Nar de word ar dae talk. Boboh, you know book O. Look way you dae use wateman language for talk. Africa-man do cam nar America. We don set de way for we pikin dem for can take over. But look we continuent, wit all dis book way we sabee. Dis nar de big question way we for ask we sef - watin dae go on??? We dae learn de book but we nor sabee apply de tin way we learn. As Curtis Mayfield call dem people dem dae - EDUCATED FOOLS. Nar so we be? Leh we try O!
Jesse Porter
-----Original Message-----
From: MohmJ@aol.com
To: SALONEDiscussion@ yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 2:13 PM
Subject: [SALONEDiscussion] Re: Fwd: Every African Immigrant Should Read This!
June:
You probably were not yet at UCLA in 1988 when I witnessed our WAZZU (Washington State) football team knock down UCLA's quarterback, a student named Troy Aikman, and knocked off UCLA from its then #1 position in national college football. It was all broadcast live by ABC on national television from good old Pullman, Washington, home of the WSU Cougars? Just picture the swaggering braggarts from big, glitzy LA coming to our smaller university, already looking past us to their next game and, then, oops! It was a shocker in the PAC-10, not to mention in the entire USA! Alright, enough of those so-delicious memories of UCLA's Goliath falling at the hands of the WSU David!
On a serious note, I wholly agree with your accurate recitation of the strength of our primary and secondary schooling back home (then, to be sure, not now) as being the foundation for our academic successes here. Now, let us contrast that with the poor development of our country, and further contrast it with our academic, and relatively greater financial, successes here in the U.S. and an interesting question ensues: Why are S/Leoneans, just like African-Americans less successful at home than foreigners in their respective native lands?
It is a question that I was obliged to address yesterday, as follows:
The Sierra Leonean writes on March 30, 2007:
"For the most americans, they have not had the opportunity to see their country with an objective outside eye, and see how much they have. Many are overwhelmed by debts/loans, responsibilities by the time they get to that stage of harnessing these opportunities. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that immigrants would make the best of these opportunities."
Thank you for your expression of gratitude for my posting of that very encouraging affirmation of our people's contribution to America's educational progress. You raise a very interesting point in your statement quoted above.
As regards the dichotomy between the perceptions of Americans and those of African immigrants toward the abundantly available educational and other opportunities here in America, there is an interesting parallel in our own country.
In order to see it, please recall the similar situation regarding the dichotomy between the perceptions of S/Leoneans and those of foreigners regarding the opportunities for business success in SL. While we S/Leoneans mostly can not get out of our country fast enough, foreigners can not wait to get in fast enough! And typically, they soon become wealthy almost overnight -- if not from our diamonds, then from their other trading activities, while we have left those same opportunities back home only to come eke out a relatively poorer living here in America.
So, maybe, what you accurately observe among Americans in their attitude towards the widely available opportunities that they do not take advantage of here in the U.S., is the same syndrome which drives the typical S/Leonean away from the potential riches back home that foreigners readily reap in our country.
One may call it an asymmetric affliction of "the grass is greener on the other side" syndrome.
Regards,
Moh'm
--- In SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, June Taylor-Young <juneesq@...> wrote:
>
> I fully concur. Africans excelling in America's higher learning institutions is not new, but I'm glad that it's finally getting the recognition it deserves. For instance, as an undergraduate student at UCLA, there were a few notable African students (Kenya and Nigeria) and professor/professor emeritus (Sierra Leone). We should all be proud and appreciate that this also reflects that our primary and secondary school (African) education incorporates a solid foundation.
>
> onemohm MohmJ@... wrote: Posted by Mohamed A. Jalloh on March 29, 2007 at 15:31:16: In Reply to: Re: EVERY AFRICAN IMMIGRANT SHOULD READ THIS! posted by BUFORD HWY on March 29, 2007 at 13:34:38: Buford: Thank you for your reply. You ask a very important question. In my humble opinion, the most significant action that we, Africans, can take in order to use our education for the benefit of our continent is two-fold: First, we, educated Africans, must take the final step towards knowledge by acquiring and demonstrating morality in our every public action and thought. Second, having acquired knowledge, we, Africans, must them demonstrate patriotism in any and all our public actions and thoughts by faithfully striving to put our respective countries' interest above our own, while putting the interest of our continent above that of our countries and of ourselves. If, and when, we, Africans, can do that, there will be no more underdevelopment in
> Africa -- not while it can boast of knowledgeable sons and daughters.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Moh'm
>
>
>
> --- In SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, "onemohm" MohmJ@ wrote:
> >
> > Amadu: Thank you for sharing this very encouraging independent
> > affirmation of what many of us have always known -- that education has
> > long been a tradition among us Africans no matter where we happen to
> > find ourselves living. Hopefully, those entrusted with leadership
> > positions back home in SL will adopt this overwhelming majority
> > tradition that promotes the indispensable quality for personal
> > development -- self-esteem --when it comes to dealing with the general
> > population of S/Leoneans, not just only when dealing with themselves,
> > their families and their friends. For, ultimately, the sworn duty of
> > our leaders is to protect and promote the interest and welfare of
> > S/Leoneans in general -- not their own minuscule interest and welfare or
> > those of the minority comprised of their family and friends. Best
> > regards, Moh'm
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, "Amadu Massally"
> > amadu.massally@ wrote:
> > >
> > > FYI...
