A moment of madness

My Business Traveller staple

I would not say I am your typical business traveler but I do like to watch the Business Traveller programme presented by Richard Quest on CNN International.

This morning I noticed the programme was on but without the familiar, jocular and quirky presenter, it then occurred to me that he had not been on the air for quite a while.

In fact, it also highlights the fact that CNN is disappearing from hotel rooms and being replaced by BBC World – times when one could switch between news channels after plunking down on your hotel bed after a long day seems to have passed.

So, I did a quick search on the Internet to find out if Richard Quest was still at CNN, he is, so, why was he not presenting.

A further search revealed something I had missed, sometime in April, Richard was caught violating the Central Park curfew by the police and he volunteered the fact that he had an illegal drug in his pocket.

It also appears that a search of his person and consequently his vehicle revealed kinky paraphernalia but the most significant part of the arrest was that he might face drug charges.

In some ways, I could see why I did not know of this, I am interested in the news and rarely in gossip.

Control is everything

I do not use drugs and that is probably because I am some sort of control freak, I need to know where I am and what I am doing, I am too uncomfortable with situations I cannot control.

I rarely drink and anytime I have felt light on my feet, I immediately arrange to return home – to some people I may have never lived because I have never been drunk, though I have been sick once – and that was at home – and when I woke up with a headache years ago, I had to search the Internet to determine if I had a hangover and how to get the legendary “hair of the dog” cure.

Moments of madness

Anyway, back to Richard, I am saddened that a seeming moment of madness, fantasy or debauched desire for some sort of personal pleasure has lead to a public outing like this.

I am sorry that great men and men of renown have had their reputations brought to naught in situations where they should have been more aware of the possible consequences.

I suppose for some, thrill of the chase and the possibility of getting caught is in itself a means to satisfaction, but what if it all goes awry?

Too many people have allowed these seized moments of madness to become the defining issues of their lives, like filming sex scenes that suddenly get in the wrong hands, taking photographs in compromising situations, engaging in illicit activity with people who have no reputation to keep that they are ready to ruin yours.

Only human

I cannot say I have been the best behaved boy in many circumstances, like many others, we have lives we would prefer to keep private and hopefully we manage those facets of our lives with a sense of discretion and decorum, if possible – human beings have needs and they have weaknesses, not all of us can aspire to be conclusively holier than thou.

I do hope that Richard is able to live through this unfortunate episode and return to the job and role he handles with uniqueness and compelling entertainment – in the end, a man is not made by the problems he faces, but how he faces his problems.

A man should be able to accept who he is in entirety and live life to the full in the personification of who he is without fear and with creative passion – sometimes society makes the most absurd judgments on matters that individuals would tolerate to a greater degree – such is life.

News: Chasing the thrill

News or views?

As I write there are live reports from the collapse of a bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis (Twin Cities) in the United States.

Sometimes I wonder how much more analysis I want from a simple news story - tell me what happened, probably how many people are affected, who to contact for information and where to go for information - like a website, then offer an update at intervals.

It begins to sound like a broken record as the rolling news coverage moves from news to eye witness accounts that so vividly paint the picture that one is almost at risk of reliving the tragic incident from the comfort and safety of one's armchair at home.

This whole idea of throwing journalists into the thick of it is going to the extreme; embedded journalists in war zones, news correspondents waist-deep in flood waters very much like the CNN sport news advert of Terry Baddoo fully dressed in a suit with a wired microphone in a swimming pool interfering with the swimmers.

Getting in the way

Interfering is the word - the iPod generation - people completely out of the circumstance developing an ambulance-chaser tendency to record a clip of the scene on their rotten mobile phone cameras for onward transmission to some gluttonous news channel with the insatiable lust for viewer ratings.

Nowhere has this "close to the event" madness become more evident than in police car chases which started with the O.J. Simpson , the viewing of Michael Jackson on the way to his acquittal or the return of Paris Hilton to the courthouse.

The O.J. Simpson chase

Last week, they became the tragedy, two helicopters from rival new agencies covering a police car chase on Phoenix, Arizona collided midair with the loss of 4 lives, methinks the excitement of the moment most of gotten the better of reporters and the pilot - such unhealthy rivalry leaves one both sorrowful and entirely unimpressed with an unnecessary pursuit of a non-news matter which had become a reality thriller event.

