Bill Gatos and the Natives.
A long time ago there lived a man called Bill Gatos. He had newly arrived to the Americas on one of the ships manned by Amerigo Vespucci. Bill Gatos had made a name for himself in Europe and amassed several crates of silver, which part he used to fund his expensive voyage to the Americas.
When Bill Gatos got to the Americas, it became clear to him that the Natives of the land had pretty much surveyed all the lands for minimal public use. The Natives had preserved almost all their resources for their posterity. Private property was limited to the essentials of living. Privatization was frowned upon and outlawed. The Natives were clearly conservationists who believed that humans must leave as tiny a footprint on Nature as is only necessary for their Nourishment and their human survival. The Natives were highly civilized and their philosophy of living in Balance with Nature was their religion.
Bill Gatos quickly learned that all his wealth couldn’t buy him all the Native fertile lands he wanted in the Americas. All the silver he had primitively accumulated in Europe—by exploiting the masses of Europe without regard for human decency—couldn’t build him the great castles he had dreamt about. Bill Gatos became aware that he couldn’t convince the civilized Natives to give up their civilized ways and opt for European Feudalism, in which a few people would own everything and the rest will become essentially slaves.
And so, Bill Gatos became frustrated about his future and the legacy of his pampered children who were newly arriving in the Americas. He thought to himself, what are my children going to inherit if I cannot lay my hands on these Native lands? Bill Gatos thought to himself, confiding in his great comrade, Amerigo Vespucci, about how his children could remain pampered if he was unable to convince the Natives to give up their civilized ways and opt for the great economic principles of European Feudalism?
So Bill Gatos tried, and tried, and tried again and again to convince the Natives – who were hosting the newly arrived Europeans as civilized humans would host lost human strangers – to abandon their civilized ways and opt for the “enriching-for-the-few,” get-rich-quick, profiteering economic principles of European Feudalism. Again, and again, the Natives refused to accept Bill Gatos’ offer of primitive accumulation.
Bill Gatos decided that he would go and see the Supreme Chief of the Natives. Perhaps—he thought to himself—this Supreme Chief would be selfish, greedy, and naïve enough to accept my offer. Bill Gatos offered the Supreme Chief gifts in return for his cooperation. Gifts—assorted European alcohols, European clothing, European coins and bank notes, a trip to the great cities of Europe, a chance to educate the Chief’s children in the fine get-rich-quick, fuck-the-planet, economic schools of Europe, and a seat on the board of the Primitive Accumulators of Europe Inc.
The Supreme Chief of the Natives did what any sensible leader of a great civilized people would do; he yawned, scratched his belly and ambled over to the Native firestone to see if there were any left-overs from the previous night’s public banquet with the Natives. He may have even smiled wistfully to himself as he peered over what is left of the roasted wild boar, mumbling, “No, no, no, the civilized philosophy of the Natives is not negotiable.”
One could perhaps now imagine that Bill Gatos would pipe up and say, “Based on the evidence before me, dictating my terms to the Natives, in order to grab their resources for my primitive use doesn’t work; let me try the Native way of living in Balance with Nature; let me live in good faith as equals with the Natives; let me find me a new Native wife and forget about exploiting the Natives, forget about taking their lands and forget about making them into my bitches.” And the other newly arrived Europeans, including Amerigo Vespucci, would slap their cheeks with their palms and say, “Wow! That’s brilliant! Why didn’t we think of that?”
But no. The thing with Europeans newly arrived on the ship of Amerigo Vespucci is that their goals and their wet dreams of getting rich, privatizing everything in their names, and turning every land they see into the Feudal Lands of Europe was nonnegotiable. And so what happens instead is that Bill Gatos, and the rest of the Europeans, acted baffled, they regrouped and tried again to convince the Natives to opt for European Feudalism, making for quite an amusing spectacle.
But the Natives remained resolute: “No!” is “no.”
So Bill Gatos called his fellow Europeans to a meeting and he told them, “Seeing that the Natives stand in our way of transforming this land into European Feudal lands, we are left with no other choice but war—to kill off the Natives and take their lands, and women too!” Amerigo Vespucci raised his hand and asked Bill Gatos in the quintessential Amerigo exceptional attitude, “But Bill, we need some bills and some wild cats to do this fighting. The Natives are very brave. They will kill and die for their Mother, Earth!” To which Bill Gatos answered, “Relax Amerigo, the bills needed for the fight are my first name and the cats [gatos] are my last name! I will supply everything to win this war.” All the Europeans laughed. That evening they all looked forward to the day the Natives will be no more so that they can carry on with their feudal ways.
Bill Gatos and his fellow Europeans sent for a full shipment of woolen blankets to give to the Natives. Bill Gatos paid for the whole trip and the whole shipment. Bill Gatos had reasoned that not enough animal skin went around to keep all the Natives warm in the next winter, for the Natives had given the newly arrived Europeans some of their animal skin blankets to use in the last winter and so the Natives did not have enough blankets for the next cold winter. Bill Gatos reasoned that this was the Natives’ Achilles Heel, their weak point in their philosophy of living in Balance with Nature.
Bill Gatos would exploit it.
The European woolen Blankets arrived, newly infested with European chicken pox plus other tough to treat European diseases. No European newly arrived in the Americas was supposed to touch or use these blankets. These blankets were blankets of war—they were meant to be used to exterminate the Natives by exploiting a loophole in the Natives’ own civilized philosophy of living in Balance with Nature. The Natives had been nice to give the Europeans some blankets to survive last winter. This winter, reasoned Bill Gatos, he was ready to pay the Natives in kind—kill them off with diseases using the Trojan Horse of acting kind and feigning being civilized in reciprocation.
