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Foreign Aid and The Mirage Of Poverty Eradication

May 24, 2009 – 6:37 am


The reality of aid… is that it
continues to fail to promote human
development for the eradication of poverty
based on the core values of human rights,
democracy, gender equality and
environmental sustainability. This is despite
the appearance of progress in the form of
high-profile debt cancellations, new aid
pledges, and the signing of the Paris
Declaration on aid effectiveness - Caterina Amicucci

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Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, Economy, Education, Foreign Policy, History, Law and Ethics, Political Economy, Poverty, Underdevelopment, World Affairs | Comments (0)

Guantanamo and the New Imperialism

May 23, 2009 – 8:24 pm

So the United States wants to close down the “tainted” gulag called Guantanamo Bay Prisons but the ruling elite represented by the American congress does not want any of the prisoners “on our soil”. Let’s get the difficult question out of the way: if the U.S., who snatched these individuals from various corners of the world on the pretext that they were “enemy combatants” is not willing to habour these people, where are they going to be sent? Keep Reading »

Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, Constitutionalism, Foreign Policy, Law and Ethics | Comments (0)

What does Dick Chenney want?

May 22, 2009 – 6:46 am

For eight long years, he looked at us with scorn and despised the media. He brushed off the concerns of Americans about the unethical behavior of the Bush administration and devised the most egregious form of abuse of the U.S. constitution in the history of the country. You would think that someone with such an unenviable track record would gladly accept the relative obscurity that comes with being out of public office. Not former Vice President Dick Chenney. All of a sudden, he has become the spokesperson of the Republican party’s misguided obstructionist stance toward the new president. Keep Reading »

Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, Constitutionalism, Law and Ethics, North America, Politics | Comments (1)

The Spectacle called Lindsey Graham

February 9, 2009 – 7:34 am

Some people have absolutely no shame. Take the senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, for example. I could not help but double up in raucus laughter the other day when I saw him on television yelling “look at this bill!, look at this bill!” while brandishing what I suppose was the current stimulus package that is going through the senate at the moment. Do these folks ever stop to think about the reaction of the public to their silly showmanship for a minute? Was this the same senator Graham who supported every bill George W. sent to the senate and even went on national television to support some of the most odious ones? Where was his outrage when billions of dollars were being wasted on a useless war? Where was he when billions of dollars were dolled out to billionaire farmers while many Americans were losing their jobs? Was he in this country when millions of dollars were allocated to stupid projects like the so-called bridge to nowhere? Oh, I know, a Republican president was in the White House then, so stupid and wasteful bills for stupid and wasteful expenditures were okay.

admin | Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, Constitutionalism, Economy, Political Economy | Comments (0)

A Nation of Cynics

February 5, 2009 – 7:40 am

Just two weeks into the Obama administration, naysayers are already pronouncing the man and his administration a failure! And the reason, his promise to institute ethics reform and the revelation that some of his nominees had lapsed tax payments. That’s right. The same group who sat idly by, and in most cases were accomplices in President George W. Bush’s ethical war on the American people; those who kept deathly silent when prisoners were being tortured to death in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib; Keep Reading »

admin | Civil Society, Law and Ethics, North America, Politics | Comments (0)

Obama’s Holiday Greetings

December 24, 2008 – 11:45 pm

President-Elect today sent the following greetings to Americans:

Good morning. This week, Americans are gathering with family and friends across the country to celebrate the blessings of Christmas and the holiday season.

As we celebrate this joyous time of year, our thoughts turn to the brave men and women who serve our country far from home. Their extraordinary and selfless sacrifice is an inspiration to us all, and part of the unbroken line of heroism that has made our freedom and prosperity possible for over two centuries.

Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty. And we are reminded that they are more than dedicated Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard – they are devoted fathers and mothers; husbands and wives; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent, and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home.

Our troops and military families have won the respect and gratitude of their broader American family. Michelle and I have them in our prayers this Christmas, and we must all continue to offer them our full support in the weeks and months to come. .

These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy. As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don’t have a job. Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain.

That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans – that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.

That is the spirit that will guide my Administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.

After all, that’s what Americans have always done.