The helicopter crash

I really am not cut out for edge-of-my-seat news and commentary like a tense football match; it should not be like I am watching a penalty shootout.

As my sympathies go out to the families of the dead, what would be too absurd for expression would be to attribute the death of these journalists to the criminal being chased by the police and bring charges to that effect; his business was with the law and his attempt to escape its long arm, as for the news helicopters chasing after him, they really had no business being there.

References

2 Who Died in Phoenix News Crash Mourned

Obama vs. Stupid is as stupid does

Generally, I welcome all comments that are made regardling anything I have written in my blog. I have only had occasion to specifically delete two comments because basically the wording was just completely off topic and unacceptable.

In maybe three circumstances, I have taken the comments and created another blog on the content for reasons that people eventually read of in the blog.

It is clear and important to each person that places a comment that they see this notice - Dear Reader, You are welcome to leave comments which might be used in other blogs. All SPAM reported.

However, today I have a comment on my blog that reads like a reasoned opinion but is crass to the extreme and inane bordering on the contemptible it is a display of ignorance most dark, that one may sympathise, at which point it is beginning to sound like praise. Stop!

I had written a piece last month about CNN's typographic error in captioning a picture of Osama bin Laden with Where's Obama - probably an honest mistake by CNN, like the commenter says; the rest just reads like foul effluent.

The comment - unedited

"sorry but obama's name sounds too much like osama. i am black and i would never want anyone named obama to be elected to the highest office of the US. that name, osama, obama instills terror in people. obama is finished because of his name. sorry obama, but that name is your Achilles' heel. and cnn made an honest mistake which will be made often because the names are just too much damn alike. stop playing the race card, brotha."

Associating names with others

When people go to great lengths to think up such stuff, one has to go to greater lengths to debunk such views. Barack Hussein Obama announced only on Saturday that he is in the race for the Presidency of the United States, he made that announcement in Springfield, Illinois on a cold day where a good 15,000 people had gathered to hear his message of hope.

For a while people have been obsessed with his name, but if we did take it apart, this man is 45 years old, his name in 1962 would have meant nothing than the joy of the parents at his birth and that is now his Achilles' heel as the writer says.

Over the years, Barack could now be associated with Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt or Ehud Barak, once the Prime Minister of Israel. Hussein could be associated with the late King Hussein of Jordan who many would remember fondly or Saddam Hussein of Iraq who the Americans supported through many atrocities before they pulled the rug from under him and sanctioned his judicial murder.

Then obviously, CNN has helped to associate Osama with Obama, note that one name is a first name and the other is a surname and let us not forget that once Osama and America were good friends when America aided Osama in getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

These were names that were once sounded in the corridors of power and received taxpayers funding to perpetrate their deeds on behalf of America.

Stupid is as stupid does

"Sorry, but Obama's name sounds too much like Osama" - That is plausible, but are you so hard of hearing not to note the difference? Come on, if those names were used in any context where they were misplaced, dumb people would almost certainly know that terrorism is about bin Laden and the hope of Presidency is about Obama.

"I am black and I would never want anyone named Obama to be elected to the highest office of the US" - Hopefully, America is populated with people who are smarter, this probably feeds into something else that Chxta raised about Barack Obama, some Americans think he is not black enough, that country is rankled with the politics of race it is unbelievable and then I am accused of playing the race card.

"That name, Osama, Obama instils terror in people" - No doubt, it instils terror in stupid people who cannot see beyond their noses, even I would pray that a greater terror come upon them, we cannot have such people walking our streets; their judgment is impaired, their values are corrupt, their lives reprobate, they are beyond therapy and almost beyond redemption.

"Obama is finished because of his name. Sorry Obama, but that name is your Achilles' heel" - I remember many saying the same thing when he was running for the Senate and he won. Does the name of the commenter mean something like fool or idiot? What if he donned a Klu Klux Klan white hood and called himself Nixon - would he be more electable?

