"SAUDI ARABIA IS WORRIED ABOUT THE BOOM IN THE AMERICA'S DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION"

Outspoken Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is worried that the Persian Gulf state, which is the world's largest oil exporter, is too dependent on petroleum and that it needs to take the threat posed by the boom in U.S. production seriously.

According to Reuters, Alwaleed, who's a major investor in U.S. stocks, voiced his concerns in an open letter to Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi that he published via his Twitter account. Saudi Arabia's heavy dependence on oil has "become a source of worry to many," the news service quotes his letter as saying.

It's easy to understand why.

Although the Saudi government is trying to diversify the kingdom's economy, its dependence on oil is near absolute. The CIA's World Factbookestimates that the country's petroleum sector accounts for roughly 80% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP and 90% of export earnings. Saudi Arabia should boost development of solar and nuclear energy so it can reduce its domestic use of oil, Alwaleed said.

He warned that because of the growth in U.S. supply, the kingdom won't be able to raise its production capacity as planned to 15 million barrels of oil per day. Earlier efforts to increase capacity were delayed by the worldwide economic crisis.

Companies have been able to recover much more oil in the U.S. than experts had expected just a few years ago, thanks to the controversial practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The results have been remarkable.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said monthly domestic oil production is forecast to exceed 8 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2014, its highest level since 1988. Net crude oil imports are expected to fall below 7 million barrels during that period, the first time that has happened since 1995.

International Energy Agency executive director Maria van der Hoeven told National Public Radio that the boom in North American production is sending ripples "throughout the world." She said this output has set off a "supply shock," and the U.S. should scrap the Export Administration Act of 1979 which restricts the sale of U.S. crude to Canada and Mexico. 

OPEC has begun studying the impact of the growth in U.S. oil supplies on its member states. The cartel might want to pick up the pace on that work, with or without Prince Alwaleed's urging - From the MSN Money.

"THE 1,000 MAJOR REASONS WHY NIGERIANS SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR PRESIDENT JONATHAN GOODLUCK IN 2015?

The supporters of President Jonathan Goodluck claim loudly, boldly and openly that Mr. President is moving Nigeria forward on the path of development, prosperity and future greatness, This claim is not true and sincere in all truth, honesty and reality. Nigeria's foreign debt has increased by about $14 billion or 37% of the current debt under the presidency of JEG. Nigeria has now returned to a life of more borrowing under GEJ from the World Bank, Paris Club, African Development Bank, Islamic Bank and the rising China. The prices of petroleum products are up under the watch of JEG. The national wages of Nigerian workers are stagnant despite yearly increase in the inflation rate and the depreciation of the Nigerian Naira against the American dollar. Many state governments have refused to pay the poverty wage of N18,000 a month to their workers despite the tens of billion of Naira that they collect from Abuja every month. The poverty rate in Nigeria is now the highest in the history of Nigeria since her independence from Britain. About 80% or 112 million Nigerians out of 160 million Nigerians live on $1 to $2 a day.

 The youth unemployment rate in Nigeria is now 23%. The middle class remains insignificant and it is still heavily limited to the oil and the IT sectors. There is no visible aggressive or any active prosecution of the corrupt cases against the former or the serving public officials under the watch of GEJ. The insecurity of life and properties as well as the terrorism of the Boko Haram are well and alive under GEJ. Electricity is still a national problem. There is no expansion of our inadequate social services. The government officials and their family members go abroad with our tax payers' money for every health issue they face and leaving behind the tens of millions of other Nigerians helpless and hopeless about their own health issues. Our national infrastructures today in 2013 are still in their bad shape. Does Jonathan Ebele Goodluck truly deserve another four years as the Nigerian President? Will Nigerians vote rightly in 2015 or not? Time will surely tell

"THE 7 WAYS THAT CHRISTIANS ARE TREATED AS SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS IN NIGERIA" - AYO ORITSEJAFOR

The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who was recently re-elected for a second term as leader of the Christian body spoke on a wide variety of issues with the Vanguard newspaper in an interview.

During the interview he stated that a major goal of his is to ensure that Christians in Nigeria “are treated as true citizens of the country.” His interviewer immediately asked for some substantiation to what he said. “In what ways are Christians treated as second class citizens,” he was asked.

“Actually, in my opinion, Christians are being treated as second class citizens in virtually every way! Let me give you some examples because if I begin to tell you everything, you will not even have space to publish it,” said Oritsejafor.

Then he listed these 7 examples:

1. In the education sector, Almajiri schools are being built everywhere in many states of the North. I don’t know how many of such schools, but everybody knows that in 2012, the Federal Government spent N5 billion to construct Almajiri schools.

The Almajiri schools are exclusively for Muslim children. There are millions of Christian children who cannot go to those schools. How are we giving those Christian children the same opportunity to be educated?  So automatically they have been made second class citizens.

Don’t forget that the schools which Christians used their money to build  were  taken over by government and the same government is using public funds to build special schools for Almajiri Muslims. That shows that Christians are just second class citizens.

Government is running all those schools taken from Christians the way they want. Both Christians and Muslims go to those schools but the Almajiri schools are exclusively for Muslim children only.

