Liberian Hugarian Coach Faces First Real Test! By: ralph geeplay

The Liberian Lone Star soccer squad

The same week Liberian soccer legend George Weah was in South Africa critizing African football authorities for hiring foreign coaches, his own Liberia was busy signing one.

Weah reportedly made the comments right after the just ended FIFA World Cup, which was held for the first time on an African soil.

He chided the poor display of African teams, noting that foreign coaches were heavily paid, and uncustomed to the cultures, players and environments with which they worked in Africa: Liberia faces Zimbabwe Warriors this weekend in Monrovia. Head to head: two coaches, one foreign the other local.

The first real test of the newly minted coach, who is just few months on the job comes on Sunday afternoon in the Liberian Capital of Monrovia.

The Warriors, come to Monrovia determined to give their West African counterparts a run for their money, pound for pound and in the process recalling a throng of their own foreign professionals scattered accross Africa and Europe.

What's interesting is that "Zimbabwe will be parading a local coach, while Liberia has a foreign one," says a football observer, current about the debate, as far as foreign and idegeneous coaches are concerned. Nigeria, he says is about to hire Sampson Siasia, while South Africa has opted for their local coach Pitso Mosimane who was deputy under the Brazilian, Carlos Alberto Parreira who led Bafana Bafana during the just ended tournament.

Many African countries are following suit. Only Algeria, paraded a local coach Rabah Saadane, at the just ended football festivities on the continent, in what was certainly a dismal perfromance by the all African teams expected to have done well on home soil, safe for Ghana Black Stars, however, that also fail to meet expectations.

The Black Stars squandered a golden opportunity to reach the semi finals, by wasting a late panelty goal that would have seen them through, as Africa held it's breath!

It is therefore no secret, that Egypt is currently the only highly placed African side at the 9th spot in the world and lst overall in Africa, according to the latest FIFA ranking. The North African football giants have won the Afican Cup consecutively trice in recent times. Egypt does have a local coach, in Hassan Shehata. He is the coach Nigeria probably should have taken to the world cup, instead of Lars Lagerback, the Swede, who fail to win a single game fot the West African power house, reaping almost 1.5m dollars in renumeration in just five months. "The ball therefore is up in the air, but the onus should be on the expatriate, because he's being paid alot of money." The analyst concluded.

The Liberian coach Bertalan Bisckie, according to the Liberian Football Association has (LFA) summoned about 15 foreign players, amongst them the deadly duo of Francis Granpa Doe, who currently plies his trade in the Egyptian top flight Al Ahly, and the ever industrious Patrick Doeplah, currently seeking opportunities in Budapest, Hungary having played in the Israeli premium league last season.

Liberia, will be going into the weekend's match hoping to picked up points where former coach (German) Anthony Haye left off. Under Haye's mentorship, Liberia failed to qualify for the just ended African Cup held in Angola and the World Cup in South Africa.

The team remained winless throughout the qualification campaign, but it played better and was more cohesive and tactical, football observers note.

Liberia's Hungarian coach Bertalan Bisckie

To solve that deficit, the Hugarian tatician have invited a 20 years old Liberian sensation Sekou Jabateh Oliseh (CSKA Moscow, Russia), who holds a Nigerian passport, but was reportedly born in Liberia.

His recent goal for CSKA Moscow was spectacular to say the least, bullying himself between three to four defenders deliberately yet delicalitely, before slushing home a beautiful shot that hit the back of the net.

If he brings that footwork and flair this weekend as he makes is debut appearence for the national colors of Liberia, local fans and their beloved Lone Star should see results and reason for joy.

The Sunday encounter against the Warriors at Liberia's only sports complex has seen Zimbabwe's coach, Norman Mepeza inviting 13 foreign based professionals. Clerence Matawu of Polish side Polonia Bytom and South African based star Knowledge Musona of Kaiser Chiefs, are two central players Berscki should watch. The Hungarian, is reportedly being paid about 13,000 United States dollars a month in addition to housing, vehicle and bonus for home and away wins.


