Folks,

It is humbling to notice that Africa build the wealth enjoyed in the Industrial world. It is equally healthy to have a logical debate to improve and fix matters that could be a stumbling block for Africa to progress. It is therefore important at this crucial moment to discuss logically Issue Based Substance that can lead us to wisely find solutions to our problems that which is pulling us backwards. We cannot deny that we have a problem which require urgent fixing, those that which cannot wait or delay.

Why has Africa’s Natural Resources not able to provide sustainable development prosperity for its inhabitants. Asian and North America were equally colonized by European Countries including North America because they were rich in Natural Resource wealth, but are now highly developed into Industrial Hub. Their wealth were somehow evenly spread to a wider segment of their Local Community based population rather than a few rich. They are able to pull Democratic Governance to improve their need for Infrastructure and be able to compete at the International Markets of the world. The vibrant economy Canada has today resulted in great infrastructure they jointly debated and agreed to improve, firstly to benefit stakeholders, shareholders and investors in partnership with the local community based on policy regulators. This is why they are well ahead in an improved infrastructure, medical for public health, Roads, Railways, Communications and are catching up in science and technology.

Africa’s valuable Resources are not cursed, since they boost organized and planned development and make other people wealthier. The West are presently scrambling to Africa for Africa’s Natural Resources. Africans themselves are the ones who are stupid. It is not because Africans lack quality education, but it is because they are not wise.

The very good reason why they had such successes are based on relying on three fundamental factors:

1) Strong Constitutional Policy base produced accountability & transparency with peaceful transition of power to who wins in the election
2) Freedom of speech with value to human rights irrespective of race, cultural or Religious faith or value, with protection of natural resources for sustainability, basing development in a manner that benefit broader society without discrimination.
3) Strong and Independent Judicial Institutions.

Transformational change is needed in Africa and more specifically in Kenya. This is because Kenya is central to most African Nations. Now the New Constitution came in handy. Our struggle is not and will not be in vain.

To those who think we have not achieved anything, the role we have played and is playing is very significant. It is a sacrifice and commitment that which will bring a lasting solution to Kenya and the whole of Africa sufferings. It is the beginning of change we all want. It is the beginning to root out conspiracies of corruption, graft and impunity. It is the information and knowledge we impart to the African Society to recognize, demand and stand firm for their Constitutional Rights. It is the only way to achieve independence and sustain development progress.

We do not have problem with oppossers since they were defeated landslide during the Referendum Election. The same will take place and the corrupt will be rejected by those who voted for change.

As Advocate and Agents for Change, we will stay the cause. No amount of criticism or intimidation will stop us from reaching our goals. We will attack injustices from all corners and meet them head on. We will make noise, dig and expose until justice will come our way. We will not give up. We will make sure the whole world to the end of primitive country-side know who are the reason for Africa’s poverty and sufferings. Despite their head swell, they will loose respect and dignity. We will dig to the bottom of their bedrooms and they will find no place to hide their heads. They will eat but will vomit. Let the music go on…….!!!

This cannot be said in Kenya where wrong doers are protected and are rewarded instead. There is no respect or balance to Public resource, facilities, taxpayer, land or opinion. Abuse, Intimidation and Violation to Human Rights is seen as the way to go by those politically correct. Corruption, Graft and Impunity has never seen the inside of Courts remedy in Kenya. Corrupt leaders manipulate their way through threats and with organized thugs. They use public taxpayer money as far as to educate and provide for their family’s, children and friends. This cannot be left to continue, it is illegal and unconstitutional.

It is our joint voices from Diaspora that brought about sanity after things fall apart in Kenya 2007/2008, which made former President Bush to rescind the idea that Kibaki won the election. Without the real Diaspora taking immediate action, (not the wasi wasi ones bandwagon type), they would have slaughtered many people and gotten away with it, business as usual. It is our undying constant pressure intervention and noice on behalf of the voice less victims that we were heard and the world united to see Kenya got intervened by eminent African Leaders led by Kofi Annan, who help put together the National Reform Agenda and finally the New Constitution. It is the same voice of reason, that made United Nations and ICC Hague to step in and now we can breathe a sigh that the Politically correct and most powerful are facing justice. It is our unwavering concern, as voiceless representatives and mouthpiece, we believe Kenya like Canada, Asia and China, are able to meet challenges of the International Market Place because of our valuable resources. In short, we are thirsty for Reform change that which will bring a sustainable progressive success to Kenya and the rest of Africa if committed responsible leadership in Kenya and Africa can be made free from Corruption, Impunity and Graft; a cancer which has eaten away the fundamental fabric of Nationhood to down trodden sickening poverty to many. We will not look elsewhere but maintain all round non-violent means to bring to book those corrupt leaders with their Agents, to face real Justice. It may look an impossible task to many who presently enjoy the pleasure and comfort of people’s loses, pain and sufferings but, we are confidence, that time will come and we will have an opportunity to move forward into a sustainable democracy with just rule of law. We are confidence that those who have made sufferings to many, their days are numbered and they will not escape justice and we trust God will see us through.