2. When you go to the judiciary, it is the same story.

I read what a lawyer, Mr.  Olisa Agbakoba, said in the newspapers recently. He noted that the constitution is being reviewed and there are provisions for Sharia for Nigerian Muslims, there is customary court, what is the provision for Christians? The general courts are shared by both Christians and Muslims. When Christians have very knotty issues that are purely Christian in nature, where will they go to? The regular courts may not have  clear solution to such cases. So Agbakoba has come out to say he may sue the Federal Government and the National Assembly. This, to me, is a very interesting move. I just hope that our Muslim brothers will appreciate what I am trying to explain. In the Sharia courts which are funded with public funds, only Muslims are employed there.

From the cleaner to the judge, no Christian can be employed in the Sharia court. In the regular courts, there are both Muslims and Christians as well. From the lowest level of the court, to the highest level, they are there. They are the ones that head the Supreme Court and most of the courts with the Sharia court exclusively for them. What is the judicial system for Christians? It is not there, so they are second class.

3. Go to the government owned media houses and see what is happening there, especially the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA). I don’t know now because some of them retired at a point, but, before their retirement, the seven directors out of eight were Muslims. Turn that around and see what will happen. What do you call that? Second class citizens.

Let me even go further, if I go to NTA Sokoto today and say here is my money, I want to preach on NTA that is funded with tax payers’ money, they will throw my money away and say you cannot preach Christianity on NTA Sokoto.

4. A judge in Abuja came out to say Islamic banking is illegal, but he added a caveat  by saying that his hands were tight, he could not  do anything about it because it was not the right people that came to court. I am still wondering who the right people to come to court are!  But the important thing he said was that Islamic banking is illegal.

It is illegal but it is functioning at its peak, established and financed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), not Central Bank of Islam. The Governor of the CBN almost seems to be working for a section of the country and nobody can say anything about it.  Yet it is something that  is supposed to be illegal.

What the CBN ought to have done was to have one unified system for non-interest banking, but, instead of doing that, what it did is to specifically come out with a set of guidelines for Islamic banking, saying they had another set of guidelines for others. And who are these others? They are the Christians. It is amazing when you see these things happening. Every area you look at, it is the same story.

5. Go to higher institutions of higher, especially in the North, there are courses that Christians will never be offered admission to study, that is if you even get admission at all because you are a Christian and that automatically makes you a second class person.

You recall how a Christian was rejected for appointment as the Vice Chancellor of  Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria some years back even when he emerged as the most qualified during the interview for the position.

In some northern states, the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) in public schools is prohibited. Why do you allow for the teaching of Islamic studies, but you cannot allow the teaching of CRK? I am puzzled.

6. We know that in some of the northern states, there is an unwritten law that you cannot sell land or building to be used for church or a brothel. So the church and brothel are put on the same level! How do you describe that?  In the last 20 years, there is no church in some of these northern states that has Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

This is one Nigeria, but it is like animal farm. Some animals are more equals than others. That is what we are seeing in this wonderful country called Nigeria.

In some of the northern states, the government spends millions of naira to sponsor Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca without extending same gesture to Christians who are even indigenes of those states.

We are aware that in some of the far northern states, foreigners, who are Muslims from Niger  and Chad republics, are more accommodated and are accepted into the scheme of things than Nigerians who are Christians from other states of the federation.

7. They can abduct your daughter and forcefully marry her. They literally kidnapped people’s daughters who are Christians and give them out for marriage but they will never allow their daughters to marry Christians. Imagine a pastor going to abduct an Imam’s daughter; do you think we will still have one Nigeria? From the www.scooping.com/

"GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S ACQUITTAL:A TRIAL THAT DIVIDED AMERICA"

The acquittal of George Zimmerman in his murder trial by the Florida jury over the killing of the 17 years old black boy, Trayvon Martin has now joined the list of the important national issues that have divided Americans into two different camps. Every facet of the American society today is divided over this murder trial and the final acquittal of George Zimmerman by the Florida jury. This trial has divided the entire news media, bloggers, radio talk shows, opinion makers and the talking heads on the popular cable televisions into two separate camps. The social networking sites, the Facebook, Twitter and the rest are also divided over this acquittal, with one side standing up with George Zimmerman and the other side backing Trayvon Martin. The six-women jury that decided the final fate of George Zimmerman by acquitting him of both the manslaughter charge as well as the second degree murder charge are now heavily divided today over their unanimous decision to free this accused murderer. The public opinion in America is also heavily divided today across the 50 states over this trial and the final acquittal of George Zimmerman. 

The massive protests and the rallies that followed this acquittal immediately it was announced across the major cities of America showed clearly that Americans from all the races, ethnic groups, ages, national origins, religious faiths and genders are all divided over this acquittal. The well attended protests that were held a week later in front of the federal courts in over 100 plus major cities across America showed a big line of division over the acquittal of George Zimmerman. The members of the United States Congress were equally divided over this acquittal. The over one million plus signatures from Americans that were collected by the NAACP in less than 24 hours after the acquittal Of George Zimmerman and were forwarded to the Federal Justice Department to carry out its own investigation on George Zimmerman for possible civil rights and hate crime violations showed the division in America today over the acquittal of George Zimmerman. The White House was also involved with the acquittal of George Zimmerman with the statement that President Barack Obama released the night of the acquittal of George Zimmerman and his unannounced race relations speech that followed few days later.

This deep division in America today points to a nation that is not yet a color-blind society or a perfect union of the different human races in one society of equality. This division has also opened up the old wounds of the brutal history of the racial injustices in America in 2013. This division also points directly to a criminal justice system that is still one-sided in the delivery of its justice. A justice system that puts the color of the skin of an American above the available legal evidences. This division over the acquittal of George Zimmerman also pointed further to the visible evidences of over-arresting, over-trial, over-sentencing and over-incarceration of the people of color in America today by this criminal justice system. The Americans today and the Americans yet to be born will all continue to be divided over the trial and the final acquittal of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin for many, many years to come.

