Mshale Newspaper March 8-14, 2021

Issue # 460

INSIDE

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Gov. Walz says state ahead of schedule on COVID-19 vaccinations

MARCH 8-14,2021

A F R IC A N

C OM MU N I T Y

N E W S PAP E R

As Ghana turns 64, diaspora urged to invest back home

UN: Mental health alert for 332 million children due to COVID-19

National Cathedral tolls bell 500 times in honor of 500K deaths

A child holds a Ghanaian flag at a pre-Covid Independence Day celebration for the West African nation. Due to the pandemic officials from the Ghana Embassy in Washington addressed Ghanaians at a virtual town hall on March 5.

Photo: Courtesy Ghana Embassy

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Toumani Diabaté and the London Symphony Orchestra album

By Edwin Okong’o Mshale Contributing Editor Ghanaian diplomats have called on their compatriots living abroad to take advantage of the numerous investment opportunities that exist back home.

The diplomats from the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C., were speaking Friday during a virtual town hall meeting that launched three days of online celebrations of the west African country’s 64th year of independence from the British Empire.

“As we reflect on the significance of our independence as a people, I call on all compatriots to continue to strive for excellence in spite of all the challenges that confront the world today,” said Genevieve Apaloo, the embassy’s acting head of mission. “Building a self-sufficient Ghana will depend on the efforts of all Ghanaians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. So, let us continue to stay united and resolute in our support for our government’s effort to build a strong and equitable socio-economic environment for our people.”

Like many African countries, Ghana is targeting itsDiaspora in efforts to jumpstart an economy battered by shutdownsrelated to the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2009, the amount of money sent home

by Africans living outside the continent nearly doubled to $85 billion

in 2019, accounting for 5 percent of the continent’s GDP, according to the Brookings Institution. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, that number is projected to decline by 21 percent, or $18 billion, and countries like Ghana, which received over $4 billion in remittances in 2019, see direct investment by their citizens abroad as a way to make up for that shortfall.

The event’s moderator, Maryland-based DJ Kweku Amoako, said it was important to have the Ghanaian government maintain a strong connection with the Diaspora in order to boost confidence in investment.

“There are a lot of people in the Diaspora, not just Ghanaians, who are very, very interested in exploring investment opportunities in various sectors in Ghana,” Amoako said. “We know that opportunities are there. We know that the will is there but somehow the connection is broken.”

Cynthia Djokoto, the embassy’s head of trade and investment, said the government recognized that, and was making efforts to bridge that broken link between Ghanaians and the investments opportunities back home. She said the Ghana Investment Promotion Center had created a Diaspora investment desk at the embassy to facilitate engagement with those considering investing in the country. Ghana had several opportunities for investment in areas such as processing Ghana on Pg. 8

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460

Minnesota ahead of schedule with COVID-19 vaccinations, expands eligibility

This home belongs to we.

By Mshale Staff Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and state health officials announced that the state is ahead of schedule with its coronavirus vaccinations and thus will be expanding eligibility to more groups of people who can receive them.

As a result, the state will expand eligibility to the next two phases of Minnesotans at once, starting

their loved ones,” said Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.

“This week, as we continue to follow the science and vaccinate our most vulnerable, even more Minnesotans will have the opportunity to get a vaccine. We are working to ensure we’re vaccinating equitably and for the most impact as we continue to provide these life-saving shots to even more Minnesotans.”

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Governor Tim Walz seen here on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 during a COVID-19 press briefing. He declared the day as Nic Zapko Day in honor of the sign language interpreter (on his right) that has been a constant presence since he started giving the briefings.

Photo: Governor Walz YouTube Screengrab

today (March 9, 2021). Providers have been directed to prioritize people in the first of these phases, which includes Minnesotans with specific underlying health conditions; food processing plant workers; and Minnesotans with rare conditions or disabilities that put them at higher risk of severe illness. Providers will then have the flexibility to provide available appointments to other eligible Minnesotans.

“We asked most Minnesotans to wait patiently while we protected Minnesotans at higher risk and got shots to at least 70% of our seniors. We will hit that milestone on Wednesday – well ahead of schedule. More Minnesotans will now be eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, beginning this week,” said Governor Walz. “To reach 70% of seniors vaccinated is an incredible accomplishment in itself, but it’s not the end goal: we will continue moving full steam ahead until every Minnesotan who wants a shot gets one.”

