March 28, 2011
June 23, 2010
Mumia conversation with Cornel West
Mumia on the death penalty – and in conversation with Cornel West
From trees to needles: an address to the ‘Lynching Then, Lynching Now, The Roots of Racism and the Death Penalty in America’ national tour
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Friends, brothers, sisters: Ona Move!
The anti-death penalty movement is an offshoot of the global human rights movement as expressed by private associations and later by a variety of governments.
It is noteworthy, then, for us to cite the state abolition of the death penalty in Kenya in 2009.
We should also note the fact that the rate of juries meting out death sentences has fallen to its lowest in 30 years.
And finally, several months ago, the group that was perhaps most instrumental in fashioning the present death penalty, the American Law Institute, announced it would no longer participate in formulating laws governing the death penalty. The ALI, a distinguished group of 4,000 judges, law professors and lawyers, were the people who initially proposed the aggravating and mitigating circumstances that the U.S. Supreme Court adopted in 1976 when it reinstated the death penalty.
And yet, despite this, the death penalty is alive and well in America. Why?
It makes no economic sense, but politicians are wedded to it.
That’s because at its core, the death penalty derives from, and thus replaces, lynch law. Is it mere coincidence that the states which are most active in capital punishment are Southern ones?
January 21, 2010
NYOIL -Vs- Carol M. Swain
NYOIL faces off with Carol M. Swain on BBC "World Have Your Say"
Today Live on the BBC's program "World Have Your Say" Hip Hop Artist/ Activist/ and the I.B.W. Ambassador to Hip Hop NYOIL faced off against conservative Carol M. Swain (http://www.carolmswain.net/biointro.html) in a discussion on Barack Obama's first year in Office.
January 20, 2010
Black suffering continues
Black suffering continues
After holding on November 7 the first national peace mobilization in Washington, D. C. since the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is holding its consolidation conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.
October 16, 2009
Circles of sameness
Circles of sameness
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
A young Black man, a graduate of one of the best law schools in America (Yale), who, from a poor family, uses his gifts and energies not to make a buck for Wall Street or Dow Jones, but to make a difference in his neighborhood of Oakland, California, by community organizing around social problems: jobs, the environment, clean energy, police violence and education.
Imagine what such a man must’ve felt to see an unprecedented presidential campaign by another young Black man, who, from modest economic means, also graduates from one of the best law schools in America (Harvard) and spurns lucrative offers from rich law firms to become a low paid community organizer on Chicago’s West Side, the city’s poorest, Blackest neighborhood.
Why, he must’ve felt that this was a man after his own heart. A man who came from the poor and returned to the poor, to serve and organize amongst them.
He must’ve thought that this was the coming of a New Age – a new era of profound social change in America.
So Van Jones, activist, joins the Barack Obama administration, as the green energy czar, a field he’s passionate about, to provide jobs in Black communities and conserve natural resources as part of a larger change in America’s addiction to oil.
But, almost immediately, Jones comes under attack from forces in America that really don’t want change.
Egged on by “conservative” shout show hosts, Jones was being labeled “racist” and that old Cold War charge that should’ve died with the fall of the Soviet Union, “communist.”
This should’ve had little impact on a president who has been called “racist” and “socialist” by the same people. These are, if not the very same people, certainly the ideological descendants of those who spit on Black children trying to go to schools during the Civil Rights movement, who called Martin Luther King Jr. a “communist” so loudly that he was under FBI electronic surveillance to the day he died and those at the forefront of the so called “debate” around health care.
For the, change means fear. In their dark imaginations, the only people who want change are communists.
It shouldn’t have had an effect, but it did. Jones resigned, to protect a president who wouldn’t protect him.
It reminded me of Lani Guinier, another brilliant Yale trained Black lawyer, who get left hanging when racists dubbed her “quota queen” when she was nominated for a post in the Clinton administrations Justice Department.
The more things change … If racists can ostensibly lose an election and still dictate policy, then have they really lost?
It seems to me that the loudest voices screaming “racist” are the most racist, who stood for a status quo that has never served anyone but themselves.
© Copyright 2009 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s brand new book, “Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A.,” available from City Lights Publishing, www.citylights.com or (415) 362-8193. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.
Source: SFBayViev
June 29, 2009
The Nationalist "Maoist" Movement in China
The Nationalist "Maoist" Movement in China
The Shifting Tide of Chinese Sentiment — A Nationalist "Maoist" Movement in China?
Joe Tougas writes: June 4th is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, what my friend in Beijing cautiously refers to in public as “that thing that happened in 1989.” In the context of that bloody day and the economic crisis, China is re-examining the merits of capitalism versus communism in a pivotal moment in the country’s history.
For the past six years, there’s been a political movement in China called Wu You Zhi Xiang, which roughly translates to “Utopia” in English. However, it should be noted the translation is very loose due to the absence of a completely correlating word that fully expresses the sentiment of this organization’s Chinese name.
With images of Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, and the Chinese flag at the meetings, where on can hear songs from the Cultural Revolution playing before the speakers get started. Utopia is critical of the United States, and the right wing of the Chinese government, particularly with regard to China’s neoliberal capitalism and economic involvement with the U.S. It also conveys a message through its literature that China should replace the U.S. as the world leader. Whether Mao Zedong would have agreed with these sentiments or not, there is a banner on the wall that says “we miss Mao” in Chinese.
June 28, 2009
Race and Recession Report
Race and Recession Report
While all Americans worry about economic insecurity during this crisis, its most damaging effects have been
unevenly distributed. People of color are unemployed, hungry, homeless and without healthcare at alarming
rates. Many have already fallen through the widening cracks in the social safety net, and countless more are
about to go under. This dire and worsening situation amounts to a state of emergency. Examining the disparities
reveals patterns that are not simply coincidental. Indeed, people of color face barriers to opportunity at
every turn, and the impact is devastating, not just to them, but also to struggling white people. Ultimately, to
ensure a stable and growing economy for all will require solutions that directly address these disparities.....Continue
June 02, 2009
A note on Solidarity
May 01, 2009
Children who kill never had a chance
Children who kill never had a chance
I have met children who became killers several times in my life
I have met children who became killers several times in my life: in the warzones of the Congo and the Central African Republic, and in the grey Young Offenders’ Institutes of Britain. When I read about the events that are alleged to have happened last weekend in South Yorkshire, I kept thinking about their small, paranoid eyes. Two brothers – aged ten and eleven – have been charged with torturing two other, younger kids. The victims had been hit with bricks, burned with cigarettes, and slashed with knives in a wild field.
We are a long way from knowing what happened in that field that afternoon, or who carried out these acts. But the visceral temptation when any children face accusations like this is to brand them as inherently evil demons who should be locked far from us for life. But the most famous case of child-on-child killing in British history – that of Mary Bell – shows us how flawed this initial reaction is.
In 1968, in the sagging streets of the poorest part of Newcastle, a ten year old girl strangled two toddlers – Martin Brown, and Brian Howe – to death. She then cut their bodies, and with her best friend, a mentally disabled thirteen year old, she left notes in a nursery saying: “We did murder Martain brown, fuckof you BAstArd.” She was reflexively described in the press as a child who had been “born evil”, a “monster” and “demon.”
Now we know what happened to her to make her into such a child. Mary’s mother, Betty Bell, was a severely disturbed alcoholic who had been sectioned at least once. She worked as a prostitute specialising in sado-masochism – whippings and stranglings. The first thing she said when Mary was placed into her arms after giving birth was: “Take the thing away from me!” She rejected her daughter and repeatedly tried to kill her by feeding her an overdose of sleeping tablets. But eventually, she did find a use for Mary. Once she turned four, she began to pimp her to paedophiles.
Mary never knew who her father was, but she suspected her mother had been inseminated by her own dad. Later in life, she asked her mother point blank if this was the case. She didn’t deny it. Betty simply said quietly: “You are the devil’s spawn.”
When she was ten, Mary made friends with another girl who was being raped by a local paedophile. All they had known in their lives was violent abuse – and they began to act it out. Mary tried to cut off one of the boy’s penises with a razor – a plain, crazed act of revenge for what she had experienced since she was a toddler.
Yet it is strangely comforting to see evil as a primordial external force, something alien that can be hunted down and confined to cages. It dodges the colder truth that I have learned from all the child-killers I have met: we all have the capacity for terrible cruelty and sadism, especially if we are subjected to horror ourselves. Which of us can be confident that, given such Mary Bell’s childhood, we wouldn’t have done something depraved?
Yet the trial of the two children who killed Jamie Bulger – and the websites trying to figure out where they are now, so they can be lynched – suggests we have barely progressed since then. Excellent works of investigative journalism like Blake Morrison’s book ‘As If’ have uncovered evidence that these children were subjected to violent and probably sexual abuse. We don’t want to hear it. We want devils and demons and a black-and-white world that tells us: no, it couldn’t have been you; this crime belongs to a different species.
These killings are not political parables. However much right-wingers want to make this a story about welfare dependency and left-wingers want to make it a story of brutal Thatcherite economics, these rare murders have happened in Britain at the same rate for over a century. They have to be understood at the personal, human level.
To understand and explain these cases is not to excuse, or justify. We are talking about the most terrible thing that can happen to a person: torture, and murder. The children who do this need to be humanely detained for as long as they are a danger. But everything we know about children who kill tells us they are invariably victims of extreme abuse themselves, deserving of compassion, not hysterical condemnation.
I have watched my friend Camilla Batmangelidh – the director of Kid’s Company – work with children in South London who have bricked, bottled and tortured other children. She explains: “Since the Bell and Bulger cases, we’ve learned a lot about how a developing brain reacts to abuse, but the judicial system hasn’t caught up. We now know from brain scans that if you have really poor quality care in childhood, your pre-frontal lobes don’t develop properly. Those are the parts of the brain that think rationally, empathise, and exercise self-control. It is physically impossible for these children to calm down and think a situation through. Their brains haven’t developed that way.” So to treat them like morally responsible mini-adults who just made a bad decision – as the British courts do today – doesn’t make sense. It is a neurological fiction.
When this impaired brain chemistry combines with violent abuse and rape, the children can become time-bombs. “They have been taught to see the world through one template: you’re a victim, or you’re an abuser. That’s how they think human relationships work,” Batmangelidh puts it. “At first, they are abused, and at some point they become determined to be a perpetrator, because then at least they have power and control. If you think those are your only two options in life, it seems preferable.”
As she said this, I remembered the child soldiers in Central Africa who pointed guns into my face and smirked. Their families had been bayoneted in front of them, and they had buried the bodies themselves. In the warzones of the Congo, I met eleven and twelve year old boys who had seen their mothers and sisters snatched away, and were then picked up by the militiamen and trained to rape and kill. Like Mary, they were re-enacting the violence they had experienced in a desperate attempt to switch roles: this time, they were the Big Men.
Children who kill are a question of mental health, not morality. They are internally destroyed children, not devils. Given the love and support that they deserve, such children can develop their frontal lobes and their capacity for empathy over time, and be released. As Gita Sereny’s reportorial masterpiece ‘Cries Unheard’ shows, Mary Bell eventually developed into a morally responsible adult and “a very, very loving mother” – albeit one perpetually haunted by the knowledge of what she had done.
Haven’t we progressed enough since the Middle Ages to see these truths, and reject the barbaric theology of “evil” children?
When accusations like this bleed into the news, we need to stand at the front of the looming lynch mob and say: Stop. Think. In 1861, a leader in The Times commented on the trial of two eight year old boys in Stockport who had tortured and killed a toddler. It said: “Children of that age cannot be held legally accountable in the same way as adults. It is absurd and monstrous that these two children have been treated like murderers.” Isn’t it time we progressed to 1862?
Originaly Published by http://www.johannhari.com; Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and the Huffington Post. He also writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, The New Republic, El Mundo, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times, and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines.
It's equal societies that thrive - and survive
When we rebuild after this disaster, we need to be guided by equality
It's equal societies that thrive - and survive
In the smoking rubble of market fundamentalism, we are all being forced to rethink the principles that order our societies – and one small, shining idea is rising from the wreckage. It is the idea of human equality.
The need for us to return to this, our best and most basic instinct, is spelled out in a new book by Professor Richard Wilkinson and Dr. Kate Pickett called ‘The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.’ It is the culmination of twenty-five years of scientific research. The truths it contains provide us with a compass to rebuild our societies – and a reason to be profoundly optimistic. There is a way we can make our societies dramatically better – and the impulse to do it is hard-wired into each of our brains.
It starts with a stark realization. For millennia, there was one obvious and necessary way to improve human life: raise material living standards. If you are hungry, you will be made a lot happier by food. If you are thirsty, you will be made a lot happier by water. The human impulse for self-improvement was simple: give us more, and give it to us now. But we now know from reams of studies that once your basic needs are met – once you pass the magic number of $25,000 a year – something changes.
We carry on accumulating and accumulating, because it’s what we’ve grown to think will give us happiness, but it works less and less. And after a while, this unhindered chasing of More More More by the very richest begins to make us miserable – and corrodes some of the other basics we need as humans.
One of our most basic psychological needs is for status – to feel that we are a valued member of our tribe. We evolved in small, very egalitarian tribes of hunter-gatherers, and have only lived outside them for a few minutes in evolutionary terms. So when we feel our status is threatened – or there is no way of becoming respected by the rest of the tribe – we begin to malfunction in all sorts of ways.
Indeed, other than being chased by a wild animal or worrying that our supplies of food, water and shelter will be cut off, nothing makes humans more anxious than panic about our status. Endless clinical trials show what happens to our bodies when we feel we are going to lose our status and could end up being looked on as inferior. Our bodies lock into a “fight-or flight” response, where our heart and lungs work harder, our blood vessels constrict, and we burn up our energy stores fast. Our systems flood with a hormone called cortisol.
If this lasts only a short period, it can be good for us: it helps us escape that growling lion, or pull ourselves out of the wreckage of a crashed car. But if it goes on for weeks or months, we begin to suffer all sorts of dysfunction – as we’ll see in a moment.
Yet we have built our societies on exaggerating this status panic – and we have been ratcheting it up over the past thirty years. The more unequal a society is, the more intense it becomes. Even if you slip to the bottom in Sweden, it’s not so very different from the top. But when there is a long social ladder and the bottom rung means humiliation and poverty, everyone at every rung feels a sweatier need to cling to their place – and the society starts to go wrong. This isn’t left-wing speculation: it is an empirical fact.
Japan and Sweden are very different societies, but they are consistently at the top of the charts for every indicator of social success. They have low violence, low mental illness, low teenage pregnancy, low drug addiction, low obesity, low prison populations, high life expectancy, and high levels of friendship and trust. They are economically highly equal societies. The US and Portugal are also very different societies, but they are consistently at the bottom of the charts. They are highly unequal societies. If you plot countries on a graph, you see the causal relationships with striking clarity. Increase inequality, and every one of these dysfunctions shoots up with it.
How can this be? When we are locked in stress, we get sicker. High cortisol levels corrode our insides and massively increase the risk of heart-attack. We eat more – and our bodies store fat differently. It hugs them to our middles, rather than storing them lower down, in our hips and thighs. We are far more likely to break down into depression or mental illness, or to snap and attack somebody. James Gilligan – the psychiatrist running the Center for the Study of Violence at Harvard Medical School – explains that acts of violence are “attempts to ward off or eliminate the feeling of shame and humiliation – a feeling that is painful, and can even be intolerable or overwhelming.” He adds that he has “yet to see a serious act of violence that did not represent an attempt to undo this ‘loss of face.’”
And when we are locked in stress, we become more suspicious of the people around us. In highly equal Sweden, 66 percent of people feel they can trust their fellow citizens – and as a result have the highest levels of friendship in the developed world. In highly unequal Portugal, only 10 percent of the population trust the rest: see the bars on the windows.
It can be easier to see how this model of stress and humiliation affects us by looking at our evolutionary cousins. In a recent study, scientists at the University of North Carolina took twenty macaque monkeys, divided them into groups of four, and put them in separate enclosures. In each little group, they formed hierarchies, with some at the top, and some at the bottom. They then made it possible for the monkeys to give themselves a dose of cocaine by pulling a lever. The dominant monkeys took very little cocaine – while the subordinate, humiliated monkeys took huge amounts. They were, in effect, compensating themselves for being at the bottom of the pile with no way out. Now think about the rates of drug addiction in Detroit, or South Central Los Angeles, or the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Our elites have adopted an ideology – the extreme inequality of market fundamentalism – that simply doesn’t suit our species. It makes us sick and aggressive and anxious. This doesn’t just affect the poor: the studies show the disastrous effects of inequality run right up the ladder.
It doesn’t have to be this way. By democratically taxing the rich and using the money to lift up the poor, we can make life better for all of us. Of course there must be some income differentials – but nothing like our own grotesque rates. Plato suggested the richest person should be allowed to earn fives times the wage of the poorest person, which seems fair to me. The evidence is in, and it is plain: a more equal society is a happier, safer, and healthier one. (The obvious exception to this rule is Communist societies. They were incredibly miserable: if equality is imposed by crazed tyrants, at the expense of freedom, then it has none of these positive effects.)
Wilkinson and Pickett explain how the US would change over time if we taxed and invested our way to the same levels of economic equality as social democratic Sweden: “The proportion of the population feeling they could trust others might rise by 75 percent – presumably with matching improvements in the quality of community life; rates of mental illness and obesity might similarly be cut by about two-thirds, teenage birth rates could be more than halved, prison populations might be reduced by 75 percent, and people could live longer while working the equivalent of two months less a year.”
In Britain, “levels of trust might be expected to be two-thirds higher [with all the improvements in community life that brings], mental illness more than halved, everyone would get an additional year of life, teenage birth rates would fall by a third, homicide rates would fall by 75 percent, everyone could get the equivalent of almost seven weeks extra holiday a year, and the government would be closing prisons all over the country.”
It’s a shining vision – and not utopian. It exists now in a free, democratic country. Most Americans and Brits intuitively want it: over 80 percent say the income gap is too high. It is only the undemocratic, concentrated power of the wealthy that holds us up.
And there is another, even more sombre reason why we need to democratically equalize our societies. We are now highly likely to face a series of destabilizing and dangerous climate shocks. In his book ‘Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Survive’, Jared Diamond looks at the societies throughout history that have faced similar shocks. The difference between the ones that died out and the ones that survived was relative equality. If the elite stands far above the population and can insulate itself from the effects of the shock – for a while, at least – then the society doesn’t make it through. We need to reorganize ourselves now, while we can.
At the end of the failed age of market fundamentalism, the long-suppressed democratic cry for equality is emerging once again. Its glow should be at the core of how we move beyond this cold, cold depression.
Originaly Published by http://www.johannhari.com; Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and the Huffington Post. He also writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, The New Republic, El Mundo, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times, and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines.
February 26, 2009
You Are Being Lied To About Pirates
Behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal
By Johann Hari / http://www.JohannHari.com
Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labelling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side.
Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age of piracy" – from 1650 to 1730 – the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: pirates were often saved from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can't? In his book Villains Of All Nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence.
If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – plucked from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry – you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the Cat O' Nine Tails. If you slacked often, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.
Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century".
They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly – and subversively – that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal Navy." This is why they were romantic heroes, despite being unproductive thieves.
The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirateing to live." In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.
Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."
At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."
This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence".
No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." William Scott would understand.
Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.
The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of the sea." The pirate smiled, and responded: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor." Once again, our great imperial fleets sail – but who is the robber?
Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and the Huffington Post. He also writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, The New Republic, El Mundo, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times, and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines.
Congo’s riches belong to the Congolese
by Kambale Musavuli
Speech delivered Jan. 17 in Raleigh, N.C.; videos follow
Rallying on the 48th anniversary of the U.S.-backed assassination of the great Patrice Lumumba, the Congo’s first freely elected prime minister, student leader Kambale Musavuli speaks in Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 17. – Photo: Peter Peyechu
Veiw Film: Can Anyone Save Congo?: The March - Part 1
This superbly produced film is the beginning of a journey into the hearts and the minds of the Congolese in America, as they Break the Silence and fight to SAVE CONGO! The filmmakers are Charles Vakala and Eric B. Ndelo, who also did the editing, of Divine Righteous Children. It transports us to the march and rally in Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 17, the 48th anniversary of the U.S.-backed assassination of one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, Patrice Lumumba.
Forty-eight years ago, on this 17th day of January, the first freely elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Emery Lumumba, was brutally murdered by the United States, Belgium and certain local elites because he wanted the resources of the Congo to benefit the Congolese people. He, as a public servant to his people, fought day in and day out to bring the Congolese people independence from Belgium.
On this day we commemorate him, we need to always remember that he gave his life for us to have a better future than he had. His legacy lives and his bullet-proof ideas still resonate in our generation. As I speak to you today, the underlying reason of his murder still remains the central question for the conflict in the Congo since 1996: The underlying issue is who is going to control Congo’s wealth and for whose benefit.
To those of you who may not know what is taking place in the Congo, I would like to tell you that Congo is bleeding and dying a thousand deaths. The Congo is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, where nearly 6 million people have died since 1996 - half of them children under the age of 5 - and hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, all as a result of the scramble for Congo’s wealth.
The United Nations says it is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II. Yet, Doctors Without Borders say that it is one of the most under-reported stories of our time. The media is silent, the government is silent and the world is silent.
Why is the world silent? “A time comes when silence is betrayal,” says Dr. Martin Luther King. He goes on to say, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is a scar on the human conscience to know what is happening in the Congo and do nothing about it.
It is up to all of us to help the children of the Congo who live in a refugee camp for months, sometimes years, just because the world needs the resources of the Congo. As Che Guevara stated years ago, “The Congo problem is a world problem.”
As Gaza receives the media attention due to the unthinkable tragedy taking place there, we shall not forget that immeasurable tragedies are taking place in the Congo - with 45,000 people dying every month just for the blings of our lives and the rings of our phones.
What can we all do to work with our brave brothers and sisters in the Congo waging a fight for peace and human dignity?
In the Congo, 45,000 people are dying every month just for the blings of our lives and the rings of our phones.
I will start with you, my Congolese brothers, sisters and elders. I want you to remember what Lumumba said before his death in his last letter to his wife, “that the future of the Congo is beautiful and that it expects for each Congolese to accomplish the sacred task of reconstruction of our independence and our sovereignty; for without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.” A greater sacrifice on the part of Congolese is needed for the sons and daughters of the Congo.
Patrice Lumumba in Stanleyville, May 1960
What sacrifices are we willing to make so that our brothers and sisters in Congo can live peacefully as we do in America? What kind of sacrifices are we making so that our Congolese children can go to school as they do here, so that our young mothers are not widowed, so that our sisters are not raped, so that our brothers are not joining militias because there is no better option, so that people do not go hungry in the most fertile land in Africa? What sacrifices are we willing to make so that our Congolese families can live in dignity, as we do here? WHAT SACRIFICE ARE WE MAKING!
We are the ones who will rebuild our beautiful country. We need you in every sector of life. The world will help us, but they won’t fight for our country. The world would put pressure on their governments but will not elect our leaders in 2011. The world will advocate for us but will not reform our political system for us.
We must sacrifice our time to the Congo, our life if necessary. Some of us are Congolese Americans and should pressure the American government by lobbying day in and day out to alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters at home. Some of us work for hospitals and could help in sending medical supplies to many clinics that need it at home. Some even own companies, and they could help in any way possible.
Our people on the ground need your help. Always remember our origin. They can take you out of the Congo, but they cannot take Congo out of you. We need to support our people at home. The future of the Congo is bright, as I can see in the eyes of students and people I meet all over the country.
Fifth graders at Kipp DC: Will Academy, a middle school in Washington, D.C., raised $800 in one day for the movement after a presentation about the conflict taking place in the Congo. The Avonside Girls’ High School students mobilized their whole school to join the international cell-out (cell phone usage boycott) and had a public relations firm help them to get the word out on the war in Congo in their community.
Not to forget my beloved Aggies, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University students, who went around the campus and collected 1,200 student signatures and the endorsement of more than 40 student organizations’ presidents so that our university would join the Break the Silence Movement and receive an official letter of recognition from the chancellor of the university.
Through all my travels, I’ve met so many compassionate people from all races and faiths. And all of them were ready to support the Congolese people. To all of you who are here on this cold day, remember that Congo needs you. As Dr. King explained: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
The forces against the Congo are tremendous. We want you to join the global movement to break the silence around the atrocities taking place in the Congo. We hope that this new wind can be TODAY what the Free South Africa movement was yesterday. Bring your talents, your ideas, your skills to help us support the Congolese people.
Call your local leaders, radio stations, inform your professors in your universities, talk with Congolese as they try to find healing from this suffering. Let people in your network know about the Congo.
Just imagine Congo’s spectacular potential, which ranges from its fauna and flora to its untapped reserves of resources. It is a storehouse of strategic minerals we use in our daily lives. Sixty-four percent of the world’s reserves of coltan are found in the Congo. It is a part of the second largest rainforest in the world behind the Amazon. It has the hydro capacity to provide electricity for the entire African continent, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East. It could feed the entire world through 2050.
Did you know that the oldest mathematical artifact was found in the Congo? It is called the Ishango bones and is about 22,000 years old.
All the potential of the Congo can be realized with unity, dedication and the submission of individual and personal aspirations to the collective will. We ask that you BREAK THE SILENCE in your daily lives and support us in our quest to bring about fundamental changes in the Congo.
Lumumba stated, “We are not alone. Africa, Asia and free and liberated people from every corner of the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese.” I hope you will stay engaged in our quest to bring peace and stability in our Congo and finally start rebuilding our country and help it rise like a phoenix.
When the Congo won independence in 1960, Lumumba pointed the way: “Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness.”
Thank you, God bless you, God bless the Congo!
Kambale Musavuli is spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo. He can be reached at Kambale@friendsofthecongo.org. Call 1-888-584-6510 or visit CongoWeek.org to arrange for the Break the Silence Spring Speakers Tour to come to your community - your university, high school, organization, labor union or business group. Become a Friend of the Congo at FriendsoftheCongo.org.
Obama is president: Time for self-deliverance
by Cash Michaels
Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal
Obama’s people greeted his inauguration as no new president has ever been greeted. Of the 1.8 million people who packed the Washington Mall in freezing weather, some say nearly half were Black. Many carried flags who had never had reason to wave one before. – Photo: Kimara
Wilmington, N.C. (NNPA) - Now that Barack Hussein Obama has taken the oath of office to become the 44th president of the United States, and the first African-American ever to do so, what will he do for Black America?
With over 2.5 million American jobs lost last year, the auto industry near collapse, millions of Americans losing their homes, two foreign wars and a national economy on life support, President Obama has more to deal with coming into office than any other president in history.
So what can the Black commander in chief do to help address high unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, substandard education and many other maladies that perennially plague the African-American community?
Panelists who took part in Kwanzaa Joy: A Community Celebration of Our First African-American President late last month, all agreed that before Blacks ask that question, they should first ask, “What are we going to do for ourselves?”
“I’m looking forward to his presidency with great expectations, but we have to work,” Stella Adams, owner of S.J. Adams Consulting in Durham and formerly the executive director of the North Carolina Fair Housing Center, told those gathered for Kwanzaa Joy at the Vital Link in CrossLink School in Southeast Raleigh.
“We have to help Obama,” Adams continued. “He’s cleaning up a major mess. One man cannot do the work. So it’s going to be incumbent on us to figure out where we fit in in helping him.”
Adams said that means African-Americans have to continue to be politically civically active, electing local officials who also share President Obama’s vision of change that America can believe in.
“He needs more than our vote,” she concluded. “He needs our work.”
Irving Joyner, associate law professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law, said African-Americans have to realize that Obama “wasn’t elected to be the top civil rights leader … nor was he elected to articulate or promote the African-American agenda.”
Joyner continued, “Electing Barack Obama president doesn’t mean we have overcome … We could put too much faith in him to deliver us, when we need to be organizing to deliver ourselves.”
Joyner added that African-Americans must be serious about delivering on their own agenda, because there may be times when the community has to disagree with President Obama on various policy issues.
Poetess and community activist Ajuba Joy reinforced the notion that African-Americans now have every reason to improve their communities and, by doing so, they help President Obama address the ills of the nation.
Joy also expressed confidence in First Lady Michelle Obama, saying that she is the president’s closest adviser, and being a proud, accomplished Black mother, she won’t allow him to forget the community.
Marquita McAlpine, graduating NCCU senior, an NAACP member and president of the NCCU Presbyterian Campus Ministry, agreed that the African-American community must “continue to work.”
But she also admonished the Kwanzaa Joy audience “not to underestimate” the power and commitment of young people, especially after their impressive support for Obama at the polls.
“We’re still involved; the momentum is still alive,” McAlpine said.
NCCU Political Science Professor Jarvis Hall said “Amen” to the notion that no one individual, not even President Barack Obama, “can change the systemic problems that exist in America today.”
Hall said, “At times, we’re going to have to push Barack Obama. We’re going to have to make sure that he is true to the progressive agenda that he’s promoted. And it’s going to be up to us to continue this movement.”
Rev. William Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, said while he agreed with much of what he’d heard from his fellow panelists, theologically no one really knows what’s going to happen next.
Barber said God has made this Barack Obama’s time for a reason that still may not be clear to African-Americans. He concludes, “We’re thinking it’s about him, when it could be about us.”
NNPA, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, serves over 200 Black newspapers. Read more stories from the Black press at www.BlackPressUSA.com
A Reoccurring Racist Nightmare
by Dellano Cleveland
Immediately after Johannes Mehserle, the cop who executed Oscar Grant, was granted bail on Friday, a small army of Oakland police prepare at 14th and Jackson to protect downtown Oakland property from the people …
Unfortunately, once again we find ourselves in a reoccurring racist nightmare. On New Year’s Day 2009, a BART pig at the Fruitvale station in Oakland viciously assassinated an unarmed young Black man. As we sit here behind the walls of the prison industrial complex, we struggle to confront this brutality, an all out campaign to execute with malice any disfranchised people with impunity. This cop knew what he was doing when he pulled his weapon and blatantly murdered an innocent, unarmed human being with total disregard for this man’s life.
But understand we all are very saddened by the tragic loss of Brotha Oscar Grant, and after sadness comes retribution. This Amerikkka has taught us this action must be resolved in order to move forward.
To the family of Brotha Grant our great respect and condolences are extended. But, Brothas and Sistas, this is all about all of the people who have been assassinated by the system. To our ancestors on slave ships to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Brotha Malcolm X to Brotha Emmit Till to Brotha Diallo, shot 41 times reaching for his wallet in New York, to Brotha Sean Bell to the li’l ol’ grandmother in Georgia, where the pigs
… backed up at 14th and Harrison with their tank-like Hummer …
raided the wrong house. To Tyisha Miller, shot 24 times by the Riverside pigs; after they stop laughing, Sgt.Gregory Preece, makes the statement: “If it will help her family, tell them we used Black bullets,” according to the Black Voice News.
Understand that no amount of training will change the minds of this racist society. Already $22 million has been spent on training in Riverside County to improve community and sensitivity relations within the community and nothing has changed, according to the Black Voice newspaper I once read, trying to sustain mental sanity, spiritual health, social life and political struggle in the midst of a slave holding white supremacist civilization that has viewed itself as the most enlightened, free, tolerant and democratic experiment in human history. But this cannot happen unless you try.
So when you see anger in the streets, please do not feel as though your loved ones are being disrespected. It’s because the people need something or someone to rally for, against this racist bloodthirsty system that has forever stood on the backs of the people in order to maintain control of the very community they are sworn to protect.
… as windows are boarded up along 14th Street. – Photos: Dave Id, Indybay
The people are desperately seeking equality and the Amerikkkan dream. In 2009, minorities are still being viciously murdered in the concrete jungles of this Amerikkka. While you are arresting the people for marching in the streets in protest, you have the audacity to wait two to three weeks to arrest a pig who assassinated an unarmed Black man lying face down. Jim Crow is alive and well in Amerikkka. You should be so lucky to have a few windows broken.
Martin L. King said [in his Letter from Birmingham Jail written in 1963]: “This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists [Thurgood Marshall], that ‘Justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”
Send our brother, who is on San Quentin’s Death Row, some love and light: Dellano Cleveland, H-20500, San Quentin State Prison, 5-EB-117, San Quentin, CA 94974.
Source:http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/a-reoccurring-racist-nightmare/
January 30, 2009
Demands grow for Gaza war crimes investigation
ChrisMcGreal http://www.guardian.co.uk Israel is facing growing demands from senior UN officials and human rights groups for an international war crimes investigation in Gaza over allegations such as the "reckless and indiscriminate" shelling of residential areas and use of Palestinian families as human shields by soldiers.
With the death toll from the 17-day Israeli assault on Gaza climbing above 900, pressure is increasing for an independent inquiry into specific incidents, such as the shelling of a UN school turned refugee centre where about 40 people died, as well as the question of whether the military tactics used by Israel systematically breached humanitarian law.
The UN's senior human rights body approved a resolution yesterday condemning the Israeli offensive for "massive violations of human rights". A senior UN source said the body's humanitarian agencies were compiling evidence of war crimes and passing it on to the "highest levels" to be used as seen fit.
Some human rights activists allege that the Israeli leadership gave an order to keep military casualties low no matter what cost to civilians. That strategy has directly contributed to one of the bloodiest Israeli assaults on the Palestinian territories, they say.
John Ging, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said: "It's about accountability [over] the issue of the appropriateness of the force used, the proportionality of the force used and the whole issue of duty of care of civilians.
"We don't want to join any chorus of passing judgment but there should be an investigation of any and every incident where there are concerns there might have been violations in international law."
The Israeli military are accused of:
• Using powerful shells in civilian areas which the army knew would cause large numbers of innocent casualties;
• Using banned weapons such as phosphorus bombs;
• Holding Palestinian families as human shields;
• Attacking medical facilities, including the killing of 12 ambulance men in marked vehicles;
• Killing large numbers of police who had no military role.
Israeli military actions prompted an unusual public rebuke from the International Red Cross after the army moved a Palestinian family into a building and shelled it, killing 30. The surviving children clung to the bodies of their dead mothers for four days while the army blocked rescuers from reaching the wounded.
Human Rights Watch has called on the UN security council to set up a commission of inquiry into alleged war crimes.
Two leading Israeli human rights organisations have separately written to the country's attorney general demanding he investigate the allegations.
But critics remain sceptical that any such inquiry will take place, given that Israel has previously blocked similar attempts with the backing of the US.
Amnesty International says hitting residential streets with shells that send blast and shrapnel over a wide area constitutes "prima facie evidence of war crimes".
"There has been reckless and disproportionate and in some cases indiscriminate use of force," said Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty investigator in Israel. "There has been the use of weaponry that shouldn't be used in densely populated areas because it's known that it will cause civilian fatalities and casualties.
"They have extremely sophisticated missiles that can be guided to a moving car and they choose to use other weapons or decide to drop a bomb on a house knowing that there were women and children inside. These are very, very clear breaches of international law."
Israel's most prominent human rights organisation, B'Tselem, has written to the attorney general in Jerusalem, Meni Mazuz, asking him to investigate suspected crimes including how the military selects its targets and the killing of scores of policemen at a passing out parade.
