Click above to watch interview of Lawrence Freeman by Rasheed Muhammad on August 9, 2024
In this interview, I detail the failure of Western policy towards Africa. The U.S. led “rules-based international order” has not delivered any tangible results to Africa nations. Their insistence on imposing their structures of democracy has not led to an improvement in the material standard of living of Africans. In fact, coups and protests against poverty, and hunger are spreading across the continent as a result of decades of failed Western policies. The removal of the U. S. from Niger is but one example. The protest by Kenya’s youth against the IMF dictated austerity policies is another. Violent extremist organizations, who recruit from desperate youths, are growing, and used to weaken the sovereignty of African nations.
China, who has an entirely different approach, one of economic development, has been maligned by the West. Lies about debt- trap diplomacy have been proven false, while Chinese investment in infrastructure has led to tangible economic results. The fulcrum of United States policy towards Africa is; to counter China, despite all the public claims to the contrary. I know this for a fact.
From watching this discussion, you will learn the fundamental tenets of the diseased ideology of the rules-based order.
Make sure you watch the last ten minutes of this discussion on how the United States is becoming the new Roman Empire as a result of its declining culture and abysmal education of its youth.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World.”
The absolute number of Africans living in poverty is increasing. Image courtesy of blogs.worldbank.org
July 19, 2024
I am frequently asked, why is US-Africa policy deficient in addressing the needs of Africans? On the African landmass over four hundred million people live in extreme poverty, making it the poorest continent in the world. Its total population is projected to expand to approximately two and a half billion people in the next quarter of a century. This portends global instability if the standard of living for hundreds of millions of Africans is not radically improved. The refusal of the United States to design policies to assist in the reduction of poverty in Africa may well turn out to be one of the biggest strategic blunders in U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century. To be honest, it is not just Africa, the U.S. is dangerously failing in its foreign policy throughout the globe.
The answer to the question cited above is clear and obvious to me, but I recognize that it may not be easy for others to grasp. It is the decline of American culture that is the cause of the current and impending disasters of U.S. foreign policy. As an American, who has been astutely politically engaged in the affairs of my country for over half a century, I can state with authority and certainty, American society has become decadent.
For conclusive proof, look no further than the June 27th U.S. Presidential debate between the presumptive nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties. Ignore the incompetent chatter from the media and pundits with their superficial analysis, and the “hot button” rhetoric that each candidate spewed out on a fixed number of topics. There were no presentations to the public with idea content. Both candidates failed the debate. What is glaringly absent from both candidates is a vision for America and more importantly, a vision for America’s leadership in a developing multi-polar world.
Throughout this campaign cycle, neither of the candidates, or anyone else in the Congress, has articulated anything resembling President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Grand Design” or President John Kennedy’s “New Frontier” and his initiative for humankind to explore space. Neither candidate has shown himself capable of articulating a new paradigm that would be transformative in improving conditions of life for Americans and all citizens living on our planet.
It is clear that since the deaths of Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, America has not produced a leader, who is also a statesmen with a true vision for the future of humankind. A reasonable question to ask is, why hasn’t America created such a leader? The answer may be difficult for some to digest. Americans have been dumbed down by our culture for over five decades. The beginning of our demise dates back to the second half of the 1960s, with the introduction of the “rock-sex-drug counterculture” following the assassination of President Kennedy and the decline of his space program.
No new ideas for the future of the human race. Image courtesy of Facebook.com
Citizens As President
The people who lead our nation emerge from citizens who compose our society. A degenerate culture will not generate qualified visionary leaders, much less statesmen. Hence, the U.S. is bereft of leaders capable of responding in this turbulent time of multiple crises.
