The Price of fame, Michael Jackson

The economic significance of the week in question begins and ends with individuals who contributed immensely to the lives of the others, some of whom like Bernie Madoff did away with other people's money and others were held in death by debt. How times never change? The man Jackson, had a terrible banging of all the problem of fame and fortune, which simply include infamy and misfortune. Michael Jackson according to Newspaper of New York held dear the estimated debt of 400 million dollars. But many have problem believing in such debt since the quote came from one source 'Daily News'. Bernie Madoff disgorged people who baited on him over a huge wealth totalling 50 Billion and was sentenced to a 150 years in Jail, but his case seem over shadowed by Jackson's funeral arrangement.

On 25 of June 2009, Michael Jackson, the world renowned Pop was proclaimed dead from Cardiac arrest in his home in Los Angeles, California. He was readying himself for a world wide tour, which was to start with London. Perhaps the complicated nature of the exercise and the problem of divorce and his children's custody may have seriously added to his longing. What a man like Jackson can go through! Not many feel entirely sorry for him, especially African Americans whom he dislocated for a very long time ago. It is possible that his interest in ghouslishly dresscode and pop icon status, and his tilt towards a leverage light skin may be due to his lack of inner self worth and confidence, a hidden side of him, which forced him to return again and again to his immortal youth. In spite of what people he might have done to help the course of the world, it is perhaps right to say that he dislocated the chain from his African American heritage along time ago and it did not help him that much.

In the 1980's Jackson's commercials yielded billions in sales, both from Coca Cola industries and from other commercial groups. Michael Jackson made very little from these commercials especially his world popular "stuck in the middle". He was one of the few that made afro-hair quite popular in the 70's and in the 1982 'thriller' everything broke loose from "funk, Pop, Jazz, disco" etc. The thriller album broke all the records in grammy music awards and the director of the studio album, Quincy Jones, also won several awards. Those directly involved in this 'thriller' album and its aftermath, from US to Africa were instantly rich from patronage of the Album and from salesmanship, but it is easy to see that from that great success in 1982, Michael Jackson could neither surpass his ability nor match his success.

In some reflection, we can say that only few will fail to think well of the guy, but if there is any commercial lesson to learn from this life, it should begin and end with the relevance of a great African American like Michael Jackson, Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Ophray Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Don King, Mike Tyson, George foreman, Evander Hollyfield, Quincy Jones, Bill Cosby, Will Smith, Queen Latifa, Sean 'P.Diddy' John, Russel Simmon, Al Sharpton, T.D Jakes, Cleflo Dollar, Collin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Maya Angelou, Toni Morison, Clerence Thomas, Barry Bonds, Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Jermaine Jackson, Prince, Eavin 'Magic' Johnson, Jerry Rice, Lawrence Taylor, Charlse Barckley, Jim Brown, Anthony Kevin 'Toni' Dunjy, Kareem Abdul Jabber, Bill Russel, Hank Aaron, Julius Ervin, Spike Lee, Morgan Freeman, Larry Fishbourne, Samuel Jackson, Martin Lawrence, Ving Rhimes, Wesley Snipes, Wayan Brothers, Cuba Gooding Jr., Danny Glover, Forrest Whitaker, Denzel Washington, Ice Cube, Lelia Ali, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Funk Flex, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and latterly, Lebrun James, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, Curtis '50 cents' Jackson, Bobby Brown, Curry Booker, Beyonce' Knowles, Steve Harvey, Jay-Z, Jamie Foxx, Dave Chappelle, Halle Berry, Dwight Howard, who still form a useful part of the living and who can still help African American society and market.

Then all the current bosses of both New York and US; David Paterson, Barak Obama, should take this reminder of Michael Jackson's early death as an indication to 'must do' for Africa Americans...who should come first in their actions. These are nothing short of great Americans, and contribute to making billions annually for world economic surging markets. Only whites can attempt the list above, there is nothing Hispanic, Indian, Arabic, Ethican White, and so on, or combined that can match this record. The way American society is structured is such that African Americans still make up 90 percents of inmates in prison and constitute American poor. American society is made up of branches but the color of these branches ought to be maintained through patronage of its existing fibre and a flower like Amarylis radiate from inside out. Always from inside.

By Iroabuchi Onwuka