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When a Liar Tells the Truth
By Tarty Teh
Special to USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
The Black Business
Journal
When a Liar Tells the Truth
By Tarty Teh
Special to USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
The Black Business
Journal
It happens more often than we can tell. Liars do tell the truth. However, they usually speak the truth not for truth's sake but for the sake of some as yet undeclared strategic purpose. To that end, I believe that politics and diplomacy are branches of the accepted craft of the strategic management or avoidance of the truth. But whereas diplomacy packages truth in less painful dosages, politics minimizes, ignores, and at times avoids the truth.
Truth
in its pure state is the stuff of which political naiveté is
made. An example: among the herd of Democratic liberals who ran
in the 1988 U.S presidential primaries was Bruce Babbitt, former
governor of Arizona who later served as President Clinton's Interior
Secretary. During a forum intended the liberal Democrats to
showcase their political ware in the form of a debate, Babbitt stood
up, raised his right hand, and asked other Democrats to join him in
reciting what later turned out to be a suicide credo: "Let's be
frank, gentlemen. There is no way we can turn the economy around
without raising taxes."
He was asking those who shared his belief to raise their hands. None did, and former Gov. Babbitt was out of the race in a few days. He was later quoted as saying, "I knew that the truth could set you free. But not this early."
Another credo that same year went like this: "Read my lips; no new taxes." The guy who uttered this was not a Democrat, which is to say he wasn't a liberal. Liberals are often encumbered by the truth to take full advantage of expedience. The man who promised "no new taxes" won the U.S presidency. By the way, his name was George Herbert Walker Bush, Sr. It therefore follows, politically, that President Bush did raise the taxes.
These are not liars in the classic sense of the word. Instead these are people who seek to take advantage of some or any knowledge gaps they feel among the voting population. They would highlight that knowledge or obscure it, depending on its anticipated consequences on their chances of being elected.
Now, back home in Liberia where politicians don't have to worry so much about what the voters think. On top of that lies the presumption that the voters are both stupid and lack any kind of recourse about an obvious lie. That's why it was possible for one politician to promise rice to the potential voters at half its going price, and to claim that the then current administration was inflating the cost of the staple food item. The result of this lie proved deadly for a sitting president and 13 of his cabinet members. Liberia has never been the same since.
A combination of odioU.S circumstances brought about the seemingly legitimate election of a person more adept at avoiding the truth: Charles Taylor. But when Taylor was being singled out as the only person who brought about the destruction of Liberia, he told the truth. He named his sponsors as Dr. Amos Sawyer and Ms. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Because Taylor's claims were verifiable, it was his sponsors who lied by their denial.
Many
alliances have been formed and broken over the 12-year period since
Taylor was contracted to attack Liberia. The current
anti-Taylor forces are not a solid bloc. The opposition
politicians do not yet have an armed wing to their struggle against
President Charles Taylor (inpicture, left). The group that
poses some threat to Taylor's grip on power does not yet have a
visible political wing. The absence of a political component
has tempted more than a half dozen opposition politicians to court
the group for the favor of heading it.
Acknowledging the futility of taking over the armed group called Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), the scheming political opposition has come together behind a lie. They claim that LURD does not exist in any degree sufficient to earn credit for the deterioration of President Taylor's grip on power. They contend that Taylor has set up a brigade to harass his own forces to give the appearance of helplessness of his army. They argue further that the helpless state was meant to incur sympathy with Great Britain, the United States, and the United Nations to lift the sanctions sponsored by Britain and the U.S against Taylor and Liberia.
So if Taylor is truly helpless, only the LURD knows - if LURD
exists. But the many who are made homeless by Taylor's
counter-offensives against LURD could not be more certain that there
is a war beyond Taylor's ability to orchestrate or control. But
as in the political arena, the victims' circumstances, let alone
their opinions, don't matter as long as opposition politicians see
the potential of some political capital in ignoring the truth as
being told by a liar named Charles Taylor. Private initiative,
free
market forces, and more
democratization
are Keys to prosperity in Africa
These views were
stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and
senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on
Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of
'Inside Politics 2000.'
Teh, a contributing editor and columnist for USAfricaonline.com,
is a Liberian based in Washington, D.C. March 31, 2002
Johnnie Cochran
will soon learn that defending Abacha's
loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's
case.
By Chido Nwangwu
It's wrong
to stereotype Nigerians as Drug
Dealers
Nelson
Mandela, Tribute to the
world's political superstar and Lion of
Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's
burden
mounts with murder charges, trials
Why Bush should focus on dangers
facing Nigeria's return
to democracy
and Obasanjo's slippery slide
Nigerian stabbed
to death
in his bathroom in Houston.
