Jezebel 
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New York, 10:07 AM
Sat Nov 14
65 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/11/09
07/11/09
So thanks for bringing that up. The IFI's role is often unacknowledged by American presidents and that's a real impediment to any kind of honest dialogue.
07/11/09
07/11/09
07/11/09
It didn't go down better because he's some "native son" telling us the truth about ourselves. That's utter bullshit. He's as American as apple pie. The very nature of his ascent is emphatically American. Everyone on the continent knows it. The reason why it matters little is because of his own abilities to be layered.
Simply put, it was a successful speech because he acknowledged nuance. He entrenched the usual platitudes and ultimatums in historical truths, truths that few Western leaders have been able to admit on African soil. When he makes the distinction between colonialism, paternalism, pillage and the destruction in the last ten years of Zimbabwe, and he says that the two cannot be conflated, that not every problem can be laid at the hands of the West, his honesty is applauded because he is doing what many world leaders fail to do in discussions with African people--give context, qualify, concede a point, make a delineation.
Obama mentions that the people of his grandfather's village respected his grandfather for being a cook for the British (basically, for having a job that demanded education and came with a small pension) but for most of his grandfather's life he was referred to by the British as "boy." A statement like that resonates with Ghanaians on a level that a myopic journalist fails to understand. It acknowledges the conflict to visualize our humanity that much of the West constantly struggles with and it acknowledges that it is not okay.
07/11/09
I wish more Westerners would truly visit Africa and put their cameras down for a moment and sit on the banks of the Niger in the morning. Perhaps this would begin to open up the lines of communication required for everyone to take on their own fair share of the responsibility for themselves and their fellow man.
07/11/09
If a Westerner needs to visit Africa to see that we are people then letting that stand as is validates that terribly misguided position. It almost puts the onus on African countries to "prove" their humanity in a sense and it fails to address the racialized notions of access that were part of causing this problem in the first place.
The majority of the rest of the world has never been to a European or North American country. But somehow they are still able to see that the inhabitants of these lands are people. I think the fact that even conceptualizing Africa as more than just a zoo, where National Geographic takes pretty shots, speaks to how deep and abiding race-based ethnocentrism really goes and how much anti-African brainwashing the rest of the world has really been subjected to =)
07/11/09
I live in the U.S. and I've never been to, say, France, but I've talked to people from there, I've talked to lots of people who have traveled or lived there, and I've heard about French culture through so countless books, news articles, etc. I don't have that context for Ghana or for any African country. I read books about the politics and history of different African countries, but it's still difficult for me to clearly conceptualize day-to-day life in any of them. That makes it harder to relate.
07/11/09
07/11/09
07/12/09
07/11/09
i'm not excusing the west, because those regimes have pretty much carried on with the nonsense, but africa needs to step up... the citizenry needs to say NO to these uninspired, uninspiring leaders, the era of the 'Big Man' needs to end, today. I am watching Liberia with keen interest, their leader inherited a heeeectic mess, but i reckon she's their salvation. we need more of that - a complete break from the historical norm....
07/11/09
I have such high hopes for Liberia. My cousins came to live with us after they fled the civil war there and all of them still have acute PTSD. I agree Johnson-Sirleaf might be the best bet they have. If she can pull off the type of rebound Kagame has been able to I will fax her my first-born kid =)
07/11/09
03/07/09
So clinical trials are unethical? Case studies? Surveys? Censuses? Autopsies? All those nights and weekends of my young human life I've sacrificed while working on prostate cancer are unethical? Good to know!
Newsflash: human life is always going to be used to advance science, just as it always has been.
03/07/09
/snark
03/07/09
For those of you with concerns about the embryos, it said in the NPR article I read this morning that the lady whose embryo it is has to give permission for the embryo to be used for science.
