Marxism was a reaction to the dire straights of workers.Phillip was iit not capitalism that led to the French and Soviet revolutions?Do you forget the misery of British workers as captured in Charles Dickens books Oliver Twis ... read full comment
Marxism was a reaction to the dire straights of workers.Phillip was iit not capitalism that led to the French and Soviet revolutions?Do you forget the misery of British workers as captured in Charles Dickens books Oliver Twist, Great Expectations.Do you forget how badly conditions were as even captured in Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde , Crime was so rife banishment was the order of the day.Then also read Robin Hood and his band of robbers who stole from the wealth to give to the poor .Then go to Shakespeare .How pathetic can you be to advocate a system of economic oppression.But I ask again , why these articles.No one is preventing you from practicing your capitalism Build new TOR, Valco, Fishing company, National Airlines and make the garment factories work.Let capitalism not be selling our assets to foreigners only.Stop writing and get your type to increase private ownership and create jobs .The youth are crying for opportunities and you are fighting Kwarteng.There is a lot to be done get on with it and stop this purile and fruitless arguments .They do not put food on the table, nor roof over our heads
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
Well, Kojo Tamakloe, I think you meant dire straits (like in the British rock group formed in 1977 led by Mark Knopfler or like in the Strait of Gibraltar or like in straitjacket) and not dire "straights".
You are right th ... read full comment
Well, Kojo Tamakloe, I think you meant dire straits (like in the British rock group formed in 1977 led by Mark Knopfler or like in the Strait of Gibraltar or like in straitjacket) and not dire "straights".
You are right that Charles Dickens vividly described the living conditions of the poor especially in London. But when it comes to ideological considerations, the book to mention is clearly Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England which he published in German in 1845 but which was not translated into English until some 30 years later. This book really showed the dire effects of the Industrial Revolution on the working class. Engels, himself, was an aristocrat. He befriended Karl Marx (who was himself, not beyond exhibiting certain characteristics of the aristocracy even as he castigated capitalism...)
As for Baidoo, his main problem is his inability to argue effectively. This means even if he has the points, he is not able to do much with them in a written deposition.
Nkrumaism wasn't (isn't?) exactly anti-capitalism (or communism?). It was a bit difficult to define what it really was. Even Nkrumah himself could not adequately give it an official definition and accepted what the ideologues at the Ideological Institute in Winneba showed him as the final definition. At any rate, it seems Nkrumaism emphasized a freedom from imperialism rather than from capitalism, per se.
I think it is a bit high-flown of Baidoo to claim he opened a can of worms by his article on Nkrumaism. As far as I know, it was only Kwarteng (and to a lesser extent people like you, Tamakloe) who reacted to that article. Kwarteng can be put in a special category because he has the habit of writing thousands of words on the simplest topics. So, Baidoo didn't really open any can of worms... That is why there are not many people reacting to his current series of articles which even come long after the article he described as the can of worms. One would think a can of worms will attract more birds...
Philip Kobina Baidoo 8 years ago
Hello Kaleo, I don’t mean this as disrespect; to understand the reason for my title you have to read the first part. Besides, the number of comments is not a true reflection of the quality of an essay. I have read excellent ... read full comment
Hello Kaleo, I don’t mean this as disrespect; to understand the reason for my title you have to read the first part. Besides, the number of comments is not a true reflection of the quality of an essay. I have read excellent articles on ghanaweb that attracted zero comments. I personally don’t normally comment on articles. When people write very good ones I send them personal emails to congratulate them. Those who have received emails from me commending their efforts know it. When people write nonsense I write a formal rebuttal. Thank you.
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
I did not write that the number of comments is a measure of the quality of your essay! Can you quote to me the part of my comment that said that?
I wrote that a "can of worms" should attract many comments. The fact that yo ... read full comment
I did not write that the number of comments is a measure of the quality of your essay! Can you quote to me the part of my comment that said that?
I wrote that a "can of worms" should attract many comments. The fact that your article did not attract many comments means that is is NOT a can of worms. That has nothing to do with the quality of your article. You are not right to describe your initial article as a "can of worms". An article that is a "can of worms" has nothing to do with its quality. Both good and bad articles can be cans of worms.
I wrote that you are not able to properly use the facts you have in a good written argument. I did NOT link that to the number of comments that your article attracted. You are WRONG to make that link.
Kobina, PLS, READ THINGS PROPERLY before you comment on them.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 8 years ago
If you don’t know the implication of what you have written there is no point in continuing this. Whatever you write or say is subject to interpretation. Milton Friedman made a statement and Naomi Klein has stretched that st ... read full comment
If you don’t know the implication of what you have written there is no point in continuing this. Whatever you write or say is subject to interpretation. Milton Friedman made a statement and Naomi Klein has stretched that statement beyond recognition and written a whole book on it. Her book ‘The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism’ is based on a very benign statement by Milton Friedman and her entire central thesis is based on it. And Mr Kwarteng who is so myopic in his analysis of the books he crams into his head thinks Naomi Klein has written a wonderful book. You did not say exactly that, but that is what it means. Thank you.
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
Yes, whatever a person writes is subject to interpretation but NOT to any interpretation whatsoever!
There is no way what I wrote can be interpreted as meaning that the quality of a piece is dictated by the number of comm ... read full comment
Yes, whatever a person writes is subject to interpretation but NOT to any interpretation whatsoever!
There is no way what I wrote can be interpreted as meaning that the quality of a piece is dictated by the number of comments it garners. That was what you said in your initial reaction to my comment. And that was wrong. Be humble enough to admit that you misinterpreted what I wrote. There is nothing wrong with that. Everybody can misinterpret things. And pointing that out to you is not an insult.
This point of the argument has nothing to do with Kwarteng.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 8 years ago
Please, let us not make brouhaha over this. This is what you wrote, ‘That is why there are not many people reacting to his current series of articles which even come long after the article he described as the can of worms. ... read full comment
Please, let us not make brouhaha over this. This is what you wrote, ‘That is why there are not many people reacting to his current series of articles which even come long after the article he described as the can of worms. One would think a can of worms will attract more birds’. If you are disputing the interpretation, then what is your benchmark for the assessment that it is not attracting worms? There is no any other way to make that assessment unless ghanaweb provides you with the number of hits. Anyway, perhaps, Mr Kwarteng was a digression, and I accept that. Thank you.
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
Kobina, I wrote that your piece was not attracting many comments because it was NOT a can of worms.
But you accused me of saying that your article was not attracting many comments because it was not a good article.
The ... read full comment
Kobina, I wrote that your piece was not attracting many comments because it was NOT a can of worms.
But you accused me of saying that your article was not attracting many comments because it was not a good article.
These are two different propositions!!!
This is what you wrote:
"Besides, the number of comments is not a true reflection of the quality of an essay. I have read excellent articles on ghanaweb that attracted zero comments".
Can you see, Kobina, that you are relating "number of comments" to "quality of an essay" - a relationship I did NOT make in my input? That is why my reaction is so "violent" (lol).
Kobina, anybody who has been on ghanaweb for a week will readily see that it is not the best articles that get the greatest numbers of comments. In fact, as a rough rule, the very best articles on ghanaweb often DO NOT get many comments. I know this because I have been on ghanaweb since its inception (like Andy-K, I was there in the okyeame and Ghana Review days - predecessors of ghanaweb). I cannot link the quality of your essay to the number of comments it attracts!!! That is the crux of my argument with you.
"Can of worms" is not equivalent to "quality". A "can of worms" will necessarily refer to a controversial argument or topic that will elicit many angry responses. It is in that sense that I made ref to the comments your article garnered. And I ended with an imagery: "One would think a can of worms will attract more birds". You have no reason, following the trend of the argument, to interpret that as meaning "one would think a quality article would attract more comments".
I know you will not turn the discussion into a battle of insults. You are not like that. You can be assured that I am not like that either...
Thanx, too
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Jato Kaleo,
I have told Baidoo at the beginning of this series that he has not open any can of worms.
He says that be cause he may not have any idea what he calls "can of worms" has been there for God knows how long.
... read full comment
Jato Kaleo,
I have told Baidoo at the beginning of this series that he has not open any can of worms.
He says that be cause he may not have any idea what he calls "can of worms" has been there for God knows how long.
I did a five-part series called "Some Source Materials By And About Kwame Nkrumah" which touches on the general contours of what Baidoo's anachronistically term "can of worms."
Some of these go all the way back to 1947, even before, I mean Ghana's history and political economy! And you say Baidoo does not know how to argue, really? I say there is nothing in Baidoo's article! Read my comments to him (all those I have provided here)!
Kaleo, just mention any simple topic I have discussed with thousands of words. We can start with Dr. Kofi Dompere's rigorous mathematical and scientific treatment of Nkrumahism.
Just let me know!
Anyway let me go catch some good sleep. As for Baidoo and his effeminate and flawed arguments I am done!
Have a great weekend!
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Kaleo INXS,
Please go and read the 7-Year Development Plan which Nkrumah later had to explain to members of parliament, etc.
There is the phrase "mixed economy" in the document. You also have to read Nkrumah's own wri ... read full comment
Kaleo INXS,
Please go and read the 7-Year Development Plan which Nkrumah later had to explain to members of parliament, etc.
There is the phrase "mixed economy" in the document. You also have to read Nkrumah's own writings on the subject (check out his speeches and books; this is an assignment from me to you).
I don't know where you are getting your facts from, that he Nkrumah could not "adequately gve it an official definition and accepted what the idealogues at the Ideological Institute in Winneba..." Can you provide some sources?
If you want a better treatment of the some subject, please read the following (if you have not already):
1) Ghana: End of An Illusion (Mary Oppeinheimer & Bob Fitch)
2) The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah (Dr. Kwame Nkrumah).
3) Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies (Dr. Kwame Botwe-Asamoah)
Do take a look at the bibliography, for there are extremely very good primary sources (as well as secondary and teriary) on the question. You can also check out my "Some Source Materials By And By Kwame Nkrumah."
You should also check out "Kwame Nkrumah's Contributions to Pan-Africanism: An Afrocentric Analysis" (Zizwe Poe) where some of the best writings on Nkrumah are discussed.
As for my simplest topics, I have some pages covering some of the rigorous mathematical models Dr. Dompere forwarded to me as a did the series on him, Nkrumah, and Nkrumahism. We can discuss that if you feel like it.
Just let me know and I will dicuss them with once I get up from bed.
Have a good day!
Thanks.
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
Kwarteng, the concept of Nkrumaism has always been a very controversial and highly debated one. Indeed, every political theory or idea has always been controversial. Even during Nkrumah's time in office, the concept was contr ... read full comment
Kwarteng, the concept of Nkrumaism has always been a very controversial and highly debated one. Indeed, every political theory or idea has always been controversial. Even during Nkrumah's time in office, the concept was controversial. I talked of the final official definition of the concept of Nkrumaism (not whether it was "good" or "bad" which is a different exercise).
Nkrumah was not alone in formulating the concept of Nkrumaism. It was not like Marx alone writing Das Kapital while his children were crawling about his legs even as he still had time to sleep with his maid... The idea may have germinated in Nkrumah's mind but the lecturers at the Ideological Institute, director Kwodwo Addison, S. G. Ikoku, Bankole Okpata, Anthony Enahoro and the likes of Prof W. E. Abraham and other party apparatchiks, were all instrumental in giving the concept a formalised nature. Some people even think Prof Abraham wrote Conciencism. I, personally, think it was more like Prof Abraham reading through the work, discussing and offering suggestions to Nkrumah. This is a normal intellectual activity, nothing wrong with that. And Abraham was a staunch supporter of Nkrumah.
It is said when Conciencism was published, Nkrumah himself wrote a review of it in the newspapers. If this is true (I haven't checked myself - meaning I haven't gone into the newspaper archives to check for myself since I was too young at that time to know of it), then it was very strange indeed.
Do not treat the controversy surrounding the formulation of Nkrumaism as my disparagement of the concept. Nkrumaism has always been controversial and it still is. That is why I don't think Baidoo should present himself as opening a can or worms. This can of worms was there long before he was born. You said as much in your own input today.
Pls, Kwarteng, don't tell me what to read. I think I know what to read without your telling me. We can discuss things without your telling me what to go and read. I never tell you what to read because I know you read a lot and know what to read.
My problem with you is your seemingly inexhaustible capability of OVERSTATING your points - whether they are simple or complex. You are the only one on this forum who consistently writes articles in several parts (up to 7 at times) with each part more than 3000 words long. That is overkill on a forum like ghanaweb.
Nii Teiko 8 years ago
I would prefer to be at your seemingly exhuberant tutelage and mentorship than to offer myself for Dr. Botwe Asamoah mentored Kwarteng's labyrinth tutorials. You seem to have the grasp and grassroot information on Nkrumah an ... read full comment
I would prefer to be at your seemingly exhuberant tutelage and mentorship than to offer myself for Dr. Botwe Asamoah mentored Kwarteng's labyrinth tutorials. You seem to have the grasp and grassroot information on Nkrumah and the so called Nkumahism. The latter-day saints, Kwarteng and Lungu, want us to believe they are authority on themselves when it comes to Nkrumah but I hopefully believe you could be the one to force them to run amok looking for cover. Not even Botwe Asamoah can give them the needed protection when you begin to crack the whip on their ass, I suppose. By the way, are you the same person who go by the INXT moniker? Just trying to be curious because there is always much demonstration of wisdom attach to the comment of the one who uses that moniker.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Hello Kaleo INXS,
Whatever you are saying here if off the marks.
And there is nothing controversial about Nkrumahism unless, of course, you want to deal with the technical level of Nkrumahism, which is the arguments Nk ... read full comment
Hello Kaleo INXS,
Whatever you are saying here if off the marks.
And there is nothing controversial about Nkrumahism unless, of course, you want to deal with the technical level of Nkrumahism, which is the arguments Nkrumah set forth in "Consciencism."
There is no need wrapping yourself in endless conundrums because Nkrumah's ideas are clearly argued in his books and speeches, so why are you beating about the bush?
I am giving sources where Nkrumah's ideas ideas are clearly articulated (including what sort of economic system was undertaken under his government and here you are going round in circles).
Nkrumah was, and still is, a straightforward concept.
It is complex for those who don't know what to make of the arguments set forth in "Consciencism." It may be so because it took one of America's and one of the world's leading mathematicians, philosophers, and economist (Dr. Kofi Kissi Dompere) ten years of close reading of "Consciencism" to mathematically make something out of the book.
I can go and on and cite leading journals and prominent academic philosophers, scholars, and mathematicians who are still debating the book. That does not itself make Nkrumahism controversial. What Nkrumahism is straightforward and not controversial. What is controversial about it, categorial conversion, the African Personality, African Unity, patriotism, communocratic nature pre-colonial African societies, etc?
Now pick any of my articles and point out to me where I have overstated my points. Just one example. Namely, give me two essays in any of my series where I have overstated my points!
And please, don't tell me Nkrumahism is controversial because you have not told me what makes it controversial? And where iy my responses did I say you said or even implied Nkrumahism was "good" or "bad"?
Here is a perfect example of the charge you preferred against Baidoo, misparaphrasing, misrepresenting, and misattributing "facts." Or I am also misrepresenting part of your comments?
If you have not read Prof. Abraham (and some of the writings others associated with some of the instructors at the Ideological Institute). And the fact that others think Prof. Abraham wrote "Consciencism" does not make it so. What is your personal opnion on the question? Have you any evidence to share with us?
For instance, have you closely read and studied Prof. Abraham "The Mind of Africa," perhaps his best known work, to come up with any consistent similarities (in terms of the internals structures, writing style, etc) between "The Mind of Africa" and "Consciencism" to show he wrote "Consciemsim"?
And while we are it, there is another one of Nkrumah's former professors at the London School of Economics (?), Prof. Ayer, who also attributed "Consciencism" or parts of it to a Cameroonian mathematics professor? He said this without one shred of evidence.
And there the White South African intellectual Basner who also has written on the question, saying Nkrumah thoroughly discussed the contents of "Consciencism" with him before the book was written and published (the archives of the University of London has all the info).
Others too have been propsed except Nkrumah himself? Who wrote "Consciencism"? Please tell me from your own personal research experience!
And remember that though Marx, Engels, and other socialist theorists of their time did not always agree on everything does not make the theory of socialism controversial. We say the same of the classical economists and neoclassical economists. So where does your comparison stand?
Is there one mind of Africa as Prof. Abraham's "The Mind of Africa" suggests? Do you know how many minds Africa has had since the dawn of time? Is Prof. Abraham titular assertion self-contradictory given the many minds of Africa?
Please go and read Prof. Abraham's book (and other writings) and come back to show me which part of "Consciencism" is him. Is it wrong for writers to use assiatnts, resaerchers, and archivists for their work?
Some shameless ones have even mentioned June Milne and Erical Powell as the authors of Nkrumah's books. Yet both women have left us written records on how Nkrumah instructed them on which research and archival documents he needed for which book he authored.
I have also read some of the writings of S.G. Ikoku, Bankole Okpata, Anthony Enahoro and others associated with the Ideological Institute, but have you taken it upon yourself to glean from their assorted writings what they have to say about some of the questions you and I are raising? Don't just throw names at readers. I hardly do that.
I can tell you what you (and readers) need to know about their written works on such questions if you are not willing to tell readers. Just regurgitating names will not do you and your readers any good. Please tell us what these writers and instructors got to say (before I do it for you)! Every school of thought has its own internal idiosyncracies that is characteristic of its intellectual personality.
You said "I think I know what to read without your telling me." Why, are you not too sure of yourself? I simply read and I don't have to tell anyone "I think I know what to read."
I asked you to give me citations/references for some of the uninformed claims you are making but, instead, you failed to give me one by wrapping yourself in circumlocution. "I think I know what to read" is not a reference or citation. Please give me some authoritative citations address mt prior question.
That said, am I forcing you to read my 3000-worded articles? Do you personally know any of my core readers? Do you know others enjoy them? Have you bothered to research into the professional caliber of some of my core readers? Do you have any ideas whether (or not) any of these readers petition me to write some of the things I write? Please don't say what you don't know and call the police if anyone forces you to read my articles at gun point! Give me the references I asked for and stop avoiding the request by beating about the bush.
