February 23, 2021
"I don’t want to see my children’s, children’s children have to say 'Oh please like me, please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.' What is that?"
Said Stevie Wonder, explaining why he is moving — permanently — to Ghana (CNN).
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109 comments:
He can see?
He's a comfortable celebrated multi-millionaire who lives in America.....but he wants his great-great-grandchildren to grow up in Ghana? What, The Congo wasn't available?
He is way beyond caring about.
TBF, he's not known as Stevie Einstein.
Good luck with that.
Presumably his children will still have US citizenship so they can come home when this silliness passes?
Goebbels was right.
"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself."
He can see?
Maybe.
"No one is saying Stevie Wonder is definitely not blind. No one is saying that. That said, Stevie Wonder might not be blind."
- Deadspin
Wait. the holy and precious democratics are running the show. Won't be happy?
Yeah, because White people never have to worry about being liked, respected, valued or important.
Grow up Stevie... the world is a harsh place, and no one owes you or your descendants anything.
I think you are going to be displeased by the African's reactions to your American family.
Ghana is relatively stable with a young growing population. PPP/capita has doubled in the past 12 years. Main language is English.
Might have more opportunities there than a shrinking socialist, worse than Europe Biden designed America.
The People and "our Posterity" deprecated. Diversity dogma, not limited to racism, is a progressive condition.
Well, bye.
He need not have moved so far. He could have just moved to a blue state/city/town. You know, one where Democrats are not in charge.
He's a comfortable celebrated multi-millionaire who lives in America.....but he wants his great-great-grandchildren to grow up in Ghana? What, The Congo wasn't available?
There are two Congos, and they are both, to use a term of art, shitholes. Ghana is actually pretty advanced and stable for Africa.
So I did a quick search and it turns out Stevie Wonder has been saying basically this same thing for the last 47 years.
He has had nine children with five different women. The youngest child is six years old. The oldest is 46.
His Wikipedia entry reads like it has been written by a public relations company.
This isn't the first time he has said he was considering moving to Ghana. In 1994, he said he felt there was "more of a sense of community" than in the US.
In the words of George H.W. Bush:
"Not Ghana do it. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture."
"I don't want to see my children's children's children have to say, 'Oh please like me. Please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.'"<<
I presume then that his children and their children and their children are all moving with him. Because that is the only way that blather could work, right? That's one hell of an undertaking, SteveO.
Todd said...
He need not have moved so far. He could have just moved to a blue state/city/town. You know, one where Democrats are not in charge.
Maybe Detroit?
Why couldn't he have done this decades ago?
Good riddance...
Btw, have you seen Stevie Wonder's new piano?
Just do it then, why talk to Oprah about it? Or are you just looking for attention?
This might become a problem. Americans are definitely leaving the country at a higher rate than the U.S. is actually growing. And a lot of us already "digital nomads" working from home. Why not live in a different country?
And what if this becomes "White flight"? How funny if anti-immigrant Whites exit diverse areas by becoming immigrants themselves?
And how do we confront this as a country? Can the U.S. tax foreigners after they revoke their citizenship? It would be something like California's proposed "Wealth and Exit Tax" (0.40% annual tax on an individual's worldwide wealth). It could get ugly...
America has made Stevie Wonder rich. That never would have happened in Ghana.
I suspect he's moving in order to save potential estate and income taxes.
That didn’t “explain” anything. WTF is Stevie trying to say?
Oh, and try living there on the median salary of about $10,000.
If he moves there, I'm guessing he will be the richest man in the country with the exception of the usual kleptocrats in that part of the world.
So not a big sacrifice for him or his progeny.
On the plus side, he'll be next door to Togo, so at least there will be good sandwiches...
Stevie Wonder has accumulated an estimated net worth of $110 million despite having marginal talent because he is black and blind. The whining by black athletes and entertainers whose wealth and privilege exceeds that of 99+% of the population is both ridiculous and unbecoming.
