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(TriceEdneyWire.com/Global Information Network) – A revised travel ban by the Trump administration is already in trouble with a leading aid agency, with the travel industry, and with the Nigerian government which has urged its citizens to postpone making trips to the U.S. without “compelling or essential reasons.” The new travel ban, which still targets majority-Muslim countries, slightly modifies an earlier order that sparked chaos at airports across the country as travelers – even those with green cards – were denied entry by local officers. One of the harsher critics of the new ban, the head of the NY-based International Rescue Committee, labeled it an “historic assault on refugee resettlement to the United States, and a really catastrophic cut at a time there are more refugees around the world than ever before.” “There is there is no national security justification for this ‘catastrophic’ cut in refugee admissions,” declared David Miliband, adding that the ban singles out “the most vulnerable, most vetted population that is entering the United States.” The IRC provides humanitarian aid in five African countries, six Middle Eastern countries, six Asian countries, three European countries, and 22 cities in the U.S. Trump’s latest order suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, though refugees already formally scheduled for travel by the State Department will be allowed entry. When the suspension is lifted, the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. will be capped at 50,000 for fiscal year 2017. But the new and higher bars to entry to the U.S. have the tourism industry biting its nails. Travel analytics firm ForwardKeys tallied the fall-off in major tourism-dependent U.S. cities as 6.5 percent in the eight days after President Donald Trump’s initial travel ban was announced on Jan. 27th. In New York City, analysts foresee some 300,000 fewer visitors from abroad this year than in 2016, a 2.1 percent dip. It’s the first time for such a fall-off since 2008, says NYC & Company, New York’s tourism arm. Even some African countries are sounding the alarm. In Nigeria, for example, special presidential adviser Abike Dabiri-Erewa, urged Nigerians to consider postponing visits to the U.S. “In the last few weeks, the office has received a few cases of Nigerians with valid multiple-entry US visas being denied entry and sent back to Nigeria,” she said. “In such cases, affected persons were sent back immediately on the next available flight and their visas were cancelled.” Planned trips should be delayed, she advised, barring compelling or essential reasons, until there is clarity on the new immigration policy from Washington. The latest action by the Trump administration could spell trouble for the 2.1 million African immigrants living in the U.S., 327,000 of whom were born in Nigeria, according to the Pew Research Center, published in February. GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media. |
Category: World News
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Revised ban on immigrants is ‘catastrophic’, critics charge
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No clues yet as to Trump’s Policy for Africa, but theories abound
Young African Leaders in (YALI) DC, an Obama program on the chopping block.(TriceEdneyWire.com/Global Information Network) – If U.S. President Donald Trump has an Africa policy in the works, he’s keeping the details close to his chest. So far, there is neither an assistant secretary of state for Africa nor an ambassador. The incumbent secretary, Linda Thomas Greenfield, retires on March 10.
Peter Pham, vice-president and Africa director of the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC. Is reportedly seeking a position. In a strategy paper prepared for the Trump administration, Pham proposed an initiative he calls “earned engagement.”
The US, he says, should grant diplomatic recognition only to governments with legitimate sovereign control over their countries. Somalia, for example, would not be among those countries having had 15 transitional governments following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. None of these were recognized by Republican or Democratic administrations.
Recognition might also be withdrawn from the Democratic Republic of Congo if President Joseph Kabila fails to honor his commitment to retire this year after elections.
More resources would be channeled into Africom, according to Pham, not only to address insecurity directly, but also to continue to beef up African militaries.
Other clues as to the President’s Africa plans appeared last month in a New York Times article which revealed a retreat from development and humanitarian goals while pushing business opportunities across the continent.
New executive orders are reportedly being prepared with drastic funding cuts to U.N. peacekeeping operations – now almost a third of which are funded by the US – the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Population Fund, which oversees maternal and reproductive health programs.
Anton du Plessis, head of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies fears that Trump will “securitize” US policy, funding and engagement in Africa, focusing heavily on security problems such as Boko Haram, while ignoring efforts to create stability in the long term through democracy, good governance and sustainable development.
Among such efforts would be one of former President Barack Obama’s most successful programs – the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) which brings several hundred young African professionals and entrepreneurs to the US for six weeks each summer.
