30 Mar
Amen.
26 Mar
Too much money meant for ativan prescription benefits Afghanistan aid is wasted, with a vast amount spent on foreign workers’ high salaries, security and ativan prescription benefits living arrangements, according to a report from humanitarian groups published Tuesday.
And this:
The cost of a ativan prescription benefits full-time expatriate consultant working in Afghanistan is around $250,000, according to ativan prescription benefits the group. This is some 200 times the average annual salary of an ativan prescription benefits Afghan civil servant, who is paid less than $1,000 per year, the report said.
And I couldn’t help wondering why anybody is surprised.
The full report is here.
26 Mar
The Economic And Political Effects Of The CFA Zone
By Dr Gary K Busch
One of the ativan prescription benefits most important influences in the economic and political life of African states which were formerly French colonies is ativan prescription benefits the impact of a common currency; the Communuate Financiere de l’Afrique (‘CFA’) franc. There are ativan prescription benefits actually two separate CFA francs in circulation. The first is ativan prescription benefits that of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) which comprises eight West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and ativan prescription benefits Togo. The second is that of the Central African Economic and ativan prescription benefits Monetary Community (CEMAC) which comprises six Central African countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon), This division corresponds to the pre-colonial AOF (Afrique Occidentale Française) and the AEF (Afrique Équatoriale Française), with the ativan prescription benefits exception that Guinea-Bissau was formerly Portuguese and Equatorial Guinea Spanish).
Each of these two groups issues its own CFA franc. The WAEMU CFA franc is ativan prescription benefits issued by the BCEAO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) and the CEMAC CFA franc is issued by the BEAC (Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale). These currencies were originally both pegged at 100 CFA for ativan prescription benefits each French franc but, after France joined the European Community’s Euro zone at a ativan prescription benefits fixed rate of 6.65957 French francs to one Euro, the ativan prescription benefits CFA rate to the Euro was fixed at CFA 665,957 to ativan prescription benefits each Euro, maintaining the 100 to 1 ratio. It is ativan prescription benefits important to note that it is the responsibility of the ativan prescription benefits French Treasury to guarantee the convertibility of the CFA to ativan prescription benefits the Euro.
The monetary policy governing such a ativan prescription benefits diverse aggregation of countries is uncomplicated because it is, in fact, operated by the ativan prescription benefits French Treasury, without reference to the central fiscal authorities of any of the ativan prescription benefits WAEMU or the CEMAC. Under the terms of the agreement which set up these banks and ativan prescription benefits the CFA the Central Bank of each African country is obliged to ativan prescription benefits keep at least 65% of its foreign exchange reserves in an “operations account” held at the French Treasury, as well as another 20% to cover financial liabilities.
The CFA central banks also impose a ativan prescription benefits cap on credit extended to each member country equivalent to 20% of that country’s public revenue in the ativan prescription benefits preceding year. Even though the BEAC and the BCEAO have an ativan prescription benefits overdraft facility with the French Treasury, the drawdowns on those overdraft facilities are ativan prescription benefits subject to the consent of the French Treasury. The final say is ativan prescription benefits that of the French Treasury which has invested the foreign reserves of the ativan prescription benefits African countries in its own name on the Paris Bourse.
In short, more than 80% of the ativan prescription benefits foreign reserves of these African countries are deposited in the “operations accounts” controlled by the ativan prescription benefits French Treasury. The two CFA banks are African in name, but have ativan prescription benefits no monetary policies of their own. The countries themselves do not know, nor are ativan prescription benefits they told, how much of the pool of foreign reserves held by the ativan prescription benefits French Treasury belongs to them as a group or individually. The earnings of the ativan prescription benefits investment of these funds in the French Treasury pool are supposed to ativan prescription benefits be added to the pool but no accounting is given to ativan prescription benefits either the banks or the countries of the details of any such changes. The limited group of high officials in the French Treasury who have knowledge of the amounts in the “operations accounts”, where ativan prescription benefits these funds are invested; whether there is a profit on these investments; are ativan prescription benefits prohibited from disclosing any of this information to the CFA banks or ativan prescription benefits the central banks of the African states.
