The Open Village» Politics

Wetin dey Happen for Naija?

Daniel Ihonvbere — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:56:19 +0000

What in the world is going on in Nigeria? It’s been one terrible news after the other. First, I received this really, really gruesome pictures of the utmost display of human brutality. Armed bandits stopped a bus full of travelers on the Lagos- Benin expressway and asked them to give up their money. Those who [...]

Another Intelligence Screw Up

Daniel Ihonvbere — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:39:09 +0000

“We will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don’t hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. That is exactly what our adversaries want, and so long as I am president, we will never [...]

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.

What does Dick Chenney want?

Daniel Ihonvbere — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:46:51 +0000

For eight long years, ... (Dick Chenney) devised the most egregious form of abuse of the U.S. constitution in the history of the country.

A Nation of Cynics

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:40:30 +0000

Just two weeks into the Obama administration, naysayers are already pronouncing the man and his administration a failure! And the reason, his promise to institute ethics reform and the revelation that some of his nominees had lapsed tax payments. That’s right. The same group who sat idly by, and in most cases were accomplices in [...]

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 [...]

Obama’s Security Team

Daniel Ihonvbere — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:54:08 +0000

As was widely rumored, President-Elect Barack Obama unveiled his National Security Team today. Here’s the announcement as released: Good morning. Last week, we announced our economic team, which is working as we speak to craft an Economic Recovery Program to create jobs and grow our struggling economy. Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to [...]

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.

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 [...]