The Open Village» History

The Party of “NO”?

Daniel Ihonvbere — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:49:36 +0000

It's just over a year since President Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential elections. A full year, you would assume, for the Republican Party to lick its wounds, put country first and help the new president get the country up and running as it tries to recover from...the worst recession in many decades.

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 [...]

Obama’s Holiday Greetings

Daniel Ihonvbere — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:45:30 +0000

President-Elect today sent the following greetings to Americans: Good morning. This week, Americans are gathering with family and friends across the country to celebrate the blessings of Christmas and the holiday season. As we celebrate this joyous time of year, our thoughts turn to the brave men and women who serve our country far from home. Their [...]

Campbell Brown’s Righteous Indignation….

Daniel Ihonvbere — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:27:11 +0000

or A Case of Serious Logic Problems. For the past couple of weeks, watchers of CNN have been bombarded with serious doses of misguided commentaries by Campbell Brown and her self-styled “No Bias, No Bull” segments which are probably the most biased and bull-filled on TV, second only to Fox News. Now, her rants are about [...]

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 [...]

Pimping D.L. Hughley

Daniel Ihonvbere — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:38:03 +0000

A little over a week before the U.S. presidential elections, CNN, the cable new network, decided to start airing a “comedy show” hosted by the Black comedian D.L. Hughley. On the face of it, it does not look like much, but the bottom line is that in a very sensitive election cycle where a Black candidate is on the verge of becoming the first non-white to be the president of the United States of America, CNN is using Hughley to give voice to its concerns about the Obama candidacy. To avoid being labeled racist, who better to make jokes about a black candidate without the attendant backlash than a black fool? It is a shame that D.L. Hughley is allowing himself to be pimped in such a fashion. One expects him to know that he is just feeding into the stereotype of an idiot (albeit a rich one) making a fool of himself in the village square. The dry jokes are not resonating. It would have been more respectable for him to delay his show until after the election. Perhaps, he could have avoided the unnecessary scrutiny this new gig will attract. Deep down, Hughley knows it’s not going to work. Comedians like him are not used to working in a very scripted environment where the jokes are forced and the language is plastic. There is nothing wrong in making fun of a black presidential candidate or any person of color running for higher office, but it should be done on the terms of the comedian, not as an outlet for a wimpy news organization trying to find a shortcut to asking difficult questions or raising and discussing difficult issues involving ethnicity, race and achievement. D.L. Hughley, you are better than this.

John McCain’s Fantasy World

Daniel Ihonvbere — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:33:00 +0000

“I know how to win wars” “I am a maverick” “I have been tested” “I know how to get Osama Bin Laden” Hearing senator John McCain make these claims, the totally uninformed is wont to take the word of the 72-year old at face value. After all, he has been celebrated as a war hero; he is a long-serving [...]

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.

Change We Can Believe In

Daniel Ihonvbere — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:27:33 +0000

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama–as prepared for delivery Chillicothe, Ohio Friday, October 10, 2008 We meet at a moment of great uncertainty for America. In recent weeks, we’ve seen a growing financial crisis that’s threatening not only banks and businesses, but your economic security, as well. It’s getting harder and harder to get a loan for that new [...]

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 [...]