"Many of the targets seem not to have been legitimate military targets as specified by international humanitarian law," said Sarit Michaeli of B'Tselem.
Rovera has also collected evidence that the Israeli army holds Palestinian families prisoner in their own homes as human shields. "It's standard practice for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up the family in a room on the ground floor and use the rest of the house as a military base, as a sniper's position. That is the absolute textbook case of human shields.
"It has been practised by the Israeli army for many years and they are doing it again in Gaza now," she said.
While there are growing calls for an international investigation, the form it would take is less clear. The UN's human rights council has the authority to investigate allegations of war crimes but Israel has blocked its previous attempts to do so. The UN security council could order an investigation, and even set up a war crimes tribunal, but that is likely to be vetoed by the US and probably Britain.
The international criminal court has no jurisdiction because Israel is not a signatory. The UN security council could refer the matter to the court but is unlikely to.
Benjamin Rutland, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said an international investigation of the army's actions was not justified. "We have international lawyers at every level of the command whose job it is to authorise targeting decisions, rules of engagement ... We don't think we have breached international law in any of these instances," he said.
January 02, 2009
Breakdown FM: An Interview w/ Sister Souljah-Still at War 'Til Midnight
Click Link Below to Listen to Breakdown FM Interview
http://odeo. com/episodes/23722448-Sista-Souljah-Interview
An Interview w/ Sister Souljah
Still at War Till Midnight
The first time I met Sister Souljah was back in 1989 when she rolled through the now defunct New Music Seminar in New York City and set the place on fire.
There was a historic panel discussion featuring Chuck D of Public Enemy, film director Spike Lee, Singer James Mtume and if memory serves me correctly music exec Bill Stephany also sat on that panel.
At that time we knew Souljah as Lisa Williamson and she was no joke. Fiery, articulate and uncompromising, she was one of those folks who made everyone step up their game.
She was the type of person who you wanted to be riding alongside you because there was no way she was gonna lose. She proved that during this panel discussion. The conversations that took place that day were heated. Mtume was a source of controversy because several months prior he had gone on the radio said something about rappers and sampling and how it was not a cool thing.
This prompted a response from the group Stetsasonic who released a song called 'Talking All That Jazz' which took Mtume to task. The Stets crew showed up to the session deep as it was first time the two parties had met. Anticipating more controversy, folks were pleasantly surprised as Mtume eased tensions by backing off the harshness of his initial statements and clarifying what he meant. He noted that he was a fan not an enemy to Hip Hop.
Spike Lee was the man of the hour because his movie 'Do the Right Thing' had dropped and set off racial tensions in New York. That day Spike was bold and brash and seemed to relish the storm that surrounded him and his movie. He pulled no punches as he explained that he felt his movie and the issues it raised was the 'right thing' and that it was high time folks dealt with the issue of race head on.
A few months after later New York's simmering racial tensions would boil over with the shooting death of Yusef Hawkins in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
Public Enemy was the biggest rap group at that time with Chuck D making folks quiver as he talked about his disdain for Elvis in the song 'Fight the Power'. That afternoon he spoke eloquently and laid out a 6 point platform that he said would take Hip Hop and industry to new heights. There were a lot of folks in the room that day that took notes and launched their careers using Chuck's advice. The tenet of his speech was centered around importance of positioning oneself to be a presenter of music and not leaving it up to others who did not love or respect the culture. He who controls and defines the music has major power was Chuck's mantra that afternoon.
Like I said the panel was on tilt, but the person who really rocked the house was the lone woman on that panel Lisa Williamson, who at the time was unknown to folks outside of New York, but known to many of the rappers in the room.
If memory serves me correctly, I think fellow journalist Harry Allen described her as a raptivist. That day she gave an impassioned speech about the importance of NOT allowing 'media middlemen' get in the way of the social, political and business dealings of Black people. She talked frankly about people outside the community coming in and playing folks off one another, by sparking conflict and redefining our issues and pushing their own agendas. She talked about how Black folks needed to communicate directly with one another and not let people come between us.
At that time she named off several music industry executives including Lyor Cohen and Cara Lewis.
She said, "If your name is Eric B you don't let Cara Lewis come between us you come talk to me first because I'm your sister... The middleman will beat us every time". Her remarks were riveting and for many in the room prophetic as many of us would have our own challenges with middlemen who would come into our midst and divide us if we didn't support or agree with their ideals and outlooks.
Sadly Public Enemy would be the first of many who would weather such a storm over remarks made by Professor Griff who was accused of being anti-semtic
Fast forward 19 years.
Lisa Williamson is now Sister Souljah, best selling author, scholar and most importantly still an uncompromising community activist and organizer. She's still the type of person who makes you straighten up your shoulders and step up your game when she enters the room. You step up, not because you're intimidated or brow beaten, but because her energy is infectious and you simply can't help yourself.
I caught up with Souljah the other day when she touched down in the Bay Area to promote her new book 'Midnight' which is the prequel to her book 'The Coldest Winter Ever'. It's her first book in 8 years and has got a lot of people buzzing as they were left wanting to know so much more about the character Midnight. We talked at length about her book, the process she underwent when writing and what sort of things she wanted to convey. Souljah noted that nowadays she finds it easier to get life lessons across through her works of fiction versus real life narratives.
She britsles at the notion of her being the jump off of what the industry now likes to coin gangsta /urban lit. She explained that there's no jumpoff and that Black folks have been writing and reading forever. She's a writer and a good one at that who produces material that is captivating to an audience that is often underserved and discounted. She doesn't dumb down her material or compromise on the quality of work. She strives to give her audience the best she has to offer and hates that there are those who feel that as a writer who is popular amongst this underserved audience that she has somehow compromising her talents.
We also talked about whether or not the stories were true about her and Will Smith's wife Jada Pinket Smith were working on a movie for 'Coldest Winter Ever'
She gave us the full 4-1-1. She said she is still working with the Smith's on making her book into a movie. She says she has plans to make sure all her books go to the big screen. She also talked about the importance of people owning their intellectual property. In 2008 with all the new technology around, owning your creations is more important then ever. "Get your business straight", she said.
That point would be reiterated later that evening before a packed house at Eastbay Church of Science in Oakland as she told the audience how HBO agreed to make the movie' but then backed out at the 11th hour after she and Jada had done all sorts of leg work including penning a screenplay. She noted that HBO backed out the deal, retained the movie rights to her creation and for the most parts were making no moves to go forward. She talked about how she had to shell out 300 thousand dollars to buy back her rights and how she learned a hard lesson. Now she owns everything outright and won't make such a mistake again. She told the audience to make sure they always understand their value in the larger scheme of things.
During our interview we built upon a number of topics.
She talked about President-elect Barack Obama and what his victory means to us as Black people. She broke things down as she explained that Obama has a job to do as president and that it doesn't have much to do with the day to day job each of us have to do to uplift our communities. She went into detail about this. We also touched upon Obama's background as a community organizer and how that measured up to the work she has long done as a community organizer who worked with and still works with homeless youth.
Souljah talked at length about how we should understand that all of us have jobs to do. All of us have a place to fit in. She talked about how we should not be lured into the trap of celebrity worship where we expect a rap artist to suddenly come along and craft a bill or get knee deep into work details that are required to be an effective community activist. She said we often put the wrong expectations upon people and then are left disappointed when they don't come through.
This discussion then led to a larger breakdown about leadership in the African American community and the current state of Hip Hop. With each topic Souljah kicked some keen insight that will leave many re-adjusting some of their concepts.
As we talked I realized that over the years and with all the topics we've discussed in interviews from politics to Malcolm X to relationship advice, I never got the background story that prompted her middleman remarks during that 1989 New Music Seminar panel.
She explained that as a young activist at 19 years old she was doing a lot of work with homeless kids and spending what little money she had on those kids.
She talked about how she met LL Cool J and came up with the idea of doing some sort of fundraising concert for the youth. LL wanted to make sure she was on the up and up and sat down with the kids sans Souljah and got the scoop. Once sastified that she was sincere he agreed to do a concert and not charge her so she could raise funds for her summer camp. This was the start of good thing as soon a number of other artists joined in and added to the lineup. Souljah soon developed a reputation for doing these big concerts at the Apollo Theater in Harlem where some of the biggest names in Hip Hop would come donate their time while she charged a high ticket price that was aimed at all the so called uptown ballers. 100% of the money went to the kids.
Souljah explained it was the perfect marriage. At the time everyone was under 21 and all who participated was excited at being able to contribute their talents to something that was overwhelmingly positive. This was all going down at the height of the crack era where you had young Black people who had been written off by society. It was astounding to critics and enemies of Black people and Hip Hop culture to see young people doing for self and pulling themselves up by their proverbial boot straps and not looking for handouts. People were helping build up their communities. Many of the artists who participated did so gladly because they saw the immediate benefits as that the money raised not only went to Souljah's camps but would also help spark after school programs for the youth in many of the artists own hoods.
As Souljah's concerts became legendary throughout New York she started to get some outright haterism from industry executives. Frustrated because she had violated no laws and the artists she tapped were in compliance with their contracts, they saw her concerts as something that was cutting them out and therefore a problem. Souljah had eliminated the middleman and went directly to the artists where she leveraged her friendships by highlighting everyone's mutual interests to help out the kids in the neighborhood.
Industry folks worked overtime to find ways to undercut Souljah including going to some of those popular rap artists and threatening to mess up future financial earnings. Souljah noted it was a cold game and quite eye opening to see outside forces could come into the hood and economically strong arm some of our best and brightest stars. One by one folks caved in fearful of economic reprisals. She noted that many weren't the soldiers she had thought they would be. many did not live up to rhetoric and science they kicked in their songs.
Souljah went on to note that many didn't come directly to her to explain their concerns. Instead industry execs inserted themselves into the equation insisting that they would handle all dealings including bookings for Souljah's concerts. The artist would no longer perform for free and in fact they were being priced out of the market. The end result was her being pressured and eventually written (black balled) out the picture.
A-List rap artists doing a free concert in New York-a city with more than 8 million people was apparently a big problem. Several years later Souljah's formula to help fund community organizations would be replicated by commercial radio stations around the country who would have major rap stars come through and do free Summerjam, Wintetrjam and every other type of 'jam' concerts for charity. The coldest part about this is while some of the gate receipts would go aid a few community groups, many of these stations would make up to a third of their yearly budget in behind the scenes sponsorship money for these megajams. So almost overnight, these huge rap stars went from helping fund community social programs in their own neighborhoods that were being systematically under-funded by the then Reagan and Bush administrations to helping fund the portfolios for investors and media moguls to tunes of millions of dollars. The platforms of these media moguls would later highlight harsh stereotypes that would far too often be used to demonize us and put us in bad light. Souljah's recounting of these incidents were sobering as we can see that in way too many instances the same tactics are used today with similar results.
It's with this backdrop and understanding that Souljah's remarks to the audience about owning your own, building institutions and us respecting and loving one another take on heightened meaning. The fact that after 15 years of marriage she and her family still hit the road attending all her lectures is a testament to her understanding about how we should strive to keep ourselves firmly rooted.
It was a pleasure chopping it up with Sister Souljah. As I said she's inspiring and full of insight. Her new book Midnight is one that she says she put her heart and soul into and is her favorite work to date. She noted this is the type of book that will hopefully help us grow and become better men and women..
This interview also weeves in excerpts from speeches that Souljah has given in the past as well as a reading from her new book Midnight...
Enjoy
http://www.daveyd.com/
December 31, 2008
White couple, black man battle for claim to South Africa farm
White couple, black man battle for claim to South Africa farm
Their colliding dreams reflect the challenge the government faces in restoring land to blacks without driving whites off productive farms and destroying the country's economy.
By Scott Kraft
December 19, 2008 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-southafrica19-2008dec19,0,1671924.story?page=1
Reporting from Middelburg, South Africa -- Like so many corporate executives, Ed Meyer dreamed of retiring to the countryside. And so, seven years ago, he and his wife, Sally, left Cape Town to settle on the 3,500-acre ranch that had been in Ed's family since 1916.
It's not hard to see what fueled the dream. Their Cape Dutch-style farmhouse, all curved gables and whitewashed walls, is perched on rust-colored savanna, dusted with the scent of 50 species of blooming aloe. The view from their lawn is an oil painting of gentle hills, puffy clouds and long shadows.
"This is such a beautiful, tranquil valley," Ed says, digging into a lunch of kudu pie, hot from Sally's oven. The kudu was a gift; the antelope "was encroaching on our neighbor's fruit trees."
But their peaceful retirement was interrupted a little over a year ago when Andries Mahlungu, a gardener in nearby Marble Hall, said the farm belonged to him. In a formal claim with the government, he contended that his ancestors were there first.
Now the white couple and the black man are locked in a battle over the farm -- and, in a sense, over the past and future of South Africa.
The legal pillars of white minority rule came tumbling down with South Africa's first democratic elections almost 15 years ago, and the oldest of those laws was the Natives Land Act, which had severely restricted black land ownership since 1913.
The challenge that the new black-majority government faced was how to restore land to blacks, in a legal and orderly way, without creating a panic that would drive whites off productive farms and destroy the country's economy -- a scenario that was soon to strangle neighboring Zimbabwe.
The solution the government came up with was to create a Commission on Restitution of Land Rights to adjudicate land claims and, when valid, compensate the current owners. So far, the commission has settled about 75,000 of 80,000 claims, returning hundreds of thousands of acres to blacks and paying white farmers market rates that have totaled more than $2 billion.
With the deadline for filing claims now past, the government has pledged to settle the 5,000 outstanding claims in the next two years. But the commission is running short of money, and many of the remaining claims, like Mahlungu's against the Meyers' property, are being hotly contested.
All across post-colonial Africa, governments have struggled to correct past injustices, with mixed results. In Zimbabwe, violent land seizures have driven away white farmers and sent the economy into a tailspin of mind-boggling inflation and catastrophic food shortages.
The South African government vowed to carefully investigate land claims and provide fair compensation to white farmers. Many of the country's 40,000 white farmers willingly sold their property.
Even so, the effect on the country's agricultural economy has not been overwhelmingly positive. Whereas the global trend is toward larger, more commercially successful farms, South Africa is breaking many of its large farms into smaller, less economically efficient pieces to meet the claims of new black farmers.
Partly as a result, South Africa in the last year has gone from a net exporter of food to a net importer. And, in another worrying trend, some of the whites who sold their farms have been recruited by other African countries, where their skills are much in demand. Now once-impoverished countries such as Mozambique are becoming more self-sufficient -- and taking a share of South Africa's export market.
Piet Kemp is the regional manager for the Transvaal Agricultural Union, which represents mostly white farmers in the province that includes the Meyer farm. He is skeptical of many of the land claims.
"You have a family that has farmed for 150 years and then you have a guy who worked on the farm for 12 or 15 years suddenly making a claim," he says. "It's not right. But in the end, many farmers don't want to fight, so they sell."
In some cases, whites have sold their farms without a fight because a neighboring property was divided into small pieces for multiple black owners; Kemp says the whites felt it would be too difficult to run their farm "next to a squatter camp." In other cases, farmers have agreed to sell but the government has been slow to finalize the purchase.
"Much of the farming has come to a complete stop," Kemp says. "In the end, we'll be the same as Zimbabwe."
Molefe Pulane, a spokeswoman for the national land claims office, acknowledges that the process is slow, hobbled in part by a corruption scandal at the Land Bank, which provides money for the purchases. "It's not going well," she says. "There are some problems, and we're addressing them."
But the land rights commission maintains that the country's redistribution of land is playing an important role in alleviating poverty and allowing the black majority, who outnumber whites 8 to 1, to fully participate in the country's economy.
"Everyone has got an obligation to ensure that there is restorative justice for those who suffered the loss of their rights to land in the country of their birth," the commission said in a recent statement. "It cannot be business as usual until all the victims are compensated for their loss."
Continue reading "White couple, black man battle for claim to South Africa farm" »
In Kenya, land is the root of most problems
In Kenya, land is the root of most problems
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP/Getty Images
In western Kenya, Masai warriors gather in a battle field armed with bows and arrows as they clash with members of the Kalenjin tribe in the Transmara district in March. As the East African nation struggles with food shortages, a sluggish economy and wounds from post-election violence, there’s a growing consensus that one issue rests at the heart of Kenya’s woes: land.
Kenya's land is owned mostly by politicians who grabbed millions of acres in questionable deals over the last 45 years. Above, Masai warriors with bows and arrows clash with a rival tribe in a postelection land dispute in March. Now the new lands minister has an ambitious redistribution plan.
Edmund Sanders
December 20, 2008
Reporting from Limuru, Kenya -- Africa's Land Battles:
the second of two parts
From his tented refugee camp, James Karanga Ngugi seethed as he scanned a vast horizon of fallow, unoccupied land -- most of it owned by two of Kenya's most prominent political families.
"Why do they have so much and I have nothing?" he asked.
His grandfather once prospered here, before he was displaced by British colonialists. After independence, villagers regained control, but were soon forced out again, this time by a rich Kenyan businessman with ties to the president.
As compensation, Ngugi received 10 acres of land about 100 miles away, but residents there, from a different tribe, always resented his presence. During the election turmoil late last year and early this year that grabbed headlines worldwide, his house and business were burned down.
"Now I have to restart with nothing," he said.
As this East African nation struggles with food shortages, a sluggish economy and wounds from post-election violence, there's a growing consensus that one issue rests at the heart of Kenya's woes.
It's the land, stupid.
All across Africa, battles over land continue to simmer, largely a fallout of European colonialism. During most of Africa's history, sparse population and tribal traditions meant land was plentiful and disputes were rare. Colonialists introduced alien concepts such as borders and private ownership. Since independence began to sweep the continent 50 years ago, fledgling African governments have struggled to unwind injustices, sometimes with disastrous results. The Zimbabwean economy was devastated by President Robert Mugabe's campaign to seize and redistribute land owned by white farmers.
Kenya suffered a similar colonial legacy, but has taken a different route. As is the case in many African nations, more than half of Kenya's land is owned by a minority of its richest families, including some white foreigners. But unlike Zimbabwe and South Africa, where the struggle has pitted whites against blacks, the land here is owned mostly by Kenyan politicians who have grabbed millions of prime agricultural acres in questionable real estate deals over the last 45 years.
"This is really an issue between us as Kenyans," said Paul Ndungu, head of a landmark 2004 report that investigated more than 40 years of land fraud. "It's Kenyan versus Kenyan."
Tribal clashes that killed more than 1,000 people after the disputed presidential election last December, were rooted largely in historic disputes over land. As Kenya struggles to feed its people, vast swaths of its most productive terrain sit idle and underutilized -- and the land grievances remain unresolved.
"Peace, tranquillity and stability in Kenya is predicated on sorting out this land issue," said Odenda Lumumba, head of the Kenya Land Alliance, a land-reform advocacy group.
Newly installed Lands Minister James Orengo, a former student activist who was once jailed for aiding a 1982 coup attempt, has vowed to take on Kenya's rich and powerful with a progressive new land policy.
Among other things, he wants to reclaim stolen public lands, bar foreigners from owning property, introduce taxation on idle land and increase squatters' rights.
Orengo also is pushing to computerize Kenya's aging system of land records, which hasn't changed since colonial times. Paper records have made forgery and corruption easier. When one shady developer was investigated recently, police believe he covered his tracks by burning down the local survey office where records were stored.
Opposition is quickly building. Critics have dubbed Orengo the "doyen of radicalism." One group of landowners said his "Marxist ideologies" would lead to a "Zimbabwe-style economic meltdown."
But Orengo's biggest obstacle probably will come from within the government. Members of the political elite have been the nation's biggest land grabbers over the decades, which is why Kenya never pursued land reform and redistribution, as other African nations did, experts say. Many of those leaders remain in power.
"The people responsible for this mess still find themselves in government and they've used their influence to delay [reform]," Ndungu said.
Continue reading "In Kenya, land is the root of most problems" »
Blacks built the White House
Blacks built the White House
by Bonnie V. Winston
Special to the NNPA from the Richmond Free Press
From the 1790s when enslaved Blacks built the White House to 1965 when Blacks blocked the street in front of it with their bodies to win the right to vote to 2009 when a Black family has won the right to call it home … yes, we can!
(NNPA) - When the new First Family takes up residence in the White House in January, Barack and Michelle Obama and their daughters will be living in a historic mansion that was built in large measure with slave labor.
From the early 1790s when the cornerstone of the White House was laid, to the mansion’s rebuilding in 1815 after a ruinous fire, the talent and labor of African-American slaves went into creating what is still considered today as America’s finest 18th-century stone building.
According to the White House Historical Association, commissioners charged by Congress to build the White House and the newly created District of Columbia under the direction of the president hoped to import workers from Europe. But the recruitment efforts were dismal, according to the association, and they turned to slaves to provide the bulk of the labor.
Free African-Americans and immigrant Scots also participated in the construction. Skilled slaves - from quarrymen to carpenters and brick makers to sawyers - turned raw materials into the lumber, stone, brick and nails that ultimately became the home at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Slaves quarried and cut the rough stone from the government’s quarry at Aquia, in Northern Virginia.
They also turned out bricks used for the temporary worker huts that were built on the grounds. Much of the lumber came from a slave-managed mill at White Oak Swamp near Richmond. Many of the slaves were rented out by their owners to help construct the landmark, documents from the period show.
The owners were paid $5 a month. Slaves “handled carpentry, cleared the grounds, worked in the quarries and lumber mills and poured concrete,” according to a 2005 article in The Crisis, the national NAACP’s magazine. “Fed cornbread, beef and pork and living in huts on the Capitol grounds, the slaves were also given medical attention. The cost of clothing and inoculations were docked from the slave owners’ rent,” the article stated. When the White House was nearly finished in the late 1800s, President John Adams of Massachusetts was its first occupant.
The second occupant, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, started a tradition that continued with other slave-holding presidents - they brought their personal slaves to help staff the White House.
In 1801, President Jefferson took about a dozen slaves from Monticello with him as he set up occupancy in the White House. Many lived in quarters on the White House’s first floor, while others slept on the second floor in the first family’s quarters.
While largely overlooked, the role of slaves in building the president’s home has drawn some attention in recent years. In 2005, Congress created a task force to recognize the role of slaves in the construction of the White House, the Capitol and other government buildings in the nation’s capital. A proposal to build a memorial to slaves later was introduced in Congress, but not approved.
However, Congress has authorized the Smithsonian to develop the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
NNPA, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, serves over 200 Black newspapers. Read more stories from the Black press at www.BlackPressUSA.com.
Black state legislators want economic bailout – ‘in the neighborhood’
Black state legislators want economic bailout – ‘in the neighborhood’
by NNPA Editor-in-Chief Hazel Trice Edney
Edward Mills Jr., 17, looks forward to beginning a building trades class, part of a Detroit program for youngsters who have dropped out of school. Black state legislators know that dropping out can mean a great financial loss to the dropout, his family and his community. – Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Detroit News
Washington (NNPA) - They didn’t get it by Christmas, but the nation’s Black state legislators are now looking for what they perceive as their fair share of an economic bailout for ‘the neighborhood’ while Congress is doling out billions to corporations.
“While we support the bailout of Wall Street, the bailout of the financial institutions and the automobile industry, we feel very strongly that Main Street and our streets need to be bailed out as well,” says Georgia State Rep. Calvin Smyre, president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
“So, with that in mind, we need to finish a package whereas a check can get into the hands of the consumer and then therefore the consumer can go to the corner grocery store, the drug store, the supermarket, the various department stores - and, where the rubber meets the road, is the consumer spending has to go up, so therefore that stimulates the economy in the neighborhood so to speak.”
The U.S. Congress has approved a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry and a $17.4 billion loan for troubled U.S. automakers. But how can the nation help the average citizen who is out of work or living from paycheck to paycheck, one missed rent from homelessness?
Smyre and state legislators have a remedy: “The only way to do that is to create a stimulus program whereas the American consumer is involved. Those other bailouts are rightfully so. But they don’t help create jobs. They help save jobs. So unemployment is a key factor.”
Facing a gamut of dire needs on the state level, Smyre and his 125 fellow representatives from 42 states met in Washington earlier this month for the caucus’ 32nd Annual Legislative Conference. They met with members of the Obama transition team with hopes of bringing home federal dollars to offset serious shortages that are often used to deal with social programs and other crucial needs that are now exacerbated by the failing economy.
Obama has set a goal to create at least 3 million jobs in the first two years of his administration, which starts Jan. 20. Meanwhile, states are suffering, Smyre says.
“There are 43 out of 50 states with some sort of budget shortfall. With Georgia alone, we’ve got a $2 billion shortfall. So, with that in mind, we just want to be partners with our federal government to be able to assist us in the downturn in our economy,” Smyre says.
Smyre was on his way to a policy meeting dealing with the Second Chance Act to help lower the prison recidivism rate. There would also be discussions on the high school dropout rates.
“In Georgia alone there were 60,000 dropouts in ‘07,” he said. Connecting the statistic to the economy, he added: “If we could cut back on our dropout rate, if those 60,000 kids had stayed in school over their lifetime, it would have been $16 billion to the Georgia economy over their lifetime. So there is a direct correlation to those kinds of issues. So, naturally, we as state legislators, we’re going to still be vigilant as it relates to gang violence, as it relates to the recidivism rate in our prison system and making sure that folks get a second chance.”
Still, he says, legislators are well aware that the blame for the economy can’t be laid at the feet of the new administration. But the socio-economic impact is worsening; therefore, there must be some pressure. For example, the states of Michigan, Rhode Island and California have the worst jobless rates in the nation, at 9.6 percent, 9.3 percent and 8.4 percent respectively.
The states with the worst annual murder rate in the nation are California, where Compton has 67.1 murders per 100,000 people; Indiana, where Gary has 58 per 100,000; and Alabama, where Birmingham has 44.3 per 100,000.
Social statistics across the board, including dropout rates, infant mortality rates and incarceration rates - all often associated with economic injustice - are skyrocketing in cities and states across the nation.
The caucus released a 47-page document outlining proposed resolutions to some of the problems faced by states, including requiring states to report impacts on racial minorities when changing criminal laws and laws pertaining to state procurement. The Ratified Resolutions also call on Congress to “take all action necessary to ensure that states are able to meet needs of our citizens during these difficult financial times; and … that NBCSL calls on Congress to provide an excess of capital to the states so they are not only able to fill their budget shortfalls, but able to provide additional stabilization to their economies.”
Dropout rates, infant mortality rates and incarceration rates - all often associated with economic injustice - are skyrocketing in cities and states across the nation.
Smyre says these are the resolutions that will be passed on to President Obama and to the members of the House and Senate. He doesn’t anticipate a fight but knows that none of the resolutions will be easy.
“Regardless of how you put it, it’s not going to be on automatic pilot. In just a little time, the budget is going to change. It’s going to require funding and that’s always going to require a very difficult proposition,” he says. “There’s a lot of anticipation with the legislators and this is just a start. Nobody has made a first down yet. Nor has anyone scored.
“But we as African-Americans, we don’t want to suffer from the illusion of inclusion. We want to be involved in the process. And from every indication that we’ve been given we are going to be involved.”
Hazel Trice Edney is editor-in-chief for NNPA, the Black Press of America.
America’s sixth child
America’s sixth child
by Marian Wright Edelman
The sixth child
On the day he died, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called his mother to give her his next Sunday’s sermon title: “Why America May Go to Hell.” In his 1968 call for a Poor People’s Campaign, he warned that “America is going to hell if we don’t use her vast resources to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life.”
As Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of the most famous poor baby in history, imagine God seeing our very wealthy family blessed with six children. Five of them have enough to eat and comfortable warm rooms in which to sleep. One does not. She is often hungry and cold. On some nights, she has to sleep on the streets or in a shelter and even be taken away from her neglectful family and placed in foster care or a group home with strangers.
Imagine this rich family giving five of its children nourishing meals three times a day and snacks to fuel boundless energy but sending the sixth child from the table to school hungry, with only one or two meals and never the dessert the other children enjoy.
Imagine this very wealthy family making sure five of its children get all of their shots, regular health checkups before they get sick and immediate access to health care when illness strikes but ignoring the sixth child, who is plagued by chronic respiratory infections and painful toothaches, which can abscess and kill for lack of a doctor or a dentist.
Imagine this family sending five of its children to good stimulating preschools and making sure they have music and swimming lessons after school but sending the sixth child to unsafe daycare with untrained caregivers responsible for too many children or leaving her occasionally with an accommodating relative or neighbor or older sibling or alone.
Imagine five of the children living with books in a family that is able to read to most of its children every night, but leaving the other child unread to, untalked and unsung to, unhugged or propped before a television screen or video game that feeds her violence and sex and racially- and gender-charged messages, intellectual pablum, interrupted only by ceaseless ads for material things beyond the child’s grasp.
Imagine this family sending some of their children to high quality schools in safe neighborhoods with enough books and computers and laboratories and science equipment and well prepared teachers but sending the sixth child to a crumbling school building with peeling ceilings and leaks and lead in the paint and asbestos and old, old books - and not enough of them - and teachers untrained in the subjects they teach and with low expectations that all children can learn, especially the sixth child.
Imagine most of the family’s children being excited about learning and looking forward to finishing high school, going to college and getting a job but the sixth child falling further and further behind grade level, not being able to read, wanting to drop out of school, and being suspended and expelled at younger and younger ages, because no one has taught her to read and compute. And no one has diagnosed her attention deficit disorder or treated her health and mental health problems or helped her keep up with her peers.
Imagine five of the children engaged in sports and music and arts, in after-school activities and summer camps and in enrichment programs but the sixth child hanging out with dubious peers or going home alone because Mom and Dad are working, in prison or running away from their parenting responsibilities and escaping by using drugs and alcohol, leaving her alone or on the streets during idle non-school hours and weeks and months, at risk of being sucked into illegal activities and the prison pipeline or killed in our gun-saturated nation.
This is our American family today, where one in six of our children - 13 million children - lives in poverty in the richest nation on earth, more than 40 percent of them in extreme poverty. It is not a stable, healthy, economically sensible or just family. Our failure to invest in all our children before they get sick or drop out of school, get pregnant or get into trouble is extremely costly. Every year that we let 13 million children live in poverty costs $500 billion in lost productivity, crime and health costs.
Marian Wright Edelman
As our political leaders ponder our nation’s choices over the next 60 days, let them remember the millions of children living in poverty and extreme poverty and without health coverage and put their needs first and not last. Our economic futures depend on it and so does our nation’s soul.
Marian Wright Edelman, whose latest book is “The Sea Is So Wide And My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation,” is president of the Children’s Defense Fund.
http://www.sfbayview.com/2008/america%e2%80%99s-sixth-child/
Merchants of death: Exposing the corporate-financed holocaust in Africa
Merchants of death: Exposing the corporate-financed holocaust in Africa
by Keith Harmon Snow
War in Congo has again been splashed across world headlines and the same old clichés about violence and suffering are repackaged and rebroadcast as “news.” Meanwhile, early indications out of America are that President-elect Barack Obama will assemble a foreign policy-team primed for business as usual.
Rape is used as a systematic means of instilling terror in the people all over DRC. Bebiche, 20, fled eastern Congo and crossed the country on foot to find some refuge in western Congo. Countless women and girls in DRC have no options for existence but to pursue survival sex. – Photo: Keith Harmon Snow
How will Hillary Clinton as secretary of state compromise the Obama administration’s capacity to honestly redress the untold suffering, massive theft of resources and millions of deaths in Africa?
And Tom Daschle? Behind the media smokescreens are people whose involvement has been documented and exposed, but there is always some African fall guy - the “embraceable” Black subordinate or “rebel” commander - charged with war crimes and used to deflect attention from the leaders of organized white-collar crime networks.
Blacked out are the corporate executives, government officials and expatriate personnel of Western enterprises whose success amidst chaos implicates them in the deracination and death of millions of Black people. What’s behind the recent hostilities and media posturing in Central Africa?
The short, brutish life of Sandrine
On a darkling plain in a far away place the skeletons of hundreds of unnamed people lie strewn over the land amidst the red dirt and brown grasses scorched by the equatorial sun. Bones poke into the air here and there, hidden by the tall grass, tripping you up as you walk; others lie bleaching white in piles where the bodies fell. These are the killing fields of Bogoro, a small hillside village on a southerly road out of Bunia, a metropolis of suffering in the wild, wild east of Congo.
The grassy plains of Bogoro were guarded by soldiers and when I arrived the militia of the day wore black trench coats and black mirror sunglasses to enhance the aura of terror that surrounds them. With AK-47s slung over their shoulders, they talked on shiny Nokias and Motorolas and Samsungs - cell phones built with the blood minerals of the Congolese people.
Sandrine - not her real name - is a survivor who participated in the massacre at Bogoro. I interviewed Sandrine, just seventeen at the time, in 2007, and she recounted her ordeal as the sex slave of soldiers. Sandrine told how people were forced by militia commanders to chase down neighbors and kill or be killed. I found Sandrine living in misery in an evacuated refugee camp.
Sandrine knows nothing at all of the vast mining operations or minerals shipments being flown out of remote jungle airstrips in her home territory - or even that such airstrips exist. Ditto for the Congolese researchers I met, in Orientale, who worked with the International Criminal Court. Moto Gold? Mwana Africa? Walter Kansteiner? They had never heard of such companies, or such people.
In Western media reportage, the plunder of raw materials in Congo is usually de-linked from the killing, even though the extractive industries are directly behind it and even though almost everyone has begun to parrot the accusation of “resource wars” in Congo.
The Bogoro massacre occurred in February 2003 and, like the Hutu-Tutsi stories from Rwanda, the media whipped up the specter of ancient tribal animosities between Hema and Lendu tribes. But the real story is not quite so black and white. Or is it?
In Western media reportage, the plunder of raw materials in Congo is usually de-linked from the killing, even though the extractive industries are directly behind it.
Today the International Criminal Court (ICC) holds three Congolese “warlords” in the ICC prison at The Hague, Netherlands, and all three were associated with events at Bogoro. However, the white patrons reaping the profits behind the bloodletting in the eastern Congo are protected by a new humanitarian order predicated on permanent inequality, structural violence and race politics.
But for a few brief periods of relative calm, the war in Congo’s eastern Orientale and Kivu provinces has hardly stopped since its beginning in 1996, and the realities have been shrouded in media clichés and stereotypes and disingenuous expressions of outrage that deflect attention from the true protagonists and root causes of war and plunder in Africa.[1]
Good versus evil and the names games
Congolese men in South Kivu, falsely accused of being FDLR militia from Rwanda, are brutalized and detained by FARDC. – Photo: © 2007 Keith Harmon Snow
The UPC, FPRI, FNI - these are three of the scores of militias that have risen and fallen in Orientale since the war began in 1996 and, more poignantly, they are meaningless acronyms used to scramble the brains of Western spectator-news-consumers.
First there was the Rwanda Patriotic Front/Army (RPF/A) that invaded Rwanda, and then came the Alliance for the Democratic Liberation of Zaire (ADFL) that marched across Zaire to unseat President Mobutu. Next came the “rebellion” with Jean-Pierre Bemba and the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and all the different factions of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, or Congolese Rally for Democracy - RCD, RCD-G (Goma), RCD-K, RCD-K-ML - backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
Here are the comrades in arms who studied together at the Marxist University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president; Laurent Desiré Kabila, the ADFL figurehead and assassinated president of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Meles Zenawi, president of Ethiopia; Isaias Afwerki, president of Eritrea; Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani; former RCD leader Wamba dia Wamba; Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president; and John Garang (d. 2005), former leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and first president of South Sudan.