Winter arrived. Bill Gatos and his fellow Europeans begun to distribute the woolen blankets (infested with European diseases) to the Natives to reciprocate the kind gesture of the Natives. A few intelligent Natives stood against the gesture. Although they were unaware that the blankets were infested with disease, they had only become aware that after a year of living with Europeans, they could not trust them. These intelligent ones proposed that the Europeans, because they could not be trusted, give back the old animal skin blankets which the Natives had given to them last winter so the Europeans can keep their own newly arrived European woolen blankets for themselves for the winter.
But no. Many of the Natives were enamored by the kind gesture reciprocated by Bill Gatos and his Europeans; indeed, they were enamored by the shiny woolen blankets; some of the Natives even went as far as castigating the intelligent Natives about their criticisms of Bill Gatos and his fellow Europeans, calling the intelligent Natives “rabid Native-centrists!” These silly Natives quickly ostracized the intelligent Natives claiming that at a time when blankets had become scarce in the Americas all Natives should be appreciative of the kindness of Bill Gatos and his fellow Europeans. They emphasized and repeated the meme given to them by Bill Gatos himself that Bill Gatos and the Europeans had come to the Americas only to share the rich benefits of European civilization and to save lives.
One highly intelligent elder of the Natives, called Amenuti Yeboah, unable to stand the charade of ostracizing intelligent Natives questioned the intentions of Bill Gatos: “Is it for so flimsy a gesture that you have left this fine and happy Europe? To share in the benefits of European civilization? Are these the same benefits we hear that you shared in India, across the Pacific, and almost everyone died?” Instead of heeding Amenuti Yeboah’s criticism of Bill Gatos, many of the Natives including the Supreme Native, deemed Amenuti Yeboah’s actions inappropriate, and so Amenuti Yeboah was also banished from the Native Land.
…
After many decades of a long sojourn in other Native lands, Amenuti Yeboah returned to his Native land with a few of his intelligent friends, who had also been banished. They saw no Native Peoples. Only Europeans. The looked and looked and looked, until finally when they were about to return to their newly found homes far, far away, they found a long lost Native friend who was a member of the many Natives who had supported Bill Gatos’ Trojan Horse masqueraded as a kind gesture. He was now herding cattle for Bill Gatos’ new company Gatos & Friends Inc. Amenuti Yeboah asked what happened to everyone. The man replied, “The blankets. It wiped out almost the entire Native population. Only a few of us are now left. Bill Gatos now owns everything! Anka mi nim aa—Had I known, is always too late. Leave quickly or you will be enslaved by Gatos & Friends Inc. Leave quickly before they see you. Leave this God-forsaken place. This land is cursed,” the man advised vehemently.
Amenuti Yeboah and his intelligent friends left, very quickly, never again to see their silly, stupid old friend.
That’s what I thought upon returning to my beloved Harlem only to see some Larry Byrd jersey wearing kale eating espresso drinking white dude on the steps of a brownstone in my neighborhood. Wtf?! Yessir I’m gonna pass on that blanket for sure.
Splendid narrative but the “menim nyansa tes3 ohene” chaps who wine and dine with the Bill Gatos will term it conspiracy theory.
Yabr3 agu
Did Bill Gates ‘Admit’ Vaccinations Are Designed So Governments Can ‘Depopulate’ the World?
The computer magnate believes that vaccines can be used to reduce childhood mortality and ultimately reduce population growth through associated social changes, not as an agent of death.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bill-gates-vaccinations-depopulation/
Kwame Kyei-Baffour OK, first things first. I have never claimed that vaccines are meant to depopulate the world. I stated, and I stand by it even today, that Bill Gates has a POPULATION GROWTH REDUCTION agenda. Your article agrees with me in that regard.
Secondly, one of the solutions he proffers in the fight against population growth is access to health care and family planning methods. I say he is going about it in a STUPID way. Now, I ask you again as I did before which Western nation in their path toward economic advancement deliberately reduced their population growth? Name me one. Their reduction in population was a natural outcome to greater access to education and enhanced economic opportunity. People tend to reduce their family size they have greater access to education and economic opportunity. If Bill Gates had an iota of social skills he would not talk about family planning as a way of reducing population growth but rather focus on the indirect route of economic opportunity and equality.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui you are committing fallacies, and I shall be addressing them when I get home. For now though, let me say that I am happy that you see Bill Gates as being merely stupid as opposed to being evil. Meanwhile, read the article again and digest as I know you are capable of. Hope you have also heard of something called the PILL and abortion rights in the West. Think about them. I am surprised certain statements are coming from you
Kwame Kyei-Baffour There are fallacies but they have been committed by you sir.
Firstly, there are forms of stupidity that qualify as evil. Playing Russian roulette to determine whether to press the nuclear bomb button or not is not only stupid but evil. However, I’m not saying that Bill Gates is evil, I can’t determine that without greater insight into his intentions.
