Loomnie

CALL FOR PAPERS

Afro-Beat Journal (afro-beatjournal.org) is an new online journal, based out of NYU, devoted to the study of Global African artistic and cultural forms. It is an interactive, multimedia journal that will feature works on and the work of musicians, visual artists, painters, poets, and writers.

We invite scholars and practitioners to submit papers for the first issue of Afro-Beat Journal on the theme, “What is Afro-Beat?”… Although we take inspiration from the creative genius of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, our initial query is to open the dialogue between the various musical genres and their performative aspects. We welcome contributions that focus on the mediation of these musics from Afro-pop worldwide to Hip Hop, as disseminated through various media such as radio, TV, cable or other forms of performance including live concerts, festivals, and theatre. We also welcome contributions from musicians, visual artists, writers, and poets that will enhance and expand our initial thematic focus, as well as relevant media content files on their works or in the form of interviews or discussion forums.

All submissions must follow MLA guidelines and are due June 15th, 2009.
Please send all submissions and inquiries to the editors at:
editors@afro-beatjournal.org

Publishers may send books for review to Book Review Editor at:
reviews@afro-beatjournal.org

Sometime ago I wrote a post about my efforts to understand the Nigerian oil industry. Some Next reporters have done an article on their efforts to understand the industry. Nobody seems to know how much Nigerian exports, or how much it makes from oil:

Even a cursory check by NEXT has revealed that various agencies of our government give conflicting figures of how much oil we produce and sell.

The Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot agree on exactly what the numbers are.

And:

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, our state oil company which enters into joint ventures with the oil multinationals, even goes so far as to say on its website that it cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the sales figures it publishes.

The Central Bank, which receives the money on behalf of the Nigerian people, also would say nothing regarding the veracity of these numbers.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the industry regulator, makes the astonishing claim that it does not know the figures.

After more than two weeks of constant calls, text messages and email, the department’s acting director, Billy Agha, informed us through a spokesman that “we only corroborate what NNPC gives to us.”

Oil workers too do not know:

Even oil industry workers don’t have a clue. Peter Esele, former president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, says, “Whatever information that is gotten from the NNPC is from the producers.

“One thing is clear, DPR does not even have the capacity to undergo or even know the quantity of crude. They don’t have a meter, they don’t have a measuring meter. Now, if you go to NNPC, the figure is different, DPR’s is different, producers’ different, CBN is different. So you cannot really reconcile all this.” Esele for a time had served in NEITI.

Peter Akpatason, president National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, said: “Officially we don’t know. But we have access to the information each time we want to get them.

“But, it is not as if on daily basis, we get the figures. I’m sure you know that there is always discrepancy of some sort between what NNPC declares and what DPR declares.

“What somebody explained to us in DPR is that NNPC figure is taken at the point of production while DPR take theirs at the terminal.”

Really sad state of affairs. The full story is here.

… Amartya Sen’s piece, Capitalism Beyond the Crisis, at the New York Times Book Review of Books website. He defends Adam Smith, cautions about Keynes and re-introduces Cecil Pigou. Which kinda made me ask why there was no mention of Polanyi.

Iceland’s men wrecked the economy. Can women fix it?

Measuring the growth of new media.

The rise of the Beijing Consensus.

Why Time and Newsweek are not The Economist.

On the state of news magazines.

The Economist on South African elections.

Making ethics training ethnography-friendly.

The theme of the Canadian Association of African Studies conference that will hold between May 4 and May 7 reads:

Striving for community is at the heart of ubuntu, the African philosophy that stresses mutual obligations and responsibility. From far-flung kinship networks, artisan guilds and women’s informal associations to regional or pan-African political movements, Africans across the ages have looked to communities to give meaning to their lives and to resolve conflict or find protection. Community is also close to the heart of Africanist scholars and activists outside of Africa who seek to support each other and to express solidarity with African colleagues. Yet dysfunctional communities such as gangs, cliques, and tribalist groups have been a bane to efforts to develop and democratize. New media are rapidly changing the ways that communities cohere and the ways that scholars and activists relate and research them.

This is wrong on so many levels that I do not even know where to begin to write about it. Do I start by asking when Africa ? all 53 countries of it ? adopted Ubuntu as their philosophy, or by asking whose paternalistic point of view this is? Do I ask what the writer means by tribes? Or do I simply ignore that and ask what they mean by the sentence ?Yet dysfunctional communities such as gangs, cliques, and tribalist groups have been a bane to efforts to develop and democratize?? This statement in itself is full of so many presumptions ? for instance about development and democracy ? that to begin to unpack it would require an entire essay.

One would think that an association of people who study Africa(ns) would at least be a lot more sensitive than this, if not rid of these kinds of attitude. The sting becomes even more biting when one imagines that the writer could be advising some government agencies or development organizations. Is anyone then surprised that Africa is a country, that Africans live on trees, and that they are dying of starvation and/or AIDS?

The only consolation at this moment is that there is currently an on-going discussion on the listserv of the association.

Socialism has failed. Now capitalism is bankrupt. So what comes next? – Eric Hobsbawm

Chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association defends Swiss banking

Wale Adebanwi on Arab view of non-Arabs and non-Muslims

Is South Africa going the Zimbabwe way?

The Sarkozy view of other world leaders

Still on that Nigerian president’s health thing

… writes a blog that I enjoy so very much. It is hosted by www.234next.com Check it out.

Through the planet money podcast, I learnt about the way the American Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures private deposits in banks. A bank pays a certain premium to be insured by the FDIC, and private deposits up to 250,000 dollars are insured. If a bank that is insured by the FDIC goes bust, individuals who have up to 250,000 in the banks are paid back their money by the FDIC. Anything above that is not insured. Corporate deposits are also not insured by the FDIC. This got me thinking about the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation so I went over to their website to check it out, especially since there are currently talks about the state of Nigerian banks. Basically the same thing happens, only that the amount insured is only 50,000 naira (about 341 dollars). You can check out their website.

Danny Glover and Forest Whitaker become Igbo chiefs

Think capitalism is dead? The Pendulum Will Swing Back.

What happens if the Nigerian president dies?

Why do micro states flourish?

The Story of Nigerian ‘Untouchables’

Still on the Twitter craze

writing up. That is why it would seem that this blog has not had much attention in recent weeks. But whenever I can squeeze out some time I will definitely be over here. Otherwise, follow me on Twitter @loomnie

And one more thing, if you are an anthropologist, or if you have any remote interest in economic anthropology, you would gain so much by visiting and bookmarking Keith Hart‘s The Memory Bank.

Till soon.