Both the RPF/A and SPLA waged successful covert guerrilla wars against governments that were considered “undesirable” by Washington, both achieved their objectives of seizing land and gaining control, and both insurgencies were covertly backed by U.S. Committee for Refugees official Roger Winter - a pivotal U.S. intelligence asset operating in Sudan and a dedicated ally of Yoweri Museveni, Paul Kagame and John Garang.
Winter’s protégé is Susan Rice, Clinton’s assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Rice was one of the primary architects of the Pentagon’s prized Africa Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) - a euphemistically named entity created to project U.S. power in Africa and run by U.S. Army Special Forces Command (SOCOM).[2]
The coups d’etat in Rwanda and Burundi occurred after the presidents Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira were assassinated on April 6, 1994. Similarly, more than a decade of covert U.S. military support for the SPLA, channeled through Uganda and Ethiopia, led to the Naivasha Peace Agreement of January 2005 and the creation of the autonomous country of South Sudan.
The “Rwanda genocide” began with the 1990 invasion of northern Rwanda by Ugandan forces that brutally targeted everyone in their path. By the time the RPF/A forces - comprised mostly of seasoned Ugandan troops - reached Kigali, more than 800,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) were hovering around the capital city: They were terrified, they were homeless, they were hungry, they were angry and - justifiably - they took up arms. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) and its Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire clandestinely backed the illegal guerrilla war.[3]
The guerrilla wars in Rwanda and South Sudan were prosecuted much like the CIA-backed low-intensity guerrilla warfare, spawned by Washington, against populist movements in Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile and Guatemala. This is exactly what is playing out in Congo and Sudan today: low-intensity guerrilla warfare prosecuted by powerful shadow forces competing for land and loot.
SPLA leader John Garang received military training at the School of the Americas, Fort Benning, Georgia. Paul Kagame received training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. At the time he was sent for training, Kagame was Museveni’s director of military intelligence; upon his return, he assumed command of the army created, financed and trained by Uganda: the Rwanda Patriotic Army.
Both Garang and Kagame likely received “counter-insurgency” training through the Pentagon’s International Military Education and Training Program (IMET). Since 1998, the IMET program has provided training to 318 RDF and 291 UPDF soldiers. Many other IMET soldiers who attended the notorious School of the Americas are today known human rights violators in Latin America.
In North Kivu province we find the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the National Congress for the Defense of the People, the CNDP, created by self-appointed Rwandan “General” Laurent Nkunda. Here the media has historically cast Gen. Nkunda as good, the FDLR as evil. Only recently has Nkunda come under any kind of “harsh” criticism.
The war in eastern Congo is almost universally described with clichés about the “Rwanda genocide.” The usual targets of white media racial profiling and hysterical academic polemics are the Hutu - the infamous Interahamwe and FDLR - the “killers” who “fled Rwanda after committing genocide” there. This is how millions of innocent Hutu people - comprising over 85 percent of the populations of Rwanda and Burundi - are collectively dehumanized.
Congolese Mai Mai militias are described as “nationalists” sometimes “wearing bathroom fixtures on their heads” and “shooting magic bullets.” The Mai Mai are the closest thing to a people’s or indigenous justice movement in Congo. The Mai Mai have most recently allied with the Congo’s national army, the Armed Forces for the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), and the Mai Mai are sometimes cast as good, but usually as evil.
In 2007 the Mai Mai and FDLR joined forces to form the Front for the National Liberation of Kivu (FNLK). Backed by the FARDC, the FNLK is purportedly vying for power against Gen. Nkunda’s CNDP. However, alliances are constantly shifting based on private profit and “warlord” fiefdoms, and ALL factions, at some point or other, have collaborated in war and resource plunder.
Western news stories throw the acronyms and names of militias around with little or no information about their rise or fall, and nothing substantive about foreign backers they collaborate with. Militias mysteriously appear and disappear. Indeed, the more you read about Congo from venues like the New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker or the Atlantic Monthly, the less you will understand. This is no accident, and - no, you are not dumb.
Take the militia FNI: But for the victims and their suffering, it makes no difference what the acronym stands for; it’s all one big sadistic joke of language and power. The most significant fact to remember about this “F” “N” “I” is that they served as the private proxy army for the gold mining operations of Metalor, a Swedish firm, and AngloGold Ashanti, headquartered in South Africa and partnered with Barrick Gold.[4] Secondly, they were agents for Ugandan power brokers.
Anglo-Gold Ashanti directors include Sir Sam Jonah, who is also a director of shady mining-cum-military companies operating in Sierra Leone and connected to Tony Buckingham and other white-collar mercenaries. Buckingham affiliated companies - e.g. Heritage Oil and Gas, Branch Energy, Saracen Uganda - collaborate with the Museveni regime. Saracen’s top shareholder is Gen. Salim Saleh, half-brother of Yoweri Museveni, and Congo’s nemesis, a Ugandan agent cited by the United Nations for war and plunder in Congo.
AngloGold Ashanti is the Anglo American mining conglomerate of the Oppenheimers and De Beers mining cartels of Britain and South Africa, interests deeply aligned with Belgian American intelligence insider Maurice Tempelsman - the godfather of covert operations in Africa. Tempelsman’s diamond interests in Congo were, at least partially, displaced by the Israeli cartels of Dan Gertler and Benny Steinmetz.[5] It is a no-brainer that the Tempelsman gang backs Rwanda’s occupation of eastern Congo.
For a second example, media corporations have consistently blacked out the truth about the lucrative corporate “conservation” industry with articles like the recent New York Times production “Congo Violence Reaches Endangered Mountain Gorillas” (Jeffrey Gettleman, Nov. 18, 2008). Unreported however are the many accusations coming out of North Kivu that link the Jane Goodall Institute and Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund to local Mai Mai and FDLR: Like every other militia, or occupation army, these factions have infiltrated villages and now prey on, intimidate and abuse the locals. The white agents working for Western “conservation” NGOs - and we know their names - are directly responsible for extortion, racketeering, land theft, human rights atrocities and for ripping apart the social fabric.[6]
“The commander of the Mai-Mai is Col. Ntasibanga and the commander of the FDLR is Col. Faraja,” report Congolese locals who have been documenting the abuses (the facts are confirmed by a Spanish journalist). “We count already five people killed because of this [conservation] project … DFGF and JGI are without doubt corrupt … they are paying armed groups and forcing us off of our lands.”[7]
The Gettleman NYT article, on the other hand, cites one of these agents, Samantha Newport, described as “a spokeswoman for Virunga National Park.” She in fact works for Richard Leakey’s organization, Wildlife Direct, a shady paramilitary entity involving Walter Kansteiner.
A little matter of genocide
This woman died and the world press took no notice. “God help us if we have become so numb as to ignore even one death,” says writer Georgianne Nienaber. – Photo: © 2007 Keith Harmon Snow
The international arrest warrants issued by Spain and France against some 40 former RPF/A and current Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) members are patently dismissed by Western media of all stripes, buried behind waves of pro-RPF propaganda and intimidation that labels anyone who does not support the Kigali military dictatorship as genocide deniers, themselves guilty, by extension, of genocide.
While the RPF/A and UPDF are often named for leading the charge and supplying the bulk of the forces, the 1996 invasion of Zaire, launched from Uganda and Rwanda, involved U.S. covert forces with state-of-the-art C4ISTR - Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance - and there were Humvees and C-130 aircraft ferrying black-skinned U.S. Special Forces into South Sudan and northeastern Congo. The invasion also involved Israeli military experts, an assortment of Eritrean and Ethiopian regulars, and SPLA forces.[8]
The Anglo-European-Israeli forces penetrated eastern Zaire through the Gulu and Arua Districts of northwestern Uganda - the heart of Acholiland and ground zero for the ongoing genocide of the indigenous Acholi people - and they backed the RPA/UPDF who marched across Zaire massacring refugees, mostly women and children, mostly Hutus, who fled Kigali in 1994.[9] [10]
Howard French, then the Africa Bureau Chief for the New York Times, witnessed the Hutu genocide in Zaire, and wrote about it.[11] Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani - who by no means was an impartial observer when he arrived in Goma in September 1997 - described “an indiscriminate slaughter” of Interahamwe, of unarmed Hutu refugees, and of Congolese Hutus in the Kivus.[12] Bill Richardson, President Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations, stated in a May 1997 interview: “I think there’s strong evidence that there have been these massacres.”[13]
But the subject of Hutus being slaughtered was only broached as a tool to hammer down the uppity Black rebel who diverged from his script and upset Washington’s plans. Indeed, the rise and fall of ADFL figurehead Laurent Desiré Kabila exemplifies the embraceable Black leader transformed almost overnight into the unembraceable Black fall guy. In the end, a bullet dispatched Laurent Kabila on Jan. 16, 2001, exactly 40 years after the assassination of Patrice Lumumba (Jan. 17, 1961).
Anyone who dismisses the organized and intentional RPF/A and UPDF military campaign against millions of Hutu people - massacred and chased from the Uganda border to Kigali, into to eastern Congo, and finally attacked in refugee camps and butchered all the way across Zaire - is a genocide denier. (Of course, the UPDF-RPF/A alliance also summarily executed and massacred Rwandan Tutsis and indigenous Twa and Congolese people.) Similarly, anyone who dismisses the organized persecution and atrocities against the Acholi people in Northern Uganda - maintained by the Museveni government and the UPDF occupation - is a genocide denier.
The criminality of the Kagame regime is whitewashed by the massive public relations campaigns involving Kagame’s special advisors and sponsors: former Ambassador Andrew Young and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Young’s Goodworks International also backs the Museveni regime. Buffing the shiny image of the government of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila is Stevens and Schriefer Group, the Washington, D.C., PR firm that twice helped get George W. Bush elected.
The New Yorker and CNN have consistently manufactured the pro-RPF/A propaganda, reported by Christiane Amanpour and Philip Gourevitch. Amanpour is married to James Rubin, Bill Clinton’s assistant secretary of state and Madeleine Albright’s right-hand man and now economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Gourevitch - who produced the celebrated pro-RPF/A text “We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,” is a close friend of Paul Kagame and a conduit for State Department disinformation passed by James Rubin, who was also chief spokesman for the Clinton State Department (1997-2000), and whose sister, Elizabeth Rubin, was dating Gourevitch.
U.S. business tycoon Joe Ritchie “has volunteered in Rwanda for the past five years introducing the country to business leaders around the world.” Ritchie also runs an “entrepreneurial philanthropy” called Friends of Rwanda and serves on President Paul Kagame’s Advisory Council and as CEO of the Rwanda Development Board.[14] [15] Like Walter Kansteiner, Joe Ritchie is a commodities and options trader from Chicago with deep pockets and dark secrets: Involved in a private attempt to overthrow the Taliban in 2000, Joe and James Ritchie were aided by their favorite consultant, former national security adviser Robert McFarlane, who successfully lobbied the CIA to dispatch an Unmanned Aerospace Vehicle (UAV) to the skies over Afghanistan.[16]
The Congo wars have direct links to the many long years of war in Sudan and Uganda, and they are intertwined with the current low-intensity warfare and the mass murder in Darfur, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. If we apply the genocide label to conflicts where it surely fits, then genocide is ongoing in Congo’s Orientale and Kivus provinces, and in Acholiland in Northern Uganda.[17] But it is also occurring in Iraq, Afghanistan, Burundi, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Botswana, Columbia, the Palestinian Territories and Malaysia, to mention a few irrefutable cases.
These geopolitical and strategic hotspots remain mostly blanketed by media reportage that quite literally blacks out key white protagonists by putting a Black African face on things. Another example: There has been little reported about the perpetual warfare and human rights atrocities in Orientale linked to tight little airstrips carved out of the rainforest and paved with support from the Pentagon-connected United States Agency for International Development (USAID).[18]
Consider Mwana Africa, a South African firm that controls the Kilo-Moto gold fields in Zani, DRC. The Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), led by Thomas Lubanga, occupied the Zani gold fields in 2002 and stirred up ethnic animosities that led to massive suffering and depopulation. However, according to Congolese locals, it was the white missionaries from the Africa Inland Mission that deeply divided local ethnic groups. French tycoons Jacques and Alvaro Hachuel own Mwana Africa.
Mwana Africa’s European director, Etienne Denis, began his long career of impoverishing the Congo at Umicore, formerly the Belgian mining giant Union Miniere, in 1974. The Mwana Africa airstrip at Zaniand nearby roads, were built with USAID backing, and the gold is flown out to Tanzania - one of the most underappreciated criminal players funneling weapons to Uganda and Congo - or sometimes shipped out by road through Uganda.[19] Mwana Africa is also involved in Congo’s bloody MIBA diamond concessions in Mbuji Mayi and the cobalt/copper concessions in Katanga.[20]
Similarly, almost nothing in context has been reported of the white mercenaries and their petroleum operations on the Uganda border with Orientale.[21] Like the ongoing covert war in Darfur, where the backers of the “mysterious” rebel groups are never exposed, the militias operating in Congo are proxy armies that serve the interests of external power blocks at the expense of their competitors.
Most reporting from the Kivus zooms in on sexual violence and the Western media always blames the victims - Congolese soldiers caught in the maelstrom of international proxy warfare and organized crime. But we hear nothing about U.S. or Canadian or Australian mining companies - and for those rare times that we do, the reportage de-links the mining from the mass murder.[22] More often, the media turns the story upside down, claiming that responsible Western mining executives are waiting in the wings for security to improve so they can provide jobs and accountability and “sustainable development” for the Congolese people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A recent front page news feature, “Congo’s Riches, Looted by Renegade Troops,” about the Bisie tin mine in North Kivu, offers the perfect example. “On paper, the exploration rights to this mine belong to a consortium of British and South African investors who say they will turn this perilous and exploitative operation into a safe, modern beacon of prosperity for Congo,” wrote Jeffrey Gettleman for the New York Times. “But in practice, the consortium’s workers cannot even set foot on the mountain. Like a mafia, Col. Matumo and his men extort, tax and appropriate at will, draining this vast operation, worth as much as $80 million a year.”[23]
And thus do the valiant white knights of the New York Times shine their spotlight on plunder and extortion in Congo. Alas, it is a selective shining, an expedient “humanitarian” concern, and an arrogant moral high ground. Indeed, it is just another shade of the black and white race politics behind the politicization of the International Criminal Court.
The Black African fall guys
In June of 2008 the ICC charged two Black African rebel leaders, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, with six counts of war crimes - willful killing, inhuman treatment or cruel treatment, using children under the age of 15 years to participate actively in hostilities, sexual slavery, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and pillaging - and three counts of crimes against humanity - murder, inhumane acts and sexual slavery.
ICC prosecutors say that Chui and his commander Katanga - known as Simba - led a militia called the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri (FPRI); Chui was also a commander in another militia, the National Integrationist Front (FNI). The FPRI was fighting against the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC); another militia in Congo backed by outsiders - in particular, some faction from the U.S.
UPC commander Thomas Lubanga - another Black man - was the first person detained at the ICC’s Scheveningen prison at The Hague. Charles Taylor, former “warlord” and president from Liberia, was the second. Germaine Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui were next to be chosen for this auspicious club. Congolese “warlord” Jean-Pierre Bemba is the last of five detainees now held at the ICC. Bemba was the leader of the Congolese rebel army, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), but he is charged with crimes in the Central African Republic.[24]
These five men all have more in common than the charges against them. They are all Black men, once embraced by the system and empowered as local or national leaders, and they are now the Black stooges who fell from grace to become, in the language of anthropologist and scholar Dr. Enoch Page, “unembraceable.”[25]
The unembraceable status, applied to Africa, is reserved for Black males, for dictators and warlords, rapists and killers, for “dirty” Arabs like Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan, and for former “Marxist” guerillas, like Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe. Always they are people of color: They are the O.J. Simpsons and Michael Jacksons of Africa, formerly embraced Black males now ruthlessly persecuted by the Western establishment - primarily through racial surveillance and targeting in the mass media. Such treatment is rarely applied to white males, anywhere.
Someone has to be held responsible for the mass murder at Bogoro, but who paid the 29-year-old “warlord” Germaine Katanga? Why should he be the only one prosecuted? Who provided the jeeps for the “warlord” Mathieu Chui? Where did “warlord” Thomas Lubanga get the satellite phone to coordinate his private militia? How did Charles Taylor go from Harvard University to money laundering in Liberia to a Massachusetts prison - which he “escaped” from - and then on to become first the “president” and later “warlord” of Liberia?
How does Moto Gold Mining Co. extract gold from a war zone? And how do the shiny black leather belts and pressed camouflage fatigues and crisp felt berets and rocket-propelled grenades find their way to Laurent Nkunda’s “rebel” army now fighting in the North and South Kivu provinces of Congo?
Aware of their vulnerability as Black African fall guys - and soon after the ICC arrest of Jean-Pierre Bemba - the top brass of the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces curtailed their international travel plans and convened a special meeting at Uganda’s Bombo army headquarters near Kampala, in June 2008, to discuss fears of ICC warrants being issued against them.
Of course, the U.S. government and its business partners dictate the operations of the ICC. While considering soldiers of the United States and its allies to be above international humanitarian law and protected from the jurisdiction of the ICC, the Pentagon has simultaneously directed the formation, operations and legal precedents of the ICC through the involvement of members of the U.S. military’s Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, the legal arm of the Pentagon.[26]
Congolese troops and militias connected to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni and wife Janet and their military collaborators operate extortion and racketeering networks that are plundering Congo. While former militias responsible for plunder have ostensibly been disbanded, new military networks have replaced them again and again.
Uganda arming militias yet again
FDLR "genocidaires” – children with guns – in eastern DRC
“The Congolese military [FARDC] works with Ugandans,” reported Christian Lukusha, an expert with Justice Plus, a Congolese human rights NGO based in Bunia, “including Salim Saleh, Museveni’s half-brother. And they ship timber and minerals across the border at both Aru and Mahagi. It’s completely clandestine.”[27]
According to the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo (MONUC), fighting in Orientale in September 2008 drove over 90,000 additional IDPs (internally displaced people) from their homes and lands. Fighting continued into October and November, and militias new and old are today floating between Uganda, South Sudan and DRC, recruiting and conscripting soldiers, including children, and training and indoctrinating them in the ideology of their “mysterious” leaders.
The FPJC - Front Congolaise Pour la Justice au Congo - is but the latest militia to suddenly emerge from the hills of Orientale. On Sept. 29, 2008, the FPJC, described as “a newly formed rebel group,” attacked and pursued retreating contingents of President Joseph Kabila’s regular army, the FARDC, before raiding and looting villages. Since mid-September the FPJC has engaged FARDC troops in firefights along the Lake Albert border zone.
According to Congolese sources in Bunia, the FPJC is solidly backed by Uganda and provides a second front in an alliance with Laurent Nkunda’s Rwandan army, which has freely operated in the Kivu provinces for years.
“The FPJC rebels are in the bush close to the Semliki River and the Uganda border,” says Godefroid (not his real name), a Congolese professional in Bunia who travels back and forth to Uganda by land. “There is some new recruitment of former militias along the Congo-Uganda border by Thomas Lubanga’s former UPC minister Mr. Avochi, a Congolese who as been in exile in Uganda since 2004.”[28]
Military training camps for the new FPJC recruits are today operating from at least four sites on the Uganda side of the border: 1) in the Kikong-Hoima district; 2) in Kasatu, close to Djegu, in Nebbi district; 3) in the Urusi area, close to Mahagi, of Nebbi district; and 4) in Bondo, close to Aru and Arua, in the Uganda district.
“Such trainings cannot happen without a clear agreement and support of the upper authorities of Uganda,” says Godefroid. “It’s all connected to the oil under Lake Albert and the gold in Orientale.”
According to this source, a senior FPJC military commander named Sherif confirmed that Laurent Nkunda and his National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) are involved with these Ugandan bases. “They are providing CNDP military training and recruits are given the CNDP ideology.”
Coincidentally - but not reported by the media - a hornet’s nest of Western petroleum and mining companies, all linked to international private military companies, local militias, and the national armies of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, are fighting for control of the land on both sides of the Congo’s eastern border.
“Salim Saleh is involved in all of this,” said one Congolese official at the border town of Aru, DRC. “He is certainly responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saleh worked with Jerome Kakwavu when he was the big chief in Aru. Kakwavu is a FARDC general now, in Kinshasa. Salim worked all the different groups, trading arms, playing them off one against the other.”[29]
Not reported by the media - a hornet’s nest of Western petroleum and mining companies, all linked to international private military companies, local militias, and the national armies of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, are fighting for control of the land on both sides of the Congo’s eastern border.
Petroleum companies that have recently emerged and are now laying claim to DRC or Ugandan concessions on Lake Albert include Tower Resources, South African consortiums PetroSA and Divine Inspiration, and H Oil & Minerals Ltd.[30] Tower Resources is a U.S.-U.K. firm affiliated with U.K.-based Hardman Resources and tied to oil exploitation in Kenya and Namibia.[31]
H Oil & Minerals is a European firm operating in South Sudan, DRC and Angola; financiers include the Deutsche Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, and the Belgian giant Société Générale - one of the Congolese people’s greatest historical enemies. H Oil & Minerals is also closely linked to Marc Rich and his Switzerland-based company Glencore International, both known for arms trafficking in Angola and DRC through Angolagate notable Pierre Falcone. An Arizona (USA) Republican, Falcone is reportedly very tight with the Joseph Kabila government. Marc Rich is the fugitive Swiss financier who for years appeared on the FBI’s list of most wanted criminals on charges ranging from trading with embargoed states, tax evasion, racketeering and arms trafficking; Marc Rich was pardoned by Bill Clinton on Clinton’s last day in office.[32]
One of the most notorious global arms traffickers involved in Congo, Namibia and Zimbabwe is John Bredenkamp, one of Britain’s 50 richest men. Walter Hailwax, the Belgian honorary consul to Namibia, is a director of arms producer Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik and the local director of Bredenkamp’s arms brokerage company, ACS International Ltd. A key agent in Zimbabwean and DRC organized crime networks, Bredenkamp is one of the phantom white-collar criminals behind Robert Mugabe, another Black African fall guy now targeted by the Western press, think tanks and flak organizations, to the exclusion of other major interests. Of course, the Ndebele people suffered war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide under Mugabe, with the bulk of the atrocities committed from 1981 to 1988. (Mugabe remained an embraceable Black agent of white power until about 1999, and today - according to the Western economic and policy establishment, and the mass media, who no longer embrace him - he is the devil incarnate in Zimbabwe.)
The Lord’s Resistance Army
If you asked Western media consumers to name a bloodthirsty guerrilla movement in Africa, it is likely they would point to “warlord” Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), this thanks to the one-sided fictional media campaigns waged by National Public Radio, Time Magazine, Washington Post, or by Christopher Hitchens - who calls them “a Christian Khmer Rouge” - and Vanity Fair.[33] [34]
In the simplistic Western media narratives, the LRA is always described as a “fanatical Christian cult” that abducts children and forces them to commit atrocities. In the dichotomy of “good” versus “evil,” the LRA is “wicked” and the forces they are fighting against, President Museveni and the UPDF, are benevolent. Indeed, evangelical Christian missionaries from the United States have been deeply involved with the SPLA war against the “satanic” forces of the LRA and the Islamic government of Sudan.[35]
Spilling over from the wars in Uganda and Sudan and operating a clandestine network of terror and extortion in the north of Congo today, the LRA has waged a low-intensity war against the Museveni regime since circa 1987. The LRA is a Ugandan guerrilla force backed by the government of Sudan (Khartoum) and its allies and clandestinely supported by unnamed factions in Congo, Europe and Washington.
“For 19 years, Joseph Kony has been enslaving, torturing, raping and murdering Ugandan children,” wrote Christopher Hitchens, “many of whom have become soldiers for his ‘Lord’s Resistance Army,’ going on to torture, rape and kill other children.” Parroting the establishment line, Hitchens has no complaints about the UPDF brutalizing children in the refugee camps of Acholiland, and he never mentions the SPLA’s conscription of thousands of child soldiers.[36]
According to a high-level United Nations source working in the DRC, the LRA maintains very high-level political ties in New York and Washington, D.C., through Jongomoi Okidi-Olal, a Ugandan-American representative living in the U.S. The Uganda government has purportedly asked the Bush administration and the United Nations to arrest Okidi-Olal and hand him over to the ICC.[37] Other sources claim that Okidi is a fraud.
Interestingly, we find that Mwana Africa - whose vast Kilo-Moto mining concessions sprawl across northern Orientale - is also operating in Angola and South Africa and at five major mining concessions in the so-called “failed state” of Zimbabwe.[38] The government of Angola has always backed President Joseph Kabila, is very hostile to the Kagame gang and currently controls Congolese territory (Kehemba) near the Angolan border. Given the spoils to be had, it is likely that factions from Angola or Zimbabwe also back the Lord’s Resistance Army in a bid to displace Mwana Africa and other competitors from mining and petroleum sites in northeastern Congo.[39]
Congolese sources claim that MONUC moved into the Watsa region in northern Orientale only after the LRA - coming in through Garamba National Park near the Sudan border - began threatening the operations of AngloGold Ashanti, Mwana Africa and Moto Gold Mining.[40] Additionally, Garamba National Park is rich in diamonds and gold.
While the LRA is also supported by Ugandan factions opposed to the Museveni dictatorship, it is widely believed the LRA is a tool of the Museveni government used to manipulate public opinion, create chaos across the region, gain international sympathy from foreign donors and thereby procure massive financial backing to facilitate some of the world’s most lucrative and unappreciated AID-for-ARMS scandals. It is the perfect ruse to facilitate permanent foreign military intervention.
The LRA also reportedly moved into the northern DRC to displace SPLA troops that had a long history of plundering the area, shooting wildlife and harassing villages.[41] Thus while the evil LRA is always in the crosshairs of the international media, the same media protects the saintly SPLA, no matter the justice or criminality of either.[42]
The mass media and foreign policy discourses are saturated with the writings, op-eds and policy briefs of “experts” who serve as apologetic propagandists for foreign interventions and hidden agendas. Such “experts” exercise stark biases in naming or delineating the “killers” versus “victims” and for this reason they often gain exclusive access to mass media venues. The system of information control becomes self-perpetuating in favor of power and deception.
Experts working for the Pentagon, State Department or national security apparatus deploy arguments cloaked in righteous assumptions of higher morality about human rights or humanitarian concern. For example, Sudan “experts” like Dr. Eric Reeves and Alex De Waal provide a constant barrage of one-sided propaganda to manufacture consent at home and project American power in Sudan.[43] This propaganda is unassailable by Western “news” consumers, because consumers are not otherwise privy to, interested in or compelled to discover the deeper truths.
‘Raise Hope for Congo’ initiative
Like the “Save Tibet” campaign, the one-sided propaganda campaign and institutionalized big-money networking of the “Save Darfur” movement compelled ordinary citizens to become active participants in “stopping genocide.” A similar agenda is driving the new “Raise Hope for Congo” initiative. While their ideological programs are advanced through the Western mass media, organizations - e.g. the International Crises Group, Center for American Progress, International Rescue Committee, ENOUGH! - work to manufacture consent and channel popular consciousness through jingoistic sloganeering and humanistic language that offers “news” consumers exactly what they want to hear: peacekeeping, human rights, democracy, sustainable development, participatory mapping, Africa for the African people, and “never again” interventions against genocide.
Such propaganda campaigns proscribe ideas and possibilities, and they subvert popular movements. In the end, the true grassroots initiatives for social justice and legitimate peace have been expropriated or channeled into serving narrow prerogatives of power. And the voices of the voiceless are crushed, along with their bodies. The International Criminal Court serves a similar and necessary function in manufacturing consent and consolidating Western power. It is really about keeping up appearances: the appearance of justice being served, human rights being protected.
On Oct. 14, 2005, the ICC unsealed arrest warrants against five LRA commanders, all of them Black Africans: Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen. In October 2008, after the LRA committed fresh atrocities in northern DRC, the ICC renewed its calls for the arrest of Joseph Kony.[44]
Western propaganda campaigns proscribe ideas and possibilities, and they subvert popular movements. The voices of the voiceless are crushed, along with their bodies.
Uganda’s representation at ICC proceedings to explore war crimes in Congo has included at least two very high profile lawyers from Foley Hoag LLP, an influential Washington law firm.[45] Similarly, the Pentagon seconded its lawyers from the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps to the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR), where victor’s justice has arbitrarily and selectively politicized genocide in favor of the Pentagon’s UPDF/RPA proxy governments.[46]
Foley Hoag LLP is also tied to the U.S.-Uganda Friendship Council, a consortium that involves Coke, Pfizer and Chevron-Texaco. Coke director Kathleen Black is a principle in the Hearst media empire, while Coke directors Warren Buffet and Barry Diller are directors of the Washington Post Co., and these are the media institutions that whitewash the white-collar crime in Congo. Uganda’s image is further sanitized by London PR firm Hill & Knowlton.”[47]
From 2000 to at least 2004, Yoweri Museveni was co-chair of the euphemistically named Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa (PCHPA). The PCHPA is a front for multinational corporations and USAID, a Christian-based “soft policy” wing of the Pentagon that uses food as a weapon under the disguise of charity. Other PCHPA chairs include former U.S. Senator and Alston & Bird lawyer Bob Dole; Peter Seligman, chair and CEO of Conservation International, an NGO connected to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Jane Goodall Institute operations in DRC; George Rupp, president of the International Rescue Committee, a flak-producing organization involved in DRC; and Alpha Konare, the former chair of the Commission of the African Union (2003-2008), the governing body responsible, for example, for oversight of the supposedly “neutral” African Union “peacekeeping” force in Darfur, Sudan - a force that again deploys RDF forces as proxies to secretly further U.S./U.K. interests.
One PCHPA director also represents Bread for the World, a protectionist and nationalistic U.S.-based Christian evangelical “charity” whose directors include Bob Dole and former White House cabinet officials Mike McCurry and Leon Panetta. Along with Thomas Pickering, Susan Rice, Gayle Smith, Donald Payne, Ed Royce, John Podesta, Anthony Lake, Bill and Hillary Clinton and others, these are the architects of covert operations in Africa during the Clinton years.[48]
Sen. Tom Daschle is a special policy advisor for Alston & Bird and an honorary senior fellow of the Center for American Progress (CAP), the nationalist U.S. big money “think tank” behind a multitude of front groups with hidden foreign policy agendas around Uganda, Rwanda, Congo and Sudan.[49] These include the ENOUGH! Project, the new Raise Hope for Congo initiative, the Genocide Intervention Network, the ONE Campaign and the International Crisis Group (ICG) - all of which somehow involve agents like John Prendergast, former national security insider for President Bill Clinton. It is interesting that a lot of the same people show up tied to different organizations involved in “grassroots” campaigns to help Africa.
The ONE campaign was launched by a coalition of 11 prominent corporate so-called “charity” organizations, including Bread for the World, CARE, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee (IRC); each of these profit-based organizations has a euphemistic name that suggests a humanitarian or humanistic agenda, but they actually serve corporate interests. CARE has received funding from weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. In 1996 the IRC reportedly took over bases near the Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire and proceeded to shell the camps with heavy weapons; also, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright are IRC overseers.[50] ICG director Zbigniew Brzezinski is an advisor to President-elect Barack Obama.
In July 2008, Sen. Tom Daschle led a special delegation of policymakers on behalf of the ONE Campaign, described as “a bipartisan movement of over 2 million advocates for the elimination of global poverty and disease.” The ONE delegation also “met with civic and government leaders, as well as everyday citizens and entrepreneurs, to discuss Rwanda’s courageous national reconciliation since the genocide in 1994 …”[51]
Daschle and Dole’s law firm, Alston & Bird, is a sponsor of the corporate “Millennium Promise” project, and they provide pro bono legal services, in both the U.S. and Africa, for the Millennium Villages and Millennium Promise, both in Rwanda.[52] These programs are designed to put a “development” face on Africa while maintaining structural inequality, protectionist trade barriers and military superiority.
To put it simply, white people will always get the best jobs, corporations will run and ruin the world - dumping substandard and outdated products on confused populations; seeding the natural world with genetically engineered crops; peddling pretty plastic junk; pushing pharmaceutical pills; strip-mining everything - and we will all fool ourselves and ease our consciences by pretending that we are breaking down barriers of inequality and building a better world.
According to a very high level United Nations special investigator sent to negotiate with LRA commanders in DRC’s far north Garamba region in February 2007, the Uganda government had then recently “arrested” a U.S. military agent and five Congolese militia leaders discovered in Uganda. Originally detained in Kampala, the U.S. military agent was nonetheless allowed to move freely in and out of the DRC.[53]
The U.S. maintains “Intelligence Fusion Cells” in Congo and one cell, in Kisangani, capital of Orientale, was situated in a compound, ringed with coils of barbed wire, near the Tshopo River power station, and was run by a “ex”-marine named “Tom” who refused to discuss the cell. There were two U.S. military and two Rwandan military working there.[54] MONUC’s local spokesman confirmed only that the cell revolves around a “tripartite security arrangement between Rwanda, Uganda and DRC,” adding, “that one we don’t touch. It’s very hot.”[55] British soldiers stationed in Kisangani said the American fusion cell “monitors intelligence on tantalum extraction.”
To put it simply, white people will always get the best jobs, corporations will run and ruin the world - dumping substandard and outdated products on confused populations; seeding the natural world with genetically engineered crops; peddling pretty plastic junk; pushing pharmaceutical pills; strip-mining everything - and we will all fool ourselves and ease our consciences by pretending that we are breaking down barriers of inequality and building a better world.
A few years back, the U.S. donated to Rwanda two Boeing aircraft that were routinely used by the regime’s Ministry of Defense for arms and minerals trafficking between Rwanda, Belgium, Albania and Bulgaria. Operated by Silverback Cargo Freighters, a Kigali-based company blocked from European airspace since 2006, the planes were also reportedly used for CIA operations, including the transfer of U.S. “war on terror” prisoners. The Rwandan government refused to aid UN investigators seeking information about the company’s clandestine operations.[56] [57]
Recent massive human suffering and the escalation of hostilities by the Nkunda army in eastern Congo have provoked a spate of high-visibility policy statements where some powerful Western interests are calling on the “international community” to strengthen the MONUC military occupation of Congo, while other powerful interests from the new humanitarian order are calling for the European Union to send in a rapid reaction force.[58]
Blessed be the peacekeepers
Congolese sources everywhere confirm the widespread involvement of MONUC soldiers in guns-for-minerals swaps and sexual violence; sources repeatedly accuse MONUC troops of delivering weapons back to militias to justify MONUC’s $1 billion a year occupation of Congo.[59]
“MONUC was giving weapons to the militias,” says yet one more Congolese official. “MONUC had their own ambitions. It was about gold. The peace that was achieved in Orientale around 2006 was not achieved by MONUC; the National Police Force from Kinshasa and the integrated FARDC brigades achieved it. MONUC was frustrating the peace.”[60]
Congolese sources everywhere confirm the widespread involvement of MONUC [U.N.] soldiers in guns-for-minerals swaps and sexual violence.
