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The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organise a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, and then you'll get action   Malcolm X

Talk is truly cheaper than toilet paper, because if you said "my house is burning!!" and then was still sitting watching TV, or on the phone attacking the fireman, then it would be right to assume either your house was not burning or you did not really understand your death was imminent. And this evident in the quality of debates so-called conscious people engage in. With all the serious issues killing us, destroying our world they have time to squabble over ant hill rights, who worships where, whose name is more African than whose.

The world is a dinner table of diminishing opportunities, but exploitation of these opportunities requires progressive thinking, and an investment in infrastructures. The threshold and standards of work, and the quality of our work ethic become critical in competing in this new world. And in our Pan-African space, unity ultimately means pooling resources and intelligence and taking advantage of every opportunity to advance the majority. Someone is a master of X, while another person is a master of Y, it is not unity or organization if the resources are unknown, and hence untapped. You do not go into battle without a cavalry, or throw stones at the enemy when someone else knows how to make arrows—but disorganization makes them unknown or unemployed in revolution. And this is just what we do when we organize and only include talkers, and showmen in our line up.

While the Chinese, India et al, are practicing throwing things into Earth's Orbit (and getting better at it), and Arabs are making sand castles in the sea, we got our "intellectuals" planning another conference; Another sit down with the old talkers. The same conference every year for 30 years. This is the only thing they know to do as a response to the globalized world.

	The solution is complete ownership of the products/services that we use to live in a productive way. Creating business and employing our own people, and therefore empowering our people, creating wealth in the broadest sense and retaining that wealth within our own communities. The doors in which we traditional hemorrhage wealth to other communities must be closed off.
	'Alik Shahadah

Good ways of doing things are universal, and will always return profits regardless of if you are selling heaven or hell. Marketing is marketing, time keeping is time keeping. Good organizing helps keep your house clean as much as it helped Tuthmosis III win at Battle of Megiddo:

Applying the best traditions of efficiency to revolution, make revolution successful. Because the tool that builds nothing is no good to no one.

	Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress
	Frederick Douglass

Hidden behind every great work of art, science, or ideology, is a work-ethos, which creates success. These policies, habits, or principles are equally critical to the things they produce, because without the correct formula no good idea, no great work will come into fruition: Making a great product usually means a great process. If our broader revolution is failing it is very likely that the methodologies, work ethos is critically flawed. We are very good, as a people, discussing ideology, but ideology alone is not even 1/2 the war if our ways of doing things is under developed.

If the enemy has guns and you have spears – You have a chance. If they have nukes and you have rocks–You still have a chance. However, if they have unity and you have disunity–there is no hope!   'Alik Shahadah

DEFINE REVOLUTION

Revolution? Most talk about it yet when it comes, they do not recognize its face. Revolution? Cuba had a revolution, Iran had a revolution, China had a revolution, Venezuela. Take a look at what happened in Mali and Somalia, that is the face of revolution. Are you sure you want a revolution? A revolution is a radical change to the status quo when people, under whatever political/religious ideology, take control of their destiny and implement self-determination free from the yoke of the colonial masters..

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EVOLUTION | WEALTH FOR SELF

No matter what you give a destroyed people they will use it as part of their destruction. If you pour in water—they will drown themselves. If you give them a rope—they will hang themselves with it     - Alik Shahadah

Forward African Dialectics Synergy No Excuses Hide it in a Book Critical Mass Voting Forward not Back Donate and Support By Their Fruit Leaking Wealth Singing Solutions Vulgar Individualism Philosophy of Location Priorities Solution-Each Teach What is Wrong I Got to Get Paid Another Conference Pan-Africanism Who is Speaking Everyone is King Quality Control Development Paradigm Religion Conclusion

The methodologies of the 60's should be evolved to function in our globalized world. It can no longer be acceptable for another generation to have to come and re-invent the wheel of failure, via antiquated models of working. In the high tide of globalization what are the roles for economic and cultural development at the macroeconomic level? What specific language is required in the political spaces to create broad-base transformations in all sectors? Pan-Africanism is do or die, but it needs tangible mutually beneficial partnerships, which create wealth, in its broadest sense, and hence creates incentives for a Pan-African ideology. All of this must sludge through the issues of sincerity, ineptitude, efficiency and work ethos. But all of this needs mechanisms, which tease out the personalities, and egos that perpetuate failure. Bad liberation grammar has battles being fought that have no solution mechanism, which reinforce existing work or foster constructive change. "We need to control our image" has already been established as a liberation necessity, the how becomes primary in the 21st century. Moreover, greater support systems or magnification of the African media houses needs greater support. Every day we eat something, sleep in something, and drive something and live under something. Liberation means owning the products, which we use to live in a comfortable way. Hence, ownership is the primary language in the Pan-African lexicon. Conscious clean money (CCM) is what needs to be created from owning products and services that enhance our lives and advance African agency.

Creating wealth for self, will not happen by the click of a 'like button' but by having people who are sensitive, and integrated into an understanding of economics and its applications in community. It cannot be an theory paper by a professor of Morgan State, or the rhetoric of some revolutionary in a basement working part time for the state.

And some in our community have wealth, but without a conscious identity we are doomed to fail. Most of MJ (RIP) wealth is putting White kids through school and keeping Sony afloat. Most of the NBA ballers wealth is keeping White women in fur and pearls. For every ball Tiger puts in a hole, there is another hole in his pocket, leaking his money back to the White world.

Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories   Cabral

While waiting for nationalization and reparations can we please use the time to get skills and educate ourselves to be commanders of our own world-- free from the West, free from dependency? You see this is the problem with the lazy revolution: It grabs, snatches but never thinks.

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FREE is for SLAVES

Slaves and children like FREE. Nothing in this world is free; most over the age of 7 know that things cost money, and mommy and daddy have to go to work to pay for stuff. YouTube is not free. Facebook is not Free. But during slavery you thought the food was Free. We have this strange expectation that consciousness should be free. Especially when collective work (like this free site) suffers because every contributor, even for spell checking wants executive salaries.

This site you found this article on is not FREE, if people stop buying the products, you will see how "Not free it is " when they shut it down. And we, the conscious, do not have to do this work, there is no further obligation on us to do more; the burden is on you. Take that money you got for all that junk and spend on liberation. Do not ask that Asante, who gets 10% of the Amazon price, give his wisdom away for free. Do not ask for Karenga to speak without some form of remuneration, he did not get the wisdom for cheap. This writer did not make 500 Years Later for free; its my job, my trade, how I feed my family, how I pay my bills. It is that wealth that allows me to write this article without worrying about dinner. Independent wealth is also protection, it allows one to speak ones mind without fear of being fired on Monday morning. And still, like John Singleton, I could have done something far more profitable; if profit was my primary concern. But Burger King, Disney World, Cable TV, IPad, are worthy of our hard earned cash but the Pan-African economic web is not. It is certainly not the tradition of Marcus Garvey or Elijah Muhammad in their solution for rebuilding Africa.

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OLD TIME LEADERSHIP

	The methodologies of the 60's should be evolved to function in our globalized world. It can no longer be acceptable for another generation to have to come and re-invent the wheel of failure via antiquated models of working
	Shahadah

But most of our leadership, (save NOI and Garvey) comes from academia – who are not wealth creators, but paid help/staff of European institutions. Most are victims of the dilemma of close-circuit thinking; ideologies poorly ventilated in the real and dynamic world. Can you imagine someone calling themselves a "master chef," but have only written papers on food, but never cooked anything? This is the dilemma of most academic Pan-Africanist. It is the theory of unity, without actually any unity. When reading their "solutions," Media comes up Zero, Agency comes up Zero, business comes up Zero. Trade comes up Zero, but idealism comes up in every other sentence.