We do not need to pass Toefl test to achieve this, but wisdom. Yes, we make mistakes in our English writing grammar here and there, that does not mean we do not have an education to move us forward………It is okay, since we are able to communicate, have a debate and understand each other.

Consequently, The New Constitution must be observed and respected by all……those in denial about the power of Public choices to demand for Mandate, are in for a rude shock.

Having said that, Miguna Miguna’s statement is true to its narative, and the fact is, people have woken up from their 50 years of deep slumber and Kenya will never be the same again.

Cheers everybody……!!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Raila, Choose The Future Or Remain In The Past

Tuesday, 18 October 2011 00:36 BY MIGUNA MIGUNA

For one month now, we have been subjected to scenes of wanton desecration of Prof. Wangari Maathai’s legacy. While many Kenyans and world leaders have genuinely expressed grief at the untimely passing of our only Nobel laureate, a significant number of our politicians – including at the highest level of the state – have been grovelling in hypocritical supplication. They have waxed lyrical over the second liberation struggle and environmental conservation. Where were their loud voices before Prof. Maathai’s demise?

Kenyans are tired of empty platitudes. Prof. Maathai has suddenly become – in death – a bosom buddy and a comrade in arms of these pathetic hypocrites. What kind of struggle have these shameless chameleons been recently involved in? Has it been in grand corruption and primitive accumulation of wealth?

Have they been struggling to win the Nobel Prize for spinelessness? Have these cowardly politicians forgotten that Kenyans have been watching their lecherous, kleptomaniac ways keenly?

David Makali’s timely article, “PM Playing Politics With Mau Evictees” (Star, October 5th)–– asked three pertinent questions in response to Raila Odinga’s recent formation of yet another committee on Mau Forest restoration: “How will Raila resist the pressure to roll back the Mau restoration programme that has for all intents and purposes stalled? What happened to Phase Three and Four of the Mau restoration process? Why has Hassan Noor’s Mau secretariat gone quiet all of a sudden?”

Excellent questions that will not be answered any time soon. A convenient and predictable “denial” of Gideon Moi’s appointment was published soon thereafter. Incredibly, Moi senior defended his son’s ‘appointment,’ claiming that as “a Kenyan, Gideon has a right to any state appointment.’ Please! Give us another one.

Raila is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya; not of ODM or the Rift Valley. Why then did he establish a committee of Rift Valley politicians? Mau is a national treasure; not a political or a regional tool. It traverses areas occupied by various Kenyan communities. If there was need (which there wasn’t) for another committee, it should have been national in character. But more profoundly, we are sick and tired of this ‘governance through crisis and committees!’ We endured it during Moi’s twenty-four years’ reign of terror. With the enactment of the new constitution, the long suffering citizens of this country cannot and must not tolerate it any longer.

Most politicians are good at talking; not conservation. They are busy talking about space technology and genetically engineered foods when we can’t feed, quench the thirst, shelter, educate and provide employment for all our people. We can’t even manufacture bicycles and pins. So, why did Raila form this politically myopic committee? Why now?

Inexplicably – and despite the denials – the committee is chaired by Gideon Moi. That’s former President Daniel arap Moi’s son. So Moi is supposed to preside over the resettlement of peasants evicted from the Mau forest? Essentially, the worst forest encroacher and desecrater will now preside over phases three and four of the Mau restoration exercise. These phases cover medium and large land-holders within the water tower.

Raila – a latter-day conservationist – who has recently been traversing the globe over green energy and environmental conservation, wants Moi – reputed as the worst land-grabber and environmental degrader in Kenya – to be in charge of the Mau conservation? How legitimate is that exercise or is the Mau conservation all about politics as usual?

