The following lecture was delivered at the Michigan State
University (MSU) Detroit Center on April 19, 2013. This event was
sponsored by the African American and African Studies Program’s Emerging
Black Studies Scholars project. The audience was composed of MSU
graduate students as well as their counterparts from Wayne State
University, professors and community leaders. Earlier in the day Azikiwe
had taken the students on a “corporate devastation tour” of sections of
Detroit. Students were later debriefed on the tour during dinner prior
to the lecture.
Detroit is a city that has been in the national and world news once
again. Since March, when Gov. Rick Snyder declared a so-called
“financial emergency” in Detroit, therefore setting the stage for the
appointment of an “Emergency Manager”, many press reports drew a direct
connection between the recent corruption trial of former Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick and businessman Bobby Ferguson. In fact just prior to
Snyder’s declaration, Kilpatrick and Ferguson were found guilty of
numerous corruption charges in the months-long federal trial.
Of course the corporate and government-controlled media has never
focused on who are the real culprits in the underdevelopment and
consequent destruction of Detroit and other majority African American
municipalities in Michigan. These media entities fall back on the same
notions that have prevailed inside the United States since the period of
Reconstruction, i.e. that African American political leadership is
inherently corrupt and inefficient rendering them incapable of managing
the affairs of governments locally, statewide and nationally.
Beginning in the late 1990s the city was the focus of one of the
largest swindles in the history of the U.S. Predatory lending schemes
targeted African American and Latino communities in a massive
profit-making project that involved the highest echelons of finance
capital in collusion with the federal, state and local governments.
African Americans were deliberately lured into first home buyer and
refinancing programs which the banks knew well in advance would result
in massive home losses and the wholesale leveling and cleansing of
neighborhood and cities. These predatory lending programs in many cases
were racist in character by only providing subprime loans to African
Americans and Latinos even if they qualified for what was considered as
conventional mortgages.
The largest and most profitable banks and insurance companies were
involved in these efforts. Even though many of the mortgage loans
appeared to originate from small real estate and finance companies, over
a period of time the servicing of these loans wound up with some of the
oldest and well-established banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of
America, the Royal Bank of Scotland (Charter One), Wells Fargo, The Bank
of New York Mellon Trust and others.
The forces behind these fraudulent mortgage packages were so-called
securitized trusts and hedge funds many of which are based on Wall
Street in New York City. The mortgages were bundled up in exotic
financial instruments and backed up by multi-billion dollar firms such
as American International Group (AIG). Utilizing credit default swaps
these trusts and funds bet on the fact that there would be monumental
and unprecedented foreclosures and reaped trillions of dollars in
profits based upon the failure and destruction of municipalities
throughout the country.
In late 2006 and early 2007 these schemes began to unravel. Two
Detroit-based attorneys associated with the Michigan Emergency Committee
Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) began to receive request to defend
hundreds of people from eminent foreclosure.
What they discovered shortly was that people had been placed in
adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) where they would start off paying a
relatively manageable amount in a monthly payment only to see these
installments rise precipitously over a brief period of time. Eventually
the homeowner would not be able to make payments, they would fall behind
and then a series of late fees and penalties would take hold leading to
default, foreclosure and seizure by the banks.
Many of these foreclosures and evictions were illegal even according
to the rules set out by the banks themselves. Options that should have
been available to lower payments and work out agreements with the banks
were disregarded in the mad rush for repossession of the homes.
It later became clear that there were greater incentives for the
banks to foreclose on these borrowers than work with them to resolve the
payment issues. Most of these fraudulent mortgages were insured at the
inflated rates of the mortgage as opposed to the actual market rate of
the properties which were rapidly declining in value. When foreclosure
occurred the banks would be paid the full value plus penalties and fees
by the insurers therefore making profits on both ends.
What helped fuel the predatory lending frenzy was also the false
notion that property values would continue to rise in perpetuity.
Lenders would tell borrowers that they could always refinance and get
lower interest rates and more cash.
This of course turned out to be a big lie because as soon as the
system began to unravel in 2007 and property values plunged, no lender
would be willing to refinance. People were stuck with homes that were
declining in value with high unreasonable mortgage payments surrounded
by communities that were being destroyed through the crisis.
