AfrobeatRadio - Latest Comments

Re: About

Abdulaziz Billow Ali — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:04:52 -0000

Hallo,

My name is Abdulaziz Billow Ali.

Am a freelance journalist in Nairobi Kenya.

The main aim of writing this email was to enquire whether your
organization was interested in Freelance Journalist who would
correspond in the Kenya or the entire East Africa region.

thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

Re: AfrobeatRadio @ WBAI 95.5 FM in NYC

deji — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:29:37 -0000

Interesting!and-resourceful.

Re: YATENGA French Bistro Opens In Harlem

AfrobeatRadio — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:23:10 -0000

Thank you for your comment and for holding us to the plan. The music is coming soon. - Wuyi

Re: YATENGA French Bistro Opens In Harlem

funmi — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:54:28 -0000

Wuyi where is the music? The funk? Afrobeat is music first. I thought there was supposed 2 b online music broadcasting.

Re: Trouble in the Paradise

ezramaniche — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:30:21 -0000

Making Friends and Enemies In Seychelles
A tsunami is a phenemon caused by an earthquake beneath the ocean. The repercussions can be disasterous if proactive procedures are not in place. This scenario is a real menace to the political landscape in Seychelles. Beneath the calm, tropical-holiday luring landscapean economic crisis is threatening the near communist police-state political control of the Government of President James Michel. The economic crisis caused by the relentless greed of the party hierarchy now threatens the survival of the country. I ts demise signalled by a near frantic squabble “free-for-all” mentality beginning to manifest itself, over the remaining spoils. This is however, completely against the IMF-supervised reform programme, with the President now dangling between the devil and the deep blue sea.
This is a problem solely of the ruling party’s making. President Michel rise to his current position is the reward for blind, fanatical loyalty to President France Albert Rene. Michel, at the time, was a man who could be trusted to do what told to do. With the advent of the one-party socialist state James Alix Michel occuppied a number of posts as: Minister of Information, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance and Environment, Vice-President and finally President. At the helm of Finance and Environment: the two most important positions in the Seychelles economy, Vice-President Michel oversaw some deap-seated transformations in Seychelles. During his tenure Seychelles underwent transformation into a Five-Star tourism destination.
During the same period Seychelles also become an international tuna processing centre. These were presented as an economic-coup to the populace, the finer nefarious points of these agreements given the prevalent tight media control never seeing the light of day. The only whiff of these accords occurring through occassionals leaks to oppostion newspapers. Most of these revolve around generous arrangements and concessions being given to the international companies whilst the local people are given only menial employment opportunities in many of these establishments. Examples of the arrangements and concessions cover a wide-range of activities.
A classical example, going against all accounting principles. is that of capital assets purchased by government at inflated costs from the tuna factory. Another moot point is the susidised sale of electricity to the same company by the government. Again within the tuna industry are the cheap costs of licenses for fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Seychelles waters. To further indict the industry, Government does not make appropriate and transparent provisions for salaries of Seychellois fishermen plying their trade on board the European Union vessels. In fact with respect to the salaries of the fishermen, the government receives substantial payments that should in reality be paid to the fishermen. This has resulted in local fishermen on these vessels spending years on the high seas, earning a pittance with no recourse being made government. The same holds for the dock workers unloading the tuna vessels. Again government is the middle man with respect to payments due to the dock workers. In respect of the five-star hotels, numerous concessions ranging from leases, employment permits, zero-rate taxation concessions for vehicle imports, materials, employees, profitsrepatriations are just some of the inducements given to the establishments. Controversy over these concessisons and the local politicians and civil servants actually profiting from these underhanded deals is a headache rapidly becoming a cerebral anuerysm for the Presidency of James Michel. Problems are also accumulating for the selective application of the strict environment protection legislation when it comes to these five star establishments. At present, a coral reef in the supposedly protected Ste. Anne Marine National Park is being broken to accommodate a hotel’s wharf marina for yatchs. Another hotel is building a road in the Ramsar site protected marsh. The flouting of environment laws also extends to construction where the 25 metre tide water mark near the sea is also being disregarded by another proposed establishment on the popular Beau Vallon Beach on Mahé. This disregard and nonenforcement of legisation lies at the heart of the governments problems.
During the 1990’s Seychelles began to suffer from a dearth of foreign exchange to sustain its economy. This led to the introduction of the Foreign Exchange Control Act by the then Finance Minister and Vice-President James Michel. The ambit of the act was to strictly regulate the flow of avaiable foreign exchange through the banking system. Any request for overseas payments had to be evidenced by a reciprcal deposit of local currency in a “pipeline” with any one of the local banks. When available, foreign exchange would be allocated according to priority of need. The theory was greeted with appropriate accolades. Practice has resulted in the sum of USD 2.5 Billion leaving the country without going through the government supervised “pipeline”. A polemic has been created because whilst some people have been taken to court for being in possession of foreign exchange and even imprisoned and their all their non-local currencies confiscated for not going through the pipeline; the owners of the USD 2.5 Billion appear to be untouchable and unaccountable. Allegations are rift that the sources of these funds are from government contracts and kick-backs from the companies trading in Seychelles, all with close ties to the government -hence the wall of silence surrounding those funds origins.
The possibility for this happening is because of the structure of government and governance is based on the soviet-style centralised control framework.. Everything and anything is subject to ruling party sanction. All government civil servant posts and promotions are scrutinised for loyalty to the party. All literature, professional research and academic excellence is guided by this one principle. It has served James Michel well and is therefore a most valued measure.
The converse has also arisen in that it has opened the door to nepotism, cronyism and the even worse bane of entrenched corruption. If you are loyal to the party you can even get away with murder, as shown by the case of the Rwanda genocide. There are allegations that very senior members, of the administration including the President were involved in the sale of arms for use in the genocide in Rwanda.
In fact one of the key players in the arms transaction, former Colonel Bagosora from the Rwandan side, was recently jailed for life. Besides the sale of arms, they were also heavily involved in the subsequent cover-up. Again Seychelles remains unscathed. All reports fed to international organisations are compiled by party loyalists. No party image tarnishing reports are ever found, and all indicators and indexes are doctored to suit this image comparable to that of East Germany – before the fall of the wall. In Seychelles case things have come to a head with the economic crisis caused by unchecked onerous foreign debts taken by the President’s loyalists. The country’s inability to service these debts led to the IMFsupervised programme. Difficulties have been compounded by the international economic crisis, and the scourge of Somalian piracy acts. These have delivered sharp body blows to the tourism industry and the tuna processing industry. Salvation in the form of the IMF has however, come at a price. The price is that Seychelles makes a clean break with past practices and takes appropriate measures to ensure accountability, transparency, good governance, and responsibility. Given that the stakeholders in these hegemonies of corruption have close ties to the ruling party; the cure threatens to kill the patient. The ruling party of President Michel has long identified itself as the Seychelles Society. Any criticism of the government and the extra-luxurious, opulent livestyles of its cronies are viewed as criticisms of society. Since the reforms set in motion go to the heart of the ruling party, and President’s Michel’s power base; any attempt at further implementation or it reverse (contaiment) will further fracture an aready fragile coalition of interests. Trying to salvage the ruling party inherently means that there will be casualties. Determining who the casualties are is not a pleasant prospect when it could be that your best friend is your worst enemy.