Moi owns the expansive Kiptagich farms, including the huge Kiptagich tea factory, both lodged deep inside the Mau. These farms comprise of tens of thousands of hectares of public land. Moi alone destroyed forest cover equivalent to the size of Nyanza province purely out of greed. Does any sensible person expect him to target the Kiptagich estate for repossession?

Please, tell that to the wind!

The tens of thousands of farms in the Mau forest were irregularly allocated during Moi’s 24-year reign when the boundary between public assets and private property was indistinguishable. Moi and his cronies didn’t purchase the land. The farms were established, equipped and maintained using public resources. Our collective loses have been the primary reason for their individual gains!

So, why is Raila undermining the crucial conservation effort; a process he proudly started and claimed he was ready to sacrifice his political ambitions on?

For more than thirty years, the rich oligarchs of Mau Forest have been living off our national treasures and sweat. The billions of shillings the Mau oligarchs have been extracting from our land haven’t trickled down to us, poor mortals. They have amassed tidy private portfolios both locally and abroad.

When Prof. Maathai was busy planting trees, saving our forests and suffering indignity and barbaric public whipping, ridicule and incarceration by Moi’s goons; the former president and his coterie were gorging themselves of public assets. Mau was their crown jewel.

When Prof. Maathai was desperately defending public forests from wanton desecration; most of those who were shedding crocodile tears at her funeral and memorial service were Moi’s bosom buddies. They were either silent or complicit when Mau was being destroyed and other public assets were being pillaged.

While Prof. Wangari used her bare hands and fragile body against the massive and ferocious power of the Moi regime; most of these hypocritical politicians couldn’t gather courage to oppose Moi’s rapacious tendencies.

Yes, Moi detained Raila for years for allegedly being part of the 1982 aborted coup attempt. However, the problem for many of us is Raila’s obvious desperation to appease Moi as part of a misguided strategy to woo the Kalenjin votes, which he believes (rightly or wrongly) that his erstwhile friend William Ruto has scattered. But the politics of deception and chicanery will not work. It has run its course.

Kalenjins – like other Kenyans – will and can only be won over by concrete issues, a progressive vision, a practical agenda and genuine commitment for their welfare. Personal ambitions and the blind pursuit of political power, even if clothed in patriotic and nationalistic garb, cannot be the solution. Nor can they be pursued at any price.

When thousands of poor forest encroachers were evicted from the Mau about two years ago, many Kenyans shuddered. I personally advised against the uncaring, poorly thought-out and uncoordinated evictions. I strongly urged that alternative land and funds be found for their humane relocation and compensation. I reminded Raila to be conscious of the fact that most of the evictees voted for him in 2007 and that they would take great offense at their humiliation.

Similarly, I expressed concern that only poor peasants were being targeted for eviction while wealthy oligarchs who had destroyed large swaths of the forest were left undisturbed. Well, I was overruled. The then special programs permanent secretary, Mohamed Ali Daud, was the only lone voice in my support. Lands minister James Orengo was mute – as usual – having recently transformed himself into the most lyrical sycophant at the King’s Court.

Raila insisted that the poor peasants were “criminal encroachers on government land; that compensating them would encourage such criminal tendencies.” Happily, history has now registered a verdict on our respective positions.

Two years on, the poor evictees are still homeless, scavenging like wild animals. They live under deplorable conditions. Yet, Moi’s vast estate located deep inside Mau remains intact. As Makali asked: why haven’t phases three and four of the Mau restoration been implemented? Why were the homeless peasants evicted from the forest when the rich oligarchs are now presiding over their own cases? Is this fair and just? Is it legal and constitutional? Where is the CIC when we need it?

Meanwhile, the ‘Kalenjin rebellion’ within ODM took a life of its own, precipitating Raila’s latest desperate move. Like most desperate moves, it won’t work. The Gideon Moi Committee isn’t legitimate. Nor is Orengo’s newly found voice. Both are instruments of the old order. There was no committee when the peasants were being evicted. There isn’t need for one now; unless, of course, the whole resettlement exercise is nothing but political chicanery.

Genuine conservation needs focus and clear vision; not political subterfuge, deception and manipulation. William Ruto and his KKK battalion tried such trickery and failed miserably. Remember the ‘historic’ Panafric Hotel fundraiser? This latest Raila trick is from the old Kanu/Moi hat. It, too, will also go nowhere.