In the better periods of Athenian culture, there was a belief that each citizen should be actively involved in contributing to the governing of their nation. They were expected to participate through reason and dialogue in determining the best policies for creating a better future for generations born and unborn. Some of our Founding Fathers, who studied Greek history were intent on founding a Republic, free from the domination of Empire, where individual citizens, not an unelected Oligarchy, would determine their future. The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution eloquently articulates the most essential principles to guide our newly created Republic. The creators of our Republic, emulating the best of Greek philosophy and culture, envisioned a population of citizen-leaders. It was intended that our citizens, though representing diverse sections and interests of our country, would nevertheless, through debate and discussion, guided by reason, decide the most propitious strategies for the development of our nation-state. However, for this to be accomplished our Founding Fathers knew the future of our Republic depended on, required, an educated citizenry. is Ideally, each citizen should be capable of strategic thinking, as if they were leading our Republic, as if they were in fact president.
The great Benjamin Franklin, upon leaving a session of the Constitutional Convention expressed this fundamental concern, in his pithy response to a question about the future of our country: “we have created a Republic, if you can keep it.” In other words, the only way the nation could survive was if the majority of its citizens were educated and informed, which is not the condition of Americans today.
The present threat to the very existence of the U.S., and the world, is in large part the absence of an educated American citizenry. Exactly as Franklin warned.
Development VS Poverty
For the last sixty years there has been no president with a commitment to partner with African nations to develop their economies. Worse, the very concept of development has all but vanished from our lexicon. Eliminating poverty and ending hunger in Africa is in the strategic interest of the U.S., and any qualified leader would know this, if their brain were functioning. The crisis facing us today, which we must address now, is the increase in poverty as the population of the African continent grows. Poverty is a major contributing cause to conflict, terrorism, alienation, rebellion, and coups. The greatest threat to civilization in this century, only second to nuclear war, is the spread of poverty across Africa.
Economic Development, including the right to electricity is a human right, which all human rights gr organizations and related NGOs fail to understand
Economic development is a fundamental human right. All the categories of hard and soft infrastructure, which are essential components for economic growth, should also be understood as essential human rights. The failure of the various mis-named human right organizations and NGOs to understand this elementary principle is scandalous. The perverted ideology of the “rules-based international order” that would like to impose its flawed constructs of democracy on the rest of the world will never achieve its purported aims. There will be no democracy when mothers are desperately searching for food to feed their children, and fathers are hustling each day to muster enough money for their families to survive. A productive, dignified, well-paying job is a human right. As is electricity, railroads, healthcare, and a home of adequate size to raise a family.
No one in the U.S. thinks like this. Why not? Because we no longer actually think, not in terms of profound idea-concepts.
As a result of the dumbing down of our citizens we have lost respect for human life; we no longer appreciate why human life is precious. The lack of understanding of the sacredness of human life, significantly contributes to the high rate of violence, murders, and mass shootings in the U.S.
We Are Humans, Not Yahoos
The crucial concept for understanding economic development, and for formulating fruitful foreign and domestic policy is knowing why human beings are noble. Let me briefly elucidate.
We human beings are unique and do not resemble any other animal species, because we are endowed with the spark of creativity. We humans, and only us humans, are born with the potential of creative thought. No animal has a creative imagination nor does any machine, computer, and nor does AI. As demonstrated by Socrates in Plato’s thought-provoking dialogues, the human mind’s ability to hypothesize new thoughts has no similarity with deductive or inductive logic. Human beings discover, hypothesizes new principles of the physical universe, perfecting our knowledge, but never reaching a final state of perfection. Through this constant but always improving process of perfection-knowledge, humankind acts on the universe for the advancement of the human species.
Socrates and Plato in front of the Academy of Athens, Greece. Image courtesy of reddit.com
This is the “secret” to the expansion of the human race over millions of years in harmony with the universe. Technological advancements derived from new human discoveries lead to transformations in society‘s economic mode of production, which creates the wealth necessary for sustaining more people and at a higher standard of living. This is a universal principle embedded in the physical universe, otherwise known as continual progress, resulting from human intervention. The great Ukrainian-Russian scientist, Vladimir Vernadsky, brilliantly discusses how the universe was transformed with emergence of homo sapiens-sapiens. This new “phase-space” of the universe, which incorporates human noetic activity, he called the noosphere. *
Society Got Dumbed Down
Let us now proceed to highlight several markers of the decline of American culture.