This makes it ativan prescription benefits impossible for African members to regulate their own monetary policies. The most inefficient and ativan prescription benefits wasteful countries are able to use the foreign reserves of the ativan prescription benefits more prudent countries without any meaningful intervention by the wealthier and ativan prescription benefits more successful countries. The fact that as the French GDP grows and ativan prescription benefits the parity of the Euro to the dollar (the main currency of international trade) appreciates there is ativan prescription benefits the constant danger that the CFA franc may be fixed at too high an ativan prescription benefits exchange rate. This dampens the growth in trade between Africa and ativan prescription benefits the rest of the world and allows other countries, especially in Asia, to ativan prescription benefits use their more flexible exchange rates to gain market share, supplanting the ativan prescription benefits Africans.
The creation and ativan prescription benefits maintenance of the French domination of the francophone African economies is ativan prescription benefits the product of a long period of French colonialism and the ativan prescription benefits learned dependence of the African states. For most of francophone Africa there is ativan prescription benefits only limited power allowed to their central banks. These are economies whose vulnerability to ativan prescription benefits an increasingly globalised economy is increasing daily. There can be no ativan prescription benefits trade policy without reference to currency; there can be no investment without reference to ativan prescription benefits reserves. The politicians and parties elected to promote growth, reform, changes in trade and ativan prescription benefits fiscal policies are made irrelevant except with the consent of the ativan prescription benefits French Treasury which rations their funds. There are many who object to ativan prescription benefits the continuation of this system. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has ativan prescription benefits stated this very clearly “The African people’s money stacked in France must be ativan prescription benefits returned to Africa in order to benefit the economies of the ativan prescription benefits BCEAO member states. One cannot have billions and billions placed on foreign stock markets and ativan prescription benefits at the same time say that one is poor, and ativan prescription benefits then go beg for money.”
How Did This Happen?
This system of dependence is ativan prescription benefits a direct result of the colonial policies of the French Government. In the ativan prescription benefits immediate post-war period after the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreement in July 1944 the ativan prescription benefits French economy urgently needed to recover. To assist in this process it ativan prescription benefits set up the first CFA amongst its African colonies to guarantee a ativan prescription benefits captive market for its goods. The principal decision which resulted from ativan prescription benefits the Bretton Woods Agreement was the abandonment of the Gold Standard. In short, the ativan prescription benefits new system gave a dominant place to the dollar. The other currencies saw their exchange rate indexed to ativan prescription benefits the dollar. The reserves of the European central banks at that ativan prescription benefits time consisted of currencies of dubious post-war value and gold which had ativan prescription benefits been de-pegged from the fluctuations of the currency. For this reason France needed the ativan prescription benefits currencies of its colonies to support its competitiveness with its American and ativan prescription benefits British competitors. De Gaulle and his main economic advisor, Pierre Mendès France met with some African leaders and ativan prescription benefits developed a Colonial Pact which would enshrine this is in a ativan prescription benefits treaty (with both public and secret clauses). The genius behind this was Jacques Foccart, France’s “Mister Africa”.
Decolonization south of the ativan prescription benefits Sahara did not happen as de Gaulle had intended. He had ativan prescription benefits wanted a Franco-African Community that stopped short of total independence. But when ativan prescription benefits Sekou Toure’s Guinea voted “no” in the ativan prescription benefits 1958 referendum on that Community, the idea was effectively dead. Guinea was cast into outer darkness because of its decision and ativan prescription benefits a Community of sorts came into existence, but the call of full independence proved too strong to ativan prescription benefits resist.
Not really having planned for ativan prescription benefits it, in 1960 de Gaulle had to improvise structures for ativan prescription benefits a collection of small newly independent states, each with a ativan prescription benefits flag, an anthem, and a seat at the UN, but often with precious little else. It was here that ativan prescription benefits Foccart came to play an essential role, that of architect of the ativan prescription benefits series of Cooperation accords with each new state in the ativan prescription benefits sectors of finance and economy, culture and education, and the ativan prescription benefits military. There were initially eleven countries involved: Mauritania, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Dahomey (now Benin), Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Niger, Chad, Gabon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, and ativan prescription benefits Madagascar. Togo and Cameroon, former UN Trust Territories, were also co-opted into the ativan prescription benefits club. So, too, later on, were Mall and the former Belgian territories (Ruanda-Urundi, now Rwanda and Burundi, and Congo-Kinshasa), some of the ativan prescription benefits ex-Portuguese territories, and Comoros and Djibouti, which had also been under French rule for ativan prescription benefits many years but became independent in the 1970s. The whole ensemble was put under a ativan prescription benefits new Ministry of Cooperation, created in 1961, separate from the Ministry of Overseas Departments and ativan prescription benefits Territories (known as the DOM-TOM) that had previously run them all.
