oja oba !!!

The US healthcare debate is both facsinating and frustrating. Facsinating to a political or economic junkie who gets to hear so many differnt ideas about how to pay for, manage and deliver affordable yet high quality healthcare services to a growing population of three hundred million scattered across fifty plus jusrisdictions with diverse geographical and social needs. Fitting all the disparate interests and needs into a single solution seems at best a fools errand.

ThisDay article An interesting concept. One question that has gnawed at me for quite some time now is why Nigeria has not decided to become master of its own destiny. Think infrastructure, Nigeria locally retains all the raw materials required for building roads and bridges. While it is now necessary to import the machineries, there is no reason why those too cannot be locally sourced -- Nigeria after all has iron ore is excess, and the blueprint for most of these equipment are now openly available -- the internet is a great thing.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dd6620bc-66b4-11e5-97d0-1456a776a4f5.html#ixzz3nBvAo6iD @ LostForWords   If a war to exterminate entire groups of peoples did not lead to "suicide" for a "civilization", I wonder how it is you can argue that welcoming other human beings, an act of charity (that one supposes that culture is based on) will kill it. It is shameful when a few people with injury in their heart and a lot of time on their hand often take to freely available media resources to spew out their prejudice. The question we all should ask ourselves is what will we have others do to us, if we find ourselves in their shoes.

"Invest in Education and Job Training Programs" ~ These seems to be on top of every politician to do list, to address the problem in cities like Baltimore. But they all seem to have forgotten the "lost generation" of minorities (particularly black men) who, haven entered the "system" now have no way out. They are deprived access to meaningful re-entry into society. Many who have the right education still have difficulty accessing jobs at the same level as their peers. Education and Job training yes. Drug law reform yes, discrimination against felons who have paid their "debt to society" must stop, and what about all the thousands who have been incarcerated for non-violent crimes ~ expunge their records and give them a real second chance. And yes, police reform laws must not be just be about body cams. The laws must protect citizens as much as it protects officers who risk their lives. Policing is about protection, not harassment, a...

Yeah, this make sense. 9/11 attack was funded, plotted and executed by Sunnis, mostly Saudi Sunnis. Most of the violent opposition to the US in Iraq was by Sunnis. The Afghanistan Talibans are Sunnis. But, somehow, America must support Sunnis, but cannot work with Shiites? The US works well with Mormons, Anglicans, Orthodox Christians, Baptists as well as Catholics. It can work with all comers, where there interest of the US aligns with the interest of the people or nation.

Many Republicans and often even Democratic critics of President Obama often tout his lack of bromance with corrupt, inept and ungrateful Karzai as evidence of his "lack of leadership". They fail to admit the obvious, Obama is the President of the USA, and his duty is to first and foremost protect the interest of the USA, and not promote the ambition of some back-biting "ally". When America finds a reliable ally, they are the President's friend. When the "ally" is only self serving, or promotes their personal ambition, even at the expense of the interest of the USA, the President is obligated to treat such with the suspicion and caution their attitude calls for. Ghani has so far, at least from all the optics, demonstrated gratitude for the generosity of the US tax payers and the sacrifice of Americans and other NATO members, and continues to demonstrate a resolve the fix Afghanistan's woes. Time will tell if he's on the right cours...

I wonder why Dr. Chan still continues as the head of WHO after her  incompetence and inaction led to the needless death of thousands. If she was the health secretary of her native country, would she still retain her job after such a record?

At the dawn of Nigerian independence in 1960, Muhammadu Buhari was a gangling teenager who eagerly joined the Nigerian Military Training College Kaduna, the go to school for smart, ambitious and often patriotic youths from Northern Nigeria. A two year stint at the later named Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and Buhari was commissioned as a second lieutenant, at a time of major political upheaval, but also great opportunity for young military officers. Just a few short years later, the young 23 year old was named Commander of an infantry battalion, a position he held during the first and second military coups. 

