What it is about

Dear friends,

We started this blog in order for people to debate. The first few opinions I put up for debate were mostly controversial African issues, mainly politics intertwining with the abuse of rights. Please feel free to comment as it will motivate us to keep posting. If you have any topics you find controversial and excellent for debate, please send it to either of us with your name and I will post as soon as possible with your name to show that it is yours.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

African Nations Alienation


No this is not to do with African nations turning their people into aliens. Well at least not in the term it is commonly used for. I may not be speaking for the majority of people,but I speak of a growing mindset within our people. A mindset that is based on despising any foreigner outside the continent of Africa and creating our own form of a bubble, in efforts to incorporate a sense of a developed Pan-Africanism.
By just reading the above you may think of this mindset as utterly ridiculous, but there are always the advantages and disadvantages of each and every mentality within the world.

This mindset in a general summary is one whereby African nations focus on solely developing the continent and severing any ties with any nation outside of this beautiful continent. The perspective incorporates ideas such as leaving the colonial mindset and understanding our true rich identity, culture and resources which we can then use to the most of our advantage.
A good example of an outline for what would be implemented is seen in the speech of the first President of the independent Republic of Ghana, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, whilst attending the opening ceremony of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, which is now known as the African Union, AU). In this speech he emphasise the factor that Africa is rich enough to depend on its self only if it is willing to do so with full co-operation between nations. He stresses the fact of how Africans are deceived to believe that they are incapable of finding and developing the resources needed, when in fact the truth is most of the resources the 'colonial power' (developed countries in this context) have been imported from Africa.
Another argument is the factor that foreigners do not incorporate educating their people on all matters of Africa, yet they still manage to become successful in most if not all sectors that can be measured. Therefore, is it then reasonable for Africans to incorporate the study of the 'foreign way', instead on focusing on our own matters first? If foreigners are able to encompass themselves in a bubble of their own and not know a single thing about Africa, why then must Africans know practically every detail of what occurs in the foreigners nation? The suggestion is that Africa should alienate itself from the study of non-African areas and be more specific to their surrounding, because the system in place outside of Africa may not be particularly suitable for Africa.

ilike2learn.com



On the other hand, it can be argued that the reason we study foreigners ways of living is because we have implemented their system in many if not all of our nations. Due to this situation, we must then learn from them on how to make this system successful, by learning everything they have done to arrive where they are at this present time. It is more than obvious that “The West” and “The East” are more developed than Africa and therefore Africa should be the student and learn from the teacher. After all the way we have founded the system and way of living, is in attempt to fully reflect the nations of those who colonised us.
There are others who would rather argue that we should not disregard foreign history as it would help us both learn positive aspects that we can implement and negative aspects that we can avoid. At the same time, we can manage to bring mixture of both the foreign knowledge, as well as the Africans. In essence creating a balance, whilst producing a generation that is more equipped with a higher level of knowledge that they can adapt nearly anywhere. However, what is to determine what is taught and passed down to younger generations and what is not, if we are truly to have this acclaimed balance?

In conclusion, my simple question is should Africa alienate itself from foreigners in order to develop and prevent further exploitation without development? Or is there truly another way?

Monday 23 December 2013

Mismanagement of Resources

http://www.eco-pros.org/naturalresources.htm
Within every area where there is some form of a population of a living organism there usually tends to be one person who assumes the role as the leader and sole decider on the methods of living, conduct and improvement of the conditions. This usually results in reforms and change in tactics, or none at alll in effort to keep the population just a breath above stability. 

However, there is a saying "With power comes greed." People soon succumb to the greed that greets them at every doorstep and what was once a successful and progressive region, now walks into the future with nothing but the terrible pain and anguish they suffered in the past before their lives saw so much beauty. 

The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, the late Wangari Mathaai  said  "Development to me is a quality of life. It's not necessarily acquisition of a lot of things. I have been using the example of an African stool. An African stool has three legs. On those legs balances a basin. One of those three legs is peace. Another is good governance. And the other is good management of our resources. Now this good management of our resources, as I've said, includes equitable distribution -- allowing as many people as possible to share in the natural resources. This allows as many people as possible to experience respect, dignity."

Misplaced priorities and misappropriation of assets in any given budget is what some may say is the inhibiting the growth of areas? However can Mathaai's idea of equitable distribution be achieved or is just another dream that cannot be implemented into the reality of life? There are many theories and ideas that are proposed such as this but is this particular better management of resources possible or simply just another writing on paper?