The key to ativan prescription benefits all this was the agreement signed between France and its newly-liberated African colonies which locked these colonies into the ativan prescription benefits economic and military embrace of France. This Colonial Pact not only created the ativan prescription benefits institution of the CFA franc, it created a legal mechanism under which France obtained a ativan prescription benefits special place in the political and economic life of its colonies.
The Pacte Coloniale Agreement enshrined a ativan prescription benefits special preference for France in the political, commercial and defence processes in the ativan prescription benefits African countries. On defence it agreed two types of continuing contact. The first was the ativan prescription benefits open agreement on military co-operation or Technical Military Aid (AMT) agreements, which weren’t legally binding, and ativan prescription benefits could be suspended according to the circumstances. They covered education, training of servicemen and ativan prescription benefits African security forces. The second type, secret and binding, were defense agreements supervised and ativan prescription benefits implemented by the French Ministry of Defense, which served as a ativan prescription benefits legal basis for French interventions. These agreements allowed France to have ativan prescription benefits predeployed troops in Africa; in other words, French army units present permanently and ativan prescription benefits by rotation in bases and military facilities in Africa; run entirely by the ativan prescription benefits French.
According to ativan prescription benefits Annex II of the Defence Agreement signed between the governments of the ativan prescription benefits French Republic, the Republic of Ivory Coast, the Republic of Dahomey and ativan prescription benefits the Republic of Niger on 24 April 1961, France has priority in the ativan prescription benefits acquisition of those “raw materials classified as strategic.” In fact, according to article 2 of the agreement, “the French Republic regularly informs the Republic of Ivory Coast (and the other two) of the ativan prescription benefits policy that it intends to follow concerning strategic raw materials and ativan prescription benefits products, taking into account the general needs of defence, the evolution of resources and ativan prescription benefits the situation of the world market.”
According to article 3, “the Republic of Ivory Coast (and the other two) inform the ativan prescription benefits French Republic of the policy they intend to follow concerning strategic raw materials and ativan prescription benefits products and the measures that they propose to take to ativan prescription benefits implement this policy.” And to conclude, article 5: “Concerning these same products, the Republic of Ivory Coast (and the two others) for ativan prescription benefits defence needs, reserve them in priority for sale to the French Republic, after having satisfied the ativan prescription benefits needs of internal consumption, and they will import what they need in priority from ativan prescription benefits it.” The reciprocity between the ativan prescription benefits signatories was not a bargain between equals, but reflected the actual dominance of the ativan prescription benefits colonial power that had, in the case of these countries, organised “independence” a few months previously (in August 1960).
In summary, the ativan prescription benefits colonial pact maintained the French control over the economies of the ativan prescription benefits African states; it took possession of their foreign currency reserves; it ativan prescription benefits controlled the strategic raw materials of the country; it stationed troops in the ativan prescription benefits country with the right of free passage; it demanded that all military equipment be ativan prescription benefits acquired from France; it took over the training of the police and ativan prescription benefits army; it required that French businesses be allowed to maintain monopoly enterprises in key areas (water, electricity, ports, transport, energy, etc.). France not only set limits on the ativan prescription benefits imports of a range of items from outside the franc zone but also set minimum quantities of imports from ativan prescription benefits France. These treaties are still in force and operational.
