The Village Square - The Main Square http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/ News, Politics and current events! en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:12:56 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/styles/webpoint/misc/rss.jpg The Village Square - The Main Square http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/ Could Obama Pass On 2012 Reelection Bid? http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38801-could-obama-pass-2012-reelection-bid.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:43:50 GMT ---Quote--- Is it possible that President Obama could be considering not running again in 2012? President Barack Obama In an interview with...
Quote:
Is it possible that President Obama could be considering not running again in 2012?

President Barack Obama

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, the nation’s first African-American commander in chief suggested he might take a page from the biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson and not seek reelection.

"You know, if – if I feel like I've made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll – I'll feel all right about myself," Obama told CNN's Ed Henry during an interview in China. "I said to myself very early on, even when I started running for office, I don't want to be making decisions based on getting reelected, because I think the challenges that America faces right now are so significant."

But Obama was careful to leave room for a possible reelection bid, just in case. "Obviously, if I make those decisions, and I think that I'm moving the country on the right direction – economically, in terms of our security interests, our foreign policy – I'd like to think that those policies are continued because they're not going to bear fruit just in four years," he said.

Also during the wide-ranging interview, Obama said he’d take a pass on reading the much ballyhooed new book by former Alaska governor and Republican political movie star Sarah Palin.

When asked by Henry whether he would be one of the hundreds of thousands expected to gobble up the memoir of the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, he said, "I probably won't, but I don't get a chance to read things other than briefing books very often these days anyway.”

But he declined an opportunity to dismiss her as a non-serious candidate for 2012.

"You know, she obviously has a big constituency in the Republican Party," he said. "You know, there a lot of people who are excited by her."


http://www.bet.com/news/National_Cou...Reelection_Bid
Could it be that he can sense that it will be harder for a carmel to pass through the eye of a needle than for him to clinch a second term?. Any way A term is enough me think. The point and history has been made. ]]> The Main Square valteena http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38801-could-obama-pass-2012-reelection-bid.html <![CDATA[European Union gives Nigeria $1bn 'for peace]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38797-european-union-gives-nigeria-1bn-peace.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:59 GMT European Union gives Nigeria $1bn 'for peace'

Militants have been demanding a greater share of the oil wealth
The European Commission has signed a $1bn (£602m) development pact with Nigeria, aimed at tackling corruption and promoting peace.

A substantial amount of the funding will be spent on resolving conflict in the oil-rich and crime-plagued Niger Delta, the EU's development chief said.

The money will also target electoral reform and improving human rights.

But correspondents say many Nigerians will doubt the money will get to its intended targets.


$1 BILLION EU FUNDS
25%: peace and security
44%: governance and human rights
16%: trade, region integration and energy
15%: environment, health, culture and sciences


The BBC's Caroline Duffield, in Lagos, says corruption touches the lives of everyone in Nigeria and leaves the vast majority of people in poverty.

And she says many Nigerians believe the current government is losing the fight against corruption.

Almost a third of the EU money is devoted to the Niger Delta region.

For years militants have blown up pipelines and kidnapped foreign oil workers, demanding a fairer share of the wealth.

"I'm delighted that a substantial amount of this financing will go to support conflict resolution and the peace process in the Niger Delta which has been ravaged by years of unrest," said the EU's development commissioner Karel De Gucht .

Over the past few months, thousands of militants have given up their weapons in an amnesty deal offered by the government in return for the promise of education and jobs.

A three-month respite from the violence has brought back some oil and gas production, but sceptics fear the former fighters could resume violence if they do not quickly find work.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8369974.stm ]]> The Main Square salstep http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38797-european-union-gives-nigeria-1bn-peace.html <![CDATA[''Senator'' Iyiola Omisore holds a fake MS degree?]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38795-senator-iyiola-omisore-holds-fake-ms-degree.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:23:31 GMT As Senate re-run election approaches, Iyiola Omisore's post-graduate degree generates new controversy
WRITTEN BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK
THURSDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2009 13:07





Ex-Senator Iyiola Omisore



Just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Osun State on Wednesday fixed December 5 for the court ordered re-run election for the Senate seat previously occupied by Iyiola Omisore of the PDP, a new controversy has surfaced over the authenticity and veracity of Omisore’s degree.


Omisore parades a Master’s degree in Building Services Engineering Management, which he obtained from Brunel University in the United Kingdom in July 2004, according to an academic report obtained by Saharareporters and signed by Dr. R H M Wakelin, the Chairman of the Board of Examiners in the course.

The course description on Brunel website shows the “Building Services Engineering Management MSc at the institution to be a 3-5 years self study without attendance course,” permitting the student to "follow a structured programme of self-study at home or at work."



Omisore's Academic Report from Brunel University



If this is how Omisore obtained his M.Sc degree in 2004, that would mean he was undertaking the course while in prison over the murder of the former Oyo State Governor and later Attorney-General of Nigeria, Bola Ige, in Ibadan. That assassination has never been solved.

An additional question would be how he was able to take his examinations. The structure of the Brunel University self-study programme states that while students can study at their own pace using a study pack comprising text books and CD-ROMs, they have to take annual examinations, in May. Once registered, a student can take his examinations in his country of residence. The university implements the process through "an extensive network of organisations (Universities, Colleges and British Council Offices) throughout the world" who provide invigilation, the cost of which is paid by the student. It is unclear whether such services are made available in the context of incarceration, as Omisore was in 2004, and how.

Efforts to have the former senator speak about his MSc degree have been difficult, but Stephanie Berke, who is a Clerical Officer in the Examinations and Conferment’s section of the Brunel University schools’ registry, responded to our inquiry, asking that we obtain Omisore’s consent to enable them release his academic records to us.

Today, Omisore refused to grant that consent. He told Saharareporters to wait until next week upon his arrival in Abuja to produce a copy of the certificate and the roll call of graduands.

He refused to clarify the pertinent issues relating to when he took the course and how he was able to continue while he was in detention. Saharareporters also wanted to know specifically when he completed the study, whether he used the method of self-study or attended classes, but he was non-committal. About the completion date, he gave us 2005, but the academic record clearly shows 2004.

It would be recalled that on October 30, 2009, the Appeal Court, sitting in Ibadan, removed Omisore from the Nigerian senate, following the successful the petition filed by Action Congress (AC) candidate, Jide Omoworare.


See graphics here

http://www.saharareporters.com/index...pic&Itemid=205 ]]> The Main Square FSU http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38795-senator-iyiola-omisore-holds-fake-ms-degree.html <![CDATA[Obafemi Martins 'skint' on £75,000 a week]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38794-obafemi-martins-skint-75-000-week.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:08:39 GMT Championship - Martins 'skint' on £75,000 a week
Eurosport - Fri, 20 Nov 14:09:00 2009

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/201120...-000-week.html

Former Newcastle United striker Obafemi Martins was broke despite earning £75,000 a week, a High Court judge has been told.

Martins was "constantly overdrawn" and regularly blew £40,000 in a weekend before withdrawing another £25,000 on Monday, the court heard.

The 25-year-old is being sued by his former agent, Chris Nathaniel, whose company NVA claims it managed every aspect of his life and gave him cash advances.

NVA say he owes a £284,000 fee plus interest for managing his finances and other areas, and used Nathaniel in what Judge Richard Seymour QC described as "a Jeeves role".

Martins signed the a lucrative £75,000-a-week contract when he joined Newcastle from Internazionale for £10 million in 2006.

Robert Tennink, the lawyer representing NVA, told the High Court in London: "Despite earning these vast sums of money he was constantly overdrawn."

Martins, now of German champions Wolfsburg, owned a multi-million pound mansion in Darras Hall, Northumbria and rented a luxury flat on Newcastle's Quayside. He also had several high-performance cars.

The striker is fighting the claim. He was not in court on Thursday and the hearing is scheduled to last for three days.

Eurosport ]]> The Main Square Gbenga http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38794-obafemi-martins-skint-75-000-week.html <![CDATA[Killers Sell Human Fats in Peru & Italy.. Le Bizzarre!]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38792-killers-sell-human-fats-peru-italy-le-bizzarre.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:42:33 GMT nzherald.co.nz *Peruvian gang killed humans to sell fat* 9:37 AM Friday Nov 20, 2009 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news/print.cfm?objectid=10610513 ... nzherald.co.nz
Peruvian gang killed humans to sell fat
9:37 AM Friday Nov 20, 2009
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news/print...ectid=10610513

LIMA, Peru - Peruvian police say they have broken up a band of assassins who killed people in order to extract and sell their body fat.

Police Col. Jorge Mejia says three people arrested in the remote Huanuco province have confessed to five killings, telling police they could sell one litre of human fat for $15,000 (NZ$20,500).

Mejia told reporters Thursday the suspects told police the fat was sold to intermediaries in Lima, who police suspect sold it to cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies in Europe.

Police say they cannot confirm the fat was sold.

They say, however, that they have recovered the head of one of the victims and several bottles of fat.

Medical experts contacted by The Associated Press expressed serious doubts about a global market for human fat.

- AP
Copyright ©2009, APN Holdings NZ Limited


http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009.../#printpreview
Peru Cops Claim Gang Murdering Victims for Black Market Body Fat: The Mysterious Dr. Bittner and LipoDiesel
Posted by LBG1 on November 19th, 2009 2 Comments Printer-Friendly

Peru Police Claim Victims Murdered for Body Fat Sold to European Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Companies


Forbes Fooled by Fake Plastic Surgeon’s Patient’s Body Fat as Diesel Fuel Claims

The Mysterious Craig Alan Bittner: Fake Plastic Surgeon Claimed He’s Returned to South America

lipo_diesel

This post began about a little story out of Peru, where Peruvian police claimed they’d made a grisly discovery of a new enterprise in the remote Huanuco province of Peru: bottles of body fat from murdered victims which the arrested suspects told police were sold to European cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies in Europe. While the police can’t confirm the body fat was actually sold to the companies, three suspects who confessed to five murders told police they sold the body fat for $15,000 to intermediaries in Lima.