“It is possible that Trump’s term in office will surprise us on Africa,” observed former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson. “Republican administrations have outperformed on this front before. President Bush certainly did, and his two landmark initiatives – PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation – remain extremely popular.”
But given the absence of any serious White House interest in Africa, Secretary Rex Tillerson, with limited knowledge of Africa having dealt mainly with corrupt and authoritarian leaders as head of ExxonMobil, may become the key American player on Africa. -
CBC Chair G. K. Butterfield and Rep. Robin Kelly condemn discriminatory housing practices of Facebook advertising
Congressman G. K. Butterfield
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G. K. Butterfield (NC-01), and Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02) condemn Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for its use of “Ethnic Affinities” advertising that allows users to exclude groups based on race and ethnicity in clear violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
“We have witnessed exclusion and discriminatory practices among popular social media platforms once before,” said Chairman Butterfield. “Racism and discrimination in any form should never be tolerated. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are outraged and challenge Facebook and all social media platforms to take the issue of discrimination seriously and implement innovative solutions that aim to prevent ill-treatment of its customers and discrimination on its platform.”
“As a representative of Chicago, the origin city of Hansberry v. Lee which helped strike down restrictive housing covenants, I feel a particular obligation to see to it that discriminatory housing practices are not allowed to endure,” said Congresswoman Kelly. “While I don’t believe that Facebook intentionally sought to promote housing discrimination, I do feel they now have a responsibility to right this wrong. Technology shouldn’t be used to divide communities, and episodes like this are preventable. This conversation isn’t limited to Facebook, and unfortunately there have been a number of recent reports about technology being misused to divide communities. Without a doubt the tech sector can benefit from having a more diverse, robust and inclusive design and vetting process as they continue innovating.”
Reps. Butterfield, Kelly, Emanuel Cleaver, II (MO-05) and Yvette Clarke (NY-09) addressed their concerns with Facebook in a letter, and has called upon the company to swiftly address and remedy the discriminatory practice in a manner that continues to allow and support innovation, as well as promotes inclusion and diversity among its workforce and throughout the tech sector.
Since its establishment in 1971, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have joined together to empower America’s neglected citizens and address their legislative concerns. For more than 40 years, the CBC has consistently been the voice for people of color and vulnerable communities in Congress and has been committed to utilizing the full Constitutional power and statutory authority of the United States government to ensure that all U.S. citizens have an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. To learn more about the Congressional Black Caucus, visit http://cbc-butterfield.house.gov.
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Students lead new wave of anti-Trump protests
Susan Miller , USA TODAY
Los Angeles protest Trump’s election and protestors in New York City march to Trump Towers to protest election results
High school students led the charge Monday as protests against President-elect Donald Trump rolled into a sixth day.
Hundreds of teens, many not even old enough to vote, exited classrooms on both coasts, carting signs and chanting slogans against a man they say poses a threat to their future. The students are part of a protest movement that has seen tens of thousands taking to the streets in U.S. cities large and small after Tuesday’s election. Monday’s protests happened in Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Silver Spring, Md., among others.
Hundreds of students from about a dozen Oakland high schools walked out on their classes and took to the streets. “We hope to get our rights and just get our freedom. We want less racism, stop the violence, all of that,” said 14-year-old Salvador Briseno, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
While most protesters acknowledge they can’t change the fact that Trump beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the electoral vote count, they say they want to make a statement that the Republican’s barbed campaign comments against women, Muslims, immigrants and beyond aren’t acceptable and Trump’s policies have not earned a national mandate. Clinton still leads Trump 48% to 47% in the popular vote.
In Los Angeles, students converged Monday on Mariachi Plaza, a gathering spot for the city’s iconic musicians, and marched to City Hall. The walkout was part of a planned demonstration in the Los Angeles Area School District, KTLA reported.
“Although it has been nearly a week since the presidential election, many students remain concerned about the outcome and want their voices to be heard,” Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement released by the district Monday morning, KTLA said. “These are important conversations that need to take place. We want our students to know they are not alone.”
The students carried signs with message such as “Be Kind Not Racist,” “We Reject the President Elect” and “Bridges Not Walls.” Many of the youths were Latino, and some lifted aloft Mexican and American flags as they trekked down the street. Some protest signs were in Spanish.
