Today on Africana Media

Andrew Sullivan is dissecting the real McCain, and the Obama campaign better start taking note from what he writes.

I am very sad that I would not be going to Denver, Colorado for the Democratic National Convention.  Nevertheless, I am going to attempt to bring you all the details of what is going on there.  So, as an African, this is the place to be to get the true coverage of what’s going on in Denver.  Anyway, I would be one of more than 15,000 journalists already there.  From outside and way out of the Convention, I would have an unimpeded view of all the goings-on there.  So, buckle your belt and enjoy the view with me. 

The first thing you have to know is that the Convention starts today, Monday, the 25th of August, at 3 pm, Denver time, but 5 pm here in the New York area and will end on Thursday, when Obama accepts his party’s nomination, the first black man ever to be nominated for the post of president of America by any major political party.  If you wish to check the schedule for the beginning ceremonies, go here. The Republicans start their own on September 2, 2007 and end on September 5.

There will be all kinds of pomp and pageantry, razzmatazz, prayers and displays of patriotism.  Americans love America, whether true or not, but they certainly display and want you as a politician to wear your patriotism on your sleeve.  The Republican party has been trying to paint Obama as unpatriotic, because he initially didn’t wear lapel pins, which he has started wearing.  Contrast this: Obama was born in Hawaii, which is the 50th state of the United States of America, and McCain was born in Panama, where America had bases where his father was stationed.

VICE PRESIDENTIAL PICK

If you are remotely reading or listening to the news, I am sure Africans are more than tuned in this election because of Barack Obama, I know you already have heard of who Senator Obama picked as his vice-presidential running mate, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, a very small state in America, but one of the 13 states in the Union, which is now 50. 

For a whole week, there was media frenzy about who Obama was going to pick.  Speculation abounded as to whether it would be Senator Biden, Senator Batch Bayh of Indiana, Governor Kaine of Virginia or even those of us who were hoping for the miraculous candidacy of Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, who fought Obama to a standstill during the primaries.  We were hoping that Obama would do a Jack Kennedy, who chose Lyndon Johnson, or a Reagan who chose current Bush’s father, after a very bitter primary campaign.  Well, no need crying over a split milk.  The pick of Biden is a great pick, though Clinton would have more than unified the party.  I don’t believe in the so-called baggage she would have brought to the ticket with her husband, former President Clinton as a loose cannon.

Anyway, as founder of DailyKos website, Markos Moulitsas wrote, “The more I read stuff like this (from Stephanopolous on Good Morning America Weekend Sunday), the more comfortable I am with Biden’s selection.

“I have never seen a vice-presidential candidate, in the announcement, come out with THAT KIND of ferocity. Usually, you see it a little bit later in the campaign – not at the announcement. But Joe Biden showed one of the main reasons that Barack Obama picked him. They WANTED a scrapper out there. They WANT a fighter out there. They know Senator Biden will be able to get UNDER Senator McCain’s skin. They’ve known each other for an AWFUL long time – more than 35 years. As one Obama aide told me yesterday: We know that Joe Biden can go out there with a 2-BY-4 if he has to.”

There’s really no faster way to my heart than having a Democrat go after Republicans with a (rhetorical) 2-by-4.”

WHO’S SENATOR BIDEN

This information is from the Wikipedia:

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr. (Baltimore, Maryland, November 13, 1915 – Wilmington, Delaware, September 2, 2002), and wife (m. 1941) Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan (Scranton, Pennsylvania, ca. June, 1918 –).[2][3] He was the first of four siblings[3] and is of English heritage on his father’s side and Irish heritage on his mother’s side. He has two brothers, James Brian Biden and Francis W. Biden, and a sister, Valerie (Biden) Owens.[4] The Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware, when Biden was 10 years old,[3] and he grew up in suburban New Castle County, Delaware, where his father was a car salesman. In 1961, Biden graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware[3] and, in 1965, from the University of Delaware in Newark,[5] where he double majored in history and political science.[3] He went on to receive his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.[5][6]
In 1966, while in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter. They had three children, Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III, Robert Hunter, and Naomi Christina. His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. Biden was sworn into office from their bedside. Persuaded not to resign in order to care for them, Biden began the practice of commuting an hour and a half each day on the train from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, DC, which he continues to do.
In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have one daughter, Ashley, and are members of the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1988, after suffering from neck pains, Biden was hospitalized and underwent lifesaving surgery to correct two brain aneurysms, one of which began leaking.[7] The hospitalization and recovery kept him from the Senate for seven months.
Biden’s elder son, Beau, was a partner in the Wilmington law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick, LLC and was elected Attorney General of Delaware in 2006. He is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard, where he serves in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. He is set to be deployed to Iraq in October, 2008.[8] Biden’s younger son, Hunter, works as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., serves on the board of directors of Amtrak, and previously worked in the Commerce Department.
Hunter Biden was also briefly the president of a hedge fund group. That enterprise ended badly, in mutual recriminations between the Bidens and a business partner, and lawsuits in New York State.
Since 1991, Biden has also served as an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law. He teaches a seminar on constitutional law.
In 2002, Biden became a member of the exclusive Washington, D.C. Alfalfa Club. Biden has attended the World Economic Forum in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. He sits on the board of advisors of the Close Up Foundation and is a part of the NATO Observer Group in the U.S. Senate.