The creation of such a ativan prescription benefits system was not the preserve of the French National Assembly or ativan prescription benefits the result of any democratic process. It was the result of policies conducted by a ativan prescription benefits small group of people in the President’s office, the ‘African Cell’, initially led by Foccart. For the ativan prescription benefits past half-century, the secretive and powerful “African Cell” has overseen France’s strategic interests in Africa, holding sway over a ativan prescription benefits wide swath of former French colonies. Acting as a general command, the ativan prescription benefits Cell uses France’s military as a ativan prescription benefits hammer to install leaders it deems friendly to French interests. In return, these countries give French industries first crack at their oil and ativan prescription benefits other natural resources. Sidestepping traditional diplomatic channels, the Cell reports only to ativan prescription benefits one person: the president. The Cell’s close ties to ativan prescription benefits oil giant Elf Aquitaine, where top executives were jailed on corruption charges, was a ativan prescription benefits source of embarrassment. And a former Cell chief has now been ativan prescription benefits convicted of charges related to arms trafficking to Angola. These highly contentious policy issues never came before any of France’s democratically-elected bodies. African policy is ativan prescription benefits the personal fiefdom of the President’s office.
This was true for De Gaulle, Mitterand, Giscard D’Estaing and ativan prescription benefits Chirac. Sarkozy apparently has no contacts or ambitions in this ativan prescription benefits field and has left Chirac’s Cell in place.
The Impact of the Colonial Pact
Some of the ativan prescription benefits consequences for the Africa countries of the continuation of a policy of dependence are ativan prescription benefits obvious – lack of competitive options; dependence on the ativan prescription benefits French economy; dependence on the French military; and the open-door policy for ativan prescription benefits French private enterprise. However, there are more subtle differences which arise.
The French companies in francophone Africa, by virtue of their protected monopolistic or ativan prescription benefits oligarchic status, contribute a substantial share of the GDP of these countries. More importantly, however, they are ativan prescription benefits often the single largest group of taxpayers. In many of these countries the ativan prescription benefits French corporations pay over 50% of the ativan prescription benefits national tax revenues collected. This gives them a unique status. Quite frequently the ativan prescription benefits French say that without the French companies the economy of the ativan prescription benefits African state will collapse. When coupled with the inability of the ativan prescription benefits country to access its reserves it undoubtedly true. However, it ativan prescription benefits doesn’t follow that ativan prescription benefits private corporations from other countries, like the U.S. or China, would not contribute equally. This is ativan prescription benefits one reason that the French are so concerned with allowing competition into the ativan prescription benefits market place.
Another aspect of this ativan prescription benefits is the inability of these francophone countries to collect taxes from ativan prescription benefits its ordinary citizens. In a country like the Ivory Coast which has ativan prescription benefits been divided for a number of years between the rebel North and ativan prescription benefits the loyalist South, tax collections in the rebel regions have been ativan prescription benefits impossible. The rebels have waxed fat on taxes and fees imposed on their captive populations and ativan prescription benefits the sale of stolen goods from their regions. They do not want to ativan prescription benefits disarm because it will have a deleterious economic effect on them, not just a ativan prescription benefits political one.
The lack of a ativan prescription benefits citizenry paying taxes breeds a gulf between the government and the ativan prescription benefits citizens; mutual responsibility is missing in the equation. It is the ativan prescription benefits job of the National Assembly to legislate for programs based on the ativan prescription benefits supply of revenue to the state, but if there are insufficient revenues the ativan prescription benefits National Assembly is frustrated in its role. If 80% of the ativan prescription benefits funds go to France as part of the CFA franc project there is ativan prescription benefits little left for the ministers and the National Assembly to ativan prescription benefits allocate for social programs.
In many of the ativan prescription benefits francophone countries, suffering under conditions of drought, lack of food; lack of health care; it ativan prescription benefits is only French ‘aid’ to the national treasuries that sustains them. This ‘aid’ is often their own money which the French have shepherded for them.
There are ativan prescription benefits many in Africa who have seen and understood the problem of the ativan prescription benefits CFA franc and the Colonial Pact. Mamadou Koulibaly, the President of the ativan prescription benefits National Assembly in the Ivory Coast has been an outspoken critic of the ativan prescription benefits Colonial Pact and the dominance of the CFA franc. He has ativan prescription benefits written an excellent book on the subject and gives speeches and ativan prescription benefits interviews on the subject regularly. The problem is that very few people understand the ativan prescription benefits fundamental iniquity of this French system; including many Africans.