“Medical experts contacted by The Associated Press expressed serious doubts about a global market for human fat.”

This story seems farfetched but then again, human fat tissue is used in biomedical research for gene therapy:

Boffins have developed a new gene therapy by using ’suicide genes’ derived from mesenchymal stem cells taken from human fat tissue, which hunt for and kill cancerous tumours.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Cestmir Altaner at the Cancer Research Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.

And pharmaceutical research:

Human fat cells produce a protein that is linked to both inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke

Dr1_453769a
Craig Alan Bittner, “Famous Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon”

Even so, one wonders what happens to the gazillion pounds of excess body fat removed by liposuction in the U.S., whether there’s some sort of human fat “black market”. Typically, body fat removed by liposuction is considered medical waste while patients, when signing on the dotting line, agree to let the physician take care of the disposal.

It was through research that I discovered the mysterious saga of Hollywood “plastic surgeon” Dr Alan Bittner, his LipoSculpture Center in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive, a mecca for fat extraction for wealthy patients. Bittner’s “eco-friendly” enterprise, “Lipodiesel” and, his claim that he’s returned to the jungles of Bogota, Columbia, due to threats from “religious extremists” upset over his turning human body fat into eco-friendly fuel.

I found Bittner’s “religious extremists” claim rather amusing as, to date, I’ve never encountered religious proclamations that lipo-ed excess body fat was considered “sacred”.

In 2008, the Daily Mail published an article on Bittner’s “eco-friendly” new enterprise “Lipodiesel”, where Bittner claimed he powered his “4X4″ and two other cars including his girlfriend’s Lincoln using his patients liposucked excess body fat. Bittner claimed his patients were excited to be involved in a new enterprise that was “eco-friendly” and which used their body fat to “save the planet”. DM reported that Bittner’s claims were under investigation and that Bittner had “disappeared to South America” after patients had filed lawsuits against his practice for allegedly allowing his unlicensed girlfriend to carry out consultations.

The Times Online filed a report on December 24, 2008, that the California Department of Public Health was investigating Bittner due to the fact that it’s illegal in California to use “human medical waste”, aka body fat, to power vehicles. And, that patients, who had found Bittner online, were consulted by Bittner’s office manager. The Times reported Bittner had shut down his website, Lipodiesel.org..

We discovered the site was up, and, that Bittner had posted a “goodbye” on December 25, the day after the Times and Daily Mail published their articles. Bittner claimed he had taken down the website “several months ago” due to “religious extremists”:

December 25, 2008

I took this Lipo Diesel website down a few months ago because religious extremists were making threats against me and my family. Unfortunately, there are people who are offended at the idea of using human fat to illustrate the potential for all of use to solve our energy problems – and I apologize for any offense as none was intended. I merely meant to show that alternative energy is all around us, if we open our eyes and have a sense of curiosity. My patients always loved the idea of using their fat for fuel and I enjoyed turning liposuction into something more meaningful. Despite the public hysteria, I assure you that there was never any danger to the public. In fact, medical waste in the US is incinerated for safety, just as it is in the sterilizing bio-diesel process. Unfortunately, a contingency attorney has already claimed to have clients who have suffered millions of dollars worth of “emotional damages” at the thought that their fat was used for fuel, which it was not. That’s the American legal system for you.

Due to the economy and frivolous lawsuits, I have closed my practice in Beverly Hills. In the future, I hope we all can look forward to helping people solve real issues, whether that be health problems or energy independence rather than arguing over lab experiments.

I wish all of you a prosperous and inventive 2009.

C. Alan Bittner, MD

PS – I am sad to announce that the rumors I have a private jet that runs on human fat are entirely untrue.

“My patients always loved the idea of using their fat for fuel and I enjoyed turning liposuction into something more meaningful.”

It turns out that Bittner had “enjoyed turning liposuction into something more meaningful”. The “more meaningful” meaning big bucks performing liposuction on unsuspecting patients who were later horrified to learn Bittner wasn’t a plastic surgeon, and, that his staff weren’t trained professionals.

On December 23, 2008, Bittner informed his patients on his DrAlanBittner.com site, that he was closing Beverly Hills Liposculpture and that he was moving back to South America where he’d “begun” his “medical career volunteering in a rural clinic outside Bogata, Columbia”. Bittner claimed he had treated over “40,000″ patients during his ten-year practice:

My journey has been an amazing one. I began my medical career volunteering in a rural clinic outside Bogata, Columbia that did not have enough equipment and was cursed with only sporadic electricity.After 10 years in practice, I have treated over 40,000 patients, including almost 7000 liposculpture patients. I am proud to be able to tell you that the record of my liposculpture practice has been impeccable; not one single serious complication or infection. Liposculpture is truly my passion and I have been extremely fortunate, however after 10 years of private practice, I am going back to South America to volunteer with a small clinic that is very similar to where my medical career began decades ago, where I can help those most in need.

In the end it wasn’t “religious extremists” who had “ended” Bittner’s Lipodiesel dream but the fact that he’d fled the company due to the fact that the investigation revealed he was a radiologist and that patients endured liposuction treatments by people who weren’t licensed to practice dog grooming, much less invasive surgical treatments. The site, My Dr. Bittner Story relates one woman’s story on having liposuction done by the “famous” Dr. Bittner.

Bittner was in trouble in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2003, where his Ameriscan Imaging Centers were shut down due to deceptive practices. Bittner resurfaced in Los Angeles as a “prominent plastic surgeon” who opened the “Liposculpture” center in Beverly Hills.

Amazingly, Bittner sucked in Forbes, who published a glowing article on Bittner’s “lipodiesel”, Fill ‘Er Up With Human Fat, How a Beverly Hills doctor powered his SUV using his patients’ spare tires. on December 21, 2008. Three days before the Times and Daily Mail published the news that Bittner was under investigation, and had “disappeared” to South America. So far, we’ve yet to uncover where Bittner has resurfaced, or what “enterprise” he’s undertaken.

We doubt Bittner has “returned” to the jungles of Columbia where “plastic surgeon” Bittner began his “medical career” hampered by lack of “equipment” and, the “curse of sporadic electricity”. Even so, it’d would be interesting to find out if the story out of Peru is true, that there’s a “black market” human body fat market, and whether “famous American plastic surgeon” Craig Alan Bittner may be involved.

By LBG ]]> The Main Square I Love Nigeria http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38792-killers-sell-human-fats-peru-italy-le-bizzarre.html <![CDATA[World's Craziest, Stupidest and Dumbest Laws]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38791-worlds-craziest-stupidest-dumbest-laws.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:23:19 GMT Culled from NaijaPolitics Yahoo.com ... Yahoo Groups



World's Craziest, Stupidest and Dumbest Laws
Friday, November 20, 2009 5:49 AM
From:
"Adekunle"
Add sender to Contacts
To:
NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com, NigerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com


crazy stupid dumb laws all over the world
In the UK the public voted on which laws they thought were the craziest, ridiculous, stupidest or dumbest at home and around the rest of the world. The results are below:


Most ridiculous laws in Britain:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter

6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen

8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow


Most ridiculous laws around the rest of the world:

1. In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk

2. In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation

3. In Bahrain, a male doctor can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror

4. In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm

5. In Alabama, it is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle

6. In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed

7. In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth

8. In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except funerals or hospital visits

9. In Japan, there is no age of consent

10. In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon

11. An American Woman cannot obtain or renew passport for her daughter 14 years old, without her husband's permission:exclaim:

12. There gay men in many if not all states in the United States... but sodomy is illegal... what exactly is sodomy... could that be referring to anal sex? ]]> The Main Square I Love Nigeria http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38791-worlds-craziest-stupidest-dumbest-laws.html Three nijas shine in bigbrother africa4! http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38784-three-nijas-shine-bigbrother-africa4.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:51:51 GMT NIJA SHINES IN BIG BROTHER AFRICA4! For the first time in recent months,Nija is radiating positive vibes via the Mnet reality show:BIGBROTHERAFRICA... NIJA SHINES IN BIG BROTHER AFRICA4!
For the first time in recent months,Nija is radiating positive vibes via the Mnet reality show:BIGBROTHERAFRICA 4 holding in South Africa.when the show tagged REVOLUTION opened a couple of months ago,Nigeria had three inmates amongst the 25 youths picked across Africa.the three,Kevin,27,…the hot favourite for the grand prize:D;Nkenna,23 ,the enfant terrible girl Africa loves to hate and Geraldine,24 who from internet polls may likely come home this weekend.Ghana s rep was evicted in the very first week!the three nija inmates have shown typical bonding of nijas when away from home,ensuring their safety thus far while other nations even with only an inmate each had been evicted.The last seven inmates standing now are Itai(Zimbabwe),Edward(Namibia),Emma(Angola),Nzamo( Malawi)and of course the three nijas.Kevin made concerted efforts to befriend Elizabeth from Tanzania:kiss:,but she naively played hard to get until the frustrated viewers voted her out with her tantrums.:twisted:Emma fell head over heels with Jeremy from Uganda :drool:and almost lost focus of her mission inhouse until Jeremy got evicted some weeks back.Geraldine,despite taking her guitar in did not show much action except her portrayal of the typical nija s mum s pet.Nkenna on the other hand was garrulous to a fault!she claimed to be born again but got drunk twice,once threatening to strip naked for Africa!:rant:she naively claimed to be a virgin but said she would not mind being open to a stranger as a loved person may jilt her after claiming her prize!the three nija reps deserve kudos for showcasing Nigeria well.The show as in Bigbrother 1-3 opens the window to the world to see how African youths behave as individuals and as a group,especially when restricted to a location.viewers have learnt a thing or two about the culture,tradition,menu,etc of the various participating nationals.Barring any unforeseen circumstances,Kevin may likely bag the $200,000 prize.:clap:but in games like this,nothing is too certain until Dec 6th,last day in Big Brother4 House.:shake: ]]> The Main Square agensheku http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38784-three-nijas-shine-bigbrother-africa4.html Sanusi: We are products of colonialism, Documents show the white man planned no education for the North http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38771-sanusi-we-products-colonialism-documents-show-white-man-planned-no-education-north.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:31:22 GMT The Sun News On-line |

We’re all victims of colonisation –Sanusi
...Sanusi faults Olaniwun Ajayi on Northern domination
By DURO ADESEKO
Friday, November 20, 2009


•Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section
The Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, surprised guests present at the Musom Centre for the launching of the book of Sir Lanihun Ajayi at the MusoN Centre in Lagos.
The book titled: “Nigeria, Africa’s failed asset?” attracted many important dignitaries, intellectuals and some governors.