"and CNN made an honest mistake which will be made often because the names are just too much damn alike" - CNN probably did make an honest mistake, a mistake that was carried on newswires around the world despite their apology; having denigrated the man as you do now, it is convenient to paint him as a hate symbol and plead innocence. As for likeness, I made my point earlier. Do I allow the use of D*mn on my blog?

"Stop playing the race card, brotha" - On balance, I would prefer to play the race card than the fool's card, but whoever mentioned race anywhere? This so called honest mistake would have been highlighted for any other person regardless of colour. I think you are suffering from delusions of grandeur to address me as Brotha, we do not think alike and we are definitely not of the same stock. The greater disappointment is in how you highlighted our differences by what is atrocious commentary predicated on ignorance.

Surely, Barack Hussein Obama would be attacked from all fronts, but I hope would be at the higher level of principles, values, ideas, policies and motivation rather than tabloid sensationalism masquerading as informed judgment, it is really beginning to annoy me.

CNN Exclusive: The creaks (sic) of Niger Delta

Fleshing a barebones news story

Sometimes correspondents do get a bit above their game in the quest for a story, that they plot and playback for our viewing rather than just report the news as is.

When Channel 4 in the UK used to broadcast Drop the Dead Donkey, many viewers would have thought no respectable journalist would file a war-zone report with a reality scene that would turn out to be the local community centre’s unkempt football pitch – if only our skepticism had caught up with our disbelief of make-belief, we might be smarter about the stuff we get fed to us as news, today.

Sometimes, the news might only be in the first 10 words of 15 minute broadcast and the only facts you will have are time and place, the event is dumped in the hands of armchair analysts with expertise in everything under that sun, so what we is get is opinions and suggestions presented as fact and event; by the time the penny drops, the event has been overtaken by other audience grabbing entertainment.

I have the feeling that some news editors now believe we are not interested in the news anymore, they believe we just want to be titillated with tidbits and have our voyeuristic tendencies exploited to the point of needing radical therapy.

It is definitely a given that one cannot just rely on just one news source, in hemispheric terms, one needs all perspectives and just because Western media can put people on the ground with sophisticated equipment to record an unfolding drama does not mean we have the truth.

Prismatic views of the Niger Delta

This is in the light of a report on CNN filed by Jeff Koinange an African-based correspondent under Big Guns, Big Oil Collide in Nigeria, there is no doubt we need multiple perspectives of issue to do with the Niger Delta, its people, its environment and the effects oil exploration on that diverse community.

There are many propagandists with vested interests in the matter, that getting to the truth is very much like sinking another hole prospecting for oil with greater uncertainty for success.

The people obviously are the most affected and nothing depicts that situation better than my February 2007 print edition of the National Geographic Magazine with the title Curse of the Black Gold - Please visit the online Photo Gallery.

A typical Niger Delta Settlement - © National Geographic Online

The oil companies as they rake in profits have to massage the public view of their corporate responsibility by all sorts of green initiatives and platitudes but the pictures persist and the news does not budge.

The Nigerian Government is an apology of governance, social justice and leadership, much can have been done to address the plight of the people of the Niger Delta but whilst we gain debt relief the largest oil-producing nation in Africa is ashamedly remiss and culpable in the rape of our resources and the livelihoods and well-being of the people.

The militants who because of the injustices of first, the impunity of the second and dereliction of duty and responsibility of the third have become a global phenomena, with attacks on oil infrastructure, the kidnapping of personnel and other destabilizing activities that can raise the price of oil, have the international markets in jitters, make insurance premiums for life and property approach that of contractors in Iraq, and basically give the government and companies a bad name and bad press whilst not achieving much.

The CNN Exclusive

So, we are all generally aware of what supposedly goes on in the Niger Delta, however, to bring this reality to the viewers of CNN, it would be difficult to happen upon the secretive activities of the militants if a deadline is to be met to deliver that news piece as part of pre-planned topics of interest for February.

It would appear Jeff Koinange with the generally accepted knowledge we have, wrote a screenplay and sought his dramatis personae first from main militant group called with the acronym MEND and when they could not make his scheduling, he engaged a number of brigands to enact typical MEND activities and relayed that to us as an exclusive.