After reviewing the material below, it would not be unfair to suggest that America is on the pathway to becoming the new Roman Empire. This is not an academic observation. Our decaying culture directly affects how our foreign policy is conceived and implemented. This poses life and death questions for all nations, since the U.S. is still the dominant power in the world and possesses the largest nuclear arsenal.
At the risk of upsetting some of my friends, I am obligated to examine the most glaring elements contributing to our depraved culture, if we are going to understand the root cause for the tragedy of U.S. policy.
Following our successful American revolution from the most powerful oligarchy on the planet, the British Empire, the framers of our Republic wisely outlawed all forms of nobility or aristocracy. Yet today, in America, the fixation and idolization of Hollywood and sports celebrities has seeped in and corrupted our society. We have produced a new form of royalty. Every day, thousands of words are written, reporting on the latest gossip on the lives and lifestyle of celebrities. Who is breaking up with whom, who is dating whom, what house or car, or yacht they bought or sold, what clothes they wear or do not wear, saturates all media platforms. And what these people say, or who they support has become all important, not due to any superior intelligence, but simply because of who they are, their wealth, and their glitzy lifestyle. It has become almost as obscene as the obsession that British subjects have in their fawning over the extended Royal Family.
The phenomenal rise of spectator sports is also having a debilitating effect on our society. In the growth of children through adolescence, sports have a positive function. Team sports help youth to work together for a common goal, share a camaraderie, as well as learning to accept defeat. Sports in general helps develop hand-eye coordination and contribute to the healthy physical growth of men and women. Physical activity also helps us to be active and slow down the aging process as we live longer productive lives.
Fans erupting at an earlier Superbowl. Courtesy of bleacherreport.com
Not so with spectator sports, where grown men and women, spend hundreds of millions of hours watching others perform, either in front of a television or in person at a stadium. For example, each Sunday, over 21 million people watch football games, sometimes for the entire day. That does not include games played during the work week. Another 18 million attended in person at 256 football games played during the regular season. Close to 124 million watched the last Super Bowl. Almost as pitiful, is the day following a football game, when men, and women, young and old, spend hours zealously discussing the best and worst performances from the day before.
Instead of assuming responsibility for the future of our nation, deliberating on the profound issues confronting civilization, many, if not the majority of our citizens, respond to politics as rowdy spectators in a sports stadium, or worse, the Roman Colosseum.
Legalized gambling has become a key feature of our decadent society and has also expanded in recent years. In 2024, 68 million Americans bet a total of $23 billion on the Super Bowl. Almost a 50% increase from the year before. Americans wagered just short of $120 billion on sports in 2023, more than a 25% increase over what was waged in 2022. This is due to the expansion of organized betting via the internet, which became legal in 2018. In casinos, existing in 44 states, total revenues generated from slot machines, sports betting, and IGaming was more than $66 billion in 2023.
Winning big gambling in America, 2023. Courtesy of linkedin.com
Lotteries, legalized in the 1970s, became popular for people who thought they could win “big” to supplement their inadequate incomes. Essentially taxing themselves for the dream of becoming rich. Today, 45 states and our nation’s capital have lotteries, where over $113 billion is wagered, producing $37 billion in revenues for local governments.
Lotteries in 25 states directly fund K-12 public education. Maryland lotteries have been a source of revenue for public education for decades and are a line item in the state’s budget for anticipated income. Maryland, where I live, helps fund its Pre-K-12 school budget of $9.2 billion, with $622.7 million in revenue from the state’s casinos and $714 million from the lottery.
Funding the education of children, arguably the most vital task of society, depends on gambling! Are we not the modern-day replica of the Roman Empire, and behaving in a manner that will lead us to suffer the same fate?
This brings me to the subject of education.
Crisis in Education
It is hard to think of any other feature of American society that more categorically demonstrates the decline of our culture than the failure to educate our youth. The very existence of our Republic depends on quality public education from early childhood through high school and should include at least two years of community college. Is there a more important task of society than to guarantee that our youth, who will be our leaders of tomorrow, will be mature thinking adults? Our elementary school children, who in one generation, will be, or should be, in positions of leadership, guiding our nation for future generations. There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that they will not be prepared.