All in all, I will say Baidoo's articles are not well argued or presented as you put it, Kaleo INXS, there is in fact nothing in the articles. Kaleo, why don't you tell your readers how Baidoo should have argued or presented his arguments? I can't wait to read your response.
Here you refusing to provide any evidence for your uninformed claims, pontificating on Consciencism, Prof. Abraham, Bankole, Ikoku, and Enahoro without telling us what they have to say about questions bothering! And you say "some people think Prof. Abraham wrote Consciencism" without your examining the "some people" and citing any internal consistencies (writing styles, etc) between Nkrumah's writings and theirs.
This is what serious literary criticism and literary forenscics. I take the trouble to go beyond what "some people" say to conduct my own personal research.
SARPONG: Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Noam Chomski, Al-Sharpton, Al Gore, Loius Farrakhan, Sean Penn (the actor) and several other high-profile American public figures have been asked to go leave elsewhere because they have dared to criticize American foreign policy and internal politics.
SARPONG: Since Franklin Cudjoe (IMANI) uses Western standards and values as his critique of Ghana and Africa, have you bothered to ask him to go and live in the West? You are blinding supporting Baidoo who has no grasp and grip on what he's discussing? Kaleo knows it but does not know how to put it. I choose to live where I want to live and say whatever I want to say. That is my right. I used to have two White American friends (one was a businnesman, dealt in gold and owned a house in Trasacco Valley). The businessman loved to crititize Ghanaian leaders but when I asked why he decided to settle in Ghana of all places (buy expensive house in Trasacco Valley), he had no straight answer. Does he have the right to critize Ghanaian leaders? Why not? I do the same to his government and institutions! He liked my candor just as he loved the African weather and fufu (with goundnut soup).
NII TIEKU: Please stop jumping about because Jato Kaleo has said nothing worth of serious attention. Like Baidoo, he is not opening any "can of worms." He is merely regurtitating some uninformed rumors (among others) that have been around for some time! Kaleo is yet to say something serious to merit the depths of my attention.
All errors are mine.
I am done for the day (and with Baidoo). I am only assembling a short list of highly technical texts for him.
You all should have a great week.
Thanks.
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
You are once more exhibiting some of the reasons why I stopped having anything to do with your articles. You just don't know what is 'excess'. You take it you have read all the books in the world so if you open your mouth, no ... read full comment
You are once more exhibiting some of the reasons why I stopped having anything to do with your articles. You just don't know what is 'excess'. You take it you have read all the books in the world so if you open your mouth, nobody should utter a word (unless they can show you that they have also read all the books you have read, and even more...).
Then there are your constant refs to the eminent scholars, professors, researchers, etc who have read your pieces, not only like them but urge you on to write more. And if such people say such things about your wonderful writings, who are we, the common people of ghanaweb who are not renowned professors, to try to challenge you? How dare we!
Has it ever occurred to you, Kwarteng, that you are, simply, on the wrong forum?
I made a mistake by mentioning your name in my initial input. It was a huge mistake!
Kojo T 8 years ago
It should be straits.I stand corrected , though Mr Kaleo a fine gentleman though was (N)PP and I do not support those rogues
It should be straits.I stand corrected , though Mr Kaleo a fine gentleman though was (N)PP and I do not support those rogues
Jack 8 years ago
It's your mum and dad who are the rogues. Idiot.
It's your mum and dad who are the rogues. Idiot.
Jato Kaleo 8 years ago
Kojo T, I am not NPP ooooo. Efo Tamakloe, don't put NPP on my head oooo. I am not NDC either. I just want a good argument from whoever brings it up...
I am just someone who realises and acknowledges Nkrumah's undoubted st ... read full comment
Kojo T, I am not NPP ooooo. Efo Tamakloe, don't put NPP on my head oooo. I am not NDC either. I just want a good argument from whoever brings it up...
I am just someone who realises and acknowledges Nkrumah's undoubted strentghs whiles never sweeping his shortcomings under the carpet...
kosoko 8 years ago
This paper is no where near a scientific paper. It's purely opinionated! Why, are you the only one who have been to a university? I don't know why serious minds like Kwarteng respond this kind work. It's badly written and ter ... read full comment
This paper is no where near a scientific paper. It's purely opinionated! Why, are you the only one who have been to a university? I don't know why serious minds like Kwarteng respond this kind work. It's badly written and terribly redundant
Philip Kobina Baidoo 8 years ago
Do you think I am writing a thesis, hell no. Mr Kwarteng fights in gutters and that is exactly what I am doing. I wouldn’t write a thesis to responds to the rubbish he writes that fascinates the likes of you. I pity his stu ... read full comment
Do you think I am writing a thesis, hell no. Mr Kwarteng fights in gutters and that is exactly what I am doing. I wouldn’t write a thesis to responds to the rubbish he writes that fascinates the likes of you. I pity his students if he is really a professor. He will stuff their heads like erudite apes. You hide behind the name Kosoko and write what you feel like, because nobody knows your identity. Use your real name if you are really a man. At least, I respect Mr Kwarteng for using his name when he posts his rubbish.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Baidoo,
You got all wrong.
There are literally thousands of theses and dissertations that are not "scientific." You seem to miss the Kosovo's just as your articles miss so many (too numerous) to mention.
And h ... read full comment
Dear Baidoo,
You got all wrong.
There are literally thousands of theses and dissertations that are not "scientific." You seem to miss the Kosovo's just as your articles miss so many (too numerous) to mention.
And his revealing his true identity does nothing to the weaknesses of your articles. I rather you deal with his substantive queries than concentrate on extraneous matters. Yoou merely have to convince Kosovo why he's wrong or unconvincing.
Sarpong has the IP-reading software to help you unravel identities on Ghanaweb. But that is even useless. One can always use another person's computer!
Baidoo don't pity my students. I am my own "students."
Anyway I am not Kosovo. Sarpong can help you out. And you can choose to live in the gutters for all you want. I have never lived in the gutters as you put it.
I come to Ghanaweb to have fun among others. Don't be too sentimental about things. Maybe that is what Kosovo may be driving at. I may be wrong though. And like Kosovo righly said or implied, my comments here are going to be the last on the series.
Have fun my good friend Baidoo!
Thank you.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 8 years ago
Mr Kwarteng, you never expected any serious challenge, even if it is the rubbish that I write, as many of you think I am doing, perhaps Mr nobody. If you quite remember in the first of my current series I tried to extend an o ... read full comment
Mr Kwarteng, you never expected any serious challenge, even if it is the rubbish that I write, as many of you think I am doing, perhaps Mr nobody. If you quite remember in the first of my current series I tried to extend an olive branch, because I realised that I was a bit too strident regarding my language in my first rebuttal to the whole saga. And again, if you remember the only word that I used, which might appear less polished is thoughtless in the mixed economy. But you rejected it, and told me that I am not in your league. You are now calling dear and good friend. For what purpose when I have already tried to be civil and you threw it in my face. Just allow me to write my rubbish
You took a cheap swipe that it took me six months to come back. You think I don’t have anything to do with my life and time. I don’t live and breathe ghanaweb. I have got young children. Probably you don’t have that responsibility now. I keep a full time job, besides some other little things that I do to bring in extra income for the future of my children. This is just a past time. It is meant as my widows might to help contribute in building a veritable epistemology for our dear nation – a nation that gave birth to my identity. I owe her everything. So please, this time no disrespect, just allow me to continue with the rubbish that I write. Thank you
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Baidoo,
Do you want to know how many researched articles I wrote, how many articles I have to proofread for some of my former professors, how many theses/dissertations, how many books I have to review for students (an ... read full comment
Dear Baidoo,
Do you want to know how many researched articles I wrote, how many articles I have to proofread for some of my former professors, how many theses/dissertations, how many books I have to review for students (and some writers), etc., even while I went to school full-time and worked full-time?
As for children and all that, I don't have to discuss that on a public forum like Ghanaweb. It is a private matter. The point is that I don't publish my materials on Ghanaweb, etc., if I am not satisfied with or convinced of my arguments, facts, and sources.
I have a number of unpublished articles from 7 or so years back because I am still researching for these articles (and looking for sources I read so many years ago and whose titles I can seem to get).
Those articles I send to Ghanaweb and other websites are ones I sit behind my computer and write, because I am familiar with the subject matter and the its relevant sources. I only have confirm the titles and their locations (internet, books, authors, and the like).
Also I have worked in buildings containing publishing houses and offices offices for all kinds of book, magazine, journal, newspaper editors. These exposed me to so many ideas. I have friends who read a lot. I also have friends who have spent their entire academic and professional lives teaching, researching, and writing about these common subjects.
In other words, I should like you you to know it does not take much from me to write. All Indeed is a functioning computer (I will not go into other personal responsibilities I undertake in addition to my writings)..
Having said that, I think it all boils down to individual differences. Wole Soyinka, Toyin Falola, Noam Chomski, and Molefi Kete Asante, to mention but four, have wives and children and grandchildren, yet they count among the world's most productive in terms of writing and intellectual production.
I have always asked Dr. Asante how he could write almost 80 books, hundreds of scholarly articles,serve as editor (Journal of Black Studies), teach, review theses/dissertations, travel around the world, give public lectures year in and year out, serve as Chair of a department, create his own intelectual think tank among others (and still have his eyes over his family). He has never given me any answer to quench my queries. And what of Wole Soyinka?
So you can clearly see why it is largely a personal question. Yet, I still know many others who have everything it takes to produce as Asante and Soyinka have done but don't (though the they have to experience the additional headaches Asante and Soyinka carry around by way of family responsibilities, etc.)
To cap it all, I don't have to do any serious thinking when I write because I know my sources and where to locate them, especially on those topics I chose to write on. I have archived a number of articles some of whose contents I remember but whose titles I can't seem to recall.
That is not to say personal engagements cannot interfere with one's writings. Far from it. The fact is that I did a lot of writing and proofreading (even reading) for some of my mates in other departments (during my undergrad in Ghana) and also did a lot of writing, reading, and proofreading (in America) even when I worked full-time and schooled full-time. I did this for a few in many cases. Most of the writings, readings and proofreading were outside my chosen fields.
In the end what we all do on Ghanaweb is not all that serious. Some of us come here to catch fun (aside attempting educating each other). Thus let us not read too much into what we do on Ghanaweb. Please could you refer me to where I said you and I do not belong to the same class, group, or class?
I want to know this for sure? I want to know because who am I to say that? And if even it is a statement you think it is implied in any of my comments, please let me know because it might not be what you think! I do apologize in advance (and retract it) if I say so. But I can assure you I never said any such thing. Please prove me wrong.
Finally, I may not be able to respond because I have used up all my ten slots.
My regards.
Thanks.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Brother Baidoo,
I think this is probably going to be my last comment (I have just one slot left).
I want you to know I am not doing this for personal reasons. I also know you are doing this for personal. You are w ... read full comment
Dear Brother Baidoo,
I think this is probably going to be my last comment (I have just one slot left).
I want you to know I am not doing this for personal reasons. I also know you are doing this for personal. You are writing to educate as I have been writing to educate.
That does not however mean we don't have our biases and shortcomings. We all do (no individual is exempt from this). Just somewhere last year Prof. Kwabena Akuarang-Party, one of my intellectual idols, said I had cherry-picked picked some of my evidence. Other foruners had to go back and forth with me over Prof. Akuarang-Parry's criticism.
But that was just one of it. I myself have read a number of Prof. Akuarang-Parry's scholarly articles (including the handful on Ghanaweb; I also have 12 of his scholarly articles here with me as I write) and there is so much I can say about them by way of serious criticism. That is as far as I can go (let me end it here).
Thus, I wonder whether the statment you made acknowledging me as an (intellectual adversary" was made in jest. I have neither seen any of my critics as an "intellectual enemy" nor "intellectual adversary."
It is the lies and insults and conscious misrepresentation of a columniist's work by critics that I hate on Ghanaweb (this is not about you per se).
But continue to write as I will continue to write.You will always be by brother no matter what. After all, we all want the best for Ghana, Africa, and the world.
We also want the best in terms of race and ethnic relations, as well as international relations. These are some of the major reasons why I write in the first.
Please take care.
My regards to your family and friends.
Thanks.
SARPONG 8 years ago
Who stole from what? Wealth? Illiterate fool, you are not making any sense with your atrocious grammar and incoherent nonsense.
Idiot, does the foolishness copy and paste Kwarteng has been feeding forumers and you moron h ... read full comment
Who stole from what? Wealth? Illiterate fool, you are not making any sense with your atrocious grammar and incoherent nonsense.
Idiot, does the foolishness copy and paste Kwarteng has been feeding forumers and you moron has been jumping and waving pompoms to serenade him been putting food on your table, you dumbass.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Hello Sarpong,
How are you?
Have you and Baidoo read Issac Newton's "Principia" to find out where his cosmology ideas may have come from?
And have yo two try out find out where Newton's (and Leibnez's) infinitesimal ... read full comment
Hello Sarpong,
How are you?
Have you and Baidoo read Issac Newton's "Principia" to find out where his cosmology ideas may have come from?
And have yo two try out find out where Newton's (and Leibnez's) infinitesimal calculus? You see, Sarpong, Baidoo could have done himself a favor by reading "Principia," Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Chandra Kant Raju (the world-famous Indian Eistein scholar, statistician, physicist, mathematician, and historian), Cheikh Anta Diop, Ron Eglash, and the ancient Greeks before touching on Isaac Newton!
Have you done any research to find out where Isaac Newton's Second Law of Motion may have come (Rene Descarte?)?
Have yo read Stephen Hawkin's "A Brief History of Time" to see how Newton's used his position in the Royal Society to "ilegally" obtain data to test some of his theories?
Have you looked the line from Egypt through Indian cosmologists to Copernicus to Keppler to Newton?
Sarpong, there are too may unfilled gaps in Baiddo's that will take me series of essays to debunk if I should take on the task of debunking almost every single thing he has said in this piece and in the other articles.
Can't you see Baidoo's contradictions? He says he cannot trust Walter Duranty but on what basis does he trust his other sources?
Has he given you any cogent reasons to convince you why the sources he relies on are any better than Duranty's? No, he hasn't. In other words, have you asked him to show what his sources are for his articles and how reliable they are?
I have provided tons of sources to tell you and others what the capialist themselves say about themselves. I will tell you that 99.9% of my sources are "capitalist."
Dr. Anthony C. Sutton who relied on declassified documents to show how Wall Street and US capitalist financed the Nazis and Soviet "communists" was not a socialist, fascist, or comuniist.
Check all the references I have provided in "Baidoo's Capitalists, Nazis, & Communists" and "Readers: Reminder" and tell me how many of the sources are "capitalist." And who says "capitalist" sources are any better?
For instance, he asks what Stalind did to Trosky etc? I have provided tons of texts, books, etc., on US declassified reports on what Western leaders/countries have done to others around the world?
The examples Baiddo cites pales in comparison to what US declassified records say American leaders and their Western collaborators (European nations) have done to the non-Western world! This is why Baidoo runs from my sources they are compelling!
You Sarpong should go and read Medsger's book "The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar's Hoover's Secret FBI," Churchill/Wall's "Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Party," Roxanne's "An Indegenous History of the United States," Washinton's "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present," "Churhill/Wall's The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States," etc., and come back here to tell me if the capitalists are any better.
You Sarpong should go and read "One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon," a newly released book based on the Nixon's presidency (with tens of thousands of data from the CIA, Joint Chief of Staffs, FBI, the Pentagon and State Department, White House, National Security Council (NSC), etc., and come here to tell me what is going on in America.
Then read Anthony C. Sutton's books and come here to discuss the contents with readers (America's role in contributing to the rise of Nazi Germany and "communist" Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution, works based on declassified records, etc).
You Sarpong should go and read Pillsbury's book "The Hundred-Year Marathon" (also based on tons of declassified US records) and tell readers how the US clandestinely collaborated with Communist China (and how China benefited financially and technology from those secret arrangments Mao's China).
You Sarpong should go and read about Bush's CIA coaching Rafid. A.A. al-Janabi (a taxi driver whom the CIA presented to the world as a scientists) to lie to the American people, the US Congress, and the world about Saddam Hussein posseing weapons of mass destruction, only to be unralveled for his lies. Was Baidoo's Duranty al-Jabani?
You Sarpong should go and read Frances S. Saunders' "The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters" and "Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War," both texts based on tons of declasified US documents, showing how America secretly funded writers during the Col War (to do its bidding, including lying against America's enemies and promoting Western values, etc., among others).
So, my friend Sarpong, there is enought well-documented data to debunk Baidoo's arguments article one by one, something I believe I have already done.
The fact that Baidoo does not directly quote does not mean anything. For your information, he has been misrepresenting and misparaphrasing some of his sources. You Sarpong doesn't see it because you are not familiar with his sources and what he's generally discussing.
Those of us who are well-informed see nothing in Baidoo's articles. I have already debunked most of his arguments. There is nothing substantive in Baidoo's articles. Unless you are not well-informed.
Let me end here to go catch some sleep before I begin writing another formal rebutal of Baidoo's ill-informed pieces. Please make time to read all the sources, particularly Sutton's revelations about America's role in "building" Nazi Germany and the Russia-USSR. Both of you need to explain to me why the Wall Street (and the American Government) financed Nazi Germany/USSR and why America assisted the USSR technological development by transferring technology to the USSR from 1917-1930, 1930-1945, and 1945-1960!
And like I said before, there is nothing in Baidoo's article to merit any serious intellectual attentiom. Unless of course you are grossly ill-informed. I don't mean this as an insult.
You Sarpong should ask Baidoo to tell the world why his "evidence" is any better than Chomsky's who bases his evidence largely on declassided data, and Pentagon, White House, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Council, State Department, the CIA and the FBI among others? Do you get what I am driving at?