Many African academics write all the pretty words on paper; "Africans need business" (very easy to type), "Africans need to control image of self" (very easy to say and write). Now walk up to them with an actual business or actual media idea and watch them look at you as puzzled as a sheep studying at a Nuclear power schematic. They would not know revolution if God came down and showed it to them—disconnected jokers. Reagan, to Clinton, to Obama have Harvard academics in their backyard everyday for tea and biscuits: Ask yourself who is Milton Friedman, who is Keynes? Who is Bernard Lewis. Then we start to understand the role of real academics in Western society. Ours are writing poems. Because If a book on economics cannot rebuild an economy, then it is just pretty poetry—fit for a poetry jam or wiping the Kool Aid off the floor. And we should be worried when our "top" academics are part-time showmen. Op Ed celebrities with flashy personalities, but next to Zero serious applicable content. Cheered on by Mr. White.

	You only know how strong a bridge is when you try to walk across it
	Shahadah

If you are a farmer, you see the world through the eyes of a farmer; every piece of land you drive pass you notice it in farming terms. If you are a fisherman, every time you pass the sea you look at it and wonder "I wonder if there is any good fish in there." Now business people think business, filmmakers think in film, academics masturbate in suspended world of academic theory. When the month comes to an end, they walk up a flight of stairs into the masters office and collect their check. The reality of the professional Black academic is therefore not realistically in tune with the importance of image of self, business ownership and the like. They know they are important but are generally only capable of dreaming of these things in theory, and therefore fail to appreciate them beyond rhetoric and paper appeal. Yes they play a very important role in our liberation, but we must understand the limits of their theory, and not put the entire revolution on the writings of academics.

A fair share of our good scholar's rage is spent fighting to keep their jobs. As well meaning as L Jeffries, Dr. Ben, Tony Martin, Asante, Clarke, et all are/were they are incapable of perceiving or implementing new economic paradigms, because most of them are economically dependent on European structures. And this is not so much their problem alone, because it is not their place to speak beyond their pay grade, and we need to learn these limits. None of them run a government or a business to be experts on these practical aspects. Just like engineers who build bridges are not expected to define culture, and write about the effects of slavery. So this caveat is necessary for the current generation of African Scholars, who entirely depend on the publishing houses of Europe, the TV stations that accommodate them, and the universities that tolerate them. And we have relaxed for so long that we forgot we were guest in our enemies' house. Being head of African studies is not a final destination, or the peak end gain for our people. These are inside oppertunities to allow a greater independent work to go on-- not the final objective.

What happens when they decide to pull the plug? As they did with the UK African History departments: A whole lot of African scholars with mortgage arrears. And the same thing when the British decided African/Black arts was not worthy of further funding, and entire collapse of film, art, community culture based organizations occurred overnight. GONE! We failed to use the advantage in the funding years to create self-sufficiency. And like lambs to the slaughter we watched the funding coming down across the board, yet were shocked when "auterity" was on our doorstep.

	Do not get so comfortable in someone else's house that you forget to build your own
	Shahadah

The current old time leadership, and old time methodologies are also out-of-tune with community. Still thinking overhead projectors are revolutionary information delivery systems. They have no idea about the new world that is "liking" itself away on Youtube, Facebook and Wikipedia. Yet they continue to fail to engage the next generation who is techno savvy but lacking in direction. So this is why we see the same types of unchanging engagement: unattended academic conferences - no one reads that boring stuff. Pointless events with the same old faces from back in the day. Community sister [insert triple barrel African name] and community brother [insert Ancient Egyptian name].

Double conscious (Dubois) So they write an entire book cussing Europe, yet everything they write is for a White audience. All the paradigms of success and human relations are aping Europe. And nothing in their actual mind-set is located in Africa- only the rhetoric. How do they live? What is important to them? Getting praised by New York Times. I thought we were trying to come out of Babylon not go deeper into its cave.

Why do our leaders (in all areas) fail us? Because there is no consequences for failure. So a talks shop smooth talker can get up and shout out all kinds of beautiful rhetoric, after he gets his thunderous applause and steps down off the podium, what systems or institutions exist to hold that person accountable to those words? Where is the peer review or monitor that tracks these words into actions? Because they will publically say "we need image of self" (crowd cheers them) but if you go to them behind closed doors they have nothing do with independent cinema. They shout "unity now" but in private, outside of the flashing cameras, they are the ones that get up and walk out of unity. They say "Forget the church and the mosque, go back to the old ways", yet not one of them ever honors Ogoun or Rog or even the basics of principles of Maat. Africa this and Africa that, yet the only place they go in Africa is the grounds of the Hilton Hotel. And none of them actually plan to leave the suburbs of Atlanta for anywhere in Africa. Africa is a tourist stop over when then do shopping in Paris.

How can you have a Pan-African conference yet have no concept of creating a space for trade? As oppose to a TALK SHOP why not have a WORK SHOP, where people can gain real world skills?

	They say they want to be part of it, but they don't know what it is. They cannot see all the micro parts that make up the grand It.
	Shahadah

Paper organizations do not own anything; they employ no one and create wealth for nothing. Abstract speeches belong in art galleries and rhetoric at a political rally. How many more debates re-visiting questions solved long ago by the elders and thinkers like Malcolm and Fanon? Yes we must use all tools to get people into liberation mode but we must also be careful of tricking ourselves into the warm bath of inactivity.

	Individualism is the poison which kills every beautiful dream and hope of a community
	Shahadah

Some people are special, they struggle organizing a basic meeting, showing up on time, or even sending a basic e-mail or keeping any form of promise they made. They can't even manage to buy conscious films or visit the Motherland. Yet these same people have the hottest rhetoric on the planet, they will tell you "we should do x, y and z, kick people out and take back Africa." But If you can't do small, how do you plan to do big?

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SINGERS FOR HEROES

Beyonce did a song called "Who run the world"... It is certainly not her

No offence, but most of these poet, singing dancing revolutionaries will not be missed if abducted from planet Earth. Especially the child-minded musician, who is busy changing guitar strings, unaware the bombs have begun falling. It has to be said, because it is getting very worrying when solutions to economics, and poverty come in the form of a poem written on a toilet paper on the back of the bus: When racism is going to be ended with lyrics from a newly penned song. We love you-- thanks for the inspiration -- yes we need everyone, but we also do not need delusions.

Do not deny the people their trinkets and distractions for they may revolt. You can deny them any and everything else and not get a murmur, when you first control their priorities. It is easier to get our people to rally behind singers in trouble, actors (Snipes), Death row inmates (Troy), Drug dealers beaten by the police than any other good cause. Some claim they have independent thought and understood "the Matrix" yet they struggle to connect that theory with living reality. When the piper blows his tunes their resistance crumbs and they sip the Kool Aid. The media handpicks "worthy" and "unworthy" and throws it before the people. Another imprisoned rapper (to talk about), another dead artist (to cry for), another criminal on death row (to protest for). You cannot get a tear out of their eyes for the millions of Somalis in crisis, or a peep out of them for the issue of poor education; but they are vocal as gulls for trinket issues.

The new gladiators are these singers and dancers, actors and clowns put there to keep us skinning our teeth. Idols in people non-representative and selected for you. Now music and dance are part of our culture, but if everyone is singing who is going to design the microphones, if everyone is running who will fix the sprained ankle, if everyone is playing ball who will engineer the stadium?

Can't name one African king but know all the lyrics to Drakes new song. Ebony AOL says, "Rapper breaks-up with Singer , and it occupies all our Twitter and Facebook dialog. Now all people have this problem, but not all people celebrate clowns before prophets -- most Jews know the difference between Ben Stiller and Ben Gurion.

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READ READ AND WRITE

Read and Grow or do not read and be enslaved by lack of complete conscious info. This is how they manipulate us with Mali, Zimbabwe, and Libya. They always said, "Hide it in the Books" it is so true, especially when those who say "we know" do not know. So there is no fear about spilling the beans on American foreign policy, right there hidden in plain view, but we do not read and we do not know.

If you have 1/2 info, bad info, how do you plan to fix the problems of our African world? It is more than someone being right and someone being wrong. It is about perspectives on factual info that we can come and debate and trash out to get to the truth (dialectics), but there is no dialectics if one persons source is YouTube and another persons source is Black Chat forum.

We are also not prepared to study and write. No problem, there are many Europeans who see the void and come and write the info, not only becoming authorities on Africa, but paying their mortgage and putting the next generation through university. Blame self first, we have the culture, we have the music but let them write and film it. So when you want to learn about the beauty of Wodabee African culture you need Carol Beckwith.