“This is a landmark day. So many Minnesota seniors at serious risk have now gotten their shot. That is a huge relief for them – and

officials is encouraging everyone to register via the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Connector at VaccineConnector.mn.gov.

Governor Walz declares ‘Nic Zapko Day’ in Minnesota After Governor Walz wrapped up his COVID-19 briefing, he surprised the sign language interpreter Nic Zapko with a surprise proclamation. The governor declared March 9, 2021 as Nic Zapko Day in Minnesota.

Zapko who lives in Bloomington has been a constant presence at the governor’s side in the past year giving sign language in interpretations of the governor’s COVID-19 press briefings.

“There’s been somebody who’s been here since the beginning, ensuring that every single Minnesotan had access to this information the whole time. That person is by far the most popular person on this podium and the most wellknown,” Walz said. “I would like to make a proclamation today for Nic Zapko who we’ve all come to really appreciate and enjoy.”

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Guest Commentary by Stephen Franklin

What I watched in Chicago’s immigration court Can it wipe away rules that have fed into a mindset that seemed to The man shivered and spoke in a whisper, stirring the Chicago Immitake root nationally among some court and immigration enforcement gration Court judge to softly urge him to calm down. officials?

But that was hard, because he was clearly terrified that he would lose The rules were meant to erase an immigrant presence in the U.S. And all that he had built in the U.S. over the years. He had a home in a good neighborhood in Indianapolis, and his two girls were doing very well in a they came to life far away from the nation’s borders in the daily grind of the immigration courts. For well over two years, I sat in Chicago’s good school, he explained. immigration court watching, reporting and wondering how his could be He supported his wife and daughters, working three jobs a day at happening. different fast-food restaurants, six days a week, walking to his jobs Day by day I watched as the crowds huddled anxiously in the Chicago and everywhere else. He had been stopped once for driving without a license and so, he said, he walked everywhere, not wanting any more court’s major waiting room grew. Judges’ caseloads, as listed on the waiting room walls, eventually doubled for some to as many as 100 a trouble. day.

It was a life he could never have dreamed of, he said, in his very poor Why? village in Mexico.

Thousands like him marched in increasing numbers through the nation’s immigration courts during years while Donald Trump was president. Most had not harmed anyone or stolen or broken serious criminal laws. Rather, most had violated immigration law by simply being here illegally, and under the Trump administration, their share of those arrested and deported steadily grew.

When Trump took office there were 542,411 deportation cases in the nation’s immigration courts. When he left, the number was 1.29 million.

The backlog grew as arrests grew, as more were detained, as bonds went up, and new rules raised new hurdles for immigrants in the courts.

The average wait for a case in Chicago’s court was 945 days in 2016, and that grew to 1,014 in 2021, 14% higher than the national average.

There was the West Indian grandmother, arrested at an airport because of a minor drug-use charge decades ago. There was a middleaged Guatemalan, who had gone to O’Hare to pick up some arriving travelers and was picked up in a sweep by immigration officials. His church members were on hand in court, but they could afford neither his bond nor an attorney.

The long wait perplexed a judge one day as she scanned her computer looking to schedule a new hearing. The best she could find, she told an Iraqi woman in her 80s, was a date four years down the road.

The long delay was not lost on the woman’s lawyer’s face. The woman’s husband was not in court because he was facing brain surgery.

And then there was a young Mexican father of three, whose fate changed when he became a collateral arrest. Officials had been looking for someone else, and picked him up by chance on the job. One of his children was in the midst of medical treatment and his wife worried that they could not get the same care in Mexico. We talked in the court’s waiting room as she nursed her youngest child while her husband’s fate hung on a long hearing in a nearby courtroom.

The Biden administration has signaled that it would like to narrow arrests and deportations to those persons convicted of national security threats and other serious felonies. That would keep many of those, like the fast-food worker in Indianapolis, from immigrant court.

But there’s a bigger challenge facing the Biden administration.

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A series of canceled hearings left a middle-age Palestinian’s life dangling in the court for seven years. The long delay left him anxious and panicked about the fate of his family back home, where they faced the threat of violence that had already taken several relatives’ lives. He won asylum but several months later, and before he could bring his family to the U.S., his teenage son was killed, a targeted victim of the violence that had haunted him and his relatives.