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Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, History, North America | Comments (0)

The Media’s Job

December 18, 2008 – 8:43 am


It goes without saying, the media is annoying. It is the media’s job to be annoying. - Campbell Brown

Is it really true that, as Campbell Brown asserts, it is the media’s job to be annoying? I find that particularly hard to swallow unless Ms. Brown is trying to make a pitiful excuse for the inability of American journalists to move away from sensational journalism and focus on real issues that plague the planet. The recent rant by Campbell Brown about President-Elect Barack Obama’s impatience with trivial and diversionary questions at a news conference exposes, once again, the deep deficiencies of the media in the United States. Granted, whenever there is a scandal, crisis  or non-news events that crop up, the tendency is for journalists, especially in the U.S. to beat such issues to death, to the point where TV viewers, radio listeners, and newspaper readers are afraid of watching, listening or reading. Keep Reading »

Daniel Ihonvbere | Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Campbell Brown’s Righteous Indignation….

December 3, 2008 – 3:27 pm

or A Case of Serious Logic Problems.

For the past couple of weeks, watchers of CNN have been bombarded with serious doses of misguided commentaries by Campbell Brown and her self-styled “No Bias, No Bull” segments which are probably the most biased and bull-filled on TV, second only to Fox News. Now, her rants are about Obama’s gentle reminder to the media to abandon their obsession with the politics of division and Senator Hillary Clinton and focus more on what really matters to the American people. In this commentary, Ms. Brown apparently took umbrage at the President-Elect’s chiding of the press for trying to create unnecessary drama by dredging up the old campaign-era “hostilities” that existed between candidates Obama and Clinton. Keep Reading »

Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, History, Law and Ethics, Media, North America, Policy, Politics | Comments (0)

Obama’s Security Team

December 1, 2008 – 12:54 pm

As was widely rumored, President-Elect Barack Obama unveiled his National Security Team today. Here’s the announcement as released:

Good morning. Last week, we announced our economic team, which is working as we speak to craft an Economic Recovery Program to create jobs and grow our struggling economy. Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce our national security team.

The national security challenges we face are just as grave – and just as urgent – as our economic crisis. We are fighting two wars. Old conflicts remain unresolved, and newly assertive powers have put strains on the international system. The spread of nuclear weapons raises the peril that the world’s deadliest technology could fall into dangerous hands. Our dependence on foreign oil empowers authoritarian governments and endangers our planet.

America must also be strong at home to be strong abroad. We need to provide education and opportunity for our citizens, so every American can compete with anyone, anywhere. And our economic power must sustain our military strength, our diplomatic leverage, and our global leadership.

The common thread linking these challenges is the fundamental reality that in the 21st century, our destiny is shared with the world’s. From our markets to our security; from our public health to our climate –we must act with the understanding that, now more than ever, we have a stake in what happens across the globe. And as we learned so painfully on 9/11, terror cannot be contained by borders, nor safety provided by oceans alone.

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Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, Economy, North America, Policy, Politics, World Affairs | Comments (0)

A Nation of Hand-Wringers

November 22, 2008 – 10:49 am

Now that the elections have been fought and won by a once improbable candidate, Americans have quickly reverted to type - worrying about everything and nothing on how the new president will govern. It never ceases to amaze me how much influence a negative culture has on a nations psyche. Here is a candidate who just went through the most gruelling political campaign in U.S. history by some accounts and came out victorious. He took on some of the most established political powers in the history of the United States and won. He managed to raise more money than any candidate for political office ever and created a once-in-a-lifetime political movement that saw a resurgence in participatory democracy that has been lacking for decades. When the going got tough and there were pressures for him to jump into the sewers with his opponents and rehash the same old tired politics of division and personal destruction, he flatly refused and decided to trust the American people to do the right thing and we did. In one single night, his victory as the next president of the United States of America virtually erased almost eight maddening years of hatred and acrimony directed at the U.S. by the rest of the world and engendered by the irresponsible government of president George W. Bush. Anyone listening to hand-wringers about the choices President-Elect Obama has made and is making would think that the world was coming to an end. In some odd way, it seems like most people still do not trust him to do what is right and prudent. That the media would seek the negative news is not surprising, that is after all, how they make their living. But to hear millions of people who volunteered for Obama and avidly followed his every move on the campaign trail express doubt about his intent and even quesion his judgement in terms of his appointees is baffling to say the least. All of a sudden, there is the screaming about too much Clinton in his prospective cabinet picks, but for some odd reason, these same people seem to forget that the same “Clinton People” helped run his campaign. The fact that these former Clinton supporters decided to go with a candidate who was a long shot at the beginning showed that they were not beholden to the Clintons. Keep Reading »

Daniel Ihonvbere | Civil Society, Education, History, Law and Ethics, North America, Politics, World Affairs | Comments (0)