It's amazing how time flies. March is almost over and another week gone by with President Barack Obama's Stimulus Package not yet showing as pundits, talkshow hosts, especially on the far right are not being considerate from the way they keep attacking Obama on what they are now calling a failure. Failure in just two months? I don't get it and give me a break. I 'dunno' how that could be possible for a mess caused in eight years of a retarded George Bush 2 administration to be cleaned up in a blink of an eye. It is just not possible, even though Obama seems to be making mistakes notably his choice of appointments and the outrageous AIG debacle.
Meanwhile, while at it, Obama is enjoying the ride making the presidency look easy, and for sure, living up to his creed in changing the way business is conducted in Washington. His visit to Southern California and appearance at "The Tonight Show," without a doubt, catapulted Jay Leno's show to the top in ratings while the president keep leaving his mark -- the first sitting president to appear on NBC's "The Tonight Show."
Enough of "da" politics. I read Dambisa Moyo's interesting article "Why Foreign Aid Is Hurting Africa" in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. I agree with Moyo in that superb write-up, and I hope the financial institutions in question and charity organizations will start rethinking their starategies because the alleged aid is doing more harm than good. For instance, aids to many of these poor countries in Africa were embezzled by its leaders. Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo), Bakill Muluzi (Malawi), and Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's former president, have all, one way or the other, embezzled funds meant to aid the poor by way of infrastructures, healthcare and education. In that piece, Moyo writes;
Yet evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It's increased the risk of civil conflict and unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa's population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.
The movies this weekend got me tripping. I was only able to watch two of the new arrivals at theaters, and as it happens sometimes, and not being ready, I dozed off in both movies which reminded me of "Boiler Maker" I was suppose to be reviewing a couple of months ago. The first I watched was "Duplicity" starring the 41-year-old wrinkle-free Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law and Natalie Portman. All about love and lack of trust got me snoring in-between the show. I'm not sure if I want to see it again. Then I saw "Sunshine Cleaning" starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin. It was not much to talk about. And I dozed off, and that's basically about it. I am not going to see it again.
What's up with Twitter, man!? Looks like every now and then when I pop up my mailbox someone I have not known from Adam seems to be following me. A way to connect and share brief moments which appears to be cool depending on what way one looks at it. It is an entire world in one box and the stuff has just exploded. And the folks out there in da box are having a ball and talking about it everywhere they go.
I shared a brief moment on the phone with actress/filmmaker, Esosa Edosomwan and some fascinating project will be popping up very soon and knowing who Esosa is from her years of determination and hardwork, it's going to be explosive and da magazine is going to be straight.
But, anyway, the week wasn't that bad save for Fox Channel Obama bashers who have nothing else to do but keep saying Obama this and Obama that. They should leave the guy alone to do his job. What's their beef?
My heart goes to the families of four Oakland, California Police officers who were gunned down in a shootout yesterday by troubled parolee Lovelle Mixon. More on Oakland shooting.
That's "Da Week and Da Wrap Up."