The argument by discussants centered on whether or not the colonial masters laid the foundation for the problems Nigeria is currently facing. Many argued that the British loved the North and that was why it gave more than 5o percent of the National Assembly seats to the North at independence.
Sanusi, however, stole the show when he spoke. His speech was anchored on the plank that the British and Nigerian rulers are responsible for the state of the situation Nigeria finds itself today.
Below is his unedited speech.

“Let me start by saying that I am Fulani (laughter). My grandfather was an Emir and therefore I represent all that has been talked about this afternoon. Sir Ajayi has written a book. And like all Nigerians of his generation, he has written in the language of his generation.
“My grandfather was a Northerner, I am a Nigerian. The problem with this country is that in 2009, we speak in the language of 1953. Sir Olaniwun can be forgiven for the way he spoke, but I can not forgive people of my generation speaking in that language.

“Let us go into this issue because there are so many myths that are being bandied around.
Before colonialism, there was nothing like Northern Nigeria. Before the Sokoto Jihad, there was nothing like the Sokoto caliphate. The man from Kano regard himself as Abakani. The man from Zaria was Abazasage. The man from Katsina was Abakani. The kingdoms were at war with each other. They were Hausas, they were Muslims, they were killing each other.

“The Yoruba were Ijebu, Owo, Ijesha, Akoko, Egba. When did they become one? When did the North become one? You have the Sokoto Caliphate that brought every person from Adamawa to Sokoto and said it is one kingdom. They now said it was a Muslim North.
“The Colonialists came, put that together and said it is now called the Northern Nigeria. Do you know what happened? Our grand fathers were able to transform to being Northerners. We have not been able to transform to being Nigerians. The fault is ours.

Tell me, how many governors has South West produced after Awolowo that are role models of leadership? How many governors has the East produced like Nnamdi Azikiwe that can be role models of leadership? How Many governors in the Niger Delta are role models of leadership? Tell me. There is no evidence statistically that any past of this country has produced good leaders.

You talk about Babangida and the economy. Who were the people in charge of the economy during Babangida era? Olu Falae, Kalu Idika Kalu. What state are they from in the North?
“We started the banking reform; the first thing I heard was that in Urobo land, that there will be a course of the ancestors. I said they (ancestors) would not answer. They said why? I said how many factories did Ibru build in Urobo land? So, why will the ancestors of the Urobo people support her?

“We talk ethnicity when it pleases us. It is hypocrisy. You said elections were rigged in 1959, Obasanjo and Maurice Iwu rigged election in 2007. Was it a Southern thing? It was not.
“The problem is: everywhere in this country, there is one Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba and Itshekiri man whose concern is how to get his hands on the pile and how much he can steal.
Whether it is in the military or in the civilian government, they seat down, they eat together. In fact, the constitution says there must be a minister from every state.

“So, anybody that is still preaching that the problem of Nigeria is Yoruba or Hausa or Fulani, he does not love Nigeria. The problem with Nigeria is that a group of people from each and every ethnic tribe is very selfish. The poverty that is found in Maiduguri is even worse than any poverty that you find in any part of the South. The British came for 60 years and Sir Ajayi talked about few numbers of graduates in the North (two at independence). What he did not say was that there was a documented policy of the British when they came that the Northerner should not be educated. It was documented. It was British colonial policy. I have the document. I have published articles on it. That if you educate the Northerner you will produce progressive Muslim intellectuals of the type we have in Egypt and India. So, do not educate them. It was documented. And you say they love us (North).

“I have spent the better part of my life to fight and Dr. (Reuben) Abati knows me. Yes, my grandfather was an Emir. Why was I in the pro-democracy movement fighting for June 12? Is (Moshood) Abiola from Kano? Why am I a founding director of the Kudirat Initiative for Nigerian Development (KIND)?
“There are good Yoruba people, good Igbo people, good Fulani people, good Nigerians and there are bad people everywhere. That is the truth.
“Stop talking about dividing Nigeria because we are not the most populous country in the world. We have all the resources that make it easy to make one united great Nigeria. It is better if we are united than to divide it.
“Every time you talk about division, when you restructure, do you know what will happen? In Delta, Area, the people in Warri will say Agbor, you don’t have oil. When was the Niger Delta constructed as a political enlity? Ten years ago, the Itshekiris were fighting the Urobos. Isn’t that what was happening? Now they have become Niger Delta because they have found oil. After, it will be, if you do not have oil in your village then you can not share our resources.

“There is no country in the world where resources are found in everybody’s hamlet. But people have leaders and they said if you have this geography and if we are one state, then we have a responsibility for making sure that the people who belong to this country have a good nature.
“So, why don’t you talk about; we don’t have infrastructure, we don’t have education, we don’t have health. We are still talking about Fulani. Is it the Fulani cattle rearer or is anybody saying there is no poverty among the Fulani?”, he said ]]> The Main Square superego http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38771-sanusi-we-products-colonialism-documents-show-white-man-planned-no-education-north.html Fort Hood Kills is Terrorism says US Congress http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38766-fort-hood-kills-terrorism-says-us-congress.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:56:48 GMT At hearings on the killings - rampage at Fort Hood in Texas... many US Congress members are calling the incident terrorism... ILN *Lawmakers Call... At hearings on the killings - rampage at Fort Hood in Texas... many US Congress members are calling the incident terrorism... ILN

Lawmakers Call Ft. Hood Shootings ‘Terrorism’
By DAVID JOHNSTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us...gewanted=print

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee on Thursday opened the first public hearings into the Fort Hood shootings, with several legislators asserting that the incident in which 13 people were killed was a terrorist attack by a homegrown extremist who may have slipped past law enforcement and military authorities.

Hours later at a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that former Army Secretary Togo West and a former chief of naval operations, Vernon Clark, would lead a broad Pentagon review of the circumstances surrounding the shootings in which 13 people were killed and 43 were injured.

Mr. Gates said the 45-day review would look into how the military identifies service members who might be a threat to others and how well military bases are equipped to respond to such incidents.

At the Congressional hearings, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that the Nov. 5 shootings allegedly carried out by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was a “homegrown terrorist attack” and that law enforcement and military agencies may have failed to act appropriately.

“The purpose of our investigation is to determine whether that attack could have been prevented, whether the federal agencies and employees involved missed signals or failed to connect the dots in a way that enabled Hasan to carry out his deadly plan,” Mr. Lieberman said. “If we find such negligence we will make recommendations to guarantee, as best we can, that they never occur again.”

But Mr. Lieberman’s hearing made only limited headway because the Obama administration has refused his requests for witnesses from the F.B.I. and Defense Department. Mr. Lieberman said he had spoken with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Mr. Gates, who told him they would cooperate with his inquiry, but did not want to compromise the criminal investigation.

As a result, Mr. Lieberman proceeded with several non-government experts and former officials, including Frances Fragos Townsend, formerly the homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush. She expressed concern that “political correctness,” and fear of intruding on Major Hasan’s free speech rights, may have interfered with the sharing of information earlier this year, when an F.B.I.-led counterterrorism team examined his e-mail exchanges with Anwar al-Awlaki, a well-known radical cleric, but found nothing amiss.

The administration has irritated some lawmakers by trying to delay their inquiries into the shootings, though some committees have postponed investigations, such as the Senate Armed Services Committee. Instead, officials from the Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have provided closed-door briefings for some lawmakers.

Military and law enforcement agencies are also conducting their own internal inquiries. The Army’s chief of staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., is organizing a military panel to examine possible warning signs that were ignored by the Army authorities at Fort Hood or the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Major Hasan was stationed until July. The review will encompass Major Hasan’s entire Army career and focus on how to prevent such an attack in the future.

The F.B.I.’s Office of Professional Responsibility is also continuing its own investigation, ordered by the agency’s director, Robert S. Mueller III. The Army and the F.B.I. are reporting their findings to the White House, where the National Security Council is leading its own inquiry. That investigation, ordered by President Obama, is expected to conclude by the end of the month. ]]> The Main Square I Love Nigeria http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38766-fort-hood-kills-terrorism-says-us-congress.html African slavery holocaust http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38760-african-slavery-holocaust.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:06:23 GMT *THE SLAVERY HOLOCAUST By NAIWU OSAHON* *Just a bit of the hell the White race has put Africans through to become leaders of the... THE SLAVERY HOLOCAUST By NAIWU OSAHON

Just a bit of the hell the White race has put Africans through to become leaders of the world.:rant::rant:

By NAIWU OSAHON

Portugal initiated the European movement of international expansion after their conquest of the Moorish stronghold of Ceuta in North Africa in 1415 CE.Emboldened by their unexpected success and determined to break the Islamic monopoly of trade with Africa and Asia, the Portuguese Prince, Henry the Navigator, who apparently never went to sea, using maps supplied by Jews who had been trading in gold in Northern and Western Africa through the Sahara, began to send Portuguese expeditions down the coast of West Africa, first to trade, then to establish Portuguese holding posts. Until that time, most Whites thought the world was flat and the Portuguese also wanted to prove or disprove this.