Publish and be challenged

What is interesting is the strident ferocity of MEND’s rebuttal of that exclusive, the people featured do not belong to the MEND organisation and have no affiliation to them beyond which MEND has threatened to reveal all email correspondence between themselves and Jeff Koinange – now that would be an exclusive, which might be resolved with hush money.

The Nigerian Government, taking a cue from that rebuttal has called the report subversive and demanded an apology. Errr! Wait a minute before apologies start to fly.

The annoyingly photogenic Minister of Information and Communications (read propaganda) in the person of Mr. Frank Nweke Jr. remonstrated with a statement, an excerpt of which appears below.

“The report which, also featured some Filipino workers purportedly being held by members of MEND, has been run several times in the past 24 hours by the CNN, to wrongfully denigrate Nigeria and her peoples, send the wrong signals to the international community about the state of affairs in the country, create unnecessary panic, foster the feeling of insecurity, advance an out-dated thesis of neglect of the Niger Delta and portray Nigeria as a country in perpetual crises”.

Yes, up to the point where it appears the good name of great Nigeria is being besmirched, the minister is generally right, however, this - advance an out-dated thesis of neglect of the Niger Delta – I do wish it was out-dated and a thesis of somebody’s imagination, the inability for the government to address this in fairness leads to portraying - Nigeria as a country in perpetual crises – are we talking of the Niger Delta, the Presidential tiff with his vice-President, the efficacy of the EFCC, the political, health, social, security, economic or infrastructure situation of Nigeria here? Almost like Admiral Lord Nelson's oft misquoted "I see no ships" , Mr. Nweke Jr. sees no crises, so there are none.

News today

Sadly Mr. Koinange allegedly took a seriously newsworthy situation, dramatized it and presented it as reality; and I say, without prejudice, that, can be viewed as seriously unhelpful to the cause of the people and blatantly dishonest.

Mr. Nweke, not forgetting the Junior postscript, probably and really does have a grievance which should be aired, we should not have dramas that allow crimes to take place like the abduction of the Filipinos in that exclusive and then relay that as contemporaneous, but he is disingenuous to assert that those pictures in the National Geographic are an outdated thesis of neglect – that is a breathtakingly brazen barefaced terminological inexactitude and being seriously economical with the actualité.

The CNN Report - Thanks to Lady1

References

The Niger Delta

Nigeria and Oil

A Whole range of views on the Niger Delta Crises

Oil Companies Complicit in Nigerian Abuses - Human Rights Watch 1999

Nigeria: Corruption and Misuse Rob Nigerians of Rights - Human Rights Watch 2007

O'Bama - Osama - Oh Bummer - Obama

Where’s Obama?

Sometimes, one has to resist the temptation to keep an open mind about an issue and nowhere is this most pertinent when innocuous spelling errors convey a radically different meaning from the main import.

This comes about in the light of the apology that CNN has issued during a programme hosted by Wolf Blitzer where a caption "Where's Obama?" appeared with Osama bin Laden being pictured.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars.com

Obama happens to be the surname of the photogenic Afro-American senator who seems to be a promising prospect for US presidency probably 8 to 12 years from now, in my reckoning. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.

It smacks of rank sloppiness to have had a typographical error on names so prominent especially one that seems juxtapose “America’s most wanted man” with “America’s most promising future president”.

We are continually told that Osama bin Laden is the “World’s most wanted man”, I think not. China, India, Nigeria, Brazil and Russia have significant populations and there is no reason to desire the man for anything, America was the most affected by his atrocities, we should put that in context.

Names of the immigrants

However, for a country that was built and exists as land of immigrants, the time has passed when immigrants who moved to the US anglicised their names to appear conformed and integrated.

Time and again, we see names like Milorad Blagojevich, the governor of the state of Illinois or the popular California governor, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, a former president Eisenhower and even the culprit Wolf Blitzer where Wolf is probably a contraction of Wolfgang – all hardly native American – but no one exerts pressure on them to recode their names for simplification.

Oh Lordy, O’Bama

Senator Barrack Obama has however suffered much for his name, I remember the Economist suggesting before he was elected that he might be more electable as O'Bama – balderdash!

