What black African Nations have been afforded full scale comprehensive
assisitance by them?

N O N E!


>From: "Johnson, Eugene" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: "AAM (African Association of Madison)"
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: THE LONDON EXPERIENCE
>Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 10:21:22 -0500
>
>Welcome black to America, my friend Lagia. Tell me, what role does American
>and other G-7 nations' investments: $, technology, political, military, and
>cultural play in helping nations, such as China, Russia, and other former
>Soviet bloc nations, peacefully transform in the modern era? What Black
>African nations have been afforded full scale comprehensive assistance by
>them? Can the British and French transformation models of the 17 and 18
>hundreds work in today global, fast paced community.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ALEX LAGIA REDD [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 7:16 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: THE LONDON EXPERIENCE
>
>
>     THE LONDON EXPERIENCE---by Alex Redd
>         August 13, 2002
>
>     It is good to be back in the U.S. following a rewarding summer
>experience of study in London. I was intrigued by advanced political
>ideologies from British liberal theorists who pushed for social reform
>through their writings. I thought to share with you my analysis deduced
>from some of these political philosophers specifically Edmund Burke, a
>political author and incrementalist on social reform.
>     The crux of my argument will focus on whether the method of rapid
>social reform without preserving traditional values and institutions is
>necessary or is gradual (slow) social reform with respect to hold in
>place traditional institutions and values would be the best solution to
>social change? Great Britain, France, Liberia, Nigeria, Iran and Latin
>America have been victimized (except Britain) by rapid social reform
>through attempts to implement modernity, which undermines the
>traditional political foundations of these countries.
>     I would argue that the method of rapid social reform without regard
>for established political norms is detrimental in any form. Up to date,
>Great Britain maintains its national character by preserving its
>traditional norms---the monarchy, representative of a family. In
>keeping with the conservative approach, the preservation of traditional
>institutions and values in society is as sacred with its historical
>importance that directs the course of individuals and society at large
>for peaceful co-existence. What intrinsic values do these traditional
>institutions have that Burke wants preserved, even if a change is to
>come? For example, in England the monarchy is perceived as an intrinsic
>value or institution representative of a family, which is the basic
>unit of society. The monarchy therefore should preserve and sustain its
>core values for societal ordinance. An attack to despise the monarchy
>would seem like disruption of the fundamental societal ethos, which
>both informs and provides bedrock values that underwrite society at
>large.
>      Despite the short-lived revolution by Oliver Cromwell in the 1850s
>coupled with religious strife, the monarchy was restored in 1860 with
>historical respect to Britain's traditional norms. Though there was
>sporadic agitation for the establishment of democracy in Britain, but
>the capacity of British forces to accommodate each other over the
>centuries without going for each other's throat is what I admire about
>their politics. This is not to say that British history lacked violence
>or conflict. Northern Ireland today stands as witness to the British
>capacity for violence. But at no point did a foreign conqueror or
>domestic opposition with a dramatically new plan for politics prevail;
>so British politics, unlike the politics of virtually every other state
>of the world, never was formally redesigned. However, to welcome social
>change gradually with respect to preserve traditional norms can suffice
>for national stability, but this was not the case with France in its
>1789 revolution.
>      French Revolutionists, products of the enlightenment period,
>ignored historical traditions and values to effect social change. In an
>attempt to experience rapid social reform, the French revolutionists
>had a rational thought to model their society on absolute truths
>equivalent in certainty to mathematical axioms. Their model had no
>basis in historical contingency---they violently ousted the traditional
>system of monarchy. Thereafter came difficulties to create a viable and
>stable political state with three changes in governmental form. Such
>rapid social change has its historical effect on developing countries
>across the continents.
>      In contemporary Africa and other developing countries, rapid
>social reforms have caused devastating effect that result in chaos and
>prolong civil wars. For example, in Nigeria, Liberia and Iran, an
>attempt for rapid social, economic and political change through
>modernization was met with bloody conflict that sparked divisions of
>ethnic hatred, mistrust and unlawful accountability. The Iranian 1979
>revolution blamed America for eroding its Islamic traditional values
>with modernity. In Nigeria, fragmented ethnic groups cling to their
>local resources by clashing with the federal system because modernity
>undermined their traditional belief system. An effort to impose
>modernity in Latin America ushered in bitter class conflict and
>political upheavals that introduced military dictatorships. In Liberia,
>eagerness for rapid social reform notably 1979 by the People's
>Progressive Party (PPP), a political party, without a well-defined
>political agenda or ideology called for a national strike against the
>William R. Tolbert government for ÿthe government's inability to
>institutionally integrate indigenous Liberians. The rice riot followed
>thereafter. Civil disobedience and violence, a way to express dissent
>became prevalent as a doctrine that manifested itself into the
>butchering of Liberia's 19th president. Since then Liberia has been
>abnormal among world states.
>      The current mess the country faces today traces back to such rapid
>social change with regard to preserve its political tradition. Couldn't
>we have compromise our political differences into a more civilized
>method without violence and disrespect for existing laws? Tolbert was a
>reformist. He had welcomed political diversity by declaring the
>symbolic ÿTotal Involvement for Higher Heightsÿ with the intention to
>gradually transform the system. The old guard from the Tubman
>administration was fading away. Imbued by modern technological ideas,
>Tolbert was an industrialists and encourager of new ideas from
>university ÿjump startsÿ for social reform. My point is that
>microeconomic management for political stability was to some extent,
>ethically sound unlike other regimes that followed thereafter. During
>the Tolbert era, at least my dad received his paycheck on time unlike
>today's Liberia. Should have itchy advocates for rapid social change
>found an amicable and passive approach toward reform?
>      In any case, the danger and consequences of rapid social reform
>have unravel with devastating effect---- ethnic hatred, mistrust, the
>breakdown of rule and law and abject poverty. The need for social
>reform is necessary but such change must not tend to undermine our
>traditional political foundation and belief systems. Democracy, a case
>in point should be encouraged with the hope of gradually absorbing into
>any nation's political system with caution and respect for the original
>traditional norms.
>       Incremental social reform method might be applied to contemporary
>Africa and other developing countries with the hope of keeping their
>original culture alive. In any event, social reform is inevitable
>depending on the belief system that establishes the traditional bedrock
>of a country and its people. Social change in exemplified countries
>across the continents would require an incremental social reform with
>the accommodation of modernity and the preservation of some traditional
>institutions and values.
>
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Adetunji Ashimi Lesi CPA, CMA


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