, victimized and bribed its own citizens, smaller countries that proved their dogged commitment to leaning toward the Western Bloc got hit monumentally.  The new Kremlin leader, Gorbachev, having recognized this wrote, “One could always “suppress, compel, bribe, break or blast, but only for a certain period.” —His book, “Perestroika”.  John Lewis Gaddis observes: “From the point of view of long-term, big-time politics, no one will be able to subordinate others…Let everyone make his own choice, and let’s all respect that choice.” In the light of Gorbachev’s words, America will FALL like the “Evil Empire” of Soviet Union in the 1990s. Israel is on the verge of collapsing too.  These are not largely my opinion only, Fareed Zakaria tells us how Americans feel about their country in his article, “The Self-Doubt Superpower”, although he consoles them that this is a world that has been built by America—an int...

What the ANC in South Africa and the PDP in Nigeria Have in Common

 What the ANC in South Africa and the PDP in Nigeria Have in Common  “In 1912, after the British handed over power to the white minority, the kings and commoners from all over Southern Africa, came together to form the African National Congress—the oldest national liberation movement in black Africa and one of the greatest liberation movements in the modern world”.—Maitama Sule observed. The sudden death of General Sani Abacha, which was highly tragic, made the most senior military officer, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, anxious to hand over knowing in full the anti-military storm that his predecessor had elicited. The single most significant party that eventually came into being was People’s Democratic Party (PDP)—a party that had remained the increasingly ruling party for 16 years until 2015 with the election of APC into power.  In the light of what many Nigerians are seeing now under APC, it is becoming abundantly clear that PDP must have done more good than harm. You ca...

How Sacrifice Improves Nations and People

 How Sacrifice Improves Nations and People Among many factors, capitalism is believed to have brought about the first and second world wars—the most deadly wars in modern history. But in the first world war, Soviet Union had no idea of any of the war’s consequences, when compared with the rest of Europe. This was due to its rapid industrialization. Stalin, in Moscow on February 9, 1946, made a remarkable speech. In his speech, he called for equally arduous ‘sacrifices’ on the part of the Soviet People to recover from the damage the last war had effected, and to prepare for the next war that the contradictions of capitalism were sure to bring about.  Aside from the 400 years of struggle and sacrifice men and women exerted in the present day South Africa, let’s look at a recent history compared to the aforementioned centuries; in 1907 the idea of the creation of African National Congress came—the oldest political organization on the continent. This idea and the struggle that ens...