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I WANT ...CONDITIONS OF REVOLUTION

I want my revolution, but I do not want to lose anything. I want to be healthy, but eat Chitterlings all day. I want the full pleasure of sex, but not the responsibility of marriage. I want all the freedoms afforded to me under this slave system, but I want all the perks of being fully liberated. I want my bank account to be full, but I do not want to work. I want to own my own house, but I do not want to pay the mortgage. I want to be African, but behave like a European. I want to be part of community, but behave like an individual. I respect the ancestors, unless I don't like what I am hearing. I want justice in the world unless it causes me to lose something.

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TALK IS NOT AN ACTION

	The danger of isolating yourself into ideological communities, while therapeutic, allows some of the most ill-informed ideas and attitudes to be nursed,groomed and matured without critical examination
	'Alik Shahadah

You can say what you want on your corners, on YouTube, or anywhere else, but nothing said matters if you have no power to make these things real. Pan-African challenges this powerlessness by fostering African agency. When African own and control land, resources, images of self; then all the other problems start to dissolve. And we cannot in one hand complain about the lack of positive images of African people and lament over the opportunist media houses like CNN if we refuse to go into our pockets and support the few independent films we do have. We either understand the power created via unity and process that go into unity or die in unmarked graves, forgotten to time.

The challenges are crystal clear, getting change-agents in positions to affect change.

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EXCUSE MANUFACTURING PLANTS

Some people just so shabby they still are so disorganized, yet they say they are conscious, well if you apply consciousness how come you cannot reflect and develop? So how does consciousness make someone so unprofessional and so selfish they cannot see their failures are impacting development? And the ones that do it the most are Excuse manufacturing plants, producing the highest output of any factory on the planet.

* My computer had a virus

* I was so busy (Busy or disorganized, they look the same until you examine the person involved).

* It was raining and I could not make it: Best excuses of 2012 "I could not come to the meeting because it was raining" LOL. Football is played in the rain, so rain should not stop serious play, it is not like it is Wimbledon. And since the wonderful invention of the umbrella and its popularization in Rihanna's song and Gene Kelly's "Singing in the rain" rain is no longer a valid excuses for not doing something.

 

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NO POWER

	Have you ever watched lambs being slaughtered? It is very strange because they are watching their numbers being reduced. They see their friends being taken and killed- yet they stand there like "Nah Jack, that is not going to happen to me
	'Alik Shahadah

Other communities uproar at injustice by protesting and marching, but they spend more time building their economic, political and social strength. Jews post-Hitler, made short-term, long-term and cross-generation plans to never be the victims of anyone. In media, in policy, they secured their interest, sometimes at the expense of other oppressed people. So if the BBC or anyone upsets their sensibility, unlike us who can only shout, they could threaten to close down BBC economically.

	We either understand the power created via unity and process that go into unity or die in unmarked graves, forgotten to time
	'Alik Shahadah

Much of our career as Africans has been spent fighting the symptoms of racism, the surface racism. We fight when Troy or Tookie is with the hangman. (too late) We protest when they drop the bombs on Libya. Power will only have a conversation with power. (Fredrick Douglas) These circus celebrities become TV revolutionaries that show up at every Black issue are a complete disservice to anything long term. But we like their pretty rhetoric and charismatic mannerisms so we keep sending them to fight our wars. And every time a problem comes up in the community we look at it with the innocents and naivety of a child, not as the oldest inhabitants of the planet. And just like a child our response is often superficial. So this is why the minute they flip the switch on another victim of the criminal injustice system, that is it for our work. What are the long term, cross-generation plans for absolute transformation of our reality? Are we happy to wait for the next victim, the next layoff, the racial insult?

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VOTING IS POWER, NOT VOTING IS NOT

Contrary to Popular Belief, not voting, is not revolutionary (for whoever wins, it doesn't help nor hurt, so what is the point?). Not voting carries no power, it might be a protest vote, but who hears it? Sure it is a sign of dissent, but what message does it carry beyond a statement of discontent? Not voting for Caesar didn't stop Caesar. Voting for someone who has no hope of winning is also almost equal to not voting. What would be revolutionary is voting and having so much voting power that who ever got elected has to listen to your vote, for fear of it being used against them. That is power—That is revolutionary.

We must not blame the likes of Obama for not having an Agenda for us. Strategically why would he waste his time when we don't have any power of organized influence. To repeat in plain English, the concerns of Blacks in America [sic] are not unified enough, organized enough to make it onto the political agenda table of either party: No unified self-serving agendas like the Jews. The Jews have Israel and pro-Jewish concerns, the gays have gay marriage. What unified ideology do African Americans have that causes the White House to shake if they do not support it? For example reparations for slavery should, by now, be such a powerful uniting concern that any president that does not speak to it, doesn't get the African American vote. Obama et al has an agenda for every other group except us— why? Because there is no point on having an agenda for a people who cant even agree on what to name themselves, no universal values, still content to support on the patina issue of Obama shares our skin color, no group agenda other than orphaned complaints of police and judicial injustice. What about core issues such as education, what about foreign policy in Africa?

There is absolutely nothing attractive about a Black President with imperial ambitions. Our struggle was never about getting a individual Black man in the White House-it was about justice for all Black people. We have lost our way.The ultimate insult to my integrity is we have a Black man bombing Africa   Cynthia McKinney

If you look left you get hit by a bus, if you look right you get hit by a truck —no easy answers. Politics is dirty, it is not about who you like. We must set aside that and vote actual issues, vote strategy. And in absence of great issues we must vote to keep the worse wolf from coming to power. One argument in favor of voting is our ancestors were denied their right to vote, they died and suffer so now we can participate in this B.S Democracy. Yes democracy is a joke, but unless you come up with a better plan, we better go and support the candidate less likely to cause World War III.

The word "revolutionary" needs a serious review, It is being used loosely by people who do not realize revolutionary also means innovative, and progressive. A revolutionary new economic idea, usually means better, more advanced. how can it be revolutionary if it has no yield?

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BLAME SELF FIRST

	A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within
	Will Durant

Escaping the gravity of ego, selfishness, and greed remains the greatest obstacle to African unity. Because ego blinds us to solutions not of our own personal authorship (I didn't come up with it so it is not valid). The personality of some Greatest Hits from the Pan-African 60's continues to voice solutions that have failed to materialise in 40 years – why then are they still leading the think tank? Egoist that do not know when to shut up and let a meritocracy rise. Because if we are seriously looking at solutions the first harbor is "Are you right for the job"? And if the answer is "no" then why is this person leading the project? A projects validity has to be centred around "merit" not "who." Makes no difference if you marched with Martin or got a photo with Malcolm. Can you do the job?

Beyond rhetoric what does "Unity" actually mean on the ground? Where are the structures that are being built to process unity? What is the purpose of this unity? Where is the work from this unity? Rhetoric is not work, rhetoric is only the argument and motivation for work.

You were either an employer, an employee, or a ward of the state, and a man without his own business or specialized training was always at a disadvantage in making a living. Great wealth is made out of commerce and industry... He will never be an industrial or commercial factor until he has learned the principles of commercial and industrial success.   Marcus Garvey

Make no mistake, the reason for the ongoing demise of Africa is not because of the Arab Slave Trade, or the destructive European slave trade, or Colonialism. These are all symptoms of a greater dilemma; the inability of Africans to build constructive spheres of self-interest around common challenges. Our fates are intertwined and our destinies are inter-dependent on us realizing that. We are not the 60's generation that only could talk about Garvey. We are not the 30's generation that could only talk about Booker T. We are a generation with the gift of hindsight. We have Malcolm, Garvey, Dubois, Nkrumah, Biko as examples. It is time for hard love, Because if anyone still doesn't know the obvious we need to keep walking with those that get it. How is it possible to watch 500 years Later, Sankofa, Motherland, read Alex Haley, read Dubois, studied Fanon, Carter Woodson and still be DUMB to the our condition and our ailment ? How can working together be still treated as a luxury item? How is it possible to have read Garvey and still be handing over all your money to White people when you have a project? Can we really blame Arabs, Whites, Chinese, Turks, and everyone else for grabbing up the big fat opportunity lying on the Black road? We leave the door of opportunity wide open, so they come and collect.