My son and his wife have lived in Uganda for many years. It’s tough. I’m guessing that without his millions Little Stevie and his brood wouldn’t last a year in Ghana or any of the other less developed African nations.
Guess he gave up on the ivory keys.
Us Passport, pay US tax....
I'm sure he didn't mean to promote white nationalism.
Artists
On the plus side, he'll be next door to Togo, so at least there will be good sandwiches...
They have Jersey Mike's in Togo?
Can the U.S. tax foreigners after they revoke their citizenship?
>>
No.
There is, however, an "exit tax" for when you renounce your citizenship if you're worth more than $2M, or an average annual tax liability of $160k (? somewhere around there) or more in the past 5 years.
I know of no one who has actually paid that however. As you can probably imagine, there are many ways to avoid it.
"please like me, please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.' What is that?"
WTF? 1. Please like me pleas are a form of self-abasement. 2. If Stevie Wonder and family are not liked and respected, no one is. 3. To the extent that Stevie is serious and representative, it shows that there can be no reconciliation. The rest of us might as well get on with life.
Why not Ebony and Ivory Coast?
He has had nine children with five different women.
What?
Sounds very superstitious.
Gahrie: "There are two Congos, and they are both, to use a term of art, shitholes. Ghana is actually pretty advanced and stable for Africa."
In another generation all of Northern Ghana will be a muslim dominated separatist state and within 2 generations Stevie Wonder's grandchildren and great grand children will be forced to flee Ghana or convert to radical islam.
How many Ghanaians would gladly swap places with him? 10,000? 100,000?
He'll like the scenery.
I spent a year hitchhiking from Nairobi to Cape Town and chatted with hundreds of Black Africans on many long rides. One of the abiding lessons I came away with is that they generally consider American Blacks to be sort of silly, especially in their pretense to Africanness.
Be sure to wear one of those fancy dashikis you like so much when you get off the plane at Accra Airport, Stevie. The Ghanaians will really respect you and will like you a whole lot.
"I suspect he's moving in order to save potential estate and income taxes."
Estate tax rates
US: 40%
Ghana: 0
Income tax rates
US (+CA): 53%
Ghana: 30%
But sure, one of the fabulously wealthy black artists beloved and feted by white people for decades is moving because of racism.
Really stevie
https://web.archive.org/web/20150923171329/http://asantekingdom.org/history/history-of-asante-confederacy/
Income tax rates
US (+CA): 53%
Ghana: 30%
>>
Dividend tax rates: US: 53% (CA)
Ghana: 8%
“I don’t want to see….” – Stevie Wonder.
Strange. You’d think he’d want to.
I spent a year hitchhiking from Nairobi to Cape Town and chatted with hundreds of Black Africans on many long rides. One of the abiding lessons I came away with is that they generally consider American Blacks to be sort of silly, especially in their pretense to Africanness.
>>
Yep. Also, while I found Ghana pleasant enough, the Caribbean islands are much closer to our culture than Africa. Most are of a similar complexion, and enough are English speaking to move there.
But not like I explored this. Oh wait, I'm moving there.
On the one hand, I respect someone who actually moves out of the US rather than just talking about it.
On the other hand, he is old enough to be a grandfather. I don't know how old his children are, but if they are staying in the US, his great-grandchildren will still be asked to make a decision whether he will be worthy of admiration and respect, 80 or 100 or 20 years from now.
I originally interpreted Wonder's comment as that he doesn't want generations of his offspring to grow up with a victimhood mentality ...
Good for him. The more elite and talented black men returning to Africa, the better. They'll vastly improve the quality of their real home and reduce ethnic tension in America. Do people just resent him not thinking America is the greatest place on Earth for people like him?
Actually, that's probably true. Our corporate overlords and occupied government scream Black Lives Matter, yet the modern African American knows his lot hasn't truly improved. More- they feel the hatred and resentment of the white "underclass" building to the point of sustained ethnic violence. Most black people can't articulate this specifically, much less point to the historical trends, but they can feel it.
Btw, have you seen Stevie Wonder's new piano?