> > >
> > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > From: Joseph Opala opalajx@
> > > Date: Mar 29, 2007 12:10 AM
> > > Subject: every african immigrant should read this!
> > > To: Amadu Massally amadu.massally@
> > >
> > > BLACK IMMIGRANTS COLLECT MOST DEGREES,
> > > BUT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS LOSING DIRECTION
> > >
> > > By Clarence Page
> > > Chicago Tribune
> > > March 18, 2007
> > >
> > > WASHINGTON -- Do African immigrants make the smartest
> > > Americans? The question may sound outlandish, but if you
> > > were judging by statistics alone, you could find plenty of
> > > evidence to back it up.
> > >
> > > In a side-by-side comparison of 2000 census data by
> > > sociologists including John R. Logan at the Mumford Center,
> > > State University of New York at Albany, black immigrants
> > > from Africa averaged the highest educational attainment of
> > > any population group in the country, including whites and
> > > Asians.
> > >
> > > For example, 43.8 percent of African immigrants had
> > > achieved a college degree, compared with 42.5 of Asian-
> > > Americans, 28.9 percent for immigrants from Europe, Russia
> > > and Canada and 23.1 percent of the U.S. population as a
> > > whole.
> > >
> > > That defies the usual stereotypes of Asian-Americans as the
> > > only "model minority." Yet the traditional American
> > > narrative has rendered the high academic achievements of
> > > black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean invisible,
> > > as if that were a taboo topic.
> > >
> > > Instead, we should take a closer look. That was my reaction
> > > in 2004 after black Harvard law professor Lani Guinier and
> > > Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard's African-
> > > American studies department, stirred up a black Harvard
> > > alumni reunion with questions about precisely where the
> > > university's new black students were coming from.
> > >
> > > About 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard's undergraduates
> > > were black, Gates and Guinier said, but somewhere between
> > > one-half and two-thirds of the black students were "West
> > > Indian and African immigrants or their children, or to a
> > > lesser extent, children of biracial couples."
> > >
> > > If we take a closer look, I said at the time, I bet we'd
> > > find that Harvard's not alone. With all of the ink and
> > > airwaves that have been devoted to immigration these days,
> > > black immigrants remain remarkably invisible. Yet, their
> > > success has long followed the patterns of other high-
> > > achieving immigrants.
> > >
> > > Now comes a new study that finds a consistent pattern of
> > > Ivy League and other elite colleges and universities
> > > boosting their black student populations by enrolling large
> > > numbers of immigrants from Africa, the West Indies and
> > > Latin America.
> > >
> > > Immigrants, who make up 13percent of the nation's college-
> > > age black population, account for more than a fourth of
> > > black students at Ivy League and other selective
> > > universities, according to the study of 28 colleges and
> > > universities. The authors of the study, published recently
> > > in the American Journal of Education, included Douglas S.
> > > Massey of Princeton University and Camille Z. Charles at
> > > the University of Pennsylvania. The proportion of
> > > immigrants was higher at private institutions, 28.8
> > > percent, than at the public colleges, where they comprised
> > > 23.1 percent of enrollment.
> > >
> > > Are elite schools padding their racial diversity numbers
> > > with black immigrants who do not have a history of American
> > > slavery in their families? This development immediately
> > > calls into question whether affirmative action admission
> > > policies are fulfilling their original intent.
> > >
> > > But, as Walter Benn Michaels, a professor of English at the
> > > University of Illinois at Chicago, writes in his book "The
> > > Trouble With Diversity," the original intent of affirmative
> > > action morphed in the 1970s from reparations for slavery
> > > into the promotion of a broader virtue: "diversity."
> > >
> > > Since then, it no longer seems to matter how many of our
> > > colleges' black students have slavery in their families. It
> > > only matters that they're black.
> > >
> > > That said, I don't begrudge black immigrants or any other
> > > high-achieving immigrants for their impressive
> > > achievements. I applaud them. I encourage more native-born
> > > American children, particularly my own child, to take
> > > similar advantage of this country's hard-won opportunities.
> > >
> > > But I also think we need to revisit the question of
> > > diversity. Unlike our system of feel-good game-playing, we
> > > need to focus on the deeper question of how opportunities
> > > can be opened to everyone who was left behind by the civil
> > > rights revolution. We tend to look too often at every
> > > aspect of diversity except economic class.
> > >
> > > ----------
> > >
> > > Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board.
> > > E-mail: cptime@
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I
> > dream
> > > of things that never were, and ask why not."
> > >
> > > ~ Robert F. Kennedy
> > >
> >
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> June B. Taylor-Young, Esq.
>
> "In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves . . . " Eleanor Roosevelt
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate
> in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A.
>
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