In the new Congo war documentary by Dutch filmmaker Renzo Martens, “Enjoy Poverty,” we see South African mining staff of AngloGold Ashanti confirming MONUC’s pivotal role in securing the company’s access to gold in Orientale. The entire “humanitarian” enterprise must be properly situated in the political economy of profit-based charity, resource control and racial injustice.[61]
MONUC doesn’t need more guns; it needs fewer guns - but arms dealers keep shipping them in. And Congo doesn’t need more foreign mercenary forces posing as “peacekeepers” but secretly serving narrow, undisclosed interventionist agendas on behalf of multinational corporations.
Ditto for Darfur. In an “explosive” new book by progressive activists that mildly exposes some of the hypocrisies of the Save Darfur movement, we find the authors calling for greater military intervention and sneering at others who have criticized and rejected military intervention for being what we might call the new, old humanitarian warfare in Africa.[62]
The book, “Scramble for Africa: Darfur - Intervention and the USA,” cites ad nauseum all the usual propagandists that are monopolizing the English language mass media, publications from the far right to progressive left, on Darfur. These experts include Alex De Waal and Eric Reeves - and the International Crisis Group - but there are plenty of citations and references to journalists who peddle the establishment inventions and thereby black out the forces of Western control.
By page xvii of the preface, the authors - who have no experience anywhere near Sudan - have become the prosecution, judges and jury of their own private international court: “That [President Omar al-Bashir] is a major war criminal is beyond doubt,” they wrote, “as is the fact that he should face trial for his substantial violations of international human rights law.” The American authors, it seems, are also in the business of overthrowing governments: “Given the litany of abuses for which [the Government of Sudan] is guilty,” they wrote, “there would be little to mourn in Bashir’s overthrow, and such a move - depending, of course, on the actors involved, and its prospects for success - could be cautiously supported.”[63]
In other words, it’s fine for white people from the United States to organize the overthrow of sovereign governments, as long as we selectively chose the “right” people for the job. The authors never similarly condemn “leaders” from the United States, Canada, Israel or Europe, and they never suggest that President Bush should be overthrown or that Donald Rumsfeld or Henry Kissinger or Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf or Maurice Tempelsman should be prosecuted for war crimes.
The book makes no mention of covert operations or private military companies operating in South Sudan or Darfur and, while it illuminates the Bush administration’s collaboration with the Khartoum government, it is nothing more than a cheerleading tool for the opposing power blocks, including the massive so-called “humanitarian relief” operations. Such is the racial obliviousness of the new humanitarian disorder.
But Darfur’s cheerleaders and Khartoum’s enemies are not so neutral as they appear.
In 1992, Darfur human rights expert Alex De Waal established African Rights, an NGO based in London, co-directed with Rakiya Omaar. In August 1995, African Rights published the report, “Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance,” one of the first “human rights investigations” to appear after the so-called “100 days of killing” and the successful RPA/UPDF coup d’etat in Rwanda of 1994.
“Among the early reports on the genocide, none matches Africa[n] Rights, ‘Rwanda, Death, Despair and Defiance’ (September 1994) for the clinical description of the atrocities inflicted upon Tutsi victims,” wrote renowned Africa scholar René Lemarchand, “ranging from political murders to collective massacres in churches, schools and stadiums, and the daily manhunts conducted on the hills. Significant as it is to our understanding of the sheer savagery that has accompanied the carnage, the African Rights report is utterly silent on the grisly crimes and torture inflicted by Tutsi soldiers on innocent Hutu civilians, some of which are by now well documented (Nduwayo, 2002: 9-16; Amnesty International, 1994; Des Forges, 1999; Reyntjens and De Souter, 1994).”[64]
Lemarchand makes the usual error of accepting the “clinical description of the atrocities inflicted on Tutsis” at face value. How does he know they are all Tutsis and only Tutsis? Because African Rights says they are? Where does he get his information about “daily manhunts conducted on the hills”? Why would Lemarchand so quickly trust the claims of a report that he simultaneously castigates for its (authors’) extreme and obvious biases?
“This woman of Somali origin is an RPF agent,” says Jean-Marie Higiro of African Rights’ co-director Rakiya Omaar. Higiro was director of the Rwandan Information Office (ORINFOR). “She has her office in Kigali. In 1994 she was at Mulindi, the headquarters of the RPF. As the RPF conquered territories from the Rwandan Government Forces, she collected information fed to her by the RPF.”[65]
“An intensive back and forth activity between this so-called British human rights organization, African Rights, and the intelligence services of the president’s office and the military has been observed,” wrote Paul Rusesabagina. “Her investigators are very close to the [RPF/RDF] military intelligence apparatus, and the modus operandi of both appears to be similar.”[66]
The African Rights report was one of the first to manufacture and promulgate the false (one-sided) mythology of “genocide” in Rwanda. It says nothing about RPF/A massacres or foreign military involvement and peddles the now clichéd and disingenuous stereotypes about victims and killers. What does the African Rights report tell us about the veracity of Alex De Waal’s “human rights” reports and political analyses coming out of Darfur? Further, Alex De Waal’s ties to U.S. intelligence include his involvement with Harvard University and the Council on Foreign Relations: De Waal was a member of a CFR task force focused on defining a new military and intelligence engagement with Africa that is cloaked in “humanitarian” rhetoric.[67]
We further witness the hypocrisy and international scandal of having three battalions of Pentagon “trained” Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) “peacekeepers” operating in Darfur while the RDF is openly backing Laurent Nkunda’s occupation proxy force in Congo. Similarly, the UPDF - having received fresh military training by U.S. covert forces in Uganda - has been sent to Somalia. This is not “peacekeeping”; it is crazy making.
A few well-placed arrests - beginning in Washington, Frankfurt, London, New York or Brussels - would redress the problem of impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity everywhere.
The Kansteiner connection
The Moto Gold Project is located in the Kilo Moto goldfields in the northeast of the DRC, some 150 kilometers west of the Ugandan border town of Arua. Kilo Moto was President Joseph Mobutu’s private mine, but the project, at various stages, involved powerful Western interlocutors: Belgians Yves Le Norvan and the Damseau family; Roger Lemaire, a Houston, Texas, insider; and an Israeli military agent identified as David Agnon.[68] Kilo Moto’s gold, then as now, usually exited Congo (Zaire) through remote airstrips.[69]
The present Moto Gold Mining “lease” - a massive land grab corruptly obtained - covers an area of approximately 1,841 square kilometers and involves sites at Durba, Watsa and Doko. Moto Gold’s partners in Orientale include Siemens and Ken Overseas. Siemens director Tiego Moseneke is also a director of PetroSA, a new South African oil minor poaching DRC oil concessions on Lake Albert.[70] Ken Overseas Co. is involved in the Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA) diamond mines in Congo’s Mbuji-Mayi province. In their reports on war and plunder in DRC, the United Nations Panel of Experts named Ken Overseas in a MIBA mining consortium linked to Belgian tycoon Philippe de Moerloose and Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler; both men have been flagged for arms trafficking.[71]
A few well-placed arrests - beginning in Washington, Frankfurt, London, New York or Brussels - would redress the problem of impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity everywhere.
Walter Kansteiner III is one of the shadiest architects of Congo’s troubles. The son of a coltan trader in Chicago, Kansteiner was assistant secretary of state for Africa under G.W. Bush and former “National Security” insider and member of the Department of Defense Task Force on Strategic Minerals under Bill Clinton. Kansteiner’s speech at The Forum for International Policy in October of 1996 advocated partitioning the Congo (Zaire) into smaller states based on ethnic lineage; Laurent Kabila was marching across Zaire at the time.[72]
The balkanization of Congo appears to be a major objective behind the current organized chaos in the Great Lakes region.[73] Further, it is obvious that conflicts from within the U.S. - between the Department of State, Pentagon and intelligence agencies - are translating to regional warfare on the ground in, especially, Sudan, Uganda and Congo.
Kansteiner is a trustee of the Africa Wildlife Foundation - another profit-based “conservation” corporation tied to Conservation International, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Jane Goodall Institute - entities whose front of gorilla and chimpanzee protection hides a deeper agenda.[74] It is not surprising to find that one of the AWF’s premier sponsors is Barrick Gold. Kansteiner is also linked to Richard Leakey’s paramilitary front organization Wildlife Direct and to the Africa Conservation Fund, a shady Washington, D.C., entity.[75]
Kansteiner is a director of the precious metal firm Titanium Resources Group, a company deeply tied to Sierra Rutile Ltd., a firm pivotal to the bloodshed in Sierra Leone.[76] Sierra Rutile Ltd. director Sir Sam Jonah reportedly helped finance Rwandan RCD rebel groups in DRC while he was a CEO of Ashanti Goldfields; Jonah is also a director for Moto Gold.[77] Sierra Rutile is owned by Max and Jean-Raymond Boulle and Robert Friedland, “Friends of Bill” Clinton who are linked to clandestine networks of offshore holdings and front companies involved in weapons trafficking, money laundering and human rights atrocities from Burma to the Congos to Mongolia.[78]
On April 28, 2008, the ICC issued an international arrest warrant for militia commander Bosco Ntaganda, former commander of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), a militia that operated in the oil and gold areas of Orientale. Bosco is currently the chief of staff of Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP army in North Kivu.
On July 14, 2008, the prosecutor of the ICC applied for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, accused of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Bashir is an Arab - another person of color - and the ICC has deeply politicized the Darfur conflict in keeping with the imperialist smokescreen of the “Save Darfur” movement.
There have been no ICC indictments against a single white man who could be proven to be equally culpable in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, though the list of possibilities - as indicated herein - is very, very long.
“Its name notwithstanding, the ICC is rapidly turning into a Western court to try African crimes against humanity,” writes Mahmood Mamdani. “It has targeted governments that are U.S. adversaries and ignored actions the United States doesn’t oppose, like those of Uganda and Rwanda in eastern Congo, effectively conferring impunity on them.”[79]
The writing is on the wall, and we can anticipate the eventual arrest of Ugandan military commanders, including Laurent Nkunda, James Kazini, James Kabarebe, Salim Saleh and Paul Kagame. Such arrests aren’t likely to involve legitimate judicial proceedings, and it won’t be merely because these people deserve to be arrested, which they do, and they probably won’t be arrested before a few more million people are slaughtered in Central Africa.
The arrests will come because these are the notoriously visible people of color used to make invisible - quite literally black out - the white war criminals and covert operators wrecking havoc in Africa and elsewhere around the world. They are the embraceable Black Africans, and the future fall guys, and Africa’s “leaders” should take note. And so should Barack Obama.
Even more critical is the need for the Western news consuming public to recognize the face of propaganda and the nature of “change” and what it means to people of color everywhere. Thus it is critical to note the recent shift in media coverage that accompanies the imminent shift in the post-election balance of U.S. power. Gen. Laurent Nkunda has been deeply involved in Congo for years and the Kagame military machine has been shipping weapons and officers directly to Congo; these Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) officers infiltrate the country and direct the “rebel” operations, and the CNDP has served as a lever of power used against the Kabila government. Reported herein - and nowhere else - is the ongoing secret military involvement of Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan crime networks.
The children of the Congo need us to call out the merchants of death and leave the wealth of the Congo for the Congolese people. - Photo: foto_morgana
Only recently, as power shifts from the G.W. Bush power elite to the incoming Obama administration - being packed with Clintonite friends and officials and by Democratic Party financiers like diamond kingpin Maurice Tempelsman - has Nkunda or Rwanda been subject to any kind of “harsh criticism.” The New York Times article of Dec. 3, 2008, is the perfect example of the “news” media serving hidden agendas. In “Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Troubles in Congo,” the New York Times peddles the standard narrative about “genocide in Rwanda” in 1994.
Suddenly, writes Jeffrey Gettleman, one of the NYT’s chief Congo propagandists of late, there is a “secret Rwandan brotherhood” and Rwandan government officials are involved in the bloodletting and plunder in Congo.[80] Such “exposés” appear only because power factions - in this case a right-wing Republican faction allied with the Bush administration - are exerting leverage through their mouthpiece, the New York Times, and thus mildly exposing the obvious links of the former Clinton administration - a competing power faction, more heavily comprised of right-wing Democrats - to war and covert operations in Congo. There is a similar political economy of intervention at work vis-à-vis Darfur, Sudan.
Suddenly it is beneficial to name a few names - names like Modeste Makabuza Ngoga - names that have been known and named before.[81] These New York Times articles are nothing more than expedience, tricks in a bag of tricks, as power jockeys for its positions, and for massive private profit, as we approach the zero hour and the twilight of savior Barack Obama’s coming, bringing “change” to America and the same old, new, humanitarian warfare to Africa.[82]
Notes
[1] There are exceptions to the rule, including the extensive publications by this author and those by Africa researcher David Barouski. See, e.g., David Barouski, “Mining in the Ituri Province of the Congo: A Contemporary Profile,” Z-Net, April 15, 2008; and David Barouski, “Laurent Nkundabatware, His Rwandan Allies, and the ex-ANC Mutiny: Chronic Barriers to Lasting Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Feb. 13, 2007.
[2] Wayne Madsen, “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellon Books, 1999.
[3] Investigations into the 1994 events in Rwanda and documents presented at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda reveal a huge body of evidence supporting what soon become obvious conclusions.
[4] Keith Harmon Snow and David Barouski, “Behind the Numbers: Untold Suffering in Congo,” Z Magazine, March 1, 2006; and Human Rights Watch, “The Curse of Gold,” June 1, 2005.
[5] See Keith Harmon Snow, “Gertler’s Bling Bang Torah Gang,” Dissident Voice, Feb. 9, 2008.
[6] Private investigations, North Kivu, DRC, 2005-2007, and private communications, 2008.
[7] Private communications, July through November 2008.
[8] See Wayne Madsen, “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellon Books, 1999; and Keith Harmon Snow, “Darfurism, Uganda and U.S. War in Africa: The Spectre of Continental Genocide,” Dissident Voice, Nov. 24, 2007; private interviews, eyewitnesses working in western Uganda at the time, October 2007.
[9] The Acholi people - non-combatant men, but mostly women and children - have suffered decades of genocidal treatment by UPDF soldiers deployed by Yoweri Museveni, president in Uganda, and top military commanders Gen. James Kazini, Gen. Salim Saleh, Gen. Kahinda Otafiir, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala, Maj. Gen. Jim Owoyesigire and Brig. Gen. Robert Rusoke.
[10] Private interview, eyewitness working in western Uganda at the time, October 2007; see also Wayne Madsen, “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellon Books, 1999.
[11] Howard French, “A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa,” Vintage, April 2005.
[12] Mahmood Mamdani, “Understanding the Crisis in Kivu: Report of the CODESRIA Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo September, 1997,” Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Nov. 20, 1998, http://hrp.bard.edu/resource_pdfs/mamdani.kivu.pdf.
[13] “ZAIRE: Peace Possible?” interview with Bill Richardson, PBS Online News Hour, May 9, 1997, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/may97/zaire_5-9.html.
[14] Friends of Rwanda advisory board: http://www.friendsofrwanda.com/foractivity/.
[15] “A Brief Profile of Joe Ritchie,” The New Times, Nov. 26, 2008, http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13707&article=10610.
[16] Marc Kaufman and Robert E. Pierre, “Rich Brothers Mission to Save Afghanistan Stirs Suspicions,” Washington Post News Service, International Herald Tribune On-Line, Nov. 9, 2001, http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-notes/IHT%20RichBrothersMission-IHT.htm.
[17] Quotes are used because the “genocide” label and realities on the ground are highly contested.
[18] Moto Gold Mines website: http://www.motogoldmines.com/board_of_directors.9.html.
[19] Private interviews, Bunia, Kisangani and Zani, DRC, March 26-28, 2007; and Mwana Africa presentation, 30th Minesite Mining Forum, March 28, 2006: http://www.mwanaafrica.com/ir/files/presentations/2006/minesite_mar06.pdf.
[20] Mwana Africa presentation, 30th Minesite Mining Forum, March 28, 2006: http://www.mwanaafrica.com/ir/files/presentations/2006/minesite_mar06.pdf.
[21] See Keith Harmon Snow, “Northern Uganda: Hidden War, Massive Suffering: Another White People’s War for Oil,” Global Research, May 26, 2007.
[22] See Keith Harmon Snow, “Three Cheers for Eve Ensler? Propaganda, White Collar Crime and Sexual Atrocities in Eastern Congo,” Z-Net, Oct. 24, 2007.
[23] Jeffrey Gettleman, “Congo’s Riches, Looted by Renegade Troops,” New York Times, Nov. 18, 2008, p. 1, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/world/africa/16congo.html.
[24] See Keith Harmon Snow, “A People’s History of Congo’s Jean-Pierre Bemba,” Toward Freedom, Sept. 18, 2007.
[25] See Dr. Enoch (Helan) Page, “‘Black Male’ Imagery and Media Containment of African American Men,” American Anthropologist, March 1997, Vol. 99, No. 1, pp. 99-111.
[26] See, e.g., William K. Lietzau, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2003/d20030522liet.pdf.
[27] Interview with human rights investigator, Bunia, DRC, March 23, 2007.
[28] Private communications, Orientale, DRC, November
[29] Private interview, Aru official, Aru, DRC, March 26, 2007.
[30] See “An Industry Rebirth? Oil in the DRC,” Consultancy Africa Intelligence; and Tower Resources: http://www.towerresources.co.uk/corporate.html; H Oil and Minerals Ltd. website: www.hoilminerals.com.
[31] Tower Resources website: http://www.towerresources.co.uk/operations.html.
[32] Ken Silverstein, “The Arms Dealer Next Door: International billionaire, French prisoner, Angolan weapons broker, Arizona Republican. Who is Pierre Falcone?” In These Times, Dec. 22, 2001.
[33] Christopher Hitchens, “Childhood’s End,” Vanity Fair, January 20076, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/01/hitchens200601.
[34] After querying Vanity Fair editors with a story idea about war in Africa, the editors responded that Christopher Hitchens is their sole source correspondent on Africa.
[35] See Richard Bartholomew, “American Pastor Helps SPLA Battle LRA in Sudan,” Jan. 25, 2005, http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2006/01/25/american-pastor-helps-spla-battle-lra-in-sudan/; and Keith Harmon Snow, “Oil in Darfur? Special Ops in Somalia?” Global Research, Feb. 7, 2007, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717.
[36] Jo Becker, “Children as Weapons of War,” Human Rights Watch World Report 2004, Human Rights Watch, January 2004, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k4/index.htm.
[37] Interviews with U.N. official in eastern DRC, August 2006 and February 2007. See also “U.S. asked to arrest Ugandan-American rebel Jongomoi Okidi-Olal - The real brain behind LRA leadership?” Xinhua, April 9, 2006, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/09/content_4402556.htm.
[38] Mwana Africa presentation, 30th Minesite Mining Forum, March 28, 2006, http://www.mwanaafrica.com/ir/files/presentations/2006/minesite_mar06.pdf.
[39] See Charles Onyango Obbo, “Soon the guns of Goma might be heard in Kampala,” Monitor On-Line, Nov. 19, 2008, http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/11dd77ace1d4c3d0.
[40] Private interviews, Bunia and Kisangani, February and March 2007.
[41] The international rhino conservation programs at Garamba are reportedly somehow tied to the political interests of the opposition party in Zimbabwe; private interview, U.N. investigator, Kisangani, DRC 2007.
[42] See Keith Harmon Snow, “Oil in Darfur? Special Ops in Somalia?” Global Research, Feb. 7, 2007, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717.
[43] See Keith Harmon Snow, “Oil in Darfur? Special Ops in Somalia?” Global Research, Feb. 7, 2007, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717.
[44] “ICC calls for renewed efforts to arrest Joseph Kony,” RNW International Justice Desk, Oct. 6, 2008, http://www.rnw.nl/internationaljustice/icc/Uganda/081006-uganda-kony.
[45] Paul S. Reichler and Lawrence H. Martin. See “Public sitting held on Monday 18 April 2005, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Shi presiding, in the case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda),” International Court of Justice, CR 2005/7, 2005
[46] Ralph G. Kershaw, “Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: International Justice According to Washington,” Covert Action Quarterly, No. 74, Fall 2002.
[47] Jeevan Vasagar, “Uganda hires PR agency to buff up its image,” The Guardian, May 21, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/21/jeevanvasagar.
[48] See Wayne Madsen, “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellon Press, 1999.
[49] http://www.americanprogress.org/aboutus/staff/DaschleSenatorTom.html.
[50] Private interview with U.N. special investigator XXX XXX, Kisangani, DRC, 2006; investigations in Goma and Bukavu, DRC, 2005-2007.
[51] See “Senator Tom Daschle Leads Delegation in Rwanda,” Alston & Bird website, July 22, 2008, http://www.alston.com/firm/News/Detail.aspx?news=2612.
[52] Alston & Bird website: http://www.alston.com/firm/News/Detail.aspx?news=2612.
[53] Private interview with U.N. special investigator XXX XXX, Kisangani, DRC, 2006.
[54] Investigations of “American Intelligence Fusion Cell,” Kisangani, DRC, July 31, 2006.
[55] Investigations and interviews in Kisangani, DRC, 2006.
[56] Private interview with U.N. special investigator XXX XXX, Kisangani, DRC 2007.
[57] See “Silverback Cargo Freighters Rwanda,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, http://www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/Air_Cargo_Operators/Silverback_Cargo_Freighters.html and Silverback Cargo Freighters website: http://www.silverbackcargo.com/inside.php?photo.
[58] Marianna Brungs, “EU: Coalition of Leaders Calls for EU Force in Congo,” Crisis Watch Press Release, Human Rights Watch, London, Nov. 27, 2008.
[59] Private interviews, Bunia, DRC, February and March 2007.
[60] Private interviews, Bunia, Aru and Zani, February 2007.
[61] Renzo Martens, “Enjoy Poverty,” International Documentary Festival, Amsterdam, http://idfa.nl/en/festival/schedule/film.aspx?id=781e5666-0d52-43d5-ba66-67c6815ce198.
[62] See Keith Harmon Snow, “Oil in Darfur? Special Ops in Somalia? The New, Old, Humanitarian Warfare in Africa,” Global Research, Feb. 7, 2007, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717.
[63] Kevin Funk and Steven Fake, “The Scramble for Africa: Darfur - Intervention and the USA,” Black Rose Books, 2008.
[64] René Lemarchand, “Scholarly Review: Rwanda: The State of Research,” November 2007, http://www.massviolence.org/Rwanda-The-State-of-Research?artpage=4.
[65] Private communication, Jean-Marie Higiro, Oct. 17, 2008.
[66] Paul Rusesabagina, “Rusesabagina responds to Rwanda government book on ‘Hotel Rwanda,’” EUX-TV (Brussels), April 12, 2008, http://eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=20114.
[67] “More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa,” Council on Foreign Relations, Task Force Report No. 56, January 2006, http://www.cfr.org/publication/9302/#author.
[68] Private interview, keith harmon snow with OKIMO Company officials, Bunia, March 24, 2007.
[69] Private interview, Keith Harmon Snow with OKIMO Co. officials, Bunia, March 24, 2007.
[70] Legal Brief Today, July 27, 2006, http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=2006072709081497; and “Local Companies in Scramble for DRC Oil,” Johannesburg Sunday Times, Aug. 18, 2008; and H Oil and Minerals Ltd. website: www.hoilminerals.com/index.php/news/entry/local_companies_in_scramble_for_drc_oil/.
[71] The others included the Groupe Van De Ghinste, Demimpex, Chanic and OSS; both OSS and Demimpex are De Moerloose companies. See “Report of the United Nations Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Also see Keith Harmon Snow, “Gertler’s Bling Bang Torah Gang,” Dissident Voice, Feb. 9, 2008; and Keith Harmon Snow, “Congo’s President Joseph Kabila: Dynasty or Travesty?” Toward Freedom, Nov. 13, 2007.
[72] “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999,” United States 107th Congress, Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, First Session, May 17, 2001, comp. Centre for Research on Globalization: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD111A.html.
[73] “The U.S. (Under)mining Job of Africa,” http://cryptome.org/us-africa.wm.htm.
[74] See the King Kong series published by Keith Harmon Snow and Georgianne Nienaber, Op-Ed News, 2007 and 2008.
[75] Africa Wildlife Foundation, http://www.awf.org/section/about/trustees.
[76] Titanium Resources Group, http://titaniumresources.com/about-us/management-team.
[77] See Wayne Madsen, “Genocide and Covert Operations In Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellen Books, 1999.
[78] See Wayne Madsen, “Genocide and Covert Operations In Africa, 1993-1999,” Mellen Books, 1999.
[79] Mahmood Mamdani, “The New Humanitarian Order,” The Nation, Sept. 29, 2008, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/mamdani.
[80] Jeffrey Gettleman, “Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Troubles in Congo,” New York Times, Dec. 3, 2008; and Jerome Delay, “Many of the most powerful people in Congo have close ties to Rwanda’s elite in Kigali,” New York Times, Dec. 3, 2008.
[81] See Roxanne Stasyszyn, “A World Playground: Congolese People Sacrificed for International Games and Profits,” Dissident Voice and Global Research, Nov. 8, 2008, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10848.
Keith Harmon Snow is a frequent contributor to Global Research, where this article first appeared. To learn more, visit his website, All Things Pass, and Friends of the Congo. He can be reached at keith.harmon.snow@gmail.com.
Hope Afloat for Congo
Somali woes: The perils of intervention
Somali woes: The perils of intervention
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
![Somali pirates – fishermen who have been forced out of their fishing grounds by foreigners – hijack the MV Faina on Sept. 24 in Somali waters. A Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with heavy weaponry, including 33 Russian-designed T-72 battle tanks, the Faina is still being held, for $35 million ransom, 89 days later. Newsweek quotes a leader of the pirates, interviewed by phone from the bridge of the Faina, who explains, “If we are forced to avoid fishing our waters, then those [commercial] ships are all our fish.”](http://www.sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/somali-pirates-hijack-mv-faina-092408-by-afp.jpg)
Somali pirates – fishermen who have been forced out of their fishing grounds by foreigners – hijack the MV Faina on Sept. 24 in Somali waters. A Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with heavy weaponry, including 33 Russian-designed T-72 battle tanks, the Faina is still being held, for $35 million ransom, 89 days later. Newsweek quotes a leader of the pirates, interviewed by phone from the bridge of the Faina, who explains, “If we are forced to avoid fishing our waters, then those [commercial] ships are all our fish.” – Photo: AFP
On the coastal outcrops of East Africa, in an area known as “the horn,” Somalia sits like a sentinel jutting into both the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Although Somalis have recently been in the Western press because of a half-dozen sensational cases of piracy, the nation has a long and distinct history, centuries before the era of European colonialism.
As long ago as the 1400s, Somalis fought border wars with their western neighbor, Ethiopia. But like many African nations, interference by the West has meant disaster for the people.
Somalia was colonized by the French, the Italians and, later, the British, who split the country into separate territories. But throughout the colonization era, the people kept their language (Somali), their culture, their history and sense of Somali nationhood.
The MV Faina off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast – Photo: AFP
In 2006, as part of the U.S. misguided “War on Terror,” the U.S. supported an Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia that transformed a bad situation into a worse one. The occupation stirred up Somali nationalism, which strengthened hard-core Islamist forces, which have spearheaded Somali resistance against the Ethiopians.
Now comes word that the Ethiopians are rushing for the exits. By January 2009, they should be gone.
In the aftermath of this bloody, unpopular occupation has grown a deeply radicalized and militarized generation of youth that has no lived memory of schools, of peace or of communal well-being - only of war and strife.
When the U.S. supports proxy wars against nations it doesn’t like, it rarely reaps anything better than bitterness.
For the U.S., as one of the world’s richest countries, can often afford such expenses, but it doesn’t know the time or form of repayment.
Seven years ago, the U.S. experienced one form of repayment from an offshoot of the mujahadin army, which had forced the Soviets out of Afghanistan, growing stronger in men, money and material by the day.
If Sept. 11th has taught us anything, it should be that wars abroad can become strikes at home.
We’ve not heard the last of Somalia.
http://impoetryious.com/blog-mt7/mt.fcgi?mode=view&_type=entry&id=441&blog_id=1&saved_added=1
© Copyright 2008 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s latest book, “We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party,” winner of the 2005 People’s Choice Award, available from South End Press, www.southendpress.org or (800) 533-8478. Keep updated by reading Action Alerts at www.mumia.org and www.moveorg.net. To download mp3s of Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews to inspire progressive movement and help call attention to his case. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.
From Fanon to Africa, with love
From Fanon to Africa, with love
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.sfbayview.com/2008/from-fanon-to-africa-with-love/
President of the Congo Patrice Lumumba, shown here under arrest in December 1960, wrote in his last letter to his wife before his assassination: “We are not alone. Africa, Asia, and free and liberated people from every corner of the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese. They will not abandon the light until the day comes when there are no more colonizers and their mercenaries in our country. … History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach … Do not weep for me, my dear companion. I know that my country, which suffers so much, will know how to defend its independence and its liberty. Long live the Congo! Long live Africa!”As the economies of the West and East tumble, tremors may also be felt in African economies, as heightened food prices push populations to the breaking point of near starvation. In country after country the struggle for life becomes even harder, and it seems like leaders are more remote than ever.
Whenever I read of economic or ethnic strife in any part of Africa, I’m reminded of Dr. Frantz Fanon, the ethno-psychiatrist born in the Caribbean island of Martinique, who became a revolutionary, working on behalf of the Algerian Revolution, and writer of the masterpiece, “The Wretched of the Earth” (1966).
Fanon’s work was widely read on three continents and is still worthy of study, not least because the insightful thinker predicted how African rulers would rule if they didn’t unite the continent’s various peoples and failed to develop truly independent and socialist governing systems.
Many African post-colonial leaders, trained as they were in Eurocentric schools, sought to replicate such theories in African societies which could only result in disaster. Fanon is cutting when he describes the role of these Eurocentric African leaders who were attempting to recreate little pieces of Europe in their former colonies:
“In underdeveloped countries, we have seen that no true bourgeoisie exists; there is only a sort of little greedy caste, avid and voracious, with the mind of a huckster, only too glad to accept the dividends that the former colonial power hands out to it. This get-rich-quick middle class shows itself incapable of great ideas or of inventiveness. It remembers what it has read in European textbooks and imperceptibly it becomes not even the replica of Europe, but its caricature.”
When leaders were trained in capitalist colonizing economic theory, the most important lesson they learned was how to recreate colonialism, not to destroy it.
Many African nations have been riven by deadly and destructive ethnic clashes, such as Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Mauritania and beyond.
Fanon wrote in “Wretched” that the “national bourgeoisie … which has totally assimilated colonialist thought in its most corrupt form, takes over from the Europeans and establishes in the continent a racial philosophy which is extremely harmful for the future of Africa.”
Thus, long inculcated into the European practice of “divide and conquer,” African leaders exploit ethnic differences - so-called “tribalism” - to stir the pot between communities. So, Hutus fight Tutsis, Zulus fight Xhosas, Kalenjins fight Kikuyus and on and on, while communal unity seems like an unattainable mirage. While people think of their ethnic identities, few think of national identities, and fewer still think of what African unity really means.
Divided into clans, Africa remains ripe for the plucking by the new colonialists, who see it as a vast stealing ground, from which resources can be looted with relative ease.
Fanon foresaw this half a century ago. Nkrumah tried to organize against it. But, regrettably, we are where we are.
It is almost painful to read Fanon today, over 40 years after his publications (in English), so accurate and cutting is his analysis. Yet, the truth remains that many African states have Black presidents and prime ministers who preside over systems that are tied with a thousand chains to the old colonials powers, which continued under new management old exploitative relationships.
Indeed, in “Toward the African Revolution” (1967), Fanon wrote of the global significance of the imperialists’ murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected president of the Congo:
“Africa must understand … that there will not be one Africa that fights against colonialism and another that attempts to make arrangements with colonialism … Our mistake, the mistake we Africans made, was to have forgotten that the enemy never withdraws sincerely. He never understands. He capitulates, but he does not become converted. Our mistake is to have believed that the enemy had lost his combativeness and his harmfulness. If Lumumba is in the way, Lumumba disappears. Hesitation in murder has never characterized imperialism. Look at Ben M’hidi, look at Moumie, look at Lumumba. Our mistake is to have been slightly confused in what we did. It is a fact that in Africa, today, traitors exist. They should have been denounced and fought. The fact that this is hard after the magnificent dream of an Africa gathered together unto itself and subject to the same requirements of true independence does not alter facts. … Let us be sure never to forget it; the fate of all of us is at stake in the Congo.”
‘Our mistake is to have believed that the enemy had lost his combativeness and his harmfulness. If Lumumba is in the way, Lumumba disappears. … Let us be sure never to forget it; the fate of all of us is at stake in the Congo.’ - Frantz Fanon
In February and March, several African states had food riots - or should we say “hunger riots”? Some countries have sold staples at lower costs in special stores. Other countries have reached almost apocalyptic levels of hyperinflation where their currency is virtually worthless.
In general - at least as of several months ago - the following were equivalent to one U.S. dollar: in Algeria, 65 dinars; in Cote d’Ivoire, 420 francs; in Nigeria, 118 nairas; in Tanzania, 1,396 shillings; in Malawi, 140 kwacha. Only in one African country, Ghana, was its New Cedi equal to a dollar.
Half a century after most African states gained independence, and the continent is still a social, economic and political basket case. Fanon, if he were still alive, would weep.
© Copyright 2008 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s latest book, “We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party,” winner of the 2005 People’s Choice Award, available from South End Press, or (800) 533-8478. Keep updated by reading Action Alerts at www.mumia.org and www.moveorg.net. To download mp3s of Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews to inspire progressive movement and help call attention to his case. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.
The Triangular Slave Trade
This article reproduced in its entirety and was written by Neelam Sharma using material submitted by Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, a political prisoner currently held in Easter Correctional Facility Napanoch, NY and Bonnie Kerness, associate director of the American Friends Service Committee in New Jersey, a prisoners' rights advocate for the past 20 years.
The U.S. representative to the United Nations recently expressed his disgust at a request that the American Government should "officially apologize” for the damage done to African Americans by the Triangular Slave Trade [the term applied to describe the trade in Africans]; his reasoning was that since slavery was actually "legal" at the time no "crime" was in fact committed. Taking note of this line of argument is important to understand clearly that even as we are busy campaigning for reparations for past wrongs, a new form of slavery is being "legally" created.
The African slave trade of 16th-18th century did not appear suddenly overnight; it grew over a period of time driven by the "economic interests" of merchants and businessmen; and it was sanctioned by their representatives in government. This is precisely the process that is unfolding today with the creation of a "prison industrial complex" on a scale never before seen. There are two very disturbing aspects of the growth in this "new industry": the contracting out of penal institutions to business interests, and the increasing use of physical and psychological torture on prisoners as a form of "control".