I wonder how much George Bush's famed "friendships" helped with his starting a war of choice in Iraq or getting bogged in Afghanistan, both of which ended up as quagmires that only his "unfriendly"   successor's dogged focus helped bring to an end. Also, the premise that somehow, being chummy with incompetent, corrupt, politically inept and sectarian Al-Malaki or Kleptomaniac Khazai would have changed their minds. Obama has a vision for restoring America's place as a pre-eminent power - not one that is sidetracked by unnecessary conflicts in other lands, conflicts that almost bankrupted the nation, while it's true geo-political rivals outflanked it both economically, diplomatically, and increasingly militarily. History will judge this president's foresight, his singular focus on the prize and his success in restoring America's faith in it's government (san the bomb throwing opposition) and the world's renewed acceptance ...

General Muhammed Buhari is one the few respected leaders to have presided over the affairs of a sometime promise often disappointing British contraption called Nigeria. Buhari was a member of the cohorts of idealistic middle level soldiers responsible for the third coup, and the only the second successful coup in a young, expectant and now potentially rich African nation. When Murtala Mohammed was swept into power as part of a coup that ended then General Gowon's long reign Buhari became the Governor of the then North Eastern State, and on Mohammed's assassination in another coup just 18 months into his widely acclaimed government, Buhari again ascended, this time as Federal Commissioner for Petroleum, Nigeria's black gold.

 It is amazing how we create faux outrage out of people speaking their mind, and often the truth, simply because those truths run counter to our "sheepled" view of things. It is true that vaccines, like most medical advances in the last two hundred years save lives. It is also true that vaccines, like most medications and medical procedures often come with risks, regardless of how small that risk is. People should be informed of both the benefits and risks, and the rationale for encouraging the populace to accept the risk (small in the case of vaccines as far as we know) should be made clear. Vaccines have tremendous public health outcome. It also holds small personal health risks. Chris Christy, Rand Paul, and Barack Obama, each have a point. While the two Republicans choose to highlight the personal health risk (with their own caveat), the President opted to impress the public health benefit.

 It is amazing how we create faux outrage out of people speaking their mind, and often the truth, simply because those truths run counter to our "sheepled" view of things. It is true that vaccines, like most medical advances in the last two hundred years save lives. It is also true that vaccines, like most medications and medical procedures often come with risks, regardless of how small that risk is. People should be informed of both the benefits and risks, and the rationale for encouraging the populace to accept the risk (small in the case of vaccines as far as we know) should be made clear. Vaccines have tremendous public health outcome. It also holds small personal health risks. #chrischristie   #RandPaul   and #barackobama  , each have a point. While the two Republicans choose to highlight the personal health risk (with their own caveat), the President opted to impress the public health benefit. Election 2016: Potential candidates Rand ...

"There has long been a pattern to Barack Obama’s political career on the national stage. There are moments of soaring moral clarity and inspiration; there are long periods of drift or laziness or passivity" - Huffington? The foolishness of all these so called smart political analysis, particularly ones like these that question the hardwork, gut, and leadership of this President is the assumption that all the executive orders, pronouncements, and the "Putin reeling" just happened on Christmas day! Policies usually take time to formulate and work on before they can be pronounced. As we have come to learn, the "Cuba Thaw" was more than 18 months in the making before anyone of us heard a blip about it. The sanctions on Russia started a long time ago, all the while while many in Washington where busy showing their "Putin envy", and yes, the immigration policy was held back mainly to appease a growing dissent by Democrats who were worried...

  Why is identity management at Apple so confusing and bifurcated? Despite all of Apple's success in the consumer space, enterprise grade apple offerings will continue to lag behind its peers, so long as Apple continues to require four different Apple Id to use for different Apple solutions. For example, if you need to setup an Apple for Business account, you can not use any of your other apple accounts ID. To publish to iTunesConnect, you need another Apple ID. For iCloud, well your iTune store account wont work. At least these are the responses from Apple reps when I inquire about error messages I get when trying to use one Apple ID with another Apple product. Microsoft solved this problem almost a decade ago, and completed integration, even with their recent acquisition of Skype. Now you can access all Microsoft products with one ID. You just subscribe to the service you require. Google also has this down pat. You are able to access all of your Google se...

Racism is a human condition. Or better yet, "otherness" is. The American condition is simply exacerbated by it's scope in the face of a culture that prides individual success. Everyone wants to be distinguished, feel distinguished, even if at the expense of others - particularly, at the expense of others. Race differentials makes this easier, particularly for a class that has been impressed upon as being superior, without any consequence.