To claim to know our condition yet continue to make excuses and reassign responsibility? To be quick to see the flaw in others yet only have excuses for our own failures. If you are complaining that Black people are not professional, or punctual, or committed then you must first 100% be sure that you are not part of the group you are complaining about. And if you have ZERO plan of being an aspect of change then have the respect to shut your trap.

When Jesus sat at the last supper he looked around and said; one of you will betray me. We can be 100% sure that someone within our unity group will be the agent that causes failure, while claiming to be part of the unity process. Now if we know that, then we must act in a way to protect unity by being pro-active. Therefore, it is just as important to know why things fall apart as it is to know how they come together. The story of failure and success are two halves in one whole.

We have agreed on unity, now the process of unifying is on the table, the challenge of creating people based unity movements and pooling intellectual and material wealth in a meaningful way. The man shouting unity the most is usually the one only interested in unity if he can be king, interrupting development for the sake of stupid egos. However, to our advantage is the undeniable access to technology that should make this mission a breeze, but why are we still coming up short? There are ZERO excuses and blame in this era rest solely on the African heads. Impossible to comprehend how between Html, Twitter, Skype, Google, YouTube, Vonage, Vimeo we cannot get a new forum for unity and agency. With cyberspace we can run NGOs, companies, shops, mentorship, forums, judicial hearings, meetings, but we don't. Two groups are at war. One plans every inch of their attack, they study they organize they build institutions and they strike with mathematical accuracy. The other group gets a feeling and acts only on emotion and instinct. Who do you think is going to win?

The predictability of emotion means well placed moves will always control the outcome. This is how silly agendas are inserted into a community to cause false focus. Africans fight strange priorities (Wesley Snipes in jail, a thug beaten up by cops) at the expense of serious issues.

Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue   African Proverb

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FORWARD OR BACKWARD

Walking was replaced by the horse, the horse was replaced by the car, the car was replaced by the plane, as the fastest way to get to Timbuktu   'Alik Shahadah

Excuses make us feel good, it makes sense to our brains, oh that is why my world is so screwed up, it is because of those monsters over there. So stay in bed longer, take a holiday from building something, smash all the mirrors in your house that reflect your own agency and accountability.

We cannot, as a people, pre-occupy ourselves with romantic notions of Africa. Functionality is the necessity of our generation. We work with what works and we deal with our people in the reality that they come in.

Walking was replaced by the horse, the horse was replaced by the car, the car was replaced by the plane, as the fastest way to get to Timbuktu. The script destroyed oral tradition, the car destroyed the donkey, and we must deal with that without the romance.

African values do not mean going back in a time machine. Just because our ancestors did x, y and z doesn't make these things desirable or practical. Running around top-less because the Khoisan do it, and Europeans forced clothing on them is just trivial and reactionary. Digging up some extinct village religion at the expense of critical work is not African-Centred - It is just bad farming. The progressive understanding of Africa in antiquity has to deal with the realities of villages, nomadic hunters and the city state. All of these consideration point to one conclusion, what works for the village doesn't hold together the city-state. (See article on culture)

KMT used technology, Ethiopia used technology. Technology is just a tool. If you put a nuclear reaction in the hands of a God loving person he creates clean sustainable energy. If you put that same technology in the hands of a devil he drops a bomb on women and children. And if you put that technology in the hands of some people they look at it with confusion, not knowing how to apply it to their reality. Regardless of what tools a damaged mind is given it will always use them to its detriment.

Liberation objectives means priorities are essential. No point challenging English as a world language when our generation has failed to secure ownership in our own continent. When we remove English without first nurturing a replacement, what good will that do? Or we fight to get African images on TV and then all the images are produced by Whites copying Hollywood. It would also be nice to replace democracies with African centred political governinig system. But just because Kemet had system X doesnt mean this system can be transplanted into our 21st century world. It might therefore be more appropriate to transplant the principles of Maat as a guide than copy cat everything they did just because it was African.

We must be careful of tricking ourselves into the warm bath of inactivity   'Alik Shahadah

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NO ROMANCE

A slave will attack the fountain that gives him water, and even feel "conscious" after it has been destroyed. Preferring nothingness to legacy. Preferring to be in a state of perpetual complaining than in a state of solutions and good works   'Alik Shahadah

There was a time when we needed to only see the Pyramids at Giza, because we were so crushed by mental slavery and swamped with images of backwardness and savagery. But in our maturity we can consider a more diverse Africa, we can appreciate so-called pre-modern cultures and peoples. We can understand and take from some of their traditions. But there is only unproductive romance in saying "In Africa we ..." just to escape or critique modernity. Living in a mud hut (that the flood easily washes away) vs. a warm house, is not desirable. Fetching water from a river and dying of a water bourne parasite is avoidable. Spending all day hunting is a life not lived.

It is hilarious hearing some Afrocentrics talk about "Traditional this and that" after a one week stint in the Hilton hotel in Ghana. Try spending two weeks in Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region of Ethiopia with the Mursi or the Hamer people. This over romantized Africa is a developmental issue because very few could hang in this so-called "Traditional Africa" they always advocate when critiquing Abrahamic religions and Industrialization. Technology is what built Kemet, the same Kemet postered as 'Great African accomplishments.' So we need to quickly decide where we chose our African models from in absorbing our historical contributions. Because we cannot have our cake and eat it too. There is a ritual among the Hamer where the women are ritually beaten by men, they beg the men to beat them until blood is dripping down their backs; just like the Shiite Muslims. The Mursi women cut the bottom of their lip and insert a plate so those repulsed by FGM, need to witness some traditional African ritual scarification and lip stretching. In the Southern Sudan the Dinka women wash their babies in cow urine for medicinal purposes. So appreciate how the Northern people would view these people when we discuss "Black Arabs destroying African culture." The point here is to those romantics that talk about "In Africa before invaders", "In the Africa of our ancestors", "In the real Africa". All of these things also come with that package. And while we must not turn our noses up at these rituals, we should at least appreciate this is also a part of Africa that most of us do not have a stomach for.

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DONATE AND SUPPORT IDEOLOGY

The current funding models of most Pan-African organizations are still about begging for donations on their poorly designed Pan-African websites. It is poor economics, tangible products are a trillion-million times better than donations. Where do the donations go? What do they build? Apart from the fact that PayPal gets 2%, where are the accounts of how these funds are going to be used? We know most of the funds go into running pointless conference and meetings in exotic locations; refining the art of looking important while creating nothing.

Now when you purchase a product you get something which you can use, the business gets something which keeps it running and expanding; We trade we build. This donation mentality is regressive and the fact that it is the primary way of funding speaks to a generation of Pan-Africanist who have expired in their usefulness in applying revolution in our modern era. Still if you contact them with tangible wealth generation ideas it is impossible for their minds to process it and utilize it outside of the old models of "throw a conference in a whiteman's hotel" and "make a call for donations."

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HOW TO DESTORY AN ORGANIZATION

20 Ways to Destroy an Organization (From Ebukhosini Solutions )

1. Don’t attend meetings.
2. Be sure to leave before the meeting is over.
3. The next day, find faults with the officers and committees.
4. Take no part in the organization’s affairs.
5. Be sure to sit in the back, so you can talk with a friend.
6. Take all the group will give you, but give nothing in return.
7. Never ask anyone to join the organization.
8. Talk cooperation but never cooperate.
9. If asked to help with anything, always say you don’t have time.
10. Never accept a position of responsibility, as it is easier to criticize when you are not burdened with tasks you need to perform 
11. If appointed to a committee, never give any time or service to it.
12. Never do anything more than you have to, and when others willingly and unselfishly use their ability to help the cause along, then shout that the organization is run by a clique.
13. Spread rumors that you “think you might have observed” the organization’s leadership mismanaging funds
14. Instead of bringing issues of concern directly to the committee, run to the media and expose sensitive information 
15. Make sure you exploit the potential for chaos in every minor imperfection. If nothing else helps, shout that you have been discriminated against based on language, tribe, ethnicity, complexion or nationality – it is always successful. 
16. When asked to submit practical suggestions, instead, use the platform to vent your own frustrations and philosophies, and offer no way forward 
17. Make sure you get your points across by shouting, intimidating and pointing fingers at someone else. Always someone else! 
18. Never praise anyone for their efforts, ensure that everyone remains suspicious of anyone who does something willingly – they must surely have a secret agenda
19. If you are a brother, make sure you intimidate sisters and oppose any form of women leadership and empowerment
20. If you are a sister, make sure you vent your frustration about how useless brothers are

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MYOPIC | I GOT TO GET PAID

	When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things
	1 Corinthians 13

Myopic vision is one of the greatest legacy of mental slavery. A short sighted person will always prefer quick rewards over long term investment. They will always take the fish over the fishing rod. They cannot see beyond a choice that doesn't immediately bear fruits. That lack of vision is something enslave people also share because a slave has no control over their future and so the consequences of slavery meant the enslaved African had to deal with the immediate concerns. There was no concept of planting to get a future harvest so slave economics and social dynamics revolved around immediate results.

