BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE! Obama, Wanlov

Bush brings aid, Shaq's shoes to Tanzania
President Bush gave Tanzania's president, who played basketball as a youth, a pair of NBA star Shaquille O'Neal's size 23 shoes today, along with millions of dollars to help combat disease and poverty in the east African country.

We All Want Change , As the great Ghandi Said

" Be The Change, That You Want To See"!!

My trip to Ghana & experiencing American politics from the outside, while in the midst of Ghanaian politics and society has been a very interesting & empowering experience, particularly watching Barack Obama's rise while experiencing the rise of Wanlov, The Kubolor in Ghana.

Barack Obama was the Democratic Party's carefully chosen golden boy of charisma & Clintonesque, Kennedyesque swagger to offset John Carey & John Edwards lack thereof. This was the master plan to bring back some sort of excitement & unity into a slowly dying party. Unfortunately the worst foil for a master plan to squash a revolutionary evolution is an educated human being, let alone, an educated negro.

It is the makings of the underground railroad, the abolitionists, the true humanitarians who volunteer & give of their time & self worldwide, wanting & believing in change, even though they keep getting told that it is a lost cause, the slave sneaking in the education and sharing the knowledge with others , being the best worker or apprentice, while calculatingly building on a goal, in preparation to go beyond the teacher's set plan to have the student walk in his footsteps, until he is ready to relinquish power. Forever working for him & within his steps, instead of doing better or being more progressive than the teacher.

One can see this as the Bush Story in its basic elements. Surpassing the father into a second term & bypassing the intended plan because he had surpassed the teacher.
Maybe Bush was here to set off the global chaos & imbalances that are effecting us all collectively, in order for real change to have to come out of absolute necessity & thru the true fight & desire of the people, for its urgency! However one deals with the opportunity or necessity is the choice of the people and their leaders in all of its extremes, until we all recognize ourselves as collective leaders. Maybe Bush Jr. saw that the chance for a complete global change is now & bypassed the plan to have a slow deterioration into another war & chose to shake it up and hope for the best instead of the usual status quo of his father & the intended plan. Call me crazy, but think about it. I am far from a Bushy, but I don't really see Bush Jr. as the epitome of evil, more toward somewhat ignorant, naive, clueless, non-chalant & possibly idealistic.

When the student is ready to unleash & bypass the teacher is when the real battle starts because the student must be absolutely ready, willing & able to win & be the Change! Unfortunately, Obama's calling came earlier than the Clintons/Democrats had expected, but came right on time for some wayward, Bush/Cheney, Clinton -overdosed & rehabbed Dems., republicans, independents & global people, in general who secretly had wished for this! Real Change has no master plan because it's about the moment! Like anything in life, you can't force change, but when you are ready to change -there is a certain force that is undeniable & basically kicks you in the ass because there really is no other choice!

Bush Jr. gave more aid/funding to Africa than even Bill Clinton- our so called 1st Black President of the US who was upposedly so good for black people globally. Bush is now on his tour of Africa to collect or according to him to "show the success stories in Africa that the USA has played a part in".

We live in a global world where we all must make deals & work together for the benefit of all. It is in the workings of those deals that we must be careful to keep just as much of a close & watchful eye on our friends as we keep on our enemies, because we can all go astray at times & greed is the sure fire way to turn friends into enemies. History has proven this whether it comes from cash advances, trade or the bible! Ghana strived as the Gold Coast with many so called friends wanting to revel in its success. Ghana along with other African countries are now drilling for oil, with many coming along to revel in that success as friends & investors. Let's learn from the mistakes of the past & make the right type of agreements to benefit all the people while sharing our resources.