"SEPARATE BUT UNEQUAL REPLACES INTEGRATION WITHOUT EQUALITY IN AMERICA"

The civil rights movement in America achieved its desired objective of the integration of the white and the black Americans together in the same society by overcoming the decades of the established racial segregation. This integration can be seen today across the United States, in public housing, restaurants, bars, shopping malls, public transportation systems, United States military, media world, health care accessibility, employment, neighborhoods,  workplaces, sports and sporting events, public functions, religions, inter-racial marriages, professional associations, entertainment industry, arts, science, corporate America, educational system, public places and facilities. This is a major milestone of achievement in the political evolution in America today as a society that first started with the slavery of the blacks which was then later transformed into the Jim Crow laws or the racial segregation that became the law of the land in the Southern United States after the official end of this slavery system in 1865.

Has this racial integration in America today produced a new American society that has equality of the white and the black Americans as far as the access to the American Dream or to the American opportunities are concerned? This integration has also produced two types of Americans that live together in one. The white American is rich and educated and the black America is still poor and does not have the same level of the education of the white Americans today in 2013. There are fewer black Americans with the undergraduate and the advanced degrees, in every profession, in the membership of professional or academic bodies, in private businesses, in public offices and in the corporate America in 2013. There are more black Americans who are today unemployed, dropping out of the high schools, in the prisons, on paroles or court supervisions, living below the poverty level and in the public assisted programs than the white Americans today after almost 50 years of this integration of the two races together in America. 

How can the black Americans overcome this economic inequality in the American society that is now integrated? What is the practical way forward for the black Americans to bridge these visible, but mammoth economic disparities in America? How can this huge economic gap be closed that came directly from the centuries of slavery, racial segregation and economic injustice that the black Americans have suffered in America? The practical answer to this lack of economic equality is not far-fetched from America, but has its solution in one-word that is called "education." This education is my own judgement is the strongest intellectual weapon that is physically available to the black Americans today that can help them to practically bridge this huge disparity gap that the integration that came out directly from the civil rights movement can never achieved alone in America by itself. I will conclude this article with the words of Nelson Mandela of South Africa:“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”

"THE TWO GREATEST FORCES THAT MAY LIKELY SHAPE THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA"

Nigeria faces a very bleak future without her oil revenue that comes in on the daily basis into the federal government coffers. About 90% of the Nigeria's foreign exchange earning comes directly from this oil alone. The nation's entire financial life or security and her entire future are all solidly built on oil export since the 1960s when this oil was first discovered in the commercial quantity in Nigeria in the Niger Delta region. 

For the last 45 years, Nigeria has made hundreds of billions of the American dollar from her oil sales only as revenues according to the data from the western financial institutions. The same western monetary agencies also claimed that more than $300-$400 billion of this oil revenue have either been siphoned away by the past and the present Nigeria's leaders as well as her top government officials or mostly mismanaged over the last few decades. Today in 2013 in Nigeria, there is nothing physically present on the ground in Nigeria to truly justify these enormous oil wealth and the huge yearly revenues from this oil in all reality, truth and honesty.

Today, about 80% of all Nigerians are living in abject poverty and they survive daily on $1-$2 a day living budget or expenses. The unemployment rate has reached over 23% amongst the youths. This has left behind millions of young college-educated Nigerians without any possibility or hope for any future employment opportunities or a better future.

Furthermore, tens of millions of the ordinary Nigerian workers in both the private and the government sectors of the Nigeria's workforce earn poverty wages that will never allow them to practically meet all their basic human needs in this life. The Nigeria's present national infrastructures, education systems, health care facilities and her social services are all very old, over stressed, outdated, inadequate and collapsing.

The national population of Nigeria stands at around 160 million citizens and residents in 2012. Nigeria's population is rapidly growing at an annual rate of 3.2%. This population is expected to hit about 400 million persons by the year 2050 when the global oil experts expected the Nigeria's present oil reserves (onshore and offshore) that currently stand at about 38 billion untapped barrels of oil to be completely depleted at the current rate of exploration that stands at 2.5 million barrels of oil a day or 1 billion barrels of oil a year.

The oil in Nigeria today has never benefited the ordinary Nigerians, but only the nation's top elites (serving and retired military generals, serving and retired security chiefs, politicians, public elected officials, their families and cronies, as well as the retired and the serving top government officials).

In conclusion: Can Nigeria survive her future without this oil revenue that comes in on the daily basis and in the midst of her current uncontrollable national population growth and explosion? Time is fast running out against Nigerian nation that has refused through her corrupt and mediocre leadership for the last 50 years to manage her oil revenues properly and to invest this oil wealth wisely for the betterment of all Nigerians as well as the establishment of a national policy that will control her rapidly growing national population for a better future for all Nigerians. Are Nigeria's present leaders aware of these two unavoidable major events of the future? At the moment these leaders are all very busy stealing and mismanaging the leftovers from this oil revenue that is depleting rapidly. Once beaten, twice shy. Time will surely tell.

"THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A DEPRECIATING NIGERIAN NAIRA"

The international exchange rate of the Nigerian currency (the Naira) against the American dollar which is the world's only major international currency reserve since 1970 will have a very serious economic implications either domestically or internationally in a country like Nigeria that is almost a 100% consuming economy and nearly a 100% importing nation for all her much needed goods and services. Any major depreciation in the value of the Nigerian Naira against the U.S. dollar will immediately have a direct and a deadly impacts on the entire Nigerian economy and on the daily life of Nigerians in Nigeria. A strong Naira against the U.S. dollar is a sign of a healthy and a strong economy in Nigeria and the opposite parameters imply a weak and a failing Nigerian national economy. What then are the real practical economic implications of a weak and a failing Nigerian Naira in all reality?

Nigeria as a country cannot operate internationally without the American dollar or without using the American dollar as her major or main international currency. The Nigeria's oil is sold in the American dollar in the international oil markets around the world. The Nigeria's foreign reserves are maintained in the American dollar. Nigeria imports all her goods in the American dollar. Nigeria pays for all her foreign services in the American dollar. Nigeria borrows money from the World Bank, Paris Club, African Development Bank and the rising China in the American dollar. Nigeria's foreign debt is dollar rated and the payment is also done in the American dollar. Millions of Nigerians who travel regularly to the different nations of the world on visiting, tourism and business trips use the American dollar as their primary currency for the basic traveling allowances they need and to also pay for their own foreign living expenses. The tens of thousands of the Nigerian students that are studying in the foreign nations pay their tuition fees and living expenses mainly in the American dollar. The prices of all the imported goods and services that are sold to the 160 million Nigerians are priced in the American dollar.

A weak and a rapidly depreciating Nigerian Naira means that our nation's foreign debt will rise or grow rapidly by pushing us into more debts that will be too difficult or almost impossible to repay back to our foreign creditors. A failing Nigerian Naira means that the prices of all the goods and services imported into Nigerian that Nigerians need daily with rise. A collapsing Nigerian Naira means that poverty will grow rapidly in Nigeria, inflation rate will skyrocket, the purchasing power of the Nigerians will drop as well their standards of living. A weak Nigerian Naira means that more Nigerian workers will fall into the realm of poverty wages. A dropping Nigerian Naira will encourage more brain drain of the Nigerian professionals abroad and more Nigerians will also become economic refugees in our neighboring countries. A worthless Nigerian Naira means that the social crises will escalates in Nigeria alongside with rising the crime rate. A failing Nigerian Naira will push Nigeria further as a failing nation in all truth, honesty and reality.

"THE NIGERIAN NAIRA FACES A BLEAK FUTURE"

The Central Bank of Nigeria has constantly intervened to save the international exchange rate of the Nigerian Naira against the US dollar by using the Nigerian foreign reserves as the Naira's shock absorber. Is this crude and outdated economic approach or policy of the Nigerian government truly sustainable in all truth, honesty and reality? Is this financial method the best practical solution to save the Naira from further collapsing in its exchange rate value internationally? How can Naira be saved and sustained for a long time by the Nigerian government?

The truth is that the Central Bank of Nigeria cannot successfully save the Naira for a very long time to come with its present intervention approach. The economic reality on the ground is that rapid increase in the international demand for the Nigeria's goods and services are the only viable practical ways to have a strong Naira now and in the future in Nigeria. The only product today that Nigeria has, produces and sells to the world is her oil and the United States has remained one of the most reliable buyers of this oil for decades until the recent sudden shift by the America from the Nigeria's oil to her own vast reserves of her untapped oil shale. 

The United States' oil shale reserves are enormous, totaling at least 1.5 trillion barrels of untapped oil (40 times the size of the Nigeria's proven and untapped oil reserves) that are buried under the landscapes of Colorado and Wyoming. The future of the Nigerian Naira is tied directly to the daily sale of her 2.5 million barrels of oil that America alone buys about 1 million barrels of this oil from Nigeria on daily basis since the 1970s until recently. Every attempt to save the Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria has resulted in the rapidly dwindling of the Nigeria's foreign currency reserves (her foreign savings account or her emergency funds) and more borrowing from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Paris Club and the rising China to run her government year in and year out.

The Nigerian Naira has no certain future as long as this oil remains the only thing that Nigeria sells to the world in 2013. The Nigerian Naira faces a very bleak future as long as this oil is no longer in high demand globally. The Nigerian Naira has no future as long as the oil prices fluctuate internationally and the Nigeria's annual budget is pegged on the unreliable international oil prices. The Nigerian Naira will continue to depreciate in its value against the US dollar as long as the entire Nigerian economy continues to be built on this oil alone and the 95% of Nigeria's foreign earnings are still coming from this oil and oil alone. Time will surely tell.

"NIGERIA'S FOREIGN DEBT IS RAPIDLY RISING UNDER THE WATCH OF JONATHAN GOODLUCK"

Nigeria is now officially a borrower and a debtor country. Her foreign and domestic debts are now $51 billion according to the Debt Management Office (DMO). These debts are almost twice her yearly federal budget, about 20% of her yearly GDP of $273 billion and 50% of this nation's yearly oil revenue that is nearly $100 billion a year. Most of these debts are owned to the World Bank, Paris Club, African Development Bank and the rising China. Nigeria's debt has risen rapidly under the watch and the presidency of Jonathan Goodluck from $37 billion in June 2011 to $51 billion in June 2013, an increase of $14 billion or 36% in only two years. What is primarily responsible for this rising debt in the hands of Jonathan Goodluck? Why is Nigeria with an annual GDP of about $273 billion that produces and sells about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day and has an economy that grows at a yearly rate of 7.5% is still borrowing money all over the human universe just to run her government?