Black people will always, if you ask them to help with revolution, tell you they have to get paid. Now if everyone is thinking like this how come Africans are the poorest racial group on the Earth? someone wants to "help" 2 min after starting to do research they come back "SO how much you gonna Pay me", Pay them to write their history down? Who is paying us?

When you are building up a film industry don't expect Spielberg type salaries. When you building an African car, don't expect BMW in 1 year. You cannot go from nothing to everything and expect to get paid within 5 sec of showing up. We need to look at economics in the ancient world, because understanding this explains how Egypt was able to build what it did, yet other people are still emerging out of the iron age in 2011.

If someone says I only have 20 minutes a week to help, and they give 20 minutes for 2 years that is help you can build something on. You can set your watch to it, you can depend on it, it can build something. Far better than the person who promises to bring the moon and delivers nothing but air.

CASE STUDY | When we look at a project like a film. We calculate what it costs, we already know we need our image represented. And we know we rarely own or our control our images so then we must break this cycle by any means necessary. Clearly something has to give to get that objective achieved. Not everyone got the same reward, some people will just get exposure, some people will get back end deals, some people will just get experience. But we now have a film that represents, far better than letting PBS tell our story. So we must see the bigger picture and work backwards.

But despite being so "money hungry, how come we are still poor as a people? Because our greed is so localized and myopic that we get paid £2 at the expense of £2000 in development. You see economics deals with development and capital generation. Money might come and then you spend it at the corner shop. Economics now deals with the flow and cycle of money in development of your infrastructure and creating sustainable industries.

CASE STUDY | A few post-graduates from film school needed experience. They had no problem paying the high tuition fees to learn nothing. Now I offer them an opportunity to study under me, obviously they have to work, and contribute to whatever I am doing at the time. Then one of them turns around and ask that I pay her transport to come to my studio so that she can learn from me for free. I must pay her to come and learn from me. Should she not be paying me, and freely assisting to get my knowledge? Africans have a totally destroyed mind.

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CRITICAL MASS & INERTIA

	We must not become so comfortable in someone else's house that we forget to build our own
	'Alik Shahadah

Critical mass is a socio-dynamic term to describe the existence of sufficient momentum in a social system. This forward momentum becomes self-sustaining and sponsors further growth.

Social factors influencing critical mass may involve the size and quality of the group, interrelatedness and level of communication in a society. Critical mass at a unconscious level in Pan-Africanism is the collective momentum which overcome social inertia to create the desired Pan-African ideals. In the event that Pan-Africanism as a priority becomes at a critical mass state then it will create changes in public consensus which can then bring about swift changes in political consensus. Where is the Pan-African struggle when we can only see our own work, what is happening at a birds-eye view and how do we measure this momentum to know if the movement is going forward, standing still or stagnating or going backward, or even evolving outside of the parameters of Pan-Africanism. In other words from Pan-Africanism to consumerism of satellite states of Western countries. And also the revolution should continue to spin forward once we take our foot off the gas, but we often find the minute we step back It comes to a halt. Often the personalities that start things are critical to continuation.

Social inertia is a term that applies the concept of inertia in psychology and sociology. It is used to describe the resistance to change presented by societies or social groups, usually due to habit and complacency. The escape velocity is the social momentum needed to overcome the pull of gravity, where gravity in the African world is the social traps that perpecuate mental slavery.

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AFRICAN DIALECTICS

Two modes of thinking A. Relative truth, B. Political necessity.

Relative truth	Political necessity
Historically there has never ever been a united African people	Politically it is a necessity
Africans are not all the same (monolith)	We have been made the same by our monolithic response to oppression
Race is a myth	Race has been the greatest sculptor of human relations

Capitalism on a long enough time line will eat its own hand for profit, socialism ignores basic human ambition. So such debates are a trap which polarize and limit our solutions. So one person holds argument A and the other holds argument B and they fight for eternity. Dialectics says why doesn't someone make a list of the merits of A and the merits of B and take what is best. Look at the downside in an honest way to both positions and mix-mode. If socialism is best for setting up social services - use it. If a mixture of Capitalism is needed in industry - use it. If a mixture of privatization and state-ownership (as in Libya) works use it. Ethiopian airlines mix-modes the best of government ownership with the attitude of private ownership.

Capitalism on a long enough time line will eat it's own hand for profit, while socialism ignores basic human ambition

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COMMUNICATION

	The relationship is the communication bridge between people
	Alfred Kadushin

"I am busy that's why I did not return your call or do anything", Now you can say that for everything and no one could truly disprove it. There is a difference between busy and just plain disorganized. And while the two share many features, disorganized makes one run around in busy circles of unproductive. If we are too busy to communicate then we are busy failing. Just like the cold and the flu, busy and inefficient have many common symptoms and it is easy to confuse them.

If a website has a email address, it places a necessity on the site owners to service that email effectively. No point having it and replying to 10% of the incoming traffic. So if someone cannot handle basic email responses then they have already catastrophically introduced a bottleneck in work flow of meaningful revolution. If we cannot communicate ideas and solutions over to our community and we cannot cross-communicate (two way traffic) then we are at a impasse.

	Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment
	Oprah Winfrey

There are background activities; putting on your shoes, walking, replying to emails, posting things, answering the phone. And then there are activities that require full engagement; playing an instrument, designing a website. The abc background issues should always be 100% non-issues which should not have to be discussed. The greater the percentage of workflow which becomes background then the higher an individual's work output. The habit of being late, missing appointments, forgetfulness are issues which need to be identified and solved as they cause bottlenecks and break down the system. If communication is slow then everything else will be slow. Solutions exist for everything and almost everyone. The rise of the smartphones means that people can get into the habit of managing their lives as if they had a personal secretary, 3g internet, everything you could possible need to be efficient, but the only thing missing is the will. Very few people are that busy that they cannot optimize and enhance their time. And it is time management that is critical, because if you are who someone needs to send 20 reminders to get one task done, it burdens the entire system.

All of these components must be fluid and maintained regardless of if we are drilling for diamonds or building a mosque. The same standard that built the pyramids is the same standard we need to explore in all our activities.

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SYNERGY DILEMMA

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea   Martin Luther King

Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently. In the context of organizational behavior, a cohesive group is more than the sum of its parts,

synergy is the ability of a group to outperform or underperform even its individual member. One of the mechanisms of synergy maybe psychological which creates exponential effect on work output. One negative potential consequence of group cohesion is group think. Group think is a mode of thinking where a body of people lose their objectivity to appraise realistically the alternative courses of action. Each person acting as the other person's barrier to objectivity. This is very common problem at Pan-African gatherings. Especially when ego is added and the purpose for adding is not to contribute a truth but to let others hear your voice.

In convention thesis : 1 + 1 = 2

In positive synergy 1 + 1 = 10

In negative synergy 1 + 1 = 0

Human synergy relates to humans. For example, say person A alone is too short to reach an apple on a tree and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulders of person A, they are more than tall enough to reach the apple. In this example, the product of their synergy would be one apple. Another case would be two politicians. If each is able to gather one million votes on their own, but together they were able to appeal to 2.5 million voters, their synergy would have produced 500,000 more votes than had they each worked independently.

