Miller - The Re-Colonization of Ghana by Tammy Holley

       The last group that presented talked about the "Re-Colonization of Ghana" which refers to the fact that many businesses in Ghana are no longer owned by Ghanians but by foreign countries such as China. Ghana just gained independence from the UK in 1957 but after oil was found in Ghana, many countries came flocking there in order to capitalize off of Ghana's oil supply. Also, the Chinese are starting to own more and more businesses in Ghana while steadily taking away jobs and profit from the natives. My first question was why doesn't the government step in and help fight off foreign entities from taking over Ghana? However, I soon learned that the government in Ghana is very corrupt and not very helpful to its citizens. The group also delved into the history of Ghana and talked about the Ashanti Empire which was once the richest and most respected empire in all of Africa. 
     This presentation reminded me of Dr. Carr's presentation earlier in the semester in which, he talked about the glory of ancient Africa and how ancient Africa played and important role in shaping modern day society. However, due to black oppression and prejudice, the importance of Africa has been diminished severely. People no longer appreciate just how much Africa molded human beings today. Djuhti and Sheshat are the mother and father of arithmetic, language and many other things that are pivotal to society today yet, Africa and its people have been treated poorly throughout history. This group's presentation about Ghana is a perfect example of how Africa has been exploited by countries all over world because of its resources yet few stop to appreciate Africa as historical and precious. Too many countries in Africa have come too far to be so debased and undervalued by countries only seeking monetary reward. As the group suggested, countries should hold a modern day Berlin Conference and agree to leave Africa alone and not try to "re-colonize" it. Overall, I thought this group did a great job of presenting an issues and giving multiple solutions to a rising problem.

Miller Scholars - Poverty and the Black Community - Tammy Holley

     The group, The Miller Scholars, presented a very interesting topic about how poverty affects the African-american community and what are the factors that have led a great number of blacks to be impoverished in America. The five factors they concluded to be the main reason why blacks live in poverty were: reproduction, substance abuse, unemployment, lack of education and lack of pride in our culture. At first I thought all of these factors are not just subject to the black community but all communities because these are widespread American problems. Coming from Baltimore City, I've seen the various ghettos in which, the respective races inhabit. The aforementioned five factors seem to be problem in all those ghettos so I was immediately interested in why this group decided that these problems were integral to why many blacks live in poverty. Immediately after I thought about this group's thesis statement, they told us that 20.7% of black families are in poverty in the United States while other races only have an average of 9.7%. I was shocked to see our statistics so high. In addition, the group said that the black unemployment rate was about 25% which is more than double that of other races. This statistics shocked me the most because I only a couple years ago I had done research on a similar topic and found that the black unemployment hovered around approximately 10%. When I heard that in 2010 the number is 25%, I almost couldn't believe it and I wondered from which source this group got their numbers. Then again, it might be possible that due to the recent recession and rise in unemployment that the black unemployment rate might have drastically increased. However, this group did offer a very viable solution to this problem. Instead of blacks spending a lot of their money into commercial, retail and chain stores, blacks should begin to put their paychecks into their own communities in order because clearly the government will put the necessary money into black communities. 
      The most importance factor that the group presented was a lack of pride in our own culture. This to me, is a core reason why black people today are facing so many issues because we no longer value our race like we used to. Black women are now referred to as bitches, black men are referred to as niggas and black children are feared as violent and uneducated. Our race is far from the prestige that we once were and we are slowly digressing into a race of self-hate. As one of the group's presenters pointed out, "when did black stop being beautiful?"One point that I thought might have needed some more work however was reproduction. The group said that blacks are the #1 reproducer in the U.S; however, it is a fact that Hispanic people are the #1 reproducing minority in the U.S as of the mid-2000s. I think a better point about reproduction to focus on should have been the fact that black women are getting pregnant too young or without any economic means to support a child and unfortunately aborting too many black children. I think as a community we should stress safe sex or abstinence so every child has a chance to survive and less black children have to be aborted by their mothers. 

Miller Group by Kayla Blackburn

The third group to present November 3, 2010 was a group named Miller. The title of their presentation was “The Re-Colonization of Ghana.” The group began with key information about Ghana. The capital is Accra and President Kwame became the president after Ghana gained its independence March 6, 1957. Ghana is a country with bountiful gold, timer, cocoa, diamonds, and oil. It’s often called the gold coast. After learning this information I began to wonder why the inhabitants of this country were so poor. I wondered why the minimal wage had to continue to increase because the value of Ghana’s money continued to decrease. The group answered my question when they began discussing the trend of Asians going over to Africa and basically monopolizing Ghana’s economy. According to the group, the Asians were opening up many businesses in Ghana and only hiring Asians to work for them; meaning that many Africans were left jobless. The group leader summed this cause and effect situation into “Chinese owned = Black unemployment.”

The group’s solution to this problem was for Ghana to make a make effort to trade its national resources with other countries to stop the monopolization within its country. I agree with this solution, but I don’t think that it’s that simple. I believe that if it was that simple Ghana would have been started doing it. In fact, citizens in Ghana don’t have enough power or influence to trade with other countries, because if they had the power to do that, they would have the power to stop the Asian monopolies and open up their own businesses.