A committee composed of land grabbers and partisan political interests is neither creative nor strategic. It’s irredeemably myopic. Moi represents our dark retrogressive past; not its future. Moi encapsulates the culture of impunity, primitive accumulation and wanton environmental destruction. That’s not Prof. Maathai’s legacy. Raila must make a choice: either embrace the future or be consigned to the past – forever. There is no in-between.

Mr. Miguna an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He is also a Barrister and Solicitor in Canada.

Kenya: Miguna a Sacrificial Lamb in Raila’s Plot

Moses Kuria

8 August 2011

opinion

Since the dramatic suspension of my fellow columnist Miguna Miguna, the Prime Minister’s advisor on coalition affairs, I have been prodded by friends, analysts and commentators to declare whether I was taking a victory lap.

This, ostensibly is as a result of the long running political run-ins that I have had with Miguna over the last couple of years. Whilst for the undiscerning it may appear to be a déjà vu of sorts, beyond the din of celebrations from the long list of victims of Miguna’s reign of terror lies disturbing facts that calls for serious retrospection.

Firstly, it is imperative to note that Miguna has never acted alone. In the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Miguna not only had a boss but also an ideological mentor. I have argued in this column before that Miguna is actually a younger version of Raila Odinga. This largely informs why the PM has watched with glee as we lost count of the victims of Miguna’s nihilism. I recall with respect the gallant fight that Miguna put up on behalf of the PM for a parliamentary system of government in the run-up to the enactment of a new constitution. On the PM’s behalf, Miguna took no prisoners in the dealings with President Kibaki’s side on the management of the Grand Coalition Government.

So valuable was Miguna to his boss and ideological mentor, that the PM has responded with deafening silence to every complaint we have made on his younger version. Thanks to the new constitution that provides for dual citizenship, Miguna can now enjoy his dual Kenyan and Canadian nationalities. This does not obliterate the undeniable fact that Miguna was holding dual citizenship illegally before 27th August, 2010. The PM did not take action on this despite my letter to him on the same, neither did he act on at least three other complaints that I publicly raised on the conduct of Miguna.

Which then begs for the question of why my brother Miguna has been shown the door now. On 30th December, 2009, Naivasha MP John Mututho and I raised the red flag on the appointment of one Gideon Ochanda and Major James Oswago to key executive positions in the Interim Independent Electoral Commission. Ochanda was a candidate in the ODM primaries in Bondo in 2007 while retired Major Oswago was a key political actor in Rarieda in 2002 and as such their appointments to IIEC were highly inappropriate.

Whereas IIEC took swift action rescinding Ochanda’s appointment, Major Oswago somehow survived. Since then, there have been frantic efforts from some quarters to ensure that Major Oswago gets an automatic transition to head the Interim Elections and Boundaries Commission.

I have written before that the aborted efforts to protect Ababu Namwamba as the chair of the Legal Affairs Committee in parliament was a strategy to ensure Oswago’s smooth transition to the IEBC. When this failed, the clamour to discredit the IIEC commissioners was attempt that the KPU wing of ODM could resort to. To the best of my knowledge, this was a corporate project for the KPU wing of ODM and that is why I feel totally aggrieved that when the plot back-fired, my comrade Miguna Miguna has been turned into a sacrificial lamb alone!

The method that has been employed to throw Miguna out of office provides a sneak preview of how a Raila presidency would look like. One of the victims of Miguna’s stinging criticism, Daniel Arap Moi must have been proud to see the return of firing public servants through media announcements. Withdrawing Miguna’s security when he was away in an ODM retreat in Naivasha and with his innocent kids at home and terrified must have been borrowed from the Gestapo tactics in East Germany. Firing Miguna’s administrative staff for the presumed sins of their boss must have been a script from the radical change that we were promised in 2007.

Something in my conscience tells me that it is not enough to commiserate with Comrade Miguna. You can fault Miguna for anything but not his commitment to democracy in this country. Conventional wisdom has it that he created quite a few enemies for standing up against corruption in the Office of the Prime Minister right from the days of the maize scandal. With the suspension of Miguna, a latter day John Githongo may be in the making. There is no denying that Miguna is an intellectual genius, one of the best legal brains in this country, but then he happens to be socially autistic which explains why he gets into trouble with so many people. But then none of us can claim to be perfect. That is why I have no qualms offering Miguna a job at the Party of National Unity. After all, he preceded me as the treasurer of Students Organisation of Nairobi University by five years. If I receive an application from Comrade Miguna , I may just consider it. After all, what are friends there for?