A report released earlier this year analyzed the reading levels of third graders. It found that only one third of the students had basic reading skills. This is especially worrisome because the operating theory is that from kindergarten through second grade, students learn to read, and from third grade forward, they read to learn. Without rudimentary reading skills, the child’s intellectual growth will be seriously impeded and will suffer from a lack of development of their creative imagination.
A study in 2011 found 91% of children ages 2-17, palyed video games-64 million youth. And that was over a decade ago. Image courtesy of yahoo.com
Educating America’s youth has become more challenging with the rampant watching of videos and playing video games, readily available on smart phones and tablets. As a substitute elementary school teacher for four years, I was shocked to learn the excessive number of hours each day that students spent on their devices. i.e., screen time. It often exceeded five hours per day, compared to one hour or less of reading a book. The video culture and an obscene amount of time spent playing games on a screen is rotting out the brains of our youth. I discovered that thoughtful concerned parents not only limited screen time to a fixed number of hours per day/week, and in some cases even refused to allow their child to have a tablet until they graduated middle school.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends no screentime for children under two years of age, and a limit of one hour per day of high quality programming for children ages two to five years.
According to UNICEF, too much screen time can have negative effects on babies and toddlers including a shorter attention span, lower empathy, reduced ability to control impulses, and hindering their imagination and motivation
The Enemy Within
One cannot ignore the effects on society of the violence prevalent in today’s music, video games, and television. The rise of the video culture, the legalizing of drugs, and the de-emphasis of classical music, art, and literature, whose intent is to nurture creativity, is producing a population that is far short of the educated citizenry envisioned by the founders of our Republic. One hopes that the extreme severity of our current political-cultural crisis will produce the potential for new leadership committed to a cultural Renaissance. My recent visit to Italy and Greece, renews my faith that such a human inspired miracle is possible.
The author is at the Agora in Athens sanding between statue of Socrates, left (470-399 bce) and a statue of Confucius, right ( 551-479 bce ). Both philosophers, who influenced cultural and politics for humankind for over two millennium into the present.
The extremists of the “rules-based international order” attempt to whip up the population (somewhat successfully) that our way of life is threatened to be overcome by the rise of Russia and China. The truth of the matter is, we are destroying ourselves from within. We are committing acts of menticide against ourselves, especially our youth, willingly, if not out of ignorance.
We are living in unsettling times fraught with the potential of new and dangerous crises. Between now and the end of this year, civilization will be tested. Let us hope that we possess enough wisdom to survive, and eventually flourish in a paradigm based on global economic development.
*Much more can be discussed on this subject.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World.”
Discussion between Lawrence Freeman and Rasheed Muhammad on October 2, 2023
October 14, 2023
Watch my one hour dialogue above for a no-holds barred provocative conversation. We discussed the underlying causes for the social-political-moral-economic collapse of the ”rules-based order,” which is threatening the world today.
Western leaders are incompetent, to be diplomatic, and dangerous to be frank. The essence of their geopolitical ideology that drives U.S. and Western policy, is the false view that our planet and we human beings are unchanging. This leads the foolish followers of this perverted ideology to view political relations between nations in terms of winners and losers in a “zero-sum” mentality.
However, as we discuss in the interview above, at the inner core of this belief structure is a Malthusian conviction that there are too many people in the world. Thus, population reduction, eliminating human beings, is at the root of their creed. Their anti-economic growth policy towards the developing sector, now referred to as the Global South, is an extension of their racist and imperialist view, that people of color should be eliminated first. Under the (popular) deception of protecting our planet, this arrogant Caucasian pollical-financial elite, demands that the Global South not be allowed to develop their own abundant natural resources to produce electricity. The absence of electrical power, and other categories of vital infrastructure on the African continent, kills Africans every day. This absolute refusal to allow, and assist nations to develop their economies, nakedly exposes their view, that the “lower class” of poor people living in less developed nations are expendable.