A few students had a rejoinder for those charging that the younger generation, many loyal to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries, bears responsibility for Trump’s stunning upset. “Don’t Blame Millennials or the 3rd Party Vote; Blame the DNC,” one sign read.
United Teachers Los Angeles union applauded the walkout, saying the union “stands proudly” with the students, KLTA reported. “We believe students should join their communities in expressing themselves through peaceful protests,” the union said in a statement.
In Silver Spring, Md., a northern suburb of the nation’s capital, youths from five high schools walked out en masse Monday morning for a student-led march. About 500 students, some chanting “we reject the president-elect,” blocked traffic on a busy downtown boulevard on their journey to Veteran’s Plaza. School officials said no teachers were involved in organizing the protest.
“We want the children to realize what their political power is and how to utilize their voices,” said pastor Jeffrey Thames, who joined the protest at one point. Other passersby offered words of encouragement.
In Portland, Ore., hundreds of students from at least three schools also staged a walkout and march to City Hall. The protesters caused some disruptions for shoppers and merchants when they headed to a shopping mall.
While most of the anti-Trump protests have been peaceful, Portland has had a turbulent week with nightly demonstrations that have turned violent and led to at least 100 arrests. On Saturday, protesters blocked streets and tossed bottles and other projectiles at police officers.
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National Police Group apologizes for past racial injustices, but not current ones
Julia Craven Reporter, The Huffington Post
Police in riot gear walk outside Bank of America Stadium before a football game in Charlotte, North Carolina in September. Protests disrupted the city after an officer fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old black man.
The president of the largest police organization in the country issued an apology on Monday to communities of color for the “historic mistreatment” they have suffered at the hands of law enforcement officers.
Terrence Cunningham, the police chief of Wellesley, Massachusetts, delivered the apology during a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in San Diego. The IACP includes 23,000 police officials from across the United States, The Washington Post reports.
“We must forge a path that allows us to move beyond our history and identify common solutions to better protect our communities,” Cunningham said. “For our part, the first step in this process is for law enforcement and the IACP to acknowledge and apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color.”
“There have been times when law enforcement officers, because of the laws enacted by federal, state and local governments, have been the face of oppression for far too many of our fellow citizens,” he continued. “In the past, the laws adopted by our society have required police officers to perform many unpalatable tasks, such as ensuring legalized discrimination or even denying the basic rights of citizenship to many of our fellow Americans.” 1.
Cunningham has a point. The relationship between law enforcement and communities of color has long been strained ― especially for African-Americans. Modern-day police forces grew out of slave patrols (at least in the South). During the height of the Jim Crow era, police officers were tasked with maintaining state-sanctioned racial oppression.
“While this is no longer the case, this dark side of our shared history has created a multigenerational ― almost inherited ― mistrust between many communities of color and their law enforcement agencies,” Cunningham said.
But racial discrimination in policing didn’t end with Jim Crow. Police officers are still required to enforce racially discriminatory laws ― such as SB 1070, an immigration law in Arizona that requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they think is in the country illegally. Or New York’s “stop and frisk” policy, which was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in New York in 2013 for violating the Fourth Amendment rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers.
As movements like Black Lives Matter note, people of color ― especially African-Americans ― are disproportionately killed, harassed and stopped by the police for mundane reasons. Because of this, trust toward the police is far lower in communities of color.
Cunningham is certainly aware of this: He pointed to the high-profile police shootings of unarmed black people that have “tragically undermined the trust that the public must and should have in their police departments.”
“Many officers who do not share this common heritage often struggle to comprehend the reasons behind this historic mistrust,” Cunningham said. “As a result, they are often unable to bridge this gap and connect with some segments of their communities.”
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Hurricane Matthew death toll passes 800 in Haiti, cholera takes lives
By Makini Brice and Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters
Girls hold hands as they help each other wade through a flooded street after the passing of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. Two days after the storm rampaged across the country’s remote southwestern peninsula, authorities and aid workers still lack a clear picture of what they fear is the country’s biggest disaster in years. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
Destroyed houses are seen in a village after Hurricane Matthew passes Corail, Haiti, October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYChildren stand in flooded street in Haiti; and Destroyed houses are seen in a village after Hurricane Matthew passes Corail, Haiti, October 6, 2016.