Re: Bird Flu And Yoruba Cultural Practices

Chiropractic Marketing — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:43:29 -0000

Bird flu is a serious illness that affects birds. Especially chickens, That can be spread from birds to humans and that can cause death. Recently the breaking out of bird flu has taken us aback. We could never think of such kind of problem in our country. However thanks to the Almighty that it could not break out in an epidemic form because of the timely intervention of the government and people's consciousness about the matter. The cause of bird flu in our country could not be detected. It was thought that it might have been carried and spread by the imported chickens from our neighboring countries like Thailand and China. Because the breaking out of bird flu in an epidemic form has been seen in China and Thailand. Poultry farming has had a positive effect on the social economic condition in our country. It helped many rural poor women to break the chain of poverty and see better days to their lives. But the recent breaking out of bird flu has shadowed their smiling faces into gloomy ones and clouded their foreheads. It has emptied their fertile farms and turned the firms into barren hands. We have seen the hearts. However, it is heartening that our government has taken an all out efforts to give loans to the people engaged in poultry farming on easy terms to keep their income generating industry on and to bring about better days and see the gloomy faces glowing with beatific smile and keep their heads above all consuming poverty.

Re: Thank-you Letter to the President Jammeh

jinkijangka — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:37:18 -0000

On the whole, I found this article very amusing, witty, smart and condescending at the same time. Keep up with your amusingly smart way of exposing this tyrant to the rest of the world. He deserves all the attention and the accolades raining his way. BTW, what's up with the new middle name for His Excellency - Diliu? I only know of Sheikh His Excellency Professor Alhagi Doctor (SHEPAD) Yahya Abdul Jemus Junkung Jammeh.......phew!...