Miller Scholars by Kayla Blackburn

The second group to present on November 3, 2010 was the Miller Scholars. Their question was: What factors have lead to poverty in the African American communities and in what ways can those factors be modified so poverty may decrease? Upon hearing their question I immediately began to synthesize different factors that collectively contribute to poverty.  I first thought about the lack of jobs in America period.  I then formed a question of my own. If the rate of unemployment is steadily increasing, and the people that are losing jobs are the educated with degrees, how are the people without degrees fairing? So the first factor that I thought of is a lack of jobs. Secondly, I believe that the increased rate of teenagers conceiving children out of wedlock is also a factor. However, I believe that the two preceding factors is a result of the lack of education within the African American community.

After coming up with my own conclusion of why poverty is so prevalent in the African American community, I began to listen to the reasons the Miller Scholars named. Their factors were lack of education, unemployment, lack of pride in culture, and substance abuse.  Overall I agree with their factors because they coincide with the reasons that I believed contributed to poverty.  Nonetheless, I believe that the group vaguely discussed their reasons why they cited these particular factors. Although I completely agreed with the factors they cited, I was looking forward to facts and details to back up their rationale.

... MiLLeR... Presentation

The Miller Presentation was very interesting. I think that they did they project on a subject that someone in the group had first hand experience. Their project was on the Re-Colonization of Ghana. The stated a lot of informative data about the history of Ghana, such as they gained their independence from the UK in March 6, 1957, although it wasn't approve for another thirty years. They also stated that in 2007 there was a lot of oil found in Ghana and they were a nation resource agent. Ghana's money isn't worth much so minimal wage keeps going up.
The main reason for their presentation was to state that the Chinese has come into Ghana and built businesses and refuse to allow the Ghana African from working in their businesses. The Chinese are hiring their own kid to come to Ghana and work in their establishments. The Chinese are also mating with the women of Ghana. In their presentation they stated that there is some corruption the the government in Ghana. Although the Chinese are not letting the citizens of Ghana work, they are paying the government for them being able to use the Ghana land for their business. Then it was also stated that Howard had a three day conference called Chinese in Africa, which they also stated that the Chinese were not employing. They ended with the Chinese  and other places like the United States being throughout Africa as a continent not just Ghana.
I think this was a good topic. I was not aware of the Chinese action in Ghana or any of the history, except their money wasn't worth much.

Miller Scholars Presentation

The miller scholars presented research on the factors of poverty mainly within the black community. There were different categories from, reproduction to lack of communication to lack of pride to substance abuse. In each category they gave a significant amount of information informing us of the problems and then following they gave a solution of each problem.
I think their presentation was very informative, but it was also obvious. Many things that they stated was common knowledge material. The reproduction aspect is a visual in everyday life. The good part about their solution was they weren't just trying to say use condoms not to get pregnant, but also to prevent from getting a STD. The lack of pride was, to me, the best factor because many people don't realize just how demeaning the word bitch really is. Men say it to women, women say it to women as an insult. Taking pride also connected with the black community lacking the proper education. Without education the black community is only able to see what is right before their eyes and what they "know" about slavery. There is more to their culture that they have not been exposed to due to lacking education, such as the accomplishments in Africa before the slave era.
All in all their research assignment was very informative for those who were not aware of the factors that cause people of the black community to be in poverty. Their was also a unity within the group that looked as if everyone had contributed and they also all spoke on the topic with confidence.

InterView( Dr. Harrell)- HU UKNO

HU UKNO interviewed Dr. Harrell for our research presentation. He contributed aspects that caused us to reevaluate some of our research in ways to organize it better and have other views. He also gave a reference of  book on Farel (completely isolated children) and his knowledge matched with the previous information that had been researched.. Here are the questions and Dr. Harrell's answers:

            

1. What are some characteristics of feral children?

• Retarded language
• Very hard for them to learn
• Characteristics are nearly permanent
• Samller and suffer from many diseases
• Mainly stay institutionalized
  2. How can you prevent them from acting a certain way?
• Find out what they like
• Usually no reasoning with them
  3. What is your view on children born in the wild?
• Not necessarily born there more like left and abandoned
• confusing for that child
• impossible to determine if there was a troubled pregnancy
  4. How can you help them to adopt to a human way of life?
• Do all you can
  Three key ingredients: empathy, warmth, and positive regard 
  5. What are the causes of lack of communication within the black children or the black community in general?
• Technological society is a risk

• Less human to human contact
• Things like music in black culture are bringing us together, but if that is lost then we lose communication with each other.
  6. Have you had contact with children that lack communication?
• Yes
• Question of them being able to work in groups
• Not a great increase

7. Whats your input on home school children

• Ease them into interaction with their peers
• Early interaction is very important

Question of if you teach academics or communication

8. Is social or acedemic communication more important?
• Social
• If you don't have social, academics could backfire.