CHANTAL, Haiti/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Hurricane Matthew’s trail of destruction in Haiti stunned those emerging from the aftermath on Friday, with the number of dead soaring to 877, tens of thousands left homeless and outbreaks of cholera already claiming more lives.
Information trickled in from remote areas that were cut off by the storm and it became clear that at least 175 people died in villages clustered among the hills and on the coast of Haiti’s fertile western tip.
Rural clinics overflowed with patients whose wounds including broken bones had not been treated since the storm hit on Tuesday. Food was scarce and at least seven people died of cholera, likely because of flood water mixing with sewage.
The storm razed homes to their foundations. The corrugated metal roofs of those still standing were ripped off, the contents visible from above as if peering into doll’s houses.
At least three towns reported dozens of fatalities, including the hilly farming village of Chantal, whose mayor said 86 people were killed, mostly when trees crushed houses. He said 20 more people were missing.
“A tree fell on the house and flattened it, the entire house fell on us. I couldn’t get out,” said driver Jean-Pierre Jean-Donald, 27, who had been married for a year.
“People came to lift the rubble, and then we saw my wife who had died in the same spot,” said Jean-Donald, his young daughter by his side, crying “Mommy.”
The death toll continued to rise on Friday in southwest Haiti. Dozens more were missing, many of them in the Grand’Anse region on the northern side of the peninsula.
“We flew over parts of the Grand’Anse region. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe,” said Frenel Kedner, a government official in the town of Jeremie in southwest Haiti. “The people urgently need food, water, medicine.”
Cholera cases rise
In the town of Anse-d’Hainault, seven people died of cholera, a disease that did not exist in Haiti until U.N. peace keepers introduced it after a 2010 earthquake that killed some 200,000 people.
Another 17 cholera cases were reported in Chardonnieres on the south coast.
“Due to massive flooding and its impact on water and sanitation infrastructure, cholera cases are expected to surge after Hurricane Matthew and through the normal rainy season until the start of 2017,” the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a statement.
With fatalities mounting, various government agencies and committees differed on total deaths. A Reuters count of deaths reported by civil protection and local officials put the toll at 877.
Haiti’s central civil protection agency, which takes longer to collate numbers because it needs to visually confirm victims itself, said 271 people died asMatthew smashed through the western peninsula on Tuesday with 145 mph (233 kph) winds and torrential rain.
Some 61,500 people were in shelters, the agency said.
Matthew pushed the sea into fragile coastal villages, some of which are only now being contacted. Coastal town Les Anglais lost “several dozen” people, Louis-Paul Raphael, the central government representative in the region, told Reuters.
Les Anglais was the first place in Haiti that Matthew reached, as a powerful Category 4 storm before it moved north, lost strength and lashed central Florida on Friday.
With cellphone networks down and roads flooded by sea and river water, aid has been slow to reach towns and villages. Instead, locals have been helping each other.
“My house wasn’t destroyed, so I am receiving people, like it’s a temporary shelter,” said Bellony Amazan in the town of Cavaillon, where around a dozen people died. Amazan said she had no food to give people.
Outside Chantal, stall holders at a makeshift market were selling vegetables and soft drinks, brought in from Port-Au-Prince as roads were cleared to the capital.
“All our houses have been destroyed. This is our existence,” said one stall holder, who declined to give her name.
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Ailing Obama health care act may have to change to survive
By ROBERT PEAR, New York Times
President Obama
WASHINGTON — The fierce struggle to enact and carry out the Affordable Care Act was supposed to put an end to 75 years of fighting for a health care system to insure all Americans. Instead, the law’s troubles could make it just a way station on the road to another, more stable health care system, the shape of which could be determined on Election Day.
Seeing a lack of competition in many of the health law’s online insurance marketplaces, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and much of the Democratic Party are calling for more government, not less.
The departing president, the woman who seeks to replace him and nearly one-third of the Senate have endorsed a new government-sponsored health plan, the so-called public option, to give consumers an additional choice. A significant number of Democrats, for whom Senator Bernie Sanders spoke in the primaries, favor a single-payer arrangement, which could take the form of Medicare for all.