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METHODOLOGIES WORK ETHOS

	You see, I'm easy to get along with – every time I make a concession it's for 1000 year
	Chairman Mao

It can be shown that most of the difference between people with good and bad output can be attributed to the methods or strategies they use to process challenges, less about the talent or resources of the person. A person with a good work ethos, even in absence of resources, will find a way. By developing appropriate strategies we automatically apply more organized and efficient ways of increasing our output.

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RESOURCES UNTAPPED

It is said that when the White man arrived in Southern Africa the Africans had wealth trapped in the ground but did not have the knowledge to untapped this wealth. The people of Southern Africa owned the resources but not the knowledge to exploit them. True or false today we can see that this situation is still the ruling paradigm which governs resource management. And we know that the greatest resources of Africa is her people.

We have talent everywhere but have no idea how to exploit it for liberation. We invent language, dance, music, intellectual content yet have no idea how to hold on to it. So our creations end up profiting someone more than they profit us. Who profits most the most from "break dance", "jazz", the "urban dictionary"? Who creates media and clothing around urban culture? Not us.

We must start with identifying the talent we have in our communities. We see a young person, they are a talented designer. Their skills can either go to a White company, a prison or nowhere. How do we inject our wisdom into the blossoming flower to make sure these skills go into our development? How do we take talent and invest in it and then harvest it? 

Unfortunately the best thing that usually happens for our talent is they go to a good "white university", they get a 1st class degree, then they get hired by a top "White firm". The wealth created may be localized in that individual but not the community; the primary benefactor is the "White company". This is why when we look at Western Development we forget our role in it. Because our contributions are made in someone else house. And the neglect of tapping and utilizing talent, and internal resources is squandering gold to the wind.

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EACH ONE TEACH ONE

	Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue
	African Proverb

We will always hear people say "we want solutions" well here is a case study: Halaqah Media has a internship programme which offers filmmakers a complete A-Z unique experience in everything you could think of to do with film. The business side, the social responsibility side - everything. Each filmmaker or intern puts back by helping to create products such as Motherland and 500 Years Later. These interns then may go off and create their own projects and in turn train another set of people. So let's look at the economics and impact of this:

Company A trains 4 people. Those 4 people contribute to the social work company A is doing. That work creates wealth for company A. which gives it the ability to expand and create more work and hence more wealth and hence train 8 people next time. Those initial 4 people go off and each train 2 people each. So that means 8 new people are learning critical skills from the original 4. While a new 8 are being trained by company A. Now when company A gets a massive project, they can recall all their graduates to share in the bounty. If any of the graduates gets an opportunity, they can engage company A again and all share in the fruits. This example requires no further explanation. If you are having trouble with this, and still asking "But..." then hit backspace and leave this site.

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MAKING EVERYONE ELSE RICHER

	Hispanic 7 bounce, White 8, Arab 13 bounce, Jewish money 18 times. Black money doesn't even bounce once
	Dr. Claude Anderson

Contrary to popular belief, Arabs, Chinese, Whites, and Indians actually love African people. Yes they do. Would you not love someone that makes you rich? Would you not love Africa if you know you can arrive from China a 2nd class peasant with $2 and a T-Shirt on your back and in 3 years of business in Africa have two mansions in China and put your children through University? Would you not love that race? You love them, but you do not respect them.

Despite being the first people on the planet, we still do not know how to grow our own crops on a large commercial scale, we do not know how to build our own bridges, harvest our own oil, process our diamonds, or even build highways. So when Mugabe escorts white farmers out of Zimbabwe, Nigeria with love and open arms begs them to come and exploit the land. Sending people to learn these skills, as the Japanese did, never occurred to the dependent minds of African leadership.

How can a politician talk about economic apartheid in SA and then give the gig for a cultural monument to a white Boer? "He was the best person for the job", well at our current rate in 4011 the White man will still be "the best person for the job."

And the most progressive of our leadership and scholars write 100s of pages on issues but they never make the economic link. They discuss economy but some how miss the main point in actual practise. Every year when we have conferences, White people get richer, every time we become more revolutionary we consume more White products and services. So in slave chains we make them rich, while trying to break the chains we make them rich, and outside of the chains we make them rich. If we lie down they sell us the bed, when we breath they sell us the air, if we run they sell us the shoes, and when we die they sell us the coffin. The African is outside of his economic process and a perpetual client of a European economy.

Afrikaans (Andries Botha) artist gets to sculpt Shaka Zulu Sculptor

An arts centre in South Africa built not by local contractors and African hands, but by White engineering firms. The "African Renaissance" statue in Senegal cost $28 million to make. Irony is the Statue was built by the Koreans. The statue is a testimony to our foundational flawed intellect. $28 mil to represent a European concept of development (renaissance), built by Koreans, for the profit of Korea. Is this unique to Africa? - no. The Zulu people in South Africa paid a white man some millions to build a statue of Chaka Zulu. So the white man built it with Chaka playing with cows, not as a warrior but a farmer - outside of his known role as a warrior. Not only did they pay the European millions, they trusted him and gave him artistic license.

Now how could you understand development and make an African monument but with Korean hands? Would the symbolism and merit of the project not be better by using African skills to build an African monument? Is there a shortage of artist in Africa? Do Koreans use Africans to build their cultural monuments? It speaks to our stupidity, our dependency, our lack of genius, our lack of agency and this is why we are the fools of the world. And even if Wade had to have the statue, imagine what $28 million injected into the local arts to build such a monument would have done to stimulate the local arts industry.

The repeated tragedy of Africans is a failure to realize that freedom cannot be at the hands of Tarzan (the great white saviour of a child race). No point looking for agreement from liberal whites on this point. So much for an authentic debate on Africa when every so-called think tank they create is never suppose to be discuss - us without them.

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VULGAR individualism

Nothing survives the grave except our legacy   Alik Shahadah

If anyone gets an opportunity and only uses that opportunity for themselves ignoring the broader work and their colleagues, that person is outside of the graces and benefits of community. When we die we cannot take wealth with us, only our legacy survives the grave - nothing else. The soul in Ancient KMT was weighted and our good deeds, our good thought and our good intentions were weighted against a feather. A mind that has no consideration but for its own ego and short lived ambitions was cursed in Ancient Kemet. A soul that is only concerned with itself, especially at the expense of broader work is therefore outside of African humanity.

This individualism is preyed upon by Africa's detractors. So when the White man wants to stop revolution he just gives some of us a job as head of Black Studies or curator of some nice museum or head of some film festival. Or a book publishing deal to inflate our egos. You see for most of us that is the end target, mission accomplished. We might continue to make little murmurs but that is it. For peanuts and crumbs we acquiesce and celebrate the little light they give us for 3 seconds. They all have columns in popular white owned papers. They will tell you about xy and z. How terrible this problem is for our community. But if you go to them with a solution or an alternative see how the behave. They run and get uncomfortable like if you gave superman kryptonite for his b'day.

When it is sunny outside and Africans think they are doing well, they say "we do not need unity because everything is okay", When it is raining and everyone is suffering they say "We cannot bother with unity now because we got to take care of self." Rain or shine unity is the only way.

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BY THEIR FRUIT

By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?   Matthew, Bible

In defining success, we must define failure. In defining a destination means defining a route, in defining a product means defining a process. Despite the plethora of list of 'what is wrong with Africa and its people', the number one crisis is a people problem. Do not expect a paper factory to make cheese, the objectives cannot all be the same, but at least if it says it is a paper factory then put a demand on seeing paper coming out the other end. Some work with youth, some work in Universities, there is no need for everyone to work in the community, that is only one area--one path, it has no merit over someone digging in the ruins of Zimbabwe or in a lab chasing a cure for cancer or the man behind a camera recording dying languages. The street is not the new front line, it is a 1970's concept of revolution which utterly fails in a world that has radically changed. The tree of a banana plant produces bananas, the orange tree produces oranges; together we have a fruit basket. And revolution is the same, as long as our efforts bear tangible fruit and we have organized ways of integrating our fruit.