——————-
I have not. But to be fair, neither has he.
For Americans interested in Africa, I'd suggest that they acquaint themselves with the following books.
Keith Richburg wroteOut of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa.
In “the most honest book to emerge from Africa in a long time” (USA Today), a black american correspondent for the Washington Post reports on the horrors he witnessed in Somalia, Rwanda, South Africa, and other troubled African nations-and reflects on his own identity. Map; updated with a new afterword.
Eddy L. Harris wrote Native Stranger: A Black American's Journey into the Heart of Africa
The author, an black American, travels through Africa. It is a triumph of superb writing and philosophical reflection. Quite possibly the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It is a travel book, but so much more – not as much about Africa as people, skin color, race, generosity, need, pride, and everything else that makes people human. The description was incredible: I could put the book down for long periods of time, and when I started again was transported instantly back to where Harris was, with no gap in the experience. It is about the generosity of people who have nothing, the patient endurance of people who have been conquered. Finally, Harris' honesty was astounding: he described his neuroses about germs, his anger, his sadness, his happiness in South Africa which astounded him, the tyranny of black officials, his moments of luxury amidst poverty – all this without flinching, clearly and calmly. A perfect travel book
We raised our children to value themselves and ignore those that might judge them without knowing them. To NOT seek outside validation but identity their personal measure of individual worth. (hint: material things should not be on your list) Our children are doing exactly the same thing.
It is hard to explain how stupid a person has to be to think politics is the answer.
KnownUnknown said, "I originally interpreted Wonder's comment as that he doesn't want generations of his offspring to grow up with a victimhood mentality ..."
So did I.
I predict he will not find what he seeks there, even though he is fabulously rich and his children's children's children can possibly live on that unless they piss their shares away.
As a point of comparison, I used to hear similar sentiments when I would go on short term missions to Romania. The Americans* would rhapsodise about how much greater the sense of community was there among those peasants. This among a population where one-third was estimated to have informed on others to the Securitate, the secret police, during the Ceausescu era. My Romanaian sons get genuinely angry when people try to sell this idea to them.
*Very occasionally Canadians went. No one in Europe went to help at the clinics and orphanages in Romania. Only Americans.
Tax payer dollars in the US are primarily wasted by insider government graft.
Other places always seem so nice and safe when you don't really know what is going on. I wandered alone around parts of Paris that I later found out were considered dangerous. Who knew.
It's a strange phenomenon.
I wandered alone around parts of Paris that I later found out were considered dangerous. Who knew.
>>
The only place in Europe I've felt unsafe is Marseille.
To be fair, that city has always been a den of thieves.
Saturn
Packing my bags, going away
To a place where the air is clean
On Saturn
There's no sense to sit and watch the people die
We don't fight our wars the way you do
We put back all the things we use
On Saturn
There's no sense to keep on doing such crimes
There's no principles in what you say
No direction in the things you do
For your world is soon to come to a close
Through the ages all great men have taught
Truth and happiness just can't be bought or sold
Tell me why are you people so cold
I'm going back to Saturn where the rings all glow
Rainbow moonbeams and orange snow
On Saturn
People live to be two hundred and five
Going back to Saturn where the people smile
Don't need cars cause we've learn to fly
On Saturn
Just to live to us is our natural high
We have come here many times before
To find your strategy to peace is war
Killing helpless men, women and children
That don't even know what they are dying for
We can't trust you when you take a stand
With a gun and bible in your hand
And the cold expression on your face
Saying give us what we want or we'll destroy
I'm going back to Saturn where the rings all glow
Rainbow moonbeams and orange snow
On Saturn
People live to be two hundred and five
Going back to Saturn where the people smile
Don't need cars cause we've learned to fly
On Saturn
Just to live to us is our natural high
That’s the thing about Grammy winners in America. They get no respect.
He should have chosen a nicer African nation like the DRC
Ghana? Is his plan to die younger so he never has to meet them? I'm unclear from this excerpt what his concern is and how moving to Ghana will help with it. Pretty much no matter what the question is, I don't see how Ghana is the answer.