The Foreign professionals players called up against Zimbabwe:

Defenders:
George Baysah, Hapoel Kfar Saba Israel
Alex Karmo, Stima FC Kenya
Gizzie Dorbor Irony BatYam of Israel
Jimmy Dixon Manisaspor of Turkey,

Midfielders:
Dulee Johnson, AIk Solna Sweden
Theo Weeks, Ankanragucu Turkey
Patrick Doeplah, clubless
David Ghemie, clubless
Sekou Jabateh Oliseh, CSKA Moscow Russia
Isaac Pupo Panionios GSS Greece
Solomon Grimes, Ethnikos Greece
Steven Mennoh Perspipasi Berkasi Indonesia

Fowards:
Anthony Laffor, Super Sport United South Africa (Captain)
Francis Doe of Al Ahly of Egypt
Dioh Williams of FC Alania Vladikavkaz of Russia (on loan from AGF of Denmark)


Liberia meanwhile, is grouped with Mali, Cape Verde and Zimbabwe for the qualifiers, which makes up Group A. Gabon and Equitorial Guniea host the African cup of Nations in 2012. Liberia is fighting for a place amonst elite African football nations at the pending gala.

The Liberian Football Association have meanwhile closed the national team training section to the general public. No visitors are allow to the hotel hosting the team, also. The remainer of the team will be composed of local based players.

Key player: Lone Star:
Francis Doe, who is currently playing in
Egypt, has scored important goals for
every club he has played for, including
the Lone Star. If the Hungarian use him
tactically and stratigically, Liberians should
be dancing in the streets when the
final whistle blows on sunday evening in Monrovia.

Key Player: Warriors:
Knowledge Musona, the South African Kaiser
Chiefs based player is a rising star in Zimbabwean football
and his footworks will be needed, if the Warriors
must put up an impressive showing in Monrovia.

Prediction: 2:1 Liberia Lone Star

Tubman’s Last Gamble!

By: ralph geeplay

Liberian politician Winston Tubman

Politicians are gamblers. They all bet and stake their fate on the future, and this is done not in so quiet ways. To add to the spectacle, it is often executed with everyone watching, and if they do win the glee is always never mistaken: Cameras capturing the smiles of victory, newspaper banners hailing their conquests, television and radio stations blaring their speeches and images.

Can Milton Teahjay Lead?

Sinoe County Sup. Milton Teahjay

What a difference few years make, so now that Milton Teahjay is Superintendent of Sinoe County. If politicians from time to time are to be graded and ranked by the blood and sweat they dribbled on the political battlefield during their careers, for being pacesetters and charismatic leaders who cut their teeth in any struggle to see a respectful political environment and dialogue and justice prevailed, so that an impoverished citizenry can see the dividends of good governance and competitive politics, then, Milton Teahjay has no sweat and blood. He has one thing going for him though, a really big mouth---a really really big mouth! And that has always been his political capital, and boy has he used it!

But his appointment too must be a distress and disappointment, if Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were ever to live up to her billing; when she said in 2005 that all her political appointees upon her election would meet a set of three criteria which would read something like this: Human rights, honesty and corruption free. The three counts on which Milton Teahjay would fail glumly.

Up until his appointment recently as superintendent of that southeastern county, Milton was a strong critic of the Sirleaf led government just has has been the case with him, every time he wanted a job in government.

He took a big leap in 2005, when the newly minted superintendent famously declared his intentions to run as a presidential candidate on the ticket of the United People’s Party UPP) during the ensuing 2005 presidential and legislative elections. But first he had to survive a party primary in which former student leader and political activist Marcus Dahn was also interested.

The battle was fiercely contested, as he would lose the primary. Rejected, he shifted his loyalty to the proletarian George Weah and his Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), instead of staying with the party that has always blessed his political fortunes. As the political campaign got tough, Teahjay declared that Ellen would never win the presidency, and if she ever did “grass must grow in my palm,” he asserted bold faced. She won.

Since then he has been on a war path, deriding her every opportunity he had. A few months before his appointment, he went on a talk show in Monrovia and ridiculously charged, that the President of the Republic of Liberia and her son were controlling the vault at the Central Bank of Liberia. He accused them of withdrawing bank notes at will and pleasure. A ridiculous charged he could neither back up. He and Ellen are friends now that she have given him a job.

When the senate committee responsible for his confirmation asked why he wanted to serve under a president whom he deem unfit for the highest office in the land, he quipped that he was “a defeated African politician,” who was frustrated and would change his mode of criticism because “he now had access to the president.”