The Growth of Private Prisons:
Ten years ago there was just five privately run prisons in the country, housing a population of 2000. Today, 20 private firms run more than 100 prisons with about 62,000 beds. That is still less than 5 per cent, but the industry is expanding fast, with the number of private prison beds expected to grow to 360,000 during the next decade. Already 28 states have passed legislation making it legal for private contractors to run prisons; more are expected to follow suit. Companies like Goldman Sachs and Co., Prudential Insurance Co. of America, Smith Barney Shearson Inc., and Merrill Lynch and Co., are among those competing to underwrite prison construction with private, tax-exempt bonds (where no voter approval is required). Why such a scramble for these contracts? Consider the growth of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the industry leader whose stock price has increased from $8 a share in 1992 to about $30 today, and whose revenue rose by 81% in 1995 alone. The Nashville-based CCA, which runs 46 penal institutions in 11 states, controls roughly half of the industry. It took ten years for the company to reach 10,000 beds; it is now growing by the same number every year.
The Triangle of Interest:
On May 12 1994 the Wall Street Journal featured an article entitled: "Making Crime Pay-Triangle of Interest Created Infrastructure To Fight Lawlessness-Cities see Jobs; Politicians see a Popular Issue and Businesses Cash In- The Cold War of the 90's". In other words, the media creates a climate of fear about rates of crime, politicians campaign on this issue demanding new legislation and get tough measures like "three strikes"; businesses step in to snap up the lucrative prison contracts. Of course, it is precisely big business and their representative in government who control the media.
This "Triangle of Interest" has set the stage for the resurrection of slavery in America since this peculiar institution was never in fact abolished. From the time it was written, the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is popularly known to have abolished "involuntary servitude" and "chattel slavery" of Africans, has had an exception clause: "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This clause has been consistently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning that prisoners are to be considered no more than "slaves of the state."
A Social Environment That Creates Criminals:
It was this same clause in the 13th Amendment that was used, after the emancipation of African slaves, to sentence Africans who were once slaves, to new forms of slavery. In a new book called Prison Writing in 20th Century America, the editor H. Bruce Franklin begins with an Autobiography of an Imprisoned Peon. A brief extract from this essay, which was originally published in 1904, shows clearly how slavery was continued using the exception clause. "One of the usual ways of securing laborers for a large peonage camp is for the proprietor to send out an agent to the little courts in the towns and villages, and where a man charged with some petty offenses has no friends or money the agent will urge him to plead guilty, with the understanding that the agent will pay his fine, and in that way save him from the disgrace of being sent to jail or the chain gang! For the high favor the man must sign before hand, a paper signifying his willingness to go to the farm and work out the amount of the fine imposed. Every year many convicts were brought to the Senator's camp!" The writer, who to this day remains anonymous, goes on to explain that most of those "convicts" had been "set-up for the crimes" they were convicted of with the collusion of state officials, plantation owners and paid "agents" in the African community.
What is different about the situation existing today? High proportions of people of color are filling this country's prisons for drug-related crime, specifically offenses related to crack-cocaine. The truth about the U.S. government's complicity in introducing crack cocaine into the Black neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, through its agency the CIA, is only now emerging. Since the release of Gary Webb's articles in the San Jose Mercury-News in 1996, detailing how the CIA used the Nicaraguan Contras to flood the Black communities with cheap drugs, the CIA has consistently denied these allegations. However, in July of this year, CIA officials spoke anonymously to reporters about an internal agency report relating to these charges. It is interesting what one of them said, "In some cases, we knew that the people we were dealing with would not qualify as Vienna choirboys, but we dealt with them nonetheless because of the value they brought." It is also interesting that this 2-volume report is still classified.
The Criminalization of Youth of Color:
This is simply one method that has been used by those with power to criminalize poor and oppressed people, especially young males of color, but increasingly also women of color. Some of the processes used to create entire communities of "criminals" are very subtle; this subject could warrant an entire article by itself. But a measure of how successful these attempts have been is the acceptance of prison as a part of life among large sections of our youth. While Black people, conservatively, comprise only 12.5% of the entire US populations; we make up 48% of the prison population. The fastest growing ethnic group being imprisoned today is people of Mexican descent. This country imprisons more of its citizens than any other industrialized nation: 1.7 million people are currently in state and federal prisons. This number does not reflect those in children's facilities, immigration detention center, or county and city jails.
Could it be that these figures in some way reflect a growth in crime? Well, none other than the FBI recently reported that crime in America is in fact decreasing (the one exception is crimes of violence by police officers!). The truth is that to be profitable private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled. Experts in the "industry" claim that 90-95 % capacity is needed to guarantee the hefty rates of return required luring investors. Prudential Securities, for example, issued a wildly bullish report on CCA a few years ago, but cautioned, "it takes time to bring inmate population levels up to where they cover costs. Low occupancy is a drag on profits."
Businesses and Politicians - "Working" Together:
It is hardly surprising that all the major firms in the field have hired big time lobbyists to push for the type of "get tough policies" needed to ensure their continued growth. When it was seeking a contract to run a halfway house in New York City, Esmore (the number 3 firm in this new industry) hired a former aide to State Representative Edolphus Towns to lobby on its behalf. The former aide won the contract, as well as the support of his former boss, who had been an opponent of the project. In 1995, the chairman of Wackenhut (which has a third of the "private prison market") testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee urging support for amendments to the Violent Crime Control Act. The amended provisions of the Act subsequently passed, authorizing the expenditure of $10 billion to construct and repair state prisons.
CCA has been especially adept at expansion via "political payoffs." The first prison the company managed was the Silverdale Workhouse in Hamilton County, Tennessee. After Tennessee Commissioner Bob Long voted to accept CCA's bid for this project, the company awarded Long's pest control firm a lucrative contract. When Long decided the time was right to quit public life, CCA hired him as a lobbyist. The company has been a major financial supporter of Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee governor, and failed presidential candidate. In one of many "sweetheart" deals, Lamar's wife made more than $130,000 on a $5,000 investment in CCA. Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter is another CCA stockholder; he is quoted in the company's 1995 Annual Report as saying "the federal government would be well served to privatize all of their corrections."
The young male of color who is worth less than nothing in this economic system is suddenly worth between $30-60 thousand dollars a year in the "justice" system. About three-quarters of new admissions to American jails and prisons are men of African and Mexican descent. Jerome Miller, a former youth corrections officer in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, says, "The race card has changed the whole playing field. Because the prison system doesn't affect a significant percentage of young white men, we'll increasingly see prisoners treated as commodities. For now the situation is a bit more benign than it was back in the 19th Century, but I'm not sure it will stay that way for long."
Controlling These New Slaves:
In July of this year, a judge in California ordered a defendant in her courtroom to be zapped with a "stun belt" because he would not keep quiet when told. In a September 13th 1997 People's Weekly World article by Julia Lutsky entitled "Torture in America," the writer describes stun belts. "A relatively new restraint device is the stun belt, in use since 1993. It delivers an eight second 50,000-volt shock to the prisoner's kidney area, often leaving him writhing in pain on the floor. Some states are considering it as a possible alternative to chaining work gangs. It leaves prisoners free to move about, and can be activated by a guard from 300 feet away. Stun belts are currently used in the federal prison system, the US Marshall's Service, over 100 county agencies and the corrections facilities of 16 states." The nonchalant use of this device in a courtroom against someone who was no physical threat whatsoever merely reflects the increasingly common use of such means of torture within the prisons.
There are also "stun guns," "tasers" and "electric riot shields," which like the belt are all electronic shocking devices. In 1996, the Phoenix New Times reported the death of inmate Scott Norberg at the Maricopa County Jail. Allegedly, he died while fighting with officers who were attempting to confine him in a "restraint chair," while strapping a towel around his mouth to "keep him from spitting." During the struggle, Norberg was shocked multiple times with stun guns. Inmates who witnessed his death estimated that he had been shocked between 8 and 20 times. Guards estimated the number of shocks between two and six. An examination of Norberg's corpse, commissioned by his family, puts the number at 21.
Donald Blosswick, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah, contends that the design of the "restraint chair" is unsafe, because it forces prisoners into a stressful position and does not include directions to move the prisoners' limbs regularly. Richard Swart, a social worker incarcerated at a Utah State Prison, provided testimony for another inmate. Scotty Lee Yocham. He wrote: "Yocham was directed to leave the strip cell and a urine soaked pillowcase was place over his head like a hood. (He) was then walked, shackled and hooded to a different cell where he was placed in a device called 'the chair'. The 'chair' is a restraint device designed for mentally ill persons who pose a significant danger of harming themselves or others. The inmate is stripped nude, placed in the chair with their buttocks several inches below their knees. The arms and legs are then cuffed or shackled to the legs of the chair to prevent the inmate from moving. The design of the chair forces the inmate's back against the chair. Mobility is almost non-existent. The inmate cannot relieve himself without soiling himself. He is left uncovered and unprotected, in pain, and shackled. Yocham was kept in the chair for over 30 hours."
The Colorado ACLU is engaged in a federal suit against the El Paso County Jail concerning the death of a prisoner who was strapped to a device known as the "restraint board.” This board is 7 feet long and 1 foot wide. Prisoners are strapped face down in seven places from the ankle to the head-making movement impossible. The inmate in question, Michael Lewis, died on February 7, 1998, after being strapped to the board for several hours for the second time that day. The lawsuit alleges that several hundred prisoners have been strapped to the board in the last few years, some for as long as 12 hours. The ACLU alleges, "the restraint board is a terrifying experience that causes pain, psychic pain, mental distress and physical injuries."
Another restraint device is "the motorcycle." Its use has been reported by prisoners in South Carolina being held in isolation units. It is similar to the "board," in that prisoners are strapped down at several body points. However, the use of this particular board is accompanied by a motorcycle helmet, which is placed on the prisoner's head to prevent the prisoner from repeatedly and deliberately banging it.
The use of "pepper spray" is perhaps one of the most frequently reported methods of torture. Ronnie Stewart, prisoner at the Arizona State prison in Florence states: "The use of pepper spray and beatings is a part of everyday life within the system here at the Special Management Unit #1 if it is not being sprayed directly on you, then the entire wing is being sprayed. This has occurred 3 times in the past 2 weeks. It is not uncommon for the officers to use up to eight cans on a single inmate. I myself was sprayed and it was about 10 hours before I was allowed to wash off the chemical agent. This resulted in burns and blisters to my arms, face, chest, and feet. For the entire 10 hours, it felt like I was being boiled alive. When you are forced to stand in the sun with no shelter the sweat from your body continues to reactivate this chemical agent so that you remain in extreme pain the entire day."
Isolation Reports of the use of these various devices of torture within the prisons are coming almost exclusively from prisoners being kept in isolation, which in itself is increasingly used as form of control and torture. In two landmark decisions U.S. judges have recently sentenced people to life in solitary confinement, perhaps marking a new era in the use of "sensory deprivation" as a condition of imprisonment. These sentences reflect the U.S. criminal justice policy, which increasingly encourages the use of “control units,” “security housing units,” and "super-max" prisons.
The first official "control unit" was opened in Marion Federal Prison in Illinois in 1972. It was a "behavior modification" experimental unit. Other similar units began opening in state prisons across the country around the same time. In 1983, the entire prison at Marion was "locked down" (an action in which all prisoners are locked in cells 24 hours a day without human contact) in response to an isolated incident of violence. This lock-down has never been lifted. In 1995, a new federal high tech prison in Florence, Colorado, took over the "mission" of Marion; according to authorities, it houses the "most predatory" prisoners in the U.S. Prisoners are kept in nearly total isolation for years; there is little intersection with anyone other than prison staff. Visits and telephone calls from family and friends are severely restricted, as are educational, recreational, and religious services.
Currently over 40 states throughout the country have adopted the federal model of control units; these often take the form of "supermax,” or "maxi-maxi" prisons. While specific conditions in these units vary, their goal is to "break" prisoners through spiritual, psychological, and/or physical breakdown. Supporters of these units claim they are necessary to deal with "hardened criminals." In fact, the development of control units can be traced directly to the years of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements when many activists found themselves in prison. The use of sensory deprivation as a form of behavior modification was extensively used on members of the Black Panther Party, Black Liberation Army, Puerto Rican Independence Movement, and American Indian Movement, as well as white political activists, jailhouse lawyers, Islamic militants and prison activists.
In recent years, the rapid growth of these "control units" has been accompanied by an insane duplication of their controls and restrictions. For example, when a control unit prisoner leaves his cage, he is strip-searched, even when he has only been in contact with prison staff. Oscar Lopez, a Puerto Rican political prisoner, reported being searched rectally 3 times returning; on e time he hadn't been in the direct company of anyone else for months. Increasingly, mentally ill prisoners are being put into isolation rather than receiving the treatment, they need. In New Jersey, there is the documented case of Frank Hunter, who died in an isolation unit after being forced to commit sexual acts for food; he didn't know who or where he was when he died.
How will a government, which today sanctions such barbaric conditions within its prisons, take seriously a demand that it apologizes for past atrocities, never mind repairing the damage? A distinguishing feature of the trade in Africans, which first brought Black people to this continent, was that the slave was seen as a "commodity", nothing more than "chattel" to be used for profit. Today, would-be profiteers rub their hands in glee when they see the potential profits to be made from this modern version of the slave trade, as characterized by a headline in USA Today: "Everybody's doin' the Jailhouse Stock." The forces that seek to benefit from this new slave trade have formed a "triangle of interest."
The time has arrived for African-Americans, and all poor and oppressed people, to form our own "circle of interest." It is only by putting aside our differences, our egos and our sectarian interests, and concentrating on the commonality of our oppression, that we can wage an effective resistance to this new effort to enslave us. Certainly there can be no doubt that today, more than ever, the poverty and oppression within our communities is inextricable linked to the situation in the prison system. We cannot successfully challenge either one without challenging the other.
"The difference between successful and unsuccessful movements is in the people who lead them. Successful ones are led by persons gifted with a delicate balance of both mental and physical forcefulness. Brains are useless without the nervous equipment and the muscle required to execute their orders.” -George Jackson, Field Marshall, BPP
In Struggle,
Neelam Sharma
525 E. 55th Pl. N.
Tulsa, OK 74126
Another shade of Black Panther - Richard Aoki
Richard Aoki (Field Marshall)
Growing up was know easy job for Richard at the early stages in his life he and his family were placed in an Internment camp during World War II, a childhood prisoner held at Topaz Concenation camp in Utah from 1942-1945. He joined the military at a young age, Having left the Army after two years of service, Richard was intimately aware of the vicious treatment and punishment that the U.S. government could meter out.
Being Japanese-American and growing up in Black West Oakland, he was tight with Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, as well as David Hilliard years before the party started. He also attended Merritt College for two years before transferring to U.C. Berkeley in 1966. Richard remembers" we had discussed pressing political, social issues of the day, that we wanted to do something about it, so we got together one night and hammed out the 10 point program of the Black Panther Party.
Richard said, there were several Asian American members of the BPP, he was the only one attain a formal leadership role. Richard attended the first meeting of the BPP his connection to the community along with revolutionary politics and his action made it easy for other Panthers to accept him as a equal, he was made branch captain they accepted his rank, and later in the Party Huey promoted him to Field Marshall. Richard said, "one of the first things the Party did was patrol the police of Oakland, they were killing a dude a week, and set up Political Education classes for members and the community."
Richard says" I've seen where unity amongst the races yielded positives results. I don't see any other way for people to gain freedom, justice, equality here except by being inclusionst"
Enrolling at U.C. Berkeley soon after the founding of the BPP, Richard became a leading member of the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). A student based organization whom platform closely resembled the Party's 10 point program. Richard would recruit blacks on the campus by passing out information and telling students about the Party and when Elrage Clever started teaching classes on campus in 1968(Experienmental class 139X) he was there organizing for the BPP.
From 1968, onward Richard was involved in networking with various groups cutting across communities, and nationalities. Richard says" One of the least understood aspects of the liberation movement era is the impact that many Black, Brown, Yellow, Red radicals had on one another. Ideological and organizational influences spilled across vast distances, while Panthers absorbed Maoism, Asian Americans took to the lectures and speeches of Huey Newton, Chicanos and Puerto Rican radicals replicated some of the BPP' Serve the People programs" as well as Native Americans like groups like AIM".
Richard was a founding member of the Third World Liberation Front on the campus of UO Berkeley in 1969 which was a formation of African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, Mexican Americans, Asian students, striking to win demands for a Third World College on campus.
The college would include departments for Chicano studies, and Native American Asian, and Africans studies, with the aim of the program being to help oppressed minority communities in American. TWLF is were striking for the same basic demands that the students at San Francisco State were. The formation of radical students successfully challenged, the most conservative intuitions in the nation the University system and won vital space in the form of Ethnic Studies Depts. On both UC Berkeley as well as San Francisco State campuses With these new departments has made higher education transformed the cultural imagation of many people and communities of color, thanks to people like Richard Aoki who paved the way for many others to fellow. Richard said, "That if it not for the BPP the many student and political groups for students rights would not have emerge."
Note: Richard donated some of the first defend weapons for police patrols to the BPP. Richard has always been active in the communities, and today after he has retired from his job, he still doing workshops and speaking about the past as well as present conditions like the War, Economy, and Police Abuse.
Source:hppt://www.itsabouttimebpp.com
Mugabe Under Siege As International Leaders Call for His Ouster
Mugabe Under Siege As International Leaders Call for His Ouster
The International leaders have voiced there concern over a growing political impasse in the Republic Zimbabwe, even as Mugabe remains defiant to share power. French President Nicholas Sarkosy, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the ANC Chairman Jacob Zuma have called for an urgent ouster of the Zimbabwean freedom fighter Robert Mugabe to salvage the nation once termed as the “breadbasket of Africa” from sliding into anarchy…
Archbishop Desmond Tutu says Mugabe must step down or be removed by force. African Union or the SADC would have the capacity to remove Mugabe, 84.
The South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe must step down or be removed by force.
“I think now that the world must say: ‘You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down’,” Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner, told Dutch current affairs TV programme Nova.
Asked if Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, should be removed by force, Tutu said: “Yes, by force — if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily.”
Desmond, is the continent’s leading voice against the former apartheid regime in South Africa, said the African Union or the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would have the capacity to remove Mugabe.
“He has destroyed a wonderful country. A country that used to be a bread basket — it has now become a basket case,” Tutu said.
Tutu’s comments came on the day Zimbabwe declared a national emergency to halt a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 560 people.
Once hailed as a model African democrat, Mugabe has become increasingly criticized, particularly in the West over a worsening political and economic crisis that critics blame on his policies.
In Kenya, Prime Minister Raila Odinga also fired salvo at the Zimbabwean leader terming his 28 year rule as a “vile dictatorship” that must be stopped by all means.
Like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Raila has called for the urgent deployment of African Union troops to end the humanitarian crisis.
“Crisis in Zimbabwe has reached a point where other African states should not turn a blind eye,” he said in a press statement at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi city.
The Prime Minister Raila Odinga, urged Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who is the AU chairman, to call an urgent Heads of state summit and send troops to Zimbabwe.
“The international community must respond to the call of the African people and help end this murderous reign of Mugabe.”
He supported the calls for the armed intervention to remove Mugabe from power, he said, “If AU has no troops, it must allow the UN to send forces to Zimbabwe to take control of the country and ensure flow of humanitarian assistance.”
The Kenyan Prime Minister also accused the South Africa Development Cooperation (SADC) which has been mandated by AU to mediate the Zimbabwe crisis, of acting without convictions or resolve.
Elsewhere, the European Union (EU) also joined calls for President Mugabe to step down or be removed from power as the crisis has become more severe. Mugabe blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe’s collapse. Critics pile blame on his increasing authoritarian rule.
In Brussels, the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, “I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to step down”
The French President, Nicolas Sarkosy, whose country holds the rotating EU Presidency said, “I say today, that the Zimbabwean leader must go. Zimbabwe has suffered enough”
The United States under the secretary of State and Britain have also voiced their concern for the ouster of the Zimbabwean leader.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world standing at 231,000,000 per cent. At least 600 people have died of cholera as health infrastructure collapses. The biting food shortage is exemplified by empty supermarkets shelves.
The life expectancy in the Republic of Zimbabwe is tracked as the lowest in the world at 37 years, while infant mortality rate is 81 for 100 births. The country went to the controversial polls on March, 29, 2008 in which Mugabe claimed victory.
Source: http://www.blackpower.com/business/kenya-like-everybody-else-is-sliding-into-a-recession/
©2008 Starlin Media Nework. P. O BOX 1194-40400 Suna-Migori, Kenya.
December 30, 2008
Katrina’s Hidden Race War
Katrina’s Hidden Race War by A.C. Thompson
For white vigilantes in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina signalled the beginning of hunting season on blacks.
The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.
It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. “I just hit the ground. I didn’t even know what happened,” recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.
The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington’s companions–his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. “I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck,” Alexander recalls. “I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again.” Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander’s back, arm and buttocks.
Herrington shouted at the other men to run and turned to face his attackers: three armed white males. Herrington says he hadn’t even seen the men or their weapons before the shooting began. As Alexander and Collins fled, Herrington ran in the opposite direction, his hand pressed to the bleeding wound on his throat. Behind him, he says, the gunmen yelled, “Get him! Get that nigger!”
The attack occurred in Algiers Point. The Point, as locals call it, is a neighborhood within a neighborhood, a small cluster of ornate, immaculately maintained 150-year-old houses within the larger Algiers district. A nationally recognized historic area, Algiers Point is largely white, while the rest of Algiers is predominantly black. It’s a “white enclave” whose residents have “a kind of siege mentality,” says Tulane University historian Lance Hill, noting that some white New Orleanians “think of themselves as an oppressed minority.”
A wide street lined with towering trees, Opelousas Avenue marks the dividing line between Algiers Point and greater Algiers, and the difference in wealth between the two areas is immediately noticeable. “On one side of Opelousas it’s ‘hood, on the other side it’s suburbs,” says one local. “The two sides are totally opposite, like muddy and clean.”
Algiers Point has always been somewhat isolated: it’s perched on the west bank of the Mississippi River, linked to the core of the city only by a ferry line and twin gray steel bridges. When the hurricane descended on Louisiana, Algiers Point got off relatively easy. While wide swaths of New Orleans were deluged, the levees ringing Algiers Point withstood the Mississippi’s surging currents, preventing flooding; most homes and businesses in the area survived intact. As word spread that the area was dry, desperate people began heading toward the west bank, some walking over bridges, others traveling by boat. The National Guard soon designated the Algiers Point ferry landing an official evacuation site. Rescuers from the Coast Guard and other agencies brought flood victims to the ferry terminal, where soldiers loaded them onto buses headed for Texas.
Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply “didn’t belong.”
The existence of this little army isn’t a secret–in 2005 a few newspaper reporters wrote up the group’s activities in glowing terms in articles that showed up on an array of pro-gun blogs; one Cox News story called it “the ultimate neighborhood watch.” Herrington, for his part, recounted his ordeal in Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke. But until now no one has ever seriously scrutinized what happened in Algiers Point during those days, and nobody has asked the obvious questions. Were the gunmen, as they claim, just trying to fend off looters? Or does Herrington’s experience point to a different, far uglier truth?
Over the course of an eighteen-month investigation, I tracked down figures on all sides of the gunfire, speaking with the shooters of Algiers Point, gunshot survivors and those who witnessed the bloodshed. I interviewed police officers, forensic pathologists, firefighters, historians, medical doctors and private citizens, and studied more than 800 autopsies and piles of state death records. What emerged was a disturbing picture of New Orleans in the days after the storm, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed.
Herrington, Collins and Alexander’s experience fits into a broader pattern of violence in which, evidence indicates, at least eleven people were shot. In each case the targets were African-American men, while the shooters, it appears, were all white.
The new information should reframe our understanding of the catastrophe. Immediately after the storm, the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs–Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, told Oprah Winfrey that “hundreds of gang members” were marauding through the Superdome. Now it’s clear that some of the most serious crimes committed during that time were the work of gun-toting white males.
So far, their crimes have gone unpunished. No one was ever arrested for shooting Herrington, Alexander and Collins–in fact, there was never an investigation. I found this story repeated over and over during my days in New Orleans. As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime, I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.
Hill, who runs Tulane’s Southern Institute for Education and Research and closely follows the city’s racial dynamics, isn’t surprised the Algiers Point gunmen have eluded arrest. Because of the widespread notion that blacks engaged in looting and thuggery as the disaster unfolded, Hill believes, many white New Orleanians approved of the vigilante activity that occurred in places like Algiers Point. “By and large, I think the white mentality is that these people are exempt–that even if they committed these crimes, they’re really exempt from any kind of legal repercussion,” Hill tells me. “It’s sad to say, but I think that if any of these cases went to trial, and none of them have, I can’t see a white person being convicted of any kind of crime against an African-American during that period.”
You can trace the origins of the Algiers Point militia to the misfortune of Vinnie Pervel. A 52-year-old building contractor and real estate entrepreneur with a graying buzz cut and mustache, Pervel says he lost his Ford van in a carjacking the day after Katrina made landfall, when an African-American man attacked him with a hammer. “The kid whacked me,” recalls Pervel, who is white. “Hit me on the side of the head.” Vowing to prevent further robberies, Pervel and his neighbors began amassing an arsenal. “For a day and a half we were running around getting guns,” he says. “We got about forty.”
Things quickly got ugly. Pervel remembers aiming a shotgun at a random African-American man walking by his home–even though he knew the man had no connection to the theft of his vehicle. “I don’t want you passing by my house!” Pervel says he shouted out.
Pervel tells me he feared goons would kill his mother, who is in her 70s. “We thought we would be dead,” he says. “We thought we were doomed.” And so Pervel and his comrades set about fortifying the area. One resident gave me video footage of the leafy barricades the men constructed to keep away outsiders. Others told me they created a low-tech alarm system, tying aluminum cans and glass bottles together and stringing them across the roads at ankle height. The bottles and cans would rattle noisily if somebody bumped into them, alerting the militia.
Pervel and his armed neighbors point to the very real chaos that was engulfing the city and claim they had no other choice than to act as they did. They paint themselves as righteous defenders of property, a paramilitary formation protecting their neighborhood from opportunistic thieves. “I’m not a racist,” Pervel insists. “I’m a classist. I want to live around people who want the same things as me.”
Nathan Roper, another vigilante, says he was unhappy that outsiders were disturbing his corner of New Orleans and that he was annoyed by the National Guard’s decision to use the Algiers Point ferry landing as an evacuation zone. “I’m telling you, it was forty, fifty people at a time getting off these boats,” says Roper, who is in his 50s and works for ServiceMaster, a house-cleaning company. The storm victims were “hoodlums from the Lower Ninth Ward and that part of the city,” he says. “I’m not a prejudiced individual, but you just know the outlaws who are up to no good. You can see it in their eyes.”
The militia, according to Roper, was armed with “handguns, rifles [and] shotguns”; he personally carried “a .38 in my waistband” and a “little Uzi.” “There was a few people who got shot around here,” Roper, a slim man with a weathered face, tells me. “I know of at least three people who got shot. I know one was dead ’cause he was on the side of the road.”
During the summer of 2005 Herrington was working as an armored-car driver for the Brink’s company and living in a rented duplex about a mile from Algiers Point. Katrina thrashed the place, blowing out windows, pitching a hefty pine tree limb through the roof and dumping rain on Herrington’s possessions. On the day of the shooting, Herrington, Alexander and Collins were all trying to escape the stricken city, and set out together on foot for the Algiers Point ferry terminal in the hopes of getting on an evacuation bus.
Those hopes were dashed by a barrage of shotgun pellets. After two shots erupted, Collins and Alexander took off running and ducked into a shed behind a house to hide from the gunmen, Alexander tells me. The armed men, he says, discovered them in the shed and jammed pistols in their faces, yelling, “We got you niggers! We got you niggers!” He continues, “They said they was gonna tie us up, put us in the back of the truck and burn us. They was gonna make us suffer…. I thought I was gonna die. I thought I was gonna leave earth.”
Apparently thinking they’d caught some looters, the gunmen interrogated and verbally threatened Collins and Alexander for ten to fifteen minutes, Alexander says, before one of the armed men issued an ultimatum: if Alexander and Collins left Algiers Point and told their friends not to set foot in the area, they’d be allowed to live.
Meanwhile, Herrington was staring at death. “I was bleeding pretty bad from my neck area,” he recalls. When two white men drove by in a black pickup truck, he begged them for help. “I said, Help me, help me–I’m shot,” Herrington recalls. The response, he tells me, was immediate and hostile. One of the men told Herrington, “Get away from this truck, nigger. We’re not gonna help you. We’re liable to kill you ourselves.” My God, thought Herrington, what’s going on out here?
He managed to stumble back to a neighbor’s house, collapsing on the front porch. The neighbors, an African-American couple, wrapped him in a sheet and sped him to the nearest hospital, the West Jefferson Medical Center, where, medical records show, he was X-rayed at 3:30 pm. According to the records, a doctor who reviewed the X-rays found “metallic buckshot” scattered throughout his chest, arms, back and abdomen, as well as “at least seven [pellets] in the right neck.” Within minutes, Herrington was wheeled into an operating room for emergency surgery.
“It was a close-range buckshot wound from a shotgun,” says Charles Thomas, one of the doctors who operated on Herrington. “If he hadn’t gotten to the hospital, he wouldn’t have lived. He had a hole in his internal jugular vein, and we were able to find it and fix it.”
After three days in the hospital, which lacked running water, air conditioning and functional toilets, Herrington was shuttled to a medical facility in Baton Rouge. When he returned to New Orleans months later, he paid a visit to the Fourth District police station, whose officers patrol the west bank, and learned there was no police report documenting the attack. Herrington, who now has a wide scar stretching the length of his neck, says the officers he spoke with failed to take a report or check out his story, a fact that still bothers him. “If the shoe was on the other foot, if a black guy was willing to go out shooting white guys, the police would be up there real quick,” he says. “I feel these guys should definitely be held accountable. These guys had absolutely no right to do what they did.”
Herrington, Alexander and Collins are the only victims, so far, to tell their stories. But they certainly weren’t the only ones attacked in or around Algiers Point. In interviews, vigilantes and residents–citing the exact locations and types of weapons used–detail a string of violent incidents in which at least eight other people were shot, bringing the total number of shooting victims to at least eleven, some of whom may have died.
Other evidence bolsters this tally. Thomas, the surgeon who treated Herrington, staffed one of the few functioning trauma centers in the area, located just outside the New Orleans city line, not far from Algiers Point, for a full month after the hurricane hit. “We saw a bunch of gunshot wounds,” he tells me. “There were a lot of gunshot wounds that went unreported during that time.” Though Thomas couldn’t get into the specifics of the shooting incidents because of medical privacy laws, he says, “We saw a couple of other shotgun wounds, some handgun shootings and somebody who was shot with a high-velocity missile [an assault-rifle round].” The surgeon remembers handling “five or six nonfatal gunshot wounds” as well as three lethal gunshot cases.
In addition, state death records show that at least four people died in and around Algiers Point, a suspicious number, given that most Katrina fatalities were the result of drowning, and that the community never flooded. Neighborhood residents, black and white, remember seeing corpses lying out in the open that appeared to have been shot.
While the militia patrolled the streets of Algiers Point, the New Orleans Police Department, which had done little to brace for the storm, was crippled. “There was no leadership, no equipment, no nothing,” recalls one high-ranking police official. “We did no more to prepare for a hurricane than we would have for a thunderstorm.” Without functioning radios or dispatch systems, officers had no way of knowing what was happening a block away, let alone on the other side of the city. NOPD higher-ups had no way to give direction to unit commanders and other subordinates. As the chain of command disintegrated, the force dissolved into a collection of isolated, quasi-autonomous bands.
Around Algiers Point people say they rarely saw cops during the week after Katrina tore through Louisiana, and in this law enforcement vacuum the militia’s unique brand of justice flourished. Most disturbing, one of the vigilantes, Roper, claims on videotape recorded just weeks after the storm that the shootings took place with the knowledge and consent of the police. When we talk he makes the same assertion: “The police said, If they’re breaking in your property do what you gotta do and leave them [the bodies] on the side of the road.”
As we drive through Algiers Point in a battered white van, Roper tells me he witnessed a fatal shooting. Roper says he was talking on his cellphone to his son in Lafayette one evening when he spied an African-American man trying to get into Daigle’s Grocery, a corner market on the eastern edge of the neighborhood, which was shuttered because of the hurricane. Another militia member shot the man from a few feet away, killing him. “He was done,” Roper recalls.
During our conversations, Roper never acknowledges firing his weapon, but in 2005 a Danish documentary crew videotaped him talking about his activities. In this footage Roper says, when pressed, that he did indeed shoot somebody.
Fellow militia member Wayne Janak, 60, a carpenter and contractor, is more forthcoming with me. “Three people got shot in just one day!” he tells me, laughing. We’re sitting in his home, a boxy beige-and-pink structure on a corner about five blocks from Daigle’s Grocery. “Three of them got hit right here in this intersection with a riot gun,” he says, motioning toward the streets outside his home. Janak tells me he assumed the shooting victims, who were African-American, were looters because they were carrying sneakers and baseball caps with them. He guessed that the property had been stolen from a nearby shopping mall. According to Janak, a neighbor “unloaded a riot gun”–a shotgun–”on them. We chased them down.”
Janak, who was carrying a pistol, says he grabbed one of the suspected looters and considered killing him, but decided to be merciful. “I rolled him over in the grass and saw that he’d been hit in the back with the riot gun,” he tells me. “I thought that was good enough. I said, ‘Go back to your neighborhood so people will know Algiers Point is not a place you go for a vacation. We’re not doing tours right now.’”
He’s equally blunt in Welcome to New Orleans, an hourlong documentary produced by the Danish video team, who captured Janak, beer in hand, gloating about hunting humans. Surrounded by a crowd of sunburned white Algiers Point locals at a barbeque held not long after the hurricane, he smiles and tells the camera, “It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it.” A native of Chicago, Janak also boasts of becoming a true Southerner, saying, “I am no longer a Yankee. I earned my wings.” A white woman standing next to him adds, “He understands the N-word now.” In this neighborhood, she continues, “we take care of our own.”
Janak, who says he’d been armed with two .38s and a shotgun, brags about keeping the bloody shirt worn by a shooting victim as a trophy. When “looters” showed up in the neighborhood, “they left full of buckshot,” he brags, adding, “You know what? Algiers Point is not a pussy community.”
Within that community the gunmen enjoyed wide support. In an outtake from the documentary, a group of white Algiers Point residents gathers to celebrate the arrival of military troops sent to police the area. Addressing the crowd, one local praises the vigilantes for holding the neighborhood together until the Army Humvees trundled into town, noting that some of the militia figures are present at the party. “You all know who you are,” the man says. “And I’m proud of every one of you all.” Cheering and applause erupts from the assembled locals.
Some of the gunmen prowling Algiers Point were out to wage a race war, says one woman whose uncle and two cousins joined the cause. A former New Orleanian, this source spoke to me anonymously because she fears her relatives could be prosecuted for their crimes. “My uncle was very excited that it was a free-for-all–white against black–that he could participate in,” says the woman. “For him, the opportunity to hunt black people was a joy.”