I have attempted below to point out all the major factors that are responsible for the Nigeria's addiction to a lifestyle of borrowing to live in 2013:(i) The unabated massive culture of official corruption perpetrated by the rogue Nigerian leaders and her officials or simply the culture of treasury looting. (ii) The mammoth mismanagement of our state resources by our corrupt leaders and officials by budgeting hundreds of millions of dollar annually for their own personal welfare, security votes, official and unofficial foreign trips, maintenance of our non-functioning foreign embassies, choice vacations and foreign medical trips of the Nigerian leaders and their families. (iii) Nigeria is using about 30% of her current federal budget to pay the salaries and the allowances of her 17,500 public elected and appointed officials (0.001% of all Nigerians) at all levels. A way of milking the nation dry in the name of public service and patriotism. 

(iv) The government is currently spending about 25% of the federal budget on security that does not truly protect the life and the properties of all Nigerians in al reality. (v) The oil bunkering, massive smuggling of imported goods through our porous land and sea borders, huge tax evasion or loopholes that are practiced by the rich Nigerians and the powerful businessmen or corporations, numerous unpaid import duties or the evasion of the custom and the import duties that deny the Nigerian government billions of dollar in revenue annually. (vi) The so called foreign investment deals in the oil, gas, mining, telecommunication and shipping and aviation sectors that favor the foreign investors always and never the Nigerian nation in all reality.

In conclusion, this present status quo in Nigeria that turns this nation into a borrower or a debtor country that benefits only a handful of Nigerians by leaving behind the 160 million ordinary Nigerians helplessness, hopeless and totally excluded from the sharing of the Nigeria's national cake is not morally right and is not also practically sustainable in that format forever. It will soon fall apart. It is a matter of time. It is going to be like an ill wind that will blow nobody any good at the end of the day.

"THE NATIONAL POLITICS OF CRIMES IN AMERICA"

Almost every national issue in America today is coated in racial flavors, divisive, politicized and saturated with the politics of the liberals and the conservatives. The black crime as they call it or the crimes that are committed by the African-Americans have also joined the long list of the major issues in America today that our politicians are using for their politics in order to gain the much needed political advantage. Crime, no matter the coloration we give it will not change the basic fact that it is a citizen of every human society in the world. There is no country that is 100% crime-free in the entire human universe today. Crime is human and humans perpetrate crimes. The reality about crimes in America today that the news media do not report accurately and adequately or our politicians turn this into politics is the fact that most of the crimes that take place are generally localized in nature or neighborhood-based. Criminals prefer to operate in the neighborhoods or communities where they live and know very well. They consider those communities their our best safe havens to do their crimes as well as to cover up their dirty or evil tracks.

In the United States, two different types of crimes are generally committed by all these criminals with their identities cutting across the racial lines or divisions in America. The violent crimes and the property crimes are occurring every now and then in the 50 states of the United States on daily basis. The incarceration of convicted criminals is the main form of legal punishment for most crimes in America. The United States also has one of the highest documented rate of prison incarcerations in the world based on the Walmsley, Roy (2009) report that was titled "World Prison Population List." The report said that 743 adults per 100,000 are in prisons in America for violent and property crimes. The U.S. Bureau for Justice Statistics (BJS) also reported that 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in the U.S. federal and state prisons as well as in the county jails at the end of 2011 or about 0.7% of all the adult population in the United States. The data also revealed that 4,814,200 adults were on probation or parole for the same year 2011. In total, about 7 million adults were under correctional supervision in 2011 or 2.9% of the American adults.

On the subject of race on race crimes, about 94% of the reported black crimes were committed by the blacks on the blacks and 86% of the reported white crimes were committed by the whites on the whites. These data show clearly that crimes in America reside in our neighborhoods and communities that are still heavily segregated along racial lines despite the civil rights law that ended all forms of public discrimination and racial segregation in America since 1965. Crime in America today is a national epidemic that knows no race or racial neighborhoods. Politicians should stop playing politics with the subject of crime in America that requires all hands on deck to address. The more we continue to play politics with issue of crimes in America, the more difficult and divisive will the practical solutions be in all reality. Crimes have reached a troubling level in America today. The solutions to crimes in America in 2013 will require the full cooperation and the 100% joint effort of all our public elected officials at the local, state and federal levels, who will be ready to put away their politics of the right and of the left that has both remained the biggest political obstacles in addressing this national issue.     

"ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: NIGERIAN LEGISLATORS WORLD'S HIGHEST PAID" - NAIJA PUNDIT

Nigerian federal legislators receive much higher salaries than their counterparts in wealthier countries and key developing nations, according to an analysis published by the Economist magazine.

A Nigerian legislator receives an annual salary of about $189,000, equivalent of N30 million, which is 116 times the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per person, says the publication which was posted on the magazine’s website on Friday.

The figures put salaries collected by Nigerian senators and members of the House of Representatives way ahead of those received by fellow parliamentarians in the 29 countries whose data was analysed by the Economist.

In terms of volume of cash earnings, the Nigerian legislators beat their counterparts in Britain who take $105,400 yearly, as well as those in the United States ($174,000), France ($85,900), South Africa ($104,000), Kenya ($74,500), Saudi Arabia ($64,000) and Brazil ($157,600).

In terms of lawmakers’ salaries as a ratio of GDP per capita, the gap is even much wider. While the salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person, that of a British member of parliament is just 2.7 times.