Our names are our identities, no matter how tongue-twistingly impossible they might be to others, there is no valid reason to adopt some alien pseudonym in craving acceptance, if your personality and quality of character shines through, people would endeavour to get your name as correct as they dare to.

From a more sinister perspective, this slip might have been a deliberate effort to denigrate Senator Obama, having created an image that exemplifies the revulsion of terror when America was almost brought to its knees – there should be much that CNN should be sorry for – this is the kind of thing as one commentator said would be seen on FOX News, well, we have just reached a new low point in reckless journalism.

The errors of our constitution

This reminds me of an episode in 1984 when I was the student representative of the EE II constituency in the Yaba College of Technology. I had obtained a copy of the Students Union constitution just at the time that the newly elected president, Kola Oladoja offered to make copies of the constitution for the members of the House.

When that constitution arrived, it contained 47 major errors which made it look like a rewrite of the constitution without following due process.

I was livid with rage that an elected official who had sworn to protect the constitution now seemed to have created his own constitution and I moved a motion to first pulp the material and then discipline the president, unfortunately, the officials of the house did not seem to realise the gravity of this offence.

Negating the context

In the 28 spelling errors, there were sentences like, “The official shall resent …” when it should be “The official shall present …”, the use of may when it should be must, perceive for receive – very much negating context, such that officers could not be brought to account on many pertinent issues.

This failure to deal with the breach of trust and confidence because of the unusual popularity of the President of the Students Union lead to a situation many months after when leading a student protest on the campus, the crowd lost discipline and grew riotous damaging campus property that the college was closed for months.

Our lesson

The fallout included many of us vocal political voices repeating years study which for me came to nought, the president himself was rusticated and it was rumoured that he probably came to an untimely end.

This, all because we did not have the guts to challenge the errors in our constitution, which should have lead to the instant impeachment of the president.

No, I do not take these errors lightly, and the one against Senator Obama is a slight almost unforgivable.

Condi is not welcome in Lebanon

This represents the kind of propaganda we are fed about the Middle-East conflict. I read on CNN a headline, that Condoleezza Rice has cancelled her trip to Lebanon.

Well, the BBC television news, tells me Lebanon has snubbed Condoleezza Rice and told her not to visit Lebanon till a ceasefire has been agreed.

Indeed, Dr Rice would have had cancel her trip, because she has been told quite clearly, you are not welcome, I must say, that appears in the body of text.

Like I said in an earlier blog, regardless of the American aid which is a sop in expiation for seriously letting Lebanon down, Lebanon knows this for sure, America is definitely not a friend in time of need.

Unfortunately, the UN building in Beirut is now taking the brunt of a violent protest as Israel argumentum ad consequentiam passes the blame for bombing up civilians to Hezbollah.

As I am writing, the culmination of events had now lead Dr Rice to request an immediate unconditional ceasefire. So, much for doors and bolted horses – this doctor is some mean gambler.

References

Sky News: Airstrike 'Kills Or Injures Dozens'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid

No talks with Rice before ceasefire

Rice says "time for ceasefire" after Qana bombing

Old-age Rum's field day

Old-age rights

Any septuagenarian can exercise the inalienable right to be subconsciously forgetful to the extent that recorded statements of views expressed years ago may not be remembered.

However, if there is anything anyone would deny is happening as one matures; it is the loss of hearing, the loss of memory and probably the loss of energy.

The loss of hearing plays a great part when the elderly listener who by happenstance has not been pensioned off, holds more meetings with his team than any other predecessor and still does not seem to end up with the substance of their ideas.

Note however, that due diligence is served by being in the meeting and presiding over that meeting.

Blessings of old age

A well known trait of the elderly when entering those stages of hearing loss might be grumpiness, irascibility, stubbornness, dogged determination and downright rudeness which in some other quarters can be utterly unacceptable.

The elderly by their wealth of experience gained through years of toil or service can offer us gems of wisdom and thoughts to ponder; some can quite imponderable that you end up in the unknown unknown.

That is a place that only too few people have been to, because they are the only ones who can reveal the existence of that place. They are the sages of our age.

Bliss of old age

The loss of memory presents convenience for those who cannot remember and frustration for those who can remember but cannot find correlation with the main proponent of the subject.

