When Candidate Trump tweeted that insult on blacks, he was ignorant of the fact that it is a black man, Jan Ernst Matzeliger, who manufactured the first modern shoe-lasting machine thereby transforming shoe-making from a home-situated, small business that made few pairs per day into a factory that produces hundreds of shoes in a day.
Candidate Trump did not know that a black woman, Patricia Bath, is the inventor of Laserphaco Probe, the concept and machine for using laser light to remove cataracts from the human eye so that a patient may avoid surgery and yet could be rid of the potentially-bad condition.
At the time Trump tweeted the insult, he did not know that the actual inventor of the Internet is a black man who emigrated from Africa as a boy, Philip Emeagwali, who was the first to put forth the concept of connecting several individual computers into a single network and actually derived the mathematical equation for doing so.
And the next time Trump stops at or sees a traffic light let him remember that the first traffic light (which intrinsically resembles the one that stopped him or which he saw) was invented by a black man, Garret Morgan, and he created it to help ensure order on the street and possibly prevent accidents.
Surely, Trump could, philosophically, learn a lot from the black man, Garret Morgan, that in every aspect of life, including government and politics, no matter the realm, there is a traffic light that everyone, including him (even as President of the US,) must respect. Or Trump will have Ti-Kelenkelen explain that philosophy too to him?
Finally, on that same point, Trump, when he tweeted that insult on blacks did not know that it is black people, on the continent of Africa, Ancient Egypt, who, thousands years ago, in principle, created all the fields of human study and endeavour in all its details – politics and government, science, mathematics, engineering and architecture, medicine, etc – which the West today wears like what the black researcher, George James, will quintessentially and appropriately refer to as stolen glory. Also, Trump did not know that there are aspects of Ancient Egyptian civilisation accomplishment that Western civilisation, to which the country he leads is the hegemony, is yet to equal.
Interestingly, it just hits Ti-Kelenkelen that had the black man not invented the Internet there may not be a tweeter that Trump could use to instantly publish and broadcast his insult on blacks.
Apparently, Candidate Trump also did not know that people who care about only sex will never, never become inventors and discoverers.
On June 23, 2017 the US Embassy in Accra issued a statement on visa interview policy, probably as part of measures to deal with visa fraud. Among other things, the statement said only the person seeking the visa to travel to the US will be allowed into the consulate area. That is a fair statement and Ti-Kelenkelen finds it surprising that the US embassy of all embassies will be saying that. That is a rule for everyone, however, kings and Queen Mothers, and; presidents, Prime Ministers and state-monarchs, and; former presidents are not everyone. That is why that rule runs against a Ghanaian tradition, which the Government of Ghana respects; hence the US embassy is also obliged to respect. In fact, it runs against international protocol concerning eminent personalities, including presidents and former presidents.
Let us, however, begin with rules and conditions. And since the embassy is so concerned about pure visa applicants only, let us talk about that. It is no news that the US embassy has for visa applicants conditions and rules that are a direct insult to our dignity as human beings.
For example, it is no news that for the generality of Ghanaians and other Africans seeking visa at the US embassy there is no place to sit protected from the vagaries of the weather. Africans stand outside the embassy gates in the sun for as long as it takes and when it starts raining they have to run for cover somewhere else. The same condition pertains at other embassies and high commissions. And to call the creature by name, the greater insult on us is by ourselves, since that is happening right in our country and we, especially our leaders, allow it!
Talking about rules, an African applicant pays his or her full visa fee before going for an interview to earn that visa, and then when he or she fails, the US embassy does not refund the amount. That entire system, created by the US State Department and run here in Ghana by the US Embassy, is governed by an abnormal, serbe, sick set of rules. No one pays for a prospected service when the possibility of being denied that service is still an option. Thus when prospective students to an institution go to write an entry examination, they pay for the entry exam; when selected applicants are to go for interview, they pay for the interview, and; when they are granted admission and they wish to go, they go and pay admission fee. When the applicant is denied admission, he or she does not pay admission fee, which is much, much higher than the exam and interview fees combined.
Thus for the US visa interview, when denial is one of the possibilities on the cards, what an applicant must pay is an interview fee, and the amount must be so much less than the visa fee itself.
To charge an applicant full visa fee and then deny him or her the visa is criminal. Yet the Government of Ghana has allowed it to go on for years. That it is a crime and the fact that Ghana’s leaders have allowed it to go on cannot be defended by saying the premises of the US embassy is US territory; if the embassy staff slaughters a human being there it will be a crime.
It is because we allow US State Department to do the criminal here in Ghana that the department’s officials think it (the department) can bring in a Trump-type (bad) travel rule disguised as “not a new [travel] policy”; thinking it can push forth just anything and get away with it. So here they are saying only the person seeking a visa will be allowed to enter the consulate area. However, baring strictly private issues, our kings and Queen Mothers never go anywhere without an accompanying assistant. Even presidents, and certainly former presidents, do not. There is a reason for it. The constitution of the Republic of Ghana respects that. The Government of Ghana respects that. And the Government of the US, represented by the US Embassy here in Accra, is obliged to respect that.
In any case, the US embassy does not expect dignitaries, such as Otumfuo, YagbonWura, Awomefia or AsanteHemaa, to always walk into the embassy every time he or she needs a visa to travel to the US. By their very position, these personalities have earned the right in all spheres, including the international, to send people to do things on their behalf.
Dealing with visa fraud is fine, but the US embassy cannot claim to solve visa fraud and then use that as an excuse to reduce the esteem of our indigenous institutions and our top dignitaries.
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