A tone the Sinoe Legislative Caucus wasn't buying, considering his controversial past, thereby cautioning the president “to immediately withdraw her nomination,” because according to them, he was too polarizing to lead. Teahjay later won confirmation however, due to intense lobbying. To bury the hatchet, Ellen went to see her political appointee in Greenville few weeks ago and Teahjay was buoyant, as press reports affirmed.

President Johnson Sirleaf

Judging from the mammoth party and welcome he threw Ellen when she visited Sinoe, Milton must be elated he has now landed a job, having wallowed in the wilderness for a lengthen period with out a government employment.

The catch here, that is often ignored, is that county superintendents are probably the most important political jobs in Liberia besides the presidency and the Mayor of Monrovia. But all Liberian politicians---the so-called big time ones would rather settled for ministerial positions, junior cabinet posts and appointments to public corporations, rather then go to the counties where so much leadership and work needs to be done.

This is the reason, according to political forecasters, why Liberia remain so much lagging in development and social services nationally, because regional and local governments lacked direction, are often weak and are short of the talents and effective managerial skills necessary to bring substantive bearing and services needed outside of Monrovia.

Observers also believe the Teahjay appointment is not in absolution, considering the harsh tone he leveled against Sirleaf these past years, nor is it in recognition of his viability as a leader who is tested and have shown strength in times of crises, but rather, that in addition to Sirleaf"s current coalition fence mending of the Liberia Action Party (LAP), the Liberia Unification Party (LUP) and the Unity Party (UP) combined, she is doing everything to wow dissatisfy progressives whose grass roots in Liberian politics extends well over four decades and whose tentacles widen in every county and district in Liberia.

Teahjay is a graduate of that generation. Others include Tiawon Gongloe, Kofi Woods, Marcus Dahn, Nagbahlee Warner, Amos Sawyer, Commany Wesseh, Dew Mason, Henry Fahbulleh and a host of others currently serving in her government, whom she have brought close to the power structure of government as 2011 looms.

For one fact, Ellen recognizes she went to jail with these individuals in the 1980s. With them she shares a special kinship, as in the fact, when the struggle for multi party democracy was a constant drum beat against Samuel Doe and his PRC and subsequently his National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL). They were all in the trenches together.

Pundits also agreed, that Ellen identify with them comfortably compared to the other political groupings and individuals currently on the fringes. If Ellen can induce the progressives and group them together with her as she is attempting to do, she wins the presidency hands down. says analysts.

But a political science professor at the University of Liberia (UL), says "Teahjay especially must be watched, because he served Charles Taylor loyally and as soon he sense that Taylor was in trouble in 2001 as rebels were advancing on Liberia and Taylor was loosing international credibility he spoke up against the Taylor criminal venture of which he was a part, for ripping Liberian forest as a means of “getting out of the government and repositioning himself politically.”

Tom Kamara, Liberia fore most political, media and social commentator witness first hand the debacle in 2001 warning that Teahjay and Taylor fell out because Teahjay was greedy and Taylor was bent on using him. He commented then that “The Teahjay saga only shows Taylor predicament in keeping greedy cronies like Teahjay in line as resources dwindle,” adding that, “Gradually deprived of Sierra Leone's diamonds, life without the forests is impossible for Taylor, his foreign partners and local cronies. By questioning the wanton withering of the forests, Teahjay, a loquacious beneficiary of the looting regime who reports say was constructing a mansion and got disappointed when the "brown envelopes" (US dollars) from Taylor stopped coming, failed to read the handwriting on the wall, earning the wrath of his master he once enthusiastically praised as the "kindest" man, the "finest politician" he "had ever known"

Looking back and thinking of it, Teahjay was urged into the Taylor government by civic societies according to sources well placed, because he was thought of as a strong (mouthed) opposition politician. But who once got appointed, he went far beyond the norm.

His voice in government should have been a patriotic one, but instead, he was constantly defending the Charles Taylor criminal invasion of Sierra Leone and the shenanigans perpetrated by Taylor and his Patriotic Party to the chagrin of those who always thought, he had the back bone to be his own man.

He was at his best on Jan. 25, 1999, in London, Great Britain to rebut criticisms of Liberia's support to the Sierra Leonean rebels. Unabashed, he said "What is happening is an international conspiracy to try to subject Liberia to international ridicule. We don't have the resources to get involved in prosecuting a foreign war, so all these allegations are intended to diplomatically isolate Liberia."