The Decline in Wages for African American Workers
Let us now look at some underlying factors that are clearly related
to the crisis of housing in the urban areas like Detroit. Since the
1970s wages have been on the decline inside the United States.
With large scale de-industrialization in Detroit and other cities
throughout Michigan, the problem of structural unemployment has become
pronounced. This problem in fact goes back to the 1950s when the general
myth exist of an expanding economy with a burgeoning middle class is
still promoted in the mass media and popular culture.
In Detroit industrial jobs were being lost in the 1950s and 1960s as
census reports document. This was taking place at the same time as the
large-scale migration of African Americans into the city of Detroit was
increasing when many working class and middle class whites were fleeing
the city for the suburbs.
By the time of the 1967 Rebellion the decline in the city was well
underway. Unemployment and underemployment was a major problem among
youth in the African American community in Detroit in 1967 when
approximately 40 percent of the city was black.
There was a minor recession in 1969 and in 1971, the Nixon
administration embarked upon its anti-inflation program that took the
U.S. off the gold standard. By 1973-74 major changes in the economic
structures of the country resulted in plant closing and lay-offs.
The October 1973 Egypt-Israeli war prompted the Arab oil embargo that
brought about additional shocks in the petroleum industry which
resulted in price hikes and shortages in fuel. The problems of
large-scale unemployment began during this period in the city of Detroit
and in other industrial centers around the country.
In 1975 there was a major restructuring of the world economic system.
An even greater degree of de-industrialization began to occur where
millions of people were thrust into economic uncertainty and social
displacement.
These developments occurred within a broader international context
that had a tremendous impact on the U.S. 1975 was same year that the
Vietnam War and the influence of Washington collapsed in Southeast Asia.
Also that same year the independence of Angola and Mozambique
crippled a major ally of the U.S. within NATO, Portugal, whose
government was plunged into crisis in Europe. These factors were
compounded with the fall of the Nixon administration the year before and
the revelations surrounding the role of domestic intelligence services
hampered the ability of the state to exercise the degree of repression
that had been common since the Cold War between 1947 and 1974.
When jobs are lost and people move from cities this impacts the tax
base and the very existence of small and medium size businesses. The
rate of profitability even among the large multi-national corporations
declined during the mid to late 1970s therefore perpetuating the cycle
of joblessness and increasing impoverishment.
In the city of Detroit the subprime mortgage phenomenon and the
consequent foreclosure and eviction crisis had a compounding effect on
the city’s tax base. The 2000-2010 Census figures indicate that some
237,000 people were forced out of the city of Detroit.
Many of these people were by-products of the economic devolution of
the city and the country. There were 150,000 foreclosures in Detroit
during this period and the simultaneous loss of jobs and the decline in
real wages proved to be even more devastating to the city.
Another dimension of this crisis related to the fiscal health of the
city of Detroit is the municipal finance problems that have been
developing over the last decade. With the decline in tax revenue and
revenue sharing from both state and federal governments, the city was
forced to rely on borrowing through disadvantageous loans and bond
issues.
Recently- released documents under a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuit filed by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop
Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs has brought about the
exposure of the fraudulent activity carried out by the same banks that
drove nearly a quarter-of-a-million people out of the city through
mortgage lending and home seizures. The use of credit default swaps in
municipal finance has resulted in the complete financial ruin of the
city.
The existence of $16.9 billion in long-term debt for the city of
Detroit stems directly from these same bond issues and loans held by
Bank of America, U.S. Bank, USB and others. The emergency manager laws,
both Public Act 4, that was overturned through a statewide referendum
last November, and the new law, Public Act 436, allows for EMs to tear
up labor contracts and vendor agreements but does not allow the debt
supposedly owed to the banks to not be paid.
In other words, the EM laws provide a pseudo-legal rationale for the
dictatorship of the banks over the city. Even though the people
throughout the state of Michigan voted down Public Act 4, Snyder and his
cohorts in Lansing re-instituted an even worse law giving it immunity
from repeal by the electorate.
Nonetheless, the existence of emergency management will not result in
the improvement of city services, the advent of new jobs which pay a
living wage or the empowerment of the working class and the nationally
oppressed. In fact it is doing just the opposite.