The author is the spokesman of the Party of National Unity. The views expressed herein are his own.

— On Tue, 10/18/11, Elijah Kombo wrote:

Subject: Raila, Choose The Future Or Remain In The Past – Esq take sometime off

ARE YO OKAY ESQ OMWENGA? I advise you to take some days off and relax. Just relax ndugu. Life is fair. And more so TRUST ON GOD, and you will never be shaken.

Just take sometime off and we meet again after you apologize!

Regards
Kombo Elijah

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 10:29 AM, Samuel Omwenga wrote:

KM,

You totally missed the point. I could care less who has written an article and would read and respond to it as I wish but I certainly want to know from the outset who it is. That’s why all publishers put the author’s name at the top or say “Staff Writer.” This is because it gives the reader, especially an informed one, the context to read the article, meaning a prism from which to view the content of the article. And neither am I being lazy as you seem to think because I am asking you and others to indicate who the author of an article is; far from it.

You say, “Just scrow [sic] down the article to find out who is the author or complain to the star so that they can put the author at the top.” The Star has, in fact done just that and always does; you are the one who did not do so as you should have as you can see from the same article I have cut and pasted the beginning of it below

Raila, Choose The Future Or Remain In The Past
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 00:36 BY MIGUNA MIGUNA
. . .

— On Tue, 10/18/11, Yona F Maro wrote:

Subject: Can Anything Good Come Out Of Africa?

Elimma C Ezeani

…Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.” The Holy Bible, John 1: 46

Years ago, the philosopher Hegel stated, “what we properly understand by Africa, is the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit, still involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be presented here only as on the threshold of World’s history” (Hegel, trans. Sibree, 1956, 95). While dexterously refuting Hegel’s claims, Nigerian philosopher Olufemi Amao, still pointed at an enduring perception of the African continent as “a veritable museum where there are to be found relics of the race, the human race, that is: hence the anthropological preoccupation with hunting down (very apt phrase) exotic practices, primitive rituals, superceded customs.” (Amao, 2004, 2)

While the world speaks of a global social space where economic downturns at one end of the world affect ‘the global market’, but where values and successful policies exist only in the ‘developed world’, Africa places itself at the heart of the dichotomy, but as a victim. This way, African countries and their advisors can comfortably ignore the fundamental setback: the absence of an indigenously propelled social and technological advancement, by an entire Continent. There is little consideration on the potential of Africa overcoming its established position at the bottom of the development ladder. Too much is gained financially at least, by testing out foreign policies and implementing alien consultancy advice in African countries, while ignoring the springboard used by developed countries themselves – studying their own environment, and investing in their own future, consolidating the positive aspects of their heritage with well-targeted development-oriented policies.

Apart from this deliberate oversight in strengthening African solutions to Africa’s problems and holding those in charge accountable, the problem is compounded further by the avarice that characterise many – African leaders and other persons in positions of responsibility, in particular – who sell our collective birthright for less than a bowl of porridge.

It is this pervading avarice – pervading from the top to the bottom of our societies, and the absence of any sense of self-worth, lacking because it is just not there; this is why Africa continues to defy economic theories on growth and development. It may be part of a global village, but it is an unillumined part of that global village – without the bright lights of progress. Despite huge reserves of human, capital, and natural resources, Africa remains dependent and reliant on the interest and patronage of the West, and more recently, of the East. Structural adjustment programmes, loans, aid, partnerships, joint ventures, trading agreements, foreign investment, international agreements, and countless organisational memberships – nothing seems to lift Africa. David Diop’s haunting question Africa, my Africa is this your back that is bent? in his poem, “Africa, my Africa,” rings out alongside daily stories of corruption, heart-breaking poverty, disease, political instability, insecurity, and armed conflict. In the meantime, its leadership remains sheltered in a peculiar brand of hubris.

