Buying the Bridge to nowhere

Watching the American Investment Banks fall like a pack of dominoes it brings back memories of the Saving and Loans fiasco of the past two decades or so. There is this tendency for the US to sell everyone a pig in the poke and for the Brits as their greatest cheerleaders to ensure it resonates across the world.

Mwalimu Nyerere is reputed as saying that there should be universal principles with local standards unfortunately the US sells its aspirations as universal standards. With the help of its 'objective' media and the support of its 'rational allies' who are all committed to the good things whilst any deviation is an insistence on a lifestyle of debauchery. How else can you explain how so called objective media oversaw the invasion of Iraq building consensus for the fantasy of WMDs or even the perversion that is Guantanamo detention without trial or Abu Graib or even the somewhat callous use of open bribery to get the Northern League to fight the Taliban I suppose everyone thinks that this is just in the field of International politics surely it does not extend to any other field or does it ? Think about it the working assumption is that free markets or Market Capitalism is the universal standard that the entire world should live by. The same was said for Democracy until 2000 when it was convenient for the US supreme court not to count votes and to support an openly rigged election. It is the same kind of selective application of standards that is at work in this financial mess.

The people who brought us free unfettered markets forgot to tell us that when their backs are to the wall well to hell with the standards to which they held all of us. It is those who ask others to open their markets to any type of investors that shut their ports to the Dubai Investment company or even prevent the Chinese from taking specific slices of their economy. For years the there has been aggregation and leveraging of debt. It is repackage and sold to consumers whose need for instant gratification far outweighs the capacity to pay has been the engine room for growth in the US as well as the UK. The shouted this notion of consumer led economy whereby the media made a lot of advert revenue by selling everything as a must have. Every sale was a bargain, every gadget was editorialised like a cure for cancer. For all this greed there was credit on offer whether you could handle it or not. This dangerously designed and poorly executed attempt to lazily maintain growth was accompanied with the freedom to roam and gorge without regulation given directly to financial institution. Capital crossed borders in search of fresh kills with very little concern for its underpinning.

As it falls apart spare a thoughts for Nigerian Banks whose unintelligent mimicking of this failed policy is now starting to take root. Banks here give credit to business in ways that will make Shylock blush but offer the middle classes all kinds of credit to easily purchase Plasma TVs , cars even home furnishings. The cheap takings from funding consumption rather than production as become the business model. In spite of less than 20% of the population having bank accounts the same banks put pressure on their staff to seek additional accounts from the same middle classes who already have accounts. Their requirements are so onerous for the Woman in Oja Oba or Epe Fish market that it is only the very same 20% that now have four or five accounts from different banks.

Believe we already bought the bridge and surely whether there is credit crunch or not we cannot sustain the journey. This group think has to stop.

Race Election 2008 (AP copy)

Here is one explanation for the Palin factor and the closeness of the opinion polls so far. It is not he only one though. It is worth a complete read.

Poll: Racial misgivings of whites an Obama issue


Sep 20 07:57 PM US/Eastern
By RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON
Associated Press Writers




WASHINGTON (AP) - Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks—many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.
The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004—about 2.5 percentage points.
Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.
More than a third of all white Democrats and independents—voters Obama can't win the White House without—agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.
Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.
"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.
The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home—among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.
Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president—white, black or brown.
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views.
Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.
Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.
Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.
Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.
But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.
The AP-Yahoo poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger.
Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks.
"We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful," 29 percent "complaining," 13 percent "lazy" and 11 percent "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama.
The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."
Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't.
Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent."
Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder."
The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites.
Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes—including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers.
Just 59 percent of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain.
Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries—particularly whites with high school education or less—were motivated in part by racial attitudes.
The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Julie Carr Smyth, Philip Elliot, Julie Pace and Sonya Ross contributed to this report. 
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Malice and Self Loathing in Mzansi

Finally the forces of anti intellectual , xenophobic and kraal blockade have won in South Africa. As i watched the Mbeki resignation on television it seemed the final plan to reduce South Africa to its lowest common denominator has been achieved. The 'Activocracy' that runs the country has always hidden behind populist posturing to cover its ethnic loathing of the dominance of the Xhosa in political and intellectual life. This is quite simply a Zulu coup but this is Mzansi the prejudice never speaks its name it only shapes policy. Funny it is the same root cause that led this ungrateful and self denigrating bunch to kill their African cousins that also leads them to take out a man who is more instrumental to their liberty from Apartheid than the sainted ' Madiba'.

It was Thabo who helped turn the ANC into a global radical chic . You remember the concerts in London and boycotts cross the world. It was the same Mbeki who helped to shape the Nigerian interaction that drove the UN Anti -Apartheid committee which was by far the most critical international institution Maintaining the support for the Sanctions regime in the UN and pressure that led to the unravelling of the now vilified system. It was this same man who negotiated with the white businesses that led to final talks and arguably this approach was the child of his genius without which Mandela would not have been released. He more than anyone has his fingerprints on the transformation of the country from a blood bath waiting to happen to effectively an African powerhouse within the sisterhood of nations on this continent.