DEMOCRACY'S
WARRIOR
Out of
Africa.
…The
cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but
his voice is the property of the neighborhood. -- Chinua
Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah. An editor carries on
his crusade against public corruption and press
censorship
in his native Nigeria and other African countries. By
John Suval.
TRIBUTE
A KING FOR
ALL TIMES:
Why Martin Luther King's
legacy
and vision are relevant into 21st 21st
century.
DIPLOMACY
Walter
Carrington:
African-American diplomat who put principles above self for
Nigeria 
(USAfrica's
founder Chido Nwangwu with Ambassador Carrington at the U.S.
embassy, Nigeria)
DEMOCRACY'S
WARRIOR
Out of
Africa.
…The
cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but
his voice is the property of the neighborhood. -- Chinua
Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah. An editor carries on
his crusade against public corruption and press
censorship
in his native Nigeria and other African countries. By
John Suval.
HUMAN
RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
How far, how deep will Nigeria's human rights
commission go?
Rtd. Gen. Babangida trip as
emissary for Nigeria's Obasanjo to Sudan raises curiosity,
questions about what next in power
play?
110 minutes
with Hakeem Olajuwon
Nigerian
stabbed
to death
in his bathroom in Houston.
Cheryl
Mills' first class defense of Clinton and her detractors'
game
Apple announces Titanium,
"killer
apps" and other
ground-breaking products for 2001. iTunes makes a record
500,000 downloads.
Steve Jobs extends digital
magic
USAfricaonline.com
has been listed
among the world's leading web sites by the international
newspaper, USAToday.
Africa
suffers the scourge of the virus.
This life and pain of Kgomotso Mahlangu, a
five-month-old AIDS patient (above) in a hospital in the
Kalafong township near Pretoria, South Africa, on October
26, 1999, brings a certain, frightening reality to the
sweeping and devastating destruction of human beings who
form the core of any definition of a country's future, its
national security, actual and potential economic development
and internal markets.
22 million Africans HIV-infected, ill
with AIDS
while African leaders
ignore disaster-in-waiting
Investigating
Marc
Rich and his deals
with Nigeria's Oil
Through an elaborate network of carrots and
sticks and a willing army of Nigeria's soldiers and some
civilians, controversial global dealer and billionaire Marc
Rich, literally and practically, made deals and steals; yes,
laughed his way to the banks from crude oil contracts,
unpaid millions in oil royalties and false declarations of
quantities of crude lifted and exported from Nigeria for
almost 25 years. Worse, he lifted
Nigeria's oil and shipped same to then embargoed apartheid
regime in South Africa. Read Chido Nwangwu's NEWS
INVESTIGATION REPORT for PetroGasWorks.com
In a special report a few hours after
the history-making nomination, USAfricaonline.com
Founder and Publisher Chido Nwangwu places Powell within the
trajectory of history and into his unfolding clout and
relevance in an essay titled 'Why Colin
Powell
brings gravitas, credibility and star power to Bush
presidency.'
Powell
named Secretary State by G.W. Bush; bipartisan commendations
follow.
AFRICA
AND THE U.S. ELECTIONS
Beyond U.S.
electoral shenanigans, rewards and dynamics of a democratic
republic hold
lessons
for
African politics.
CONTINENTAL
AGENDA
Bush's position on
Africa
is "ill-advised."
The position
stated by Republican presidential aspirant and Governor of
Texas, George Bush where 
he
said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his
presidency has been questioned by
USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido
Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was
neither validated by the economic exchanges nor
geo-strategic interests of our two continents."
Nwangwu,
adviser to the Mayor of Houston (the 4th largest city in the
U.S., and immigrant home to thousands of Africans) argued
further that "the issues of the heritage interests of 35
million African-Americans in Africa, the volume and value of
oil business between between the U.S and Nigeria and the
horrendous AIDS crisis in Africa do not lend any basis for
Governor Bush's ill-advised
position which
removes Africa from fair consideration" were he to be
elected president.
By Al Johnson
THE
FIRST
BLACK
POPE?
To our Brother Cardinal
Arinze: May your pastoral lineage endure!
Why is 4-year old Onyedika
carrying a placard against killings
in Nigeria?
How Nigeria's Islamic
Sharia crises
will affect the
U.S.
Since 1958, Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" set a standard
of artistic excellence,
and more. By Douglas Killam
Should Africa debates begin
and end at
The
New York Times and
The
Washington Post?
No