Donald J. Trump and Republicans in Congress would go in the direction of less government, reducing federal regulation and requirements so insurance would cost less and no-frills options could proliferate. Mr. Trump would, for example, encourage greater use of health savings accounts, allow insurance policies to be purchased across state lines and let people take tax deductions for insurance premium payments.
In such divergent proposals lies an emerging truth: Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement will almost certainly have to change to survive. The two parties agree that for too many people, health plans in the individual insurance market are still too expensive and inaccessible.
“Employer markets are fairly stable, but the individual insurance market does not feel stable at all,” said Janet S. Trautwein, the chief executive of the National Association of Health Underwriters, which represents more than 100,000 agents and brokers who specialize in health insurance. “In many states, the individual market is in a shambles.”
Mr. Obama himself, while boasting that 20 million people had gained coverage because of the law, acknowledged in July that “more work to reform the health care system is necessary.”
“Too many Americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles or pay their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured,” Mr. Obama wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The marketplace faces a major test in the fourth annual open enrollment season, which starts on Nov. 1, a week before Election Day. In many counties, consumers will see higher premiums and fewer insurers, as Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth have curtailed their participation in the exchanges, and many of the nonprofit insurance cooperatives, created with federal money, have shut down.
Mr. Trump has said that Congress must “completely repeal Obamacare,” and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly tried to do so. But parts of the law appear to be here to stay. One such provision, now widely accepted, says that insurers cannot deny coverage because of a person’s medical condition or history.
For their part, many Democrats are clamoring for a public insurance option, as they did nine years ago.
“Supporters of the public option warned that private insurance companies could not be trusted to provide reliable coverage or control costs,” said Richard J. Kirsch, who led a grass-roots organization that fought for passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010. “The shrinking number of health insurers is proof that these warnings were spot on.”
On Sept. 15, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, introduced a resolution calling for a public option. The measure now has 32 co-sponsors, including the top Senate Democrats: Harry Reid of Nevada, Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.
“You need competition to make the exchanges successful,” Mr. Merkley said in an interview. “A public option guarantees there’s competition in each and every exchange around the country.”
As they did before the Affordable Care Act was enacted, insurance lobbyists are mobilizing to kill the public option. The main trade group for the industry, America’s Health Insurance Plans, says it would do nothing to stabilize the exchanges, and in an urgent “action alert,” the group asked member companies to lobby against Mr. Merkley’s resolution.
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate health committee, said the Democrats’ public option plan would compound the problems it seeks to solve.
“Obamacare exchanges are collapsing because of federal mandates and a lack of flexibility,” Mr. Alexander said. “We need to give states more flexibility and individuals more choices so more people can buy low-cost insurance.”
Mr. Trump would replace the Affordable Care Act with an assortment of conservative policies, including some that are similar to ideas favored by House Republicans and by think tanks like the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute. But Democrats and some Republicans say that Mr. Trump has not laid out a comprehensive, coherent alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Trump would eliminate the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. He would encourage the sale of insurance across state lines, in a bid to increase competition. And he would convert Medicaid, now an open-ended entitlement, into a block grant, giving each state a lump sum of federal money to provide health care to low-income people.
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President Obama defends Colin Kaepernick’s right not to stand for National Anthem at NFL games
By: Roland Martin NewsOne
SAN DIEGO, CA – SEPTEMBER 1: Eric Reid #35 and Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel on the sideline during the anthem, as free agent Nate Boyer stands, prior to the game against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium on September 1, 2016 in San Diego, California. The 49ers defeated the Chargers 31-21. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images) Colin Kaepernick joined by teammate Eric Reed take a knee during playing of National Anthem before NFL pre-season game
President Barack Obama has weighed in on the Colin Kaepernick National Anthem protest controversy and backed the NFL quarterback’s right to protest as being covered under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is vowing to sit during the national anthem in protest over police killings of African-Americans. Is he being anti-American by expressing his right to protest which is covered under the First Amendment of the Constitution?
Despite the endorsement, Kaepernick’s detractors continue to harbor animosity against him.