Secondly, the whole history of western family planning has been tarnished by well documented cases of racism and eugenics. I hope you don’t think contraceptives where unknown to Africans until Europeans landed here in the 15th century. In fact, the EARLIEST contraception was found right here in Africa—-Egypt—-dated to be at least 5,000 years old. It was a condom. Now, in another thread I showed you that contraception such as Depo provera were SPECIFICALLY targeted at Blacks and Hispanics in the U.S.Depo provera has been proven to cause sexual inversion in humans as well as animals. I also showed you that Planned Parenthood is inextricably linked to the eugenics movement. Given this sordid history of western family planning goals among Blacks it is only INTELLIGENT to question EVERY move they intend to make in Africa. I can assure you that whatever moves Jack Ma may make in USA by way of charity, including donating face masks, is looked upon by the U.S government with suspicion. They will test every mask to ensure that they aren’t contaminated. The U.S government is more likely, therefore, to act like I am acting than they way you are acting toward Bill Gates plan for Africa. So unless you know something about international politics that the U.S government does NOT know I will advice us to respond to Gates as the U.S will respond to Jack Ma.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui I captured your characterisation of Bill Gates as you described him . You agree with me on that, and yet go on to argue that I committed a fallacy for not saying that one can be stupidly evil! What reasoning is this? Can one be merely stupid without being evil? This dexterity in straw man argumentation. And then you proceed to lecture me on the history of the pill and contraceptives in Africa! Again to refute an assertion not made! Damn,bruv!!!! Bill Gates advocacy for population management ( I don’t see him talking about population reduction anywhere) forms part of a bigger agenda to promote improvement in economic conditions for most deprived people. The focus and terminus is not population control or whatever you want to call it. Who helps to reduce populations by reducing infant mortality rates? Who in his right senses would do that? As I wrote earlier, go and read his argument and thesis on how population growth rates are affected by improvements in economic conditions. Your fallacy is in the argument that economic prosperity can’t be achieved with sound population growth management just because no nation has ever done so. This is fallacious, unless you can prove to me that that is not possible at all. I have been reading your take on this issue, and you always come across as glorifying large population growth rates for their own sake. In your mind therefore, large family sizes would appear incapable of hindering economic growth and development under any circumstances. But think of the potential outcome of having the majority of adult females in a countryspending the greater part of their lives entering and exiting maternity wards( assuming there would be enough of that to accommodate their unceasing trips to such places). I don’t even know why we should be talking about this
Kwame Kyei-Baffour wrote:
“Bill Gates advocacy for population management ( I don’t see him talking about population reduction anywhere) forms part of a bigger agenda to promote improvement in economic conditions for most deprived people.”
That is what I stated in my first post to you. I stated that he has a POPULATION GROWTH REDUCTION agenda. Not a reduction in population but in its growth rate. So why then would you assign an argument to me that I haven’t made?
Secondly, its clear that you haven’t even caught the crux of my point. I stated clearly that I am not able to determine the motives of Gates. BUT I am however happy that Africans are questioning him critically to ensure that whatever his intentions that they align with our interests as a people. Africans have EVERY RIGHT to question anybody who intends to have our governments implement public policies that affect us.In one breath you want Africans to be free agents but when we question ideas that potentially will affect us we are racist and engaging in mindless politics. So tell me, what did you expect Africans to do? Say “Yes sir massa boss” to Gates’ wishes for us? Africans have no right to question and even impugn his motives? I value Africans enough to respect our right to critically question every policy that will affect us.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui there is a big difference between scrutinising people (regardless of their colour) and falsely attributing motives to them. But again, can you tell me what is fundamentally wrong in reducing population growth rates? Have you checked his analysis and the specific places in Africa he thinks has a problem in that context?
Bill Gates does have apologists amongst Africa’s educated elites. Awereho sem
Ama Owusuah Boateng Maybe you can educate these apologists out of their ignorance with what makes you hate or dislike Bill Gates. You can start that by debunking what is being asserted in this article. Some of us are familiar with the siege mentality that drives the morbid hatred of white people who step in to help poor Africans largely neglected by their class-conscious educated superiors
“White people… step in to help poor Africans largely neglected by their class-conscious educated superiors”? Is that like a true statement or opinion?
Some like white influence in Africa. Some find no problems with white influence in Africa. Some of us (like Nana Yeboah of blessed memory, circa Asantehene Osei Bonsu) do not trust white influence in Africa. We question, criticize and even raise hell about white people’s dealings in Africa and around the world. This is largely misconstrued as “hatred of white people”. Can you blame us?
Let’s be specific. So Bill wants to “step in to help poor Africans largely neglected by their class-conscious educated superiors”? Is Bill really the saint you make him out to be? Why has he left this fine and happy America? In America, where Bill comes from, are there no poor Africans largely neglected by their race and class-conscious educated superiors?
So Bill hasn’t solved his own problems in his own house, yet he can solve my problems. Come on men.
Narmer Amenuti write a code. Make money out of it. Help the poor and come back.
Howusu, please do not take this as patronizing. What does “Howusu” mean? I have seen many names, but not this one. Would you care to enlighten me? I find your name interesting, and I don’t mean the “Chris,” but the “Howusu.”
Narmer Amenuti the patronising attitudes that get my goats all the time. Some like white influence! Some find no problems with white influence in Africa! Whose influence in Africa do you want then? Black or yellow? It has ceased to be a discussion between evil and good; just one about whole evil white people against whole morally good black people! I would take this seriously if I didn’t know better! The problem with some people , I am learning, is that they think you have a problem if you don’t have their problem. No , I am old enough to tell the difference between good and bad, and I don’t do so along the lines of skin colour. It’s totally absurd! I have stated it here, and those who know me would tell you: I was more rabid in the business of demonisation of whole races. But you live and learn. We have enveloped ourselves in these binaries , and in the process ignored the various layers of oppression our people labour under. The perpetrators tend mostly to be the same rabid Afrocentrics who would want us to look in one direction only for those who hurt us. Yet our continent remains ridden by all sorts of human rights abuses and social exclusions. The demonisation and mockery of poverty, old people, gay people, political opponents of self-acclaimed saviours of Africa, albinos … And let some white person step in to help, and all you get is this race rhetoric.. Suddenly, we become a race with only one common enemy. Laughable! It’s not nice for me to point to my village with the left hand; other than that would I have told you a thing or two about some of the people you cited up there as role models in the protection of our interests. No, Africa doesn’t have a single interest when it comes to suffering. As soon as the door gets slammed shut in the face of White people, memories of our poor ( assuming some are ever able to think about them at all) , quickly fade away. But even then , I am prepared to listen to your ilk: let’s leave our problems to be solved by black people only. Wake me up when you start doing so, starting with the poor in our villages. Population growth is a virtue in itself. Fine with that. But the children in the various villages need education ( not in schools under trees); their mothers need someone to help them take care of some of the nine children! Are you ready to help?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour, your point is taken. Although it seems to me (and the key here is “me”) that you take the point I made that I do not trust white influence in Africa to mean several things: (1) That I hate white people, (2) That I think the discussion is between good and evil, (3) That I think Black people are whole morally good, (4) That I think skin color matters, (5) That I am rabid in my demonization of who races (i.e. you were once more rabid?), (6) That I am the same rabid Afrocentric, (7) That I think we are a race with one common enemy, (8) That I think Africa has a single interest when it comes to suffering…
Kwame, your list goes on and on and on. Yet, I am the one demonstrating “patronizing attitudes”?