I took note after the Trump administration said in August 2019 it would push older cases back in 10 courts across the U.S., including Chicago, so that cases involving newly arrived immigrant families could move more rapidly through the courts. It was a clear warning that the U.S. would deal quickly with immigrants arriving at its borders.

That created a new crisis for immigrants, and their attorneys, if they had one. It meant critical documents had to be quickly acquired, and immigrants, freshly arrived from lives in chaos, suddenly had to prove and explain the tragedies they had endured. Immigrant advocates warned about the logistical and emotional problems this could bring for immigrants. Indeed, faced with recounting her trauma, one Central American teenager attempted to take her life, her Chicago lawyer told me.

I tried to keep up with the onslaught of new rules immigration court judges faced. But it was a challenge. They could no longer grant asylum based on gang violence or domestic violence. They could no longer set aside cases that weren’t pressing. They had to meet quotas. Soon, the number of judges who chose to retire or quit reached a level not seen in years.

Although judges’ ability to speak out on court issues had been restricted by the Trump administration, they still could raise their voices through their 41-year-old union and they did. They produced a fiery video saying that the courts are subject to political influences, and that ultimately what takes place is not blind justice but assembly-line justice.

I was astounded.

Their voices were hushed, however, after the Trump administration won a legal battle in the small federal office that oversees government unions over whether the judges could be union members. So with the judges silenced, we hear much less today about the immigration courts.

But I have my memories of what I witnessed in the courtrooms, where husbands, wives and children prayed, cried, hugged, commiserated and sometimes celebrated in languages from everywhere. If only you could have heard their stories.

Stephen Franklin is a former Chicago Tribune reporter, who previously worked at the Detroit Free Press among other newspapers. He forst wrote this for the Chicago Tribune.

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460

UN: Mental health alert for 332 million children linked to COVID-19 lockdown policies

UNICEF is providing children with mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic as it sounds the alarm that 332 million of them are in need. Photo: UNICEF

By UN News Service The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says the mental health of millions of children worldwide has been put at risk, with at least one in seven forced to remain at home under nationwide public health orders – or recommendations – during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on new research, it said last week that more than 330 million youngsters have been stuck at home for at least nine months, since the virus spread uncontrollably this time last year.

This has left them feeling isolated and anxious about their future, said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder: “Tens and tens of millions of youngsters have been left feeling isolated and afraid and lonely and anxious because of these enforced lockdowns and isolations that have become as a result of this pandemic.”

He said countries needed to emerge from this pandemic “with a better approach, a better approach to child and adolescent mental health, and that probably starts just by giving the issue the attention it deserves.”

Mental vulnerabilities Half of all mental disorders develop before the age of 15, according to UNICEF and the majority of the 800,000 people who die by suicide annually, are under 18s.

The UN agency also said that the pandemic has disrupted or halted critical

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mental health services in 93 per cent of countries worldwide.

UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said that when day after day “you are away from your friends and distant loved ones, and perhaps even stuck at home with an abuser, the impact is significant.

“Many children are left feeling afraid, lonely, anxious, and concerned for their future. We must emerge from this pandemic with a better approach to child and adolescent mental health, and that starts by giving the issue the attention it deserves.”

For children experiencing violence, neglect or abuse at home, lockdowns have left many stranded with abusers.

Children in vulnerable population groups like those living and working on the streets, children with disabilities, and children living in conflict settings - risk having their mental health needs overlooked entirely.

According to WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93 per cent of countries worldwide, while the demand for mental health support is increasing.

UNICEF responding To respond to growing needs, the agency has offered support to Governments and partners to prioritize services for children.

In Kazakhstan, this has led to the launch of a UNICEF platform for individual online counselling services, alongside distance training in schools for mental health specialists.

In China, the agency has also worked with social media company Kuaishou, to produce an online challenge to help reduce anxiety in children.

Later this year, UNICEF will dedicate its biennial flagship report on the state of the world’s children, to child and adolescent mental health, in a bid to increase awareness of the global challenge, exacerbated profoundly by the coronavirus.

Boost investment “If we did not fully appreciate the urgency prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, surely we do now”, said Ms. Fore.

Countries must dramatically invest in expanded mental health services and support for young people and their

caregivers in communities and schools.