There’s praise for Biden’s pick by the general public.  According to Zogby polls, 43% approved of Obama’s decision, 22% disapprove, 26% said it made no difference and 9% were undecided.

THE CONVENTION

As I already pointed out, the Convention begins today Monday, August 25, at 3pm Central time, but 5pm Eastern time.  Obama’s wife, Michelle, will headline the speeches - she will be the first to speak, and will be joined by their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, her mother Marian Robinson, and her brother Craig Robinson, who is to introduce her.

Other speakers include Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house of reps, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill.  There will also be a tribute to Senator Kennedy, whose endorsement of Obama in January was great news for the Obama camp.

But in all these do-good programs launched by the international community to move Africa to the present century, rather than being in the time-warp of the 19th century, nobody ever thinks of where or how these millions receiving aids are supposed to live a decent life, a decent life with roof over their heads.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the American media is colluding to derail Senator Barack Obama’s march to the presidency of the United States.  In many studies, and as a few of the media itself, has come to acknowledge, they are doing everything to get very negative on Obama’s positions, while handling with kids’ gloves what his Republican opponent has been saying and doing, especially with the inconsistency of his position on several issues. 

Yesterday morning, I tuned in to CBS radio, and the first item on the news was “Did Obama’s overseas trip help or hurt him,” and proceeded to quote the new inconsistent USAGallop poll which had McCain with a lead of 4% over Obama of likely voters.  But on Monday at the same time, the CBS, which had been accused of doctoring an interview between its network anchor Kathie Couric and McCain, cutting out certain portions of the interview in which McCain made certain statements detrimental to his campaign, didn’t lead with a poll by the same Gallop organization which showed a bounce for Obama after his trip, with an 9-8% lead over McCain. 

Despite perception to the contrary, in which Americans felt the press was harder on McCain than on Obama, a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, has “found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

“What is most annoying is that the Obama campaign, for reasons best known to them, as if they haven’t learned how the campaign almost came to be derailed by vicious attacks by Hillary Clinton, are adopting the same silly “taking the high road,” approach to the attacks by John McCain and the media.  People tell you they detest negative advertisements, yet they are more than influenced by those ads. 

As we say back in Africa, “Do me, I do you, God no go vex.” You hit me, and I hit you back, God will not be angry.  That needs to be imparted to the people who run the Obama campaign.  Docility in the face of voracious negative attacks, don’t win elections.  Both Al Gore and Kerry tried it, look where it landed them.  A word for the wise. 

What is going on?  Now, it is African women who seem to be making more progress than their male counter-parts.  Are African men being castrated or what?  All we hear are this woman or that woman being appointed to this post or that post on the international scene.  What happened to our males? 

For the 262,368 times, the MSM has dwelt on why Obama should not accept that the ‘Surge’ advocated by McCain has worked in Iraq, while ignoring the same question of McCain of why he voted for the iraq war, said Americans would be welcomed with love and that the war would hardly cost the American tax payers anything in monetary or terms.  Yet the war has cost more than $700 billion and counting and over 4000 lives. 

Again, I am sure you want to know who is this guy with the over-accomplished daughter, with the 5-acre estate with a mansion to boot in toney Westport, Connecticut. Rajat Gupta, the father of Geetanjali is a brilliant man, and holds many directorships in top companies and universities.  He is the Managing Director of that ivy league of consulting companies, McKinsey and Company…

Democracy seriously is crying for leadership in Africa.  It needs the leadership of a country with the stature of Nigeria, as in the case of Zimbabwe, South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki having abandoned his claim to such leadership.  Yar’Adua came into office through the machinations of fraudulence, but there is nothing that says he could not do the right thing by championing democracy in Africa, including good governance, civil rights, gender equality, free and fair elections and the independence of an free press.  That’s a path that could lead to his own redemption.