None of these insinuations you make derive from any statements I have made, yet you insist on them. Let’s keep this on topic, and I mean on Bill Gates and his “Philanthropy” in Africa. No, I do not dislike Bill Gates on the merit of his skin color. Although his skin color makes me wary – for historical reasons, and nothing else. I dislike Bill Gates’ influence in Africa because Bill Gates is a thief and a fraud, and a Harvard dropout. Coming from money and stealing public software, building a company out of publicly-developed software is no real achievement. That is my opinion. You don’t have to share it.
Bill Gates history, since dropping out of Harvard University, and building a fraudulent business based on stolen public software is what gives me pause for concern when he gallivants around Africa purporting to be some “savior” when he has yet to demonstrate being a “savior” of his own town! Besides, his skin color makes me skeptical for historical reasons. (Why? I cannot make that point without being accused of a “hatred of white people”?) Factor in his large influence with his ill-gotten wealth. And the picture I am describing is worrisome to me.
Now, I worry about these things because I can. Some of us worry about these things – about this kind of white influence in Africa when that same influence has yet to demonstrate their common Philanthropy in their own homes – in their fine and happy America! It is recognizable to me as it was recognizable to Nana Yeboah (circa Asantehene Osei Bonsu). I am not the first, but just another humble child of the Yeboah Tradition.
i think people forget common humanity and classify based on race – not all white men are evil.
We don’t trust them all because of history; and therefore we sometimes paint them all with the same brush. That’s not progressive.
Michael Yaw Amanpene common what? Humanity? Akoa y3 idealistic papa
Ama Owusuah Boateng, few even understand that the idea of our “Common Humanity” just like the idea of “God” or of the “Big Bang” is made up. So don’t worry.
Michael Yaw Amanpene Owusu-Nyamekye First let us do away with the straw man arguments. Nobody has stated that ALL people of any race are bad. So I don’t know who you were responding to. Being critical of Bill Gates’ plans in Africa can not in any universe be misconstrued with being hateful of his race. That is absurd
Atiga ok, what has he done that’s objectionable apart from being white and operating in Africa?
What people always say is the white saviour complex. Maybe you have another reason?
Atiga I actually agree, falling birth rates are the an outcome of wealth creation, development and education.
The issue is simple here though.They care for their own self interest; to securitise themselves they must securitise Africa, because an insecure Africa leads to an insecure world. Their methods are those that are most cost effective for them, not what’s most beneficial for us! In effect they don’t respect the agency on Africans.
Where I don’t agree are the white saviour arguments!
What do you mean by the White saviour arguments sir?
Michael Yaw Amanpene Owusu-Nyamekye They have been doing the same thing in America and Asia.
Mr Kyei-Baffour yes because it’s cost effective. America is a bad example because plan parenthood has its origins in eugenics.
The demographics of America is also positioned in a way that the ethnic minorities are the ones being targeted. They expect the whites to become a minority due to their low birth rates.
I believe in reducing our birth rate, but not an imposed one!
Michael Yaw Amanpene Owusu-Nyamekye Boss, the Gates are into more than poverty alleviation and allied interventions in population control. I personally know of many Ghanaians and Nigerians studying at Cambridge University on scholarships from his foundation. It has been the tendency of his detractors to reduce his activities to issues relating to population control. Mischievously, words like POPULATION REDUCTION ( and not say population management) are chosen in such contexts to give a sharp edge to the now-famous conspiratorial undercurrents of the usual narratives. That is how they shift attention from the main program ( i.e. promoting prosperity/ eradicating poverty) to one twisted into a supposed attempt to depopulate the African continent for the benefit of his race. Pathetic, if you ask me
i know of the Gates scholarship. Also, with reference to classical economics and the solow-swan model; population control is a good thing even if you do not believe malthusianism to be true – which I don’t.
My issue is about agency of the people involved. That’s all; which I cannot really assess from an armchair debate.
Generally I have no objection to Bill Gates – just curious about the agency stuff!
Kwame Kyei-Baffour So because Gates offers scholarships to African students it automatically makes him good and incapable of evil toward Africans?? Is that your criterion? Have you heard of Rhodes scholarship? Many Africans have benefited from that scholarship but was Cecil Rhodes a friend of Africans? This is why I have challenged you to discuss Gates’ ideas so we can vet them on their own merits. All these other distractions about his scholarships blah blah mean nothing as other philanthropists, including Trump, have done the same with one hand while robbing the world blind with the other. Let us discuss his ideas and see if they are worth all this “ink” you are spilling here
Atiga Jonas Atingdui you have an uncanny gift for putting things in people’s mouth and going on to argue against them. I cited the Gates Scholarship thing as a way of telling folks here that he is into many things across the world. Any clear-minded person would know what all the various activities and programs have in common. You and your friends are the one mischievously shrinking his engagements to Africa, and even there , to a single aspect of his activities on the continent. My point is simple: you people cannot speak for segments of our populations you ordinarily don’t care about or cannot help. You use them for your politics. That’s all.