European enslavement of Africans began in 1441 CE, when a Portuguese captain, "commissioned' by his sovereign, Prince Henry the Navigator, seized a couple of Berbers off the West Coast of the Sahara.Prince Henry used slaves to work and populate Cape Verde, Fernandi Po (now Bioko) and Sao Tome, and took others home, particularly to the region of the Tagus River.Four years later, the Portuguese were building a fort on Arguin Island, off Mauritania, to hijack the caravan of gold travelling to Morocco, and to acquire slaves.This was to fulfill the needs of southern Europe, where slavery had survived in the Roman Empire in domestic activities, and in certain pockets of intensive agriculture, such as sugar production.

Prof. John Henrik Clarke in (What Columbus did not discover), tells us that "the few Africans who reached Europe through capture, or through the Venetian and Genoan trade with the Levant and North Africa, had been mere exotics.Such individuals still appear in the modern period like the Scottish "Ladye with the meckle lippis" in Dunbar's poem, for whose favours James IV's Knights jostled; like Ibrahim Hannibal, Peter the Great's Black general, who provided the germ of the novelette by another figure of the Diaspora, Alexander Pushkin, or like the Black pages who remained fashionable among the Europeans.

"The combined Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French slave trade initiatives, which followed, "deposited Africans in Europe and its possessions in numbers which make it impossible to speak of genuine Diaspora communities in Europe. By 1551, a tenth of Lisbon's population of 100,000 was Black, and by the 1590s it had its own annual African festival.The Portuguese Blacks were in the long run unable to remain culturally and racially distinct from the general population.The same was true of the smaller Black groups in Spain and other European countries.The only real exception was Britain.After it acquired colonies in North America and the West Indies, and became heavily involved in the slave trade, it developed small but distinct communities of African descent in port towns like Bristol, Liverpool and London.Their total number may have been as high as 15,000 in the 1780s."

Portuguese sailors reached Senegal in 1435, Cape Bojador in 1443 and Sierra Leone in 1446. In 1450, Pope Nicholas V's bull (letter) empowered Portugal to reduce to perpetual slavery, all Africans from Cape Bajador to Guinea.He quoted verses of Leviticus 25 and Exodus 21, to justify African slavery.Portugal reached Guinea in 1455, by which time, the Portuguese had become as familiar a sight as the Arabs in West Africa, trading along the coast and exchanging envoys with suchpowerful African monarchs as the Oba of Benin and Emperor of Mali.

By the time Portugal reached the Congo in 1481 CE, their trade in slaves and manufactured goods had expanded so much; they had to build trading forts along the coast. In 1482 CE, Portuguese Captain, Don Diego d' Azambuja, started building their most famous fort, Elimina Castle, in what is now known as Ghana.Because of the huge profits they were making in the country they called it the Gold Coast.In 1488, Bartholomew Diaz sailed to the Cape of Good Hope while another Portuguese was preparing to sail around the Cape of Good Hope.

Portugal's grab of large tracks of Western Songhai coincided with Columbus' 'discovery' of the West Indies in 1492 CE. Christopher Columbus, representing Spain, arrived in the West Indies, the supposed first European explorer to do so.In the same year, Rodrigo Borgis became Pope Alexander VI. The news of Christopher Columbus' 'discovery' was additional bad one for Africa which was experiencing serious political toilmoil at the time. Granada, the last Moorish foothold in Spain had just fallen and the Moorish exiles were returning to Africa unsung.

Strengthened by the 1450 Papal bull, authorizing Portugal to reduce to servitude all infidel people, Portugal quickly laid claim to the 'new' territories of Christopher Columbus and the rest.Spain, of course, promptly denounced Portugal's claim.According to Diop, "but with both countries being Catholic, they turned to the Pope for arbitration, a natural and logical step in an age when the Papacy claimed supremacy over individuals and governments.The Pope issued a series of Papal bulls in 1493, demarcating colonial possessions, with those in the Eastern Hemisphere going to Portugal, and the West going to Spain.The partition still did not satisfy the two parties' aspirations until 1494, when they both reached a compromise in the Treaty of Tordesillas, which rectified the Papal judgment to give Brazil's ownership to Portugal.This treaty signaled the beginning in earnest of modern European brigandage in international relations.In 1498, Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India and arrived in Calicut.In 1499, Amerigo Vespucci charted parts of the South American coast.

When Christopher Columbus first set foot in the supposed 'New World' in1492, he provided uninformed Europeans with the erroneous myth of themselves as 'discoverers' of already discovered and well established ancient African communities, colonies and trading posts across the Atlantic. Prof. Leo Wiener (Africa and the Discovery of America) explaining the diaries of Christopher Columbus, draws attention to the fact that "Columbus found dark-skinned people in the Caribbean Islands trading with the Indians.Columbus in his diary infers that the people were from the coast of Guinea (West Africa.)"

Wiener says: "…and he (Columbus) wanted to find out what the Indians of Hispaniola had told him, that there had come to it from the south and southeast, Negro people, who brought those spear points made of a metal which they call guanine, of which he had sent to the king and queen for assaying, and which was found to have in thirty-two parts eighteen of gold, six of silver, and eight of copper."

On Columbus' return from the third voyage to the new land he had reached, he reports the presence of Negroes there.Interesting as this is, even more telling is the account he gives, after the first voyage itself, of having received from the 'Indians,' as it pleased him to call the natives, a present of certain 'guanines.'

From the Literary Digest, May 16, 1925."Guanine' was the native African name of the time for pebbles or slobs of gold, the form in which it was imported to Europe from the Guinea coast.Quite naturally, Columbus, on being handed these same things in America, pricked up his ears.For be it remembered that Columbus, like all the rovers before him, had as his primary object, not the discovery of land merely, but the discovery of gold, ivory, spices, and articles sellable at a profit at home.

New lands were only a happy incidence to the business.They pleased one's king, lured new investors, and made good advertising.But gold was the thing, and Columbus lost no time in asking his Indians where they kept it.Very troublesome to Columbus their reply must have been, for according to his own report, they told him, "From Black merchants that come to us from the southeast."

John Henrik Clarke in (What Columbus did not discover) tells us that:"Columbus was informed by some men, when he stopped at one of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, that Negroes had been known to set out into the Atlantic from the Guinea coast in canoes loaded with merchandise and steering towards the west.The same Christopher Columbus was further informed by the Indians of Hispaniola when he arrived in the West Indies that they had been able to obtain gold from Black men who had come from across the sea from the south and southeast.The dates of the accounts coincide precisely with the time that Askia the Great held sway over Songhai."

Clarke also tells us that "American Indian legends abound with accounts of Black men who came to them from far-off lands.Aside from the report that Columbus obtained at Hispaniola, a notable tale is recorded in the Peruvian traditions.They inform us of how Black men coming from the east had been able to penetrate the Andes Mountains."Furthermore, Indian traditions of Mexico and Central America indicate that Negroes were among the first occupants of that territory.Some Indians there yet claim descent from these same Blacks."

Harold G. Lawrence (African Explorers of the New World, 1962) tells us:"We can now positively state that the Mandingos of Mali and Songhai Empires, and possibly other Africans, crossed the Atlantic to carry on trade with the Western Hemisphere Indians, and further succeeded in establishing colonies throughout the Americas.During the thirteenth century, Mali, the earlier of these two great empires, building on the ruins of ancient Ghana, rose to become one of the leading nations of the world… Voyages across the Atlantic were resumed, or continued during the reign of Askia.

Basil Davidson (Africans before Columbus, West African Magazine June 7, 1969) says: various writers have pointed from time to time, over the past twenty years and more, to the likely West African origins of the Black explorers who were said to have settled in Honduras."Peter Martyr, historian of Balboa's expeditions, wrote:"Balboa in 1513, found Negroes in Panama.These were the first Negroes seen in the Indies.Balboa found them at war with the Indians and thought that they had sailed from Ethiopia."

John Henrik Clerks says: "Amerigo Vespucci, on his voyage to the Americas witnessed these same Black men out in the Atlantic returning to Africa.Fifteenth and sixteenth century Spanish explorers and early American art, legends, and burials, provide the principal sources of information on what happened to these African seamen after their arrival in the Americas.In effect, the Spanish conquistadors found dispersed all over the New World, small tribes who were from the very first considered Negroes.The largest Negro colony appears to have been a permanent settlement at Darien where Balboa saw them in 1513."

In Carter G. Woodson (The Africa Background Outlined) we learn that early European explorers on the Isthmus of Darien found caves there with skulls identified as African.

Students of ethnology have also observed that the religion of North and South American Indians is very much like that of the Africans, and the Indian language has words of African origin such as "Canoe," "tobacco," and "buckra."Words like "goober," "yam," "banjo" and "voodoo," however, were later brought from Africa to America.Professor Leo Wiener proves with overwhelming evidence that the Indian medicine man owes his evolution to the African medicine man.

From ancient American history we have Emperor Septimius Severus who was a native of Africa and married to a Syrian wife.His son Caracalla, half-African, half-Syrian, succeeded him.Marinus was a Moor and another ruler was Pertinax, an African.We also find that in pre-Columbus Mexico, peasants were buried and warriors cremated, suggesting a mixture of culture arising from Whites from the North and Blacks crossing the Atlantic from Africa, meeting on the American continent and gradually blending to produce the more or less yellow race of Indians.

Quoting from the Black Book, published by Random House, New York, 1974, we are told that Columbus, in fact, was not Europe's first 'discoverer' of the West Indies:"…easily a century before Columbus, and perhaps for a still longer period, French merchants of Dieppe and Rouen regularly sent their ships to the Guinea coast of Africa and probably to the bays of South America, for gold, ivory, spices, skins, precious stones, and other exotic desirables.It is known that this commerce was organized on almost the scale of a modern Corporation "…but had to be concealed to avoid paying heavy taxes to the state and greedy kings of the era.These shipping magnates maintained a well-ordered clearing–house or admiralty office at Dieppe, as a place of business record and for the exchange of marine intelligence.The centre was in systematic running order for a period of time…spanning several centuries and …certainly well before the birth of Christopher Columbus.