Then shamelessly, he went on accusing London and Washington of "leading a campaign of disinformation, misinformation, deception and propaganda," against little Liberia, while innocent Sierra Leonean babies, mothers and fathers limbs were being hacked with machetes by Taylor and his partner the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Foday Sankor.

The Sinoe County Superintendent it must be stated emphatically, also presided as second in command at the Ministry of Information at a time when Liberian journalists and media institutions were muzzled, censored and suppressed. Dr. George Ayittey of the Free Africa Foundation, whose preamble reads “Africa is poor because she is not free”, lamented In November 1999, “that Liberia’s Deputy Information Officer, Milton Teahjay, threatened that his ministry would be reluctant to renew operation permits to media organizations that have engaged in blackmail and falsehood.” Ayittey was quick to add, that such judgments were best left to the Liberian courts.

Milton Teahjay public record is checkered and unless he revives his fortunes, politically speaking, by working his tail and institute vital policies as Superintendent of Sinoe County, he will always be considered as one of those political animals who will carpet beg for a government jobs at every opportunity--- riding the waves of time, while waiting for the next big break!

Asked during his confirmation hearings what his plans were to develop the county: his two biggest agenda were refurbishing the superintendent's mansion in which he plans to live and the Greenville City Hall in which he intends to receive his guests. But no real assessment of his performance can be documented and reported to the general public because the forth estate is neither existent in the leeward counties nor are civic societies present nor vocal. His economic revitalization plans for Sinoe are best left to 'local businesses bringing in more cement and zinc from Monrovia to get on with the business of reconstruction in the county;' he told the senate in October this year. Legislators were appalled. How innovative...?

A post as important as a superintendent of a county is a political position that the president must have no appointment powers over. They need to be elected and they must show their worth; for it is by leading a political sub division ably, by building bridges, roads, electricity grids, schools, hospitals and instituting law and order etc, that the nation knows which superintendents are tested, governed well, and have the temperament to lead a Liberia where often those who seek to lead the nation have no administrative records of governance, but a long list of academic credentials and in the case of George Weah an impressive international resume; not enough to satisfy the prospect of managing a nation so desperately in need of weathered captains who knows what it means to stir the ship of state especially now that everything is a wreck following a long period of war. Good luck Mr. Teahjay!

Tribute: Ken Saro Wiwa (1941-1995)

It is me against Dutch Shell---no it is us
Me and my kins our district raped

Black gold brook through these infinite canals
And our babies are famished turmoil swayed
As mace --- the soil is barren like desert sands
Abacha laughs his face hidden as we grumbled
Behind slashed overfed cheeks and wall of shades
While me and my people to the clouds wail

We eat smog so the engines
Of Brussels and Detroit dart our votes silenced

It is me against Dutch Shell --- no it is us
I pursue the pen and a naked soul exposed

And an ample unlock jaws part for answers
That bay to be heeded beside this Dutch that dished
Our hopes --- is it spurious that I hike and swims
In the way of the great one who toiled?
In the name of the Mahatma who thump an empire this
I say bring the gibbet and I stay it with smiles untied

I embraced the Greek walking in his foot steps
Let me go to a cold interment but we shall win as the wind

It is me against Dutch Shell ---no it is us
Even here to these stones here I shall not be rested

My voice from these slabs --- let my Ogoni people persists
Their quarrels like pepper birds --- crying he was the son of the land
He fought well like the great Chaka what is
Death but respite let me enter this soil in this Niger Delta and
It intertwines with me --- the land as it revel my skeletons
The chattels of my fathers from there still wounded

Speak I shall --- watched still these dire lethal flames
That flares the open skies the Dutch untouched

It is me against Dutch Shell ---no it is us
Now tell me pretty pardon the felony arraigned

That I taunts and howls for humanity’s sake ---oh bogus!
That my people are fettered in their own house and
The toxins the Dutch feeds them are wares
My people guzzle benzene it corrupts their crops bid
Them cancer---it eats their livers I see their lingering stares
Yea I am still Ken Saro Wiwa, the Okonkwo of the Delta

The Ogoni prince, the fearless warrior, I am him all this relay
I shall never go away even bind here with them I fight*

No Shame Here

By Ralph Geeplay




Jewel Howard Taylor is still furious three years later since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf turned over her husband, oh her her ex husband Charles Taylor to the international community for persecution. Apparently, she has hidden her venom well, or has confided privately to others until Sirleaf published her book (HarperCollins) last month, “This Child Will Be Great." In her memoir, Sirleaf detailed the hand over process of Charles Taylor and her now sour relations with Mrs. Taylor, the Bong County Senator. Jewel recent brief interview with the FrontPage Africa internet based news magazine showed her disapproval. Her interview was interesting, if anything to say the least.