During Monday’s edition of NewsOne Now, Roland Martin and his panel of guests discussed the ongoing Kaepernick saga and the protest action that seems to be slowly picking up momentum amongst other pro-athletes after U.S. Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who is a lesbian, also took a knee during the National Anthem before a recent soccer match.
To add to the support, Kaepernick’s football jersey is the top-selling jersey on the NFL’s www.nflshop.com website.
Martin said Kaepernick’s protest is resonating with many Americans because “he is making a point that is critically important and he’s not some guy who is clueless” on the issues of racism and police brutality.
Michelle Bernard, President and CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy, said she was disgusted by many of the comments posted on social media by those who do not agree with Kaepernick’s chosen method of protest. She explained there is a contingent of Americans who have expressed outrage by saying, “How dare you? You make so much money in the NFL, this is not a problem, you shouldn’t be speaking out on this. Take your money, be happy, and this is so unpatriotic.”
Bernard then refuted those claims: “We live in a country where you are able to speak your mind and if you’re White … not get shot because you’ve done it.”
Ralph Chittams, Senior Vice Chairman of the Washington, D.C. Republican Party, said Kaepernick is “well within his Constitutional rights. “He has the right to stand, sit, kneel [or] not even come out of the locker room for the National Anthem,” Chittams said. “We’ve gotten to a point in this country where we don’t value dissenting opinions; we demand agreement and uniformity.”
Bernard added: “The nation pretends that Black men don’t have minds of their own, that they can’t speak and that if you speak on an issue that is important to you, it means that you’re not patriotic and you don’t like the country.”
Martin reminded viewers Kaepernick is “ticking folks off” because “America never wants to discuss the why of the protest; they only want to discuss the protest.”
Before delving into the controversy surrounding the football star, Dr. Jason Johnson gave the NewsOne Now audience a little historical context about the Star-Spangled Banner that many may not know.
In The Root, Dr. Johnson said: The Star-Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key, because he was bitter about the fact that he had lost to a group of Black soldiers and then those same Black soldiers were coming in and trashing Baltimore on behalf of the British.”
Johnson continued, “The British had offered runaway slaves — if you come and fight for us against the country that enslaved and oppressed you, we will give you your freedom.”
The whole song, in essence, according to Johnson, “is basically a diss track about a bitter, rich, pro-slavery White man saying ‘I don’t like that Black people are coming for freedom.’”
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ANC, the party of Mandela in South Africa, losses several local elections
Mmusi Maimane, leader of Democratic Alliance in South Africa
Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa
Aug. 8, 2016 (GIN) – It was a long night for the African National Congress party faithful as a popular revolt in the cities of Tshwane (Pretoria) and Port Elizabeth upended the ANC’s long-held power base in those two key municipalities.
The ANC was beaten in working-class “black township” areas such as Mamelodi in Tshwane, and Motherwell in Port Elizabeth.
The party’s numbers fell even when they managed to eke out a victory. In ward 21 in Mabopane, north-western Tshwane, for example, ANC support fell from 82% at the last municipal elections to 59%. The opposition Democratic Alliance, on the other hand, doubled their vote total to just short of 20% and the Economic Freedom Fighters picked up 19% itself.
Final results released by the Electoral Commission of South Africa on Saturday night confirm the ANC will need a coalition to govern Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Rustenburg.
The ANC’s performance raises fears about the 2019 general election. Party officials have circled the wagons around their leader. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe blamed voters: “Black people do not appreciate the value of voting,” he said in a radio interview, adding he saw a noticeable difference between the energy with which people in the “suburbs” and people in the “townships” went about things on Election Day.
In the primarily white suburbs, he observed, long lines formed early Wednesday, while voters in the townships took their time getting to the voting stations. Those who blame President Jacob Zuma cite his failure to rein in corruption including spending taxpayer dollars for upgrades at his private home and luxury cars for his four wives, allowing needs for basic services to go unmet, and generally failing to prioritize the needs of the poor. By Monday, Gauteng ANC leaders were calling for Zuma to step down. Besides costing them votes because of the corruption allegations and many scandals associated with his administration, they fault him for racially divisive statements towards the Democratic Alliance (DA). “Confused Black people” voted for the DA but are now coming back to the ANC, Zuma said, adding that the DA is the brainchild of apartheid and does not have the interest of Black people at heart.