From the Literary Digest, May 16, 1925, we are told that: "Africans were used as navigators and pilots by sea travellers because of their knowledge of the stars.A pilot or navigator of Columbus' first ship to America was a Black African called Piri Reis.A cartographer whose maps are reference points even until this day.He owned a map alleged to have been acquired from another African who had earlier been captured by Piri Reis' Uncle, Kemel Reis.Over the years, the role of these Africans in Columbus' journey to America became distorted.

The question is why would the slaves, Whites claim could not read or write, have value for or keep such priceless maps?Many were secret documents kept from enemies at all cost in those days, because they held the secret routes to new worlds and riches."

Other African participants, particularly with Spanish explorers, include Estevanico or Little Steven, who was de Vaca's companion during their six years expedition from Florida to Mexico.Estevanico, who went to America in 1527, was a linguist.He learned the Indian language within weeks and had good knowledge of herbs and medicines, which gave him the status of a deity among some Indians tribes.In his expedition with Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539, in search of the fabulous Seven Cities of Cibola, all members of the crew, including Fray Marcos took ill and Estevanico went on alone to open up what we now know as New Mexico and Arizona.Isn't he a 'discoverer' too in Europeans terms?

Pedro Nino, an African, was a pilot of Christopher Columbus' command ship that 'discovered' the Pacific in 1513.Balboa carried thirty Africans during his 'discovery' of the Pacific in 1513 as pilots through the two oceans of the Isthmus.Cortez in his conquest of Mexico, was accompanied by a number of Africans, including one who became a pioneer of wheat farming in the 'New World.'Africans played significant roles in the exploration of Guatemala, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, nearly a hundred years before African slaves reached Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619.Africans made contributions to the 'New World,' not only in opening it up as pioneers and collaborators, but also by influencing the Indians culturally and teaching them new skills such as iron and leather working and carpentry.

In his entry of 15th of January 1492, Christopher Columbus inferred that some of the people of Carib (Puerto-Rico) are cannibals.According to Prof. John Henrik Clarke: "this is one of the most persistent myths coming mainly from Europeans using it as a rationale to reduce some non-European people to servitude. This charge is often made and rarely proven.Ironically, the charge of cannibalism is more often charged to a people who in their society have more than an adequate supply of non-human meat. Those making the charge generally come from a society that has been historically short of non-human meat."

Slavery to the New World began in 1502 when Gov. Nicola's de Ovando of Hispaniola imported a few Spanish-born Blacks from Spain.Rapid decimation of the Indian population of the Spanish West Indies created a labour shortage.Las Casas advocated importation of Blacks to replace the Indians who were dying out, so they began importing from Africa.In 1550, Petro Cabral reached Brazil.

After the middle of the 17th century, the demand for Atlantic slave trade became insatiable and peaked in the 18th century.Each year, seven times as many slaves were leaving Western African coasts.About a third were being exported from the Niger Region, the community of Ijaw, Ibibio and Efik fisher men and salt makers who controlled the water ways to the interior, developed city states whose whole fortunes came to be bound up with the slave trade.The area became known as the Slave Coast. The slaves included these people and the Igbos, Tivs and the Yoruba.About 35% of the slaves from West Africa came from the Slave Coast or the Benin and (Bight of Benin) region.They greatly influenced the culture, religion (Voodoo) and traditions of the 'New World.'

For 500 years, from (1441-1870-1960 CE) with the Bible in one hand and the gun in the other, they unleashed a devastating, unprecedented, unrelenting and un-godly, tyranny of hate, torture, enslavement and colonization on Africans.Africa was doubly disadvantaged: it was excluded from the economic flow engendered by the supposed 'discoveries,' and was bled dry by the exportation of humans in their dynamic ages, destined to replace the American Indians decimated by the European incursions.Progress on the continent came to a stop.

The African was the first to discover iron but had built no cannon, because he had not had serious need for one.The secret of gunpowder was known only to the African priests who used it solely for religious purposes at rites such as the Mysteries of Osiris.The African was at peace with himself and in no hurry to conquer the world when African invasion by aliens began to turn into an avalanche.From that technical standpoint mainly, Africa became quite vulnerable.Diop tells us "It became tempting, irresistible prey for the West, provided with firearms and far-ranging navies."

O.A. Ladimeji in (Nationalism, Alienation and the Crises of Ideology) makes the point more directly:"Our conquest was made possible, not by the means of production, but by the means of destruction, the technology of murder.It is the existence of the firearms and the West's monopoly, which predominantly accounts for Europe's ability to terrorize the rest of the world.We can see that while Western philosophers saw the progressive liberalization of their societies as the product of moral enlightenment, the agents of this liberalization were engaging in the wholesale slaughter of populations, establishing completely arbitrary totalitarian despotism and effecting the most violent attempt in history… at the domestication of man.'Enlightenment' was no sooner born in Europe than it was buried by them in the African world.When Africans possessed equal quantities and quality of arms, the onward march of European expansion meets decisive defeat as at Adowa.The same phenomenon is repeated by the victory of the Vietnamese, aided by Russian and Chinese technology, against a murderous American imperialism."

Africa as a whole was not just waiting to be dismembered without a fight. After the initial surprise attack, we braced up, by and large.We were only defeated by superior weapons of destruction at a time when we did not think such technology necessary.In fact, they came initially as equals until they found out that we had no guns.Even then, our Generals were as valorous as any of the kind of the day.Names of our warrior nationalists, mostly Kings and Queens abound: Queen Nzingha of Angola, King Nana Kwamena Ansa of Ghana, Nehenda of Zimbabwe, Anowa of Ghana, Ashanti King Prempeh, the Jaja of Opobo, Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi of Benin City, Madam Tinubu of Lagos, Behanzin Hossu Bo Welli of Dahomey, Samory Toure of Mali, Mohammed Ahmed the Mahdi of Sudan, Nefertiti of Nubia, Mohammed Ben Abdulla Hassen the Mad Mullah of Somaliland, Chaka the Zulu, and many others gave good accounts of themselves in our honour.

Prof. Henrik Clarke says another problem the African had in "dealing with the European during this period, was African's tragic naiveté.He had never dealt extensively with this kind of people. He came out of a society where nature was kind; nature furnished him enough food, enough land; enough of the basic things he needed to live a pretty good life. These old African societies were governed by honour and obligation."

Africans had heard of the devil, of course, but never expected its manifestation in human flesh and blood.The African was caught unprepared.He could not imagine any man with a soul doing what the White man did to him.Collectively, Africans did not understand what slavery was really all about.Even including the African traitors, we had no idea we would never see our captured relatives ever again.We hoped in our hearts, that our relatives being kidnapped into slavery would be treated no worse than we treat our houseboys today.

Houseboys and girls in Africa are slaves in a sense but slavery to an African is like an adoption.Africa is almost a free slavery system.A parent who cannot cope with bringing up a child may hand over the child to another parent in a better position to give the child a good home.A parent may give a child to a Chief because usually, Chiefs are well placed to provide food and shelter through the communal tax system.The slave in an African home often has the rights of the adopted child.

Even now, a hundred years after the supposed end to cross Atlantic slavery, Africans on the continent still do not know the hell our enslaved relatives went through in the hands of their slave masters.Our enslaved kith and kin kept their historical perspective on slavery intact whereas in Nigeria, for instance, the only reminder of it is a solitary slave chain preserved privately as a tourist attraction in a run-down hut in Badagry, a coastal suburb of Lagos, one of the major seaports for the West African slave trade.Ghana has more terrifying evidence in their tell-tale Castles, but Africans on the continent hardly visit or relate to the evidence.One of the Castles in Ghana has been given over to the African Descendants Association.They have a guest book they sign, and looking through, you see very personal and emotional comments by Black visitors from abroad to the Castle.For our kith and kin from abroad, the reaction when faced with damning evidence is painful.It is painful to remember that they were sold here like cattle but for us Africans on the continent, our memory of slavery is completely blank.

In fact, the Whites at first posed as friends to win our confidence and entrench themselves on our coasts as tenants to trade.Then in the dead of night, when all peace loving people are supposed to be in deep slumber, they struck.They stormed over-land, assisted by local traitors, corrupted with token western materialism.Surrounding our towns and villages, blocking off outlets, they pounced on unsuspecting, unarmed and unprepared families having their meals, siesta, nightcap, relaxing at play, working at the farm or visiting neighbours; chasing us almost naked through the woods, maiming some, trapping others in their nets like sport animals, to kidnap, chain, and drag to their God-forsaken 'New World.'Anyone resisting capture was hacked mercilessly to death on the spot and those who tried to escape were hunted down like game animals.

It is estimated that over two hundred million Africans were murdered by Whites during the European slave trade, just to capture about a quarter of that number, out of which only about 10 million survived the journey of the Middle Passage. To temporarily evade capture, Africans had to drastically change their habits and life styles.A reasonably secure community life could no longer be taken for granted by anyone.Africans had become fugitives on their own soil, with fewer and fewer bread winners, all fleeing from one mishap or another, unable to put down firm roots any where, or aspire to any form of organized living, let alone invent and improve upon the civilization they had pioneered.

Many of the slave ships that carried our kith and kin to the 'New World' had Christian names, such as those of Sir John Hawkins, a slaver, licensed by Queen Elizabeth, who transported his human cargo in ships named Jesus, Angel and Grace of God.Quite often, the captains of the slave ships were Christian clerics or priests.John Newton was one such captain of a slave-trading vessel.He read the Bible daily on board the ship while hundreds of human souls were in his ship's hold.Pursued his studies for his ministry and held prayer service on deck twice daily.He wrote a hymn:"How Sweet the name of Jesus sounds."

