The Open Village» Education

Dubious Lab Results and Do-Overs: The New Healthcare Double-Billing Scam

Daniel Ihonvbere — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:35:06 +0000

I’ve heard about it for quite some time but always thought it was one of those stories you can never verify. Until I experienced it first hand at a major clinic in Round Rock, TX. Imagine going to a hospital and no matter what ailment brought you to the hospital, you are always required to [...]

Foreign Aid and The Mirage Of Poverty Eradication

Daniel Ihonvbere — Sun, 24 May 2009 12:37:45 +0000

The reality of aid… is that it continues to fail to promote human development for the eradication of poverty based on the core values of human rights, democracy, gender equality and environmental sustainability. This is despite the appearance of progress in the form of high-profile debt cancellations, new aid pledges, and the signing of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness – Caterina Amicucci Globalization has [...]

A Nation of Hand-Wringers

Daniel Ihonvbere — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:49:03 +0000

Now that the elections have been fought and won by a once improbable candidate, Americans have quickly reverted to type – worrying about everything and nothing on how the new president will govern. It never ceases to amaze me how much influence a negative culture has on a nations psyche. Here is a candidate who [...]

Obama’s Millions

Daniel Ihonvbere — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:17:14 +0000

In the closing days of this historic presidential campaign, a lot of noise has been made by the Republicans, John McCain and right wing ideologues about the amount of money senator Barack Obama has raised in his quest to be the next president of the United States of America. John McCain has complained about the [...]

The Cowardice of the American Media

Daniel Ihonvbere — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:31:56 +0000

In the most profound show of lilly-livered, wimpy and cowardly display of journalistic ethos, the American media brazenly towed the official line of right-wing ideologues in suppressing the most powerful aspect of General Colin Powell’s endorsement of Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy for the U.S presidency this past week. In the course of the most eloquent, well thought-out explanation of why he thought Obama deserved his endorsement, General Powell asked the question, in response to the charge that Obama may be a Muslim, “What if he is?”. Powell then went on to tell the story of a courageous American Muslim who joined the army after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in order to fight the extremists who were responsible for that dastardly act. While the media jumped all over the endorsement, there has been a frightening silence in picking up the story of Kareem Khan. This is disquieting in a country that claims to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. We have gone to wars in order to “spread freedom”. We have sponsored “regime changes” in order to remove leaders we thought were brutal to their own people. Yet, in the most powerful country in the world, we can not openly talk about people who are Muslims? In an era of ratings and competition, there could be the fear that if they (the media) ran an extended story on Khan, there was a possibility that their viewership would be affected. It is really a shame.

The Poverty of Ideas in the Republican Party: Part 2

Daniel Ihonvbere — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:02:06 +0000

“Those who have had a chance for four years and could not produce peace should not be given another chance.” – Richard Nixon “No way to deny it. The current Republican party hates intelligence and competence. It’s become a Know Nothing spectacle led by Sarah Palin. I will ignore my own years of neglect of this [...]

The Return Of The Lynch Mob

Daniel Ihonvbere — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:34:47 +0000

The dangerous turn the rhetoric has taken on the campaign trail is sure to remind most of us of the ugly stories we have read about lynching of people in the dark days of the creation of the Union. Sarah Palin started us down this dark road and John McCain, as a further evidence of [...]

How Gibbs crushed Hannity

Daniel Ihonvbere — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:03:22 +0000

It was a joy to behold on Tuesday October 7, 2008 when Robert Gibbs, an Obama spokesman slapped Sean Hannity all over the television screen and reduced the hate-monger and vomit-inducing talking head to a please-don’t-hit-me quivering fool. It is very astonishing sometimes when we hear the hate that spews from the mouths of supposedly [...]

The Poverty of Ideas in the Republican Party

Daniel Ihonvbere — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:49:40 +0000

“I’m sure John McCain loves his country,”"But loving your country and lying to the American people are apparently not inconsistent in his view.” -Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism czar “Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little [...]

Obama’s eternal gratitude to Hillary Clinton

Daniel Ihonvbere — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:27:30 +0000

The presidential debates have begun and we just witnessed the first one. While we will leave it to pundits and spin masters to debate about who won or lost, one thing that was very apparent was that should senator Barack Obama be lucky enough to win this election, he will owe an eternal debt of [...]