So, I vote for our keeping our eyes on the prize - POTUS, and despite all denials, I am happy that Obama is beginning to see the clear sky now that the fog has cleared.  I don’t see another candidate that could help him win easily as Senator Hillary Rdoham Clinton could, and I vote for her as the vice-presidential candidate to Senator Barack Obama.  It is a winning combination that is formidable.

What the Zimbabwean situation has shown is that there are quite a few African leaders with democratic credentials who are no longer willing to acquiesce in the politics of the former OAU (Organization os African Unity).  That organization, popularly known as the “club of dictators,” died and was buried in 2002.  We are beginning to see the emergence of credible African leaders.

“When a caller asks for help with being a compulsive liar, Anderson says he totally understands, because he did the same thing as an adolescent, lied about things as trivial as what he had for lunch. “Ultimately it all comes out and you end up looking like a complete jerk,” he says - from the Popnography of March 22, 2007, talking about when Anderson Cooper was host of the ABC program, The Mole.  In fact, I didn’t know about this when I blared the title of this article, “Anderson Cooper, You’re a Liar.” We can’t begrudge Mr. Cooper his pedigreed background, being born to the sion family of the Vanderbilts of the railraod tycoon, nor his meteoric rise in the world of broadcast journalism.  Nor should we begrudge him his recently $4 million a year contract with the CNN.  With all the encomiums written about him, you would think that Anderson Cooper is the poster child of journalistic integrity.  But I and millions of Africans disagree.

I woke up this morning feeling nasty, and I couldn’t put my hand on what made me to feel that way.  There were two things that bothered me, first that I had not written the article titled, “Anderson Cooper, “You’re a Liair,” Africans are Screaming.”

I also remembered that I was itching to find out what the two top African Union diplomats in the US thought of what was going on in Zimbabwe, especially the withdrawal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from the June 27 presidential run-off.  Listen, I was certain I wasn’t going to get any meaningful answers, but still I decided to give them both a call.  First I called the AU UN office in Manhattan, and was told that Ambassador Lila was out of town.  She was traveling in Africa, then I called the AU office in Washington DC, and Ambassador Amani was also in Africa.  In a case like this, there is really no need to attempt to talk with lower officials, they would give you the run-around about the Ambassador being the only one who could possibly give you the right answer.  Even the Ambassadors themselves will tell you that the best thing might be to call Addis Ababa, that some times I wonder why are they here anyway. 

I have written so much about Mugabe and Zimbabwe that I feel nauseated reading my own writings.  I don’t feel like hearing about Mugabe, I feel the same way as Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who described him as an eye-sore on the continent.  I remember the article I wrote in 2001 about Mugabe and White Farmers which was quoted and quoted ad nausem, in which I made the point that 99.9% of Africans in the continent agreed with his land distribution policy.  In hindsight, was I right, yes.  But that doesn’t mean that I believe Mugabe should stay in office for life, and I stated this in an article I also wrote in Gamji online and which also appeared in the African Sun Times of March 21-27, 2002.  The first three paragraphs of that article are more appropriate at this time than ever, and they express my feelings now. Here it is:

When those of us who became of age in the late 1950s and early 1960s remember the great joy and happiness we all experienced at the victory that Africa was going to win over our imperialist Europe and colonialists, we are now shedding tears that Africa has been dealt the worst hand at the rulers who we thought would rescue us from that intolerable knowledge of being a slave to another human being. The late 1950s and early 1960s were a time of joyous exuberance for us as Africans.  It was the time of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Leopold Senghor of Senegal, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and of course Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

We cheered heartily when we heard Nkrumah tell us that Africa could not be free when one African was still under bondage.  Today, Africa is still under bondage, but not from the imperialist and colonialist Europe, but rather at the hands of other Africans.