We also need scaled-up parenting programmes to ensure that children from vulnerable families get the support and protection they need at home.”

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460

Do Brooklyn Park voters want another white mayor?

By Tom Gitaa Mshale

Almost 10 years since Brooklyn Park became a majority-minority city, and 66 years since its incorporation as a Township, the sixth largest city in Minnesota has yet to elect a mayor that is not white.

The state where George Floyd was killed by a policeman that lived in a suburb not too different from Brooklyn Park, has forced Minnesota to confront its legendary racial disparities in most facets of its society, including elective office.

That reckoning for Brooklyn Park came quickly on the heels of Floyd’s death when in November it elected its third person of color into the city council. There are six elected council members plus the mayor for a seven-person council. African American Boyd Morson won in November by just over 500 votes, beating the DFL endorsed Christian Eriksen. Council elections are non-partisan but the DFL has not been shy about endorsing candidates in those races.

Susan Pha, was the first person of color elected to the council in 2017, becoming the first Hmong American to do so. By electing Pha, voters in the city set in motion the process to realign the council to better reflect the city’s demographics.

One year after Pha’s election, Liberian American Wynfred Russell was elected to the council.

After the 2020 general election and the ascendancy of Morson, the council is now close to 50 per cent people of color.

In last year’s general election, then Mayor Jeff Lunde got elected to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners representing District 1 which includes Brooklyn Park. His move to the county seat created a rare open seat that has to be filled by a special election as stipulated by the city charter.

Electing a mayor of color in August will make the council majority-minority for the first time in the city’s history.

February 16 was the last day to file for a special primary election that will be held on April 13 to narrow the field to two candidates that will proceed to the August 10 special election. Seven candidates have filed to run in the special election with five them filing on the very last day.

Candidates can withdraw their candidacy

by February 18 – 48 hours after the filing period closed.

Absentee voting for the primary will begin on February 26 through April 12.

Four of the seven that have filed are Black men, two of them sit on the council already – Wynfred Russell and Boyd Morson. Hollies Winston and Benjamin Osemenam round up the slate of Black candidates running.

The other three include two white women and a white man. One of the women, Lisa Jacobson easily won reelection to the

council in November’s election beating Nigerian American engineer Benjamin Osemenam. Osemenam, unable to convince voters in the East District to elect him in November, seems convinced he can convince voters citywide to entrust him with the mayorship. He was among the last-minute filers on February 16.

November was his second unsuccessful attempt to join the council.

Yelena Kurdyumova, who can best be described as a fringe candidate, is the other white woman bidding to be mayor.

After a landslide loss to Susan Pha in last year’s primary where she only managed to garner 385 votes to Pha’s 1,765, she joined former President Trump in denouncing mail-in ballots as fraudulent and asking residents to write her in as a candidate in November.

‘Culture of hostility’ Mark Mata, was a member in the previous council but did not seek reelection in November. He is the only white man in the race. It appears the decision not to run was informed by his desire to be mayor. Mata was in 2017 accused by fellow council members of a “culture of hostility” which cost the city $173,000, so that the city’s beloved fire chief, Ken Prillaman, could leave without suing the city.

Mata was a paid on-call fire fighter at the fire department and was accused of using his council position to intimidate the fire chief. Fellow Republican Jeff Lunde who was the mayor then said “We are here because of the culture of hostility created by a council member.” The council member in question being Mark Mata.

Mata at one time served on the council at the same time with his father Bob Mata, representing different districts. The elder Mata was defeated in his reelection bid in 2018 by Wynfred Russell.

The Frontrunners When given the chance since 2016, Brooklyn Park voters have shown the proclivity to go with a person of color at the council. In three consecutive election cycles since the historic election of Pha, the voters have chosen at least one person of color.

Are the voters ready for a mayor of color this year?

Wynfred Russell, one of the candidates said “it is about time we have someone of color in the mayoral seat,” when he spoke with Mshale during an interview soon after declaring his bid, referring to the changed demographics in the city that call for it.

If the voters are ready for a person of color to be mayor, they will probably take a look first at Hollies Winston. Of all the seven candidates running, he is the only one that has run a substantive citywide race. He faced off against Jeff Lunde in the last mayoral election in 2018 and received 13,203 votes to Lunde’s 15,174. 66% of the 43,460 registered voters turned out to vote that year.