If no record can be found of the subject being addressed for the proponent to remember, then it one man’s word against another. We are left to decide on the ability of either to convince with conviction and hopefully, truthfully.

This era of mass media however offers the ability to record, replay, review, research, recall and reproduce whatever material has been subjected to scrutiny.

The loss of energy might inform the reason why a mechanical device might be required to do the routine task of signing letters that should be of great import to the recipients.

Unequal values of old age

So, if at any time in the future after that recording; someone who remembers or who researches asks a question about a statement made in the past, the expected response should be concurrency.

Where there is no concurrency, the person being asked can defer to check the facts of that event and respond at a later time.

However, if the person being asked is generally given to bluster and falls into the demographic of the type of elderly person described earlier; then the person would not deny, rather suggest that something else was said or they have been misrepresented - conveniently.

Truth about old age

The reporters of this current event can then search their archives and return with the recording of that earlier event which has concurrency with the questioner’s assertions, not once, not twice, but thrice.

I would then assume that the septuagenarian has been caught in a lie – Never! The old man is never ever wrong.

You ask me, “Could that particular septuagenarian be Donald Rumsfeld?” Well, Go Figure!

References

CNN.com - Hecklers interrupt Rumsfeld speech - May 4, 2006:

Target Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld Defends His Record Against Critics - New York Times:

Rumsfeld Blog Archive

Abort all black babies

Abort all black babies

Hold it! Before you go for my neck with a vengeance, this is just a hypothetical proposition from a passing comment in a simple radio talk-show exchange.

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose; you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." [1] [2]

My interest in this subject is hardly significant; I was once a black baby born at 26 weeks - probably, if I was disposed of then, I would not be here making comments about this issue.

More so, a term of 26 weeks gestation was just barely viable 40 years ago, it must be a matter of good fortune that I was conceived and born in the UK, not America when the civil rights movement was on the boil or the Netherlands now where the question of viability is more clinical than empathetic. [3]

For instance, if one were to make that arrival in America where there would have been probably too few doctors to cater for the black race; someone might have considered, I might become a Martin Luther King, so extinguish him now before his first breath.

No, one cannot countenance that thought, it is evil; well, really how evil? Probably to the extent of the experiments that were conducted at the Tuskegee Institute where black men suffering from syphilis were given the impression they were being treated when in fact the activity could just have rivalled that of the Nazi Dr Mengele. [5] [6]

Hypothesis of the hypothetical

Am I dissolving into untrammelled histrionics? Watch me...

"I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means" he told CNN. [2]

If my science was taught me right, I do remember that the process of any scientific idea becoming fundamental flows from thought to hypothesis to theory and then law. Maybe, we are just halfway there.

The proposition gains more import when you realise that this commentator was once the Education Secretary during the government of the "Great Communicator" who I think was Ronald Reagan. [7] [8]

Having once been the "drug czar" one might contend without prejudice that this was some drug-induced diatribe but that would be a little far-fetched.

Inappropriate inappropriateness

Once again, I am utterly perturbed and driven to distraction by the inappropriateness of the response of the White House to such comments. [9]

After Hurricane Katrina, the question of race and deprivation loomed large in the American landscape.

Inappropriate must be a euphemism for something I still seeking knowledge of, in the hope that it is a lot stronger than the expression and far from diplomatic bullshit.

The events are just too vivid to countenance an insensitive arrangement of words and thoughts from someone of no particular significance as Pat Robertson of the "Take out Hugo Chavez fame".

I beg to differ; these commentators are part of the unacknowledged opinion elite whose commentary is pushing the "Freedom of Speech" envelope beyond the limits of acceptable discourse.

Everyone can have an opinion but all opinions should be expressed with responsibility, sensitivity and consideration - this means some opinions regardless of the freedoms we so cherish just cannot be expressed for the good of community and society. There must be a valid point somewhere in the preceding statement.

A failed Education Secretary

That said, what is most interesting is the frenzied prognostication that suggests that a black child is already labelled a criminal before he has had the opportunity to realise if his country would participate in providing opportunities that would make that prophecy a false statement worthy of grovelling contrition, penance and apology.