“you people cannot speak for segments of our populations you ordinarily don’t care about or cannot help. You use them for your politics. That’s all.”
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Which people? Are you referring to the people who have kicked against using Africa as a Guinea pig for Covid 19 vaccines? Or you are not aware of the widespread protests across Africa when scientists on a French TV station suggested Africa as a testing ground for the Covid 19 vaccines? Even the Director-General of WHO condemned the suggestion as racist. Massa, the African you left here is not the same docile one that is occupying the continent today oh. I can assure you I had no hand in their mass protests. I’m flattered that you deem me to be that influential 🙂
Africans will no longer just lay down for people outside the continent to determine public policy for us. Even the corrupt leaders have had to sit up and provide better living standards for the people. The African that Idi Amin, Mobutu and Eyadema came to meet died with those leaders. All I’m saying is that your beloved Bill Gates won’t find it easy here.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui You see o. Have you bothered to find out for yourself what the French Scientist said in response to the question from the French journalist? Please check the interview for yourself and the apology the journalist rendered in response to the condemnations of his admittedly insipid analogy. I would clap for the new not so docile African if I didn’t know about what the Chinese are doing in Ghana and elsewhere ! Tweaa. We know the ones doing the TALKING. There e nothing new about it. The educated African demonstrates their sophistication in standing up to the west via conspiracy theories and warped references to selected historical encounters. They would however do fuckall for their people once they are done with the quixotic , paranoid rants at everything white. Konongo kayas all. Needless to say, ours has become the last bastions of all forms of oppression. The perpetrators also happen to be the same people who rant at white people allegedly in defense of their less lettered folks!
Kwame Kyei-Baffour wrote:
“I would clap for the new not so docile African if I didn’t know about what the Chinese are doing in Ghana and elsewhere ! ”
Again check the news in Guinea, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and other places about how African countries are bringing to book a number of Chinese nationals.
Furthermore, let’s be clear. The government leaders that you bash are closer to your ideological stand than mine. They are anglophiles and francophiles. You keep attacking them and pushing them to me as if they are my ‘people’. THOSE ARE YOUR PEOPLE. After all they rule in the exact manner as the African Kings that you so hail and admire. They see the people as mere Palanquin-bearers. Kings adorned in gold surrounded by people who eat gari and sugar for lunch. So when you state:
“The educated African demonstrates their sophistication in standing up to the west via conspiracy theories and warped references to selected historical encounters”
Those educated Africans you reference are the anglophiles. Kuffour, Mahama, Asantehene etc are part of those educated Africans. So if you are going to categorize then lets do so correctly.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui it’s obvious that you don’t know me. I am an Anglophile because I don’t embrace the demonisation of a whole race ? I am talking about the armchair, largely part-time attorneys for African culture and its other interests. It’s always best not to assume anything about me. I don’t fit easily into people’s boxes. And I have noticed this trend too about the lawyers of African culture: the obsession with the Asantehene. You could have referred to the Ya-Nas and Togbes. Or is it because their servants and subjects eat Quaker oats and pancake?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour You know why the 105 kids died? It’s not because of Afrocentrics oh. It is due to the White saviour complex that you endorsed above. Had the parents of these kids had the mindset of myself or Narmer Amenuti they wouldn’t have died.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9361016/us-missionary-35-accused-of-killing-hundreds-of-babies-in-uganda-by-posing-as-doctor-and-performing-treatment-despite-having-no-qualifications/
Atiga Jonas Atingdui a very ridiculous example. Maybe all white philanthropists in Africa are guilty of similar deeds. You still don’t get it, bruv. It’s not about race. This happened because some idiot focused on her skin colour and gave her a pass . That is what the obsession with race does. Similarly, people who reason like you would give a black person the pass if he or she comes in claiming to have the wherewithal to carry out some deed requiring some specialist training. Have you even bothered to find out how the Gates operate in Africa and Asia, and who runs their projects therein?
So the “the obsession with race” gave some white people the privilege to kill babies in Uganda. These people in Uganda who are obsessed with the race of the white people, they are not “rabid Afrocentrists”? But when the same race of people come to Ghana we shouldn’t warn people to be wary that their “obsession with race” can give Bill Gates the privilege to kill babies in Ghana?
It’s circles.
Narmer Amenuti The sensible thing to do in all cases is to apply the necessary checks and protocols. The race of the would-be benefactor should not be the issue. That is the take-home message. I will be back on this thread.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour I think all posts are clearly visible for all to see. It is YOU who has made this a race issue, not I. Check my first post to you where I directly addressed my concerns with his IDEAS. You have yet to address my actual arguments. Rather you have turned the whole thread into a discussion about race. Below are your words that introduced race into the discussions:
“Some of us are familiar with the siege mentality that drives the morbid hatred of white people who step in to help poor Africans largely neglected by their class-conscious educated superiors”
What you have sought to do is to associate racism with being critical of Bill Gates. You have no problem with me being critical of the NPP or NDC and their dealings with the Ghanaian people. Newspapers, radio and TV panelists discuss NDC and NPP all day long without you charging them with hatred. BUT when I resort to the same critical discussion of Bill Gates I’m magically transformed into a racist.
It is true that high child mortality is the reason many poor women risk it all to have many children, especially for those whose economic means is bettered with many hands.
