Perspectives
Four lessons on Afghanistan
(FinalCall.com) - President Obama, on Afghanistan, take your lesson from history. The axiom: “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” Both the world and the American people are now asking, what is the U.S. strategic interest in Afghanistan and is it vital to America's security? Is a military victory possible? What do the...
Fear of an Intelligent Black Man
“If I'm not who you say I am then you are not who you think you are.”–James Baldwin I want to extend my sincerest apology to the Right Wing Republicans; the Tea Party people, The Birthers, etc. For the last year, I have been calling you “narrow-minded bigots who are just hatin' on the president because he's Black!” However,...
Gadhafi’s rise to power
(FinalCall.com) - Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi “right now is at the peak of his power,” according to Alessandro Bruno, assistant editor of the North African Journal. Not only does the current head of the African Union “for the first time in his 40 year” reign as leader of the Libyan Jamahiriya enjoy diplomatic relations with all countries including the...
Gadhafi: Love for Africa or a personal agenda? -Part I
TRIPOLI, Libya (FinalCall.com) - It would take a large book to chronicle where Libya has been in the last 40 years since the September 1, 1969 revolution and another book on the last 10 years on how billions of petro dollars have been spent to keep the African Union working towards a United States of Africa. It all...
The “Save Darfur” Roadshow and Ruse
WILLIAM.REED -Guest Columnist- The deception started with allegations of “slavery in Sudan.” Well-intended schoolchildren held bake sales and washed cars in order to “buy back a slave.” Over the past decade, such subterfuge morphed into an American declaration that “genocide was being carried out in Darfur.” All a pretext. The “Save Darfur” campaign is not about saving Sudan's devastated people. The...
What Black Leader
WILLIAM.REED -Guest Columnist- Instead of irate demands to correct disparities of America's discriminatory past, Blacks who have been designated by the mainstream as our “leaders” are caught up in the drama of whether such disparities even exist. To that point, Rev. Jesse Jackson has said that President Barack Obama has not spent any time with traditional Black leaders and should...
Is America ‘Post-Racial’ yet?
WILLIAM.REED -Guest Columnist- They say: The historic election of President Barack Obama “has changed what it means to be Black in America.” The people talking that smack of America entering into “a post-racial society” are engaged in much more fantasy than fact. The facts: In June 2009 unemployment rates reported were: adult men (10 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0...
Michael Jackson Forever
ASKIAM-Senior Correspondent- I once compared the Million Man March to Michael Jackson. I unsuccessfully argued to an executive producer of a network news broadcast, that just as Michael Jackson was the first American Superstar who sang Black Music in a Black body; the Million Man March was the first grassroots movement expressing the “body” of Black discontent, which had a Black...
Is Africa throwing off the yoke of dependency?
-Guest Columnist- (FinalCall.com) - A growing debate–maybe even a paradigm swing–has been initiated by Africans challenging Western-backed organizations like Human Rights Watch, the International Criminal Court, and Bob Geldolf's Live Aid campaigns. Africans are speaking for themselves and raising questions about those acting in the name of doing good on the continent. From providing aid, to settling differences, and giving...
Obama Reaches Out to Muslims Worldwide
President Barack Hussein Obama delivered a 54 minute speech from Cairo, Egypt to the Muslim world. One analyst described this speech as being more powerful than his speech delivered in Philadelphia regarding race in America after the Reverend Jeremiah Wright incident. Due to his diverse heritage no combination of U.S. presidents could, in my opinion, do what...