I have shed tears for mother Africa; in fact, I have literally shed tears for Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a hero of the Republic of Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia), who would rather tarnish his image in the pursuit of unbriddled power and ambition.  It is therefore with great sadness that hundreds of millions of Africans who had come to include Robert Mugabe among the heroes of Africa, are unfortunately left with no choice than to say a requiem for Robert Gabriel Mugab

That was six years ago when I wrote that article, and Mugabe was 78 at that time, he is 84 now and we are still talking about the same man and the same issues.  In the March 29 elections, Mugabe and his party Zanu-PF lost their majority in parliament, and after more than a month of utter silence on the presidential election results, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission finally announced that Mugabe was second to Morgan Tsvangirai the opposition leader in the presidential poll, but that Tsvangirai didn’t win the required 50+1 to clinch the presidency outright.  Since then, Mugabe has unleashed a rain of terror on the opposition, with Mugabe’s government sanctioned thugs and militias killing 87 opposition members, according to Tsvangirai and the opposition party’s secretary-general in leg irons during his last court appearance for ‘treason’, for saying that the opposition had won the March 29 presidential elections.

I remember the same scenario that is occurring now happening the same way in 2002, except this time Mugabe has vowed not to relinquish power even if the electorate votes him out, he would go to war over being rejected by his people, and that only God could remove him. 

In 2002, I remember writing the following:

It is inconceiable to most of us that at 78, Robert Mugabe would be so driven with the trappings of power that he would lie, cheat, and subject millions of Zimbabweans to a far worse condition than they were subjected to under white rule.  Unfortunately, Mr. Mugabe is not unique in this department, as he is merely a reflection of other African leaders who have decided to give him succour than tell him in no unmistable terms that what he was trying to do, what he did and what he continues to do, are totally unacceptable in the so-called 21st Century African Renaissance. If Mugabe felt that he was so beloved by his people, the right thing to do was to offer the unconditional opportunity to express themselves by allowing everybody entitled to vote to vote freely according to their choice.  Unfortunately, Mugabe did everything to see that he stole the recently concluded election in Zimbabwe.

The shame and sadness I feel is that if there is a God, he should grant Mugabe his wishes and remove him.  That should be every African’s prayer for Mugabe.  Africans have endured enough, but Zimbabweans have suffered more. 

News briefs for June 18, 2008, an Africanamedia way of providing you with short read on events of interest.

But it was what Castaneda said that aroused my greatest interest.  He said he attended a meeting of civil rights groups in Abuja last year.  He cited the growth of Al Qaeda in northern Nigeria, but went to say how Al Qaeda is spreading massively to the south of Nigeria.

Into this maelstrom of forces, a audacious young man decided to thrust himself.  In the parlance of horse-racing, he was never given a chance of even getting out from the gate.  There was the attitude that it wasn’t your turn yet, you haven’t earned your stripes to be a player in this game, more so on the Clintons, who felt that they had done so much for the black community, which I debunked in an earlier article, for a black man to have the audacity or rather the effrontery to challenge their rightful claim to the presidency.  But the bubble of the aura of inevitability was burst on the night of January 3, when Iowans dealt a blow to the Clinton brand, by giving a skinny freshman senator with an African father and a white mother, a resounding send-off to the claim of the Democratic nomination, and hopefully and assuredly to the presidency of the United States of America, and by extension a leader of the world by the status of the United States of America as the only powerful superpower left today in the world.

But, make no mistake about the general election, it is going to be brutal.  There are people who will not vote for Obama because he is black, even the Russians preferred McCain 36 to 28, of course representing the so-called working class whites in this case of Europe.  But I believe he has demonstrated enough of an broader appeal that would help to push him to become the next POTUS.

Given his singular visionary leadership, culturally, politically, Pan-Africanistically, and more so economically, I believe a reassessment of Nyerere’s economic policy is in order.  Rather than being described as an “Heroic Failure,” it should be described as an “Monumental Success.” It goes to the core of my belief, that we should stop attempting to run before we could even crawl.  The deliberate steps at economic engineering are the seeds of economic success.  I salute you, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere!!

There is a new sheriff at the Nigeria house in New York.... Well, last Wednesday, May 7, the Mission had a party to introduce her to the diplomatic community, and this is where I found things to be a lot different from what was happening in the past.  Okay, I was driving through Nigeria House on 2nd Avenue and 44th Street in the evening of Tuesday, May 6, when I saw all these workers sand-blasting the front of that edifice, the best investment that Nigeria ever made.  I parked my car and looked around.  Yeah, there was a lot of cleaning of the front going on that night.

“One of the things that was said was he looked people in the eye and Hillary didn’t. That’s big for me, as a police officer. “