Here is a White writer's description of what happened on those ships: "Below the deck…sometimes more than five feet high and sometimes less; and this height is divided towards the middle, for the slaves lie in two rows, one above the other, on each side of the ship, close to each other like books upon a shelf…so close that the shelf would not easily contain any more.The poor creatures, thus cramped, are likewise in irons for the most part, which makes it difficult for them to turn or move or attempt to rise or lie down without hurting themselves or each other.Every morning, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together."

Africans never surrendered to slavery. They had to be beaten and dragged on board slave ships. On slave ships, Africans were constantly subjected to callous beating and torture, with the sick, the dying, the dead, the living, all chained together and confined in a heap, toileting on each other, in narrow suffocating space. Many Africans starved themselves to death, cut their own throats with their fingernails, threw themselves over board to escape torture and slavery.Quite a number of them succeeded in over powering their captors and taking over their slave ships.

To break and humble Africans, some of the most brutal and inhuman treatment in the history of mankind was practiced against them by Whites on board those slave ships. Some captains, at the start of a journey would chop a number of slaves to bits and force the others to watch and to eat the flesh. Torture and dismemberment were used to deter rebellion.

A typical example took place on board the "Friedericius Quartus" in 1709.The right hand of the leader of a revolt was cut off and exhibited to all the slaves.The next day, the left hand was cut of and exhibited as usual.The third day, the head was cut off and hoisted in the air dripping with blood for 2 days for all slaves to see.Schools of sharks trailed slave ships waiting for their next meal of dead human cargo thrown overboard into the icy waters of the Atlantic.

Stories like the following appeared in the press: "A cargo of slaves of the Ebo (Igbo) tribe had been landed at a suspiciously secluded spot on the west side of the island.They preferred death to a life of captivity, and as they walked into the water, the leader said:"The water brought us here.The water will take us away."In 1552, 109 slaves killed all the crew on the Portuguese ship, 'Misericordia,' except those that escaped in a small boat.The Misericordia was never found after that.In 1650, a rebellion, led by Alfonso Ceillescas, seized a Spanish ship off the coast of present day Ecuador.Alfonso Ceillescas became Lord of the Indians and Africans in the region. In 1742, the slave ship 'Mary' was driven ashore in the River Gambia by locals with the help of the captured Africans on board.The ship was plundered and destroyed. In 1752, Africans from the Gold Coast and Bonny in today's Nigeria's Niger Delta, took control of the slave ship 'Marlborough' and after defeating attempt to recapture them, returned with the ship to Africa.On August 30, 1800, Gabriel, leading more than 1000 armed slaves was poised for action near Richmond, Virginia, USA, but was thwarted by a violent rainstorm forcing the troop to disband. Thirty-five of the slaves, including Gabriel were hanged.

Denmark Vassey, a free person and an urban artisan in Charleston, South Carolina, was planning to surround an area with 9000 slaves in the summer of 1822.He was betrayed in June of that year before he could go into action.139 Blacks were arrested, 37 of them including Vassey, were hanged and 32 were exiled before the end of the summer. On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner, at Southampton County, Virginia led a band of 6 slaves on a crusade against bondage.In a few days, they had attracted 70 fellow slaves to their fold and killed 57 Whites.On the 24th August, 1831, hundreds of militia and volunteers stopped them near the County seat in Jerusalem, killing at least 100 Blacks.Turner was hanged on Nov 11, 1831, triggering a new wave of unrest that spread fear and unease among slaveholders and led to the passage of more draconian laws against slaves and free Blacks.

In 1839, 54 slaves, led in rebellion by Joseph Cinque, the son of a Mendi King of Sierra Leone, gained control of their slave ship, AMISTAD, along the coast of Cuba.The crew was instructed to sail back to Africa.After 2 months at sea, the ship was captured off the coast of Long Island, New York, and the Africans were jailed.Spain demanded that the slaves be handed over to them.Abolitionists insisted that the Africans should be set free because they were illegally enslaved.The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of the Africans, who when released from jail, returned to Sierra Leone.On November 7, 1841, Madison Washington, who had previously escaped from a Virginia plantation, but had returned there to rescue his wife after living in the North for a while, was recaptured and was on board the 'Creole,' along with other captured slaves, ten days out of Hampton Roads, on their way to New Orleans, when he led a rebellion.The slaves forced the ship to the Bahamas, where they regained freedom.

White laws sanctioned the punishment meted out to Blacks by categorizing Africans as chattels, which like horses, and cattle could be bought, sold, mortgaged, borrowed, rented, bartered etc.Christianity made slavery divine, arguing that the Africans were the children of Ham who bore the curse of darkness from God.Missionaries often forced slaves to promise not to seek freedom as a condition for being baptized. Women were routinely severely raped and men were regularly castrated, their sex organs severed.

Some of the laws on the statute books of these White Christians from a variety of states in the USA included: Chapter 41:'Slaves may be castrated if convicted of looking at or attempting to ravish a White woman or to escape from his master.''A Negro convicted of an offence within the benefit of a clergy, judgment of death shall not be given, but he shall be burnt in the hand in open court and suffer such other corporal punishment as the court shall think fit.If a Negro gives false testimony, he shall without further trial have one ear nailed to the pillory for one hour and then the ear cut off and the other nailed and cut off in like manner, and more over receive on his bare back thirty-nine lashes, well laid on, at the public whipping post, or such other punishment as the court shall think proper, not extending to life or limb.'

Chapter 371:"It shall be unlawful for any White person to marry any save a White person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than White and American Indian.The term 'White person' shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian, but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian, and no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed White persons.All laws heretofore passed and in effect regarding the intermarriage of White and Colored persons shall apply to marriage prohibited by this act."

Act XXII: For loitering…a run away is to be branded in the cheek with the letter 'R.' Chapter XIV "It is enacted that if any person shall steal any hog or pig, for the first offence, he shall receive on his bare back twenty-five lashes or pay ten pounds current money and if a Negro or Indian, thirty-nine lashes well laid on, at the common whipping post, and moreover shall pay 400 pounds of tobacco for each hog."And if any person shall offend the second time, he shall stand in the pillory and have both ears nailed thereto, and at the end of two hours have the ears cut loose from the nails.And for the third offence he shall be adjudged a felon and shall suffer death."

Chapter XLIV:"In Section 34, it is declared that if any slave resist his master, or other person, by his or her order correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction, it shall not be accounted felony; but the master, owner, and every such other person so giving correction shall be free and acquit of all punishment.

The following was a typical public auction notice: "(Public Sale of Negroes by Richard Clagett.)On Tuesday March 5th, 1833, at 1.00 p.m. the following slaves will be sold at Potters Mart, in Charleston, SC.Miscellaneous lots of Negroes, mostly house servants, some for fieldwork.Conditions:Half in cash, balance by bond, bearing interest from date of sale.Payable in one to two years to be secured by a mortgage of the Negroes, and appraised personal security.Auctioneer will pay for the papers.""A valuable Negro woman, accustomed to all kinds of house work.Is a good plain cook, and excellent dairymaid, washes and irons.She has four children, one a girl about 13 years of age, another 7, a boy about 5, and an infant 11 months old.2 of the children will be sold with mother, the others separately, if it best suits the purchaser.

"A very valuable blacksmith, wife and daughters; the smith is in the prime of life, and a perfect master at his trade.His wife about 27 years old, and his daughters 12 and 10 years old, have been brought up as house servants and as such are very valuable.Also for sale 2 likely young Negro wenches, one of who is 16 the other 13, both of whom have been taught and accustomed to the duties of house servants.The 16 year old wench has one eye.A lively yellow girl about 17 or 18 years old, has been accustomed to all kinds of house and garden work.She is sold for no fault.Sound as a dollar.

"House servants: The owner of a family described herein would sell them for a good price only, they are offered for no fault whatever, but because they can be done without, and money is needed.He has been offered $1,250.They consist of a man 30 to 33 years old, who has been raised, in a genteel Virginia family as house servant, carriage driver etc., in all which he excels.His wife a likely wench of 25 to 30, raised in like manner, as chambermaid, seamstress, nurse etc., their two children girls of 12 and 4 or 5.They are bright mulattos of mild tractable dispositions, unassuming manners, and of genteel appearance, and well worthy the notice of a gentleman of fortune needing such.Also 14 Negro Wenches ranging from 16-25 years of age, all sound and capable of doing a good days work in the house or field."

The following anecdote was published by a local newspaper.(This version is taken from the Black Book):"George, a slave, belonged to a family…in the state of Georgia, near the Ochmulgee River who he served faithfully.He was an excellent mechanic and during the life of his owner or claimants (for he never had an owner) they would take no money for him, and in consequence of his faithfulness to them, at their death, George was still a freeman.Poor George then looked upon himself as one of the Lords, even of the accursed soil of Georgia.But George was doomed to disappointment.The unjust heirs broke the will, seized his person, and thrust him into the dark caverns of slavery again.Bound for a new residence, they started down the Ochmulgee.George was on board the steamboat, bound for his destination, but the vicious robbers of his liberty knew not where.George looked sad, and talked but little.

The steamer glided along, with a crowd of guests, unconscious of their weary fellow-passenger.In the night, a splash was heard which awakened the attention of boatmen and passengers; all looked with anxiety, but seeing all appeared to be safe, it was a just conclusion that, this must have been the noise occasioned by the falling in of the bank of the river.Morning came, the grindstone of the boat was missed, information was given, and search being made, George was gone, they knew not where.The river was ordered to be scoured, and George was found with the grindstone tied to his neck, reposing in the depth of the Ochmulgee, preferring as a man, death before slavery.George had tasted liberty.