If women become convinced their two children will outlive them, they do not have many children.
Bill Gates is a businessman whose business thrives if families are economically and financially sound.
He knows where to invest for returns.
If only we all would – while being vigilante not to present ourselves as needy needful happily dependent on others.
Bill Gates,you would be surprised, agrees with the first two statements of yours. Read the article for what he has to say about population management. Now, he is interested in seeing us get rich so that we can buy his products!!! And how do we suffer from that, even assuming that that is true?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour
We suffer nothing: as long as the solutions sold to us are not abused unto other purposes.
The fear of many an African of western initiatives is grounded on the record of dealings of wilful abuse of the wholesale trust vested in them in the past.
We extend a genuine hand of collaboration, and it gets abused into colonisation and imperialism.
The African has every cause to be wary.
Wariness should however not lead us to insulation and isolation.
We come to the table with our eyes and minds open and alert.
Why does he want to depopulate humanity? Frankly, speaking, the answers are here:
https://londonreal.tv/unmasking-the-lies-around-covid-19-facts-vs-fiction-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic/
Brilliant! Just brilliant. The “menim nyansa tes3 ohene” chaps have thrown away the proverbial African Cultural baby and the bathwater!
Eiy, the person is here to help us and you are saying be careful. Ebei, be careful l3, no abaa ye?
It is true. Our Ancestors suffered for nothing. We have learned nothing from their suffering.
It is true, some think only about their stomachs in the moment.
Interesting read!
Excellent writ up!
This 21st century “Bill Gatos” describing himself as a “philanthropist” and holding an injector to inoculate the “natives” cannot succeed l tell you, Dr. Amenuti, at least, not after some of the “natives” applying “native science” in Madagascar have found a cure to the foreigner’s strange disease.
I hope so! I truly hope so!
“India has shut down the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation’s operations and kicked its management out of the country after grave concerns were raised about the foundation’s no-consent vaccination experiments on village girls.
Devastating health effects affecting 30,000 village girls led the Indian government to sue Bill Gates, a case that is still ongoing. But it was far from the first time Gates was exposed.In 2010, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Australian research scientists to release GMO mosquitoes infected with a bacterium.That same year, Bill Gates confessed he wanted to depopulate the world – a key Illuminati goal.“The world today has 6.8 billion people; that’s headed up to about 9 billion,” he said during the invitation-only 2010 TED Conference. “Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, healthcare, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”
Now those bacterium-infected GMO mosquitoes created by Bill Gates in 2010 are causing havoc in the Americas – with the whole globe at risk, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).The WHO is now convening an Emergency Committee under International Health Regulations concerning the ‘explosive’ spread of the Zika virus throughout the Americas. The virus reportedly has the potential to reach pandemic proportions — possibly around the globe.But understanding why the Zika outbreak occurred, and why the Ebola outbreak in the Congo is happening now, is vital to stopping these viruses being used as bioweapons.The finger of blame is pointing squarely at the richest man in the world. What are they going to do about it?”
~Except. https://www.satenaw.com/bill-gates-accused-starting-ebola-outbreak-african-village-putin/
Attention:
“As simple as a pregnancy test,” gushed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “It has the potential to be a total game changer.”
There was one problem, however. The tests did not work.
Found to be insufficiently accurate by a laboratory at Oxford University, half a million of the tests are now gathering dust in storage. Another 1.5 million bought at a similar price from other sources have also gone unused. The fiasco has left embarrassed British officials scrambling to get back at least some of the money.”
Several countries have complained about low quality test kits from China including the U.S , U.K and African countries. Just a few days ago President Magufuli of Tanzania revealed that test kits from China used to test samples from a goat, pawpaw, a bird and even engine oil came out positive for the Corona virus. Other countries have complained about false positives so how well can we really trust the infection rate numbers out there? China donated tons of these test kits to African countries and we have based our infection rates partly on the results of these kits. This is why people who are described as “woke” insist on us doing our own research, investing in our own vaccines and cures for diseases. It is ONLY in African circles that a person advocating common sense principles, that EVERY advanced nation follows, that you are described as “woke”. Notice that the British government had the China test kits TESTED in a British lab before distributing them to various health centers. It was from this test that it was determined that the kits were useless. But in Africa even critically examining western actions, such as Bill Gates’ population views, that affect us is deemed racist and elitist. smh.
Except from: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/europe/coronavirus-antibody-test-uk.html
Again, speak the truth. Critically examining something? Who would call you a racist or elitist for doing that? Go back to your own thread and check people’s basis for rejecting, suspecting as and demonising the man! It was because of his skin colour! That is racism. The elitist charge is grounded in the total lack of concern for the problems and needs of the segments of our populations Gates and co. mainly cater to. Let this issue for down , those writing textbooks on the inherent evil in the philanthropy of white people would not mention, letet alone do something about the plight of our marginalized millions. In fact, many of them measure their sophistication in not being lik them. You will understand where I am coming from when I share, as I will, the observations driving my stand on these issues. I am waiting for the day when Africans will resolve to make Bill Gates irrelevant to anything on the continent, specifically by ridding our societies of the gross socioeconomic inequalities and oppressive attitudes ingrained in many of Africa’s educated elite
Kwame Kyei-Baffour I can’t spak for others. I can only speak for myself. My criticism of Gates was and is solely on his methods not his skin color.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui but you saw what was written on your thread.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Yes I saw it but can you blame them? If as a people we have constantly been opposed by a specific segment of the world of course it would be natural to have a heightened sense of suspicion of many of their actions. That is common sense.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui more a mental health issue than common sense.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Really? How would you characterize our relationship with the west in the last 500 years? Has it been mutually beneficial? Do you also feel that the Jewish people have that same mental health issue since they keep focusing on Hitler and the Holocaust? Or what about the US? They have the most military bases in the world? Do you think western countries have the same mental problem given their huge military and intelligence budgets? Do you think that a person has a mental problem for stating that a suicide bomber is more likely to be a male Middle Eastern person of the Muslim faith?