The report said Britain’s legislators pay is “relatively parsimonious” when compared with that of their counterparts in poorer countries, including Nigeria, who “enjoy the heftiest salaries by this measure.”

According to the data, only Australian lawmakers, with $201,200 annual salary, receive higher amounts compared to Nigerian legislators, but their salaries are only 3 times their country’s GDP per person.

Other yearly salary details published by the Economist are those of lawmakers in Ghana ($46,500), Indonesia ($65,800), Thailand ($43,800), India ($11,200), Italy ($182,000), Bangladesh ($4,000), Israel ($114,800), Hong Kong ($130,700), Japan ($149,700), Singapore ($154,000), Canada ($154,000), New Zealand ($112,500), Germany ($119,500), Ireland ($120,400), Pakistan ($3,500), Malaysia ($25,300), Sweden ($99,300), Sri Lanka ($5,100), Spain ($43,900) and Norway ($138,000).

Secretive

The National Assembly has been secretive with the specific amounts members collect in salaries and allowances, refusing to provide information to journalists and activists even when requests are made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

A total of N150 billion was voted for the National Assembly in the 2013 national budget but there is no breakdown, which should have shown at least a summary of the legislators’ earnings.

 Months ago, Daily Trust wrote a letter under FOIA requesting for the National Assembly’s budget breakdown but this was refused.

However, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) documents in possession of Daily Trust show that a senator is entitled to N35 million and member of the House of Representatives N29.28 million in the first year of each legislative session when they receive allowances that are payable once in four years—accommodation, furniture and car allowances.

The annual salaries are supposed to be lower for the next three years of a parliamentary session.

But given the secretive nature of the parliament’s finances, there have been claims, including by RMAFC leadership, that the lawmakers receive much more than this amount in padded allowances.

Based on the RMAFC documents dated February 2007, which are the subsisting approved packages for National Assembly members, the lawmakers’ allowances include accommodation (Senator N4m, Rep N3.97m), vehicle loan (Senator N8m, Rep N6.948m), furniture (Senator N6m, Rep N5.956m) and severance gratuity (Senator N6m, Rep N5.956m), which are due once in four years.

Other allowances, which are payable every year, are car maintenance (Senator N1.52m, Rep N595,563), constituency (Senator N5m, Rep N1.687m), domestic staff (Senator N1.5m, Rep N1.488m), personal assistant (Senator N506,600; Rep N496,303), entertainment (Senator N202,640, Rep N198,521), recess (Senator N202,640; Rep N198,521), utilities (Senator N607,920; Rep N397,042), newspaper/periodicals (Senator N303,960; Rep N297,781), house maintenance (Senator N101,320; Rep N99,260) and ward robe (Senator N405,280; Rep N397,402)

There are also estacode (Senator $600, Rep $550) and duty tour allowance (Senator N23,000; Rep N21,000) payable per day when a lawmaker is on official trip.

“Untenable”

In February 2009, then-President Umaru Yar’Adua initiated a process of reducing the pay packages of public office holders on the ground that the amounts were untenable in view of government’s finances.

Months later, then-chairman of RMAFC Engr. Hamman Tukur presented a report to Yar’Adua, containing reviewed pay packages for federal, state and local government political, public and judicial office holders.

In the report, Tukur said the affected government organs were flouting the remuneration provisions made by the commission through frivolous foreign trips, arbitrary appointment of aides and use of excessively large motorcades. He warned that this must stop.

Based on the constitution, RMAFC has the final say on the remuneration package of National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly members, while a law needs to be enacted based on the commission’s proposals regarding the pay packages of executive and Judicial office holders.

"ZIMMERMAN VERDICT:86% OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS DISAPPROVE" - WASHINGTON POST

African Americans have a mostly shared and sharply negative reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the not-guilty verdict in the resulting trial, while whites are far more divided, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

At least eight in 10 African Americans say the shooting of the Florida teenager was unjustified, recoil at the verdict in the trial and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, tried in federal court for violating Martin’s civil rights.

On the Martin shooting in particular, the racial gaps are extremely wide.

Among African Americans, 87 percent say the shooting was unjustified; among whites, just 33 percent say so. A slim majority of whites (51 percent) approve of the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, while African Americans overwhelmingly and strongly disapprove. Some 86 percent of blacks disagree with the verdict — almost all of them disapproving “strongly.”

There is also a partisan tinge to the public views. Among whites, 70 percent of Republicans but only 30 percent of Democrats say they approve of the verdict.

Some of the reaction to the trial — among both blacks and whites — stems from wildly different views of the role of race in the criminal justice system more broadly. Fully 86 percent of African Americans say blacks and other minorities do not get equal treatment under the law; the number of whites saying so is less than half as large, 41 percent. A majority of whites, 54 percent, say there is equal treatment for minority groups.

About eight in 10 African Americans (81 percent) say the federal government should charge Zimmerman in federal court with civil rights violations. Just 27 percent of whites agree, while 59 percent say the government should not bring such charges.

Some 60 percent of Hispanics say blacks and other minorities do not receive equal treatment with whites in the criminal justice system, and by a two-to-one ratio, they disapprove of the verdict in the Zimmerman trial.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted July 18 to 21 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; it is 4.5 points for the sample of white respondents and 11 points among African Americans and Hispanics - Cohen is Director of Capital Insight, the independent polling group of Washington Post Media. Capital Insight pollsters Scott Clement and Kimberly N. Hines contributed to this report.

