| Celebration Of “Best African Country” Award |
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| Written by Laolu Akande | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, 21 September 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRIUMPHAL CELEBRATION OF “BEST AFRICAN COUNTRY” AWARD NEW YORK, New York, September 18, 2006 - An overflowing crowd of African guests and friends of Africa gathered this evening at the Tavern-on-the-Green in New York City, at the greatest triumphal celebration of the “Best African Country 2006 Award,” and the honoring of a great American who has contributed immensely to the upliftment of Africans in the Diaspora.  Present at the event were President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagascar, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), many African Ambassadors and others apart from Africa, as well as other dignitaries. This great evening started with a video message from the President of the World Bank, Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, with a congratulatory message to Dr. Chika Onyeani, Chair/CEO, Celebrate Africa Foundation and Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari, Chairman of the Annual Celebration and Awards Gala, for a great event. Professor Gambari is the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at the United Nations, who presided over the evening’s celebrations. Wallace Ford, Esq., Harvard Law School graduate, and former New York City Commissioner for Business Services and presently Principal of the consulting firm, Fordworks and Associates, was the Master of Ceremonies. Said Dr. Wolfowitz, “Although I am not there in person, I am with you in spirit since Africa will be the leading theme of our annual meeting in Singapore this week. I am glad to see Senegal selected this year as the Best African country. I have visited eleven African countries since I became President last year. So, I can tell you first hand that Africans are taking the lead in transforming Africa. They are accepting the challenges and making more effective use of aids. I found incredible energy, ambition and a sense of opportunity there. Reasons for hope and celebration abound.  Continued Dr. Wolfowitz, “Fifteen African countries, representing a third of the African population, have maintained a growth rate of about five percent since 1995. Foreign direct investment and exports are on the rise. Private debt and equity flows to Africa have risen nearly three-folds to nearly $30 billion. And there is a sense of stability as well. Six years ago, thirteen African countries were torn by war, but that number has declined to five. That’s five too many, but that’s much better than before.” “While all signs are encouraging,” said Dr. Wolfowitz, “Africa still remains the world’s biggest development challenges,” and went on to speak about the different problems facing the continent. A short outtake of the internationally award winning and acclaimed film, “Africa Open for Business,” and sponsored by the World Bank, was presented and shown by its producer and director, Ms. Carol Pineau, a former CNN reporter who has reported throughout the world. In accepting what he termed a “magnificent choice,” President Abdoulaye Wade said that he was very touched by the selection of his country as “The Best African Country for the Year 2006,” by the Celebrate Africa Foundation. He said that the choice of Senegal is a tribute to the cordial and fraternal relationships that the Senegalese people have cultivated not only amongst themselves, but with others throughout the world. Said the President, “Let me pay a since tribute to Celebrate Africa Foundation whose approach totally breaks away from afro-pessimism, always prompt to showing degrading images of our continent, while ignoring the diversity of its situations and positive developments achieved in an often hostile international environment.” Continued the President, “Awarding the Foundation’s prize to Senegal makes reference to its institutional stability, its religious tolerance, its observation of the rule of law and gender equality as a key to success. If I may, I would also add, in all modesty, its good economic performances,” to cheers of the crowd. He added, “But the political maturity of the Senegalese people is also sociological. If I lost presidential elections in 1978, to Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Catholic in a 95% majority Muslim country, it is truly because the Senegalese people had a very long time ago overcome and transcended ethnical-confessional cleavages,” (ethnical-religious differences). President Wade spoke of his new initiative in bringing together Africans and Africans in the Diaspora in a new Pan-Africanist Alliance, and how he was going to tour a lot of other countries, including the Caribbean, to explain this new Alliance, but added, “It is my innermost wish that Celebrate Africa foundation takes over this initiative and help to promote it for a speedy way forward toward the United States of Africa.”  Mr. Ted H. Jacobsen, Secretary of the Council of the New York City Central Labor Council and recipient of the “Humanitarian and Philanthropic Award,” said that he was accepting the award on behalf of the 444-affiliated local unions representing more than 1.5 million members of the Council, without which he would not have been able to do anything. “There is much I would like to say about the obligations of the old colonial powers, and all the major powers, to the countries they plundered of wealth and dignity, and to the World Bank, regarding forgiving indebtedness. The obverse of this reasoning, obviously, is the ability of each nation’s people to democratically and freely express their concerns and votes, for workers to be free to organize and express their views, and for the governments to safeguard human, political and religious rights and liberties, to defend democratic principles, to protect the environment and to protect the old, the young, the poor, the disenfranchised and the disabled.” Mr. Jacobsen, a titled chief in Nigeria, recalled his first meeting with Dr. Onyeani, when he first joined the Sub-Committee on Immigrants of the New York Central Labor Council’s Commission on the Dignity of Immigrants. “It was an easy connect to support Dr. Onyeani’s belief in Pan-Africanism and dedication to Mother Africa – a man of extraordinary vision, tireless industry and unlimited optimism – editor-in-chief of the African Sun Times, author, radio talk-show host, lecturer, husband, father, proud grandfather of a little girl, Ada, who dominates his every thought and being, and lover of his home country, Nigeria, and the continent of Africa.” Children from the T.R.U.C.E. school sang both the American and Senegalese National Anthems.
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Posted by Robot| 21.09.2006 01:06