There are actual studies that show that as humans we are hard-wired to err on the side of caution rather than error. In other words we make judgement about people and how they might affect us before we actually get to know them. You don’t wait to determine whether a snake in your path is poisonous or not before taking flight. It’s interesting that you assert on one hand that its because Gates is white that people criticize him yet I have read comments from you about how African elites trust Russians and communist Europe. Are they not White? Could the difference in response be due to the differences in our historical interactions with the west and the east? I think you will find the answer to be more nuanced than what you are led to believe.
Atiga Jonas Atingdui How would you characterise our relationship with the Arab world, and the Chinese so far? And yes, the Jewish people are a traumatised people. It’s obvious in the psychotic attitudes to many things. And yes, too, about the West. Theirs is different from ours, but it’s definitely there. Any human being who cannot contextualise their experiences , and decide when to hate ,and when to show appreciation is not well in the head. The black experience at the hands of the west( you see that it’s not the white man you people are wary of) has been distorting our experiences ,plans and vision. I can write a thesis on that.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Our relationship with the Arab world and the Chinese has been no different than with the west. It’s a relationship between people who understand world politics on one side and people who are clueless and have no interest in building their own home continent into a pleasant place.
So you do agree that sustained abuse at the hands of another invokes suspicion and in some cases hate. That is the reason why in almost all countries people are suspicious of their politicians. It is no different that what you see going on between many Africans and the west. If you sow seeds of love you will reap similar fruits and vice versa. It’s human nature
Atiga Jonas Atingdui education, in my opinion, should give people wings to fly above primordial stereotyping. We need to do that to heal ourselves to be able to interact with positive aspects of human and interracial relationships. Chima Amanda speaks of the Story of One, and I personally think we need to reason with that story in our heads. As we speak, we have whites working with medicine sans frontier, Greenpeace, anti-slavery organisations, refugee and asylum agencies, and also I’m hospitals and clinics in remote areas in Africa doing things even Africans wouldn’t do. How do you put such people in the same basket as George MacLean or Christopher Columbus? That is the point! Scrutinising people, black or white,is a must in most issues. Healing falsehoods and conspiracy theories on them is not the way to go about it. Cheers
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Today’s conspiracy theory is tomorrow’s orthodox beliefs. Some were criticized, for example, when we said that George Bush just wanted regime change in Iraq. He had no real intention of making Iraq better. We were called conspiracy theorists. But today, have we not been vindicated? This is why I believe in people excising their right to analyse and critic ideas and intentions. If I believe someone’s criticism of another is flawed I simply put up my arguments and allow people to make up their minds. Usually the truth is found in the synthesis of the varied views and not in a single one per se
Shifting of goal posts – from the White people to Arabs, then to the Chinese and so on. It never ends. Very particular of those who trust all others, without verification, except Africans, simply because they have “aid” (money). You call that an education! Shwiaa.
Narmer Amenuti I may not be educated,but I certainly don’t have mental health issues, my brother. The absence of consistency in your suspicions and morbid demonisations clearly indicate that you are not guided by the plight of Africa. It’s that old-fashioned anti-western attitudes that masquerade as love for the continent; a product of trauma. Any clear-minded minded people driven by the love for Africa would despise all entities that harm her in equal measure. So why are yours focused in one direction to the near exclusion of all others? Because it’s not fashionable. You that claim to love Africa have been severally guilty of overt and subtle tribalism on these streets. Waste of education, if you ask me
And the stupid allegation! How did you arrive at the thought that I don’t trust Africans?
So Kwame Kyei-Baffour, at what point does a debate descend into the gutter of sheer and mere insults? Are you already angry? So when I critique Bill Gates (based on the evidence), and you defend him (based on whatever has become your choice of evidence), then I have got to be not only the one that you disagree with, or the one that you think is wrong, and perhaps even “illogical,” but I have got to be more, and labelled, as you say, with some “mental health issues?”
Have you lost all civility?
And then you throw around the word “stupid.” I could elaborate, but I won’t bother. Clearly this debate has descended into an utter flapdoodle; it has become clear, if you understand what I mean, that this discussion meant for civil men has descended into the gutter of sheer balderdash.
Don’t worry. You win. For how on Earth can someone like me, someone else, hold a different point of view, hell, even disagree with you, Almighty, on Bill Gates? How on Earth? This is not war, but I fear I will suffer from kopophobia, the lexicographer’s ultimate curse. And so, you win!
Narmer Amenuti go back to your last remark . What is that supposed to mean? You weren’t insulting me when after willfully misrepresenting my argument, called into question my education.
And still, you don’t get it; for me it’s not about Bill Gates. I am speaking from experience, specifically, my observation of a certain from of Afrocentricism. I am as anti-racist as they come, but I am guided in that by a broader hatred for oppression of all sorts. If you reason from that perspective, your focus doesn’t get limited to skin colour and even race; anybody who oppresses becomes your enemy, be they African or Arab. Likewise, you embrace people and deeds that reduces people’s susceptibility to oppression. Ask yourself why Bill Gates even have to come to Africa? What you and I been doing about the gross socioeconomic inequalities that leave millions in abject poverty and deprivation?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour, you can say just that. And you may have a point. Whether I am “willfully misrepresenting my(your) argument” or not, is not a direct insult to you. Well, no one can say I have insulted you in the crass, direct way that you have directed insults at me as if you are angry at the devil.