KnownUnknown said, "I originally interpreted Wonder's comment as that he doesn't want generations of his offspring to grow up with a victimhood mentality ..."
Me too. Huh.
Ghana will extort every dime they can off Steve.
Lots of luck Steve... your 'children's children's children' will live in a s*ithole failed state just so they can 'respect' you.
The man is 70 years old. If he's planning to move to Ghana, he should get on it. If he does move, my guess is he'll choose to get his medical care in the U.S. or Europe. Private jets are helpful that way.
"Stevie Wonder has accumulated an estimated net worth of $110 million despite having marginal talent because he is black and blind."
The man is a liberal asshole, but he is very talented...nothing 'marginal' about it.
Gotta give credit where it's due.
I have the same worries for my kids, thanks to asshats like Stevie Wonder and guilt-ridden white liberals who vote for BLM candidates to gain "woke" approval and care more about bullshit racial narratives than their own kids and grandkids.
Stevie must be blind to not see what's going on with race in this country..oh, wait...
I have more empathy for Stevie Wonder than Jim Carrey, but I think about him even less. I would applaud him for being a liberal of principle and moving rather than forcing change on this country, but he hasn’t actually left. I suspect leaving may help with alimony and child support while finding more opportunities for wives and making children.
He's gotta renounce his U.S. citizenship, or he's still got income taxes and estate taxes. FATCA is a bitch.
"The man is a liberal asshole, but he is very talented...nothing 'marginal' about it."
Was gonna say the same thing. Phenomenally talented, and a fantabulous songwriter.
“He Was Made to Move There”
He was born in Ghana
Lots’a flora fauna
Never had no time for tears
He wore sandals and dashikis
Corns rows kind of kinky
Outran the lions in 4th gear
The sluice gates are open, but I don't think that's the way the current flows. I don't think he'll start a trend. The actual moving, I mean. Many artists have threatened to leave America, but Canada is usually where they don't move. Ghana not so much. The climate is probably better there, and they make festive coffins. At his age, such things are a consideration.... Maybe he knows something about Africa that all those African immigrants that have moved here don't. Many Rwandans were chopped to death with garden tools by their neighbors, but, on the plus side, they never had to live with soul killing reality of American racism.
Blogger hombre said...
Stevie Wonder has accumulated an estimated net worth of $110 million despite having marginal talent
2/23/21, 9:33 AM
Two people jumped in before me, but I can't resist. This is absolutely insane. "marginal talent"? Have you ever listened to Sir Duke? I Wish?
I moved to Europe in the 1990's, in part to get back to my roots. But I moved back to the US marry someone who eventually dumped me. Now I'm having thoughts of going back, even at an advanced age.
I chat on WhatsApp regularly with three 30-something gay Ghanaian men. One is a Customs official, one is a mini-mart proprietor, and one is unemployed. They all want to leave. The corrupt government is actively anti gay and opportunities to improve one's quality of life are severely limited. Stevie Wonder ought to know better, but I really feel for any kids he will be dragging along with him.
"I don’t want to see my children’s, children’s children have to say 'Oh please like me, please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.' What is that?" Can't be quite sure what he means, but I suppose he is saying a Black Lives Matter kind of thing. I want my children to know they matter.
It's all so sad. They are human beings, infinitely more valuable and precious than anything else in the universe. Each individual matters more than anything else there is.
It's as if a billionaire lost his mind, and is found wandering the streets, buttonholing people and demanding that they admit that he has a dollar.
Who taught them that they don't matter?
Is he renouncing citizenship and surrendering his passport? Unless he's doing this it's just a stunt.
"Then that time i went and said goodby,
Now i'm back and not ashamed to cry..."
He ain't going far.
He is phenomenally talented, however.
Keef said he’s a cunt.
Is he renouncing citizenship and surrendering his passport? Unless he's doing this it's just a stunt.
