Great Quotes
I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper than of a sword or pistol. - Alexandre Dumas
Economic consequences of the Nigerian Peace?

At a fundamental level, the Nigerian political problem is straightforward but possibly insoluble. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the politicians showed such graft that the population revolted. The concept of governance was conceived as relatively straightforward. There was an existing economic and foreign policy consensus. This allowed the military to intervene. When the military played along with the consensus they had consent. When they went away from the consensus and ceased to build a consensus they began to rely…

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I come to bury Gaza ….

I come to bury Gaza not to praise Hamas The evil that men do lives after them; In the newsreels and blog posts Whatever  good is ever said of them is interred with their bones; So let it be with Hamas. The noble Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer Have told us Hamas was a terrorist organisation: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously has Gaza answered for it Through bombing and massacres. Here, under leave…

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Okey Ikechukwu: Bankruptcy of Nigerian intellectuals
Prof Ikechukwu

There is much that can be said about the Nigerian intellectual elite and its bankruptcy. First of all, there is the abiding sin of considering the country’s problems to be simple. ‘All we need are honest people’. Yet managing a company is less challenging than managing a  country  yet no one assumes that managing a large company simply requires only honesty! We need to evaluate the social conditions behind the ideology that dominates Nigerian intellectuals. The dominant ideology is…

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Peter Zeihan: how to be ignorant and stupid about Africa

Peter Zeihan talks about Nigeria  in a talk titled ‘Nigeria, After America’1.  This is an astounding exercise in complete ignorance.  It seems that  many in the Western geo-political talkspace  have no time to study Africa or learn about Nigeria. We have David Oulaalou who knew nothing about Africa displaying this : ‘The rise of Sahel Alliance’ 2 where he thinks the recent revolts in West Africa are something new,  having no knowledge of the liberation struggles of 60- 80’s….

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Kingsley Moghalu:    a shill for neo-cons seeking to ruin the Nigerian economy

https://images.app.goo.gl/umnFdah9yNF7qPCx7 Kingsley Moghalu:    a deep shill for neo-cons and the ruining of the Nigerian economy Moghalu first of all shows himself to be a shallow thinker. He talks of US as based on freedom and liberty when as an African he ought to know it was based on slavery. He talks about replacing political appointees with technical specialists. This of course raises a question: technical people are also prisoners of political agendas. What we are looking for is…

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Carl Zha: lazy thinking
Carl Zha Journalist

Carl Zha was interviewed by David Oualaalou on 17 Feb 20241.  He repeats a fundamental error of many Asian leftist in their analysis of US policy. They posit that the fundamental difference between Chinese policy and US policy is that China looks long-term and US policy is dominated by short-term policies. At one point Carl Zha suggests that quarterly earnings dominate US thinking. This is lazy thinking and close to absurd. If we look at US historical policy we…

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 Kait Borsay: Murderous illusions

see: Interview with Peter Hitchens1 At 48.49 of the interview Kait Borsay says of Putin ‘Should he just be taken out?’ Peter Hitchens wisely responds:     ‘For what reason and by whom?’ and she responds: ‘Because he is a threat …’ To Hitchens demurrement she asks: ’where do we go with Vladimir Putin?’ This is quite appalling and quite worrying. Lets start with discussing murder  and whether that is  legitimate.  Would it be legitimate to ask ‘should we…

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Nigerian political elite : Catastrophic failure

There is a description of Nigeria by a famous economist who has been unjustly ignored by the Nigerian political elite. According to him Nigeria is a world where it was not the Nigerian elite that ruled under Buhari and Tinubu, but one faction of it: bankers, stock-exchange kings, ….. a part of the landed proprietors associated with them – the so-called financial aristocracy. It sat on the throne, it dictated laws in the National Assembly, it distributed public offices,…

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Henry Louis Gates : kicking sand in my face
Professor skip gates

We can start with intellectual property. There are two aspects to this idea a) respect and b) money. To acknowledge an author was historically to show respect. “This idea came from X”. There are complexities in this such as the assertion of lineage and authority. ‘Confucius , he say…’ is an appeal to authority just as ‘it is said in the Bible’. In the world of poetry and the arts acknowledgement is a deep form of respect. As to…

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Benny Morris ascendant: why ethnic cleansing is justified
Prof Benny Morris

Reviewing the views1 of Benny Morris as expressed in his writings is illuminating. Paraphrasing his words is likely to lead to disbelief so he must be allowed to speak for himself. In 2004 Benny Morris wrote: ‘There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing. I know that this term is completely negative in the discourse of the 21st century, but when the choice is between ethnic cleansing and genocide—the annihilation of your people—I prefer ethnic cleansing.’ Of course,…

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