If African nations are ativan prescription benefits to achieve growth and participate fully in the opportunities of globalisation they must be ativan prescription benefits freed from the fetters of this colonial albatross. In order to ativan prescription benefits attract additional direct investment in the economies, as opposed to just portfolio investment this ativan prescription benefits situation must be changed. In the words of President Koulibaly, “In Africa we do not need alms, our problem is ativan prescription benefits not due to a lack of money. My conviction is that ativan prescription benefits we must first of all clearly state our ownership rights over our own land and ativan prescription benefits the resources in our soil which were taken away by the ativan prescription benefits colonialists when they conquered our countries, and still be taken away through the ativan prescription benefits Colonial Pact”.
18 Mar
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and ativan prescription benefits twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the ativan prescription benefits street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and ativan prescription benefits scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to ativan prescription benefits escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a ativan prescription benefits Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this ativan prescription benefits nation’s original sin of slavery, a ativan prescription benefits question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a ativan prescription benefits stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to ativan prescription benefits continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to ativan prescription benefits future generations.
Of course, the ativan prescription benefits answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a ativan prescription benefits Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the ativan prescription benefits law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and ativan prescription benefits a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a ativan prescription benefits parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or ativan prescription benefits provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and ativan prescription benefits obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be ativan prescription benefits needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to ativan prescription benefits do their part – through protests and ativan prescription benefits struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a ativan prescription benefits civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk – to ativan prescription benefits narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and ativan prescription benefits the reality of their time.
This was one of the ativan prescription benefits tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to ativan prescription benefits continue the long march of those who came before us, a ativan prescription benefits march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and ativan prescription benefits more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this ativan prescription benefits moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the ativan prescription benefits challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that ativan prescription benefits we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that ativan prescription benefits we may not look the same and we may not have ativan prescription benefits come from the same place, but we all want to ativan prescription benefits move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from ativan prescription benefits my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it ativan prescription benefits also comes from my own American story.
I am ativan prescription benefits the son of a black man from Kenya and a ativan prescription benefits white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a ativan prescription benefits white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and ativan prescription benefits a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to ativan prescription benefits some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the ativan prescription benefits world’s poorest nations. I am ativan prescription benefits married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and ativan prescription benefits slaveowners – an ativan prescription benefits inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have ativan prescription benefits brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and ativan prescription benefits every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that ativan prescription benefits in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the ativan prescription benefits most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the ativan prescription benefits idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the ativan prescription benefits first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the ativan prescription benefits contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for ativan prescription benefits this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a ativan prescription benefits purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the ativan prescription benefits whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the ativan prescription benefits Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and ativan prescription benefits white Americans.
This is ativan prescription benefits not to say that race has not been an issue in the ativan prescription benefits campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have ativan prescription benefits deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to ativan prescription benefits the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has ativan prescription benefits scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and ativan prescription benefits black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it ativan prescription benefits has only been in the last couple of weeks that the ativan prescription benefits discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the ativan prescription benefits implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that ativan prescription benefits it’s based solely on the ativan prescription benefits desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the ativan prescription benefits other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to ativan prescription benefits express views that have the potential not only to widen the ativan prescription benefits racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the ativan prescription benefits goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have ativan prescription benefits already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that ativan prescription benefits have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to ativan prescription benefits be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that ativan prescription benefits could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you ativan prescription benefits have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you ativan prescription benefits strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to ativan prescription benefits speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this ativan prescription benefits country – a ativan prescription benefits view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what ativan prescription benefits is wrong with America above all that we know is ativan prescription benefits right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the ativan prescription benefits Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from ativan prescription benefits the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a ativan prescription benefits time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when ativan prescription benefits we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a ativan prescription benefits terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and ativan prescription benefits potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or ativan prescription benefits Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and ativan prescription benefits my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be ativan prescription benefits those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the ativan prescription benefits first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that ativan prescription benefits if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that ativan prescription benefits have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or ativan prescription benefits if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is ativan prescription benefits no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that ativan prescription benefits I know of the man. The man I met more than ativan prescription benefits twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to ativan prescription benefits my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to ativan prescription benefits love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the ativan prescription benefits poor. He is a man who served his country as a ativan prescription benefits U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the ativan prescription benefits finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a ativan prescription benefits church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the ativan prescription benefits homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and ativan prescription benefits prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the ativan prescription benefits experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to ativan prescription benefits shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a ativan prescription benefits forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the ativan prescription benefits foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the ativan prescription benefits city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the ativan prescription benefits stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the ativan prescription benefits lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the ativan prescription benefits blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this ativan prescription benefits black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the ativan prescription benefits story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and ativan prescription benefits triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than ativan prescription benefits black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a ativan prescription benefits means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has ativan prescription benefits been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the ativan prescription benefits country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the ativan prescription benefits doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are ativan prescription benefits full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and ativan prescription benefits shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the ativan prescription benefits kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the ativan prescription benefits struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that ativan prescription benefits make up the black experience in America.
