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Motherland Grillz Venture
Andy Young, Obasanjo Kin, & Russell Simmons Announce
Joint Venture to Bring Economic Development and Hip-Hop Culture to
Africa
By
W. E. B. Blingen
"At Good Works International we
specialize in brokering free market, win-win solutions
that empower people and communities in the developing
world. Motherland Grillz is truly a pathbreaking
initiative, and we are proud to be associated with it,"
announced international business consultant,
ex-ambassador and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young.
"The age-old cycle of foreign capital
extracting African resources, shipping them overseas for
processing and selling finished products back to
Africans is about to be broken. That is the real
significance of the Motherland Grillz project, chimed in
Dr. Oleoseun Obasanjo, a principal partner in the
venture and reportedly a relative of the president of
Nigeria.
"Our market research shows there is
an insatiable demand on the part of African youth to be
part of hip-hop culture," according to entertainment
mogul Richard Simmons. "Motherland Grillz is important
because will fill that void. African youth want the same
things white and black youth in America want. They know
no self-respecting rapper would step on a stage here
without his grill."
With these remarks last week, Young,
Obasanjo and Russell Simmons kicked off a slickly
produced transatlantic internet press conference
announcing Motherland Grillz from their respective
offices in Atlanta, Abuja, Nigeria and Manhattan.
Reporters who questioned the
project's value as an economic development measure were
answered by Atlanta's Andrew Young.
"The way out of desperation and
dependence for Africa lies in mobilizing African capital
to invest in African businesses that serve the African
consumer market," continued Young. "It's not as though
there are no Africans with money to invest. As one of
the world's largest oil producers, Nigeria has
investment capital to burn. Our part at Good Works
International was reaching out to some of those
stakeholders, and helping them partner with hip-hop
visionary and entrepreneur Russell Simmons, and
challenging them to invest locally instead of taking
their money overseas. ‘Motherland Grillz’ is just the
first fruit of that partnership, and I expect we'll see
more very soon."
Grillz, for those who don't know, are
cosmetic dental devices that fit over the teeth, like
caps or a continuous frontal bridge. High-end grillz
made of platinum and other precious metals, often inlaid
with diamonds and created from an individual mold of the
wearer's teeth are worn by rappers, entertainers and
wannabes with excessive amounts of money to spend. Less
pricey versions are made from inexpensive materials, and
may be mass produced rather than individualized.
Obasanjo addressed one reporter's
question about quality. "As a materials engineer I can
assure you that all our Motherland Grillz are made from
the finest African platinum, diamonds, silver and gold,
mined and refined in African-owned facilities outside
the conflict zones, in workplaces where employees are
entitled to trade union representation. They will be
custom fitted by qualified technicians and sold at the
finest locally owned jewelers at select locations,
initially in seven African nations and eventually
throughout the continent."
Other reporters queried Simmons on
his connections to DeBeers and other diamond mining
interests, who paid for a nine day "fact finding"
mission to several African companies late in 2006, and
returned to the US to encourage Americans not to worry,
but to buy more diamonds. This happened at a time of
mounting concerns over the connections between diamond
mining and smuggling, the exploitation of children as
soldiers and near-slaves. The trade in "conflict
diamonds" as they are called is said to have been vital
to the continuation of murderous civil wars in Liberia,
Sierra Leone, and play a part in the continuing
Congolese war, which has claimed more than five million
Africans lives. Simmons stoutly defended his own
businesses ethics.
"We're entrepreneurs, making a
legitimate profit by giving consumers what they want.
Freedom is about them being able to express these needs,
and us being able to satisfy them. Africans want this
stuff, same as our people in America do. It's the
American way, using hip-hop culture to serve as a bridge
between our people in America and our people in the
Motherland, a movement we are proud to be at the
forefront of. Believe it and look for it, mister.
Motherland Grillz and accessories will be part of our
all new Mutha Phat and Afro Phat lines of clothing and
accessories which will be previewed in numerous music
videos on both sides of the Atlantic, and which will be
available to the public in fine jewelry outlets and
clothiers in Africa by the end of February, and in the
states by midsummer."
When this reporter inquired whether
pimp cups, spinners and canes will be included in the
catalogs of the new product line, the connection went
dead. Our efforts to reach the offices of Mr. Obasanjo
in Nigeria, Andrew Young in Atlanta, and Russell Simmons
in Manhattan have so far been unsuccessful, but we will
keep trying.
Bruce Dixon,
BAR Managing Editor. insists that he does not know the meaning of
the word satire, and that he is not W. E. B. Blingen,
even though they sound the same on the phone and appear
to have the same cell number. Nonetheless, Mr. Dixon has
graciously agreed to forward emails regarding this
article sent to him at
bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com
Source:
Black Agenda Report
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Black World
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 24 January 2007
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