>>
Doubtful he'll ever follow through with just buying a house there, never mind moving or renouncing, like the last dozen times.
""I don't want to see my children's children's children have to say, 'Oh please like me. Please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.' What is that?""
I'd like to see a poll of how many people really got this kind of support growing up.
The standup comic Kathleen Madigan said everyone should have an entourage member like the boxers have, a guy who pats your back and says, "You're number one! They can't touch you! You're the man!"
Works for me.
I remember Randall Robinson's Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land, about his moving to the West Indies. The book was remaindered when Obama was elected, and it looks like Robinson is back in the US.
Stevie will probably be back. Still, I admire his going through with this, unlike all the entertainers who said they'd leave the country if Trump won.
Seems to me he was talking about cancel culture. Doesn't want his kids having to kiss ass to avoid being shunned and blacklisted.
The grass is always greener somewhere else.
Hey!
Come on. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
I'm gonna go, yeah. I'm gonna go, yeah
So let's just swing it one more time
(Harmonica plays final notes)
That interview was from Nov.5, 2020.
Stevie's still here.
I wonder why this is hitting all the news sites just now?
Stevie Wonder said he was interested in moving to Ghana in a 1974 interview, which (for the oldsters here with deteriorating mathematical skills) is approaching fifty years ago. It has nothing to do with you or Trump.
And for those who think Stevie Wonder lacks talent, have a listen to his string of five albums in the 1970s where he wrote every song and played nearly every instrument (including drums).
Surprised to learn he's 70 years old. Always thought he was younger than I.
Nothing wrong with black Americans going to Africa. Whether they come back or not, they'll be the wiser for it.
I know a few families that immigrated from Ghana to the US. They all say they came here to escape a culture of corruption and to raise their children where they could advance on effort and education, rather than on paying bribes.
I wonder how a culture of corruption might tempt Stevie's progeny, given their wealth and connections. Be careful what you wish for, Stevie. Your children's children's children may end up being "respected" and "important" for all the wrong reasons.
Coming to the US to escape corruption? That is a sentence that could only be written pre-Biden.
Wake me when Smokie Robinson says he's leaving then I'll grieve.
Has anyone called Stevie Wonder "Deplorable" or "irredeemable" lately?
He should just come out and say it's for tax avoidance reasons. Why should the US tax you on income earned outside the US? It's not like the government provided you as a US taxpayer services in the country that income was earned. As mentioned above FACTA is a bitch. Most foreign banks don't want American account holders. While doable it isn't easy to find a foreign bank that will accept American account holders. As for going to Ghana for tax purposes, there are Caribbean countries where the taxes are low and they will grant you citizenship for a price. The people in those islands are just as black if not more black than African Americans and they are the majority in the countries and they are the ones in charge. In addition there are plenty of relatively short flights to the US for medical treatment. Stevie can acquire a Caribbean citizenship, give up his US citizenship, pay the exit tax (which itself should be illegal) and if he lives long enough his heirs will avoid the US Estate tax. On a hundred million, the tax is no joke. That is what tax lawyers are for.
I am seriously considering moving to Europe for similar reasons.
Well, at least he's leaving ... which is more than can be said about the other ungrateful wretches who just threaten to leave every time they don't get their way.
In 2008, Congress created a "mark-to-market" exit tax regime through Sec. 877A, enacted as part of the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act of 2008, P.L. 110-245.Sec. 877A generally imposes a tax on expatriates by providing that all property of a covered expatriate is treated as sold on the day before the expatriation date at its fair market value (FMV). Any gain arising from the deemed sale constitutes income to the extent the gain exceeds an inflation-indexed threshold income amount, which was $713,000 for 2018 (Rev. Proc. 2017-58), for the tax year of the deemed sale.
Jeezum Crow.
I was mostly focussing on the rules of the countries I was looking at. To quote South Park, “I’m sorry, I thought this was America."
No mention of the tax advantages? How droll.
Stevie is just escaping the Biden administration's promised "wealth tax" (or more properly, the Great Depression Redux Bill of 2021).