Maybe it is time for Mbeki to leave but a country which rewards years of service in fact a life of sacrifice with indignity and disdain is a country that deserves no less than the same. For me this beautiful country has fallen so far down my esteem and respect that I wish it the direction it seems to have chosen a descent into gradual irrelevance and insignificance on the continent.

For the Love of God ( Resonance by Olu Alake)

Now this is an email i got this morning and has the provocative capacity to open further thoughts and reflection from Olu.

With absolutely no sense of irony whatsoever - God bless you for that piece! I spent a good part of yesterday debunking notions that otherwise intelligent people insist on regurgitating ad nauseum because some under-informed, self-styled 'man of God' (emi nko o? - man of Satan?) said so. Some of them made the mistake of trying to engage me in a debate about tithing as a Christian obligation...oh boy, did that get me started! I am perpetually amazed by how in this day of a wealth of information readily available at literally a push of a button, some people wilfully refuse to engage in any intellectual discourse or research of their own about something that is of such vital importance as their own spiritual welfare. I wouldn't trust my car to a mechanic of dubious expertise, so why would I my soul to a pastor who refuses to make the reasoned arguments?

I find so much of contemporary 'Christian' teachings so un-Christ-like that it fills me with such an inner rage. And you are right - by all measures of real Christian teaching, Nigeria is actually one of the most unGodly places on earth! (No charitable collective soul, no brothers being each other's keepers, unheavenly worship and appreciation of money and instant gratification especially in church (pastors measuring their success not by how many souls they save but by whether and how quickly their church can buy them a BMW, no sense of public service or sacrifice, lack of humility,... I could go on.).

There is a reason why churches have been Nigeria's biggest internal economic growth industry for the past 20 years - because the owners/leaders have cynically exploited the morass of political and economic misfeasance that successive corrupt hegemonies have left behind to peddle that most essential of commodities - hope. It is no wonder as well that the prosperity gospel, that despicable emphasis on material riches being an earthly manifestation of heavenly treasures and divine reward, found such fertile ground in Nigeria especially and across Africa in general. It appeals to the base nature of self-aggrandisement and individualism that has been festering away in our collective psyche as a result of our mass sodomisation by evil military-civilian and civilian-military regimes. It is obviously not in anyone's interests to observe that by the measures of this dodgy doctrine, Jesus Christ Himself would have been held as not an example of what is right but a manifestation of all that is wrong in the world. Or that it is unbiblical, ungodly and counterintuitive to believe in a beneficent God that especially provides a spectacularly return on material investment with a direct linear relationship between material input and output rather than the elevation of our higher purpose and selves, and then 'all other things coming unto us' as the good book itself promised.

What is really sad is that rather than engage in any critical thinking on these issues, the very considered opinions of the likes of you and I are now going to be dismissed as the devil-inspired rantings of the unGodly heathen. I love my country, I no go lie...

For the Love of God

Now the nature and disposition of God is the most abused cover for scoundrels I have ever experienced. As a Nigerian living here in Gidi it has developed into the basis of the most corrosive exploitation of the National psyche. The uncritical nature of the 'It is well' crowd is quite in line with their American cousins who gave us 8 years of a US Government whose policies has rained more munitions on the earth surface than any other in recent memories and caused the most deaths of non-combatant civilians in any war in the 21st century. They have achieved this through the direct use of the 'happy clappy' crowds and platforms to ensure an uncritical support for their policies. The loyalty of the believers who are enthralled into waiting and wanting for prosperity, saddled in polite bigotry and wallowing in unconscious incompetence is never in doubt. Their guilt and fears regularly topped up ever Sunday will ensure that any critical thinking is aborted before they are fully formed.

Let me first set forth that until recently i would have qualified as a believer in the mode of those I criticise. I shared the sanctified, tongue speaking, natty dressed , Sunday morning, social engagements. Quite a few times it was an uplifting experience, generally it was passively mind numbing and sometimes it was decidedly an insult on any intelligent mind. For many months my brain was in full conflict with my guilt and worry about my relationship with God. This in spite of the total lack of credibility of many of my co-religionist to my world view. Imagine the same people who brought us George W Bush now offer us Governor Sarah Palin. I feel sick to my stomach for my own collusion. I have watched as the large body of Nigerians finally capitulate to the Cultural assault launched by the fringe Scripture Union when I was in University and ably supported by our own culture of consumption rather than production into this adulteration that masquerade as commitment to God. How come we do not associate God with critical, challenging and direct thinking. I know there exceptions to the positions I am articulating but it does not serve the purpose of disrupting this wider pattern to focus on those. on the contrary it promotes complacency. In the same token it is easy to blame the Pastors but this is mostly about the laziness and total foolishness of the congregations.

I was born into the Islamic tradition and even though I am not a Muslim I have a healthy respect for the discipline and way of the faith. I have watched it however in its attempt to match the enthusiasm of the Pentecostals go into the new Fatwa narrative . I now know that Nigerian Muslim's issue Fatwa's over those that do not conform to their interpretation of proper Islamic practice like the man with 86 wives. The government watched from the sidelines as a Nigerian citizen was threatened with death and banishment by a dubious body without constitutional authority but with the name of God firmly in tow. There were very few voices to be heard to challenge this Fascist decree. The man was never before any authority nor asked to put any case. How did we get here?