Do you both want me to give you names of Americans and other Western (Eurpeans) tasked by the CIA and other Western intelligence outfits (I say this on the basis of declassified records) to fabricate data and to lie about the China, Russia (USSR), etc., during the Cold War (though declassified documents show some of those tasked to have lied in order to advance Western interests in those countries).
The fact is that Baidoo does not have an inclusive and versatile grasp of the subject matter he is writing.
And you Sarpong has fallen for him because he does not copy and paste. I am not the type to fool because I am not ignorant. You don't necessarily write better because you don't copy and paste. And you are not necessarily a better and convincing writer because you don't copy and past. Baidoo does not copy and paste but you see how flawed his assumptions and arguments. I know you have no idea what I am talking about.
All errors are mine!
Have a great weekend.
SARPONG 8 years ago
I don't have time to read all the nonsense from your sources and your admiration for socialism but as usual with you admirers of socialism and communism, when you ran away from your countries of birth, you did not go to Cuba ... read full comment
I don't have time to read all the nonsense from your sources and your admiration for socialism but as usual with you admirers of socialism and communism, when you ran away from your countries of birth, you did not go to Cuba or North Korea but the citadel of capitalism, USA, Britain etc.
Socialist are hypocrites.
Nii Teiko 8 years ago
Sarpong still enjoys playing the ankaa(orange) ball at the Kookoas-Kajetia gutter-to-gutter street soccer game. Why do you insult the Trokosiman without any provocation?
Sarpong still enjoys playing the ankaa(orange) ball at the Kookoas-Kajetia gutter-to-gutter street soccer game. Why do you insult the Trokosiman without any provocation?
Nii Teiko 8 years ago
There is no doubt that you are human Library, I pray you factor out theories of Leibniz and Newton out of the equation here on Ghanaweb because it is definitely beyond the comprehension of many forumers, especially Sarpong ... read full comment
There is no doubt that you are human Library, I pray you factor out theories of Leibniz and Newton out of the equation here on Ghanaweb because it is definitely beyond the comprehension of many forumers, especially Sarpong and Kojo T 'thems'
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Hello,
I want to put all my comments of your articles in one piece.
I recommended these texts for Baidoo but he appears not to have read them. I will want him to read them and com ... read full comment
Hello,
I want to put all my comments of your articles in one piece.
I recommended these texts for Baidoo but he appears not to have read them. I will want him to read them and come back here to refute the data (US declassified data among others).
Baidoo seems not to know how American capitalism contributed to the rise of Nazism and "communism." I put communism in quotes because the way Marx and Engels understood it and explained is not what Baidoo tries to capture in his faulty and largely ill-informed articles.
I will advise him to go back again and read Marx and Engels on the subject and back here to explain what it was the Russians, Cubans, and the Chinese "had." Baidoo does not appear to have a grasp of what "mixed economy" means. It is clear in his articles. And he has not spent quality time on examining the authoritative texts on Ghana's political economy (from the Gold Coast to the present).
You may also have to give us your set of data to convince us which of Noam Chomsky’s analysis based on declassified US intelligence reports, State Department records, Congressional reports, etc., is incorrect. You need to do this rather than just dismissing authoritative scientists, philosophers, scholars, and authors out of hand. Merely dismissing evidence without recourse to counterfactual evidence is not a substitute for rational thinking.
I say this because none of your arguments can remotely stand the impact and resourcefulness of Chomsky’s ideas on the world, institutions, nations, governments, policy makers, and individuals. You need a set of cogent arguments to undermine Chomsky’s carefully worded arguments which, I am afraid, you have woefully failed to realize. How can you, for instance, contradict his declassified US data on America’s shady dealings with Nazis, “communists,” and autocrats around the world? Do you have any such evidence to contradict the US Government?
I believe all the texts I have assembled for him (I am preparing a list of technical texts for him) will educate him on the subject matter. This is not to say I know everything! I believe we are all learning from each other. I learn new things every day!
What I am indirectly saying is that Baidoo should have done some serious reading before embarking on this latest project. He threw away six months for nothing! The following texts by Anthony C. Sutton, Peter Kuznick, John Hawkins, Edwin Black, Michael Pillsbury, Oliver Stone, and John Loftus will tell you about the US’s role in the rise of Nazism and “communism,” information based on hard facts from declassified intelligence reports, State Department, Congressional investigation reports, etc., rather than on your knee-jerk and grossly misinformed pontifications.
For one thing you (in fact no one) cannot discuss the leadership and politics of “communist” China, Nazi Germany, and Russia (USSR) without having first looked at the evidence presented by these writers. In other words, what were your self-righteous capitalists hoped to gain by financing the “evil” Nazis and “Communists”? This part is avoided in your article on socialism, capitalism, and “communism.”
Every major scholar who discusses the West (America) and the USSR, China, and Nazi Germany I know of goes through these texts, particularly Sutton’s. When you start with Marx and Engels and Mao and Lenin and Castro you should end up with Sutton. This is what is done in the American Academy, as far as I know. I will recommend the texts for Baidoo again (all by the late Dr. Anthony C. Sutton):
1) Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution
2) Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1917-1930)
3) Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1930-1945)
4) Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1945-1965)
5) National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union
6) Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler
7) IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (expanded version) (Edwin Black)
8) Nazi Nexus: America’s Corporate Connections to Hitler’s Holocaust (same author)
9) War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race (expanded version)
10) The Hundred-Year Marathon (Michael Pillsbury)
11) The Untold History of the United States (Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick)
12) The Nazi Hydra in America: Suppressed History of a Century (Wall Street and the Rise of the Third Reich) (John Hawkins/Glen Yeadon)
13) America’s Nazi Secret: An Insider’s Story (John Loftus)
Please Baidoo read these dense texts and come back here to refute the evidence!
All errors are mine.
Have a great week.
Part 2
I still think you have no technical grasp of the topics you are discussing.
Like I said before, I will not bother spending time to respond to your faulty analysis.
You seem to throw concepts and statistics about without grounding them in a technical understanding of political economy.
I am already assembling a list of technical texts dealing with the complex question of political economy.
You will have to take your time to read them closely in order to acquire a technical grasp of the subject matter you are dressing. For now, you are way of the mark.
To begin with, make time to read Winston Churchill's "The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of Sudan" and "The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War" and Richard Toye's "Churchill: The World That Made Him and the World He made,"
Read also Johann Hari's article "Not The Finest Hour: The Dark Side of Winston Churchill" (The Independent, Oct. 28, 2010).
When you are done reading the three books and essay about Churchill ( if you haven't already), then you should understand the magnitude of problem I have if I am to address your faulty arguments by, among other things, questioning your sources and admirers beginning with a figure like Churchill.
For instance, I wish you had address why Winston Churchill was not happy with the relative lack of effectiveness of British ammunitions (guns, etc.) slaughtering and conquering Sudanese and establishing the presence of the British Empire in Sudan!
Like I said before, I shall provide you with a list of technical texts dealing with the complex nature of political economy. You two essays so far fall behind the mark of what I will consider to be issues that merit serious rejoinders from me.
I will use the little time I have to write other articles than to respond to your articles in any serious and detailed manner!
Your six-months should have rather been spent reading the extensive sources I offered in my rebuttal. The extensive data therein and technical treatment of the subject matter you articles make light of undermine the central assumptions of your faulty arguments.
Stay tuned for the technical texts. Please go back again and reevaluate the data given in the entire list of sources I initially presented in my rebuttal.
Have a great week.
Thanks.
Part 3
You are so wrong on so many things I don't even know where to start if, for the sake of argument, I should decide to mount a fierce riposte to your faulty reasoning and assumptions. Again you did not do any serious reading before taking on this task.
There are also numerous misrepresentations in this piece just as you did in responding to my rebuttal. Others are blatant lies (go back and re-read my rebuttal).
Did you take time to go through my rebuttal before coming up with this articles? You could have provided a disclaimer citing gaps in your memory recall. What did you do in the six months?
Let me recommend the following authoritative texts for you (these texts destroy most of the faulty assertions you make about Adam Smith, capitalism, Keynes, socialism, etc):
1) The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (Robert Heilbroner)
2) Teachings from the Worldy Philosophers (same author)
3) New Ideas from Dead Economists (George Bushholz)
4) The Authentic Adam Smith: His Life And Ideas (James Buchan)
5) Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty)
6)Universal Man: The Lives of John Maynard Keynes (Richard Davenport-Hines)
7)The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)
As for Allan Greenspan, go to Forbes magazine and read the article "Allan Greenspan's Epic Incompetence: Another Shoe Drops" (Author: Eamonn Fingleton).
Then go to the website of Naked Capitalism and read Bill Blacks article "Hoe Elite Economic Hucksters Drive America's Biggest Fraud Epidemics."
Please also check out the AlterNet Series and read everything you find there under "The Age of Fraud." The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has the article "Mr. Incompetent, The Economy Wrecker Alan Greenspan, Was Central to The Formation to The Campaign to Fix The Debt." The article says in part:
"ALAN GREENSPAN WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE PERSON WHO HAS DONE MORE DAMAGE TO THE US ECONOMY AND SOCIETY THAN ANYONE WHO WAS NOT A FOREIGN ENEMY. IN FACT THE DESTRUCTION HE WRECKED THROUGH HIS INCOMPETENCE WOULD ALSO EXCEED THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ALMOST ALL WOULD-BE ENEMIES AS WELL. GREENSPAN ACCOMPLISHED THE REMARKABLE FEAT AS FED CHAIR OF IGNORING THE GROWTH OF THE $8 TRILLION HOUSING BUBBLE. THIS BUBBLE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN EASIER TO SEE IF IT BEEN 500 FEET HIGH AND LIT UP WITH HUGE NEON SIGNS SAYING 'HUGE HOUSING BUBBLE.' BUT GREENSPAN INSISTED THE BUBBLE WAS NOT THERE..." Please Baidoo go and read the rest of the article.
And if you want a technical treatment of Alan Greenspan's failures as an economist, please read William Fleckenstein's book "GREENSPAN'S BUBBLES: THE AGE OF IGNORANCE AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE."
In fact, you would not have said what you said about Greenspan if you read this book. But I am also too sure if you are serious or just decided to write for writing sake.
Well, as for Einstein and the rest I should rather leave that to rest because you have no clue what you are talking about (I don't mean this as an insult, though). It is frustrating to read columnists who do not have a firm grip on the subject they pretend to be experts in!
Dear Brother Baidoo, you should know by now why you are not to be taken serious on things you apparently have no deep knowledge about. Please be serious next time and don't be an apologist of names and theories you have not adequately researched into!
I will end here and not bother you with extensive bibliographies that do not do justice to your overly weak, uninformed assumptions, and porous arguments. I will get the technical texts for you!
You seem to have wasted your six months for a task that should have been more remarkable and insightful than the three pieces I have read so far!
You can always send me an email (franciskkwarteng@yahoo.com) and we discuss authoritative texts and technical publications on such subject matters before you decide to write! Always make sure to compare the contents of the texts I give you and what you have.
So, my friend, you see the formidable task I have to undertake should I even decide to write a full essay (s) to rebut your arguments, outright lies and factual misrepresentations, and faulty and grossly misinformed assumptions. I don't have that luxury of time on myself. I better use that to write other articles.
Part 4
Baidoo himself does not touch on Margaret Thatcher's support for Apartheid, how the British economy itself benefited from, and why the citizens of Thatcher's town refuse to be associated with her and her legacy (they did not even want to have her buried in the town).
Baidoo simply refused to tell his readers why the latter was/is the case. Baidoo does not relate his discussion to the 500 years Europe pillaged Africa and used the stolen boot to build the European continent.
He does not tell his readers how slavery contributed to capitalism and the Industrial Revolution (see Eric Williams' Oxford doctoral dissertation "Slavery and Capitalism"). He conveniently sidesteps how capitalism helped build Nazism and Russian "communism."
Cano, there is no need calling Kojo T "illiterate" because it appears you have no stand on what Baidoo may be talking about. If you did you should be pointing out Baidoo's own errors, too many of them.
The same goes to Kabako and Mahmoud. Mahmoud is probably the most ill-informed on Ghanaweb when it comes to Nkrumah, Africa and Ghana's history and political economy. You should all go and read Nkrumah's 7-Year Development Plan (and you will learn more the type of economy that was in place under Nkrumah). This is the link: www.ghanahero.com/Visions/Nkrumah_Legacy_Project/documents/deve_plans/7_Year_Dev_Plan-Ghana-v2.pdf
99.9% of what Mahmoud says on Nkrumah, Ghana, and Africa is totally wrong. He and Baidoo have not read Marx and Engels well enough to know what "communism" is. They just throw the concepts about without critically assessing them.
For your information (Baidoo & Mahmoud the Ashanti Man), if you want a detailed discussion on Nkrumah's mixed economy then you had better read the following (I am offering this because Baidoo has not thoroughly, if at all, studied the question; his treatment of the question clearly demonstrates that he has not. You guys should read this and come back here again with your detailed refutations).