Wynfred Russell, Mark Mata and Lisa Jacobson are the other three candidates besides Winston with the name recognition likely to propel them past the

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April primary. The three have run winning council races but none has contested citywide.

Charges of racism Recent events might suggest how a white candidate like Lisa Jacobson might be poorly positioned for the times we are in. In a blistering attack on November 14, 2020 soon after it became clear the office of mayor will be vacant, Abdullah Kiatamba, a mercurial leader and grassroots organizer in the Liberian community called Jacobson “racist, anti-immigrant and dangerous.”

The accusation sparked an intense discussion on Liberians in Minnesota, a popular Facebook group with over 8,000 members, many of them voters in Brooklyn Park. Some of the angry comments directed at her by the group’s members are not fit to publish.

Mshale spoke via phone with Kiatamba in Liberia, where he is currently attending a funeral, to seek clarity on his criticism of Jacobson. Kiatamba said the Republican councilwoman is very good with superficial interactions with the Black community “but works against our top interests such as when we were trying to get the city to work with the (West African) Ebola Taskforce.”

Another Brooklyn Park resident expressing concern with the Jacobson candidacy is Hassanen Mohamed.

“Lisa does not have the leadership skills needed to get our city where it needs to go,” Mohamed said. “We need a mayor that understands all the communities that live in this city.”

Mohamed recalled what he calls a defining moment in the character of Lisa Jacobson. In 2017 as then president Trump moved to restrict immigration and ban travel from majority Muslim countries, cities around the country started issuing resolutions in support of immigrants and Muslims. Councilwoman Susan Pha, then the only person of color in the council introduced such a resolution in a February 13, 2017 council meeting. “Among those pushing back was Lisa,” said Mohamed.

Jacobsen eventually voted in favor of what Councilwoman Pha said was a “watered down” version, after a lot of waffling, according to Mohamed.

In regards to Mata, after costing the city $173,000 in the separation agreement with popular former Fire Chief Ken Prillaman, it is difficult to see how he gets past the primary. Memories of that settlement still linger among city residents. His decision not to seek reelection might have been a nod to the new realities in the city but could also have been a positioning move to run for mayor.

As of the time of this writing, the Mata candidacy was the only one without a website or email address listed on the city’s website that shows candidates that have filed and cleared to be on the ballot.

The crowded field, which was predicted by the former mayor, has come to pass and it is worrying those hoping to see a person of color elected as mayor. With seven candidates running in the primary,

Former President Donald Trump (L), then a potential Reform Party candidate listens as then Minnesota Govenor Jesse Ventura takes a question at a news conference after Trump gave a speech at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon 07 January 2000 in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, the city where Ventura was once mayor. Trump also spoke later that day at a fund-raiser for the Jesse Ventura Volunteer Committee in Brooklyn Park. Since its incorporation as a Township in February 1954 and later as a charter city in September 1969, the city has yet to elect a person of color even as more than half of its population has become people of color.

Photo: Craig Lassig/AFP via Getty Images

one only needs a plurality of voters to be among the top two. Even with their reduced numbers, whites still constitute 45% of the city. The DFL party machine is expected to pull all the stops to get Winston past the primary and they might prevail given what happened in 2018 when Winston was also the party’s endorsed candidate. Congressman Dean Phillips who represents the city in Congress has endorsed him, as has the Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman. The speaker lives in the city.

Should Winston come out on top, it will matter a great deal who comes in second in April. Some of the white voters, because of the DFL endorsement will go for Winston, but many of them, appalled at Mata’s past behavior, will for the most part line up behind Jacobson giving her the plurality she needs to get past the primary.

Lyna Nyamwaya is the founder and president of the African Nurses Network which boasts a strong membership base in the city. Speaking to Mshale in her private capacity, she sounded exasperated at the number of Black candidates running, saying it will aid in frustrating the dream of a mayor of color for the city.

“From past experience and history, divide and conquer is still very existent. If the Black brothers unite, umoja ni nguvu (Swahili for unity is strength). Dividing the Black voters, Africans and AfricanAmericans, gives the other candidates more votes,” Nyamwaya said.