And this ativan prescription benefits helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has ativan prescription benefits been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and ativan prescription benefits baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have ativan prescription benefits I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or ativan prescription benefits treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and ativan prescription benefits respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can ativan prescription benefits no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can ativan prescription benefits no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a ativan prescription benefits woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and ativan prescription benefits again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this ativan prescription benefits world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who ativan prescription benefits passed by her on the street, and who on more than ativan prescription benefits one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are ativan prescription benefits a part of me. And they are a part of America, this ativan prescription benefits country that I love.
Some will see this ativan prescription benefits as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can ativan prescription benefits assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be ativan prescription benefits to move on from this episode and just hope that it ativan prescription benefits fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a ativan prescription benefits crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the ativan prescription benefits aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is ativan prescription benefits an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ativan prescription benefits ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that ativan prescription benefits Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to ativan prescription benefits simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that ativan prescription benefits it distorts reality.
The fact is ativan prescription benefits that the comments that have been made and the issues that ativan prescription benefits have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this ativan prescription benefits country that we’ve never really worked through – a ativan prescription benefits part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be ativan prescription benefits able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or ativan prescription benefits education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this ativan prescription benefits reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to ativan prescription benefits recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to ativan prescription benefits remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the ativan prescription benefits African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from ativan prescription benefits an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and ativan prescription benefits Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and ativan prescription benefits the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the ativan prescription benefits pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination – where ativan prescription benefits blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to ativan prescription benefits African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or ativan prescription benefits blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that ativan prescription benefits black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to ativan prescription benefits future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and ativan prescription benefits white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and ativan prescription benefits the shame and frustration that came from not being able to ativan prescription benefits provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a ativan prescription benefits problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the ativan prescription benefits lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for ativan prescription benefits kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and ativan prescription benefits building code enforcement – all helped create a ativan prescription benefits cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is ativan prescription benefits the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the ativan prescription benefits late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the ativan prescription benefits law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is ativan prescription benefits not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and ativan prescription benefits women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a ativan prescription benefits way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for ativan prescription benefits all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a ativan prescription benefits piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who ativan prescription benefits were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to ativan prescription benefits future generations – those young men and ativan prescription benefits increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or ativan prescription benefits languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for ativan prescription benefits those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to ativan prescription benefits define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the ativan prescription benefits memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has ativan prescription benefits the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or ativan prescription benefits white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or ativan prescription benefits around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to ativan prescription benefits gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for ativan prescription benefits a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it ativan prescription benefits finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and ativan prescription benefits in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to ativan prescription benefits hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the ativan prescription benefits old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is ativan prescription benefits not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from ativan prescription benefits solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and ativan prescription benefits prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to ativan prescription benefits bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is ativan prescription benefits powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to ativan prescription benefits widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a ativan prescription benefits similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and ativan prescription benefits middle-class white Americans don’t feel that ativan prescription benefits they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is ativan prescription benefits the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to ativan prescription benefits see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a ativan prescription benefits lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and ativan prescription benefits feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and ativan prescription benefits global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your ativan prescription benefits dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to ativan prescription benefits bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that ativan prescription benefits an African American is getting an advantage in landing a ativan prescription benefits good job or a spot in a good college because of an ativan prescription benefits injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that ativan prescription benefits their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have ativan prescription benefits helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and ativan prescription benefits affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for ativan prescription benefits their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and ativan prescription benefits inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have ativan prescription benefits these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the ativan prescription benefits middle class squeeze – a ativan prescription benefits corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a ativan prescription benefits Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the ativan prescription benefits few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to ativan prescription benefits label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are ativan prescription benefits grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been ativan prescription benefits stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and ativan prescription benefits white, I have never been so naïve as to ativan prescription benefits believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a ativan prescription benefits single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a ativan prescription benefits conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the ativan prescription benefits American people – that ativan prescription benefits working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and ativan prescription benefits that in fact we have no choice