There are people who make a career out of attending conferences. Do they make tangible products – no. Do they run business that employee people – no. They usually work in White universities using paper as weapons. (and no one but their esteemed colleagues read these papers). So how can we gain solutions if these types of career conference seekers are the same voices over and over again? Recycling of "the Greatest hits of the Pan-African personalities of the 60's" we continue to produce the cycle of staleness which washes Pan-Africanism today. If you gave them a hammer they still would not know how to drive home a nail. They understand Africa from the window of the Hilton hotel and via an academic paper in an a/c conference.

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NOT ANOTHER CONFERENCE

History is littered with graves of organizations that resisted change and the ability to discern progress from procrastination. Constantly meeting to plan meetings, boycotting, shouting, conferences without agendas are failed strategies, which have done nothing for the growth of any super-state in history.

From 1960-2011 the best thing Black people can do is hold a conference. The most progressive act in the Pan-African arsenal is another talk shop. Why not have a business workshop on media usage (like online commerce, or business management, or sewing workshops)- Not interested: it is like we speaking Arabic to an Inuit.

Conferences are not objectives, conferences and meetings are processes to achieve a pre-defined objective. Building a school is an objective, making a film, writing a history book, planting an organic farm. If Africans got paid for resolutions we would be the richest nation on Earth. You see the problem with the Pan-Africanist community is the so-called public leaders are not the same people that run factories or build bridges – there is a disconnection there. But they love the sound of their voice so much they think that writing a book and running an economy is the same thing. Conferences seem to be a therapeutic activity because they have been doing it for so long. A social space where people come and pretend to be important, with repetitive papers and 1963 objectives. The conference professional has been writing abstract papers so long that he/she still thinks that discussing a problem is an action plan. They are not one and the same. Identifying the negative global image of Africa is the start, but the action plan is for example:

Observation	Africans are seriously misrepresented in media
Action	Fund the creation of independent cinema by empowering filmmakers and holding training workshops across Africa. Fund the arts, fund cinemas, fund/support/showcase independent African owned media. Impose policies to influence broadcasters and content providers to engage African’s conscious talent.

The balancing of the land lies in Maat…Do not act lightly for you have weight; be not untrue for you are the balance and do not swerve for you are the standard. If it tilts, you will lean too. Do not drift, rather steer   The Husia Book of Sacred Prayers & Praises Passage

We rise out of the soup to post a comment on Facebook and sink back again into being part of the problem of inactivity. Many have this feel-good habit of making big revolutionary statements and then fading back into unaccountability. They are Kwame Sat - Sun, and Kevin Monday - Friday. Yet when the weekend revolutionary stint ends they are back at work in a suit for the White man.

Support means spend your money. Build actually means building something real. You can not help just by saying "But I have helped." Help is not just about dropping someone at the train station it is also about making sure they get home safe. The objective of the help must be the priority, not the process of helping. 1/2 efforts are like the boatman who takes you to the middle of a river and leaves you stranded.

The tragedy of the so-called Pan-African conscious community is that by hiding behind words like "grass roots" is an excuse to escape economic appraisal. But then why does every action require sourcing money from someone else's pocket? And there is no discussion of long-term plans which factor in sustainability free from future funding. Why is money constantly thrown into projects that yield no returns?

If someone gets $10,000 why can't they invest it and return $30,000. This is basic revolution, but they take $10,000 and hold an empty conference and all the money goes into the wind: No schools have been built, no crops have been planted, no jobs offered, and no industries have been created or supported. Then the next year the funding question comes up again.

Would it not be better to throw a training seminar? Or a workshop on web design, or business ownership? And why mention economic transformation at a conference when there are zero models of how that material wealth will be created? The time and money could be used for a product market for people to bring their products and showcase them. We love conferences, we think revolution we think conference. Conferences are the start and end of revolutionary action for some. However, If we love conferences so much maybe someone should actually buy a conference hall, instead of making the Holiday Inn richer.

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THE PHILOSOPHY OF LOCATION

I will control my thoughts I will control my actions I will have devotion of purpose I will have faith in my ability to assimilate truth   Husia, Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt

Lack of identity means, as Nehusi says, an absolute inability to identify and defend African interest. This seemingly simple problem is responsible for most ills on the continent of Africa.

The mission is not to rally people around the convenience of black skin but the commonality of African cultural and moral values. Just because something has in "black" people does not give it merit. Beyond cute African names and quotes from Malcolm X, the work must be rooted in the values of Malcolm X and the best cultures of Africa. The word African is used to not only specify a geography but it is also a culture and an orientation. If Africaness is an open concept then it becomes meaningless. However, there can be no unity if one group wants to bring drugs into the neighborhood, or sell pornographic material under the banner of art and business.

Too often the statement "In Africa..." is followed by whatever exotic point of view that supports the users fancy. "In Africa, we did not keep time". "In Africa, we did not have copyright, In Africa we didn't’t have contracts." So we must relax on the generalizations that start "In Africa… (insert sweeping generalization)", "African religion is [insert another sweeping generalization]" without any qualification. It isn't that generalization are not critical in understanding Africa it is just they should never be used to hide bad research or race politics. Also care is needed because the first issue is which Africa? The second issue is Africa in antiquity does not snuggly transplant itself on our modern globalized reality. Third issue we can only weigh real models, which are in operation. Therefore, as euphoric as a world free from class, and a world free from debt hate and greed is, it does not become so just by John Lennon singing it. Pretty proverbs do not always apply in reality. Time was very important to the Ancient Egyptians, maybe this was not the case for the Bayaka of Bakongo. Documentation was very critical in Ancient Sudan, but not in the Zulu kingdom. Perception of time and attachment may vary but no person of Kemet failed to understand that two years to build a pyramid did not mean, "When I get it done, I get it done." If we are in a race the man who is best prepared using the best technology will win. Usage of time is a technology and no one in modernity can achieve or compete if they have no value for time.

What those communities in West Africa did and how they valued time worked for those times. It certainly is now different in our modern era. In other words we are not only harvesting crops and waiting for the rains in Joburg or Addis Ababa. We are flying planes, we are opening retail outlets, we have service delivery concerns, road works and hospitals that need time based management. So those old structures had to be commuted.

By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), Verily Man is in loss, Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy   Qur'an (103:1-3)

Standards of excellence are standards of excellence regardless of point of origin. The cultural or aesthetic attachment to that thing may be varied by foundational standards of good work; good research and professionalism are generally cross-cultural, cross-geography and cross-time. Don’t moan and complain that China is taking over Africa when Chinese get up on time and you don't.

Greater than Democracy is our liberation. We would like to get liberation with the ideals of democracy, but it is not always possible. If a damaged people are given democracy they use it to drown themselves. Self-determination on its own does not by default take us to liberation. It is only a process, if left unattended and consciousness is not poured in, it could self-determine you into neo-slavery.

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WAITING FOR A MESSIAH

Let us be honest as a people, we are all waiting for something, aren't we? Like in Matthew 24:29-30, we have a Hollywood depiction of REVOLUTION. a cosmic event when change will come. It is this expectation, this waiting, this praying for change and not doing anything about it that makes our chains so damn tight and our future so bleak.

His appearance will be worldwide and unmistakable. Just like a summer thunderstorm that lights up the entire sky, everyone will see Jesus coming   Matthew 24:26-27, 30

These events will herald the end of this age and the beginning of a new age in which both the heavens and the earth are cleansed and transformed by an immanent God. So until then just sit back, relax and enjoy the view, and God will take care of all the hard work.

You see we are talking to you, the people that are reading this work. We cannot talk to white supremacy. Therefore it is pointless to negotiate with white supremacy and request it be less racist. It is wasting time to discuss it as an academic phenomena in books. The only variable in the equation of exploitation then is Africans and the changes we are willing to make to make their ability to exploit us ineffective. It's as simple as that!

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NAME CALLING WITH NO POWER

it makes no difference how many nasty names we have for White people, and how many insults we throw out on Facebook. Has it affected the NASDEC? The Dow Jones, The FTSE, but the resistence in the North of Mali at least they can affect change-stress out France and Co.-- we cant. Hamas and Hezbollah can affect change and worry the occupation--we cant. North Korea can keep them up at night talking--we cant. Cuba, that tiny little island gave them hell, kicked apartheid back. Can we do that today?