Meanwhile, Mmusi Maimane, the first black leader of the Democratic Alliance, is being compared to President Barack Obama. Holding a Master’s degree in theology, his stirring oratorical skills and cerebral aloofness recall the U.S. president, writes Aryn Baker of Time magazine. “From the moment he entered politics, he proved an electrifying speaker.”Maimane vows to fight to fulfill Mandela’s vision of a “rainbow nation.” “It’s upon all of us as South Africans to fight for that ideal of non-racialism,” he says. The ANC has two short years before presidential polls to turn the tide. Without taking action quickly, the party has little hope of reinventing itself. It is not a long road from 54% to 44% — just ask the dazed and confused ANC leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay, wrote an opinion writer in Business Day Live.
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1. Federation holds 49th Annual Meeting – August 18-20, 2016
The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund will hold its 49th. Annual Meeting next week, from August 18 to 20, 2016. The Federation is the primary organization working with Black farmers and landowners in rural communities across the South. The Federation operates a Rural Training and Research Center near Epes, Alabama, in Sumter County.
The theme of the meeting is “ A Legacy of Hope, Vision and Collective Wealth Building”. According to Cornelius Blanding, Federation Executive Director, “Our theme speaks to almost half a century of work and progress in developing cooperatives and credit unions in economically distressed communities, assisting Black farmers and landowners to retain and utilize their land, and advocating for progressive public policies to improve the lives of our membership in rural communities.”
The Annual Meeting begins on Thursday, August 18, 2016 at the Sheraton Civic Center Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama with a Board of Directors meeting, roundtables of supporters and the 15th annual Estelle Witherspoon Lifetime Achievement Award Banquet.
“This award is named for a founding member of the Federation, who was Manager of the Freedom Quilting Bee in Wilcox County, Alabama. This year we are honoring three veteran civil rights workers:
Robert “Bob” Moses, Hollis Watkins and David “Dave” J. Dennis, Sr. These three played an instrumental role in organizing, guiding and implementing the ‘1964 Freedom Summer Project’ in Mississippi. They also helped to develop local Black community leaders who formed some of the cooperatives that were part of organizing the Federation in 1967,” said Blanding.
Robert “Bob” Parris Moses was the leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) who established SNCC Mississippi Project in 1961. He was a Co-Director of COFO, which developed the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project and helped to form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the all-white Mississippi Delegation to the 1964 Democratic Convention. More recently Bob Moses developed the nationwide Algebra Project to enhance teaching of mathematics to minority students based on broad based community organizing and collaboration with parents, teachers and students.
Hollis Watkins is also a SNCC activist in Mississippi. He was involved with the 1964 Freedom Summer and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party activities. He was a founder of Southern Echo, which shared office space with the Mississippi Association of Co-ops in Jackson, MS. He is also the founder and President of Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.
David “Dave” J. Dennis, Sr. from Louisiana was the Director of the Mississippi Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Co-Director with Bob Moses of COFO and the Mississippi Summer Project.
After working in the civil rights movement in Mississippi and Louisiana, he received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He opened a law office in Lafayette, Louisiana. Father A. J. McKnight and the Southern Cooperative Development Fund were among his clients. At a SNCC reunion in 1989, he reunited with Bob Moses and set up the Southern Office of the Algebra Project.
On Friday and Saturday, August 19 and 20, the Annual Meeting shifts to the Federation’s Rural Training and Research Center near Epes, Alabama.
On Friday there will be a series of workshops on agriculture, forestry and cooperative development, including participation by representatives of USDA agencies explaining their programs and services. The Friday sessions will end with a fish fry, auction and entertainment.
Saturday’s program begins with a Prayer Breakfast and continues with board reports, the Executive Directors report, state caucuses and a membership business meeting to chart the future directions for the organization.
Blanding said, “As we complete this meeting, we will begin planning for the Federation’s Fiftieth (50th) Annual Meeting in August 2017. This will be a great milestone for our organization and we welcome suggestions from the membership, supporters and the public on how to make it memorable and successful.”
For more information about the meeting and registration details or the events, go to the Federation’s website at www.federation.coop or contact our offices in Epes (205/652-9676) or Atlanta (404/765-0273).