Baidoo's last paragraph is not backed by any empirical evidence, which the following texts will educate him on (these are scholars who have virtually spent their lives and careers studying Nkrumah, political economy, Ghana, Africa, and the West:
1) The Political Thought Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah (Ama Biney)
2) Ghana: End of An Illusion (Bob Fitch & Mary Oppenheimer)
You guys will also benefit from this list:
SOME SOURCE MATERIALS BY AND ABOUT KWAME NKRUMAH
1) Kwame Nkrumah: The Years Abroad, 1935-1947 (Marika Sherwood)
2) The Life And Work Of Kwame Nkrumah (Kwame Arhin)
3) History Has Vindicated Kwame Nkrumah (Rodney Worrell)
4) Third World To First World-By One Touch: Economic Repercussions Of The Overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (Robert Woode)
5) Kwame Nkrumah: A Study Of His Intellectual Development In The United States 1935-45 (Carlos Nelson)
6) Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-Cultural Thought And Policies (Kwame Botwe-Asamoah)
7) The Political And Social Thought Of Kwame Nkrumah (Ama Biney)
8) Forward Ever. Kwame Nkrumah: A Biography (June Milne)
9) Kwame Nkrumah: The Conakry Years: His Life And Letters (June Milne)
10) Nkrumah And Ghana: The Dilemma Of Post-Colonial Power (Kofi Buenor Hadjor)
11) Black Star: A View Of The Life And Times Of Kwame Nkrumah (Basil Davidson)
12) Kwame Nkrumah: Vision And Tragedy (David Rooney)
13) Nkrumah And The Chiefs: Politics Of Chieftaincy In Ghana 1951-1960 (Richard Rathbone)
14) Nkrumah: Webster's Timeline History, 1909-2007 (Philip M. Parker)
15) Kwame Nkrumah: From Cradle To Grave (Timothy Bankole)
16) Nkrumah: Makers Of The 20th Century (David Birmingham)
17) Kwame Nkrumah: World Leaders Past and Present (Douglas Keller)
18) Great Black Leaders: Ancient And Modern (Ivan Van Sertima)
19) Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study Of Religion And Politics In Ghana (Ebenezer Obiri Addo)
20) African Tightrope: My Two Years As Nkrumah's Chief Of Staff (Major-General H.T. Alexander)
21) A View Of Kwame Nkrumah 1909-1972 (Kwame Arhin)
22) Christianity, Islam And The Negro Race (Edward W. Blyden)
23) African Nationalism (Ndabaningi Sithole)
24) Pan-Africanism And South America: Emergence Of A Black Rebellion (Elisa L. Nascimento)
25) Africa And Unity: The Evolution Of Pan-Africanism (Vincent B. Thompson)
26) Tubal Uriah Butler Of Trinidad and Tobago Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana: The Road To Independence (Daurius Figueira)
27) Selected Speeches of Kwame Nkrumah (5 Volumes; Samuel Obeng)
28) The Spark: Times Behind Me From Kwame Nkrumah To Limann (Kofi Batsa)
29) Philosophy And Opinions Of Marcus Garvey (Amy Jacques-Garvey)
30) Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's Last Dream: Continental Government Of Africa (Joe-Fio N. Meyer)
31) Kwame Nkrumah And The Future Of Africa (John F. V. Phillips)
32) Kwame Nkrumah (Yuri Smertin)
33) Black Power: A Record Of Reactions In A Land Of Pathos (Richard Wright)
34) Pan-Africanism In The Diaspora: An Analysis Of Modern Afrocentric Political Movement (Ronald W. Walters)
35) The Ghana Young Pioneer Movement: A Youth Organization In The Kwame Nkrumah Era (M.N. Tetteh)
36) Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study In Intercultural Leadership (Samuel E. Taylor)
37) In Search Of Enemies: A CIA Story (John Stockwell)
38) Kwame Nkrumah: The Political Kingdom In The Third World (David Rooney)
39) Uhuru Na Ujamaa: A Selection From Writings And Speeches, 1952-1965 (Julius Nyerere)
40) Kwame Nkrumah As I Knew Him (Genoveva Marais)
41) JFK: Ordeal In Africa (Richard Mahoney)
42) Pan-Africanism: A Short Political History (Colins Legum)
43) The Pan-African Movement: Ghana's Contributions (Kwesi Krafona)
44) Uhuru Na Ujoma: A Selection From Writings And Speeches, 1952-1965 (Julius Nyerere)
45) Kwame Nkrumah's Contributions To Pan-African Agency: An Afrocentric Analysis (Zizwe Poe)
46) W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight For Equality And The American Century 1919-1963 (David Levering Lewis)
47) African Union: Pan-African Analytic Foundation (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
48) Polyrhythmicity: Foundations of African Philosophy (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
49) Nkrumah The Man: A Friend's Testimony (Genoveva Kanu)
50) Africentricity And African Nationalism (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
51) The Theory Of Categorial Conversion: Rational Foundations Of Nkrumahism (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
52) The Theory Of Philosophical Consciencism: Practice Foundations of Nkrumahism (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
53) Ghana's First Republic, 1960-1966: The Pursuit Of The Political Kingdom (Trevor Jones)
54) The History of Education In Ghana From The Earliest Times To The Declaration Of Independence (C.K. Graham)
55) Ghana: End Of An Illusion (Bob Fitch & Mary Oppenheimer)
56) Black Nationalism: A Search For An Identity (E.U. Essien-Udom)
57) General Histories of Africa: UNESCO (Volumes 1, 2, 7, 8)
58) Nkrumah's Consciencism: Its Relevance To Ghanaian Development (Adom C. Boateng)
59) Kwame Nkrumah: The Father Of African Nationalism (David Birmingham)
60) Politics In Ghana, 1946-1960 (Dennis Austin)
61) Volta: Man's Greatest Lake (James Moxon)
62) Volta River Project (David Hart)
63) Nkrumah's Ghana And East Africa: Pan-Africanism And African Interstate Relations (Opoku Agyeman)
64) Pan-Africanism And Its Detractors: A Response To Harvard's Race-Effacing Universalists (Opoku Agyeman)
65) By Nkrumah's Side: The Labor And The Wounds (Tawia Adamafio)
66) Reap The Whirlwind (Geoffrey Bing)
67) Pan-Africanism: The Idea And Movement, 1776-1963 (P.O. Esebebe)
68) Pan-Africanism And Nationalism In West Africa, 1900-1945 (Ayodede Langley)
69) The Pan-African Connection: From Slavery To Garvey And Beyond (Tony Martin)
70) Pan-Africanism (Edited by T.A. Raheem)
71) Pan-Africanism: An Annotated Bibliography (Michael W. Williams)
72) Black Scholar: Journal Of Black Studies And Research (The Pan-African Debate Edited By Robert Chrisman)
73) Kwame Nkrumah: The Anatomy Of An African Dictatorship (T.P. Omari)
74) The Gold Coast Revolution: The Struggle Of An African People From Slavery To Freedom (George Padmore)
78) Africa: The Politics Of Independence And Unity (Immanuel Wallerstein)
79) Development Economics In Action: A Study Of Economic Politics In Ghana (Tony Killick)
80) Kwame Nkrumah: Six Years In Exile, 1966-72 (A.B. Assensoh)
81) Staying Power: Ghana's Political Economy, 1950-1990 (Douglas Rimmer)
82) The Quills Of The Porcupine: Asante Nationalism In An Emergent Ghana (Jean Marie Allman)
83) Nationalism And Economic Development In Ghana (R. Genoud)
84) Africa Since 1940: The Past Of The Present (Frederick Cooper)
85) Africa Since Independence (Paul Nugent)
86) Ideology And Development In Africa (Crawford Young)
87) American Africans In Ghana: Black Expatriates And The Civil Rights (Kevin K. Gaines)
88) African Socialism (William H. Friedland & Carl G. Rosberg)
89) Ghana In Transition (David E. Apter)
90) The Regime Change Of Kwame Nkrumah: Epic Heroism In Africa And The Diaspora (Ahmad Rahman)
91) Kwame Nkrumah: The Greatest African (Emanuel B. Ocran)
92) West Africans In Britain: 1900-1960 Nationalism, Pan-Africanism And Communism (Hakim Adi)
93) Pan-Africanism From Within (Ras Mokonnen)
94) The 1945 Manchester Pan-Africanism Congress (Hakim Adi & Marika Sherwood)
95) The Pan-African Movement: A History Of Pan-Africanism In America, Europe, And Africa (Imanuel Geiss)
96) Nationalism In Colonial Africa (Thomas Hodgkin)
97) Ghana: British Documents On The End Of The Empire (R. Rathbone, S.R. Ashton, D.J. Murray)
98) Joe Appiah: The Autobiography (Enid M. Appiah)
99) My Odyssey: An Autobiography (Nnamdi Azikiwe)
101) Class, Power And Ideology In Ghana: The Railwayman Of Sekondi (Richard Jeffries)
102) The Military Politics In Nkrumah's Ghana (Simon Baynham)
103) Political Legacy Of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (Charles Boateng)
104) Administration Of Ghana's Foreign Relations 1957-65: A Personal Memoir (Michael Dei-Anang)
105) Development And The Development Trap: Economic Planning And External Borrowing In Ghana (Andrzej Krassowski)
106) Ideological Education And Nationalism In Ghana Under Nkrumah And Busia (D.K. Agyeman)
107) Kwame Nkrumah And The Church In Ghana 1945-1966(J.S. Pobee)
108) The Ghanaian Establishment (J.B. Danquah)
109) Nkrumah's Ideology (Kwadwo Afari-Gyan)
110) Nationalist Ideology In The Gold Coast (Kwadwo Afari-Gyan)
111) The United States And Decolonization In West Africa, 1950-1960 (Ebere Nwaubani)
112) African Philosophy (Paulin J. Hountondji)
113) Diplomatic Servant: Reflections Of Pioneer In Ghana's Diplomatic Service (S.E. Quarm)
114) The Coyaba Chronicles: Reflections On The Black Experience In The Twentieth Century (Peter Abrahams)
115) Peace Without Power: Ghana's Foreign Policy 1957-1966 (Kwesi Armah)
116) Ghana: Nkrumah's Legacy (Kwesi Armah)
117) Creating Political Order: The Party-States Of West Africa (Aristide R. Zolberg)
118) Guns And Gandhi In Africa: Pan-African Insights On Nonviolence, Armed Struggle And Liberations (Bill Sutherland & Matt Meyer)
119) Ghana's Foreign Policy In Retrospect (M. Addo)
120) The Ghana Coup, 24 February 1966 (Akwasi Afrifa)
121) Fighting For Africa: The Pan-African Contributions Of Ambassador Dudley J. Thompson And Bill Sutherland (Robert Johnson, Jr.)
122) A History Of Pan-African Revolt (C.L. R. James)
123) The Nkrumah And The Ghana Revolution (C.L.R. James)
124) Kwame Nkrumah's Liberation Thought: A Paradigm For Religious Advocacy In Contemporary Ghana (Robert. Y. Owusu)
125) Kwame Nkrumah: His Rise To Power (Bankole Timothy)
126) African And Caribbean Politics From Kwame Nkrumah To The Grenada Revolution (Manning Marable)
127) Kwame Nkrumah: Contributions To The African Revolution (Doreatha Mbalia)
128) Five Ideas That Change The World (Barbara Ward)
129) Building The Ghanaian State: Kwame Nkrumah's Symbolic Nationalism (Harcourt Fuller)
130) The Rise And Fall Of Kwame Nkrumah: A Study Of Personal Rule In Africa (Henry L. Bretton)
131) Organization Of African Unity: Twenty-Five Years On-Essays In Honor Of Kwame Nkrumah (Kwesi Krafona)
132) The Demigods: Eighties (Shridath S. Ramphal)
133) Mass Education And Community Development In Ghana: A Study In Retrospect (Kwa O. Hagan)
134) Political Corruption: The Ghana Case (Victor Le Vine)
135) Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americans And Africa, 1935-1961 (James H. Meriwether)
136) Great Britain And Ghana: Documents In Ghana History 1807-1957 (G.E. Metcalfe)
137) Western Involvement In Nkrumah's Downfall (Godfrey Mwakikagile)
138) Ghana's First Republic: The Pursuit Of The Political Kingdom (Trevor Jones)
139) West African Wager: Houphouet Versus Nkrumah (Jon Woronoff)
140) Three African Social Theorists On Class Struggle, Political Liberation, and Indigenous Culture: Cheikh Anta Diop, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah (Charles Simon-Aaron)
141) Kwame Nkrumah: The Man Who Brought Independence To Ghana (Bankole Timothy)
142) African Unbound: Reflections Of An African Statesman (Alex Quaison-Sackey)
143) Black Power: Politics Of Liberation in America (Charles Hamilton & Kwame Ture)
144) Where Others Wavered (Sam Nujoma)
145) Race Against Empire: Black Americans And Anticolonialism, 1937-1957 (Penny V. Eschen)
146) The Political History Of Ghana (1950-2013): The Experience Of A Non-Conformist (Obed Asamoah)
147) Ghana: A Political History From Pre-European To Modern Times (Kofi Awoonor)
149) Garvey: His Work And Impact (Rupert C. Lewis)
150) Aggrey Of Africa: A Study In Black And White (Edwin W. Smith)
151) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Walter Rodney)
152) Seven-Year Development Plan (J.H. Mensah)
153) Historical Dictionary Of Ghana (David Owusu-Ansah)
154) Encyclopedia Of African American History (Volume 1; Edited by Walter C. Rucker & Leslie M. Alexander)
155) The Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Edition, 1996)
156) Encyclopedia Of African History (3 Volumes; Kevin Shillington)
157) Encyclopedia Of Africa (Edited by Kwame A. Appiah & Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
158) Africana: The Encyclopedia Of The African And African-American Experience (Edited by Kwame A. Appiah & Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
159) Nkrumah's Legacy And Africa's Triple Heritage Between Globalization And Counter Terrorism (Ali Mazrui)
160) Uses And Abuses Of Political Power: A Case Study Of Continuity And Change In The Politics of Ghana (Maxwell Owusu)
161) Ghana And Ivory Coast: Perspective On Modernization (Aristide Zolberg & Philip Foster)
162) Ghana And The Ivory Coast, 1957-1967: Reflections On Economic Strategy, Structure, Implementation, And Necessity (Reginald H. Green)
163) The African Colonial State In Comparative Perspective (Crawford Young)
164) Pan-Africanism Or Neo-Colonialism?: The Bankruptcy Of The OAU (Elanga M'Buyinga)
165) Unity Or Poverty? The Economics Of Pan-Africanism (Ann Seidman & Reginald Green)
166) Dictionary Of African Biography (6 Volumes; Edited by Emmanuel K. Akyeampong & Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
167) The Flagbearers Of Ghana (Kojo T. Vieta)
168) The Works Of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Mohamdas Gandhi, W.E.B. Du Bois
169) The State Of Africa: A History Of Fifty Years Of Independence (Martin Meredith)
170) Encyclopedia Of Africa South Of The Sahara (Edited by John Middleton)
171) The History Of Ghana (Roger Gocking)
172) Coups From Below: Armed Subalterns And State Power In West Africa (Jimmy Kandeh)
173) Encyclopedia Of The Cold War (2 Volumes; Edited by William G. Gray & Ruud V. Dijk)
174) Ghana, 1957-1966: The Politics Of Institutional Dualism (Ben Amonoo)
175) Ghana Under Military Rule, 1966-1969 (Robert Pinkey)
176) The Business Of Decolonization: British Business Strategies In The Gold Coast (Sarah E. Stockwell)
177) African Intellectual Heritage (Edited by Molefi Kete Asante & Abu S. Abarry)
178) Black Africa: The Economic And Cultural Basis For A Federated State (Cheikh Anta Diop)
179) The World And Africa (W.E.B. Du Bois)
180) A Dictionary Of Marxist Thought (Edited by Tom Bottomore, Miliband, Laurence Harris, & V.G. Kiernan)
181) A History Of Economic Thought (William J. Barber)
182) African Universities And Western Tradition (Eric Ashby)
183) India Unrest (Sir Valentine Chirol)
184) The African Mind (Williams Abraham)
185) Pan-Africanism And East African Connection (Joseph S. Nye, Jr.)
186) Frantz Fanon: A Biography (David Macey)
187) Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey And Documents (Colin Legum)
188) A Political History Of Ghana: The Rise Of Gold Coast Nationalism, 1850-1928 (David Kimbe)
189) Organization Of African Unity And The Congo Crisis, 1964-65 (Catherin Hoskyns)
190) Long Walk To Freedom (Nelson Mandela)
191) Zambia Shall Be Free (Kenneth Kuanda)
192) Unity And Struggle (Amilcar Cabral)
193) Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy Of Amilcar Cabral (Firoze Manji & Bill Fletcher, Jr.)
194) Sowing The Mustard Seed: The Struggle For Freedom And Democracy (Yoweri Museveni)
195) African Political Thought (Guy Martin)
196) The Fortunes Of Africa: A 5000-Year History Of Wealth, Greed, And Endeavor (Martin Meredith)
197) The Assassination Of Patrice Lumumba (Ludo De Witte)
198) The History Of Africa: The Quest For Eternal Harmony (Second Edition; Molefi Kete Asante)
199) Leadership And Growth (Edited by David Brady & Michael Spence)
201) King Leopold Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, And Heroism In Colonial Africa (Adam Hochschild)
202) The Scramble For Africa: White Man's Conquest Of The Dark Continent From 1876-1912 (Thomas Pakenham)
203) The Position Of The Chief In The Modern Political System Of Ashanti (K.A. Busia)
204) A Study Of Contemporary Ghana (Volumes 1 & 2; Edited by W. Birmingham Et Al.)
205) Economic Independence In A New African State: Ghana 1956-1965 (J.D. Esseks)
205) The Wretched Of The Earth (Frantz Fanon)
206) Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fate Of Human Societies (Jared M. Diamond)
207) The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide And The Colonial Roots Of Nazism (David Olusago & Casper W. Erichsen)
208) Britain's Black Debt: Reparations For Slavery And Native Genocide (Hilary Beckles)
209) Reparations To Africa (Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann)
210) Blood And Soil: A World History Of Genocide And Extermination From Sparta To Darfur (Ben Kiernan)
211) Colonial Genocide And Reparations Claims In The 21st Century (Jeremy Sarkin)
212) Africa On The Move (Sekou Toure)
213) The State In Africa: The Politics Of The Belly (Jean-Francois Bayert)
214) Confessions Of A Hitman (John Perkins)
215) The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)
216) Criticism And Ideology: Second African Writers Conference Stockholm (Kirsten H. Petersen, Per Wastberg, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet)
217) Road To Ghana (Alfred Hutchinson)
218) Capital In The 21st Century (Thomas Picketty)
219) State Legitimacy And Development In Africa (Pierre Englebert)
220) The African Colonial State In Comparative Perspective (Crawford Young)
221) Germany: First Bid For Colonies, 1884-1885: A Move In Bismarck's European Policy (A.T.P Taylor)
222) Political Values And The Educated Class In Africa (Ali Mazrui)
223) Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences Of European Blacks, Africans And African Americans During The Nazi Era (Clarence Lusane)
224) A New Paradigm Of The African State (Mueni wa Muiu & Guy Martin)
225) Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, And Africa, 1959-1976 (Piero Gleijeses)
226) Africa And The West: A Documentary History From The Slave Trade To Independence (William Worges, Nancy Clark, & Edward Alpers)
227) How Far We Slaves Have Come! South Africa And Cuba In Today's (Fidel Castro & Nelson Mandela)
228) Cuba And Angola: Fighting For Africa's Freedom And Our Own (Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, & Mary-Alice Waters)
229) Che Guevara Reader: Writings On Politics And Revolution (Che Guevara)
230) The Greatest Black Achievers In History (Sylvia Lovina Chidi)
231) Creating Political Order: The Party States Of West Africa (R.A. Zolberg)
232) The African Dream: The Diaries Of The Revolutionary War In The Congo (Aleida Guevara March Et Al)
233) Wall Street And The Rise Of Hitler (Anthony Sutton)
234) Wall Street And The Bolshevik Revolution (Anthony Sutton)
235) Western Technology And Soviet Economic Development (Three Volumes; 1917-1930; 1930-1945; 1945-1965; Anthony Sutton)
236) After Postcolonialism: Remapping Philippines-United States Confrontations (E. San Juan, Jr.)
237) Culture And Imperialism (Edward Said)
238) The Washington Connection And Third World Fascism (Noam Chomsky)
239) Imperialism: The Highest Stage Of Capitalism (Vladimir Lenin)
240) The Postcolonial Studies Reader (Edited by Bill Ashcroft Et. Al)
241) Neocolonialism And African Politics (Yolamu Barongo)
242) The Decolonization Of Africa (David Birmingham)
243) Neocolonial Identity And Counter-Consciousness (Retato Constantino)
244) U.S. Neocolonialism In Africa (Stuart J. Sebor)
245) Postcolonial Identity In Africa (Richard Werbner)
246) Legal Pluralism: An Introduction To Colonial And New-Colonial Laws (M.B. Hooker)
247) Globalization And The Colonial World (Ankie Hoogvelt)
248) Trohan Horse Of Neocolonialism (Nikolai Ermolov)
249) Schooling And Education In Africa: The Case Of Ghana (George Sefa Dei)
250) Pedagogy Of The Oppressed (Paulo Freire)
251) The Regime Change Of Kwame Nkrumah: Epic Heroism In Africa And The Diaspora (Ahmad Rahman)
252) The Non-Alignment Movement Is A Mighty Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Force Of Our Time (ll-Song Kim)
252) Education For Critical Consciousness (Paulo Freire)
253) W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 (David Levering Lewis)
254) Ghana: A Concise History From Pre-Colonial Times To The 20th Century (D.E.K. Amenumey)
255) Africana Studies: A Survey Of Africa And The African Diaspora (Mario Azevedo)
256) Pedagogy Of Freedom (Paulo Freire)
257) The Political Awakening Of Africa (Rupert Emerson & Martin Kilson)
258) Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism In Ghana (Janet B. Hess)
259) Encyclopedia Of The Developing World (Thomas M. Leonard)
260) African Political Leadership: Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius Nyerere (A.B. Assensoh)
261) Postcolonial Identity In Wole Soyinka (Mpalive-Hangson Msiska)
291) The Organization Of African Unity And The Condo Crisis, 1964-1965 (C. Hoskyns)
292) West African States: Failure And Promise (A Study In Comparative Politics) (John Dunn)
293) Africans In Britain (David Killingray)
294) The African Colonial State In Comparative Perspective (Crawford Young)
295) Africa In Crisis: New Challenges And Possibilities (Edited by Tunde Zack-Williams)
296) Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique Of European Cultural Thought And Behavior (Marimba Ani)
297) African Universities And Western Tradition (Eric Ashby)
298) African Origin Of Civilization: Myth Or Reality (Cheikh Anta Diop)
299) Civilization Or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (Cheikh Anta Diop)
300) Precolonial Black Africa (Cheikh Anta Diop)
301) Black Africa: The Economic And Cultural Basis For A Federated State (Cheikh Anta Diop)
302) The Cultural Unity Of Black Africa (Cheikh Anta Diop)
303) Akyem Abuakwa And The Politics Of The Interwar Period In Ghana (A.B. Homes)
304) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication Of Ancient Greece 1785-85; Volume 1; Martin Bernal)
305) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Archeological And Documentary Evidence; Volume 2; Martin Bernal)
306) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Linguistic Evidence; Volume 3; Martin Bernal)
307) African Philosophy: The Phaoronic Period, 2780-330 B.C. (Theophile Obenga)
308) Stolen Legacy (George G.M. James)
309) Ghana’s First Republic, 1960-1966: The Pursuit Of The Political Kingdom (Trevor Jones)
310) The African Personality In America: An African-centered Framework (K.K.K Kambon)
311) Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome (Joy D. Leary)
312) The Debt: What America Owes Black America (Randall Robinson)
313) An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution To The Kidnapping Of A President (Randall Robinson)
314) Ethiopia Unbound: Studies In Race Emancipation (J.E. Casely-Hayford)
315) Encyclopedia Of The Harlem Renaissance (Sandra L. West & Aberjhans)
316) The Oxford Encyclopedia Of African Thought (Biodun Jeyifo & Abiola Irele)
317) Institutions And Ethnic Politics In Africa (Daniel N. Posner)
318) Staying Politics: Power And Performance In Asia And Africa (Edited by Donal C. O’Brien & Julia Strauss)
318) To Vote Or Not To Vote: The Merits And Limits Of Rational Choice (Andre Blais)
319) Ghana, 1957-1966: The Politics Of Institutional Dualism (Benjamin Amonoo)
320) The End Of The Earth (Robert D. Kaplan)
321) Economics And Elections: The Major Western Democracies (Michael S. Lewis-Beck)
332) Democratic Experiments In Africa: Regime Transitions In Comparative Perspective (Michael Bratton & Nicholas van de Wille)
332) Burkina Faso: Unsteady Statehood In West Africa (Pierre Englebert)
333) Youth And Employment In Africa: The Potential, The Problem, The Promise (The World Bank)
334) UN Millennium Development Library (Jeffrey Sachs The UN Millennium Project)
335) The End Of Politics (Jeffrey Sachs)
336) The Age Of Sustainable Development (Jeffrey Sachs)
337) The Future: Six Drivers Of Global Change (Al Gore)
338) African Americans And Political Participation: A Reference Handbook (Minion Morrison)
339) Becoming African Americans: Black Public Life In Harlem, 1919-1939 (Clare Corbould)
340) The Richard Wright Encyclopedia (Jerry Ward & Robert Butler)
341) African And American: West Africans In Post-Civil Rights America (Violet Showers & Marilyn Halter)
342) The Redemption Of Africa And Black Religion (St. Clair Drake)
343) Encyclopedia Of African American Education (Faustine Jones-Wilson Et Al.)