The Western dominated “rules based order” refuses to understand that economic development is the most fundamental human right. Rather, they are predisposed to “regime-change” against any leader who resists their diktats. Tragically, the U.S. has lost the vision of developing Africa since the death of President John Kennedy. All honest and informed Africa experts know there is no meaningful US-Africa policy, except to counter China. Despite many visits by Biden administration officials to Africa, there is no concrete commitment to real economic development.
Another important portion of our discussion centered on education. The failure of U.S. elected officials, from both parties, to sound the alarm about the crisis of public education in the U.S., should be considered an impeachable offense. Children should be taught how to read from first to third grade, and from fourth grade on, they read to learn. The majority of children in the U.S. have not mastered basic reading skills by the time they enter fourth grade. This is the equivalent of a five-alarm fire and no leader in the U.S. has pulled the handle in the fire alarm box. U.S. failure to adequately address the education of our youth, forbodes ill for the U.S. twenty years from now, when these children are grown-up, and expected to lead our country. And yet, local, and federal governments consistently ignore the glaring needs of teachers and their students.
The important subject of our dialogue that bears directly on a nation’s political-economic future goes beyond the common notion of education. Creativity, the potential of creative mentation, which is innate in every child, is the antidote to the warped geopolitical “zero-sum game” mind-set. Human beings, uniquely endowed with the power to hypothesize and discover the principles (not rules) that govern our physical universe, and create the conditions for the development of our planet. Nothing is fixed or static, potential growth is omnipresent. There is no “zero-sum.” With the intervention of humankind, our universe develops and expands. All nations have the same common shared goals for their citizens: satisfying their material needs and nurturing their creative imagination. Once this distinctive quality of human beings is understood, the entire edifice supporting the dogmas of Malthusianism and the “rules based order” crumbles.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com
I present below a new paper by the China Africa Research Institute (CARI) and remarks by Marie Korsaga, an astrophysicist from Burkina Faso. The common theme binding these two presentations is the importance of space technology and science education for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Not discussed by the two authors is the essential understanding that scientific discovery is the true source of economic wealth, contrary to the foolish views that Africa’s wealth is measured by the quantities of mineral resources found underground. The mind with its innate ability to hypothesize, to discover new physical principles, if imperfectly, is the underlying wellspring of progress for humankind. African nations expanding their involvement in space exploration are making an invaluable contribution to their future. Africa’s education of its large and growing youth population in science should be a source of hope, antithetical to Thomas Malthus’ evil over-population claptrap I will be posting an article on this in the near future.
Dr. MARIE KORSAGA* I am an astrophysicist and originally from Burkina Faso. My research focuses on the distribution of dark matter, and visible matter in galaxies. In simple terms, it must be said that visible matter, that is to say, ordinary matter made up of protons, neutrons, electrons, everything that is observable with our devices, represents only about 5% of the universe — the rest is invisible matter, distribute as follows: 26% dark matter and 68% dark energy.
Dark matter, with its gravitational force is used to explain the fact that galaxies remain close to each other, while dark energy causes the universe to expand faster over time. So we cannot speak of understanding the universe if we only know about 5% of its constituents. So, to understand our universe, that is to say, to be able to account for its formation and evolution, it is essential to understand what dark matter and dark energy are.
Dark matter, as its name suggests, is something that you cannot see with even the most sophisticated telescopes. So far, no dark matter particles have ever been detected, nevertheless, we feel its presence thanks to its impact on gravity. The purpose of my research is to study how dark matter is distributed inside galaxies in order to better understand the formation and evolution of our universe, and therefore, the origin of life on Earth.
Beyond my research, I am interested in the development side of astronomy in Africa. For this, I work at the Office of Astronomy for Development on a project which consists in using astronomy as a factor of development almost everywhere in the world, but especially in the developing countries, by supporting projects related to education, educational tourism and so on.