I get it. I anger people. Fine. Even Atiga Jonas Atingdui and I have gotten angry at each other at times (I bet), it never, however descends into crass insults at one another.
But look, I have respected you a while on FB I mean, even when I disagreed with everything you wrote. Sometimes, you ought to remember that we are all human and we come to certain issues with vastly different experiences (Dirac’s Principle). Bill Gate’s or the anti-Racist’s perspective are much welcome. I know a friend, Ibram who is also an astute anti-racist, and who has written this book, “Stamped from the Beginning,” and has established several offices here in the US in that effort (with actual grants). I debate him. We don’t insult each other. But you have!
I may disagree with you on 90 percent of things, the other 10 percent may be of some relevance to you someday. You waste it with the utter insults, brother. This is not war. It is not life and death. It is only a debate. We all do it until we learn something very little form each other.
So the very idea that you label me as a “mental” case is fascinating. Again, I am not immune from the insults. I get it all the time. This type of insult, as you may be aware, has a long history here on Facebook. I know I often tread into unfamiliar territory.
But why must we hate each other with sheer insults because we clearly disagree? Why must we throw insults? It is not civil. Debates are not red war, this is not life and death. I test your logic, you test mine, until we become too exhausted to continue and it ends there. So again, why the incivility all of a sudden from you – of all people? I am shocked. Actually.
Maybe, it’s a language problem. The last sentence again please! Why question my education because I disagree with you? The remark with which you ended that post is an insult. Ask any Ghanaian
Kwame Kyei-Baffour, did you not say in an earlier comment that “education, in my(your) opinion, should give people wings to fly above primordial stereotyping?”
You branded me as someone “primordial” on whom “education” has had little effect. That is the insult. You claimed I engage in “primordial stereotyping?” So, I am no longer human? I belong to some animal phylum lower in the chain, a “primordial” one, or that I may be human but I may have retained the mind of some lower animal? Really?
Come on. A language problem?
On the other hand, I wrote, “You call that an education! Shwiaa?” Obviously in response to your jibe about me being primordial. And the issue is that I have questioned your education?
Let’s be honest. You juxtapose the statement you made to mine, and ask any Ghanaian, which one is the insult. My guess is that you insulted me and all my Ancestors!
(On a side note, but actually relevant to this insult you leveled against me: Trump sued Bill Maher for claiming that Trump’s mother was some kind of monkey. Bill Maher settled for one million dollars! You see? I should be taking you to court right now for suggesting that I was some type of primordial being.)
Narmer Amenuti I was speaking about a general attitude, and wasn’t ‘ personal’, much in the same way you and others have been suggesting that those defending Bill Gates against the conspiracy theories are white apologists. I could see myself in that but I never took as a personal insult. I would however if someone were to say that to me in a one-to-one debate as you did. The insinuations have been freely flowing, but I have been taking them on the chin. Par for course in heated arguments. Another thing else, when someone makes them directly personal. And in your case, you didn’t even bother to argue against the point I raised. Instead, you twisted my argument and laced an insult to it. That’s why I got offended. You and I have been friends for well over three years. When did I ever insult you? And why drag in our ancestors. Are you implying that they subscribed to primordial stereotyping of people?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour, to call someone a “white apologist” is a theoretical categorization that is widely accepted as non-derogatory. It comes from White Apologetics – it is, my friend, a growing field with proud adherents seeking to make sense of the atrocities committed here on American soil.
Now, suggesting that someone is primordial is wholly different. Although I gather that you don’t agree. In which case, I call the truce and say, boy, you have taken a lot on the chin and survived. In this respect, I will attempt to make sense of all the other direct insults to me as a consequence of what you perceived as direct insults also.
As for the comment about the Ancestors, I gather that you didn’t get my joke on a possible truce calling either. (Especially with the side note on Trump, which in the states garners much laughter. What a bad joke on my part!)
However, if it makes matters better I will call the peace. Afford me the privilege to close by saying, sorry! Next time we (you and I) should try to be more civil. I will do my best.
Cheers!
Shifting of goal posts – from the White people to Arabs, then to the Chinese and so on. It never ends. Very particular of those who trust all others, without verification, except Africans, simply because they have “aid” (money). You call that an education! Shwiaa.
Nana Kwadwo Owusu I know some African countries tested them. That’s how they got to complain about the low quality. My point is given our peculiar circumstances why are we even placing ourselves in the position of having to import a majority of our test kits, vaccines and R&D findings?
“….Notice that the British government had the China test kits TESTED in a British lab before distributing them to various health centers. It was from this test that it was determined that the kits were useless. But in Africa even critically examining western actions, such as Bill Gates’ population views, that affect us is deemed racist and elitist. smh”
Atiga, let’s be honest – doesn’t the above imply that African authorities are so stupid that they won’t test these items, even though they have a whole apparatus set up to do just that? Your vaunted British government, also put itself in the situation that it was dependent on the importation of PPEs and test-kits. The very thing you are accusing African countries of doing wrong, is the same thing most of the so-called developed world were caught unprepared. Maybe you missed the reports of the collaboration of KNUST with a private Ghanaian company to produce test kits here in Ghana. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge that we are moving in the right direction albeit with a few hiccups.
Nana Kwadwo Owusu I wrote:
“But in Africa even critically examining western actions, such as Bill Gates’ population views, that affect us is deemed racist and elitist.”
The above is NOT because African governments did or didn’t test the test kits. The quote above was a direct response to reactions by ordinary Ghanaians who feel that we are unjustified in being critical of Gates’ methods and motives. They impugn our criticisms as being racist. That was why I made the above statement