344) Encyclopedia Of African American History (Paul Finkelman)
345) Black World (Negro Digest) (A Johnson Publication)
346) Encyclopedia Of African-American Education (Two-volume set; Kofi Lomotey)
347) African American Lives (Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Evelyn B. Higginbotham)
348) African People In The Global Village: An Introduction To Pan-African Studies (John Marah)
349) Paul Cuffe: Black America And The African Return (Sheldon Harris)
350) African Americans In Global Affairs: Contemporary Perspectives (Michael Clemons)
351) Silenced Rivers: The Ecology And Politics Of Large Dams (Patrick McCully)
352) The Volta Resettlement Experience (Robert Chambers)
353) Effects Of Volta Lake Resettlement In Ghana: A Reappraisal After 25 Years (Kofi Diaw)
354) The Environmental Impact Of A Large Tropical Reservoir (Peter Freeman)
355) Message To The People: The Course Of African Philosophy (Marcus Garvey)
356) Encyclopedia Of The African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, And Culture (Boyce Davies & Carole Elizabeth)
357) Autobiography Of Malcolm X (Malcolm X & Alex Haley)
378) Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention (Manning Marable)
379) The John Henrik Clarke Papers (The New York Library, Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture)
380) Educational Outlook Journal (University of Pennsylvania)
381) In My Father’s House: Africa In the Philosophy Of Culture (Kwame Anthony Appiah)
382) Kwame Nkrumah Of Ghana: His Formative Years And The Beginning Of His Political Career, 1935-1948 (A.B. Assensoh)
383) The Dissolution Of The Colonial Empires (Franz Ansprenger)
384) Reconstructing The Nation In Africa: The Politics Of Nationalism In Ghana (Michael Amoah)
385) Nationalism And African Intellectuals (Toyin Falola)
386) The New Ghana: The Birth Of A New Nation (Joseph G. Amamoo)
387) The Oxford Handbook Of Modern African History (Edited by Richard Reid & John Parker)
388) Writing And Colonialism In Northern Ghana: The Encounter Between The LoDagaa And ‘The World On Paper’ “Sean Hawkins)
389) The African Journalist (Kwame Nkrumah)
390) The African Journalist (Keith Nalumango)
391) British Imperialism: Innovation And Expansion (Two-volume Set: 1688-1914, 1914-1994; A.G. Hopkins & P.J. Cain)
Let me just end here!
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Readers,
Baidoo has been misrepresenting some of the arguments I made in my rebuttal to his earlier article.
Readers who have the time should go back and take a look at my rebuttal. For those of you who can't get ... read full comment
Dear Readers,
Baidoo has been misrepresenting some of the arguments I made in my rebuttal to his earlier article.
Readers who have the time should go back and take a look at my rebuttal. For those of you who can't get my original piece I am reproducing it here:
........................................................................................................................................................
We should like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Philip Kobina Baidoo, Jr. for responding to our rejoinder. That aside, we should quickly add that though he made some efforts to respond to our piece, he failed abysmally to address most of the substantive issues we raised therein. We may, however, forgive him for serious intellectual lapses because, among other things, his frank admission on not reading Marx’s four-volume piece in its entirety (and other writings) we recommended for his perusal says a lot about where his intellect stands on important global issues. Thus, we shall not waste too much time on him.
How can anyone read one or two writings in a writer’s larger corpus of written works and decide to draw general conclusions? Who says the subject matter Marx discussed in his first volume is what he also discussed in his three other volumes? What sort of faulty reasoning is this? Using the same logic, however, can we read “Maps” in Nuruddin Farah’s so-called “Blood in the Sun” trilogy, and decide to draw general conclusions on “Secrets” and “Gifts” which are also in the trilogy? Can one even read a chapter or two of the same book and begin to draw general conclusions based on the book’s subject matter? Again, let us assume that Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s statement to the effect that he had only read the first volume in Marx’s four-part volume is hypothetical, nothing to be taken serious, but has it occurred to him that the summary he gave on Marx’s first volume may not be represented in the other three volumes?
Simply put, what Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s says about Marx’s first volume is not representative of Marx’s larger work. What we want to say, in effect, is that what Mr. Baidoo, Jr. attributes to Marx in his reading of the first volume is a “small” component of the larger context of Marx’s entire corpus of written works, and therefore, we cannot read too much into it. Does this not fall under fallacy of defective induction, faulty generalization, or overgeneralization? The issue we raise is analogous to reading Nkrumah’s 1967 “Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization” and then making general conclusions without also reading the revised version (1970). One word, one paragraph, one additional page, and a new introduction can make a huge difference in the general interpretation of two same books, one being a revised version of the other. Nkrumah’s revised position on the “class” nature of traditional African society, for instance, has created major divisions among scholars around the world as to what to make of the new information in the general exegesis of the two texts.
Another good example is Einstein’s forced use of “cosmological constant,” a constant he created to address a problem that did not fit the constant. Einstein, in fact, regretted inventing it and using it. What is more, he continued to use it over other mathematicians’ and physicists’ objections only to retract it later. At one time, Einstein even ignored the correct implications of his mathematical computations based on some of his ideas because, apparently, the German scientist Erwin F. Freundlich, his friend, had given him astronomical data that happened to be entirely incorrect about the Milky Way (See Amir D. Aczel’s “The Mystery of the Newly-Discovered Einstein Manuscript: Why Did He Come Back to Lambda?”).
Why does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. read too much into Marx’s first book and what, in his limited opinion, was Marx’s faulty reasoning with regard to some of the underlying assumptions for his theories? Of course, there is nothing wrong with aspects of Marx’s ideas being wrong. Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Greek, Babylonian, and Mesopotamian mathematics and science were not always right. Yet a revision of Ancient Egyptian calendar engendered the calendar we use today. We can say the same of mathematical pi and of hundreds of other ancient ideas. Even not every aspect of the moral philosopher Adam Smith’s ideas is relevant today. How much of today’s capitalism is owed to Adam Smith’s classical economics? How much of today’s Marxism is owed to Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’ theories? How much of today’s evolution is owed to Charles Darwin (Alfred Russell Wallace and Al-Jahiz)? How does Darwin’s atheistic evolutionary theory different from Francis Collins’ theistic evolutionary theory? Did Isaac Newton, the man who gave us the Three Laws of Motion and Gravitational Theory, and Gottfried W. Leibniz, who together with Newton gave us calculus, infinitesimal calculus that is, dabble in alchemy, a now discredited science (now seen as pseudoscience; there is some evidence that point origin of infinitesimal calculus to India, which later made its way to Europe)?
Did Greek thinkers like Aristotle and Anaximander not advance the so-called spontaneous generation, generally meaning life forms originate from lifeless matter, a pseudoscience discredited by Louis Pasteur’s (and others’) germ theory? Again theories and hypotheses undergo radical changes all the time, so too are assumptions. And yet Karl Marx’s theories are not the only ones. It is why Leninism, Maoism, Stalinism, and Fidelism (Castroism) are variants of Marxism, as it were subject to the realities and dictates of circumstance, time, revisions, geography, and the like. Thus, the “infinite assumptions” which Mr. Baidoo, Jr. associated with Marx’s first volume can be found in natural science, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and other branches of social science, too. Even “labor time” is a staple of capitalism.
What are we saying? Our point is that Marxism and capitalism are merely theories and therefore not carved in stones or, alternatively, are not expected to work all the time. The Supply-Demand Curve, for instance, does not always work in practice. But it is always beautiful and workable in theory. Therefore, it is not everything that Adam Smith and Karl Marx said that should be religiously pursued to its logical conclusion in the complex praxis of human interactions (Note: “the supply-demand theory” is implied in Smith’s “invisible hand concept”; insider trading (privileged information), incomplete information, monopolies, greed, patrimonial capitalism, time, politics, decisional irrationality, corruption, oligarchies, and geography are some of the variables that limit the operational utility of Smith’s “invisible hand theory,” the basis of free market; this is also why regulation and state intervention models are called for). If the markets are so predictable, for instance, how come Alan Greenspan and his team of world-class economists could not foresee America’s recession at the coming of the Obama Administration and putting corrective mechanisms in place to nip it in the bud?
The fact is that markets do fail all the time, and has actually been so throughout human history. This is one of the major criticisms leveled against Milton Friedman. This is where regulation, legislation, and state intervention come in. “But he slipped all too easily into claiming both that markets always work and that only markets work,” Paul Krugman writes of Milton Friedman. “It’s extremely hard to find cases in which Friedman acknowledged the possibility that markets could go wrong, or that government intervention could serve a useful purpose (See Krugman’s “Who Was Milton Friedman?”, the New York Book Review, Feb. 15, 2007). Krugman also maintains: “Friedman was wrong on some issues, and sometimes seemed less than honest with his readers, I regard him as a great economist and a great man.” Sadly, Mr. Baidoo did not inform his readers that Keynes’ economic theories had always been part of the political economy of the 20th century, that they are back in full swing in the 21st, and that Keynes’ work and ideas made the British Treasury more powerful.
It would also have enriched Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s central thesis if he had informed his readers that “Keynes was also one of the fathers of the 1944 Bretton Woods Accord, which established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and which put in place a system of fixed exchange rates (See “Keynes’ Economic Theories Re-emerge in Government Intervention Policies,” PBS NEWSHOUR, Feb. 23, 2009).
Accordingly, we advise Mr. Baidoo, Jr. to go back and read the rest of the writings in Marx’s larger corpus in order to draw more informed conclusions about Marxist thought. Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s faulty generalization (“hasty generalization”) is unacceptable. Further, we pointed out that many of the issues Marx and Engel raised about the deficits of capitalism are still with us here today. In that regard, we still recommend Kenneth Lapidides’ edited volume “Marx and Engels on Trade Union.” Let us remind Mr. Baidoo, Jr. again what the French scholar Jacques Rancière had to say: “The domination of capitalism globally depends today on the existence of a Chinese Communist Party that gives de-localized capitalist enterprises cheap labor to lower prizes and deprive workers of the rights of self-organization. Happily, it is possible to hope for a less absurd and more just than today’s (See Stuart Jeffrey’s article, ”WHY MARXISM IS ON THE RISE,’ The Guardian, July 4, 2012). How does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. account for this contradiction Prof. Rancière describes?
Moreover, we would like Mr. Baidoo, Jr. to pay more attention to this part of Jeffrey’s factual data: “That hope, perhaps, explains another improbable truth of our economically catastrophic times, THE REVIVAL IN MARX AND MARXIST THOUGHT. SALES OF DAS KAPITAL, MARX’S MASTERPIECE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, HAVE SOARED EVER SINCE 2008, AS HAVE THOSE OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO AND THE GRUNDRISSE (OR, TO GIVE IT IN ITS ENGLISH TITLE, OUTLINES OF THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY). THEIR SALES ROSE AS BRITISH WORKERS BAILED OUT BANKS TO KEEP THE DEGRADED SYSTEM GOING AND THE SNOUTS OF THE RICH FAMILY IN THEIR TROUGHS WHILE THE REST OF US STRUGGLE IN DEBT, JOB INSECURITY OR WORSE (our emphasis).”
“THERE’S EVEN A CHINESE THEATRE DIRECTOR CALLED HE NIAN WHO CAPITALIZED ON DAS KAPITAL’S RENAISSANCE TO CREATE AN ALL-SINGING, ALL-DANCING MUSICA,” Jeffrey continues, adding: “AND IN PERHAPS THE MOST LOVELY REVERSAL OF THE LUXURIANTLY BEARDED REVOLUTIONARY THEORIST’S FORTUNES, KARL MARX WAS RECENTLY CHOSEN FROM A LIST OF 10 CONTENDERS TO APPEAR ON A NEW ISSUE OF MasterCard BY CUSTOMERS OF GERMAN BANK SPARKASSE IN CHEMNITZ. IN COMMUNIST EAST GERMANY FROM 1953 TO 1990, CHEMNITZ WAS KNOWN AS KARL MARX STADT. CLEARLY, MORE THAN TWO DECADES AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL, THE FORMER EAST GERMANY HASN’T AIRBRUSHED ITS MARXIST PAST (our emphasis).”
To Mr. Baidoo, Jr., here is some statistics for you (as per Jeffrey): “IN 2008, REUTERS REPORTS, A SURVEY OF EAST GERMANY FOUND 52% BELIEVED THE FREE-MARKET ECONOMY WAS “UNSUITABLE” AND 43% SAID THEY WANTED SOCIALISM BACK. KARL MARX MAY BE DEAD AND BURIED IN HIGHGATE CEMETERY, BUT HE IS ALIVE AND WELL AMONG CREDIT-HUNGRY GERMANS. WOULD MARX HAVE APPRECIATED THE IRONY OF HIS IMAGE BEING DEPLOYED ON A CARD TO GET GERMANS DEEPER IN DEBT? YOU THINK (our emphasis).”
Jeffrey continues: “THERE HAS BEEN A GLUT OF BOOKS TRUMPETING MARXISM’S RELEVANCE. ENGLISH LITERATURE PROFESSOR TERRY EAGLETON LAST YEAR PUBLISHED A BOOK CALLED “WHY MARX WAS RIGHT.” FRENCH MAOST PHILOSOPHER ALAIN BADIOU PUBLISHED A LITTLE RED BOOK CALLED “THE COMMUNIST HYPOTHESIS…”
Readers interested in this topic may want to go ahead and read Jeffrey’s entire article for additional information. On the other hand, the statistics Jeffrey gives as regards East Germany is nothing new, particularly surprising. There are similar statistics that can be extracted from around the world (we shall leave this as homework for Mr. Baidoo, Jr). Then also, how do we jive Jeffrey’s statistics with Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s statement: “To be honest, I haven’t read all the four volumes. I only read the first one, but it is full of such claptrap, even when I was dabbling in socialism I couldn’t believe what I was reading. In reality it is a book relevant to the era that it was written, that is me being modest, but not now.” What are many in advanced capitalist countries (and around the world) seeing in Karl Marx that Mr. Baidoo, Jr. fails to see? Why are capitalist societies bringing back Marx and his works? Why do Marxist theories continue to influence capitalist societies today? And why does the larger world still warm up to Marxist thinking?
As a matter of fact, what we intend achieving with these lengthy quotes, Jeffrey’s, is to reaffirm our contention, a thesis we broached in our earlier rejoinder to Mr. Baidoo, Jr., that neither communism nor socialism is dead. We cited an example where communist parties exist as part of ruling coalitions (governments) in a number of countries around the world. We also mentioned a few such countries. On this score, Mr. Baidoo, Jr. even accepts that socialism is alive and kicking, but so is communism. Did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. find out how much the Cuban government contributes to each Cuban’s medical bill, accommodation, food, education, etc? Did Mr. Baidoo. Jr. find out Cuba’s employment and homelessness statistics by comparing them to capitalist Ghana’s? Since Mr. Baidoo, Jr. seems to get the jitters when Communist Cuba is mentioned in connection with the Human Development Index (HDI), why did he not take it upon himself to prove to his readers why Cuba should not be in the Top 50 (2014) by, among other things, disproving the data collected by experts at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)? Did we not say Cuba was “not a nirvana” in our rejoinder to Mr. Baidoo, Jr., implying that she has her own challenges as any other country on the planet, including America, the world’s richest and largest economy?