Just on April 16, the Detroit City Council in a majority vote of 5-2
agreed to allow Jones Day law firm, which Kevyn Orr the EM worked for
until recently, to implement a contract worth at $3.2 million to
ostensibly work toward the restructuring of the debt. It is quite
obvious that any restructuring will not be in the interests of the
people of Detroit but to further disempower and enslave the workers and
oppressed in perpetual debt and dictatorship under the financial
institutions.
It was revealed in the limited debates surrounding the Jones Day
contract that this law firm is involved representing the same banks that
hold the municipal debt for Detroit. How can they represent the people
of Detroit when they are in league with their mortal enemies?
Jones Day was involved in the Chrysler bailout and bankruptcy of
2009. Although the General Motors and Chrysler restructuring are
championed by the corporate media as a success, the fact of the matter
is that tens of thousands of people lost their jobs during the process
including production workers and car dealerships which were closed in
mass.
These small and medium-sized dealerships were not only shut down but
their employees such as salespersons, clerks and mechanics were also
thrown out of work. Workers who remained in production were subjected to
a wage freeze even in the skill trades and the establishment of a
two-tier pay structure serves only to impoverish younger workers coming
in who are making half of what older workers are and in addition is
designed to break down class solidarity within the unions by harboring
differing wage scales between new recruits and veterans.
In Detroit since the advent of David Bing and the majority 5-to-6
right wing bloc in 2009, the city has abolished over 4,000 municipal
positions. Municipal workers have been subjected to 10 to 20 percent pay
cuts, benefit slashing and now are facing the possibility of having
their pensions seized by the EM and his backers in the financial sector.
Mind you all of this was done absent of emergency management. When we
listen to the pronouncements of the majority bloc within City Council
in Detroit that they are acting with the interests of the people in
mind, it only exposes the self-serving actions of this clique which is
far removed from the needs of the people.
City pension funds are a source of revenue that can be taken over by
the EM. Approximately $5-6 billion in these funds may be the next pot of
money to be robbed from the municipal employees in order for these
resources to be handed over to Wall Street.
Within the context of the discussions and reports printed by the
corporate media and broadcast over the radio and television there is
never any questions raised about the failure of finance capital and the
federal government to create jobs and small business but to do just the
opposite. Today the banks are sitting on $2 trillion in cash but will
not invest in job creation because it is more profitable for these
entities to invest in production and services overseas where wages are
lower and benefit scales are often nonexistent.
The Plight of Detroit Within a Broader National Context
What is often projected in the corporate media as well is the notion
that Detroit is the only city facing such a crisis. This could never be
further from the truth because cities and suburbs throughout Michigan
and the U.S. are in a similar situation.
Since Detroit is a majority African American city and has a heroic
history of labor and national struggles, the tendency is to make it
appear as if the people themselves through their trade unions and
community organizations are the cause of the suffering, blight and debt.
However, one only has to drive through suburban communities and witness
some of the same problems related to home foreclosures, the closing of
small businesses and the evisceration of municipal and educational
services.
In various cities throughout the U.S. including Stockton and San
Bernardino, California, Providence, Rhode Island, Jefferson County,
Alabama, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Suffolk County, New York and others,
municipalities are facing similar problems. In Stockton, which has filed
for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the creditors represented by the
banks and bond insurers recently attempted to declare that there was no
financial crisis and that the city should pay them first and disregard
the pension funds and municipal employees.
The same arguments are being made throughout the U.S. The banks are
setting policy for the cities by demanding and acquiring first lien on
all tax dollars that should be going toward maintaining municipal
services, pensions and schools.
Some fifteen years ago Detroiters were being told that the building
of casinos would generate the necessary revenue that could bring the
city back from the decades of decline resulting from capital flight,
population decline and the erosion of the urban infrastructure. However,
the situation today is represented by the fact that the banks are
claiming billions in debt from the City of Detroit and consequently the
financial institutions take tax revenue from the casinos which are
placed with a trustee in order to pay off obligations to these same
elements of capital.