For most of my life I have been very coy about the nature of my spiritual interests and even though i am adventurous in all other aspects of my life and openly challenge convention, i have been by my own standards quite conservative in my spiritual evolution. Yes , Khahil Gibran is a saint to me and his book the Prophet never leaves my thoughts, mind and daily crosses my lips, true I have read all Paulo Coehlo's books from page to page but I have been quite restraint in my dialogue about God in my life. That is until i started thinking for myself in this area. On my way to Lagos being driven to the airport, my colleague and friend Simon Mcintyre (now Simon Smethurst- Mcintyre, after he got married) challenged me on God. Being a committed Atheist he had an intellectual freedom and openness that was quite refreshing. I was forced to articulate for myself without any authority who God is to me. Here goes.

God is the embodiment of human connection and co-operation when it is bonded in love and driven by something greater than just self interest, elevated to create and humbled by emergence. God is the magic of the multitudes in the process of greater creativity and production for beneficial service without thought of recompense. God is the fullness of the complexity of all things in interaction, which completely surpasses the sum of the parts at a level and scale that the individuals cannot observe. God is innate purpose pursued, self interest submerged and love unbridled. God is possibilities untamed by the need for subsistence. God is our humanity unfettered, unsimplified, unintimidated in the pursuit of the pain and joy of a life committed to love.

Ok, enough . But there is method to this ranting. You see I love Nigeria with my heart and passion. As I now reflect it is a place that exhibits the least love of God in my understanding. You see where God is present then the sum total is more than the aggregation of the parts. Here in Nigeria with the level of individual excellence, the sum total is less than the aggregation of the parts. Yet we are listed as being in the top 10 in the world who believe in God. Go figure!

Whatever you do read his speech entirely

AP has put a corrupt analysis of Senator Obama's speech out there. Part of the danger is that it is what will circulate. Read for yourself and engage a vision that is quite exquisitely crafted to truly elevate a people and a nation. Brings me to something close to rapture. Here is the next President of the United States in his own words.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
"The American Promise"
Democratic National Convention
August 28, 2008
Denver, Colorado
As prepared for delivery
----
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
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Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia - I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
.
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American - if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us - that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours - a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.

Quick Shots

Back in Gidi and on the way to Osogbo for the festival and some additional research on my yet to be completed novel. Just some quick thoughts on recent developments:

- My Friend Dr Fayemi lost his Tribunal challenge to the last election for Governor of Ekiti state but I believe he will win the war. The discipline and professionalism of his campaign as well as hamdling of his case is quite unusual in the Nigerian political terrain. He is a truly thoughtful, caring and committed leader who deserves a truly impartial panel. All those who have the onerous duty of adjudicating the election tribunals have my initial respect unless something else comes to light that challenges their impartiality. In the end either through appeal or otherwise the country needs more of Kayode Fayemi not less.

- Another Obama Foreign Policy astuteness is being ignored by the press in general and the US media in particular. His position on the dispensability of General Musharraff as an ally and his concern about the policy that ties the US to his regime rather than allying with the broader aspirations of people of Pakistan is emerging as the wiser counsel as well as position. On the other hand McCain's position is that anything that undermines Musharraff puts US interest at risk. Well Musharraf is gone. Also the press in general applaud McCain's tough stance in support of Georgia never mind his total lack of credibility or impartiality as a paid supporter of the policy position of the current President of that country. I suspect many people in the West including the present occupiers of No 10 Downing street have not scaled up enough to see what is emerging. I suspect Senator Obama might have a clue with his more nuanced position. Russia is not Zimbabwe and China is not the Sudan both countries have a world view independent of reactions to the west that is backed by social, economic and increasing military power. How long will it take before they realise if they align more closely they can redefine leadership in many parts of the world away from the US and the West . The West's assumption of superiority sounds increasingly hollow as their economies wane, their military is held down by irregular and largely untrained forces, their principles are compromised in the face of insecurity and fears, their people are polarised in bitter cultural wars. Why should China whose successful Olympics was in spite of all attempts to derail it in the West or Russia which has regained its footing in spite of efforts to surround it with NATO lackeys feel any obligation or interest to listen to the West?

- The Nigerian Stockmarket is on a downer right now and it is not helped by the fact that we have a reactionary Federal government who is hell bent on structural intervention without spending anytime understanding the dynamics or even mapping the processes. If the newspapers are anything to go by the new idea is a government panel on the stock exchange. Not sure that the total sum of the vision that is Law and Order amounts to more than a piece of Akara from Osu. We will see soon but the incompetence of the Government might itself be a God send because it leaves room for the private sector to step up its game. The problem is that the Nigerian private sector is almost entirely transaction driven rather than transformation oriented. Watch this space.

Any way in all white and off to the Osun festival. Expect some pictures and lest i forget a big shout out to Tari who had a A* and A in his early GCSE's thank God you got your mothers brains not mine!