Re: Thank-you Letter to the President Jammeh

Bnajul Report — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:29:35 -0000

After just browsing through (cos i certainly can summon enough courage to read the entirety of this letter of yours) my first reaction was to check up ur About Us. And I cant believe that you guys are writing from a supposed free nation....It is disappointing that in your desperate quest for recognition you could endorse Yaya Jammeh's barbarity by trying to convince him that killing Gambians is excusable....I do not expect you to publish this, but I do know that you will get to read it and see what most Gambians would think about you on seeing this....God save your souls.

Re: Send Text Message to Help Haiti

Philippe P — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:32:30 -0000

Hi All,

Charity Water is one the charity that I respected and supported in the past and I value the work that they do. Charity Water just sent me a note about two Organizations:

Concerns WorldWide
http://www.concernusa.org/P...

Partners In Health
https://donate.pih.org/page...

Please Donate generously.

There are various celebrity and Mom & Pop driven Orgs out there asking for donations to help Haiti. Although their intentions may be in the right place, however given the severity of the situation, they do not have the capability to deploy the resources in an effective manner.

Please, please, please at this critical time, we can not afford to donate to organizations that use most of your dollars on overheads and without the means / logistic to reach anyone in Haiti in the near future. Give Money to organizations with track records and accountability for your hard earned money.

DONATE WISELY!

Re: Send Text Message to Help Haiti

OAS Ajayi — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:55:52 -0000

Hi,

Another way to help Haiti

Haiti has been devastated by a massive earthquake. Americans are opening their hearts and their wallets to help. But credit card companies see this as an opportunity to turn a profit.

They take a cut every time Americans use their credit card to make a charitable contribution. Isn't that outrageous?

I just signed a petition to the CEOs of all the big credit card companies telling them they need to refund this fee for all the donations to aid organizations working in Haiti and get rid of the fee for all charitable contributions going forward. Will you join me?

Sign here petition from moveon.org

Re: Send Text Message to Help Haiti

OAS Ajayi — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:07:40 -0000

It is very heart-warming how aid is pouring into Haiti from different parts of the world, and it is commendable that President Obama has decided to grant undocumented Haitians temporary protected status. May all these efforts be effective in saving lives, and mending hearts and souls.

However, it is also important that as the world rallies around Haitians in the face of this natural disaster, we do not forget the man-made disasters that have plagued Haiti since it wrestled its independence from France, and which continue to heighten the tragedy of these natural disasters. If we focus on the internal inefficiencies and inadequacies of the country, we should not forget the various forms of international complicities as well. These need to be forcefully addressed after some normalcy has been restored in Haiti; we do not have to wait till, God forbid, the next natural disaster before the world focuses on Haiti to the gleeful refrain of “the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. ”

Re: Send Text Message to Help Haiti

Philippe P — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:16:03 -0000

Here are some great Organizations in addition to Red Cross that are very effective and with experience in delivering services in Haiti and relief to other disaster stricken areas around the globe. Your dollars go much further by donation to the following.

AVAAZ.ORG
http://avaaz.org/

Doctors Without Borders
http://doctorswithoutborder...

Partners In Health
http://www.pih.org/home.html

OxFam
http://www.oxfam.org/en/pre...

Goods donation at this time is futile as they will be locked up in a storage, some basement for quite sometimes before and if they ever reach the people of Haiti. That happened two years ago for the Hurricane Relief of 2008.

Further this is NOT to bash celebrities and others trying to raise money for the cause but THEY DO NOT have a clue how to effectively reach the mass / population at large that desperately needs help NOW.

PLEASE DONATE SMARTLY!!!

Here is a link to an Op-Ed that Tracy Kidder wrote for the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010...
I could not have said it better and more succinct!. Hence more the reason why I am asking ALL of you to pass this list of ORGs to friends and family and encourage donation and when we are done donating, we need to continue a meaningful dialogue about Haiti and its people.

Re: AfrobeatRadio @ WBAI 95.5 FM in NYC

Mark B — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:06:20 -0000

I was interested in today's program view from two perspectives: what common Americans can do to increase security of their country and what common Nigerians can do to prove they are not terrorists. The answer is: absolutely nothing on their own without ongoing inter-communication. Expressing opinions seems to be nowadays the fastest way to "get involved"; but, in reality, it takes sweat, blood and tears to aid the grassroots democracy, social justice, ecological wisdom, nonviolence, decentralization, community-based economics, gender equality, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility. All that must start with communication over all possible divides. So thank you, AR, for doing it.