To argue against these factors is to lay one open to ridicule. Along with the media who equate ‘bad news’ with ‘news’, and those whose understanding of Africa remains Hegelian, Africa’s most damaging evidence of its underdevelopment comes from none other than Africans themselves. From the one who sees everything wrong in his society but does not ascribe any blame to himself, to those who think it fashionable to shamelessly point out every flaw in the African race and Continent, real and imagined; from the sycophants who facetiously deride Africa’s political leadership in the hope of keeping up with the movers and shakers of global politics, to the traitors who connive with those predators as they loot national treasuries, it is Africans who now keep Africa where it is today – poor in the midst of plenty, and dependent.

And the modern age has no time to wait for Africa and Africans to catch up – the present global preoccupation with economic security continues to drive Africa further away from the lingering need to lay the elementary foundations of effective social organisation and political leadership in African States. But where is the will to change Africa when many wait their turn to profit from its plunder?

Where is the conviction that anything good can come from Africa where all history has written of the Continent is in the negative, and where modern politics continues to deal with an entire Continent as with a child defying the laws of nature and nuture; an entity which defies all known theories of social emancipation and development?

If our common history will not continue to tell its tale of enslavement- mental, physical and now economic, which we have found ourselves in over the years, we must rewrite that history. Today. In the first instance, education in Africa must attack the prejudices and wholesale disregard for its heritage. This is more than a call to teach African languages in schools – it is a call for the incorporation of a sense of indigenous history and positive values. While we learn of Shakespeare and World War II, we should learn even more about Soyinka and the disastrous consequences of our own internal conflicts. While we applaud the marvels of science and technology and envy the swagger of foreign corporate executives, we must invest in indigenous research and develop working corporate and economic models that will sustain our own economies. So long as we do not know about our environment and our selves, we will have very little regard for these things. Having little regard for them, we will have no sense of urgency in trying to improve on them.

The time has come for more mature and honest well-focused criticism: African critics in particular have to do more than point accusing fingers at politicians. Significantly more can be achieved by challenging ill-conceived policies and programmes with empirically sound arguments than by writing pages highlighting the mental incapacity of political leaders or recycling self-evident facts of failed programmes and government policies. Our petty flirtations with challenging misuses of power are now childish; there is more to bad leadership than politicians. Civil servants, corporate executives, financial, religious, and social leaders, entrepreneurs, unionists and labour leaders, the military, the legislature, the judiciary, the legislature, the police, NGOs, government consultants and contractors, – the policies and working practices of these categories of persons deserve as much if not even more in-depth scrutiny as the antics of the executive. Without cowered, complacent, or complicit elements of civil society, even the most draconian of regimes, cannot prevail.

Thus greater responsibility for Africa lies with the African. A combination of maturity without a sense of integrity and patriotism and without an imprint of positive African values, education without little indigenous research and development efforts, religious indoctrination without incultration, a consumer culture in the absence of any significant productive capacity, political instability fuelled by mutual suspicion and distrust, and the fixation on political office as a means of income security, have not helped. And the future is not set to be any different: watching those who profit from their peoples’ vulnerability and ignorance, the younger generation in whom a morally- weakened society has inculcated corruption, wait to assume positions of authority where they will perpetuate the scandals of their predecessors.

Meanwhile the scandal permeates society: the scandal of disappearing values with the appearance of unaccountable wealth. Wealth seen as power has eroded a sense of values: across Africa, people are only as important as their possessions. Respect and integrity have no place where everyone must ‘come down to our level.’ Those who resist face a barrage of insults and a campaign of calumny: it is inevitably easier to join in society’s liquidation than to attempt at building it up. Better still, it is even safer to shut up and say nothing. This is a sad fact because just as a society can only be destroyed from within, it can only be built to last from within: it is only Africans who can save Africa. Subsequent generations of Africans will not be corrupt and self-serving if today’s parents, youths, teachers, social leaders do not teach them by word, deed, or omission, that corruption, avarice, and wickedness are the only means of survival for the African.

In our headline quotation when Philip is asked “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” his response is simple and convinced. “Come and see”. The indication that Africa is on its way out of the continued mire of under-development is not in the rising statistics of Africa’s individual wealthy, the presence of admirable aid or trade projects to help the poor, or in the statistics that show Africa’s rising presence in world trade; it is not even in references to her emerging democracies, or to individual success stories, remarkable though these may be. The true indication that there is something good in Africa will be when Africans are confident enough when asked ‘Can anything good come out of Africa?’, to respond with a simple convinced, “Come and see.”