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460

Brooklyn Park Mayor Race: Absentee and early in-person voting gets underway

By Bethel Gessesse Mshale Absentee voting for the April 13 special primary election for Brooklyn Park mayor will start tomorrow (Feb. 26, 2021). The deadline to file to run for mayor was February 16 and more than two candidates filed necessitating a primary on April 13 to narrow the field to two.

The two top candidates on April 13 will advance to the August 10 special election.

You can read more about the candidates that have filed at this previous Mshale story.

City of Brooklyn Park on the absentee voting process: • The in-person and mail-in absentee voting period for the 2021 Special Primary Election is February 26 – April 12.

• The in-person absentee voting office will be held at City Hall, 5200 85th Ave N. during business hours, Monday-Friday 8am to 4:30pm.

• You can apply for an Absentee Ballot by: - Picking up an application at City Hall or download from the city’s website - Calling 763-493-8119 or 763-4938180 and have it mailed to you • Once completed and signed, return your absentee ballot application

Absentee and early in-person voting is now underway for the April 13, 2021 special primary election for mayor.

as soon as possible to Hennepin County by - Mailing to the Hennepin County Elections Government Center 300 S. 6th St MC 012 Minneapolis MN 55487-001 - Or emailing it to hc.vote@hennepin.us

This information is available at: brooklynpark.org/elections/#2021-specialelection.

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460

Ghanaians celebrate 64 years of independence in virtual town hall From Pg. 1

of agricultural products for export, oil and gas, tourism, and real estate, where she said there was an immediate need for more than 2 million units of residential housing.

“Most among the audience may have families who own farms producing fruits like pineapples and can easily set up factories to produce packaged fruit juices for local consumption and for export,” Djokoto said.

Kofi Tonto, who heads the Information and Public Affairs department at the embassy, said in addition to seeking to attract investment to Ghana, the government was making a targeted effort to tap the Diaspora’s expertise. He gave a recent example where the government sought the Diaspora’s skills in planning and carrying out a virtual concert to raise funds for the fight against Covid-19 in Ghana. In order to do that successfully, they partnered with Ghanaian musicians and talents across the United States and also in Ghana, Tonto said.

“For me, it exemplifies how we can leverage the talent of people in the United States, especially to benefit Ghana,” Tonto said. “We all recently heard about Paul Mensah with Pfizer. This is a Ghanaian who is vice president for bioprocess research at Pfizer, and he led the exercise at Pfizer to develop the Covid-19 vaccine. I can cite so many examples of Ghanaians in high places, from Wall Street to many Fortune

(L-R): Cynthia Djokoto, Adjoa Kyerematen and Kofi Tonto.

500 companies at senior-level positions.

The question is: How are we leveraging all these talents to our benefit?”

Tonto said traditionally, Ghana had only reached out to Ghanaians working in organizations like the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund as potential avenues to securing investment, but in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government sought the advice of Ghanaians physicians and nurses working in the United States.

“These are the people that we go to all the time for questions about anything related to health to advice and to support us, but we need to find a more strategic and sufficient way of doing this,” Tonto said.

He said the embassy was exploring the idea of creating a comprehensive database of Ghanaian professionals and other experts who were friends of Ghana.

One of the obstacles Ghanaians who want to start businesses back home run

into is lack of capital, with many thinking they have to use their personal savings.

But Adjoa Kyerematen, the director of Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective, an advocacy nonprofit organization that operates in Ghana’s capital, Accra, and Washington, D.C., said there were U.S. government grants earmarked for entrepreneurs who want to do business in Africa.

“If you are an American citizen, the U.S. government actually provides support for Diaspora investment, meaning your business, your project back at home could actually receive funding and risk assurance from the U.S. government,” Kyerematen said.

She said just last year, the U.S. government gave $8 billion to more that 300 businesses on the African continent.

“Not a lot of people are aware of that, and unfortunately, not a lot of people of color are aware of that, and Ghanaians are certainly not aware of that,” Kyerematen said. “Meanwhile, we’re rubbing our coins

Photo: Facebook

together, rubbing our pesewas together to do these projects when we can actually receive support.”

Tonto, the public affairs officer, was asked if Ghana could avoid being like many African governments, which lured citizens to invest back home, only to be frustrated by members of the ruling class, who felt politically threatened. He said Ghana’s government had already proven that it was serious by appointing nearly 100 members of the Diaspora to key government positions. They include the current minister of education, who was an educationist in California prior to being appointed, he said. Tonto himself was a member of the Diaspora, who came to the United States when he was 14 years old, and was later hired to work at the embassy.