The Complicity of the Federal Government in the Destruction of the Cities
The tendency of blaming local communities for their own problems
often overlooks the role of the federal government in the present
crisis. In regard to housing it is clear that for the last two decades
the Congress and the administration has systematically worked to
eradicate low-income public housing.
Most of the public housing projects which were built for people
during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s have been razed. In Chicago the Robert
Taylor Homes, the Ida B. Wells Homes and the Cabrini Green complexes
have all been shut down and demolished.
In Detroit the Brewster Projects and the Jeffries have been torn down
and replaced with housing that most poor and low-income people cannot
afford. The promised new housing for the most marginalized sections of
the working class has never materialized in the U.S.
Of course these projects were designed from the beginning for racist
purposes. With the migration of African Americans from the rural areas
of the South to the urban North and West, there was resistance to
housing integration that was fostered heavily by the ruling class.
This policy served at least two purposes: they contained the African
American and Latinos communities in confined geographic areas and at the
same time it provided the political capacity to convince the white
working class and middle class that they were somehow superior to the
nationally oppressed groups due to the better conditions of residence
and services they were allocated. This concerted division of the working
class inside the U.S. created the conditions for the ultimate crushing
of the trade unions and the evolution of a genuine people’s movement
that could cut across racial lines.
Nonetheless, the dumping of millions of people with the major shift
in housing policy in the 1990s exacerbated the homeless problem as well
as fostered the decline of the cities through the forced remigration of
African Americans back to the South and to working class suburbs
surrounding the large urban areas. With removal of low-income housing,
many people could not afford to live in the cities and as a result of
this phenomenon it prompted the gentrification of the cities where the
upper middle class and wealthy sectors were able to come in to re-occupy
sections of the central cities.
The problem with these policies is that the capitalist system is in
deep crisis. Consequently, the financial interests are not in a position
to invest the necessary money to actually rebuild the cities in their
own images.
We have seen the beginning of such programs in cities like
Washington, D.C. and New York. Yet with the economic crash of 2007-2008,
it has been stalled if not completely abandoned.
Any keen observer of the cities can see clearly that the crisis has
manifested itself all over the country. The advent of the Sequester
earlier this year will make matters worse since it is impacting the
federal civil service and even homeland security.
It was announced just recently that some 300 people at the
now-privatized Detroit Medical Center will be laid-off as a direct
result of the Sequester. Other government programs such as Head Start
which assist poor children are subjected to cuts as results of the
massive budget cuts in Washington.
In regard to the problem of foreclosure and evictions the federal
government is heavily responsible due to its failure to regulate the
banks and to prosecute them for their fraudulent activities. Attorney
General Eric Holder announced earlier this year that the banks were too
big to prosecute. Five years ago the Congress and the ruling class were
saying that the banks were too big to fail.
However, the people inside the U.S., particularly the oppressed
African and Latino nations are being driven deeper into poverty. Neither
political party is working as an advocate for these social elements
within the population or the working and so-called middle classes as a
whole.
There has been the establishment of various programs that are
ostensibly designed to assist people facing foreclosure and eviction.
Yet there is no real enforcement provision within these programs and
consequently the banks have no obligation to participate.
During the height of the foreclosure crisis the federal government
essentially “nationalized” the mortgage industry through the takeover of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The tax dollars of working people made good
on all the so-called “toxic loans” held by the banks.
In the fall of 2008, the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson came
before the Congress with a three-page double-spaced proposal requesting
over $700 billion in a bailout for the banks. The popular sentiment
throughout the U.S. was to reject this proposal because: why should
these banks be bailed out of the crisis when it was created by them?
The proposal was eventually adopted with the indispensable support of
the Democratic Party and the-then Senator Barack Obama who was on the
verge of being elected to the presidency. In addition to the bailout of
the banks, the Federal Reserve Bank provided trillions in liquidity to
the financial institutions buying the same type of bad assets which
shielded the system from collapse.
However, nothing was ever offered to the people of the U.S. The
foreclosure programs were a sham and the problems of unemployment,
underemployment and increasing poverty have remained over the last five
years.
Today with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in control of most mortgages in
the U.S., people are now being evicted by the federal government. These
entities in many cases are far worse than the banks in regard to the
efforts to prevent home seizures.