Jewel is reasoning, however abstrusely crafted is that she had a pact with Johnson Sirleaf during the ensuing Liberia second round presidential election in 2005, that in return for her support, if Sirleaf won the presidential election she would consult 'Jewel' before turning the blood thirsty Charles Taylor over for prosecution. To top it off, she called Charles Taylor a hero and warned he could still win the Liberian presidency if he contested the Liberian presidency today. While her interview draws a crackling laughter, her statement should not have gone un-noticed and unchallenged in a society still reeling from the wounds Taylor inflicted on the Liberian people and the West African sub region. In any other sane democracy her comments would have been denounced on the senate floor and a fledging civil society would have demanded her apology for her freakish humor. But no, she gets a pass!

There is also a freezing disdain when Mrs. Taylor suggests that bye gones must be bye gones especially when the issue of Charles Taylor, his National Patriotic Party and Front are broached in the public square. Apparently, her connubial love affair with him has blinded and placed her an active zealot in his defense while we lick our sores from his whips. To list the crimes Taylor committed against the helpless and innocent while he headed his rebel movement and the Liberian government is mind blowing. The jury is out on many of his associates and the recent conviction of Charles Taylor Jr. in U.S. courts attests that no matter how long a truth is crushed, it will rare its fine head

Public officials like Jewel must not have a faltering tongue because of the impending hurt and damage and the insensitivity that their statements could potentially have on the people they seek to govern. It therefore becomes another miserable day in Liberia and the accepted littleness of her vision as a leader when she neither sees the pain and suffering Liberians endured while Taylor was rebel leader and president. It makes all the more no sense either that she enjoys remunerations given to her by tax payers. Her only regret for divorcing him, she claims was his promiscuity, as she puts it “he had plenty women,” ignoring his many crimes and vices.

Charles Taylor who disgracefully declared himself the most ‘mischievous’ Liberian of his time in a press conference he gave as president was probably the most accurate self painted portrait of the man!

Upon chance reflection, everyone knows that Taylor is probably the worse leader Liberia has had since the foundation of country as a nation state in the 1800s. He wasn’t only content with dehumanizing his own people, but his territorial ambition in search of precious stones and wealth, and to obtain them at any cost led him to cruelly hacked innocent Serra Leoneans limbs, invading neighboring Guinea and meddling in the Ivory Coast. All this because Charles Taylor wanted to be the man, ignoring Liberian unique place as Africa’s first independent country and a non align nation that helped foster the creation of the United Nations and a signatory to many international conventions and treaties. Such views as espoused by Jewel are therefore antagonistic to the values that informed an open society where its leaders must responsibly articulate a public agenda that fosters peace, reconciliation and national development.

But Mrs. Taylor is on record several times bemoaning the personal loss of the dictator. Her excuse is that they have children. Does it surprise anyone why Sirleaf wants no part of her? It came as no surprise, when Mrs. Taylor led a well publicized prayer service for her husband last year, many bowing their heads in shame. How the people of Bong County continue to endorsed Mrs. Taylor and remained silent while she represents their interest in the Liberian congress says a lot about Liberian politics today. It is anything goes once you show up to work everyday well attired and attached the title Honorable Senator to your given name. But at least Jewel deserves tons of commendation for coming out and expressing her views in the open for all to see and hear. At least we now know what the inner cycle within the NPP still thinks: That Taylor is still electable and that he is a hero. To whom we still don’t know, but at best these are fools dream.

The elections that the NPP won in 1997 were to put it mildly a verdict that the Liberian people were tired of running and a response to Taylor’s burly threats that he would resume fighting if he was not handed the Executive Mansion. The Liberian people by their actions sought the protection of their own interest and he betrayed it. And who can forget the catching phrase “Above All Else The People!” This must have steroid a lot of people today, that Liberian politics is so sordid that despite their past actions they are still electable, that their actions in the past are not what determines our interest as electorates. Wrong! The Liberian electorate is becoming more sophisticated and ever more informed to vote their bread and butter issues while protecting their interest and the image of the country from the cabals who mercilessly preyed on them when time was against them. Times have changed. Hasn’t it?