A 16 -YEAR-OLD ASKS:WHAT IS A KID'S LIFE WORTH? - MSNBC

Trayvon Martin was an ordinary 17-year-old boy, living an ordinary life. He was not a criminal. The only thing he did was leave the house where he was staying in Sanford, Fla., to go to the store.

I’m a 16-year-old black boy. I live in New York now. But when I heard the news of Trayvon’s death I thought to myself, “Hey, I lived in Florida for such a long time and it seemed like a fair place to me.” With that thought in mind I had a really strong feeling that George Zimmerman would be convicted of second-degree murder. I was sure that Zimmerman was going to jail, especially when the manslaughter charge was introduced in the case.

I was watching TV and waiting for the verdict to be announced last Saturday. When I heard the words “not guilty,” my heart sank. I was sad not only for the fact that he was found not guilty, but for a possible domino effect that I fear might happen. If a man can follow a kid that he was told not to follow, kill him and then be not-guilty in the eyes of the law, just how worthless is a black man or kid’s life in this country, or this world?

After the verdict, Zimmerman’s lawyers talked about how pleased they were with the verdict. They were bathing in their own happiness while showing zero heart for the dead young man who just received no justice. One of the lawyers was defending his joke from the beginning of the trial, which was completely unnecessary and uncalled for. The insensitive nature of the defense and those who support them just makes me wonder where I stand in the world.

The night of the verdict, my mother came home and immediately hugged my brother and me, and told us that being black, we have to keep an eye over our shoulder, even more so now than before the case. She has said that as a young girl she was told to always walk home with her keys in hand, and with one key between her knuckles for protection. If she was ever being followed she should swallow her fear, turn, and fight, because if you run they might catch you and grab you from behind. In the worst possible scenario, you could be shot or stabbed in the back.

What I take from that conversation, and the Zimmerman trial, is that if we fight we might be hurt. If not, the same result might happen. What choice am I left with then? Does the “fight or flight” idea work for me?

This case was more than just a killing. It was a key to unlocking an entire conversation, a conversation about the importance of race. The point is not to say that everyone is against black people, because that’s not true. In fact my best friend who I trust with my life is white. I believe that it’s just a portion of people who are unfair to black people, and that attitude should change.

In my opinion Zimmerman should be in jail. Not only did he kill a young man but also he went against a police order not to follow Trayvon.

The moral of it all is that Trayvon’s life should be worth more than this case allowed it to. To me, this case means that we black people are still fighting for equality and justice. In 2013, I feel that this equality is long overdue - Jmar Reid is a rising high school junior in New York and the son of MSNBC contributor Joy-Ann Reid. 

WHY IS THE PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION SO OBSESSED WITH INDIA TODAY? - NBC NEWS

Joe Biden arrives there on Monday, John Kerry declared it his “second home” on his trip last month, and Barack Obama will host its leader in the fall: But why is India the subject of such a concerted American charm offensive?

The answer essentially boils down to money, military hardware and a shared love of freedom — to paraphrase the opinions of a number of experts.

Some believe the world’s two biggest democracies will ultimately “shape the destiny of the 21st century.”

A senior Obama administration official said Friday that Biden would meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leading officials in New Delhi on Tuesday and then head to Mumbai on Wednesday to give a speech at the Bombay Stock Exchange and meet with business leaders.

However, there are a number of signs suggesting the relationship might be in trouble -- a situation Washington appears keen to resolve.

Here are five reasons why India is feeling the love from the United States:

1. A bastion of democracyObama said the relationship between India and the U.S. would be one of the “defining partnerships” of the 21st century while visiting the country in 2010, praising its tradition of tolerance and its free market economy.

Ron Somers, president of the U.S.-India Business Council, went further.

“It’s going to be these two democracies that shape the destiny of the 21st century,” he said. “These are beacons of freedom and democracy on opposite sides of the planet and we’ve got to stick together with our close friends and believe in these principles.”

It was a partnership based on “democracy” and “a love, demand and insistence on freedom,” Somers added, while stressing these were not reasons to not trade with China.

It was a partnership based on “democracy” and “a love, demand and insistence on freedom,” Somers added, while stressing these were not reasons to not trade with China.

Jody Venkatesan, national political director for the Republican Indian Committee in the U.S., said India’s importance had been recognized by George W. Bush during his time in office.

“The Bush administration made great overtures to the Indian-American community and toward India in general,” he said.  “I think India has a strategic importance in terms of economic and intelligence purposes and freedom around the world.

He said he felt relations between ordinary Indian and American people were also in a good place. “The Indian-American community has never betrayed the trust of the American public — and that’s huge,” he said.

But some in India believe American commitment to democratic values is not quite as strong as it should be.

Brahma Chellaney, a former adviser to India’s National Security Council, said India was concerned that the U.S. used its promotion of democracy as a political tool in some parts of the world “while staying quiet on China.”

“The Americans don’t speak about Tibet at all and don’t speak much about human rights” in China, he said by phone from New Delhi.

2. Booming economyIndia’s economy has been growing at rates that rival the boom in China.

According to the World Bank, India’s gross domestic product rose from $1.2 trillion in 2008 to more than $1.8 trillion in 2012 – a rise of 50 percent during a time when much of the world was going through the worst economic hardship for decades.

“Europe, unfortunately, is flat on its back economically and China is also having challenges with their economy,” said Somers, of the U.S.-India Business Council. “The United States and India need to be developing a greater economic partnership now more than ever.”