Perhaps, once again, Mr. Baidoo, Jr. could help himself by reading Cornel West’s and Tavis Smiley’s book “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto,” and watching the authors’ bus-tour documentary otherwise called “The Poverty Tour: A Call To Conscience,” across poverty-ridden America (the authors argue that close to half of America’s population, 150 million, is near or actually live in poverty). Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. taken the time to assess Thomas Piketty’s work on wealth and income inequality and how it demolishes some of the major tenets of capitalism? What are we saying? Piketty has relied on data from the past 250 years to investigate how distortions in profit and economic growth rate, in the case where the former takes over the latter, in the long run lead to socioeconomic insecurity (See his work “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”). Accordingly, he has argued for progressive tax reforms to be undertaken on an international scale to neutralize the instability resulting from gross distortions between economic growth rates and profit generation. He has also blamed the rising tide of crony capitalism as constituting one of the major culprits behind socioeconomic inequalities around the globe.
Is it not surprising, then, that five decades of being under economic sanctions and without Ghana’s (Africa’s) vast natural wealth and the tens of billions of dollars African countries’ receive in foreign aid, Cuba still does better than capitalist Ghana, for instance, as measured by economic indices? We are even retrogressing developmentally with our oil and new-found mineral wealth! So what has Ghana been doing since Joseph Ankrah, Akwasi Afrifa, Nii Amaa Ollennu, K.A. Busia, Edward Akufo-Addo, I.K. Acheampong, Fred Akuffo, J.J. Rawlings, Hilla Limann, John Kufuor, John Atta Mills, and John D. Mahama, all capitalists? And why did the Mo Ibrahim Foundation ignore John Kufour for its prestigious “Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership” award if he did so well as Mr. Baidoo, Jr. says? Is it possible the award is reserved for Kufour in the future?
Then again, unlike the billions of dollars of foreign aid capitalist Ghana rakes in to improve her economy, has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. bothered to find out how much America’s economic embargo costs Cuba (and America IN TURN)? (See Portia Siegelbaum’s “Cuba: U.S. Embargo Causes $1 Trillion in Losses,” CBS News, Sept. 2011). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, has said the embargo costs America $1.2 billion annually (and Cuba $685 million annually). What does this say about Communist Cuba and capitalist Ghana? Even Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s title is misleading. Where did we specifically use Cuban communism to support Nkrumahism? Where is Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s evidence for this titular speciousness? Did we not topically discuss the Beijing Consensus, the Nordic Model, the Washington Consensus (capitalism), socialism and communism, and “mixed economy,” and yet he selectively chose Cuban Communism for his groundless titular mischievousness? Is he mischievously implying that Nkrumah’s “mixed economy” is communism?
Having said that, how do we end this controversy on communism and the proven rightness of Karl Marx’s larger vision? We shall quote the late Prof. Eric Hobsbawn, a former British historian, on this: “Contradictions of a market system based on no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment,’ a system of exploitation and of ‘endless accumulation’ can never be overcome: that at some point in a series of transformations and restructurings the development of this essentially destabilizing system will lead to a state of affairs that can no longer be described as capitalism” ( See Stuart Jeffrey’s article and 2012 edition (introduction) of “The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition”).
Mr. Baidoo, Jr. also writes: “Now, to the most useless part of his diatribe against my piece, which he cobbled together the names of writers he claims I must read to keep abreast with his work of fiction… To pour out those pages of words without personal critical analysis of the facts, but constant references to other peoples work is a sure sign of inferiority complex.” What does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. mean by mentioning Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlick, Al Gore, Kenneth Galbraith, etc, without citing their works and critiquing them? Is he also implying he has inferiority complex? Do Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama, Wole Soyinka, Marimba Ani, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Noam Chomsky, Kofi Kissi Dompere, and several writers around the world suffering from inferiority complex because they constantly reference other people’s works in their works?
And who says we do not know these writers and their works, Carson’s, Al Gore’s, Galbraith’s, and Ehrlich’s? Do you have to be a capitalist to be an environmentalist? (like Rachel Carson; see the article “Rachel Carson’s Ecological Critique,” Monthly Review, Volume 59, Issue 9, Feb. 2008,)? Was Carson not influenced by socialist ideals? (See how left-wing/socialist ideas influenced Rachel Carson; Brett Clark and John B. Foster are the authors of the said article. Check under the ECOLOGY section)? Then also one wonders why Mr. Baidoo, Jr. mentioned the late John K. Galbraith, an economist some of whose major ideas on political economy were closer to John M. Keynes’ than to Milton Friedman, the most vociferous critic of Keynes (See how Friedman also went after Galbraith). As for the microbiologist Paul Ehrlich we shall say less about him as Mr. Baidoo, Jr. failed to tell his readers what his actual or direct contributions, if any, were to the theoretical developments of the political economy of capitalism, Marxism, Keynesian “mixed economy,” the Nordic Model, the Washington Consensus, and the Beijing Consensus. In a sense, Mr. Baidoo, Jr. may have to tell us in some detail what Ehrlich’s direct contributions were to economic theory. We studied Paul Ehrlich in detail in a microbiology (as well as Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry, and General Biology) and have an inkling of what his major ideas were.
And was Al Gore not directly influenced by Rachel Carson too? “For me personally, Silent Spring had a profound,” writes Al Gore (See Al Gore’s presentation paper “Introduction to 25th Anniversary Edition of ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Spring” at Indiana University). “Silent Spring” was a book Rachel Carson authored. This book and the controversy it generated led to the creation of America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)! Let us recall that Al Gore has not been largely successful (with his environmental campaign and “An Inconvenient Truth”) in terms of originating serious international regulation/legislation to counter global warming/environmental destruction because private profit (capitalism; free market) has remained a grave obstacle to his agenda.
This is what Joe Kay meant when he wrote: “A serious response to the environmental damage already sustained and the threat of truly catastrophic future damage REQUIRES A TRANSFORMATION OF A SOCIALIST CHARACTER. Global warming cannot be solved within the framework of a system distinguished by the existence of rival nation-states and the subornation of all decisions to the interests of private profit (our emphasis; see Kay’s article “Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth: Political Posturing and the Democratic Party”; see also Fawzi Ibrahim’s book “Capitalism Versus Planet Earth: An Irreconcilable Conflict”). The Kyoto Protocol suffered from similar reasons (and others). Yet Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize (with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IPCC)) did not generate as much negative controversy as Kenyan Wangari Maathai’s? Why? Some also see Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize as a “sympathy award” after he had lost the presidency to George W. Bush, an election some claimed to have been rigged for Bush. And by mentioning Al Gore, was Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s making reference to Al Gore’s lie that he invented the internet (Readers can read the transcript here “A Cautionary Tale for Politicians: Al Gore and the ‘Invention,’” The Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2013; CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed Al Gore in March 8, 1999 when he committed the public gaffe; the video for the interview in question is also here)?
On the other hand, Al Gore’s book “The Assault on Reason” deals with everything that is wrong with American democracy and capitalism. For instance, he discusses why Congress consistently refused to pass legislation to keep a check on the tuna industry in America for ignoring high levels of mercury in tuna, while continuing to sell them to the American public (Al Gore mentioned this in his book; I have since not followed up on this controversial question if the US Congress has passed such a legislation as of this writing. I stand to be corrected, though). We also want to add that American left-wing politicians and scholars have been influenced by one socialist/communist ideal or another, as Paul R. Gregory argues in his Jan. 22, 2012 Forbes article “Is President Obama A Socialist?”
“By ‘socialist,” Paul writes, “I do not mean a Lenin, Castro, or Mao, but whether Obama falls within the mainstream of contemporary socialism as represented, for example, by Germany’s Social Democrats, French Socialists, or Spain’s socialist-workers part? BY THIS CRITERION, YES, OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST (our emphasis).” We implore readers to read the 2011 Declaration of Principles of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and see for themselves how they favorably compare with the policies of the Obama Administration. Paul concludes after closely studying PES’s 2011 Declaration and the Obama Administration’s policies: “If the Party of European Socialists were to rate Obama, he would get a near perfect score. The political views and programs that Obama is prepared to reveal to the public are consistent with those of European socialists. He is clearly a socialist in the European sense of the term.” Paul could not have been right!
Finally, Paul reminds us that “Marxism provided the intellectual foundations of the European welfare state.” But Paul need not have gone that far. Obama’s writings clearly demonstrate socialist influences on his political and intellectual development. Is it any wonder that Republicans are claiming the Obama Healthcare Act, his newly proposed “free” community college education, progressive tax policies and redistribution of wealth, etc., are socialist? Yet Obama’s state capitalism (or state intervention) saved the American economy, particularly American banks and some in the auto-industry from virtual collapse. Some have called Obama’s state intervention policies “socialist state intervention” (See “GM’s Main Street Bondholders Would Lose, Lawyer Says,” Bloomberg News, May 28, 2009. Authors: Christopher Scinta/Tiffany Kary; see also Jon Greenberg’s “Did President Obama Save the Auto Industry,” Sept. 6, 2012, Tampa Bay Times). Where is Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s take on Obama’s state capitalism and the revival of the American economy? Neither does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. inform us that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which the Obama Administration pursued and consequently deployed to revamp the American economy, bringing the American economy back to its feet in other words, is Keynesian, and that Keynes influenced the policies of John F. Kennedy, too!
How about Keynes’ work “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” and its proven predictions about Germany’s development in the wake of the Treaty of Versailles, formation of the League of Nations, precursor of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan (and the book’s prescriptive parallels with America’s recent Wall Street economic meltdown)? Could Mr. Baidoo, Jr. deliberately tell us how Keynes’ work strengthened the British Treasury? Or, how Labor Prime Minister James Callahan’s 1976 denunciation of Keynesian economics coincided with the international prominence of Milton Friedman’s economics, the same year Friedman received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, bearing in mind that Friedman probably constituted the most vocal critic of Keynes, at least in America, at the time and throughout his academic career and social life?
Lastly, Frankin D. Roosevelt’s reliance on Keynesian economics is what has made America today. Many of America’s physical infrastructures and some of America’s powerful institutions in existence today derived from his New Deal, which, in turn, relied heavily on John Maynard Keynes’ “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.” Social Security, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Federal Crop Insurance Corporation ( FCIC), Tennessee Valley Authority, 40-hour worksheet, abolition of child labor, unemployment benefits, etc., all resulted from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s deployment of Keynesian state capitalism (state intervention). As a matter of fact, Keynesian economics is still part of the Washington Consensus, the Beijing Consensus (Chinese Model, command economy) and the Nordic Model. Contrary to what others may think, it has not disappeared into thin air. In fact, Keynes did neither place complete emphasis on nor exclusively direct only governments to run their economies. He merely gave governments a prescriptive formula for specific roles they should play in reviving depressive economics.
Keynes made this clear in his influential book “The General Theory.” Indeed he recognized the role of the private sector as well. Paul Krugman, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2008), writes: “Keynes did not, despite what you may have heard, want the government to run the economy. He described his analysis in his 1936 masterwork,” The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money,’ as ‘moderately conservative in its implications.’ He wanted to fix capitalism, not replace it. BUT HE DID CHALLENGE THE NOTION THAT FREE-MARKET ECONOMIES CAN FUNCTION WITHOUT A MINDER, EXPRESSING PARTICULAR CONTEMPT FOR FINANCIAL MARKETS, WHICH HE VIEWED AS BEING DOMINATED BY SHORT-TERM SPECULATION WITH LITTLE REGARD FOR FUNDAMENTALS. AND HE CALLED FOR ACTIVE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION…TO FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT DURING SLUMPS (our emphasis; see ”How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” the New York Times, Sept. 2, 2009).
Krugman also says that no economic model, not even the economic models developed by Joseph Schumpeter or by the classical economics, provided satisfactory answers to address the American crisis (the Great Depression) and, as a result, American economists and politicians turned to the Keynesian model of state intervention. And it worked. Keynesian economics saved American capitalism. In other words, Krugman is implying here that Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” had no answer to the American crisis or the Great Depression that rocked the world. Is Europe probably not the biggest user of the Keynesian model in various disguises? How about Canada and New Zealand? We may want to ask again: What is wrong with having one’s theory replaced by another’s? Does this not happen all the time? Even the late influential economist Milton Friedman, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1976), and his Chicago School did everything to overthrow the Keynesian model. Today, Friedman economics is under attack where the weakness and deficits of his theories have been exposed (See Noami Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism; see Paul Krugman’s work on Milton Friedman; there are several others).
What is more, it is no wonder Friedman tried to distance himself from the Chilean murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet, under whom the former served as adviser. Why does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. incorrectly claim Keynesian economics is dead when it is not? Why does he fault Keynes and Marx but leaves the classical economists alone? Why does he make too much of Marx’s faulty underlying reasons for his ideas, at least as expressed in Marx’s first volume? Does Marxism have all the answers? Does capitalism have all the answers? Henri Poincare, Hendrik Lorentz, David Gilbert, Karl Schwartzman, Albert Einstein, Marcel Grossman and others contributed to the development of Special Relativity and General Relativity, both of which significantly revised Newtonian physics.
On the other hand, Newton revised or changed Aristotelian (or classical Greek physics). Copernican (Indian physics and the physics of Kepler/Galileo) heliocentrism revised Ptolemaic geocentrism. Now, as of this writing, there is a vigorous search for an alternative theory to explain the world as neither Relativity nor Newtonian physics sufficiently explains every phenomenon of the natural world. It is why we have string theory. Finally, what is wrong citing others’ works to support one’s own?
Furthermore, there are even speculations that the recent research undertaken by CERN did produce results that invalidate Relativity but, of course, there is a consensus on a possible cover-up (We discussed this question with Dr. Chandra Kant Raju, one of the world’s leading authorities on Einstein. Dr. Raju proved one of Einstein’s major calculations wrong and developed a mathematical model to correct it, earning him the prestigious Telesio-Galileo Academy of Science Award (2010). Dr. Raju who had closely followed the CERN experiment is of the view that Western physicists do not want to discredit Einstein. We take this as a controversial allegation, though). Neither was Charles Darwin the originator of evolution (See Ah-Jahiz and Alfred Russel Wallace). We could say the same of socialism/communism and Marx/Engels. Darwin was a member of a club that held discussions on evolution and other naturalist ideas before he embarked on the theory. Marx also belonged to socialist organizations before formally delving fully into socialist theory. Chinua Achebe got the title “Things Fall Apart” from W.B. Yeats’ poetic piece “The Second Coming.” Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” challenged Achebe to produce a work that indicted Conrad’s novelistic work on Africa (See Achebe’s essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness”; readers can find this essay in his book “Hopes and Impediments”).
Tsitsi Dangarembga, the Zimbabwean author of the post-colonial classic “Nervous Condition,” got the title from Jean-Paul Sartre’s introduction to Fanon’s book “The Wretched of the Earth.” Shakespeare’s Othello came straight from Leo Africanus’ book “A Geographical History of Africa” and Cinthio’s 1565 book “Hecatommithi.” Molefi Kete Asante developed his Afrocentric theory by reading Kwame Nkrumah, Cheikh Anta Diop, WEB Du Bois, and others. We also know how much of the Bible comes straight from the Epic of Gilgamesh, etc. The list is endless. The central question again is: What is wrong for one to cite his/her sources to develop his subject matter? What does plagiarism do to one’s intellectual credibility? Is Einstein not being posthumously attacked and censured today for failing to list his sources when freely appropriating others’ ideas was a general practice then? What is wrong with reading to expand one’s horizon? Did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. expect us to provide critiques for all the sources we cited in our rejoinder? How long will that take? Is he aware that many writings harbor internal critiques of their own?
Or, does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. mistakes the little and shallow summary he presented in his essays for serious critique? Nothing of the sort he did in both essays comes anywhere close to the methodology of critique! Besides, one learns to critique using facts, logical argumentation, factual and verifiable sources, and scientific data, not sentimentalism, ad hominem tactics, distortions, lies, and covert insults, etc., something we avoided in our first rejoinder.
Back to one of our preoccupations. Unfortunately, Obama cannot take all the credit for saving American banks, American auto industry, and the American economy from collapse. Individuals in control of drug cartels and profits from international drug trafficking deserve part of the credit, too (See Ed Vulliamy’s “How a Big US Bank Laundered Billions from Mexico’s Murderous Drug Gangs,” The Guardian, April 2, 2100; Michael Smith’s “Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal,” Bloomberg News, June 28, 2010; Avinash Tharoor’s piece “Banks Launder Billions of Illegal Cartel While Snubbing Legal Marijuana Business,” Huffington Post, Sept. 22, 2014; John Burnett’s “Awash in Cash, Drug Cartels Rely On Big Banks to Launder Profits,” National Public Radio, March 20, 2014; Angelo Young’s “Citi, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Were Channels for Sending Drug Money to Colombia, Court Filings Show,” International Business Times, Sept. 12, 2014). Did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. read Dawn Paley’s book “Drug War Capitalism” for hard evidence on the slippery relationship among capitalism, drug cartels, money laundering, and drug trafficking? Bloomberg Markets Magazine has also reported on the roles Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp., America’s biggest banks, played in financing drug trafficking through money laundering activities.
It is probably public knowledge that American banks, like their Swiss counterparts, heavily rely on laundered money and stolen money stashed in their banks by kleptomaniacs! Mr. Baidoo, Jr. may want to watch, to read the transcript, or to listen to the interview between Brad Birkenfeld, an employee of Union Bank of Switzerland (UUBS), and the folks at Democracy Now to understand how both Swiss and American banks train their employees to hide stolen money in their banks. The American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) awarded Birkenfeld a whopping US$104 million for exposing the banks involved in this scandal (See “Whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld Rewarded Record $104M for Exposing How UBS Helped Rich Evade Taxes,” Democracy Now, Sept. 12, 2012).
More surprisingly, it turns out American and Swiss Banks have similar secrecy laws that protect criminals. Birkenfeld’s whisleblowing alone has exposed 46,000 American tax evaders, thus far, thanks to free market economy and loopholes in global capitalism.