But Liberia is a by-product of itself and with time it will self correct. The moral dictates that informs any society and its politics are linked to the socio-economic fiber that grouped its people; we have had a trouble history and still continue to do. We in this generation since the guns went silent must fight for ideals and truths as we moved from one cycle to another, and along the way the bad apples must drop from the tree and find their proper place while justice prevail. A retort to Mrs. Taylor in a classic Liberian expression would come something like this: Damn, the woman ain’t gat no shame yah!

The Obama Win: Can Africa Learn Anything

By: ralph geeplay

Barack Obama

The epic American presidential election cycle just ended, was one the longest in campaign history, and should make Guinness Book of world records. The tenacity and fierceness with which the hotly contested American presidency was waged would certainly put roman gladiators to shame. But it was a beautiful spectacle. Yes it was.

Before the world’s naked eyes once again the greatness of America shone like a beacon. The lows and blows to which neo-conservatism and the Bush administration sunk United States prestige and soft power in world affairs during his eight years in office can now hoped to be redeemable under a president elect who himself admits ‘I was not the likeliest candidate for this office.” His message of change and hope and his ‘improbable American journey,’ must inspired not just Americans, but Africans who see Obama as their own through his direct paternal and fraternal link to the continent, something many African Americans like Obama lacked and cannot say. But what can Africa learn from the 'improbable' Obama win?

While little progress has been made in a post 1960 independent Africa, a spade must be call a spade and one must say the continent largely is still a stagnant overburden place where a message of change is even truer than anytime since Western European colonialists lost political authority about 50 years ago to a bunch of African leaders whose passion for greed, power, sectarianism and tribalism exceeds the requisite norms necessary to build any sustainable functioning democracy anywhere, least of all Africa.

Today Africa wallows in debt, poverty, wars and despotism. If change is any mantra glean from Obama’s successful presidential run, I see no reason why some leaders on the African continent have been in power for up to forty years, and yet still bidding again and again to lead.

A snap shot of African dictators

Take a look: Gabon's 73 years old Oman Bongo who is planning another bid at his country presidency in 2012, and Libya Muammar Kaddafi shares the record for being in power since 1969; 40 years apiece in power!

Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak 26 years, Angola’s Eduardo dos Santo, and Congo Republic Denis Saussou Nguesso 30 years apiece.

Western Africa Guinea’s sick chain smoking president Lassana Conte 25 years. Even shameful is Meles Zenawi almost two decades in power while his country host the African Union headquarters. The last elections he held were marred by political violence while throng of opposition leaders and students went to jail for demanding a fairer outcome of poll results.

A leader like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is a poster child or godfather of what is wrong with the continent, but look deeper and you will see a carcass that runs a belt around the hopes and aspirations of the African people.

No wonder why critics lambaste the west and so-called rights defenders for double standards, because not until a leader like Mugabe reaches the peak of brutality and senile stupidity do you hear their voices loudly.

No functioning democracy succeed where the will of an entire people are constantly subjected to the whims of men whose agenda is a selfish individualism clothe in graft, politically motivated violence, and old ideas. Little kids and old grey-haired men who danced barefooted to the Obama victory across Africa, if anything want change too. 'A change they too can believe in' if we must borrow a catch phrase here.

To rise, Africa must tap its best talent, and that means giving way to a new era where ideas and debates rule, rather than guns and bullying old men still steep in the ways of the colonial masters they once detested!

Towards this junction, it is safe to say the rise of Barack Obama was an American coup. From Bangalore to Banjul and from Liberia to Lithuania ordinary citizens of all stripes rejoiced and sang for America.

The White House seat of the presidency

Part of the reason Americans have seen this high interest in Mr. Obama's election from the world at large is not because he is just black, but because his victory is two folds: first, if this is not the ultimate fulfillment of the 'American Dream' that the founding document promised its citizens when it speaks of the ‘inalienable rights’ of all regardless of creed, even as some were still slaves and servants while it's founding fathers blindly bluffed the ink, in complete disregard and irony to the true meaning of what was being written at the time, then tell me what is!?

Second, if Mr. Obama's election is not a true fullfillment of the ideals that define the United States when Rev. King spoke to his countrymen about the "content of character," and not merely skin color, still in allusion to the noble dogma that informs American democracy, then tell me what's more? Additionally, as a minority and black what more could a mature democracy that is tolerant and vibrant offer?