03/07/09
This is probably a guy who supports the illegal use of chimps in research. I watched about 3 minutes of an undercover video about chimps in labs sent by the Humane Society the other day. I couldn't get the sound to work, but still almost wept. It was AWFUL. So, seriously, Mr. Perkins? Really? An embryo?
"But if he decides that embryos that have already been created and are going to be discarded are the ones that would be used, that would be reasonable as well. These things exist and are going to be discarded. It's really mind-boggling to me these things are going to be discarded and scientists haven't been allowed to use them to do research."
And that is what really confused me--embryos that will be discarded couldn't be used for research? What did Mr. Bush propose, giving them a proper burial?
03/07/09
03/07/09
Good riddance to madness.
03/07/09
But it's TOTALLY ethical to use human life to impose our way of life upon nations that don't want it? Oh, okay. Gotcha.
03/07/09
03/07/09
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03/07/09
"But it's TOTALLY ethical to use human life to impose our way of life upon nations that don't want it? Oh, okay. Gotcha."
That is not really a good analogy.
Should we stay out of Darfur or even Afghanistan where people are being killed, raped and beaten by the hundreds, and just mind our own business and not impose our democratic ways on them.
03/07/09
03/07/09
And yes, if these religious wing nuts ever knew some of things science has had to do to get to where we are, their heads would explode. Amazing how science gets the shaft from these folks all the time. Such non-Christian rhetoric from so-called Christians pisses me off.
Then I read this and realize, those of us who are willing to discuss rationally are all alright
[www.evilbible.com]
03/07/09
Something that has always weirded me out is this whole "god's will" thing. God's will (if you believe in such a thing) created humans and all the capacity to reason that humans have. So how are the fruits of science, or anything used to fuel scientific research, in defiance of god's will?
03/07/09
@prestocaro love/hates her kettlebell: WOULD YOUR WHORING HEATHEN ASS JUST STOP QUESTIONING THE WILL OF GOD ALREADY?! Goodness. Thinkin' folk have no place around these parts! ;)
03/07/09
03/07/09
03/07/09
03/07/09
Every single time that the President comes out and makes some announcement like this -- and frankly, for a while there, it was at happening like once a day -- I get this little shock of: "Of course! And why not?" And such deep pleasure. Followed by such deep sorrow that someone even has to say this stuff.
03/07/09
03/07/09
"What has two black thumbs and is the motherfucking POTUS? This moi!"
I like to think so.
03/07/09
I didn't even realize I was doing it until Obama was in office and I found myself physically shrinking in on myself whenever the phrase "Today the President" came up in a news broadcast. And then I would go, "Hey! It's a different President!"
I honestly refer to him as "the President" or "President Obama" over just "Obama" quite purposely, because it makes me so happy to say it. And it makes me so happy to give that kind of respect and honor to a man who so clearly deserves it.
03/07/09
03/07/09
.... You think I'm kidding. I'm not.
03/07/09
03/07/09
03/07/09
03/07/09
@prestocaro love/hates her kettlebell: I know.... And I actually see some of the inmates on the lovely Rachel Maddow's program on the TV machine nearly every night, so, really, I guess I'm just glad they're not running the place anymore. I'll take that as a start.
@trianaorpheus: I hate to say it, but fight the urge, sister, and tell your kids (or anyone in the next generation for whom you harbor love) alllll about it. My biggest fear is not that we can't be salvaged now (though I will admit that that is a fear I have), but that the lessons will be lost and our grandchildren will be fighting to restore the Constitution again someday.
03/07/09
03/07/09
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03/07/09
03/07/09
Not every embryo - or even most - will turn into a baby. To me there's not much difference between an unfertilized egg and an embryo. I know the difference scientifically - but there's just soooo much that has to go right for the embryo to turn into an actual baby.
And to your point above, yes I feel like I'm waking from a bad dream. Although when I listen to NPR and hear things like "The White House said today..." I still reflexively cringe, expecting some stupidity. Then I remember Obama is president, and I feel much better.
03/07/09
03/07/09