Now to Boris Yeltsin. Did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. ever try finding out how between $4.2 billion and $10 billion disappeared under Boris Yeltsin, the chronic alcoholic, ending up in the Bank of New York (See “Foreign Loans Diverted in Monster Money Laundering,” World Bank)? “The legacy of Boris Yeltsin,” writes Justin Raimondo in “The Legacy of Boris Yeltsin,” “who presided over what Paul Klebnikov described as ‘ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT REGIMES IN HISTORY,’ is, quite literary, the death agony of the Russian nation” (our emphasis).” Vladimir Volkov also writes in “The Bitter Legacy of Boris Yeltsin: “…the Yeltsin ‘generation of utter cynics’ was filled with people ‘who, without the slightest bit of embarrassment, were thoroughly corrupt and totally indifferent to the ideas that formed the foundation of the country.”
Volkov continues: “AT THE SAME TIME CRIMINALITY AND CORRUPTION FLOURISHED IN RUSSIA. ONE SCANDAL THAT OCCURRED AT THE TIME OF YELTSIN’S REELECTION CAMPAIGN IN 1996 BECAME A SYMBOL OF THIS CORRUPTION. AT THAT TIME, TWO HIGH-RANKING FUNCTIONARIES IN THE YELTSIN PREELECTION HEADQUARTERS WERE SEIZED WITH $500 MILLION OF CASH THAT THEY HAD BEEN CARRYING OUT OF GOVERNMENT BUILDING. ANOTHER SIMILAR SUCH SCANDAL, THE ‘BANK OF NEW YEAR’ AFFAIR, HAPPENED THREE YEARS LATER WHEN IT BECAME KNOWN THAT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAD BEEN HIDDEN IN WESTERN BANK ACCOUNTS AS PART OF A MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME TO SHELTER THE INCOMES OF RUSSIAN OLIGARCRHS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF LEADING GOVERNMENT BEREAUCRATS AND WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF WESTERN BUSINESS (our emphasis).”
It was also Yeltsin who appointed Putin which, and according to Volkov: “was entirely in keeping with the logic of the restoration of capitalism.”
In fact it was Bill Clinton who, in the 1990s, would return most of the stolen money to Russia. So, what is Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s boring reference to Boris Yeltsin, a kleptomaniacal capitalist drunkard, all about, if we may ask? Boris Yeltsin was as corrupt as the 46,000 Americans who had their stolen money hidden in Swiss bank accounts. “Between 1992 and 1994, the rise in the death rate in Russia was so dramatic that Western demographers did not believe the figures,” Raymond maintains. These terrible statistics occurred under Yeltsin’s watchful presidency. The question is: What were Yeltsin and his kleptomaniacal cliques doing with Russia’s money when Russians died from preventable causes? Yeltsin’s heaping praises on American capitalism, in Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s reckoning, while capitalizing on Russian capitalism to enrich himself, his family, and his friends, is shameful. Why did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. mention Yeltsin in his piece at all knowing full well that his record is probably one of the worst in Russian history? This is not how intellectuals protect their credibility. It is never done anywhere, citing incredible and questionable characters as one’s authority! In other words, Mr. Baidoo, Jr. should have read about Yeltsin before including him as a source!
That brings us to the issues of the subprime crisis, race, racism, credit crunch, and the US government (the US Justice Department). Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America paid US$36 billion for their racist treatment of minorities and other poor Americans (See “Citgroup Will Pay $7 Billion to Settle Justice Department Investigation into Subprime,” CNBC/Reuters, July 14, 2014; see also Dean Starkman’s “Wrecking an Economy Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry,” New Republic, Aug. 20, 2014). With regard to the subprime crisis and racism, New York Post writer Paul Sperry notes: “In the 1990s, convinced that the US mortgage was RACIST, the Clinton Administration launched a massive campaign of social engineering…They targeted private banks with discrimination lawsuits if they didn’t lend to enough minorities…” (our emphasis; See “Re-Inflating the Bubble,” April 2013).
Another writer David Dayen also notes: “Indeed, the subprime loans in the 2000s were either originated by or funded by our biggest banks. Coates recognizes this, pointing out that THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUCCESSFULLY SUED NOT FLY-BY-NIGHT ORGINATORS, BUT WELLS FARGO AND BANK OF AMERICA, OVER HOUSING DISCRIMINATION. LOAN OFFICERS AT WELLS FARGO, THE LEADING ORIGINATOR OF HOME LOANS TO ETHNIC MINORITIES, REFERRED TO BLACK CUSTOMERS AS ‘MUD PEOPLE’ AND THEIR OFFERINGS AS ‘GHETTO LOANS.’ The problem in the 1960s was that black people couldn’t get loans; the problem in the present is that they can too easily (our emphasis; See “African-Americans Are Still Being Victimized by the Mortgage Market,” New Republic, May 27, 2014; see also Steve Dibert’s “Appraisal Fraud and the Impact of Valuation on Foreclosure Defense”). Readers can go to the US Justice Department website and read the following: “JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REACHES $335 MILLION SETTLEMENT TO RESOLVE ALLEGATIONS OF LENDING DISCRIMINATION BY COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIAL CORPORATION (our emphasis).” The same website (Justice Department) reports: “MORE THAN 200,000 AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND HISPANIC BORROWERS WHO QUALIFIED FOR LOANS WERE CHARGED HIGHER FEES OR PLACED INTO SUBPRIME LOANS (our emphasis).”
Dayen maintains elsewhere: “I CORRESPOND WITH HOMEOWNERS ABUSED BY THE SYSTEM ON AN ALMOST DAILY BASIS. THE MAJORITY ARE BLACK OR HISPANIC (our emphasis).” Where is Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s evidence that capitalism does not work alongside racism? Given that we have provided incontrovertible evidence from the US Department of Justice and from other federal bodies to support our claims of racism and capitalism, what has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. finally got to say about dishonesty and the Libor Scandal, capitalism, housing discrimination and the Subprime Crisis (which forced the US Government to make American companies pay tens of billions of dollars in fines)? Where is Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s evidence to prove the US Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) wrong? Lest we are not misunderstood, we are not implying that only banks in capitalist societies are involved in corruption. We are merely pushing the idea that capitalism makes such high-profile corruption cases possible and easy of execution. Even communists and socialists who steal their countries’ money are aided by capitalist businessmen in Western societies.
Again, readers may want to read David Dayen’s full article “Bank of America Whistleblower’s Bombshell: ‘We Were Told to Lie’“ for additional surprising information and hard data. Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. heard of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and what its responsibilities are? Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. ever known that a number of American States threatened to secede from the Union should Obama win his second election? Twenty states were involved in the said lawsuit (See Jake Miller’s Nov. 14, 2012 CBS News article “States Petition to Secede from Union”; see also Elizabeth Dias’s Nov. 14, 2012 Time article “Obama’s Re-Election Inspires Southern Secessionists”).
Does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. know why these states wanted to secede? Does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. know why some Americans persisted in asking Obama to prove his citizenship even when he has made that evidence available to the public? Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. ever heard of racial profiling? Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. seen any study that seeks to attach money to racism (See Donnell Alexander’s piece “Racism Literally Costs America $2 Trillion…Ready to Stop Payment?”)? Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. seen the W.K. Kellog Foundation Report “The Business Case for Racial Equity (Quantifies the Cost of Racism in the US)?
Finally, regarding the Peruvian economist and his views on property rights, could Mr. Baidoo, Jr. go back and read Hernando De Soto’s work “The Mystery of Capitalism: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere” again and then come back to tell readers that the data and examples he uses are global in scope and that his Peruvian background is just one of the many examples he uses? After all, De Soto’s position on property rights and capitalism is not largely a personal opinion as Mr. Baidoo, Jr. would have us believe, given that it is based on factual data and as failures of the market show. We have all seen how the Great Depression of the early part of the 20th century, recessions and Subprime Crisis in the 21st century, and other such examples weaken capitalism and undermine investors’ faith in free market capitalism
Did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. ever hear of ex-President Nicholas Sarkozy and other European leaders saying France (and the rest of Europe) should do more to provide opportunities for minorities in the wake of Obama’s election? Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. ever tried to find out how much ethnocentrism (“tribalism”) and ethno-political wars have and, still continue, to cost Africa in financial terms? How much does Mr. Baidoo, Jr. know about racism in the modeling industry, for instance? Are racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, religious and cultural terrorism not real? How much has ethnocentrism contributed to Africa’s GDP and development? Is Mr. Baidoo, Jr. willing to search for answers as to why Afro-Cubans have fared relatively better under Castro’s communism than under Fulgencio Batista’s capitalism? Since Mr. Baidoo, Jr. says racism does not exist, has he bothered to read sociologist John Solomos’ “Race and Racism in Britain”? Has Mr. Baidoo, Jr. seen the NatCen’s British Social Attitudes report on racism? And then there is the surprising statement from Mr. Baidoo’ Jr. that Noam Chomsky exhibits pathological hatred for his country, America.
Where could Mr. Baidoo, Jr. possibly have got this skewed, ill-informed statement from? If Mr. Baidoo, Jr. had taken his time to read Chomsky, he would surely have noticed how much this professor painstakingly relies on declassified and congressional data, among others, to make his case! Has Chomsky not received tons of honorary degrees from some of the world’s best universities (for his scholarship)? Is Chomsky also not a respected member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences? What is Mr. Baidoo, Jr. afraid of knowing by reading Chomsky’s scholarly works? Has Justice Studies Association Chomsky Award (or “Social Activist Award”) not been named in his honor? Has Chomsky not made America and the world proud by his numerous contributions to artificial intelligence, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, logic, computer science, mathematics, music theory, programming language theory, and political science? It is sad how much Mr. Baidoo, Jr. misses out by failing to read Chomsky, a scholar whose political science theories would certainly have expanded the former’s horizon and enriched his intellectual experience!
Then also, has Chomsky not been honored with the American Psychological Association’s prestigious recognition “the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award”? Did the British Prospect magazine (2005) not rank him as the No. 1 public intellectual in the world for his global intellectual influence and activism (See also Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers)? Has Noam Chomsky not been ranked the 7th by the New Statesman (2006) in its list titled, “Heroes of Our Time-The Top 50”? Why then are American institutions honoring if he displays pathological hatred for his country? Could it not equally be said that he wants his country to become a better country, hence his righteous criticisms and censorship of America’s internal and foreign policies? Who loves America more than Noam Chomsky? Could it be more prudent if Mr. Baidoo, Jr. should give us a better reason than the flimsy one he has given us? How many of Chomsky’s books had he read to make that conclusion? Could it be that Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s conclusions about Chomsky are based on the latter’s public debates, most of which he wins anyway, and public interviews? We want to know!
Now returning to other matters, is it not strange that Mr. Baidoo, Jr. will not read Adolf Hitler too? Of course Mr. Baidoo, Jr. is entitled to his position not to read Hitler. Reading one author as opposed to anther is a personal choice no one should disrespect. On this score, however, we shall not fault Mr. Baidoo, Jr. We, on the other hand, have read Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” for a number of reasons. It bears pointing out that scholars, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and historians from around the world have studied Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Other scholars have also studied and researched the book as a serious inquest of political theory. Besides, transcripts from the Nuremberg Trials cannot say what Hitler could say about himself in his book. Also, the work of Yale University genocide scholar and researcher Ben Kiernan sheds light on Hutu militants’ usage of writings by Hitler (and other Nazi writings) during the Rwanda Genocide (See Kiernan’s book “Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur”).
Thus, Kiernan’s work and the question of the Hutu militants’ ideological identification with Hitler and Nazism drove us to read Hitler. For instance, we wanted to understand why Hitler hated Jews, capitalists, communists, the handicapped, the Roma (“Gypsies”), homosexuals, and others so much. The question is: Why did Hitler’s National Socialism make room for private property but, rather strangely, reject capitalism? How do we account for the source of this glaring contradiction? We should not overlook the fact that Keynes’ dire predictions in “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” and his position on the implications of the Treaty of Versailles played out in Hitler’s political development. This is not to justify the Holocaust, something we condemn in no uncertain terms. But Hitler did not invent Nazism. Neither is South Africa’s Apartheid nor America’s Jim Crow substantially different from Nazism. They share many things in common. For instance, Nazi Germany used concentration camps in South West Africa, now Namibia, before its appearance during the Holocaust. Nazi Germany also applied eugenics, human experiment, forced starvation to Namibia’s Namaqua and Hereros way before they appeared in Nazi Germany (See David Olusoga’s and Casper W. Erichsen’s book “The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism”).
In fact, the Herero and Namaqua Genocide is the first of its kind in recorded modern history (See the United Nations’ Whitaker Report (1985). Significantly, David and Casper show in their work that some of the German scientists and officials involved in the Herero and Namaqua Genocide later joined Hitler’s movement, consequently, making their Namibian Holocaust knowledge and expertise available to Nazis. That aside, there are Jewish scholars like Norman Finkelstein who say Nazi Germany appropriated the idea of “concentration camp” from the British who used it during the Boer Wars (First Anglo-Boer War and Second Anglo-Boer War) (See Finkelstein’s “The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering”). The following works by some of the leading Jewish scholars and writers shed light on major controversies associated with Hitler, Nazism, capitalism, and the Holocaust:
1) Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Hannah Arendt)
2) 51 Documents: Zionists Collaboration with the Nazis (Lenni Black)
3) War Against the Weak : Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race (Edwin Brenner; Hitler and his Nazi clique appropriated many of America’s ideas on eugenics and applied them to others during the Holocaust; readers should also read Harriet A. Washington’s book “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present”; Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”; and the work of South Africa’s Apartheid-era Dr. Wouter Basson (Dr. Death); let also remember what Idi Amin, Charles Taylor, Francisco Marcias Nguema, and other African despots have done to their fellow Africans; Boko Haram, Al-Shabab, the Lord’s Resistance Army).
4) The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine (Edwin Black)
5) IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (Edwin Black)
6) Nazi Nexus: America’s Corporate Connections to Hitler’s Holocaust (Edwin Black)
What is more, Prof. Dan Silverman has shown how Hitler’s policies industrialized Germany and how he also solved Germany’s unemployment problem, with Prof. Silverman concluding that Hitler’s notable achievements include, but not limited to, bringing Germany out of the Great Depression, building massive road networks and houses across the country. He even provides data to prove how Hitler’s economic program achieved successes far beating most in the industrialized world (See Prof. Silverman’s “Hitler’s Economy: Nazi Work Creation Programs, 1933-1936). Hitler’s “economic miracle” and industrialization gave the world the foundations of space technology, ballistic technology, etc. German U-boat technology contributed to improving research on modern submarine technology, and German scientists helped make Russian and American space programs possible. These notable achievements somehow parallel the solid foundations which Stalin, Nehru, and Mao built for the USSR’’s, India’s, and China’s developments.
Of course, Hitler partly relied on “slave” labor to achieve his economic miracle, so too did American (and Western) capitalism build on slavery and the slaughter of millions of people. Let us not overlook the fact slavery partly contributed to Britain’s Industrial Revolution! Therefore, what is the moral basis for Mr. Baidoo, Jr. selective criticism of others who have done exactly what the capitalists have done before them? Mr. Baidoo, Jr. could at least have gone into Keynes’ “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” and the Treaty of Versailles so as to leave readers in a better appreciation of why Germany became what it was prior to and the ascendency of Nazi Germany. The rise of Hitler and Nazism would probably not have happened if the world had listened to John Maynard Keynes.
Keynes’ predictions in “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” that Germany was being unfairly treated, among other criticisms, could not be divorced from the realities that accompanied the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany and all the terrible things associated with Germany in the 1930s and 1940s! Of the debatable casualty figure that Mr. Baidoo, Jr. attributes to Hitler, what percentage is attributed to the USSR, Japan, Europe, America, etc? Mr. Baidoo, Jr. should have explored Wall Street’s financing of Hitler and the rise of Nazi Germany. Powerful evidence exists to prove this shameful relationship. Antony C. Sutton’s three-volume piece “Wall Street and The Rise of Hitler” and his “Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution” and Glen Yeadon’s “Hydra in America: Suppressed History of a Century (Wall Street and the Rise of the Fourth Reich)” provide extensive evidence to back this relationship.
Declassified documents based on the US Subcommittee on War Mobilization of the Military Affairs Committee’s investigations (Kilgore Committee, 1942) show American and European industrial capitalists offering financial support to Nazi organizations and communists. Some of the evidence also comes from the US State Department, etc. Information on names of individual capitalist financiers of communists and Nazi organizations, names of industries and institutions, letters, amounts of money given to Nazis groups and communists, declassified data, etc., are given in detail.
Is it not ironic that Russian communism produced some of the world’s most influential writers, scientists, mathematicians, Nobel Laureates, etc., as opposed to capitalist African countries, including Ghana? Is it not ironic that some Russian writers under communism received the Nobel Prize in Literature while J.K. Rowling has not received one yet (We are not implying that the Nobel Prize is everything or that Rowling cannot receive one in the future)? Is it not also ironic that Mr. Baidoo, Jr. selectively mentioned Mao but failed to mention America’s Founding Fathers’ and slavocracy and slave ownership, European decimination of Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, and King Leopold’s slaughter of 10 million Congolese? Why did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. also fail to tell his readers which of our sources were socialist, and which capitalist? Since when did the US Congress that founded the Federal Reserve System become socialist? Who was Mr. Baidoo, Jr.’s socialist that founded the Federal Reserve System? Could Mr. Baidoo, Jr. identify this socialist for us?
Were socialists behind the banking panics that prompted the creation of the Federal Reserve System? Were socialists behind the 1907 financial crisis involving the New York Stock Exchange? Again who were those socialists behind the financial crisis of 1907? If capitalist countries do not wage wars indiscriminately, what sort of wars do they engage in? Were socialists the cause of America’s recession under the Obama Administration? Are capitalists always right, socialists always wrong? Who introduced commercial or chattel slavery in the Americas, Africans, Europeans, or Native Americans? And what has mercantilism got to do with World War 1 and World War 2, as mercantilism lasted from the 16th to the 18th century? Where are the empirical data on the failure of Nkrumah’s socialism?