Speaking of education, it is important to remember that according to the African Union, Africa has the youngest population in the world, with more than 40% of its young people under the age of 15, which will produce a demographic explosion in the next 10 years. This population growth has disadvantages, but also advantages. The downside is that if measures are not taken, such as access to quality education for boys and girls, especially in science, these young people, instead of becoming a source of development for the continent, risk, rather to be a source of socio-economic political instability and conflict, which will further plunge the continent into misery.
However, the advantage of this population growth is that through a well-developed education system, this demographic growth, if accompanied by strong measures both on the side of public policies and the private sector, will be a great source of sustainable development, at the economic and political level of the continent. For this, it is very important to make significant investments in the field of education, with a focus on innovation, science and technology.
It should be noted that today, African graduates mainly graduate from the literary and human sciences fields. STEM students — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — represent only 25% of the workforce on average, according to the World Bank. In addition, women are underrepresented in these areas. Take my case: I am the first woman to obtain a doctorate in astrophysics in Burkina, and even in West Africa. It may sound flattering, but it reveals a rather disturbing diagnosis, despite being a light of hope. Indeed, even if the region has a dozen doctorates in the field, there are almost no women among them.
Unfortunately, this shows that we are still a long way from achieving gender parity in science, and there is still much to do. This requires a change in mentalities and the accessibility of science to women, especially among the underprivileged. It is not unknown that a career in astrophysics requires a course in physics, which is not obvious for women in our societies where the majority of people think that the scientific fields are dedicated to men, and that women must go to the literary streams. This has the effect of discouraging women from opting for long studies, especially in the scientific fields, and even if they opt for them, they tend to give up at the first obstacles, due to the lack of encouragement.
Today, I can say that I have broken this barrier, at my level, and I would like to take advantage of the privilege to inspire and encourage as many young girls as I can, to opt for it.
It is true that today there are efforts being made by several governments to break these stereotypes with, for example, the NEF, the Next Einstein Forum in Rwanda, which is a platform for popularizing science, and which offers opportunities for students through scholarships of the network of women in science, called OWSD, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, which gives opportunities to girls and women in STEM fields.
However, there is still a lot to do, because the representation of women in science is far from being reached. Beyond research, I intend to contribute to the training of young people in science in Burkina Faso, and in Africa in general, by giving courses at universities, and also supervising masters and PhD students. I also plan to take action to popularize science education in general, and astrophysics in particular in countries where access to science is limited. This will serve to motivate young girls and boys, especially young girls, to take up scientific studies. There are also other future actions that I plan to undertake, in collaboration with other researchers, namely the establishment of scientific schools in Africa, particularly dedicated to women; the organization of workshops to enable female scientists to speak about their inspiring work, and cultivate self-confidence. The creation of an astronomy club for children, etc.
In addition to being fascinating as a science, astronomy can also be used as a development tool through, for example, education and tourism. The International Astronomical Union understands this and is making a lot of effort to address this development component in developing countries, and working to achieve a Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.
The typical example, in Sub-Saharan Africa is the case of South Africa, where the installation of telescopes in localities has not only facilitated the popularization of science and the creation of jobs for young people, but also has boosted the economy, and the development of infrastructure in these localities.
The current context in which we, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, reminds us of how important science must occupy our lives and our education system. This importance must convince the African authorities that it is more than necessary to devote a large part of national budgets to the support and the promotion of studies and of scientific research, because investment in human capital remains a secure means for the growth of a country. Above all, we must understand that to get our continent out of underdevelopment, we will have to review our way of executing these programs, focusing on education, training in science, technology, and innovation, especially space science, could not only increase our human potential, which is a source of sustainable development, but also enable the management of our natural resources and thus impact the economy in the continent.
Africa has an immense amount of natural resources, essential to the development of industry. It is necessary to arrive at a point where these resources are exploited, first for its development, by women and men trained on the continent and with compatible techniques.
Thank you for offering me the opportunity to share my thoughts on the necessity of education in science in Africa.
*Unedited remarks delivered to an international online conference organized by the Schiller Institute, April 25-26, 2020