Wasn't it glaring after so long a vetting process that the for the contested seat, that minority was the brightest, the best and the most qualify for the office? And here, in this American elections all countries and men would witness the true meaning of participatory democracy with poignant questions for us all: Will we in our lifetime ever see a British Indian or a color of British origin as Prime Minister of a royal England?

The civil rights giant M.L. King jr.

Will South Africa ever elect a white or color president in a majority black populated nation who represents the aspirations of all South Africans, will the Tutsi and Hutus ever put their political differences aside and build a sustainable democracy across the great lakes region? And will the greater middle eastern region ever see peace in our time? Will the minorities and the weak be protected in all countries that seek democratic ideals the world over?

Far fetched as these propositions might sound, who would have taught when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat few years ago and when Lyndon Banes Johnson signed the civil rights act did it entered the collective imagination of anyone, just Anyone that we would see this day. No one, except those who dare to dream like M.L. King Jr., hope is always an intractable projection of the human character, it was a campaign slogan he wore as a garment and which King adequately summed up: that " We must accept finite disappointment but not infinite hope!" The journey was long and torny but it's not yet over, it is just the begining.

If Obama is a brilliant orator, he is an even brilliant writer. In his second memoir “The Audacity of Hope,” he summons the treatise and the foundation of the great republican ideals that gave birth to modern America.

Speaking of the Declaration of Independence he says “Not every American may be able to recite them; few if asked could traced the genesis…behind the declaration, that we are born into this world that we are born free, all of us, that each of us arrives with a bundle of rights that can’t be taken away by any person or any state without just cause; that through our own agency we can, and must, make our lives what we will…” still he continues, “It orient us, sets our course each and every day…it is an idea that some portion of the world still rejects...and for which an even larger portion of humanity finds scant evidence in their daily lives.”

Powerful words indeed from a man who would one day be elected the first black president of a great nation! Just as the world watches this epochal moment in history, so must it learn from the great story that has been Obama and America‘s!

Verbatim Verbatim Verbatim Verbatim

"The fact that the Liberian government handed Mr. Taylor over to a foreign court in a foreign country, and for them now to be going cap in hand to beg that court to speak to their own citizen I find [it] totally outrageous,”
Charles Taylor's chief counsel, Courtney Griffiths. Refusing to let his client testify before Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Taylor is currently serving jail time and persecution in the Hague for war imes.

“I have to slow down because it brings tears to my eyes. Some of these stories can always bring tears to my eyes.”
Moses Blah, former Liberian vice president, playing victim, who loyally served Charles Taylor for more than fourteen years, claiming Taylor ordered his execution days before he departed for Nigeria in 2003. Nobody has corroborated his story yet. He was testifying before Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

“Why give cars to those who already have.”
Marcus Dahn, former Liberian presidential aspirant and postal deputy minister in the Sirleaf led administration assailing Accelor Mittal (the world’s largest steel maker) for giving Mitsubishi pickups trucks to Liberian Legislators. The move has drawn criticisms from some quarters in the Liberian community (home and abroad). The gifts, they say could compromise the integrity of the first branch of government, that has oversight over investment companies.

“We must pay taxes for unimproved lands. You must pay seven percent as set value for real estate and many of you here are not paying taxes for unimproved lands as we speak.”
Augustine Kparkillen, newly confirmed Assistant justice Minister For Taxation cautioning Liberian citizens of what to come.

“The deadline for reply to the letters (29 September 2008) has passed and we have still not received a response from the Liberian Government… If, however, we continue to receive no response to our request for dialogue, we will have no option but to pursue the matter through appropriate legal channels.”
Van Rooyen, South Africa’s Delta Mining Company spokesman, threatening the Liberian government with legal action for disqualifying the company from an earlier won bid to develop a western cluster iron ore mine. They are also being prevented from partaking in the next round of bidding a move they claimed is unfair.

“I think President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the queen of rebellion because by collecting people from the street and detaining them without persecuting is the act of rebellion.”
Bokai Jaleiba, Secretary General, Forum For The Establishment of World Crimes Court, unhappy that the Liberian Government arrested and detained its head, Mulbah Morlu for questioning, because of a planned demonstration to advocate their cause. The group says its demonstration will still go ahead, whether they receive permission to or not to.