“Ghana has a different story to tell as far as the Diaspora is concerned,” Tonto said. “We are seriously committed to engaging the Diaspora.”

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Religion

National Cathedral tolls bell 500 times to honor 500K Americans dead of COVID-19

By Michael Gryboski Christian Post The Washington National Cathedral tolled its 12-ton bell 500 times in memory of the approximately 500,000 Americans who have died due to COVID-19 on Monday.

The cathedral, affiliated with The Episcopal Church and is known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City, livestreamed the event in the afternoon. The ceremony included prayers and reflections from individuals representing multiple faith traditions.

Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, provost of the National Cathedral, read a passage from the Book of Common Prayer.

“We thank you for giving them to us,” she read from the prominent Anglican Communion liturgical resource, “to know and to love as companions on our earthly pilgrimage.”

“In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.”

Rabbi Shira Stutman of the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue of Washington, D.C., recited what is known as the Mourner’s Kaddish, a notable Jewish prayer.

“This gesture cannot replace the lives lost, but we hope it will help each American mourn the toll of this pandemic,” explained the Cathedral in a statement.

The National Cathedral had previously rung their funeral bell for past milestones reached in the United States death toll from the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, in December, the house of worship tolled the 12-ton bell 300 times when the U.S. reached the 300,000 mark for people who had passed away due to complications from COVID-19.

Washington National Cathedral of Washington, DC. A congregation of The Episcopal Church, it is one of the largest church buildings in the world.

Photo: Courtesy Washington National Cathedral

President Joe Biden gave remarks at the White House to honor the 500,000 who have died from COVID-19. He offered a moment of silence.

Cathedral Dean Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith said in a statement at the time that “the climbing death toll from this pandemic seems disturbingly routine.”

“This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we will remember each person we’ve lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind,”Biden stated Monday.

“I have grown weary of tolling this bell. I don’t want to toll this bell anymore. I don’t want to lose any more lives. I don’t want us to think this is normal or that it is just the price we must pay for living in a free society,” stated Hollerith in December.

“We will get through this, I promise you.

But my heart aches for you — those of you who are going through it right now.

May God bless you all, particularly those who have lost someone. God bless you.”

“We have reached the point in America where the death toll from COVID-19 for just one day was the equivalent of 16 fully loaded 737 jets falling from the sky.”

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Mshale - The African Community Newspaper

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460

Art & Entertainment

Toumani Diabaté to release album

By Ben Richmond AfroPop Malian virtuoso, Toumani Diabaté— Jobarteh’s cousin—is stretching his wings and testing out the London Symphony Orchestra—does its presence add anything to the kora? Hear for yourself. I, for one, sort of melted onto the floor when I first listened to it, so maybe sit down first.

Here’s Toumani Diabaté and the London Symphony Orchestra performing “Haïnamady Town”: And the best part is that this is just one track of a whole album they made together. Coming out on World Circuit Records on April 23, Kôrôlén, was commissioned as a special project by the Barbican Center—longtime Afropoppers will recognize the Barbican as where fellow World Circuit artists Orchestra Baobab began their comeback, but it’s home turf for the LSO. The album features Toumani and his group of Malian musicians including singer Kasse Mady Diabaté and balafon player Lassana Diabaté. Conducted by Clark Rundell, the LSO is playing dedicated arrangements from Nico Mulhy and Ian Gardiner, who crafted the orchestral parts with “room for” Diabaté and company to improvise within, although it seems like once the arrangements were made,

Toumani Diabaté

both Team U.K. and Team Mali worked to intertwine the parts.

A willing and creative foil to artists like Bjork, Bela Fleck and the Cuban artists on Afrocubism, Diabaté wanted to show a

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side of African music that’s lesser known than the continent’s myriad danceable grooves; he wanted to show off Africa’s own classical music, which is “older than Bach,” he likes to remind people. After all, this was music composed and performed

Photo: Courtesy Afropop

for the kings of Mali.

“There’s a mystic and classical side to African music, a divinity,” Toumani says.

“It is not only about dance, and people need to know this.”

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March 8-14, 2021 Issue 460