A typical advert for run-away slaves went like this: "Twenty Dollars Reward: Run away on the 13th instant, from the Subscriber/living on Elk-Ridge in Ann-Arundel County, a Negro man, named Harry, about 40 years of age, near 6 feet high, has knots on his left leg, which is larger than his right, and has red eyes.Had on, and took with him, a tow-linen shirt and trousers, brown cloths coat, brown corduroy jacket and breeches, two pair of yarn stockings, one white and the other blue mixed, a white shirt, felt hat, and red silk handkerchief.Who ever takes up said Negro, and secures him in goal, so that his master have get him again, shall receive, if 20 miles from home, eight dollars, if 40 miles, sixteen dollars; and if out of the state, the above reward, including legal fees, and reasonable charges, if brought home. 'Nicholars Dorsey, July 19, 1790.

As for the treatment of the slaves on plantations, the following newspaper reports were typical and regular:"Flogging with a leather strap on the naked body is common; also, padding the body with a hand-saw until the skin is a mass of blisters, and then breaking the blisters with the teeth of the saw.Very often, slaves were seen stretched out upon the ground with hands and feet held down by intimidated fellow-slaves, or lashed to the stake driven into the ground for 'burning.'Handfuls of dry-corn-husks are then lighted, and the burning embers are whipped off with a stick so as to fall in showers of live sparks upon the naked back of the slave victim.This is continued until the victim is covered with blisters.If in his writhing of torture the slave gets his hands free to brush off the fire, the burning brand is applied to them.

"Another method of punishment which is inflicted for such 'crimes' as running away, or other refractory conduct, 'is to dig a hole in the ground large enough for the slave to squat or lie down in.The victim is then stripped naked and placed in the hole, and a covering or grating of green sticks is laid over the opening.Upon this, a quick fire is built, and the live embers sifted through upon the naked flesh of the slave, until his body is blistered and swollen almost to bursting with just enough of life to enable him to crawl, the slave is then allowed to recover from his wounds if he can, or to end his suffering by death."

C.L.R. James (The Black Jacobins) tells us about some of the things that happened to our kith and kin on the sugar plantations in the Americas."The whip was not always an ordinary cane or woven cord…sometimes it was replaced by a thick thong of cow hide, or by the lianes, a local growth of reeds, supple and pliant like whale bone…The slaves received the whip with more certainty and regularity than they received their food.It was the incentive to work and the guardian for discipline.But there was no ingenuity that fear of a depraved imagination could devise which was not employed to break their spirits and satisfy the lusts and resentment of their owners and guardians.

"Irons on the hands and feet, blocks of weed that the slaves had to drag behind them wherever they went, the tin-plate mask designed to prevent the slaves eating sugar cane, the iron collar.Whipping was interrupted in order to pass a piece of hot wood on the buttocks of the victims; salt, pepper, citron, cinders, aloes, and hot ashes were poured on the bleeding wounds. Mutilations were common, limbs, ears, and sometimes the private parts, to deprive them of the pleasure which they could indulge in without expense.Their masters poured burning wax on their arms and hands and shoulders, emptied the boiling sugar over their heads, burned them alive, roasted them on slow fires, filled them with gun power and blew them up with a match (this was called 'to burn a little powder in the ass of a n******'); buried them up to their necks and smeared their heads with sugar that the flies might devour them, fastened them near to nests of ants or wasps; made then eat their excrement, drink their urine and lick the saliva of other slaves."

Sir Han Sloane, an obvious sadist, who visited the British Islands in 1688, didn't think the punishment he described (and quoted here) were harsh enough:"The slaves are punished…by nailing them down on the ground and with crooked sticks on every limb and their applying the fire by degrees from feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, whereby their pains are extravagant…by gelding (cutting off the balls) or chopping off half of the foot with an axe.Their punishment are suffered till they are raw; some (masters) put on their (slaves') skins, pepper and salt to make them smart, at other times their masters will drop melted wax on their slaves' skins and use several very exquisite torments…"

The same great Christian White lovers of Africa have perfected their torture systems into institutions like the IMF and the World Bank to manipulate lily-livered Black leaders for White hegemony.Our ancestors didn't take to their torture kindly.They continued their acts of rebellion through sabotage at work or by running away into hardly accessible swamps, forests and mountains, to continue the fight for their freedom.Africans cursed their tormentors in work songs; communicated with each other, even under severe restrictions, with body language and signs; and transformed their religious indoctrination to their advantage by replacing, for instance, 'Heaven' with 'Africa' in Christian songs about the joys of Heaven.Flying away home to Zion and crossing the river Jordan was translated by slaves to mean the joyful return home to Africa through the Atlantic.Death was seen as a welcome means of returning to Africa and with that, African slaves conquered the fear of torture and death.

African traitors were not spared by Africans, as this report in the 14th Wilmington (N.C) Journal shows:"A Negro has been tarred and feathered by his colored brethren, at Washington, Pa, in consequence of it being clearly proved that he was in the employ of slaveholders, in hunting up fugitives."

In the same Wilmington Journal number 14, there is this report about a Runaway Negro Camp:"On Friday last, a run away Negro camp was discovered on an Island, in Big Swamp, situated between Bladen and Robeson counties.On Saturday morning, a company of twelve or fifteen started out to haunt, and after startling them from their camp, one of the Negroes fired at Mr. David C. Lewis, wounding him, from the effort of which he died on Sunday morning.On Friday, a man named Taylor was shot at twice from the same place, but missed.The Negroes had cleared a place for a garden, had cows etc., in the swamp.None arrested.The swamp is about four miles wide, and almost impenetrable."

In South and Central America and the Caribbean, some Africans who succeeded in escaping from their masters' plantations or custody set up camps in hardly accessible swampy regions to create new and free African communities, using culture to broaden communications and encourage cohesion.These Africans were called the Maroons.They pulled-off a number of successful revolts including the big uprisings in Santo Domingo in 1522 and in Cuba in 1550.Africans achieved their first independent nation in the western hemisphere with Palmares in northern Brazil in circa 1595, although this was destroyed by the slavers in 1694.Africans fought with Simon Bolivar for the liberation of South America.

In 1759 CE, F. Voltaire, who had all his life asserted that Africans were naturally inferior to Whites, published 'Candide,' a sting on religionists' slavery of Africans.In 1772 CE, Rev. T. Thompson of the USA wrote that "the trade in Negro slaves on the African coast is in accordance with human principles and the laws of revealed religions."

In August 1791, Haiti Island's slaves began their revolt under the leadership of Boukman, which continued in various disguises under Toussaint L'Ouverture, Dessalines and Henry Christophe. In 1792 CE, Denmark became the first nation to prohibit slavery.Quoting from C.L.R.James (The Black Jacobins):"At the time of the French revolution in 1789, the colony of San Domingo supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France and was the greatest individual market for the European slave trade.It was in Haiti that Africans finally scored their earliest greatest victory against slavery in the Diaspora.

According to C.L.R. James, "the revolt is the only successful slave revolt in history, and the odds it had to overcome is evidence of the magnitude of the interests involved.The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single White man into a people able to organize themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day is one of the great epics of revolutionary struggle and achievements.Their struggle lasted for twelve years, during which time, the slaves defeated in turn, the local Whites and soldiers of the French monarchy, a Spanish invasion, a British expedition of some 60,000 men, and a French expedition of similar size under Bonaparte's brother-in-law.The defeat of Bonaparte's expedition in 1803 resulted in the establishment of the independent Blackstate of Haiti on the 29th November, 1803, with Dessalines as Governor General for life."Christophe became the first King of independent Haiti after the death of Emperor Dessalines.

The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807 CE.In 1852 CE, Rev. Josiah, published a Bible defence of Black slavery in America and in 1863 CE, 'The London Times, with blazing headline, thundered that the Bible justifies Africans being sold and bought.It advised African slaves to ignore their freedom.The US abolished the slave trade in 1863 CE.Abraham Lincoln's strong leadership as President of US during the civil war helped to preserve the Union and led to the end of slavery throughout the nation.He was assassinated in 1865 CE.Legal abolition of slavery was promptly replaced with colonization from 1880 for the next 80 years.The Berlin Conference to consolidate colonialism took place from Nov. 1884 to Feb. 1885.Charles Carrol published his "Biblical and scientific proof that the Negro is not a member of the human race, in 1900 CE."

NAIWU OSAHON Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African Movement); Ameer Spiritual (Spiritual Prince) of the African race; MSc. (Salford); Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M; A.M.N.I.M. Poet, Author of the magnum opus: 'The end of knowledge'.One of the world's leading authors of children's books; Awarded; key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Honourary Councilmanship, Memphis City Council; Honourary Citizenship, County of Shelby; Honourary Commissionership, County of Shelby, Tennessee; and a silver shield trophy by Morehouse College, USA, for activities to unite and uplift the African race.

Naiwu Osahon, renowned author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement.

http://www.chatafrikarticles.com/art...UST/Page1.html ]]> The Main Square I Love Nigeria http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38760-african-slavery-holocaust.html <![CDATA[Europe's 1st President]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38757-europes-1st-president.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:38:26 GMT + For anyone who may consider this newsworthy.. Auspy. --- Image:... +

For anyone who may consider this newsworthy..

Auspy.

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Click the image to open in full size.

Belgian PM is first 'president of Europe'
November 19, 2009 2:58 a.m. EST | LINK

Click the image to open in full size.












Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- Belgium's prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, has been appointed the first "president of Europe," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday.

Catherine Ashton of the United Kingdom is to become the EU's foreign minister, Brown said.

The leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union made the decision behind closed doors in Brussels Thursday.

Van Rompuy, a soft-spoken fan of Japanese poetry, beat out contenders including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a post whose duties are not yet clear.

The Belgian is "well known as a consensus builder," said Brown, who added the selection was unanimous.

Brown had realized earlier that Blair did not have enough support among key decision-makers to snag the new post, a Brown representative told CNN earlier.

The post was created by the European Union's Lisbon Treaty -- which came into force this month, after years of torturous negotiations, as a replacement for the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc.

Although the EU prides itself on being a club of democracies, the process of choosing its new leader was far from transparent or open.