Another important point in regard to the role of the federal
government in the current crisis is the failure of the administration
and Congress to stimulate the economy and create jobs. There are two
federal laws on the books which mandate that the government steps in to
generate jobs in an economic crisis: the Full Employment Act of 1946 and
the Humphrey-Hawkins Bill of 1979. Nonetheless, these laws have never
been enforced by Congress or any subsequent administration including
Barack Obama’s.
When Obama got in office in 2009 he immediately rushed through
Congress a so-called stimulus bill. According to the prevailing wisdom
at the time it was designed to create at least two million jobs and jump
start the national economy.
Most of the money went right back into the same hands that were
responsible for the crisis. State governments utilized the funds to
address the budget deficits and very few jobs were actually created.
Detroit represents an excellent example of the failure of such
policies. There was confusion from the beginning as to where the
stimulus money was. The administration of Dave Bing said it was being
held by the state and the state said virtually nothing.
In reality the people of Detroit remained heavily unemployed,
underemployed and poor. The few repairs done on the streets and roads
had no sustainability since we still have the worse roads of any city in
the country.
The schools continued to close and the municipal government and
education system fell deeper into debt. With the advent of emergency
management, despite appeals from local Democratic Party politicians and
operatives, the White House and the Justice Department have remained
silent on the question of the imposition of dictatorship in Detroit, the
most predominately African American municipality in the U.S.
Since Obama has been in office there has not been any program
designed to improve the conditions of African Americans, Latinos and
other nationally oppressed groups. These groups are suffering the worse
from the economic crisis with unemployment and poverty rates that are
continuing to increase.
Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the failure of the federal
government to address the crisis of the cities involves the role of the
Pentagon and Homeland Security budgets as a mechanism for draining
resources from the working people. Inside the U.S. the Defense budget
has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades totaling in
excess of $700 billion annually.
If the Defense budget is coupled with the Homeland Security budget,
these two expenditures are well over $1 trillion per year. These are
resources that could be utilized to rebuild the cities and reemploy
people inside the country through national development projects that
would benefit the most oppressed and marginalized segments of society.
Nevertheless, any discussion of lowering the defense and homeland
security budgets is attacked as being unpatriotic and threatening the
well-being of people in the country. The fact of the matter is that the
overall decline in living standards in America is the direct result of
the policies of Wall Street, the carrying out of unnecessary and
imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Palestine, Yemen, Libya,
Syria, Somalia and Colombia has not only wasted trillions but have
killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of youth in the U.S. as well as
millions in these contested geo-political regions.
After the so-called end of the Cold War during the early 1990s there
was discussion about a purported peace dividend. What actually happened
was that new enemies were cited as a justification for further
militarization and interference in the internal affairs of peoples
largely within the Global South.
Moreover, after September 11, 2001, the repressive apparatus of the
state broadened its domestic focus from repressing, prosecuting and
imprisoning African Americans and Latinos to carrying out the same
policies towards people of Middle Eastern, South Asian descent as well
as Muslims in general.
This level of repression is partly designed also to justify the wars
of aggression abroad. If the state can convince people inside the U.S.
that there is both a domestic as well as foreign threat then draconian
laws such as the USA Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and the
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) can be passed and the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp and its counterparts can remain open in
perpetuity.
These wars of occupation and genocide must be ended for any genuine
reconstruction of the cities to take place. The acceleration today of
other forms of warfare involving drones and special strike forces must
be seen for what they are: the continuation of a failed attempt to exert
U.S. hegemony over the majority of peoples throughout the globe.
The Detroit and Municipal Crisis Within a Global Context
These problems that exist in Detroit and throughout the U.S. are not
confined to this country. All over Europe the economic crisis is
worsening and it is the banks that are at the root of the decline.
The situations in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other European states
perhaps mirror what will be taking place here in a very short period of
time. In these Southern European states, official unemployment figures
are well above 25 percent and the increase in poverty is staggering.
Even in supposedly more developed nations in Europe such as France,
Britain, Germany and Belgium, conditions are worsening for working
people, youth and the senior citizens. The recent bank panic in Cyprus
is a reflection of the failure of the so-called bailout in Europe as
well.