“They didn’t want any of the ‘ghetto niggers’ coming over” from the east side of the river, she says, adding that her relatives viewed African-Americans who wandered into Algiers Point as “fair game.” One of her cousins, a young man in his 20s, sent an e-mail to her and several other family members describing his adventures with the militia. He had attached a photo in which he posed next to an African-American man who’d been fatally shot. The tone of the e-mail, she says, was “gleeful”–her cousin was happy that “they were shooting niggers.”
An Algiers Point homeowner who wasn’t involved in the shootings describes another attack. “All I can tell you is what I saw,” says the white resident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. He witnessed a barrage of gunfire–from a shotgun, an AK-47 and a handgun–directed by militiamen at two African-American men standing on Pelican Street, not too far from Janak’s place. The gunfire hit one of them. “I saw blood squirting out of his back,” he says. “I’m an EMT. My instinct should’ve been to rush to him. But I didn’t. And if I had, those guys”–the militiamen–”might have opened up on me, too.”
The witness shows me a home video he recorded shortly after the storm. On the tape, three white Algiers Point men discuss the incident. One says it might be a bad idea to talk candidly about the crime. Another dismisses the notion, claiming, “No jury would convict.”
According to Pervel, one of the shootings occurred just a few feet from his house. “Three young black men were walking down this street and they started moving the barricade,” he tells me. The men, he says, wanted to continue walking along the street, but Pervel’s neighbor, who was armed, commanded them to keep the barricade in place and leave. A standoff ensued until the neighbor shot one of the men, who then, according to Pervel, “ran a block and died” at the intersection of Alix and Vallette Streets.
Even Pervel is surprised the shootings have generated so little scrutiny. “Aside from you, no one’s come around asking questions about this,” he says. “I’m surprised. If that was my son, I’d want to know who shot him.”
By Pervel’s count, four people died violently in Algiers Point in the aftermath of the storm, including a bloody corpse left on Opelousas Avenue. That nameless body came up again and again in interviews, a grisly recurring motif. Who was he? How did he die? Nobody knew–or nobody would tell me.
After hearing all these gruesome stories, I wonder if any of the militia figures I’ve interviewed were involved in the shooting of Herrington and company. In particular, Pervel’s and Janak’s anecdotes intrigue me, since both men discussed shooting incidents that sounded a lot like the crime that nearly killed Herrington and wounded Alexander and Collins. Both Pervel and Janak recounted incidents in which vigilantes confronted three black men.
Hoping to solve the mystery, I show Herrington and Alexander video of Pervel, Janak and Roper, all of whom are in their 50s or 60s. No match. The shooters, Herrington and Alexander tell me, were younger men, in their 30s or 40s, sporting prominent tattoos. I have not been able to track them down.
New Orleans, of course, is awash in tales of the horrible things that transpired in the wake of the hurricane–and many of these wild stories have turned out to be fictions. In researching the Algiers Point attacks, I relied on the accounts of people who witnessed shooting incidents or were directly involved, either as gunmen or shooting victims.
Seeking to corroborate their stories, I sought out documentary evidence, including police files and autopsy reports. The NOPD, I was told, kept very few records during that period. Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard was a different story. The coroner, a flamboyant trumpet-playing doctor who has held the office for more than thirty years, had file cabinets bulging with the autopsies of hundreds of Katrina victims–he just wouldn’t let me see them, in defiance of Louisiana public records laws.
After wrangling with the coroner for more than six months, I decided to sue–with a lawyer hired by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute–to get access to the autopsies. (We weren’t the first to take the coroner to court. CNN and the New Orleans Times-Picayune had successfully sued Minyard, seeking particular Katrina-related autopsies.) This past May, Orleans Parish district court judge Kern Reese ruled in our favor, ordering Minyard to allow me to review every autopsy done in the year after the storm. But I soon learned that reconstructing history from the coroner’s mess of files was next to impossible, because the paper trail is incomplete. “We carried the records around in our cars, in the trunks of our cars, for four months and, I mean, that–that was the coroner’s office,” Minyard said in a sworn deposition obtained during the course of our suit. “I’m sure some of the records got lost or misplaced.” Even the autopsy files we got were missing key facts, like where the bodies were found, who recovered them, when they were recovered and so forth.
Many of the manila file folders the coroner eventually turned over were empty, and Minyard said he’d simply chosen not to autopsy some twenty-five to fifty corpses. The coroner also told us he didn’t know exactly how many people were shot to death in the days immediately after the storm–”I can’t even tell you how many gunshot victims we had”–but figured the number would not “be more than ten.”
Under oath Minyard proceeded to say something stunning. The NOPD, he testified, was only investigating three gunshot cases, all of them high-profile–the Danziger Bridge incident, in which police killed two civilians, and the shooting of Danny Brumfield, who was slain by a cop in front of the Convention Center. Minyard’s statement buttressed information I’d gotten from NOPD sources who said the force has done little to prosecute people for assaults or murders committed in the wake of the storm.
I contacted the police department repeatedly over many months, providing the NOPD with specific questions about each incident discussed in this story. The department, through spokesman Robert Young, declined to comment on whether officers had investigated any of these crimes and would not discuss any other issues raised by this article.
Sifting through more than 800 autopsy reports and reams of state health department data, I quickly identified five New Orleanians who had died under suspicious circumstances: one, severely burned, was found in a charred abandoned auto (see “Body of Evidence,” page 19); three were shot; and another died of “blunt force trauma to the head.” However, it’s impossible to tell from the shoddy records whether any of these people died in or around Algiers Point, or even if their bodies were found there.
No one has been arrested in connection with these suspicious deaths. When it comes to the lack of action on the cases, one well-placed NOPD source told me there was plenty of blame to go around. “We had a totally dysfunctional DA’s office,” he said. “The court system wasn’t much better. Everything was in disarray. A lot of stuff didn’t get prosecuted. There were a lot of things that were getting squashed. The UCR [uniform crime reports] don’t show anything.”
In response to detailed queries made over a period of months, New Orleans District Attorney spokesman Dalton Savwoir declined to say whether prosecutors looked into any of the attacks I uncovered. The office has been through a string of leadership changes since Katrina–Leon Cannizaro is the current DA–and is struggling to deal with crimes that happened yesterday, let alone three years ago, Savwoir told me.
James Traylor, a forensic pathologist with the Louisiana State University Health Center, worked alongside Minyard at the morgue and suspects that homicide victims fell through the cracks. “I know I did cases that were homicides,” Traylor says. “They were not suicides.” NOPD detectives, the doctor continues, never spoke to him about two cases he labeled homicides, leading him to believe police conducted no investigation into those deaths. “There should be a multi-agency task force–police, sheriffs, coroners–that can put their heads together and figure out what happened to people,” Traylor says.
One of the suspicious cases I discovered was that of Willie Lawrence, a 47-year-old African-American male who suffered a “gunshot wound” that caused a “cranio-facial injury” and deposited two chunks of metal in his brain, according to the autopsy report. Minyard never determined whether Lawrence was murdered or committed suicide, choosing to leave the death unclassified. However, the dead man’s brother, Herbert Lawrence, who lives in Compton, California, believes his sibling was murdered. Herbert tells me he got a phone call from one of Willie’s neighbors shortly after he died. The caller said Willie, whose body, according to state records, was found on the east bank of the Mississippi, was killed by a civilian gunman. “The police didn’t do anything,” Herbert says, pointing out that NOPD officers didn’t create a written report or interview any relatives.
Malik Rahim is one of a handful of African-Americans who live in Algiers Point, and as far as he’s concerned, “We are tolerated. We are not accepted.” In the days after the storm struck, Rahim says, the vigilantes “would pass by and call us all kind of names, say how they were gonna burn down my house.” They thought “all blacks was looting.”
As he walked the near-deserted streets in that period, Rahim, 61, a former Black Panther with a mane of dreadlocks, came across several dead bodies of African-American men. Inspecting the bodies, he discovered what he took to be evidence of gunfire. “One guy had about his entire head shot off,” says Rahim, who was spurred by the storm to launch Common Ground Relief, a grassroots aid organization. “It’s pretty hard to think a person drowned when half their head’s been blown off,” he says. He thinks some of the gunmen saw Katrina as a “golden opportunity to rid the community of African-Americans.”
Sitting at his kitchen table, while a noisy AC unit does its best to neutralize the stifling Louisiana heat, Rahim describes the dead and lists the locations where he found the bodies. He also shows me video footage taken days after the storm. On the tape, Rahim points to the grossly distended corpse of an African-American man lying on the ground.
Rahim introduces me to his neighbor, Reggie Bell, 39, the African-American man Pervel confronted at gunpoint as he walked by Pervel’s house. At the time, Bell, a cook, lived just a few blocks down the street from Pervel. In Bell’s recollection, Pervel, standing with another gun-toting man, demanded to know what Bell was doing in Algiers Point. “I live here,” Bell replied. “I can show you mail.”
That answer didn’t appease the gunmen, he says. According to Bell, Pervel told him, “Well, we don’t want you around here. You loot, we shoot.”
Roughly twenty-four hours later, as Bell sat on his front porch grilling food, another batch of armed white men accosted him, intending to drive him from his home at gunpoint, he says. “Whatcha still doing around here?” they asked, according to Bell. “We don’t want you around here. You gotta go.”
Bell tells me he was gripped by fear, panicked that he was about to experience ethnic cleansing, Louisiana-style. The armed men eventually left, but Bell remained nervous over the coming days. “I believe it was skin color,” he says, that prompted the militia to try to force him out. “That was some really wrong stuff.” Bell’s then-girlfriend, who was present during the second incident, confirms his story. (In a later interview, Pervel admits he confronted Bell with a shotgun but portrays the incident as a minor misunderstanding, saying he’s since apologized to Bell.)
On my final visit to Algiers Point, I stand on Patterson Street, my notebook out, interviewing a pair of residents in the dimming evening light. An older white man, on his way home from a bar, strides up and asks what I’m doing. I reply with a vague explanation, saying I’m working on an article about the “untold stories of Hurricane Katrina.”
Without a pause, he says, “Oh. You mean the shootings. Yeah, there were a bunch of shootings.”
When I share with Donnell Herrington what the militia men and Algiers Point locals have told me over the course of my investigation, he grows silent. His eyes focus on a point far away. After a moment, he says quietly, “That’s pretty disturbing to hear that–I’m not going to lie to you–to hear that these guys are cocky. They feel like they got away with it.”
reprinted from The Nation
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Who Really Killed Malcolm X?
Who Really Killed Malcolm X? An Exclusive Interview with Khalil Islam Who Spent 22 Years in Prison for His Murder By Janelle Oswald
A http://www.blackpower.com Exclusive
The 1960s in black American history was marked by three notorious assassinations: the demise of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was respected by African-Americans because of his Civil Rights support, in 1963; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968; and the shooting of Malcolm Little a.k.a. Malcolm X in 1965.
All three men were shot down in the prime of their professional lives, and have had numerous conspiracy theories surrounding their deaths. Despite individuals being convicted for their assassinations, the police, FBI, CIA, and other groups have not escaped suspicion or public scrutiny.
Khalil Islam spent 22 years in prison for the murder of Malcolm X. Now a free man - who used to go by the name of Thomas 15X Johnson and was a ranking lieutenant at Elijah Muhammad’s Temple No. 7 on 116th Street and Lenox Avenue - Islam is ready to tell his story to the world.
He wants to ‘prove his innocence’, reveal who he believed killed ‘Detroit Red’, and explain why ‘they’ wanted to frame him.
In his hoarse, quiet voice, the father of six told Black Power: “I did not kill Big Red. I know I served time, but I am innocent.” Becoming overwhelmed, he said: “They gave me the star role - the man with the shotgun, but as I protested 43 years ago, I did not kill my black Muslim brother, Malcolm X.”
Explaining why he is now willing to speak about the “injustice,” Islam states: “People are always confronting me, including friends and family, asking why I was picked as the individual who supposedly shot Malcolm X. I’m a private person and I don’t like to focus on the past, but I believe the time is right to speak now.”
Continuing, he says: “Being Red’s security person made me the perfect culprit. The fact that Red defected and I didn’t - I stayed with our leader the Honourable Elijah Muhammad - the prosecutors used this as a motive against me.”
“My rapid advancement in the brotherhood, making me lieutenant in one year, and my position with Red is what put me in view of the law enforcement. Before his death the authorities constantly photographed me wherever I went with him, and this was used against me in court. I was found guilty by my association.”
Malcolm X, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, broke away from with his mentor, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam (a.k.a. the Black Muslims) and self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah. Having once viewed Elijah as his savior from the dismal streets of crime, keeping him out of prison (he became involved in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery and prostituted himself), the discovery of Elijah’s personal life led Malcolm X to feel betrayed by his teacher.
As a result, Malcolm X referred to the ‘Messenger’ as a ‘religious faker’ in his famous autobiography and he denounced Elijah Muhammad’s alleged sexual dalliances. Consequently, he became vulnerable to attack from his Muslim peers. No longer trusted and derided as ‘a Judas’ and ‘the chief hypocrite,’ Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam on March 8 1964, and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. four days later.
“Only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will follow Malcolm,” wrote the then Louis X, later known as Louis Farrakhan. Malcolm X was now seen as public enemy number one.
Remembering his departure from the brotherhood, Islam stated: “Malcolm was worthy of death when he began to blaspheme the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Although I did not kill him, I did feel a strong anger towards him because I used to see the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as Christ-like.”
“I believed that if God could send Jesus Christ as a savior, he could also send the Elijah Muhammad as a messenger - although I now know different. Like myself, many saw Malcolm’s death as what it was supposed to be.”
He added: “You did not break the rule, Red knew that. You don’t criticize the leader and expect to get away with it. In those days if we caught someone even smoking in the mosque, we’d smash your face in, and what Malcolm said was below the belt.”
The cold winter afternoon on which the ‘Father of Black Power’ was assassinated at the Audubon, still remains fresh in Islam’s mind because his neighbor frantically banged on his door as news of Malcolm X’s assassination was aired. He insists he was not present at the death of the man he was employed to guard.
“I spent most of the day in bed because I had a rheumatoid-arthritis condition, he told Black Power. “They said I shot Malcolm, then jumped out the ladies’ room window and ran down the stairs, but how could I have done that?” The truth is, I could hardly walk … I only found out about the shooting when my next door neighbour started shouting, ‘They got Big Red.’ “
This alibi meant little at Islam’s murder trial. Both Islam’s wife and the neighbor who informed him of Malcolm X’s death testified in court, but their word (despite being said under oath) counted for nothing. Nor did it matter that the man with the shotgun was described as dark-skinned with a full beard, while Islam is light-skinned and was beardless at the time.
More galling was when Talmadge Hayer, a 22-year-old member of the Nation of Islam, suddenly confessed to Malcolm X’s murder, while swearing that Islam along with Norman 3X Butler, another Temple No. 7 lieutenant, had nothing to do with the murder.
Also a bodyguard for Muhammad Ali when the boxer joined the brotherhood, Islam was convicted of first-degree murder in early 1966, and spent the next two decades behinds bars in various New York State maximum-security prisons.
He spent his first four years caged in ‘the hole’, where prisoners saw only an hour a day of natural sunlight.
Despite not being the sole person to be convicted of Malcolm X’s killing - Talmadge Hayer and Norman Butler also went down - Islam was said to be the first official black Muslim to go to prison.
“I was innocent, yet there I was, behind those walls,” said Islam. “Right from the start I knew that they were trying to frame me, because just the thought that I could do such a thing was insane. As the saying goes, ‘if the hat fits, wear it’, and I fitted. They knew I would never talk, never give anyone up. I was just the perfect patsy.”
Asked whether he received any support from the Nation of Islam, the 73-year-old former convict replied: “No! They gave me no help. No visits. I was very hurt by the lack of support the brotherhood showed me, especially because I knew that they knew I was innocent.
“It was not until the trial ended and I was sent to prison that I began to reflect on the whole situation. When I analyze my dedication towards the religion and the respect I had for my high-ranking peers, I should have had the best legal representation, but they gave me nothing.”
Known as the ‘ambassador prisoner’ while in jail, Islam continued to spread the love of Allah, and taught his fellow black brothers inside the slammer to have respect not only for themselves but also for their race as a whole.
Speaking of the violence that he witnessed inside, Islam revealed, “Death was the order of the day. When you’re locked up 24 hours a day you will see the worst type of violence amongst inmates, such as rape and killings. It’s very tragic what a lack of education can do. I felt obligated to empower my fellow black brothers.”
Taking a deep breath, he added: “It took me until now to really understand it, to think it through, and that’s important because I always felt knowing what happened would be the key to who I really was.”
Asked who he felt framed him, Islam answered sharply: “Inside people. The Feds set me up because they felt I too became a threat, because they believed I wanted to take over from Red.”
“Taking care of all the top brothers in the ministry exposed me to a great deal of inside information and knowledge, and in the eyes of the Feds they saw me as another threat, just like Red. You have to understand that during those days, and still now, white people were very afraid of an educated black man.”
Islam believes that five men from New Jersey carried out the assassination of one of the great black heroes of all time. “These men were not true followers,” said Islam. “They were relegated. There was a lot of confusion amongst the Muslim masses at that time. There was hatred and jealously, and those men were known criminals.”
Islam categorically rejects the possibility that the command to kill Malcolm X came from Chicago, the headquarters of Elijah Muhammad, which is one of the most popular conspiracy theories since the assassination. He insisted that the five men who orchestrated the Muslim leader’s death were organized by the Feds.
Islam told Black Power that he had no time to feel sorry for himself or feel bitter towards those that he felt put him behind bars, because he was too busy keeping up with his religious studies of the Quran, the Bible, and other academic materials (including law), in order to prepare himself for his release date.
“What good would it have served for me to crumble while I was locked up? I used my time to better myself and progress physically, mentally, but most importantly, spiritually.”
During his jail term, Islam had a visit from Wallace D. Muhammad, son of Elijah Muhammad. Educated in traditional Islamic schools, an Arabic speaker and Quranic scholar, W. D. Muhammad’s beliefs were different from his father’s and he developed a strong connection with Malcolm X before his death.
Amazed by his visit, Islam explained: “He told me to look him in the eye and tell him whether or not I had anything to do with killing Malcolm X. I knew they were friends, so he wasn’t asking just as a leader but also as a man. I told him I didn’t do it. That was when he gave me my name, Khalil Islam, which means ‘friend of God.’ “
Released in 1987 aged 52 with just $40 in his pocket, Islam’s life behind bars caused the breakdown of his family. His kids were deeply affected by his imprisonment, which eventually resulted in a divorce from his first wife.
Like Malcolm X, Islam was brought up a Christian, fell into drugs and crime due to ‘a lack of opportunity in black America’, and was drawn to the Nation of Islam after spending time in jail. He later joined mainstream Islam, searching for the true concept of God.
Believing that there are always powerful, positive life lessons to be learned from trials and tribulations, after prison Islam dedicated his life to helping marginalized black youth, schooling them on God’s love. However, the deterioration of his health - he has experienced several heart bypasses - has made him retire from his mentoring programs.
Islam was only discharged from hospital the day before the interview, and increasing fatigue could be heard in his frail voice. He said his only wish before meeting his maker was to be vindicated over Malcolm X’s murder, and to visit Mecca to make his hajj.
“If I don’t do that, I’m going to die a miserable man.”
He asked if Black Power is based in England, (it’s not) and exclaimed: “I’m so honored that you having given me the opportunity to tell my story so English people and the rest of the world can hear the truth. Back in the days, we used to travel to Europe a lot and I am very aware that there is a huge brotherhood in the UK.”
Islam added: “Muhammad Ali paid for me to take a polygraph test, which I passed. Talmadge Hayer signed an affidavit revealing the names of the four men who he claimed really helped him assassinate Red, and since my release I have met two of Malcolm’s daughters, Qubilah and Ilyasah, and they both have told me that they knew that I did not kill their beloved father. I just hope that one day the justice system will admit that they jailed an innocent man.”
http://www.blackpower.com/politics/who-really-killed-malcolm-x-an-exclusive-interview-with-khalil-islam-who-spent-22-years-in-prison-for-his-murder/
The Great Harlem Debate Was the Obama Election Good for Black People?
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The Great Harlem Debate
Was the Obama Election Good for Black People?
by Davey D
Listen to this Debate on Breakdown FM by clicking the link below
http://odeo.com/episodes/23767113-The-Great-Harlem-Debate-pt1
http://odeo.com/episodes/23767115-The-Great-Harlem-Debate-pt2
This past Sunday over 1200 people showed up at Salem Methodist church in Harlem to listen and weigh in on a discussion that has been raging on in our communities but oftentimes swept under the rug. The historic election of Barack Obama has been a source of pride for many. Record numbers of Black people came out and voted for him. His largest percentage, a whooping 94% of Black folks punched his name in the ballot booth. However, many did so wondering if an Obama election will lead to pressing issues within the African American community would be addressed, or if his election would symbolize to those outside the community that racism was a thing of the past?
One of the nagging concerns that surfaced during Obama's historic run was him distancing himself from anything Black. He stayed away from key events ranging from Tavis Smiley's annual State of the Union where rival Hillary Clinton showed up to the 40th commemoration ceremonies in Memphis, Tn for the death of Dr Martin Luther King. His republican rival John McCain showed up for that event.
There were always grumblings that Obama was distancing himself from the Black community to appease skittish white voters who lived in the middle of the country who oftentimes made no bones about their reluctance to vote for a Black man. many of us held our tongues and rationalized that Obama 'had to play the game' and 'do what was needed to get elected.
Rap star David Banner explained it best when he suggested that we give Obama a chance and stop asking all these brilliant questions that we never asked white candidates who we often seem to give unconditional support. Let Obama get in the white house first and then push for him to address our issues.
Banner's remarks were supported by scholars like Dr Michael Eric Dyson who often talked about Obama giving Black folks a proverbial wink as he campaigned. Dyson told us that Obama understood our concerns but had to roll a certain way to get elected. He was catching unprecedented hell including several thwarted assassination attempts by racist whites. With all that pressure the least we as Black folks could do was keep our mouths shut and help clear the way for an Obama victory which at the end of the day would be ours.
Lastly the argument was put forth by many that we better go for Obama if for any reason to avoid a 3rd Bush-like term in the form of a reactionary figure like John McCain who at one point staunchly refused to vote for a Dr Martin Luther King Holiday. After a disastrous 8 years of Bush that harshly impacted the Black community to not vote for Obama was seen as treasonous.
While a substantial amount of Black folks heeded the suggestions of Banner, Dyson and other supporters there were others like Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report who boldly made the case that Obama should not get a pass and his actions and words wether he was running for office or in office should be called into question if they weren't in alignment with issues that the community was talking about. The Black Agenda Report spent much of the campaign season questioning Obama's affiliations and key players who worked for him behind the scenes. They questioned his policy decisions and expressed concern early on that Obama was running too far to the right. Ford and his partner Bruce Dixon often noted that if we don't hold Obama or anyone's feet to the fire they will take us for granted and never come to our arena because we put no demands on him. In recent weeks Ford and Dixon have raised concerns about Obama's cabinet appointments, noting that many of them have had shady and antagnostic records when it comes to dealing with Black issues.
So with all this in mind, the stage was set for the Great Harlem Debate. Some thought that such a discussion was premature because Obama hasn't been sworn in yet, while others felt it was reactionary not realizing that many of the participants have debated each other throughout the campaign. Now was just as good as anytime to have this discussion. Obama is the President of the United States and not the President of Black America. hence it would be up to the community to define and articulate their concerns just as they would to any other person sitting in the Oval Office. To not do so would be fool hardy.
This past Sunday attendees heard compelling remarks from great scholars and community leaders. Each speaker was given 8 minutes to make their case. Here's some highlights on how it unfolded.
Dr Leonard Jeffries kicked things off by talking about what an Obama victory symbolized. He said that he did not expect Obama to fundamentally change things or to take up causes like Reparations. He noted that it was up to him and our community to raise those issues. He said it was up to the community to put forth a Pan African Agenda not Obama. He said we can't be blinded by our ideologies so much so that we refuse to accept and be apart of the change that is occurring. He talked about how having a Black family in the White House spoke volumes to many who felt left out as well as people all over the world. He said Obama's image gets to replace the image of 50 Cent. Jeffries talked about the excitement that people in other countries like Germany had with Obama being in the White House. He also raised eyebrows when he said that Obama is is the start of capitalism collasping. He said Wall Street could be replaced with Afrika Street.
Cultural Scientist and author Dr Marimba Ani followed Jeffries and reminded folks the reason why so many had gathered that Sunday afternoon. It wasn't just to talk about Obama but also to bring attention and raise money about political prisoners. The Great Harlem debate in particular was to raise money for Mutulu Shakur-many of you know him as Tupac's stepfather. She wanted to make sure we did not lose sight of that because the plight of PP was not one that Obama has raised or was likely to unless pressured.
Dr Ani said that Obama has ignored Black people and that the power elite along with its media has sold Obama to the masses. She said he was controlled behind the scenes and basically chosen to represent interests that are outside the community. She also noted that many of us were not on the same page in terms of what their expectations and goals were. She said that as Pan Africanist and Nationalist those goals had not been clearly laid out and until they were it would be difficult to determine whether or not an Obama election was good for Black people.
She spoke at length about a racial identity and how Obama's victory has brought about a post racial climate. She talked in detail about the type of negative impact that is and will have on Black people who are increasingly being told that racism no longer exists. She also talked about how there are now all these articles and pundits who have been speaking out in recent weeks insisting that Obama is not Black as if to take away from the significance of his victory and also to further keep him disconnected from us.
She concluded her remarks to by reading an excerpt from a letter that Obama had penned in response to Kenyan officials who reached out asking for help. The letter talked about that help would be forthcoming if Kenya's foreign policy was in line with that of the US. The letter noted that the US would need to set up a base in that country to set up their Africom headquarters. You could tell by the crowds reaction that people were shocked to hear that.
Malik Zulu Shabazz who heads up the New Black panther Party spoke about the type of uplifting impact Obama rise to the presidency has had with the gang members he has been working with. he talked about the Crips in LA and the Bloods in Brooklyn expressing pride in seeing Obama run and win. He talked about how many felt inspired to do better for themselves. He also questioned why we would want to rain on the parade of those elders and other community members who saw this as a great accomplishment. He asked those opposed to Obama if we had rather had John McCain in the white house?
New York City Councilman Charles Barron followed Shabazz and talked about the type of momentum an Obama win had given to those determined to make a difference on a local level. He said he and others in his East New York neighborhood took advantage of the excitement Obama brought to electoral politics and got key people into office including his wife who is now in the state assembly. He talked about the importance of us having community control from top to bottom and that Obama's run set the tone for us to make this happen all over.
Glen Ford followed Barron. The pair have debated Obama on a couple of occasions in the past. He wasted no time in laying out a compelling case against the President elect by talking about how our blind support of Obama has allowed him to run to the right and stay there. Ford underscored his remarks by talking in detail the concerns raised behind Obama's cabinet picks.
He talked about Robert Gates who he described as a war monger and a war criminal who was linked to Iran Contra scandal and the mining of harbors in Nicarugua.
Ford laid out arguments against cabinet pick Susan Rice who he said was aligned with George Bush in her support of the war we have with Somalia. He talked about Obama's chief of staff Ram Emmanuel and how his staunch zionist connections should be cause for concern. Ford also talked about Obama's economic team and how many of were on board the ship that has gotten us in the economic mess we are in now.
Ford concluded by reminding us that Obama's victory means he has power. He is in a position to set the agenda and make sound decisions that will keep the interests of those who are often taken for granted and adversally effected by policy decisions.
Those are just a few of the many highlights. We broke this Breakdown FM into two parts. In part two we hear engaging remarks from people like Viola Plummer of the December 12th Movement, Dr james Turner, Dr Don Smith, Pam Afrika and Afrika Bambaataa.
On this Breakdown FM show you will hear incredible music talking about the presidential election from artists like Brother Ali, Rebel Diaz, Dead Prez, Common, Zion I, Kev Choice and Afrika Bambaataa.
Big shout out to my radio colleagues, former Green Party presidential candidate Jared Ball of Freemix Radio http://www.voxunion.com/?p=542 and Andreas Jackson of Media Electic http://www.andreasjackson.com for being at the event and documenting the proceedings. Both these gentlemen have the entire 3 hour proceedings unedited on their respective sites. Their recordings and interviews which you are hearing on Breakdown FM are invaluable.
Source:http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfmfuseaction=blog.view&friendID=15116190&blogaID=457058244
Notorious B.I.G. NOT Overrated! / Notoriously Overrated:
Notorious B.I.G. NOT Overrated! - Response To What's So Big About Biggie Smalls?
By Paradise Gray
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I found the article "Notoriously Overrated: What was so Big about Biggie Smalls?" by Minister Paul Scott distasteful and totally missing the point. While I consider Min. Paul Scott a good brother and a friend, I do not agree with his opinion of The Notorious B.I.G.
"Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, and most of them stink!"
Here's my take on why "Biggie Smalls" was BIG:
It is not fair to compare the story of Biggie Smalls to the story of Fred
Hampton. It's not even like comparing apples and oranges (they are both
fruit), It's flat out wrong to try to compare rappers to revolutionary activists
and leaders. Rappers, athletes and other entertainers are too often cited
as role models by members of the media who somehow believe because
people cheer for them while being entertained, it somehow magically transforms individuals into heroes and someone to be imitated or admired off stage.
This new form of idol worship is a distortion of reality, basically setting
artists up for a long fall after building them up to the top as celebrities
who are morally and culturally un-vetted. Marketing and promotions brings us
capitalism at it's best (or should I say Worst?).
Rappers are more like actors who play a character or role, for Minister Paul
Scott to suggest that he knew Christopher Wallace as a person because he
listened to his music or saw his videos is inaccurate. If you did not know him
personally, you don't know any more about him than you know Al Pacino after
watching Scarface. No one judges California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by the roles that he played as a Hollywood actor.
What is it about rapping the words that makes Biggie's artistic
contributions to pop culture less relevant than the cold hard stories of
the streets written by Donald Goines? The Notorious B.I.G. was a great writer
and story teller with a lyrical flow and swagger that in my opinion has earned
Christopher Wallace an indisputable place among the "Greatest Rappers Of
All Time" in spite of the fact that (as Davey D reminds us) his "body of works"
is very limited due to his un-timely death.
Lest we forget, Christopher Wallace was manipulated and exploited by the
corrupt system that is the music industry and the entertainment industry in
general. Much in the same way that Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Michael
Jordan, Elvis, Britney Spears and most artists that you ever heard of is
exploited and used. Industry executives are just as accountable for the
content of negative lyrics as the artists that they sponsor and exploit.
The artist is the low man on the totem pole who's carcass is free for the
picking by sleazy buzzards known as managers, promoters, producers, record
labels, booking agents, lawyers, magazines, television shows, radio stations
and the like. They could care less about the poor slobs that they shine
their lights on or the victims of the negative imagery as long as they make money.
In fact, radio stations and magazines fanned the flames between Tupac and
Biggie's so called East Coast VS West Coast beef to the point that I
consider them accomplices to both of their murders. It was a media feeding
frenzy that fed into America's blood lust that encourages drug use,
violence, misogyny, homo-phobia, racism and other distractions that *did not
begin with Hip-hop and won't end with it*. Love it or hate it, the things
that Biggie rapped about are as American as apple pie.
We have built rappers up with so much "keep it real" bull-crap to the point
that their rapping skills have less to do with their success in the industry
than their "Rap Sheets". What do you have to do to maintain street
credibility when 50 Cent himself (9 bullets in his body and all) has to
keep disrespecting people and calling out other rappers to maintain
controversy and remain relevancy in the eyes of the media who then transmit
the concepts to the record buying public.
We need to bring the unrealistic expectations that have been placed on
entertainers into perspective. They are cool, they sound great, they are
great to watch on TV, but I am qualified to say that most of what you see on
TV is fake as hell and should be exposed as such. We should take the time to
educate people about the multi-media brainwashing that has taken place that has
so many of our young people convinced that being a drug dealer, thug,
criminal in general or even a murderer is something to aspire to be.
Christopher Wallace was a talented writer who was murdered in his prime, a
man who deserves respect as an artist and as a human being. He is not
overrated as an artist and we will never know what kind of man he could have
turned out to be. Imagine if Detroit Red had been murdered before reaching his
potential of becoming Malcolm X.
We have to apply critical thinking to all media that we consume as well as
the media that we allow our children to consume. Keep entertainment and
media in perspective. It's O.K. to be entertained, but in the ironic immortal
words of Flavor Flav "Don't believe the hype".
Get beyond complaining about the messages in the industry, do something
about it, organize, be active, support conscious artists, create your own
positive media, don't just disrespect the memory of a beloved father, friend
and artist. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone", none of us are perfect.
As a Minister (Paul Scott) the words "Judge not lest ye be judged" should
resonate with you. We owe the hundreds of potential Biggies and Tupac's
who are currently still in the industry and the millions of them on the streets
all over the world more than rants of "Pull Up your Pants". The conditions
that exist in our communities are not just the results of negativity and criminal
elements, but the lack of involvement by intellectuals, men of God and positive
people.
I wonder how the story would have turned out had the conscious community, black churches, and revolutionaries had organized together and bailed out Tupac Shakur rather than Suge Knight.
Rest in Peace Christopher "Biggie" Wallace, only God can judge you now.
--
Paradise Gray
One Hood
Http://www.1hood.org
Http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray
Continue reading "Notorious B.I.G. NOT Overrated! / Notoriously Overrated:" »
'Killing a Brown' New Evidence of Extremists in the Military
'Killing a Brown' New Evidence of Extremists in the Military
By David Holthouse
Intelligence Report
Winter 2008
The racist skinhead logged on with exciting news: He'd just enlisted in the United States Army.
"Sieg Heil, I will do us proud," he wrote. It was a June 3 post to
AryanWear Forum 14, a neo-Nazi online forum to which "Sobibor's SS,"
who identified himself as a skinhead living in Plantersville, Ala., had
belonged since early 2004. (Sobibor was a Nazi death camp in Poland
during World War II).
About a month after he announced his enlistment, Sobibor's SS
bragged in another post to Forum 14 that he'd specifically requested
and been assigned to MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty, 98D.
MOS98D soldiers are in high demand right now. That's because they're
specially trained in disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the
infamous roadside bombs that are killing and maiming so many U.S.
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Presumably, part of learning how to
disarm an IED is learning how one is made.
"I have my own reasons for wanting this training but in fear of the
government tracing me and me loosing [sic] my clearance I can't share
them here," Sobibor's SS informed his fellow neo-Nazis.
One of his earlier posts indicated his reasons serve a darker
purpose than defending America: "Once all the Jews are gone the world
will start fixing itself."
|
Sobibor's SS included enough biographical details in his various
posts to Forum 14 over the years, including that he's a single father
from the small town in southern Alabama, that a military investigator
with access to enlistment records for recent months should have little
trouble determining whether the Army may actually be teaching a
skinhead with genocide on his mind about tactical bomb-making.
But there's little reason to expect that will happen.
Two years ago, the Intelligence Report
revealed that alarming numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white
supremacist extremists were taking advantage of lowered armed services
recruiting standards and lax enforcement of anti-extremist military
regulations by infiltrating the U.S. armed forces in order to receive
combat training and gain access to weapons and explosives.