is we are ativan prescription benefits to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the ativan prescription benefits African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to ativan prescription benefits insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it ativan prescription benefits also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs – to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the ativan prescription benefits white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been ativan prescription benefits laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it ativan prescription benefits means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from ativan prescription benefits our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and ativan prescription benefits reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and ativan prescription benefits discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to ativan prescription benefits despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can ativan prescription benefits write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what ativan prescription benefits my former pastor too often failed to understand is that ativan prescription benefits embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that ativan prescription benefits society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that ativan prescription benefits he spoke as if our society was static; as if no ativan prescription benefits progress has been made; as if this country – a ativan prescription benefits country that has made it possible for one of his own members to ativan prescription benefits run for the highest office in the land and build a ativan prescription benefits coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and ativan prescription benefits old — is ativan prescription benefits still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is ativan prescription benefits that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have ativan prescription benefits already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the ativan prescription benefits white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that ativan prescription benefits what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the ativan prescription benefits minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and ativan prescription benefits current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the ativan prescription benefits past – are ativan prescription benefits real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and ativan prescription benefits our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this ativan prescription benefits generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to ativan prescription benefits realize that your dreams do not have to come at the ativan prescription benefits expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and ativan prescription benefits education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the ativan prescription benefits end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than ativan prescription benefits what all the world’s great religions demand – that ativan prescription benefits we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be ativan prescription benefits our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that ativan prescription benefits common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that ativan prescription benefits spirit as well.
For we have ativan prescription benefits a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that ativan prescription benefits breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or ativan prescription benefits in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and ativan prescription benefits talk about them from now until the election, and make the ativan prescription benefits only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that ativan prescription benefits I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can ativan prescription benefits pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that ativan prescription benefits she’s playing the ativan prescription benefits race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to ativan prescription benefits John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be ativan prescription benefits talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then ativan prescription benefits another one. And nothing will change.
That is ativan prescription benefits one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can ativan prescription benefits come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to ativan prescription benefits talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and ativan prescription benefits white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to ativan prescription benefits reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are ativan prescription benefits not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a ativan prescription benefits 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to ativan prescription benefits talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and ativan prescription benefits blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have ativan prescription benefits the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who ativan prescription benefits can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to ativan prescription benefits talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for ativan prescription benefits men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that ativan prescription benefits once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to ativan prescription benefits talk about the fact that the real problem is not that ativan prescription benefits someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that ativan prescription benefits the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for ativan prescription benefits nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to ativan prescription benefits talk about the men and women of every color and ativan prescription benefits creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the ativan prescription benefits same proud flag. We want to talk about how to ativan prescription benefits bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for ativan prescription benefits them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have ativan prescription benefits earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that ativan prescription benefits this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this ativan prescription benefits country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has ativan prescription benefits shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or ativan prescription benefits cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is ativan prescription benefits the next generation – the ativan prescription benefits young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have ativan prescription benefits already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is ativan prescription benefits a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who ativan prescription benefits organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had ativan prescription benefits been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the ativan prescription benefits beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a ativan prescription benefits roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and ativan prescription benefits why they were there.
And Ashley said that ativan prescription benefits when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had ativan prescription benefits to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had ativan prescription benefits to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that ativan prescription benefits food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that ativan prescription benefits what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than ativan prescription benefits anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the ativan prescription benefits cheapest way to eat.
She did this ativan prescription benefits for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the ativan prescription benefits roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that ativan prescription benefits she could help the millions of other children in the ativan prescription benefits country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have ativan prescription benefits made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that ativan prescription benefits the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who ativan prescription benefits were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who ativan prescription benefits were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and ativan prescription benefits then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the ativan prescription benefits campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a ativan prescription benefits specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been ativan prescription benefits sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a ativan prescription benefits specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or ativan prescription benefits the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to ativan prescription benefits everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that ativan prescription benefits single moment of recognition between that young white girl and ativan prescription benefits that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to ativan prescription benefits give health care to the sick, or jobs to the ativan prescription benefits jobless, or education to our children.