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HIERARCHY OF PRIORITIES (Triage)

I will control my thoughts I will control my actions I will have devotion of purpose I will have faith in my ability to assimilate truth   Husia, Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt

What comes first, what comes second, and what comes third? These are discernment issues. When your house is burning you have a hierarchy of priorities which means the dirty dishes in the sink, drop below the imminent issue of the smoke and the flames.

Forward African Dialectics Synergy No Excuses Hide it in a Book Critical Mass Voting Forward not Back Donate and Support By Their Fruit Leaking Wealth Singing Solutions Vulgar Individualism Philosophy of Location Priorities Solution-Each Teach What is Wrong I Got to Get Paid Another Conference Pan-Africanism Who is Speaking Everyone is King Quality Control Development Paradigm Religion Conclusion ............................................... Language for Africa Agency Africans and Film

Every Jew knows the difference between "ET" and "Schindler's List", between "Ben Stiller" and "Ben Gurion", Between "Anne Frank" and "Natalie Portman". But us we will take "Why did I get Married 3" over "Motherland", a singing dancing buffoon like "R Kelly" over a "Tribe called Quest." Strumming a guitar and singing poetry is not a serious component of any nation, especially when engineers and capacity builders are absent. It is very easy to get Black people to attend another empty "jump up and down concert", much harder to get them to show up to something which empowers them. Consciousness is not a hang out, or a scene, or an event. When It comes to the Jewish story, regardless of if it is a historical piece ( Schindler's  List), a Comedy (Meet the Fockers) or a Sci-fi (X-Men), a social drama (Freedom Writers) every single opportunity reinforces the Jewish story. Only Africans think consciousness is a genre. Do not be fooled, the world is happy and delighted to promote another African singer and dancer. That is the Africa they are comfortable with; Jumping around on stage with a microphone, spinning hips - base and tribal -only expression is from emotion. Not that we shouldn't love our music which is key to our identity. But we need to know the difference. Nation builders, business ownership, strong political leadership, teachers, researchers, historians, medical doctors. You will meet far less opposition in the world when you satisfy these stereotypical roles. Music and dance have a serious place in our culture, but unless we have nation structure all this dancing and singing will service everyone else but us.

 

 

If your electricity is out, which operating system your computer uses descended rapidly down the list of critical priorities. So we can agree electricity is a higher priority than a computer, and a computer is a higher priority consideration than the latest software version. Revolution is no different. A conference is not a film, renting is not owning. Making tangible products and creating viable services, which we use to carry on productive lives, is a priority. So do not pass over a product for a conference spouting vague notions of unity. If that unity does not build trade and solidify wealth generation then what good is it?

Two ways to win a horse race, watch the fastest horse and ride faster. The other way is to own all the horses in the race   'Alik Shahadah

How much energy will you invest in fighting and disuniting over what language should be used as a Pan-African language (Swahili or Hausa), when all but Ethiopia depend on colonial languages to run their governments. It is like worrying about what dress to wear to the Oscars when you have never even made a film.

People in the African world barely hear the word Pan-African in their life-time, so clearly the challenges of which priorities we decide to invest in requires common sense. And while English is a colonial imposition it is still the language we are using to articulate our agency and our reality, so speak it and use it well. How can you live in a future where we all speak an African language? That is an ideal we have to work on it. Very hard to do so with poor knowledge of linguistics which reflect us in dignity. If you do not have a car, you walk to the shop and buy one. You cannot sit at home waiting for it to arrive. The transformation to an African language requires preparation and advocacy today, that advocacy has to be constructed with the languages we know how to speak on a Pan-African level. And what difference it makes what you think of Islam and Christianity in your 4 people facebook group when 1 billion people are devout believers in the two faiths?

Music is an aspect of our culture, but if everyone is playing a guitar and no one is building planes and bridges and curing the sick, or teaching the youth nation building skills then we have no need for yet another Chuck Berry. We must be mature enough to understand reality in these terms because confusion at this level has caused catastrophic failure. We swing our hips and strum our instruments but that is it, someone else owns the venue, someone else owns the radio station, someone else owns the newspaper writing the review, someone else owns the train we used, the car we drive, the food we eat. And we in our immaturity think that jumping up and down and shaking our ass will bring real revolution, without prioritizing nation building issues. (p.s. the author is a businessman but also a Music producer)

The world rotates and every day we see a human rights issue, a dictatorship issue. Change in environment, change in GDP. But as the world spins and powers change there is one thing that doesn't change for Africans - Ownership. We mess around with dual governments, socialism, democracy, privatization, and reconciliation yet the lands still belong to the non-Africans. Skills still need to be flown in first class on airlines we do not own (except Ethiopian Airlines). We sing loud and clear but beyond that we own nothing of our art. We plant crops and harvest them and someone else repackage and takes the lion share. If A-Z is a process we barely own A while B-Z is owned by someone other than us.

With these new human rights we are a healthier and happier population to work on the White owned farms. With better democracies we can now decide if we let the Chinese or the Turks have access to our minerals. With greater education we are only becoming employees so we can spend more of our money on holidays in France.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all   Ecclesiastes 9:11

A new campaign pops up on facebook to "Free Wesley Snipes", Is Wesley Snipes a political prisoner, or a prisoner of conscious? So should hardworking people use their group power to helping Brother Wesley Snipes reverse a conviction for tax evasion? We better consider the "Struggle(s)" we engage in. So many causes to worry about and we want to put our energy into Snipes tax issues. How is this a liberation objective for the benefit of a stronger African people? So we fight to get him out so he can make another Blade movie. This speaks to a failure to know what is important and what is not. It would be far better to use the time to make sure African filmmakers get access. Or that the African Union deals with the Diaspora, the list of higher priorities is endless. Change will happen, make no mistake about it, but as your parents tell you , you can change by listening or you can change by the lash.

It is very sad that all the forums are on fire, the Black stations are shouting when we see the New York times publishes some nonsense on "Blame Game" by Gates. However less of us celebrate and rally when our own people create great films like 500 Years Later and Motherland. That doesn't get the massive movement of concern. But all the so-called celebrity scholars who are silent on great work are vocal on reacting to what some white newspaper or book publisher pushes as serious print.

Zeal alone will not win a war. It is very boring to fight for "ingenious land rights" or something which will impact us across the generations. Far easier to boycott business than focus on creating business. Far easier to get all sweaty and bothered about some white cop beating up a drug dealer. Or some convicted murderer on Death Row. Emotion informs too much of our decision process.

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GROUP INSANTITY

No matter what you give a destroyed people they will use it as part of their destruction. If you pour in water—they will drown themselves. If you give them a rope—they will hang themselves with it     - Alik Shahadah

No matter what you give a destroyed people they will use it as part of their destruction. If you pour in water, they will drown themselves, if you give them a rope they will hang themselves with it. If you give them the internet they will not empower themselves with knowledge, they would rather engage in more self-destructive habits.

A group of sick people can make sickness look normal and healthy people abnormal. This is one of our dilemmas because wearing African clothes in some African countries looks abnormal, marrying your African Queen in the UK is weird, buying a house as oppose to a flashy car in the ghetto is crazy. Saving money for your child's education as oppose to getting that new weave every two weeks is pointless. Spending $20,000 on another conference as oppose to building an institute is considered progressive. Normalized sickness. Nothing radical is actually being written about in this article, it would be strange if Jews or Japanese had to say as much - it would seem obvious to them. Yet to most Black people the entire tone would be considered unusual. Normal thinking for a the slave is abnormal.

Story: Have you ever looked at the cars the whites drive? You see the woman and her daughter in some basic little car with low running cost but clean and nippy. They drive up to a mortgage-free 7 bedroom house. Now the daughter wants an advanced education so the parents have something called 100% equity, so they re-finance the house and send their daughter off to the best university in the UK. She graduates and gets a good job and now she wants to get married. She and her fiancée's family get together and re-finance their properties and give the couple the deposit for their first home. The cycle repeats - wealth increases.

Someone said : "I don't want the burden of a mortgage" now which do you prefer? The burden of having some equity after 10 years of paying for the roof over your heard, or the burden of putting your landlord's kids through university?

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