Forty members of Congress urged then-Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld to launch a full-scale investigation and implement a
zero-tolerance policy toward white supremacists in the military.
"Military extremists present an elevated threat to both their fellow
service members and the public," U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, an
Alabama Republican, wrote in a separate open letter to Rumsfeld. "We
witnessed with Timothy McVeigh that today's racist extremist may become
tomorrow's domestic terrorist."
But neither Rumsfeld nor his successor, Robert Gates, launched any
sort of systemic investigation or crackdown. Military and Defense
Department officials seem to have made no sustained effort to prevent
active white supremacists from joining the armed forces or to weed out
those already in uniform.
Furthermore, new evidence is emerging that not only supports the Intelligence Report's
original findings, but also indicates the problem may have worsened
since the summer of 2006, as enlistment rates have continued to
plummet, and the military has struggled to meet recruitment goals in a
time of unpopular war. Asked about the latest developments, military
officials this fall declined to comment.
A new FBI report confirms that white supremacists are infiltrating
the military for several reasons. According to the unclassified FBI
Intelligence Assessment, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military
Personnel Since 9/11," which was released to law enforcement agencies
nationwide: "Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates
supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented
histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as
tattoos to infiltrate the military as 'ghost skins,' in order to
recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement."
The FBI report details more than a dozen investigative findings and
criminal cases involving Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as well as
active-duty personnel engaging in extremist activity in recent years.
For example, in September 2006, the leader of the Celtic Knights, a
central Texas splinter faction of the Hammerskins, a national racist
skinhead organization, planned to obtain firearms and explosives from
an active duty Army soldier in Fort Hood, Texas. That soldier, who
served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, was a member of the National Alliance,
a neo-Nazi group.
"Looking ahead, current and former military personnel belonging to
white supremacist extremist organizations who experience frustration at
the inability of these organizations to achieve their goals may choose
to found new, more operationally minded and operationally capable
groups," the report concludes. "The military training veterans bring to
the movement and their potential to pass this training on to others can
increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence from the
movement's fringes."
In May, Army Cpl. Adrian Petty, a member of the Vinlanders Social Club
(VSC) skinhead gang, posted several photos to his MySpace page showing
himself in uniform serving in Iraq. One, depicting him riding in a
Humvee, was captioned, "On Another VSC Recruiting Mission."
Currently, 46 members of the white supremacist social networking
website Newsaxon.com identify themselves as active-duty military
personnel. Six of these individuals are members of "White Military
Men," a New Saxon sub-group.
Earlier this year, the founder of White Military Men identified
himself in his New Saxon account as "Lance Corporal Burton" of the 2nd
Battalion Fox Company Pit 2097, from Florida, according to a master's
thesis by graduate student Matthew Kennard. Under his "About Me"
section, Burton writes: "Love to shoot my M16A2 service rifle
effectively at the Hachies (Iraqis)," and, "Love to watch things blow
up (Hachies House)."
Kennard, who was working on his thesis for Columbia University's
Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, also monitored claims
of active-duty military service earlier this year on the neo-Nazi
online forum Blood & Honour, where "88Soldier88" posted this
message on Feb. 18: "I am in the ARMY right now. I work in the Detainee
Holding Area [in Iraq]. … I am in this until 2013. I am in the infantry
but want to go to SF [Special Forces]. Hopefully the training will
prepare me for what I hope is to come."
One of the Blood & Honour members claiming to be an active-duty
soldier taking part in combat operations in Iraq identified himself to
Kennard as Jacob Berg. He did not disclose his rank or branch of
service. "There are actually a lot more 'skinheads,' 'nazis,' white
supremacists now [in the military] than there has been in a long time,"
Berg wrote in an E-mail exchange with Kennard. "Us racists are actually
getting into the military a lot now because if we don't every one who
already is [in the military] will take pity on killing sand niggers.
Yes I have killed women, yes I have killed children and yes I have
killed older people. But the biggest reason I'm so proud of my kills is
because by killing a brown many white people will live to see a new
dawn."
The Army is currently investigating war crimes allegations leveled
against Iraq combat veteran and active-duty Army soldier Kenneth
Eastridge, 24, who in November was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
the December 2007 murder of a fellow serviceman. After Eastridge was
arrested for that killing, National Public Radio publicized his MySpace
page, which showed Eastridge displaying a tattoo of SS lightning bolts,
a common neo-Nazi insignia.
Another member of Eastridge's company recently told Army
investigators that Eastridge used a stolen AK-47 to fire
indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians from his moving Humvee on the
streets of Baghdad. "The military is to some extent desperate to get
people to fight, soldiers who are not fit, mentally and physically
sick, but they continue to send them," Eastridge's attorney told
Kennard. "Having a tattoo was the least of [Eastridge's] concerns."
As part of the research for his thesis, "The New Nazi Army: How the
U.S. military is allowing the far right to join its ranks," Kennard
used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain from the Army's Criminal
Investigative Division investigative reports concerning white
supremacist activity in 2006 and 2007. They show that Army commanders
repeatedly terminated investigations of suspected extremist activity in
the military despite strong evidence it was occurring. This evidence
was often provided by regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which are
made up of FBI and state and local law enforcement officials.
For example, one CID report details a 2006 investigation of a
suspected member of the Hammerskins, a multi-state racist skinhead
gang, who was stationed at Fort Hood, a large Army base in central
Texas. According to the report, there was "probable cause" to believe
that the soldier "had participated in a white extremist meeting and
also provided a military technical manual 31-210, Improvised Munitions Handbook,
to the leader of a white extremist group in order to assist in the
planning and execution of future attacks on various targets."
The report shows that agents only interviewed the subject once, in
November 2006, before Fort Hood higher-ups called off the investigation
that December.
Another report, also from 2006, covers an investigation of another
Fort Hood soldier who was posting messages on Stormfront.org, a major
white supremacist website. One CID investigator expresses his
frustration at the muddled process for dealing with extremists. "We
need to discuss the review process," he writes. "I'm not doing my job
here. Needs to get fixed."
A third CID report, regarding a 2007 investigation, notes the
termination of an investigation of a soldier at Fort Richardson,
Alaska, who was reportedly the leader and chief recruiter for the
Alaska Front, a white supremacist group. According to the report, the
investigation was halted because the solider was "mobilized to Camp
Shelby, MS in preparation for deployment to Iraq."
Editor's Note: As this story went to press,
Southern Poverty Law Center Chief Executive Officer Richard Cohen wrote
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reiterating the request that the
Department of Defense adopt a zero-tolerance policy
with respect to extremists in the military. As the article notes, a
similar letter, addressed to Gates' predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld,
produced no action by the Pentagon.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=53228685&blogID=457537709
Self Destruction 2009 Single
Self Destruction 2009 Single
Chicago, IL, 12/19/08, (Hip Hop PR Wire) -- Self Destruction 2009 Single is being released today to all media outlets in an effort to help spread the message of "Stop the Violence!" Artists lent their lyrics for a cause they believe in. The time is now as we approach the holidays and a new year; it will give us all something to think about and reflect on loved ones that lost there life to senseless violent acts. Let's make sure we kick 2009 off right!
Self Destruction 2009 – featuring KRS One, Syleena Johnson, Twista, Crucial Conflict, Phil G, Kenny Bogus, Straw and Pugs Atomz; Produced by Grant Parks. Grant Parks and CoalMine Music worked with KRS One and his Stop the Violence Movement in an effort to use music to help spread the message of "Stopping the Violence". Chicago & other major cities have suffered from high numbers of senseless killings over the last year and there is an urgent need to release this song. KRS One, The Stop the Violence Movement, Grant Parks and CoalMine Music thank all the artists for their participation in making this happen!
For your free MP3, email: jc@coalminemusic.com
Subject: Media MP3
coalminemusic.com // myspace.com/grantparks // myspace.com/coalminemusic
www.myspace.com/stoptheviolenceorg
For More Information Contact:
CoalMine Music, Inc. 630.544.7296
jc@coalminemusic.com
Youngster's Black-Power Poem Riles School
By DAVID ANDREATTA
A 7-year-old prodigy unleashed a firestorm when she recited a poem she wrote comparing Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin to "pirates" and "vampires" who robbed blacks of their identities and human rights.
Hundreds of parents of Peekskill middle- and high-school students received a recorded phone message last week apologizing for little Autum Ashante's poem, titled "White Nationalism Put U in Bondage."
"Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse," the aspiring actress and poet wrote. "They took the gold, the wisdom and all the storytellers. They took the black women, with the black man weak. Made to watch as they changed the paradigm of our village.
"Yeah white nationalism is what put you in bondage. Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan and Darwin."
Autum was invited to speak at the Westchester schools on Feb. 28 by Melvin Bolden, a music teacher at the middle school who advises the high school's Black Culture Club and is a member of the Peekskill City Council.
Autum, whose résumé includes several television appearances and performances at the Apollo Theater and the African Burial Ground in Manhattan , told The Post that her poem was meant to instill pride in black students and to encourage them to steer clear of violence.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with my poem. I was trying to tell them the straight-up truth," Autum said. "I'm trying to tell them not to fight because they're killing the brothers and sisters."
Autum, who is home-schooled in Mount Vernon and speaks several languages, prefaced her performance at the high school with a Black Panthers' pledge asking black youngsters to not harm one another.
It did not sit well with parents.
In a telephone interview with The Post, Bolden said Autum has been "unofficially" banned from performing in a district school again and that school officials would review transcripts of future speakers.
"It's unfortunate, because some teachers said they wanted this little girl to explain the things she said to their students, but some parents don't want her on school grounds," Bolden said.
"[The poem] might have been a little too aggressive for what the middle-school kids are ready to handle," Bolden added.
Kimberly Greene, a mother of children in the high school and middle school, said she was shocked when she got the recorded phone message.
"If there are people who are upset about what she said, the schools should have talked about and analyzed it rather than send a message to everyone saying this little girl was offensive," Greene said.
Autum's father, Batin Ashante, said he can't believe the fuss over his daughter's poem.
"She's a little girl who does poetry about real things. She doesn't do poetry about cotton candy," Ashante said. "She's a serious little person."
Posted: 3/15/06 /Source: NY Post
December 04, 2008
A Day of International Solidarity to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
STEVIE CULTURE : CONSCIOUS LYRICS
STEVIE CULTURE : CONSCIOUS LYRICS
Stevie Culture has been a musician for his entire life. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica to Rastafarian parents. His Father was a musician who played the guitar and sang.
As the lead singer for “The S.A.N.E. Band” (Sounds Against Negative Expression—the top band in Jamaica during the 1990s), Stevie Culture performed as an opening act for many Reggae artists such as Shaggy, Anthony B, Sizzla, Third World, UB40, Steel Pulse, Culture, Burning Spear, The Wailers and Alton Ellis. More impressively, Stevie has performed on stage as a backing vocalist for many great artists like Dennis Brown, Tony Rebel, Everton Blender, Capleton and the late, great Garnet Silk.
Stevie Culture is an artist that has always worked toward keeping consciousness in Reggae music. He has also fought the same fight that legends such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh have fought throughout the years to keep the message of Reggae music important and valid.
“This song is about the upliftment of Reggae music. Over the years, Reggae has become mostly slack lyrics about sex and violence. So I’ve written this song to inspire others to think consciously when writing songs. Remember, the children are listening” Stevie Culture
Stevie Culture is a huge factor in the forwarding of cutting edge Reggae music coming out of Jamaica. He is a well know musician around the Jamaican musical community and is also a studio musician, composing original music and played on many future stars album, such as Crystal Axe, Steve Aliba form Africa. He also played keys on the Itals new album "Me Livity".
He not only produces the most exciting groundbreaking Riddims heard anywhere, he was the lead singer and drummer for the famous "SANE" band, and toured with Toney Rebel, Everton Blender & Utan Green. Stevie's tours have drawn massive crowds all over the world, from the Caribbean to Japan.
Stevie has collaborated on several songs with big name Reggae bands, such as Morgan Heritage and African Star. He has also opened for major bands like Third World, Maxi Priest and Shaggy.
His first official single release "Top Class" is making waves from Taiwan to JA. It is being played on hundreds of Radio stations worldwide and it is getting an amazing response. He plans to release his first Album on King Step Recording in June of 2006. The album's title is "Blessen", and is a harmonious blend of Modern Roots, Dancehall and a little something extra.
Born August 2, 1973 as Steffen Jones, Stevie grew up in a musically inclined family from Lacovia, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. His father, Jah Lenks (Lloyd Jones) was the lead singer of the band 12 Tribes of Israel. His biggest musical influences growing up were Bob Marley, Alton Ellis and Stevie Wonder.
Source:http://www.myspace.com/sculture http://www.stevieculture.com
November 30, 2008
The Black Male Handbook - Kevin Powell
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The Black Male Handbook is a collection of essays for Black males on surviving, living, and winning. Kevin Powell taps into the social and political climate rising in the Black community, particularly as it relates to Black males. This is a must-have book, not only for Black male readers, but the women who befriend, parent, partner, and love them.
The Black Male Handbook answers a collective hunger for new direction, fresh solutions to old problems, and a different kind of conversation -- man-to-man and with Black male voices, all of the hiphop generation. The book tackles issues related to political, practical, cultural, and spiritual matters, and ending violence against women and girls.
The book also features an appendix filled with useful readings, advice, andresources. The Black Male Handbook is a blueprint for those aspiring to thrive against the odds in America today.
November 25, 2008
THE TRUTH ABOUT SIS. ASSATA SHAKUR
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THE TRUTH ABOUT SIS. ASSATA SHAKUR FAR AND WIDE!
Written by Evelyn A. Williams
LET NO ONE BE FOOLED BY THE FILTHY LIES OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA! via: www.assatashakur.org
Assata Shakur's Appeal Attorney Shares Facts in Case (2005)
PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE
STATEMENT OF FACTS IN THE NEW JERSEY TRIAL OF ASSATA SHAKUR:
Written by Evelyn A. Williams, dated June 25, 2005
(Translations in French and Spanish available at www.assatashakur.org)
Traducción Española
Pour ceux parlant Français
As a member of Assata's New Jersey trial legal defense team, and her appeal lawyer, I think a correct statement of the circumstances of New Jersey Trooper Werner Foerster's death as established by exhibits, trial testimony and forensic evidence and that conclusively repudiate the revisionist lies now being advanced by the State of New Jersey as "fact", need to be repeated.
It is be remember that the only surviving eyewitnesses to the NJ Turnpike shoot-out were (1) Sundiata Acoli, (2) Trooper Harper, (3) Assata and (4) the driver of a car traveling along the NJ Turnpike at the time of the incident. Zayd Malik Shakur, a passenger, was killed during the shootout.
1. Sundiata did not testify at trial, nor did he make any pre-trial statements.
2. Harper's testimony and actions are contained in the following documents (admitted into evidence)
a. The three official investigative reports prepared by Harper, in which he wrote that after he stopped the Pontiac, he ordered Sundiata to the back of the car to show his driver's license to Trooper Foerster who had arrived at the scene. That Sundiata complied without incident. That as he looked into the inside door of the Pontiac to check the registration, Foerster yelled at him and held up an ammunition clip. He stated that at the same time Assata reached into a red pocketbook, removed a gun from it and fired at him. That he immediately ran to the rear of his car and fired at Assata, who had emerged from the car, and was firing at him from a prostrate position alongside of the Pontiac. And it was at this point that he shot her. (admitted into evidence)
b. His Grand Jury testimony where he swore under oath to the truth of the statements he had made in his 3 official reports. (admitted into evidence)
c. Trial transcripts of his testimony at both Sundiata's and Assata's trials where he admitted, under cross-examination, that he had lied in all three of his official reports and in his Grand Jury testimony. That the truth was that Foerster had never shown him an ammunition clip; that Foerster had not yelled to him; that he had not seen a gun in Assata's hand while she was seated in the car; that Assata did not shoot him from the car; and that he had not seen a red pocketbook.
d. Audio tapes of the official recorded NJ Turnpike radio communications between all NJ State Trooper cars traveling the Turnpike near the scene of the shoot-out, dated May 2, 1973, which revealed that two additional turnpike patrol cars, those driven by Trooper Robert Palenchar and Trooper Woerner Foerster, had been ordered to aid Harper at the stop prior to the shoot-out. (admitted into evidence)
e. The verbatim, hand-written record of what transpired inside the NJ Turnpike Administration Building when Harper entered it at or about 1AM on May 2, 1973, to report the shoot-out to Sergeant Chester Baginski who was in charge of maintaining the official record of turnpike occurrences on that (refereed to as the Station Bible). Harper reported that he had just been involved in a shoot-out after he had stopped a Pontiac containing three Black people, two men and a woman, that he had been wounded, and that the Pontiac was proceeding South on the turnpike. He gave the license plate number, but did not mention that Trooper Foerster had arrived at the scene. (admitted into evidence)
f. Audio tapes of the investigation conducted by Detective Sgt. First Class Richard H. Kelly in the Administration Building at 7:37AM that morning to determine why over an hour elapsed from the time Harper entered the Administration Building that night and the discovery of Foerster's body. Statements by each of the troopers present when Harper came into the Administration Building revealed that Harper had not reported Foerster's presence at the scene and that no one was aware of the fact that Foerster lay on the road beside his car in front of the Administration building for over an hour, when his body was accidentally discovered by Trooper O'Rourke who had left the Administration building to investigate the scene of the shoot-out, less than 200 yards away. (admitted into evidence)
3. Assata testified that Harper stopped the car without any known reason, shot her with her arms raised at his demand, and then shot her in the back as she was turning to avoid his bullets. Almost mortally wounded, and semi-conscious, she climbed into the backseat of the Pontiac to avoid further bullets. Sundiata drove the car five miles down the road and parked it, where she remained until State Troopers dragged her onto the road.
4. A driver traveling north along the turnpike at the time of the incident testified at trial that he had seen a State Trooper struggling with a Black man between a parked white vehicle and a State Trooper car whose overhead revolving lights lit up the area. He was unable to identify the Black man, and further stated that he saw no one else on the road or at the scene. He immediately reported what he had seen to New Jersey Police Headquarters.
It therefore remained only forensic evidence to help determine the facts of that night as much as they could be determined. The forensic evidence examined by both the New Jersey crime laboratory in Trenton, New Jersey and FBI crime laboratories in Washington, D.C. established the following:
1. The finger print analyses of every gun and every piece of ammunition found at the scene showed there were no fingerprints of Assata found on any of them. (The official analyses admitted into evidence)
2. Neutron Activation Analysis taken immediately after Assata was taken to the hospital that night showed there was no gun power residue on her hands. Effectively refuting the possibility that she had fired a gun. (The official analyses were admitted into evidence)
3. As a result of the bullet Harper shot under her armpit, while her arms were raised in, her median nerve was severed, immediately paralyzing her entire right arm, shattering her clavicle, and lodging in her chest so close to her heart that an operation to remove it was not feasible. A neurologist testified to that fact at the trial.
4. A pathologist testified that "There is no conceivable way that the bullet could have traveled over to the clavicle if her arm was down. That trajectory is impossible."
5. A surgeon testified that "it was anatomically necessary that both arms be in the air for Ms. Chesimard to have received the wounds she did."
The state offered no expert witnesses to refute this medical testimony.
6. Photographs depicting the gunshot entry wound under her armpit and the entry would of the bullet Harper shot into her back were admitted into evidence during the trial.
Therefore, since no evidence existed that proved Assata fired the bullet that killed Trooper Foerster, why was she found guilty of his murder? There are several explanations:
The first is that the climate of hatred, prejudice and racism that had so contaminated the Middlesex County jury pool in 1973 that a change of venue was ordered, continued to exist in 1977. The unanimous opinion of the 1973 jury pool was "If she's Black, she's guilty." After three defense motions for change of venue, Judge Leon Gerofsky granted the motion, stating, "It was almost impossible to obtain a jury here comprised of people willing to accept the responsibility of impartiality so that defendants will be protected from transitory passion and prejudice." The trial was then moved to Morris County where Assata's trial was severed from Sundiata's because of her pregnancy.
In 1977 Assata began trial for the second time in this same Middlesex County, and this time jury nullification was insured: The jurors chosen to determine Assata's guilt or innocence consisted of five jurors who were either relatives or close personal friends of state troopers or of state law enforcement officers.
However, Assata was not convicted of firing the shot that killed Trooper Foerster. She was convicted as an accomplice to his murder under New Jersey's "aiding and abetting" statute. Under New Jersey law, if a person's presence at the scene of a crime can be construed as "aiding and abetting" the crime, that person can be convicted of the substantive crime itself. Judge Theodore Appleby charged the jury that they were permitted to speculate that Assata's "mere presence" at a scene of violence, with weapons in the vehicle, was sufficient to sustain a conviction of the murder of Trooper Foerster. She was also convicted of possession of weapons – none of which could be identified as having been handled by her and of the attempted murder of Trooper Harper, who had sustained a flesh wound at the time of the shootout.
Now, 32 years after her conviction, a new, fabricated version of Foerster's death has emerged:
There is absolutely no evidence to support statements made by Col. Joseph R. Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, who said that "It was later determined that Werner Foerster's service weapon was ripped from his holster as he lay wounded on the pavement, and he was executed with two shots to the head from his own service weapon."
But his motivation for making those statements is clear:
1. To justify Assata being placed on the domestic terror watch list along with Osama bin Ladin. He said, "Anyone with a mindset that would execute a police officer once they were on the ground is dangerous enough to be considered a domestic terrorism threat." But Assata is the only person convicted of a single domestic crime who has been classified a terrorist and put on the terrorism watch list, thereby nullifying the very definition of "terrorism"
2. To justify the $1 million dollar bounty to be paid from tax payers money. He said, "The reward money should make Chesimard a much more attractive quarry for professional bounty hunters."
New Jersey State Assembly Speaker, Albio Sires, a longtime member of CANF (Cuban American National Foundation, representing Cuban exiles), said: "If Cuba's citizenry could be informed of the $1 million bounty and the real story of Chesimard's crimes, there is an increased likelihood of her being brought to Justice…. We want the Cuban people to know the real story about Joanne Chesimard and not the deceptive representation advanced by the Castro regime. We want people to realize that she is not a hero and she is really a violent criminal who is wanted for killing a State Trooper and escaping justice."
By falsely asserting that Assata shot Foerster in the head while he lay helplessly on the ground, killing him "execution style", the US Justice Department hopes to strip Assata of any of the sympathy and political support she now receives in the United States and from the citizens of Cuba. By labeling her a cold-blooded cop killer, the hope is that the real circumstances of the NJ Turnpike as well as all the years prior to that event during which time Assata was relentlessly hunted with the stated purpose of killing her on sight for having committed crimes of which the government knew she was innocent, will be forgotten.
But even as official lies are now being manufactured to convert Assata into a terrorist, so that Cuba can be accused of "harboring a terrorist" and to justify kidnapping her, there are, in fact, two well-known and admitted, convicted terrorists who are now being given safe harbor in the United States.
The US government has refused to extradite admitted terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, (charged with the shoot down of a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 civilians and convicted of other terrorist acts including the Bay of Pigs). The US government has also refused to extradite Posada's convicted fellow terrorist, Orlando Bosch, who escaped from Venezuela and came to Miami in 1987 with the assistance of the CANF, Jeb Bush and his father, the then US Attorney, Gonzalez, who personally approved the bounty, also approved prisoner torture at Abu Ghreb. Or that the approval came after New Jersey resident, Michael Chertoff, was named Secretary of the Department of Homeland Defense.
There are the facts. Let us not forget them.
- Evelyn A. Williams
President Obama: White Supremacy's Super Weapon for the 21st Century
Written by Umar R Abdullah-Johnson
First there was Global 2000, the Rockefeller project to reduce the global African population by fifty percent. Then there was Hurricane Katrina, massive Black population removal for high-speed gentrification & oil exploration. Still further, there was AIDS & EBOLA, racial diseases created to erase Africans in the Congo so the resources of the world's most minerally-rich country could be put to use for the global elite. There was Asian Bird Flu & the so-called stock market crash of 2008 that sought to destabilize China's economic dominance of foreign markets. There was also Pearl Harbor & 9-1-1, where Anglo-American leaders allowed there own citizenry to be deliberately executed in order to go to war with other races in a geo-political attempt to increase supervision of mineral supplies and conspiratorial agendas by the "Brown" races of the world. However, white supremacy's greatest weapon for the 21st century is neither an economic weapon or natural disaster. Rather, the post-Bush years will require a much more cunning approach to Anglo ascendancy on the global spectrum. The newest weapon is nothing more than a human being. A lonely European, trapped in a Black Man's body that he wish he never had. Barry, excuse me, Barack, as he now calls himself, may be a psychological monstrosity but at present he is a political necessity. Despite the fact that this man harbors negative views of most Black men for harm caused to his spirit for being abandoned by his Kenyan father; on the political stage, this emotionally fragile "bi-racialite" is able to use African intelligence & oratory in a manner never before seen by a "Negro Loyalist" in American history. In fact, once he is done helping the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) destabilize the rest of Africa's economies, and once he is done helping Israel strengthen its position as chief spy for white supremacy, in the volatile middle-eastern region of the planet, Mulatto Jesus will then go down in history as one of the greatest Machiavellian schemes ever unleashed by the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission (TC) towards helping them achieve there goal of creating a One White World Order.
Negro hysteria is currently running at an all-time high in the Black community as preachers are finding verses in the bible that they "think" speaks to the coming of the Mulatto Christ, while talented 10th Elitist Negrophobes, many of whom will be disappointed when they don't get appointed to his cabinet, are busy organizing politically unconscious Blacks to "get out and vote" for a so-called African-American ( I thought an African-American was a descendent of one of the enslaved Africans who helped build this nation – where does he fit in?) who has virtually ignored there every concern since he announced his presidency. He has spoken to poor white, Hispanics, native Americans and even homosexuals, but "Brother" Barry has yet to mention a single word about the plight of Blacks or what he proposes to do about it. He has openly come out against Affirmative Action because "it discriminates against poor whites (Negro Please!!)." He has also come out against an apology for slavery and against reparations. However, this "White Man's Black Man" has garnered a level of support from Americanized Africans never before seen in U.S. History. The interesting thing about Barry Soreoto (his real initials are "B.S." for a reason) is that white people have given him more than $1Billion dollars to help him reach in the White House, while Black people think he is suddenly going to put on an Afro and start speaking to there issues once he is elected. There is a much finer chance that Oprah Winfrey will start having issues that matter to the Black community on her show, or the next Black athlete won't marry a white woman before that happens. Mr. B.S. is going to do none of the above. He loves America, and as he has said on so many occasions, anyone who has a problem with America has a problem with him. Negro schizophrenia has always been one of the chief impediments to the progress of Black people, but unfortunately in the 21st century, when the white, brown and yellow races are planning to bury the Black one for good, the best the victim can do is place hope in the enemy's weapons as if they are somehow going to fire there artillery at themselves.
President B.S. made $4 million dollars last year, just raised a record $1 Billion during this race, his autobiography sales are through the roof, he just paid astronomical fees to air a 30-minute ad just before the world series, but has not taken out a single ad, with campaign funds, in a major Black publication. The very same Black journalists who have championed his cause can't even get one green dollar to help offset the cost of all the free publicity that they have given him. We have homeless Black people, mothers sleeping on the street with their children, and he can waste millions of dollars an hour on television commercials that seek to prove to white people that he can be "as white as the whitest white man." Certainly, some Obama-maniacs reading this article are having an emotional temper tantrum that someone dares to state that the Mulatto Christ for the whites may actually be the Anti-Christ for the Blacks. When this circus is over in four or eight years, there will be a lot of broken-hearted B.S. supporters who are going to wonder how he could betray Black people the way that he has. Paradoxically, President Soreoto will not owe you an explanation because in your political ignorance you rushed out to cast a vote without asking him a single question about his plans for the hood, you didn't bother asking him to come to a single political convention to "EARN" your vote . . . . .actually Tavis Smiley invited him to come to one of his town hall meetings, but the Mulatto Christ flat-out rejected the invitation, receiving no ridicule from the Black community whatsoever in the aftermath, since he has to "act like a sellout" in order to get "selected" to be the next president of white racism. What this election season has proven more than any other is that Black people are just as politically retarded as we were when we came out of slavery. We still prefer to feel rather than think. We still prefer to be led than to think critically for ourselves. I for one am not ashamed to say that I am neither democrat or republican, and am not for Obama or McCain, I am for Black Independence. I too would also like to run for President of the United States, I too would also like to be chief executive over a large block of organized and interconnected states, I too would like to hold the largest office in the land, I too would like to be president of the richest and most powerful government on earth. However, my presidency will not be in the west, it will be in the east, when I am proclaimed, Dr. Umar Abdullah-Johnson, President of the United States of Africa!!!
Umar R Abdullah-Johnson is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and educator who practices privately throughout Pennsylvania and lectures throughout the world. He is a highly sought after graduation speaker, parent workshop deliverer and educational consultant. He is founder and CEO of Independence Psychological & Education Services, LLC and The International Movement for the Independence & Protection of African People (IMIPAP). Brother Umar specializes in working with disruptive behavior disorders, childhood anxiety & depression, and special education law. He is an authority on the life of Marcus Garvey, Pan-African Nationalism & the history of the abolitionist movement. A blood relative of Frederick Douglass, Umar is an orator and frequent guest on Black talk radio stations and universities around the country. A dedicated Garveyite, and former Minister of Education for the UNIA-ACL, he is known for his fierce Race Pride and blunt criticism of African thought and behavior. He can be reached for consultation or lecture scheduling at umarthepsychologist@yahoo.com
Information age: M1 of dead prez interviews Mumia Abu Jamal
by POCC Minister of Culture M1 Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Part 1
M1 of dead prez after a recent concert in Frisco The Prisoners of Conscience Committee Minister of Culture M1, also known for his work with the legendary rap group dead prez, interviewed prolific journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal about two weeks ago. A lot of people wonder what Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) and Sam Cooke talked about when they were with Muhammad Ali the night that he won his first professional title bout against Sonny Liston, or what Huey P. Newton and Richard Pryor talked about when they used to hang out at parties. This was an unscripted conversation between one of the most revolutionary voices in the media today, that being the "voice of the voiceless" Mumia Abu Jamal, talking to one of rap music's most revolutionary voices, M1. What makes M1 and Mumia different from Malcolm and Sam or Huey and Richard is that in their cases, Malcolm and Huey were the organizers, while Sam was a talented singer and Richard was a legendary comedian.
In this case, although M1 is a rapper and Mumia is a journalist, both have long histories of organizing in the Black community. M1 is currently with the Prisoners of Conscience Committee, and Mumia Abu Jamal is a former member of the Black Panther Party. Check out what these two veterans of our struggle talked about, when they finally met for the first time, through some phone lines. - Minister of Information JR
M1: This is M1, the People's Advocate, one-half of dead prez and the Minister of Culture of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee signing in for Block Report Radio, and I am proud and honored to be on the phone today with Mumia Abu Jamal, the voice of our people and the voice inside our struggle behind enemy lines. I got a few questions today, and I can't wait. I'm honored to be talking to you here today. How are you feeling?
Mumia: Good, brother, the honor is also mine. I know of you, not musically but politically, and this is good enough for me.
M1: Good, good. I want to jump right in. A partner of mine, Rosa Clemente, and I often talk about the concept of media justice, and you as the voice of our people's resistance, what information do you feel is the most pertinent in these days of distraction, i.e. Republican versus Democrat? What is the most important thing that we need to know?
Mumia: The most important thing that we need to know right now is it doesn't matter who gets elected, honestly. I know people heard that years ago when Ralph Nader was running, but I mean in the grand scheme of things, because what we are talking about is differences of degree. We're talking about two imperial presidents, you know? One will be a pretty brown face, a pretty brown young face even. One will be a less pretty old white face. But essentially what they are talking about is imperialism. So what people need to understand and really really need to get is that they should demand through their actions ...
THIS CALL IS FROM THE STATE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION SCI GREENE, AND IS SUBJECT TO MONITORING AND RECORDING.
Mumia: They should demand through their activities in the streets and everywhere else what kind of system they want and what they oppose. If they feel that everything is honkey-dory if you get a Black president, then they'll be just like the people in Philadelphia who believed that everything was great when they got a Black mayor. t really doesn't matter what color someone is, it matters ... what their mind is like, what they are thinking about - if they are in support of empire or really in support of democracy.
If you think about this war that we are in the middle of, in order for this war to happen, the government had to ignore not just millions of people in the United States but millions of people, tens of millions of people all around the world in some of the biggest demonstrations in the history of the world. So we're talking about an anti-democratic system. And that can only be changed, not by that system, but by the people.
M1: Good, well, going forward I would like say that yesterday we celebrated African Liberation Day, and that's in the memory of Kwame Ture, and also remembering Malcolm X and his birthday just passed, we see the importance of great organizers who were able to galvanize the best that our people could give to our struggle and to our movement. And also we see the importance of organization. What is your vision of the organization that will defeat imperialism worldwide?
Mumia: Well, it has to be a global organization. By that I mean the new name of imperialism in the 21st century is really globalization. And when you think about that, when you read about that, when you study about that, globalization really means the globalization of capital. You don't hear people talking about the globalization of labor. But you know that working people all over the world have more in common with each other than they have with their own so-called leaders or the rulers, the ruling class that is of those societies.
So people should globalize resistance. And that means talking across cultures, learning other languages. It's easier now in the age of the internet than it was 30 years ago, but it is still necessary, you see? Because we need to break through these illusions that the media puts in people's heads. I mean, there are millions of people who hate people that they have never met.
If you mention the name of the president of Venezuela or the president of Iran, people will base their hatred on stuff that they heard on the news. And more likely than not, it was erroneous exaggerations or just straight up lies. Why should people hate someone that they don't know based on misinformation? You could only do that if you know the role of the media in a capitalist society, which is to support the rule of the rulers, you see?
M1: Great, it's so much to learn. I'm so happy to be soaking this up.
THIS CALL IS FROM THE STATE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION SCI GREENE AND IS SUBJECT TO MONITORING AND RECORDING.
Continue reading "Information age: M1 of dead prez interviews Mumia Abu Jamal" »
The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: An Innocent Man on Death Row
Who is Mumia Abu-Jamal?
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a renowned journalist from Philadelphia who has been in prison since 1981 and on death row since 1983 for allegedly shooting Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He is known as the “Voice of the Voiceless” for his award- winning reporting on police brutality and other social and racial epidemics that plague communities of color in Philadelphia and throughout the world. Mumia has received international support over the years in his efforts to overturn his unjust conviction.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was serving as the President of the Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest. He was a founding member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Black Panther Party as a teenager. Years later he began reporting professionally on radio stations such as NPR, and was the news director of Philadelphia station WHAT. Much of his journalism called attention to the blatant injustice and brutality he watched happen on a daily basis to MOVE, a revolutionary organization that works to protect all forms of life--human, animal, plant--and the Earth as a whole.