As said with such elation & eloquence by a man at the internet cafe at the airport in Accra, during our conversation with him after he watched the results of the caucuses on line:

"Hilary you are the champion, everyone knows you are the champion, you have done well & will do great things, but your time has come & gone , it is now Obama's time - bow out gracefully & you will still be seen as a champion, but continue fighting & you will just disgrace yourself and tarnish your champion"

It was amazing to see how much people in Ghana were into watching & knowing about the caucuses in the U.S. We are clearly a global world living parallel lives as human beings, all wanting & needing change & a true sense of peace, family & belonging! Africans didn't BELIEVE, just as many African-Americans didn't BELIEVE in the possibility of Obama. I didn't even believe, but it was never because I didn't believe in the possibilities strictly based on color. My vote was never going to be strictly based on color but true substance & action. I wanted to see Obama prove that he knew he could win & was ready to do so, "The Fired Up & Ready To Go" attitude that he brought after the rock star period had died down, showcased the fact he realized the difference between those that were there just for the party & those that were there for the long haul, ready to put up the best fight & most of all ready to Win on & for Change! I was not going to have my vote strictly based on color, ethnicity, or ancestry as I hoped no other person would use such a criteria to shortchange a nation & the world, by not choosing the absolutely best leader possible.

Obama has brought a true sense of hope, unification , desire & motivation instead of helplessness in working toward change. I watched & kept talking about how young Caucasian college students & young grads, were the ones that recognized that Obama was the true change & pushed him to be the collective people's choice on a global front because he does truly represent everything global change is about; even if the initial push was on the basic level of being an active participant in the making of history! It took the aid of sympathetic slave owners, abolitionists, Jewish, Irish, Italian etc. civil rights activists to build up & move the movements for change in America, sprouting out the women's movement and other movements. Change always came about because of our collective voice & actions & it can olny have lasting effects & results if it is done & attained in that manner. The answers, directions, guidelines, wrongs & rights are all written in history -we just have to recognize, pay homage, learn from it & keep history progressive!

We may all have our differences, but there are the chosen few that you just can't deny or exude much negativity toward - it just doesn't work & just comes off as basic silly, petty, jealous HATERATION!

Wanlov, The Kubolor is just that human being. Someone that steps up & makes others see that it's time to step up and unify because the respect of the people is in its unification. He lives & wears his chosen name. He's Wanlov - a man of peace, reflection & love & the Kubolor - the epitome of hood boy, thug or gangster culminating into one word, Kubolor! It's always peace, I mean, Chale, he wears a skirt! However when the battle is brought he slays the mic, by silently shutting down another MC, letting him know NOT to clog up his ears with earwax because he doesn't know him like that & did not invite him onto his mic/set - all with smooth, sharp, peaceful, Wanlov precision!!

Wanlov brings the people together & makes it a point to make sure all our recognized as an equally contributing collective, when the focus & the light is clearly shining off of him.


It's wrong of me to put such pressure to live up to all that I have described, but I leave it at only each individuals experience & personal inspiration. Being in Ghana, I remember how ridiculous I thought it was for the people to put so much pressure on the soccer players , even going as far as threatening a soccer players mother because they felt he wasted goals that he could have scored. It is at most ridiculousness & at least unfair to put such high pressure on individuals to bring us hope , faith or to get that fight & sense of leadership that we all possess in whatever capacity, within & thru ourselves. I can also understand the fact that there are some chosen ones that sort of have to help move the crowd : Rakim, Nkrumah, Ghandi, Che, Bob Marley, Osibisa, Fela Kuti, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Nelson, Mandela, Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Oprah, Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou, Marvin Gaye, Mohammed Ali, Azuma Nelson, Abede Pele, James Brown, Hattie McDaniel etc. Whatever your politics & personal feelings their purpose was felt & If they did not do anything at all , atleast they set off Aspiration & Inspiration !

Being in Ghana & interviewing so many different types of people from government , entertainment, African American expatriates, European, Lebanese, Liberian, Caribbean- non recognized citizens- who have been living in Ghana for most of their lives, and the new settlers from all over the globe that came , loved it & decided to make it home & realized that although certain western styles & materialism was coveted certain western ideals were not recognized or attained & had very little sense of urgency in attaining them or foregoing certain traditions or non-traditions; thereby bringing a certain sense of frustration amongst everyone even though they all wanted & believed in one collective mission toward basic peace, belonging, having the basic right to proper food, shelter, clean air, healthcare, clean water, living wage, basic human rights & the basic right to have the ways & means to get ones just due in order to make & have change!