The amount of two-way trade between India and the United States has quadrupled in just seven years -- from $25 billion in 2006 to about $100 billion in 2013, he said.

A senior Obama administration official said there was “no reason” that the current level of trade between the two countries could not be “five times as much.” Biden plans to raise issues about U.S. investment during his visit.

Ten years ago, defense trade between the two countries was worth just $100 million. Somers said this had since risen to $10 billion and stressed India had billions more to spend on defense, particularly as it seeks to expand its navy.

“In the recent floods in Uttarakhand, those were [U.S.-made] C-17 and C-130J aircraft that were helping bring in medical supplies and helping rescue people,” he said.

The Indo-U.S. nuclear agreement of 2008 saw the United States agree "to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation" with India, effectively ending India's isolation as a nuclear state following its nuclear bomb test in 1974.

Achin Vanaik, a professor at the political science department of Delhi University, said the deal was hugely important to India, but suggested its government's later decision to spend about $20 billion on French fighter jets, rather than American ones, was a disappointment to Washington.

"The Americans thought after the U.S. nuclear deal the Indians would buy their fighter planes, but it ended up with the Indians buying from the French -- that's a huge thing," he said. "It obviously annoyed the Americans to some extent. They expected certain pay-offs."

Somers, who was closely involved in the nuclear deal, strongly denied any suggestion of a "quid pro quo" on arms sales.

However, he admitted there were other tensions, saying U.S. businesses had concerns about enforcement of intellectual property rights in India and also about regional differences about how taxes are applied.

And U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has also expressed concern about efforts to stimulate the economy by forcing Indian companies to buy home-produced goods.

3. A key ally in the war on terrorIndia has become a close ally of the United States in the fight against Islamist militants after suffering its own terrorist attacks.

Three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, India’s parliament in New Delhi was stormed by five men armed with guns, grenades and other explosives. Ten people died before the attackers were killed.

And in 2008, 166 people were killed when gunmen attacked a Jewish center and two five-star hotels in Mumbai. India has blamed the attack on Pakistan-based militants.

But recently the relationship has hit a rocky patch over the prospect of a U.S. peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, something India fears would give its arch-rival Pakistan greater power in the region.

Chellaney, the former adviser to India’s National Security Council who now professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, said that India was “greatly troubled” by talk of a deal and believed the “political rehabilitation of the Taliban will be very injurious to regional security.”

“The Indians remain very concerned about the U.S. exit strategy, especially because these talks with the Taliban … are being conducted with the widespread support of the Pakistan army chief,” he said.

Any deal that saw the Taliban regain some political power would benefit India’s arch-rival Pakistan, giving them “a greater say in the future of Afghanistan,” Chellaney said.

India does not have troops in Afghanistan, though the idea they could replace Western forces after the 2014 pullout has been raised recently.

India has been a major supplier of aid to Afghanistan, spending a total of more than $750 million between 2002 and 2009. Afghan President Hamid Karzai met Indian Prime Minister Singh in May to discuss supplies of military equipment.

A senior Obama administration official said co-operation with India on “maritime security” and “counter terrorism” would be one of the issues at the top of the agenda. He spoke of a “strategic convergence” between India and the U.S.

Asked about Indian concern over talks with the Taliban, the official stressed the United States’ view that the militant movement would have “to be breaking with al Qaeda, renouncing violence and abiding by the terms of the Afghan constitution” to be part of an Afghan-led peace process.

4. A counterweight to ChinaIndia and the United States are the world’s two biggest democracies, but the world’s most populous country is China.

And is its economy has surged, it has begun to flex its muscles, pursuing territorial disputes with many of its neighbors.

India and China fought a war in 1962 and in April and May this year there was a three-week standoff after Chinese troops “intruded in Indian territory,” according to Indian officials.

Award-winning historian Margaret MacMillan — author of both “Nixon and Mao,” about the two leaders’ famous 1972 meeting, and “Women of the Raj,” about India during British rule — said she thought U.S.-Chinese relations had “proved to be disappointing for the Obama administration.”

The extended diplomatic push aimed at New Delhi might be a way of sending a message to Beijing, she said.

“It suggests to me the great Asian pivot with improved relations with China has turned out to be a bit of a bust,” said MacMillan, who is a professor at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University.

However, she said the U.S. would probably try to avoid picking a side and stay in the middle.

“It’s a tricky game, but if you can be the power at the center and tilt to one side and the other, it actually gives you a lot of influence,” she said.

5. Biden might have some explaining to doThe somewhat gaffe-prone Biden declared in 2006 that “You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent ... I'm not joking.”

Biden’s staff later clarified he was praising the “vibrant” Indian-American community in Delaware, and making the point that along with engineers, scientists and physicians, there was a growing number of more middle-class people.

And then last year, he made headlines when he briefly appeared to imitate an Indian accent while talking about American job losses and overseas call centers last year.

Chellaney said Biden’s attempt at mimicry had been “front-page news” in India, but doubted it would cause any problems on his trip.

“The public memory in India is really short. Most people will have forgotten these incidents. I think he will be warmly received in India,” he said.

And Somers insisted Biden was “one of the best friends of India that has ever come from the United States,” noting his championing of the Indo-U.S. nuclear agreement.

And The Times of India was reasonably relaxed about Biden’s apparent mimicry, noting his “penchant for bloopers” and saying it was “mild” by his usual standards.