The people of Europe had no say, not even through their parliamentarians.

Blair started as the favorite. He was, according his backers (who at first included President Nicolas Sarkozy of France) just the sort of glamorous figure, recognized the world over, who would win attention for the EU and enable it to exercise its weight in world affairs.

As one Indian official said before the announcement: "If the EU chooses as its worldwide representative the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg I am not sure our leaders will have the time to meet him."

But others were soon arguing that, as former U.S. President George W. Bush's leading ally over Iraq, Blair is a divisive figure in Europe. The one man who might have been able to take Britain into the European single currency, he had not even attempted to do so while he was Britain's prime minister.

Public backing from Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, a joke figure to much of Europe and another Bush ally, did not help.:lol: Poor Italians!
--- ]]> The Main Square Auspicious http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38757-europes-1st-president.html <![CDATA[White House "Dismayed" Jerusalem Settlement Expansion]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38753-white-house-dismayed-jerusalem-settlement-expansion.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:15:03 GMT *Palestine Declares Own Nationhood Independence And Freedom!*... Palestine Declares Own Nationhood Independence And Freedom!
http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/foru...e-freedom.html
ILN

White House "Dismayed" At Jerusalem Settlement Expansion
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/...ttlements.html

Filed at 2:53 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday that it was "dismayed" over Israeli approval to expand the Gilo settlement in Jerusalem and sharply criticized the ongoing evictions and demolition of Palestinian homes.

"At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Israel to curb settlement expansion as a gesture of goodwill to Palestinians in an effort to restart the peace process.

Israel on Tuesday approved the building of 900 homes for Jews on West Bank land it occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed to its Jerusalem municipality.

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said Obama's envoy, George Mitchell, had asked an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in London on Monday to block the proposed construction at the settlement of Gilo.

A U.S. official confirmed the report.

But an Israeli government planning commission approved the addition of 900 housing units at Gilo, where 40,000 Israelis already live.

"We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee's decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem," Gibbs said in the statement.

"The U.S. also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes," he said.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Jackie Frank) ]]> The Main Square I Love Nigeria http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38753-white-house-dismayed-jerusalem-settlement-expansion.html Corruption crackdown: Ex-head of state in plea bargain deal http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38751-corruption-crackdown-ex-head-state-plea-bargain-deal.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:42:49 GMT From IKE NNAMDI, The Sun (http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/nov/19/national-19-11-2009-10.htm) Reporter New York Thursay,... From IKE NNAMDI, The Sun Reporter New York

Thursay, November 19, 2009


A dozen Nigerians including a former military head of state are among more than 15,000 wealthy individuals who have disclosed billions in offshore bank accounts in 70 countries under a voluntary American government program.
Under the deal the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will allow them avoid criminal prosecution as part of an agreement with Swiss authorities, which has cracked open the once secretive financial system.

“Flood of people came forward in the last days before the amnesty program expired October15,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said.

The final total far surpasses the number who disclose offshore accounts in a typical year (about 100) and comes amid a broad U.S. crackdown on international tax evasion at Swiss bank UBS AG and other institutions.

“To put it simply, this is a historic milestone for the nation’s hardworking taxpayers,” Shulman said.
The total in taxes, interest and penalties collected from those in the voluntary disclosure program will be in the “billions of dollars,” Shulman said.

The disclosures involved accounts on every continent but Antarctica.
Officials said taxpayers flocked to the amnesty program after the U.S. reached an agreement in August with the Swiss government and UBS to obtain names of thousands of U.S. taxpayers believed to be hiding assets in secret bank accounts.

Earlier this year, UBS paid a $780 million penalty under a deferred prosecution agreement filed in a Florida federal court that included disclosure of an additional 150 names, even of those people have been charged criminally, with at least two getting sentenced to prison term.
Shulman said the combination of the UBS disclosures and the amnesty program have fundamentally changed the offshore tax landscape, particularly in Switzerland where bank secrecy was the tradition for centuries.

“It shows we are serious about piercing the veil of bank secrecy,” he said. “The whole game has changed.” he added. ]]> The Main Square Igboamaeze http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38751-corruption-crackdown-ex-head-state-plea-bargain-deal.html <![CDATA[EFCC goes after Governor's wife.]]> http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38750-efcc-goes-after-governors-wife.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:28:16 GMT EFCC storms Abia over N3.3bn scam - Goes after gov’s wife, commissioner Lanre Adewole, Abuja Wednesday, November 18, 2009 OPERATIVES of the... EFCC storms Abia over N3.3bn scam - Goes after gov’s wife, commissioner
Lanre Adewole, Abuja

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
OPERATIVES of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been in Abia State since last week, in connection with an alleged N3.3 billion contract scam rocking the state.


The commission’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed the presence of the operatives in the state, but declined comments on their mission.


It was, however, gathered from another source that the operatives were laying ambush for the wife of Governor Theodore Orji, Theresa; the state Commissioner for Works and Transport, Kalu Ogbuagu and another government functionary, Mrs. Agu Vivian.

Those being sought in connection with the alleged scam were said to have gone underground when they got wind of the presence of the operatives in the state.


The alleged scam was said to have been blown into the open by an American lady, Mrs. Miranda Nwadei, who was said to be married to a Nigerian.
The American, who is said to be a contractor to the state government, reportedly petitioned the anti-corruption agency, following an alleged underhand dealing in a N3.3 billion contract given her by the state government to supply 1,500 units of Chevrolet cars.


It was gathered that after the contract was signed, the wife of the governor allegedly called her to a meeting and requested that she should assist the first family in opening a coded bank account in the United States for the purpose of transferring money from Nigeria.

The American lady was said to have rejected the proposal, reportedly saying that the American government would jail her if she did so.


From this point, the state government reportedly started dragging its feet on the execution of the contract, with a source in EFCC saying that “they had no intention of getting her to supply any car; the contract was simply to siphon public money.”


Before the contract was sealed with her, it was said that she had been made to part with N11.8 million by the commissioner of transport under the guise of making her to pay contract fee which, according to the commission source, “had no documentation”.


The contractor was also said to have imported four units of the Chevrolet car and made them available to the state government as sample, with the governor’s wife reportedly collecting three of the cars while the fourth was said to have been collected by the commissioner.


The commission’s operatives were said to have recovered the car with the commissioner, while access was said to have been denied to the three with the governor’s wife.


It was when nothing was forthcoming from the state government despite the supply of sample and payment of contract fee that the American reportedly petitioned the anti-corruption agency.


The commission is also said to be probing the text messages exchanged among the governor, his wife and the American lady over the alleged proposal made to her on the opening of the coded account as well as the car supply contract.


According to the source, “The governor’s wife and others went underground immediately they got wind of our operatives’ presence in the state. We will continue to search for them until we get them.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/nov/18/623.html ]]> The Main Square lateesha http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38750-efcc-goes-after-governors-wife.html Scramble for meat as vehicle with 500 dogs crashes http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38748-scramble-meat-vehicle-500-dogs-crashes.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:34:48 GMT LOL....funny!! Scramble for meat as vehicle with 500 dogs crashes By Modey Peters When an articulated vehicle from the north loaded... LOL....funny!!

Scramble for meat as vehicle with 500 dogs crashes

By Modey Peters



When an articulated vehicle from the north loaded with about 500 dogs crashed at the main entrance to Calabar, residents of Ikot Effanga Mkpa gleefully helped themselves to free dog meat but the traders are still ruing the losses incurred.

Dog meat is a delicacy in Calabar. It is eaten by both sexes and is easily used to woo a woman. But it is expensive as dogs are brought into the state from the northern parts of the country.

The lorry was almost at its destination, when it was involved in an accident along the Murtala Mohammed Highway near the main gate of "Welcome To Calabar" and somersaulted, upturning the dogs on the road and killing 200, while others sustained life-threatening injuries.

Apart from the dogs, other passengers in the vehicle also sustained injuries in the accident believed to have been caused by loss of concentration by the driver who obviously was tired following the long journey.

When the accident happened, the residents of the area and passerby were attracted to the scene only to have their attention diverted by the dead dogs by dragging them away as if in competition. Some ran home and came back for more.

One of the passengers of the ill-fated lorry who simply identified himself as Bassey wondered why the accident should occur at the main gate to Calabar after travelling over 1000 kilometers from the north.

Mr. Bassey nevertheless thanked God that none of the passengers died in the accident like their cargoes and described the rush for body parts of the dead dogs by some of the onlookers as unsympathetic and unbecoming of the people of Calabar.

‘Don't eat dogs'

But a medical doctor with the General Hospital Calabar, Edet O. Edet, said it was not hygienic for people to eat meat mangled as a result of accident and which flies had perched on for some hours.

Though not a veterinary doctor, Mr. Edet explained that meat not from a slaughter house was not fit for human consumption as animals killed there are certified healthy for consumption before being killed.

"In the first place, dogs ought not to be eaten," Mr. Edet said.

"Have you seen a slaughter house for dogs? Besides, these dogs were caught from the northern parts of the country and taken to where they are considered a delicacy. And without any examination by a veterinary staff, they are slaughtered for human consumption", Mr. Edet said.

Mr. Edet added that dogs killed under such circumstances emit toxic chemicals that are harmful to human health and attributed the rush for dogs involved in a motor accident to poverty and called for a sensitization campaign on the effect of such meat.

But opinion sampled from some residents of Calabar differed from that of the medical doctor. They said there was nothing harmful in dog meat as dogs are slaughtered unlike some animals that are strangled in the bush after being caught by the traps set for them.

In the city, dog is carefully prepared and spiced with some vegetable that gives the meat a tempting aroma. In Calabar, it is common to see joints with sign boards reading: "Plantain plus 404 ready". This combination is washed down with palm wine.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Nex...hicle_with.csp ]]> The Main Square salstep http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/38748-scramble-meat-vehicle-500-dogs-crashes.html