The other central question is: Why did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. cite others to make his case? Is it only Baidoo, Jr., not Francis Kwarteng, who can and is also obliged to cite sources for his work? And did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. come into this world with the knowledge he professes upon birth? What kind of education did Mr. Baidoo, Jr. receive or which schools did he attend in his mother’s womb before his birth? Those are not insults, if I may add. They are merely to shed light on the fact that the human brain is “tabula rasa” at the point of birth and that only time fills it up with information. We may also encourage Mr. Baidoo, Jr. to take a long walk back to 7-10,000 or 500 years of human history or limit himself to the 20th century if he cannot agree to the first proposition. He should drown himself in the history of scholarship, history of knowledge, sociology of state formation and statecraft, history of science, history of philosophy, classical scholarship, etc. That is the only way he can advance powerful arguments.
Finally, we may want to stress that we have adopted a centrist position on the question of political economy because neither capitalism nor socialism (and communism) is the best for every society, or has all the answers. The Nordic Model or Nkrumah’s “mixed economy” may hold the key to unraveling Africa’s economic success if we are willing to study the Beijing Consensus and the Nordic Model.
We shall end with a list of international recognitions given Nkrumah:
1) The World Veterans federation “World Peace Prize” (1954)
2) Man of the Millennium (BBC, 1999)
3) Gold Medal (Special Session, United Nations, 1978)
4) Millennium Excellence Award 2000 Recipient?Personality of the Century (Excellent Awards Foundation, Ghana)
5) Biennial Kwame Nkrumah International Conference (Canada’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Lincoln University). The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Coca-Cola Foundation, and the Office of Research and Scholarship and the Sociology Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University have supported the conference.
6) The International Lenin Peace Prize (1962; Paul Robeson, WEB Du Bois, Pablo Neruda (Nobel Prize in Literature), Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize), and Nelson Mandela all received this Prize).
7) African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Awards (African Union, 2008)
8) Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (Howard University, Nkrumah papers)
9) 100 Greatest Africans of All Time (New African Magazine, 2004)
10) The SATMA Awards (South African government, Ingwe Mabalabala, the National Heritage Council of South Africa). Mr. Enoch Ampofo who received the award on behalf of Nkrumah’s family and the Ghanaian government learned this fact while in South Africa. He notes: “Gaining perspectives into how Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has affected the lives of people in South Africa, I found out that back in the days of Apartheid, the oppressed people went to school and were taught about the principles of Kwame Nkrumah or Nkrumahism.”
We shall return…
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Prof Lungu 8 years ago
There are historical and factual errors!
Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr commits them all!!!!!!!
Then, there are analytical errors in all of Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr's essays.
EXAMPLE:
READ: "...Now, if a police dep ... read full comment
There are historical and factual errors!
Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr commits them all!!!!!!!
Then, there are analytical errors in all of Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr's essays.
EXAMPLE:
READ: "...Now, if a police department puts out its crime figures for murder for the previous year to be 4, and the current year records 7 you can conclude that there has been 75% rise in murder cases..."
WE SAY: No you can't Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr! You will have to know the change in population.
WE REPRODUCE WHAT WE SAID EARLIER ON THE OTHER SIDE:
Comment: About Books, Facts, Ideology and History
Author: Prof Lungu
Date: 2015-06-15 04:21:32
Comment to: Nkrumahism, The Can Of Worms I Opened – Das Kapi
We are concluding our 2 posts on the previous Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr essay with this.
Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has been attempting a US-style Ayn Rand blow-job, directly from "London".
He shows little appreciation for the facts of history on one hand, and the intersection of economics - politics - commerce - law- and history, on the other hand.
Or, he just does not care!
Imagine, in 1945, when the US announced an end to Lend-Lease for England, that announcement alone precipitated a huge financial crisis for Winston Churchill's England, forcing the US to reconsider grant of a low-interest loan to England in the amount of $3.75 billion.
More important, Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has shown that he has no clue how the United State operates, except to cite books out of context, or, he does not care about context and the facts people present before his Ghanaian-national eyes!
The biggest absurdity is to hear, from Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr, that "...the difference is private companies don’t collapse and leave a vacuum..."
How remarkably absent-minded of history and facts!
WE SAY: Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr knows little history, the intersection of economics - politics - commerce - law, of he does not care!
We guess Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has never heard of ENRON-USA, or Chapter 11 (or Chapter 7) filing by companies in capitalist-USA.
ITEM: Enron cut off power to consumers to manipulate prices, and the state of Texas (and the US) did nothing to stop them, until the bankruptcy, and the COLLAPSE.
ENRON'S COLLAPSE - IMPACT ON JUST ONE CATEGORY:
Employees: 15,000
---They lost most of their 401(k) retirement plans.
---They lost their jobs!
---There were many ripple effects of the ENRON's wreak we do not care to enumerate here.
ITEM: We are thinking if you got cents on the dollar for your Enron 401K Retirement benefit as settlement, you see the "vacuum" in your wallet and "retirement future" filled, even if you do not have a job and will receive $1,200 a month when you used to earn $6,000 a month.
Then the multiple occasions the US federal government had to save private enterprise (Chrysler, GM, etc.), from themselves, even as their CEO made multi-millions in compensation and benefits, every year.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Prof. Lungu,
Sometimes I wonder which planet Baidoo lives on!
I wish Baidoo had heard of Benard Madoff and his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC!
How I wish Baidoo had known how ENRON cooked its ... read full comment
Dear Prof. Lungu,
Sometimes I wonder which planet Baidoo lives on!
I wish Baidoo had heard of Benard Madoff and his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC!
How I wish Baidoo had known how ENRON cooked its books to deceive the American public and investors!
How I wish Baidoo had known of the so-called Libor Scandal!
How I wish Baidoo had known what precipitated the American subprime mortgage crisis!
How I wish Baidoo had known some pharmaceutical companies in America (GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, etc) for selling counterfeit (only to be forced to pay billions after being caught)!
BAIDOO CAN VISIT THE WEBSITES OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT (STATE DEPARTMENT) AND READ MORE! BAIDOO THE LIST IS "ENDLESS." PLEASE GET A HOLD ON THE TOPICS YOU WISH TO WRITE FOR US TO READ!
Baidoo will not believe it even you give him the sources, because he thinks the capitalist government of America and its State Department and the FBI are fruads. Well, this is for Baidoo (we believe he heard this on BBC since he lives in the UK (Britain). We heard this story first on the BBC:
........................................................................................................................................................
Title: Big-Name Drug Companies Bribed Doctors To Prescribe Drugs
Patients might want to be suspicious of doctors and pharmacists that recommend prescriptions for new wonder drugs.
Recent news stories show that giant pharmaceutical manufacturers have used bribery and other corrupt methods to get medical professionals to push their products. Law enforcement officials have caught executives from some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies – including Johnson & Johnson — engaging in blatantly criminal behavior.
A good description of how the pharmaceutical industry routinely does business was made last month by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
“These companies lined their pockets at the expense of the American taxpayers, patients, and the private insurance industry,” Holder said. He noted that America’s largest pharmaceutical maker, Johnson & Johnson, “recklessly put at risk the health of some of the most vulnerable members of our society – including young children, the elderly and the disabled.”
Giant Pharmaceutical Company Guilty of Health Fraud
Holder was speaking at a press conference announcing a $2.2 billion lawsuit settlement between Johnson & Johnson the U.S. Justice Department and several state governments. Some of the activities that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen were accused of in the suit included:
Paid kickbacks to doctors that prescribed Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug.
Encouraged doctors to prescribe Risperdal for patients it wasn’t approved for.
Encouraged doctors to prescribe Risperdal to patients who couldn’t object to its use — elderly persons in nursing homes with dementia, the mentally disabled and children.
Paid kickbacks to a company called Omnicare Inc., the nation’s largest pharmacy for nursing homes.
Paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed other Johnson & Johnson drugs.
A former J&J sales representative, Victoria Starr, alleges that she was ordered to encourage doctors to prescribe Risperdal to children in violation of federal law. Risperdal has been shown to have dangerous side effects, including weight gain and diabetes.
Learn How To Make Your Own Emergency Remedies For Use In Any Survival Situation …
The settlement with Johnson & Johnson was only the third largest settlement between the federal government and a major pharmaceutical company over illegal marketing.
Last year, British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC paid a $3 billion fine to settle fraud charges. The charges included allegations that the company encouraged doctors to prescribe drugs for unapproved uses and hid data that indicated the diabetes drug Avandia was unsafe. Pfizer paid a $2.3 billion fine for illegal marketing practices in 2009.
And Maybe Even Worse?
A case in China shows that the pharmaceutical industry might be even more corrupt than we suspected. The charges against Glaxo in China include paying $500 million in bribes to doctors who prescribed Glaxo drugs.
At least four Glaxo executives including, Liang Hong, have been arrested. Two top executives fled the country to escape prosecution. The company is also facing around $500 million in fines in China. The Chinese media has reported similar allegations against other major pharmaceutical companies operating in their nation.
Pharmaceutical Company Admits Payments to Doctors
GlaxoSmithKline’s Chief Executive Officer Sir Andrew Witty announced some changes to company policy. Specifically, the company will stop paying medical professionals for speaking engagements and stop paying doctors to attend medical conferences starting in 2016. Glaxo will also stop basing its salespeople’s pay on the number of drugs they sell.
Media observers think that Witty made the decision in reaction to the scandal in China. It isn’t clear if other pharmaceutical houses will follow suit.
Average people need to question the motivation for the prescription of drugs.
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Title: Drug Company Accused of Bribing Doctors
April 13
By John McKenzie
Jury selection began today in a case that's being closely watched by drug companies and the medical profession.
Eleven current or former sales executives from TAP Pharmaceutical Products are going on trial, accused of paying kickbacks to doctors and hospitals to get them to buy the company's medications.
The company, based in Lake Forest, Ill., has already paid $875 million to settle charges that it inflated prices on its prostate cancer drug Lupron, and that the company bribed doctors to prescribe it.
Now, federal prosecutors are going after the company's sales executives who, according to the government, carried out the illegal scheme.
"What became the main marketing focus for the TAP employees was not 'Was this drug better, did this drug have fewer side effects, is it cheaper?' but instead, 'Doctor, if you buy our drug, look at what we can do for you,' " said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks.
Free Ski Trips and Golf Outings
And according to the indictment, the drug company executives did a lot. They gave doctors ski trips to Aspen, Colo., and golf outings to Scottsdale, Ariz., and Santa Barbara, Calif.
There was money disguised as "educational grants" that covered doctors' bar tabs at cocktail parties, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers said the sales executives thought they were acting "completely within their job description."
Other drug companies are also being investigated for allegedly bribing doctors to order their products. The net result, say prosecutors, is that consumers and government health plans are spending tens of millions of dollars more than they need to for medications.
U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said the TAP employees participated "in a broad scheme that picked the pockets of many cancer-stricken elderly Americans and all taxpayers."
Since the alleged crimes, the pharmaceutical industry has strengthened its guidelines on gifts to doctors, which now are not supposed to exceed $100 in value.
"The guidelines are much more specific and they are much more comprehensive in terms of their relationships with physicians," said Peter Safir, a lawyer who represents pharmaceutical companies.
"Every pharmaceutical company has been much more compliance-oriented in this area, and I think it's highly unlikely that you would see anything like the allegations in the TAP case [again]," he added.
But consumer groups say the guidelines are a smoke screen.
Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Public Citizen Health Research Group in Washington told ABCNEWS: "We have evidence since those guidelines went into effect of doctors being offered $1,500 to be a 'consultant' — translated into English, so that the company can convince that doctor to prescribe their drug."
Prosecutors are hoping that criminal indictments will be more effective at stopping the kickbacks than voluntary guidelines.
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Thanks.
Saint James 8 years ago
The fact of the matter is,while Kwarteng is an intellectual POWERHOUSE his narrow-minded and short-sighted critics are intellectually inferior hence their failure to appreciate the PLAIN TRUTH.
The fact of the matter is,while Kwarteng is an intellectual POWERHOUSE his narrow-minded and short-sighted critics are intellectually inferior hence their failure to appreciate the PLAIN TRUTH.
Marxism was a reaction to the dire straights of workers.Phillip was iit not capitalism that led to the French and Soviet revolutions?Do you forget the misery of British workers as captured in Charles Dickens books Oliver Twis ...
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Well, Kojo Tamakloe, I think you meant dire straits (like in the British rock group formed in 1977 led by Mark Knopfler or like in the Strait of Gibraltar or like in straitjacket) and not dire "straights".
You are right th ...
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Hello Kaleo, I don’t mean this as disrespect; to understand the reason for my title you have to read the first part. Besides, the number of comments is not a true reflection of the quality of an essay. I have read excellent ...
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I did not write that the number of comments is a measure of the quality of your essay! Can you quote to me the part of my comment that said that?
I wrote that a "can of worms" should attract many comments. The fact that yo ...
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If you don’t know the implication of what you have written there is no point in continuing this. Whatever you write or say is subject to interpretation. Milton Friedman made a statement and Naomi Klein has stretched that st ...
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Yes, whatever a person writes is subject to interpretation but NOT to any interpretation whatsoever!
There is no way what I wrote can be interpreted as meaning that the quality of a piece is dictated by the number of comm ...
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Please, let us not make brouhaha over this. This is what you wrote, ‘That is why there are not many people reacting to his current series of articles which even come long after the article he described as the can of worms. ...
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Kobina, I wrote that your piece was not attracting many comments because it was NOT a can of worms.
But you accused me of saying that your article was not attracting many comments because it was not a good article.
The ...
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Jato Kaleo,
I have told Baidoo at the beginning of this series that he has not open any can of worms.
He says that be cause he may not have any idea what he calls "can of worms" has been there for God knows how long.
...
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Kaleo INXS,
Please go and read the 7-Year Development Plan which Nkrumah later had to explain to members of parliament, etc.
There is the phrase "mixed economy" in the document. You also have to read Nkrumah's own wri ...
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Kwarteng, the concept of Nkrumaism has always been a very controversial and highly debated one. Indeed, every political theory or idea has always been controversial. Even during Nkrumah's time in office, the concept was contr ...
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I would prefer to be at your seemingly exhuberant tutelage and mentorship than to offer myself for Dr. Botwe Asamoah mentored Kwarteng's labyrinth tutorials. You seem to have the grasp and grassroot information on Nkrumah an ...
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Hello Kaleo INXS,
Whatever you are saying here if off the marks.
And there is nothing controversial about Nkrumahism unless, of course, you want to deal with the technical level of Nkrumahism, which is the arguments Nk ...
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You are once more exhibiting some of the reasons why I stopped having anything to do with your articles. You just don't know what is 'excess'. You take it you have read all the books in the world so if you open your mouth, no ...
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It should be straits.I stand corrected , though Mr Kaleo a fine gentleman though was (N)PP and I do not support those rogues
It's your mum and dad who are the rogues. Idiot.
Kojo T, I am not NPP ooooo. Efo Tamakloe, don't put NPP on my head oooo. I am not NDC either. I just want a good argument from whoever brings it up...
I am just someone who realises and acknowledges Nkrumah's undoubted st ...
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This paper is no where near a scientific paper. It's purely opinionated! Why, are you the only one who have been to a university? I don't know why serious minds like Kwarteng respond this kind work. It's badly written and ter ...
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Do you think I am writing a thesis, hell no. Mr Kwarteng fights in gutters and that is exactly what I am doing. I wouldn’t write a thesis to responds to the rubbish he writes that fascinates the likes of you. I pity his stu ...
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Dear Baidoo,
You got all wrong.
There are literally thousands of theses and dissertations that are not "scientific." You seem to miss the Kosovo's just as your articles miss so many (too numerous) to mention.
And h ...
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Mr Kwarteng, you never expected any serious challenge, even if it is the rubbish that I write, as many of you think I am doing, perhaps Mr nobody. If you quite remember in the first of my current series I tried to extend an o ...
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Dear Baidoo,
Do you want to know how many researched articles I wrote, how many articles I have to proofread for some of my former professors, how many theses/dissertations, how many books I have to review for students (an ...
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Dear Brother Baidoo,
I think this is probably going to be my last comment (I have just one slot left).
I want you to know I am not doing this for personal reasons. I also know you are doing this for personal. You are w ...
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Who stole from what? Wealth? Illiterate fool, you are not making any sense with your atrocious grammar and incoherent nonsense.
Idiot, does the foolishness copy and paste Kwarteng has been feeding forumers and you moron h ...
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Hello Sarpong,
How are you?
Have you and Baidoo read Issac Newton's "Principia" to find out where his cosmology ideas may have come from?
And have yo two try out find out where Newton's (and Leibnez's) infinitesimal ...
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I don't have time to read all the nonsense from your sources and your admiration for socialism but as usual with you admirers of socialism and communism, when you ran away from your countries of birth, you did not go to Cuba ...
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Sarpong still enjoys playing the ankaa(orange) ball at the Kookoas-Kajetia gutter-to-gutter street soccer game. Why do you insult the Trokosiman without any provocation?
There is no doubt that you are human Library, I pray you factor out theories of Leibniz and Newton out of the equation here on Ghanaweb because it is definitely beyond the comprehension of many forumers, especially Sarpong ...
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Hello,
I want to put all my comments of your articles in one piece.
I recommended these texts for Baidoo but he appears not to have read them. I will want him to read them and com ...
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Dear Readers,
Baidoo has been misrepresenting some of the arguments I made in my rebuttal to his earlier article.
Readers who have the time should go back and take a look at my rebuttal. For those of you who can't get ...
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There are historical and factual errors!
Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr commits them all!!!!!!!
Then, there are analytical errors in all of Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr's essays.
EXAMPLE:
READ: "...Now, if a police dep ...
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Dear Prof. Lungu,
Sometimes I wonder which planet Baidoo lives on!
I wish Baidoo had heard of Benard Madoff and his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC!
How I wish Baidoo had known how ENRON cooked its ...
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The fact of the matter is,while Kwarteng is an intellectual POWERHOUSE his narrow-minded and short-sighted critics are intellectually inferior hence their failure to appreciate the PLAIN TRUTH.
It's your mum and dad who are the rogues. Idiot