The European Central Bank is working like the Federal Reserve and the
national government in the U.S. to make sure that the banks get paid
whatever these institutions claims is owed to them by the people. In
Spain the constitution of the country was changed to guarantee payment
to the banks.
Africa continues to be a source of mineral wealth and cheap labor for
the imperialists. The formation of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in
2008 has accelerated military intervention on the continent.
Part of what is driving the intervention into Africa even under the
Obama administration is the efforts to block the People’s Republic of
China from developing greater partnerships with the African states. The
Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has been existence since
2000 holding five summits in both China and Africa. China is now the
largest trading partner for the African continent.
The Obama administration announced in December that it was deploying
some 3,500 troops to nearly three dozen states in Africa. The U.S. has
set up drone and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) stations in several
African countries.
In Libya during 2011, the U.S. led a war of regime change that
resulted in the deaths of 50,000-100,000 people, the displacement of two
million, and the theft of over $160 billion in national wealth. Today
Libya is in chaos and this confusion and destabilization has spread to
Mali where France is currently involved in another war under the guise
of fighting terrorism.
These U.S. and NATO wars will continue unless there is a mass
movement in the U.S. and Europe that works with the peoples of Africa to
put a stop to these senseless interventions. There should be genuine
partnerships developed with Africa which benefits both the peoples of
the U.S. and those of the continent.
There is a world economic crisis that is worsening and it up to the
current generation to not only analyze it but to organize and mobilize
for its reversal. A world system based upon the needs of the people is
the only real solution to the current decline.
Challenges for the Emerging Black Studies Scholars
The economic and social crises in the U.S. and the world today must
be the principal focus of the Emerging Black Studies Scholars. It is up
to the current generation to not only analyze these problems but to come
up with solutions through engagement with the masses.
In the current period the very existence of human society is at
stake. Wars and threats of war remain too real to contemplate with the
proliferation of nuclear armaments and repressive governmental systems
that are designed to maintain the global status-quo.
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, the great legendary scholar and activist who
lived nearly century of a life of intellectual inquiry and political
struggle wrote in 1952 that “Our present economic problem stems from the
fact that while production is increasingly a social process, the
distribution of its results still remains largely a matter of the
individual judgment of persons who happen to have the power or who seize
the power to decide, and on the basis of concepts of property and
income which no longer correspond to fact.” (In Battle for Peace, p.
169)
Du Bois went on to note that “The paradox which consequently upsets
the labor world is that despite the indispensable co-operation of
laborers, managers and capitalists, inventors and thinkers in current
industry, when the results and increasingly valuable results are
distributed, most of the laborers get less than is necessary for decent
life, while many of the capitalists get more than is necessary for
decent life, while many of the capitalists get the power to direct the
use of the residue for any purpose which they choose.”
This fact of the world economic system is even more of a truth today
than it was 60 years ago. The futures of the world peoples including
those of the U.S. are definitely at stake with the burgeoning conflict
between the ruling classes and the overwhelming majority of people on
the planet.
The questions remains: will we survive and prosper or be further
driven down by the one percent? The ruling class interests have nothing
to offer the working people and nationally oppressed other increased
exploitation, degradation and poverty.
Consequently we have no other choice than to join the forces for
progress and a peaceful future without hesitation. As intellectuals we
have an added commitment to work towards the genuine liberation of our
people and humanity in general.
We must utilize our skills for the benefit of society. We must join
existing movements for change and create new ones that address the
pressing and burning issues of our times.
In actuality there is no real alternative. What we are seeing today
is the decline of an economic system that has outlived its usefulness
for the world and even its own social class.
This is why the ruling class today offers no solutions to national
and world problems. There are no plans to end poverty, to create
full-employment, to educate all babies being born and their adult
counterparts, to end war, racism and national oppression.
All we need to do is to read the editorials of the leading corporate
newspapers, journals and websites. All of their rhetoric and propaganda
is self-serving and limited to the securing of the world’s resources and
labor for the benefit of the ever-shrinking elite which lacks foresight
and courage.
It is up to us to articulate a future for human society. It is our
task to show the way for the eradication of social evils and the
building of a world where our children and grandchildren will be proud
to live in and have a positive outlook for the future.
Abayomi Azikiwe Editor, Pan-African News Wire