Without doubt, all those past years after he was Education Secretary he has declared himself an utter failure, he laid no foundations to prevent the ascendancy of that thought in the first place and would we have to wait for another few years to find out that it was really a policy in the Reagan years?

May the souls of those black babies rest in peace. Amen!

References

[1] Abort all black babies and cut crime, says Republican

[2] Bennett under fire for remarks on blacks, crime

[3] Premature birth

[4] Robertson apologizes for assassination call

[5] Tuskegee Syphilis Study

[6] Josef Mengele

[7] William Bennett

[8] Ronald Reagan – “Great Communicator”

[9] White House: Bill Bennett's Comments Inappropriate

Hypothesis

Theory

Law (disambiguation)

Abort all black babies

Abort all black babies

Hold it! Before you go for my neck with a vengeance, this is just a hypothetical proposition from a passing comment in a simple radio talk-show exchange.

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose; you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." [1] [2]

My interest in this subject is hardly significant; I was once a black baby born at 26 weeks - probably, if I was disposed of then, I would not be here making comments about this issue.

More so, a term of 26 weeks gestation was just barely viable 40 years ago, it must be a matter of good fortune that I was conceived and born in the UK, not America when the civil rights movement was on the boil or the Netherlands now where the question of viability is more clinical than empathetic. [3]

For instance, if one were to make that arrival in America where there would have been probably too few doctors to cater for the black race; someone might have considered, I might become a Martin Luther King, so extinguish him now before his first breath.

No, one cannot countenance that thought, it is evil; well, really how evil? Probably to the extent of the experiments that were conducted at the Tuskegee Institute where black men suffering from syphilis were given the impression they were being treated when in fact the activity could just have rivalled that of the Nazi Dr Mengele. [5] [6]

Hypothesis of the hypothetical

Am I dissolving into untrammelled histrionics? Watch me...

"I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means" he told CNN. [2]

If my science was taught me right, I do remember that the process of any scientific idea becoming fundamental flows from thought to hypothesis to theory and then law. Maybe, we are just halfway there.

The proposition gains more import when you realise that this commentator was once the Education Secretary during the government of the "Great Communicator" who I think was Ronald Reagan. [7] [8]

Having once been the "drug czar" one might contend without prejudice that this was some drug-induced diatribe but that would be a little far-fetched.

Inappropriate inappropriateness

Once again, I am utterly perturbed and driven to distraction by the inappropriateness of the response of the White House to such comments. [9]

After Hurricane Katrina, the question of race and deprivation loomed large in the American landscape.

Inappropriate must be a euphemism for something I still seeking knowledge of, in the hope that it is a lot stronger than the expression and far from diplomatic bullshit.

The events are just too vivid to countenance an insensitive arrangement of words and thoughts from someone of no particular significance as Pat Robertson of the "Take out Hugo Chavez fame".

I beg to differ; these commentators are part of the unacknowledged opinion elite whose commentary is pushing the "Freedom of Speech" envelope beyond the limits of acceptable discourse.

Everyone can have an opinion but all opinions should be expressed with responsibility, sensitivity and consideration - this means some opinions regardless of the freedoms we so cherish just cannot be expressed for the good of community and society. There must be a valid point somewhere in the preceding statement.

A failed Education Secretary

That said, what is most interesting is the frenzied prognostication that suggests that a black child is already labelled a criminal before he has had the opportunity to realise if his country would participate in providing opportunities that would make that prophecy a false statement worthy of grovelling contrition, penance and apology.

Without doubt, all those past years after he was Education Secretary he has declared himself an utter failure, he laid no foundations to prevent the ascendancy of that thought in the first place and would we have to wait for another few years to find out that it was really a policy in the Reagan years?

May the souls of those black babies rest in peace. Amen!

References

[1] Abort all black babies and cut crime, says Republican

[2] Bennett under fire for remarks on blacks, crime

[3] Premature birth

[4] Robertson apologizes for assassination call

[5] Tuskegee Syphilis Study

[6] Josef Mengele

[7] William Bennett

[8] Ronald Reagan – “Great Communicator”

[9] White House: Bill Bennett's Comments Inappropriate

Hypothesis

Theory

Law (disambiguation)