But it ativan prescription benefits is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have ativan prescription benefits come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and ativan prescription benefits twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that ativan prescription benefits document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
17 Mar
13 Mar
Mr Jaiyeola Olanrewaju, the ativan prescription benefits Director-General of the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association told the ativan prescription benefits Punch Newspapers that the original amount was 50 billion naira, but that ativan prescription benefits the government was convinced that the textile industry needed raw materials so 20 billion naira was added for ativan prescription benefits the cotton industry
What does this mean, really?
Well, we have ativan prescription benefits a history of the use of import prohibition as a ativan prescription benefits trade policy instrument. Just take a look at the list of prohibited items and ativan prescription benefits you will understand what I mean. However, the main complaint made by textile manufacturers is ativan prescription benefits that cheap Chinese products are pricing them out of the market. Most people don’t really know, but the ativan prescription benefits importation of textile products is banned in Nigeria, but most of the ativan prescription benefits textile materials you find in Nigeria are foreign products- the DG of the ativan prescription benefits Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association says it is 80%; he even goes on to say that 90% of that 80% are ativan prescription benefits Chinese products. It is due to the socio-economic practice formally known as smuggling. I really don’t know what ativan prescription benefits to make of this as yet, but my impression is that ativan prescription benefits there is no way to stop the smuggling of textile products into Nigeria. And this ativan prescription benefits is not because Nigerians love foreign made products – a ativan prescription benefits lot of the cheap Chinese-made textile are of really poor quality so I don’t think it would count in the ‘good foreign products’ book – but because they are ativan prescription benefits cheap and affordable. If the local industry can match the prices of the ativan prescription benefits Chinese made products I am sure that Nigerians will buy them. The other thing is ativan prescription benefits that people want to have the right to choose what they wear, and ativan prescription benefits the imposition of ban on the importation of what would constitute a ativan prescription benefits choice for them would simply not be welcome.
Getting realistic
I understand the ativan prescription benefits point of import prohibition for the protection of the local industry, but at the ativan prescription benefits same time it is apparent that the local industry is so small that ativan prescription benefits it is unable to cater to the needs of the populace. I think that ativan prescription benefits the way to go is to actually accept the fact that ativan prescription benefits the cheap Chinese products are in the market, and that they will remain a ativan prescription benefits viable competition for the local textile industry. This acceptance should be ativan prescription benefits factored into the ongoing restructuring of the textile industry.
8 Mar
Valium Generic Cheap And oh yea, the other important part – perhaps the most important, actually – is ativan prescription benefits the bar in the same compound with the museum. As I learnt, there are ativan prescription benefits normally drummers and singers to sing the praise of the patrons. Last Saturday was not any different.
What more does one want from a museum? At one side there is ativan prescription benefits a centre for hair-do, at another there is an avenue for ativan prescription benefits praise singing… ok, maybe it ativan prescription benefits would have been nice to really see the holdings of the ativan prescription benefits museum. But don’t forget that I said that the museum was close on Saturdays.
7 Mar
6 Mar
I woke up this ativan prescription benefits morning with Nine Million Bicycles playing in my head, and ativan prescription benefits I thought that it might be a good idea to ativan prescription benefits share a bit about Katie Melua, the artiste who did Piece by Piece, the ativan prescription benefits album that has the Nine Million Bicycles track. Ketevan ‘Katie’ Melua is ativan prescription benefits a Georgian-born British musician. She has released two albums.The first one, Call off the Search, was released when she was 19, and Piece by Piece, the ativan prescription benefits second one, was released two years later, in 2005. She was the ativan prescription benefits biggest selling female British artiste of 2006.
I really enjoy her soft, almost carefree, style of singing. If you ativan prescription benefits have the time you could check the video of the Nine Million Bicycles here. If you are interested in her taste in music – which, by the way, I find very nice – you can click here. And if you ativan prescription benefits want to read more general things about her check her website and the wikipedia entry on her.
5 Mar
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