He'll return along with the Age of Trump in 2024.
Bet he returns someday for health care.
Three wives and nine kids by five women. The oldest may be grown already and may have grandchildren of their own, but the youngest are still in grade school.
I wonder about artists who had hits in the past and don't anymore. I wonder what they've been doing all these years. Stevie's glory days were the Seventies, but he was winning Grammys in this century, so he must have been doing something right, even if nobody heard it.
"Most foreign banks don't want American account holders. "
Panama, and I think Costa Rica, would be notable exceptions to this.
Tim,
The exit tax is only if you’re renouncing. But yes, should be illegal.
Second, not that any thing I say here should be construed as financial advice, but the idea that you can’t legally avoid it is a joke. I can think of many ways just off the top of my head that an unscrupulous tax cheat might consider, but are likely legal.
Anyhoo
See ya from St. Kitt’s
I don't even know how to express my disappointment in this. I grew up with Stevie Wonder.
People want to be with others like them. OK, so. Little Italy. China town. Springwood Avenue. Collingswood.
People are wary of others. Got to dip your toe in the ocean's wave, before you're ready to just, dive in.
My Dad saw me at the ocean's edge, dipping my toe. He grabbed me, put me on his shoulders, and we went into the ocean. Terrifying. Dad broached no complaint or screaming. (I might have screamed a little). My Dad didn't say this, but he could have...Son, be not afraid.
After that, in those summer days, Mom would drop us off at the beach at 10-ish AM and tell us she would come back to be picked up at 5pm. A respite for her, a woman with 4 kids.
Mom complained that she had a hard time getting me out of the ocean. I rode the waves. Sometimes I missed and was crushed to the sea bottom. Almost out of air. Glorious.
Each one of us thought we were the most important person in the world. We weren't.
In NJ (and possibly NY), if you move out of state, you have to surrender something like 2% of your total gross assets. Not sure about the percent but there is definitely an "Exit Tax". F*ckers get you coming and going. And Phil Murphy is just like Cuomo, but he's much more sly and quiet about it. The results are the same, thousands of nursing home COVID deaths but he doesn't boast about his prowess the way Cuomo did.
tim in vermont said: "I am seriously considering moving to Europe for similar reasons."
Where? Just curious.
Ghana but not forgotten.
Watch out for those flying pyramids when you pass through Wakanda, Stevie.
(How do you type in braille on this blog?)
Known Unknown said...
//I originally interpreted Wonder's comment as that he doesn't want generations of his offspring to grow up with a victimhood mentality ...//
Ditto. Not a bad idea, I thought.
Why is a less charitable interpretation pervailing? I assume commentors here have a reason for it. I don't know much about Stevie Wonder.
if i remember right Stevie Wonder never saw this own children...
I spent three weeks in Ghana, from Accra, to Tamale, and Daboya.
He will live like a king in a prison. His wealth would make him probably the richest man in the nation by a couple orders of magnitude. They are very, very, poor. Their poverty makes Mexican border towns look fabulously wealthy. He will need to have great security, and he mostly won't be able to trust the security guards. He will be able to afford land and construct posh dwellings, but no one near him will have anything remotely as good.
I remember when we were driving past Tamale and hooked a left to travel to Daboya. I had thought we had found the nice place in Ghana because the previously omnipresent piles of trash strewn waste deep on the side of the road had ended. In fact, the people in this part of Ghana were too poor to have trash.
Congrats to Stevie for finding a place that will treat him as a king, and will bow and scrape to his every whim. I guess that's better than earning the respect of your peers.
"Stevie Wonder has accumulated an estimated net worth of $110 million despite having marginal talent,..."
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
I think Crack is laughing about the part of the comment that states Stevie Wonder had marginal talent. Geez, I'm a white supremacist, and that man, Stevie Wonder touched souls. Mine, anyway. Pretty sure he touched a lot of souls.
I'm kinda trolling here. Wondering if Readering will report me to the FBI, so I get the knock on the door. That's kinda where we are now.
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