The Scene
In 1981, Mumia worked as a cab driver at night to supplement his income. On December 9th he was driving his cab through the red light district of downtown Philadelphia at around 4 a.m. Mumia testifies that he let off a fare and parked near the corner of 13th and Locust Streets. Upon hearing gunshots, he turned and saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Mumia exited the cab and ran to the scene, where he was shot by a uniformed police officer and fell to the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Within minutes, police arrived on the scene to find Officer Faulkner and Mumia shot; Faulkner died. Mumia was arrested, savagely beaten, thrown into a paddy wagon and driven to a hospital a few blocks away (suspiciously, it took over 30 minutes to arrive at the hospital). Mumia somehow survived.
The Trial
The trial began in 1982 with Judge Sabo (who sent more people to death row than any other judge) presiding. Mumia wished to represent himself and have John Africa as his legal advisor, but before jury selection had finished, this right was revoked and an attorney was forcibly appointed for him. Throughout the trial, Mumia was accused of disrupting court proceedings and was not allowed to attend most of his own trial. Sabo lived up to his nickname of “Prosecutor in Robes.”
The Evidence:
The prosecution claimed that the shot which killed Faulkner came from Mumia Abu-Jamal’s legally registered .38-caliber weapon, contradicting the medical examiner’s report that the bullet removed from Faulkner’s brain was a .44-caliber. This fact was kept from the jury. Moreover, a ballistics expert found it incredible that police at the scene failed to test Mumia’s gun to see if has been recently fired, or to test his hands for powder residue. One of the most damning prosecution claims was that Mumia confessed at the hospital. However, this confession was not reported until nearly two months after December 9th, immediately after Mumia had filed a brutality suit against the police. One of the officers who claims to have heard the confession is Gary Wakshul. However, in his police report on that day he stated, “the Negro male made no comments.” Dr. Coletta, the attending physician who was with Mumia the entire time, says that he never heard Mumia speak.
The Witnesses:
The star prosecution witness, a prostitute named Cynthia White, was someone no other witness reported seeing at the scene. During the trial of Billy Cook (Mumia’s brother) just weeks before Mumia’s trial, White gave testimony completely contradictory to what she stated at Mumia’s trial. Her testimony at Billy Cook’s trial placed someone at the scene who was not there when police arrived. This corroborates the other five witness accounts that someone fled the scene. In a 1997 hearing, another former prostitute, Pamela Jenkins, testified that White was acting as a police informant. Other sworn testimony revealed that witness coercion was routinely practiced by the police. In 1995, eyewitness William Singletary testified that police repeatedly tore up his initial statement--that the shooter fled the scene--until he finally signed something acceptable to them. The following year, witness Veronica Jones came forward to testify that she had been coerced into changing her initial statement that two men fled the scene. Witness Billy Cook, who was present the whole time, has stated very clearly that Mumia is absolutely innocent.
The Sentence:
Due to police manipulation of witnesses, fabrication of evidence, and the rights of the defense severely denied, Mumia was found guilty. He was sentenced to death during the penalty phase based solely on his political beliefs. Mumia has been unjustly separated from his family for twenty-two years, with the threat of death looming over his head.
New Witnesses:
In 2001, court stenographer Terri Maurer-Carter came forward and stated that in 1982, before Mumia’s trial began, she heard Judge Sabo say, “Yeah, and I’m going to help them fry the n****r.” He was referring to Mumia. This backs up evidence of judicial bias and racism in Mumia’s case. In the same year, esteemed Philadelphia journalist Linn Washington stated that on the morning of December 9th, 1981, he went to the scene to report on it--and no police were present. This backs up prior claims that police didn’t handle the crime scene properly.
The Confession:
In 1999, Arnold Beverly confessed to killing Officer Faulkner. This confession is validated by a lie detector test administered by eminent polygraph expert Charles Honts. Despite concrete evidence supporting this confession, the Philadelphia District Attorney has refused to investigate, and the courts have not even allowed it to be heard. The injustice continues . . .
The Decisions:
On December 18th, 2001, Judge Yohn issued a decision on the Habeas Corpus petition
in Federal District Court. He upheld Mumia’s unjust conviction, but challenged the sentencing phase (the death sentence). This means there could be a new sentencing hearing after all appeals are resolved, but the only options are life in prison with no possibility of parole or another death sentence. This is not justice. There is massive evidence of Mumia’s innocence and he should be absolutely free. Mumia’s legal team
filed an appeal of this decision in January of 2002. Mumia remains on death row until
all appeals by both sides are heard.
Judge Pamela Dembe’s November 21, 2001, rejection of Mumia’s request to reopen the PCRA hearings was appealed by Mumia’s legal team. Judge Dembe based her decision almost entirely on the Peterkin case, which has just been overturned! On October 8, 2003, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the appeal, stating that the Beverly confession cannot be heard due to time limitations. The court also stated that Terri Maurer-Carter’s testimony is irrelevant. The struggle continues.
The Movement:
A broad international movement has formed in support of Mumia. Celebrities such as Danny Glover, Ossie Davis, and Susan Sarandon, world leaders like Nelson Mandela, Danielle Mitterand (former First Lady of France), and Fidel Castro, governing bodies
such as the Japanese Diet, 22 members of the British Parliament, and the European Parliament have all recognized the blatant injustice in this case and have called for a new trial at the very least. Millions of people throughout the world have taken to the streets to protest his unjust imprisonment.
Mumia’s case has been a unifying point for many social struggles because it concentrates issues vitally important to our future, such as the rise in prison populations, police brutality, the death penalty, persecution of political dissent, and the continuation of white supremacy and racism in the U.S. From death row, Mumia has continued to speak out for all who are oppressed through his journalism. He has published four books, and his weekly columns are published throughout the world. His case is one of the most important social justice fights of our time.
*For a statement by Immortal Technique on the Significance of Mumia, click here
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) • freemumia@freemumia.com • (212) 330-8029
Continue reading "The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: An Innocent Man on Death Row" »
IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE - A benefit for Afghanistan's children of war
support:
Hassan Salaam
Da Circle
Ras Ceylon
Our mission is to restore hope to the lives of Afghanistan's children of war; by removing them from a state of anguish, isolation and persecution, toward a future of hope, and justice inherent to our most primitive human rights.
Our mission is supported by the planned initiation of the Amin Institute, in March 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan where we will provide full scale rehabilitation to some of the more then 2 million orphaned and 60,000 homeless children on the streets of Afghanistan. At the Institute up to 20 children will have access to safe housing, education, proper medical treatments, psychological care, and most importantly a childhood characterized by the hope and self sufficiency necessary for proper childhood development. The Institute will be a beacon of goodwill in a place that has seen so much negativity and pain. It is not just a dream, but a reality waiting to happen. Real lives will be changed as they are shown what the determination and willingness of compassion can accomplish.
Source:http://www.trueskool.com/events/immortal-technique-a-benefit
The Truth: An Un-American Idea
INTELLIGENTNEWZNET...The Truth: An Un-American Idea
The Truth: An Un-American Idea
Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
Jeremiah…Chapter 7 verse 26-28…King James Version
After listening to, watching, and reading transcripts of Chicago’s now infamous Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, as well as other people’s comments about those sermons, the inescapable reality of our situation hit me like a crane falling from a New York City skyscraper! That reality was that, to tell THE TRUTH is as "UN-AMERICAN" an act as bombing the World Trade Center. The truth in our day has been deemed an "enemy-combatant" an "enemy of the state" a "threat to national security" and a hater of the "freedom’s" and "liberties" on which "democracy" was founded.
It’s time for us to be honest. WHAT PART OF WHAT REV. WRIGHT SAID WAS NOT THE TRUTH? He said…
"…the Government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a 3 strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America…NO…NO…NO…Not God Bless America, but God Damn America! For killing innocent people, God Damn America for treating her citizens as less than human…"
Now am I missing something because America (CIA) DID bring drugs into the country! They DID flood poor neighborhoods with these drugs, and used the money to finance covert wars on foreign soil and subsequently built a prison industrial complex that incarcerates unsuspecting ghetto children while making themselves billions of dollars in the process! All of this might be an inconvenient truth, but it is the truth nevertheless!!! [See, Iran Contra; Dark Alliance by Gary Webb; ask John Kerry or visit Freeway Rick Ross at Prison]. The reverend continued by stating that 9/11 could have been the result of America’s tyrannical and oppressive foreign policy. He referred to this as the proverbial "chicken’s coming home to roost". He said…
"…We (America) bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki…and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye…We (America) have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done over seas are now being brought back right over into our own front yards…"
I’m not trying to be sarcastic but I really thought in 2008 that all of this was elementary and basic common knowledge. While watching an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, I heard Barney Frank say that "it was wrong for Rev. Wright to suggest that America had brought 9/11 on itself". Now I can understand why some people might think that it’s wrong to bring up these very uncomfortable things because it’s very painful to confront the potential reality of why such a horrific event could have happened, but in my opinion it’s vital for us to start dealing with the core and real reasons why people around the world have so many issues with America. If you can accept the fact that Saddam Hussein was executed because his "chickens’ of subjugation, oppression, and state sponsored terrorism throughout Iraq and the neighboring regions had finally came home to roost, it shouldn’t be considered Un-American for Rev. Wright or anybody else to start looking at America under the same type of microscope to try and figure out just what the hell is going on around here. How many American’s really understand the depth of this countries influence in foreign lands - for better or for worse? How many American’s know that "Al-Qaeda" is an American CIA invention? This group was armed, trained, and named by the CIA in the early 1980’s, and used to help destabilize the then Soviet Union. Guess what, it worked! America’s so-called "Cold War" or "War on Communism" created the world we are wrestling with today, i.e., the "war on terror" the ’war on drugs", etc.
· The Cold War was responsible for fueling the illegal drug trafficking in America beginning when drugs from Laos were shipped to America in the 1950’s – 60’s and profits from sales financed the arming of allies fighting against Ho Chi Min. Also, the flooding of African-American communities with tons of cocaine from South America with proceeds going to finance the contra’s whose task it was to destabilize the Sandinistas of Nicaragua.
· The Cold War was responsible for arming, training and financing such terrorists groups as Al-Qaeda, as well as the Taliban government of Afghanistan. Believe it or not Saddam Hussein was also a CIA "Cold War" creation.
· The Cold War was responsible for arming opposing African rebels in the Congo, thus, giving rise to the current "civil-unrest" in African countries like Sierra Leone.
I suggest the uninformed American citizen grab him/herself a copy of Mahmood Mamdani’s Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (Tree Leaves Press, New York 2005). It was during this same "Cold War" period that Robert McFarlane and Oliver North asked the Saudis for $1 million a month to help finance their own international terror campaigns. The two, North and McFarlane, also tapped the Apartheid South African government for $1 million a month for the same covert terror. Then we wonder why the Reagan/Bush administration did nothing about the genocide in South Africa that was at its peak during this time?
You see, after the Boland Agreement that stopped funding for the "war on communism" the Reagan/Bush administration took two initiatives that all but destroyed America’s "black" community and changed U.S. foreign policy forever. According to Mamdani, these were 1) they turned to the drug trade for an illicit source of funds; 2) they turned to the religious right to implement those foreign policy objectives that Congress had ruled against, thus beginning a trend towards privatizing war." Rev. Wright was, in effect, RIGHT!
Remember Malcolm X made the "chicken’s coming home to roost" analogy famous amongst us. Malcolm used the proverb immediately following the assassination of JFK. Brother Malcolm was referring to the fact that America had just assassinated Patrice Lumumba and had been involved in the assassination of many other foreign leaders, so maybe the JFK assassination was an example of "reaping what you sew", one of those good ole "Judeo-Christian" principles on which America was built. Today we know that the same American "Judeo Christian" machine that assassinated Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Lauren Kabila, Martin Luther King and Brother Malcolm, was the same machine responsible for splattering JFK’s cerebrum all over his wife in front of the entire Judeo-Christian world.
Bottom line, Rev. Wright is a pastor whose only crime was telling the TRUTH! He had no cache of arms stockpiled in the basement of his church, he had no "weapons of mass destruction" and his church hasn’t and doesn’t receive any western-union transfers from Osama Bin Laden. The good Judeo-Christian Rev. Wright simply told the truth, now he’s an "anti-American villain", who supports the "terrorist" and the "axis of evil", [ooohhh…scary], when both these infamous boogie monsters have "Made in America" sewed in their underwear!
But, even in the seriousness of this public "denunciation" and disowning/disagreeing with the good Reverend’s "anti-American-rhetoric", I did find some humor in all of this. That laugh came from my own hood while watching black reverend’s from my area play such an agile and rhythmic game of hop-scotch trying their damnedest not to say what they really felt, something like "Yes…God Damn America!" It was like that part in the Bible wherein Jesus told the disciple Peter that he would deny him thrice before the cock crow (John 13:38). Peter wanted to be down and represent with, and for, the denounced, rejected and crucified Jesus, but at the same time he did not want the rejection, denouncing and public crucifixion that came with telling the truth in the ROMAN EMPIRE!
These are Christian pastors who, by all accounts and testaments are supposed to do "what would Jesus do". Jesus said that "the Truth shall set you free". America was supposedly founded on a Judeo-Christian morality which holds certain "truths" to be self-evident! However, when Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton Sr., Gary Webb, and many others were moved to expound on certain evident truths, they were all denounced, disowned, messages reduced to rhetoric and assassinated! When certain MC’s of Hip Hop’s "Golden Era" (Public Enemy, KRS ONE, X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubians, Ice Cube, Paris, Kam, Sista Souljah, etc.) were moved to high-light certain truths that they held to be self-evident, the entire movement was officially "un-officially" banned from the public domain; denounced, disowned, message reduced to worthless rhetoric and all but assassinated?
So, if the countries so-called Christian leaders (white, black, etc.) want to maintain their positions of no-POWER in the current set-up, they must take the position of the high priest Caiaphas of Jesus’ day. For it was the high priest Caiaphas who said that if this man is allowed to continue with his sayings and works, the Romans will come and take all of our positions in the high places and destroy what’s left of Jewish autonomy (John 11:41-53)! Needless to say, in order to keep their positions in the high places, they sold Jesus out even though they knew he was telling THE TRUTH!
It is a sad day in the world when men are threatened to denounce, disown, and disassociate themselves with the truth. If men were not afraid to speak truth to power America would not have invaded Iraq on the premise of an out-right LIE! If someone in congress or the presidents cabinet would have been brave enough to publicly tell the truth about Saddam’s "WMD’s", over 4000 American soldiers and 120,000 Iraqi citizens would not be dead. It was George Orwell that said "in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act". It was the Apostle Paul that said "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Gal. 4:16)
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October 31, 2008
A MAORI GIFT OF THANK YOU TO BOB MARLEY
A MAORI GIFT OF THANK YOU TO BOB MARLEY |
| Gold-selling reggae artiste, Ruia, recently came to Jamaica to film a Bob Marley documentary for the Mäori of New Zealand. It serves as the latest example of reggae's global reach beyond the major metropoles of New York, London and Tokyo. The documentary will air in New Zealand early next year in Ruia's native Mäori language. The documentary's translated title is A Gift of Thank You to Bob Marley and should air early 2009. It centres on the role reggae played in reigniting pride in the Mäori people. "Bob Marley's music came at a very important time and to tell you the truth Bob Marley woke me up, along with the messages of Marcus Garvey and Rastafari. There are similarities between our prophets and your culture. ..... And to tell you the truth, Rastafari Reggae Jamaica has influenced an initiation of a renaissance in our country....of our people are no longer lying down anymore, and being submissive. We now want to get up and challenge things," said Ruia earlier this month at Bookophila cafe in Kingston. Mäori are the original inhabitants of the New Zealand, they came before the Europeans, but have been colonised by the Europeans. "Today we own about seven per cent of the land," said Ruia whilst being filmed by his documentary crew. 
Some years ago Ruia's record label got the rights to translate 20 Marley songs into Mäori. He delivered a personal copy to the Bob Marley Museum. "We got to meet Stephanie Marley and gifted over the CDs with a covenant between our people and the Marley nation and the Jamaican people, and we also a carved a treasure box that we gifted to her. She has allowed it to be displayed in the Marley Museum." Ruia wants to broaden a cultural exchange of artists between both countries. "Part of the reason we come here to make connections with different artists. We were in Tuff Gong the other day, and we met about six artists and four or five producers. And we met two other producers. So we are looking at collaborations," he said. Jamaica is a sort of Mecca for Reggae and culture, he said: "Kiwi people love Reggae and love Jamaica, because of Bob Marley, Toot and the Maytals, Burning Spear, the Abyssinians all of them down to Buju Banton. So many of our people see Jamaica as a holy place and dream of coming here." |
October 29, 2008
Support The Hempstead 15
On Wednesday, October 15th 2008, a peaceful protest outside the third Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on Long Island was met with violence and misconduct by police.
Iraq Veterans Against the War had a clear mission that night: to ensure that the issues most important to Veterans would be at the forefront of the debate. With over 4,183 service members having been killed in Iraq (at the time of the protest), it's unforgivable that the candidates have been allowing the Occupation of Iraq and it's casualties to fall into avoidable talking points instead of focused attention.
At 7:00pm the night of the debate, IVAW members led a contingent of a few hundred peaceful protesters to the main gate of Hofstra University. As per our letter to Moderator Bob Scheiffer, because we hadn't received notice that two of our Veterans would be allowed to enter the debate to address the candidates, a small, uniformed contingent of Veterans physically attempted entry.
Immediately police began arresting those who "crossed the line". They then began using horses to physically knock protesters back away from the Hofstra gates.
As the order to get back on the sidewalk was being complied to at least one officer charged his horse up the curb, and onto the sidewalk- directly resulting in at least three injuries- including two Iraq Veterans.
Nick Morgan, a former Army Sergeant was trampled, knocked out, and had his face crushed by the hoof of a horse.
Witnesses say that police left him unconscious on the sidewalk for up to ten minutes before arresting him. Nick, disoriented and obviously suffering a concussion, was initially refused medical treatment beyond a simple piece of gauze taped to his face.
When Morgan was escorted onto the bus in handcuffs, he didn't know where he was, or why he was arrested. Police initially refused to bring him to the hospital irregardless of his potentially life threatening condition. It wasn't until other members of IVAW demanded he be allowed to see a doctor, that the police hesitantly put Nick into an ambulance.
At the hospital Morgan received stitches, and it was discovered after an x-ray that his right cheek bone was clearly displaced and pushed back into his skull.
After treatment, the semi-conscious Veteran was brought to Nassau County's Headquarters Jail and shackled to a bench with the rest of us. With fifteen in total sitting in the jail, the officers and detectives began taunting and harassing Nick, with all of us witnessing this misconduct by police.
We, the "Hempstead 15" were issued the same summons and case number for "disorderly conduct" and "failure to obey a lawful order".
On November 10th 2008, the Marine Corps Birthday, and one day before Veterans Day, we will be heard in court. We would like to invite you to come out in support of the very Freedoms granted by the United States Constitution that we swore to uphold and defend when joining the military.
First District Court, County of Nassau, Arraignment Part, 99 Main Street, Hempstead New York 11550 (Room 268)
I hope to see you all there, for a Peaceful action.
Sergeant Kristofer Goldsmith
Iraq Veterans Against the War
"1 of the Hempstead 15"
What can you do to support the IVAW?
So what can YOU do about it? My fellow veteran brothers need you. We need to call the NY police department and ask them why they would trample IRAQ WAR VETERANS exercising their FREEDOM SPEECH in a peaceful manner. Is this the way members of the military who don the uniform and make an oath to defend the constitution, America, and it's people are treated? We MUST NOT ONLY hold the Police Department accountable but the Presidential Candidates as well for allowing this to happen. THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY, THIS IS A POLICE STATE.
Below are the numbers. Call now and anytime until November 10th when the court date is set for the detained veterans. Stay posted for a possible action then.
Lawrence Mulvey
Commissioner of Police
Public Information Office
516-573-7135
516-573-7138 (24 hour)
516-573-7118 FAX
And the complaint line
Call 516-573-7000 and ask to be connected to the Desk Officer where the incident occurred (Hofstra University).
NC Police Internal Affairs Unit: 516-573-7120
NC District Attorney’s Office, Special Investigations :
516-571-2100
NYS Attorney General, Civil Rights Division: 1-800-771-7755
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) was founded in July of 2004 to allow servicemen and women from all branches of the military a chance to come together and speak out against an illegal and unjust occupation. IVAW currently has over 1,300 members in 49 states, Canada and on military bases in the United States and overseas. To learn more about IVAW you can visit their website at www.ivaw.org.
Source:http://www.slepton.com/slepton/viewcontent.pl?id=2183
October 06, 2008
There's No Doubt, A Sista Can Rock A Mic
Featuring Ndambi, Emily King, Angela Johnson, Liv Warfield, Yazahrah
Washington, D.C. – September 29, 2008 – The 4th Annual Can A Sista Rock A Mic? (CASRAM) Festival will feature local and national talent in Washington D.C. and Silver Spring, Maryland, October 8 – 11, 2008.
The four-day festival will feature Singer-Songwriters Liv Warfield, Grammy Nominee Emily King and Angela Johnson; New York-based Hip-hop/Reggae emcee duo, Nola Darling; DC-based artists EmoniFela, R&B singer Alison Carney and Electro-Afro beat artist Op Swamp 81; DC native Yazahrah; Atlanta-based soul singer April Hill; and New Jersey-based R&B artist Jean Baylor, formerly of hit duo Zhane and many more.
"Can A Sista Rock A Mic? showcases some of the best live R&B and hip-hop music. We also exhibit local artists and vendors as an effort to support the DC and Maryland community. The best thing about CASRAM is that you can enjoy the festival with friends and family," says Kimani Anku, solSource Group co-founder. CASRAM 08 opens with an acoustic show from one of the pioneers of the new soul movement, N'Dambi! for two shows: 8pm and 10pm - 8pm opening is D.C.'s own Tamara Wellons who is slated to release her newest album this month and opening the second show is HU graduate from Atlanta, April Hill.
On Thursday A collage of hip-hop inspired performances from newcomers Bless Roxwell & Ra the MC, electric funk band OP Swamp 81, funky hip-hop's Eagle Nebula, and electro-soulful Ms. TK Wonder (with Taylor McFerrin). This is a memorable show of unique performances that will leave you in a zone! Hosted by DC's own XO.
Friday night will be a double hitter stating with the play:The Saartjie Project: The life and legacy of Saartjie Baartman who is also known as the Hottentot Venus. Using drama, song, dance and spoken word we explore the continued fascination of the black female form, and then CASRAM's flyest take the stage for a live evening of rhythmic basslines and beautiful people as Canada's Ayah makes her D.C. debut, along with Portland, Oregon's Liv Warfield, pioneer Jean Baylor of Zhane' fame, rising star Alison Carney and hometown heroine Yahzarah. DJ/ Host: W. Ellington Felton aka Wes Felton.
Saturday will also be a double hitter with No! The Rape Documentary & Panel Discussion with Konyka Dunson: In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, NO! The Rape Documentary is a groundbreaking feature length documentary unveiling the reality of abuse and healing in the black communities, and is being used around the world by grassroots movements around the world to end violence against women. After the film, there will be an audience discussion moderated by Konyka Dunson of WPFW & DCTV. Then CASRAM closes in grand fashion every year. This year, with a family friendly environment complete with vendors and visual art in beautiful downtown Silver Spring, we feature stellar, diverse performances by the truly soulful, energetic Angela Johnson, R&B singer Emily King, young hip-hop prodigy Ms. Emoni Fela, Singer & MC Josephine Silla, reggae spiced hip-hop gems Nola Darling, spoken word matriarch Dehejia Maat, the airy, electronic Yoko K. / aphrodizia, jazzy grooving Deborah Bond, up-and-coming DC soul singers Ne'a Posey and Teisha Marie and more!
Proceeds from this year's festival will benefit Raising Expectations, Inc., an organization that broadens the creative opportunities for at-risk youth and young adults in Washington DC to help them succeed in every aspect of life.
About CASRAM: Can A Sista Rock A Mic? Is a solSource Group production that celebrates the convergence of local, national and international women trendsetters in music, dance, spoken word, media arts and community activism in the Greater Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area.
For more information about the festival, please visit http:/www.canasistarockamic.com To schedule interviews with an artist or with the solSource Group, please contact Kimani Anku kimani@solsourcegroup.com
or Brandon Felton brandon@solsourcegroup.com
Spike Lee film angers Italy's surviving partisans
Film director Spike Lee has set off a storm in Italy with a movie about black American soldiers fighting alongside Italian partisans in World War Two.
Surviving members of the resistance to the Nazi occupation of Italy have taken issue with "Miracle at St. Anna" ahead of the film's Italian release on Friday, distributing protest flyers and accusing Lee of distorting history.
Lee has said he wanted to set the record straight about the role played by black U.S. soldiers in the war. The film is based on a novel by James McBride and focuses on the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division which helped liberate Italy in 1944-45.
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At the heart of the dispute is the film's depiction of an infamous 1944 massacre in the Tuscan town of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, where Nazi troops rounded up and killed 560 civilians.
In the film, the massacre is portrayed as a response to the actions of resistance fighters, with one of them betraying the town and colluding with the Nazis -- a version of events that has angered surviving partisans.
Lee, who is in Italy promoting the film, has responded to the criticism in his characteristically feisty manner.
"I would not allow anybody to tell me how to make a film, be it a partisan or the president of the United States," Lee told a news conference in Florence on Wednesday after a preview screening, according to Italian media.
"This simply shows that in Italy the wound is still open. ... It is up to Italians to come to grips with their past, not up to me or James McBride or the film," he said.
Members of the ANPI association of resistance fighters were not amused.
"For Spike Lee the partisans who 'hit and then ran away' were responsible for the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre," ANPI said on its website.
"Before shooting his film, the director should have read the truth about that horrible slaughter," it said, posting a copy of the 2005 verdict of an Italian military tribunal which convicted 10 ex-Nazi officers for the murders.
(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi)
Compiled by Stacy Gilliam, BET.com Contributing Writer
September 26, 2008
Minority Woman in Media Celebrates 12 Years in the Entertainment Industry
LaChic, Inc formerly Stowe Communications, Inc has just celebrated 12 years in the entertainment industry. CEO/Founder, Sibrena Stowe Fernandez, of Afro-Cuban descent, has been influential in Hop Hop. Sibrena Stowe Fernandez is a media tycoon whose columns "Speakin' It real w/ Sibrena" are her trademark. Sibrena is considered Hip Hop's Urban socialite and a leader in media buys.
New York, NY (PRWEB) September 24, 2008 -- La Chic, Incorporated (formerly Stowe Communications, Inc.), New York's premiere media firm since September 1996, has landed a new account with a successful recording label, Music World Entertainment, all while celebrating 12 years in media!
Currently, La Chic, Inc. has booked over 300 commercial ads for recording artist, Solange Knowles, whose album is entitled, "Sol-Angel & The Hadley Street Dreams". Solange debuted her sophomore album on August 9, 2008 and has placed #9 on the Billboard charts and sold over 46,000 copies in one month. Music World Entertainment has an established musical line-up and La Chic, Inc. will be instrumental in placing all TV ads for their entire roster, including gospel group Trin-i-tee 5:7, whose album will be in stores in September 2008 and Grammy Award winner, Beyonce Knowles album will follow.
In addition to the procuring Music World Entertainment as a client, La Chic, Inc. has established themselves as the "go to" company for all Urban music and luxury brands that target African-American and Hispanic consumers. A few of La Chic, Inc's clients include Kedar Massenburgs' K'orus Wines, recording artist, "Joe" and Neo-Classic Soul singer, Algebra. Corporate clients include C3 Media- an interactive service, Universal Music Group, The Developer's Group, Egger's Jewelry , Urban Impact Conference and countless other companies.
Fortunately CEO/Founder Sibrena Stowe Fernandez has expanded her enterprise and has become a media tycoon within her own right, with her trademark columns and celebrity news articles called, "Speakin' it real with Sibrena," and as publisher to a bi-lingual publication called, "La Chic: The Magazine For Women." The upcoming Nov. 2008 issue will feature the Latin Grammy Awards and the cover story is called, "The ethics of an editor," which is about former Editor In Chief of The Source Magazine, Kim Osorio and her new biography called, "Straight from da Source."
Sibrena says, "I've been fortunate to stay in the game even when the times got tough. A lot of my colleagues had to shut down and work for a big corporations but not me, I'm a deliberate creator of my own destiny and I am earning a good living. I focus on my investments, the tuition for daughters' education at American University and then some!"
For Press Inquiries Contact: Diana Pena at LaChic, Inc. #347-270-4904
September 04, 2008
ETANA … Don't judge me by my hairstyle
STAR of the Month Etana is slowly making a fashion statement with her unusual hairstyle. Known for her powerful voice, Etana also has powerful views that permeates into the way she carries her hair. With the front of her hair completely natural and the back in dread locks, Etana doesn't want to be defined or judged by her hairstyle.
"Right now a lot of people we base on their hair, I don't think that should be done whether you're Christian or Rastafarian, hair should not be a part of it. Some people wear locks and they have nothing to do with Rastafarian, it's like you're judging a book by its cover," Etana said.
While some consider her style interesting, according to Etana most persons enjoy her hairstyle and most don't like it when she covers her hair by wrapping it. Etana even received pictures from persons who have begun to follow in her footsteps by copying her hairstyle. On most occasions Etana prefers to twist or braid the back up.
Source:http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20080903/ent/ent2.html
August 28, 2008
MILITANT REGGAE/DANCEHALL ARTISTES AVOCATES COUNTER BAN ON RED STRIPE BEER/GUINESS
By Baldwin Howe
A militant set of Reggae/Dancehall artistes have initiated a bold counter move of their own, in reaction to the announcement made earlier this month by Red Stripe Beer to sever their association, in terms of sponsorship, from ‘live music events” that they say, “encourages and facilitates the use of violent and anti-social lyrics.” The justification given by the artistes for their counteraction is quite understandable. Most of the artistes think that, in light of this development, one good turn deserves another. They say their ban is just an equal reaction to the beer company’s move.
A few of them have even gone on to voice their opinions openly. Popular dancehall deejay, Mavado, is of the feeling that if the company, (Red Stripe), feels that it should withdraw its support of dancehall related entertainment events then dancehall artistes and supporters of the genre should also withdraw their support from Red Stripe Beer and the company’s other products, (Guiness etc.)
Beenie Man also is annoyed at the beer company’s move has also been quoted in the national media as saying that this is the second time that Red Stripe has taken this action. He said in essence that, people don’t attend dancehall events to listen to beer and stout bottles workout. They are willing to sponsor ‘rock’ shows in Europe but don’t hesitate to dis’ national promoters and artistes. He thinks it is just an attempt to try mash up de t’ing. He further vented his feelings by saying the artistes and events assist in making Red Stripe Beer and Guiness stout sell. That the artistes work hard in assisting to promote Jamaican music and its products and Red Stripe Beer is a Jamaican product. Beenie Man is advocating that all artistes and dancehall supporters should stop drinking Red Stripe and Guiness and start to drink more Magnum Tonic Wine. Beenie Man thinks that artistes and supporters of the dancehall genre should not support the products of companies that, by their actions, are boxing food from the mouths of promoters, artistes and their children.
Female deejay sensation, Spice, also holds the view that if Red Stripe Beer have slapped a ban on the dancehall, then is only fair that the people the ban affect should respond in kind. Spice was recently quoted in the national media as saying that she don’t think the dancehall fraternity should have anything to do with Red Stripe Beer. Her opinion is if Red Stripe withdraws from supporting dancehall events and artistes, then the dancehall fraternity should also withdraw their support from them.
The current furore, as it relates to the ban and counter ban, came about when, on April 4, 2008 Red Stripe Beer issued a public statement to the effect that the annually held Reggae Sumfest and Sting ‘live’ show events are no longer going to enjoy being main beneficiaries of the company’s sponsorship of their events. This action amounts to rescinding of the agreement they had with the organizers of both events. The public statement read in part thus: “Over thee years, however, a very negative trend of glorifying violence has crept into some aspect of the music, causing consternation among well-thinking Jamaicans and others, at home and abroad. This has far-reaching and damaging implications for the industry, and for Jamaica as a whole.”
In further proffering their position to institute a counter ban on Red Stripe Beer, most of the artiste argues that the dancehall genre share a major part of the responsibility in assisting to popularize the product among patrons who support dancehall events. It their view, when ’live’ stage show events are held, (Sumfest, Sting etc.), patrons do not pay to come and be entertained by Red Stripe Beer, they pay their money to see and hear a Bounty Killa, Mavado, Beenie Man, Sizzla Kalonji and others acts advertised to perform.
Dancehall artistes are not alone in expressing disgruntlement over Red Stripe Beer’s decision.
Popular poet and broadcaster, Mutabaruka, has also voiced his views on the matter. This he made public during a performance he was giving at the Liberty Hall, on
King Street, in downtown Kingston. In essence he opined that the realization is that it is not really violence that is being fought against, it is the position most, if not all, dancehall artistes take against homosexuality. He noted that violence has been in the national music for a very long time. The reality, he observes, is that Red Stripe Beer is pulling out because the powerful lobbyists of the gay community has also done so. He considers Red Stripe Beer’s action to be a hypocritical one.
Maxine Whittingham-Osbourne, the head of corporate relations at the beer company, in responding to the impending ban said in the national media that her company is disappointed about the brewing developments but is adamant in remaining firm regarding its stance. The Red Stripe Beer executive further stated that the artistes’ reaction to the decision is a sad affair and if it is truly the case the company expresses its disappointment but will, non-the-less be standing by its decision. She said that it is not Red Stripe Beer’s modus operandi to be retaliatory and the company will be seriously assessing the current situation to see what initiatives could be developed as Red Stripe Beer in not against the music industry.
Another part of the company’s statement made it clear that Red Stripe Beer will be ensuring that its product and the various brands it distribute are conveniently made available whenever and wherever loyal consumers enjoy their premium alcoholic beverages, despite the beer company’s withdrawal of sponsorship to Reggae Sumfest and Sting.
Whittingham-Osbourne further sited the fact that the sponsorship withdrawal was in keeping with Red Stripe Beer’s corporate strategies and values. In her view, the key matter is the situation that currently exists wherein Jamaica now wears the label of being the murder capital of the world, and in that regard, the company think it needs to take stock of all the factors that are contributing to this prevailing trend. It is Whittingham-Osbourne firm opinion that the glorification of violence in our music in not complimenting Jamaica’s current situation.
We here at Reggae Times will be closely monitoring the current situation between the Red Stripe Beer and the dancehall fraternity/music industry with the hope that some rational understanding will prevail, for the full benefit of Jamaica and all concerned.
SOURCE:http://reggaetimes.com/wordpress/?cat=16
August 26, 2008
Michal Moore "Mike's Election Guide"
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Aug 26, 2008
From Michal Moore: I've Written a Book I'd Like You to Read
Friends,
This morning my new book officially goes on sale.It has a fancy title: "Mike's Election Guide". It's cheap ($11.19 on Amazon) ( http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Mike%27s+Election+Guide&x=12&y=21 ). It's got a cool quote on the back cover from Republican congressman Tom Davis: "The Republican brand is in the trash can ... If we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."
And it's got 200+ pages of facts and ideas that you won't read anywhere else, like:
** Does John McCain think it's right to drop bombs on civilians in (his words) "heavily populated" cities?
** The only reason Social Security is running out of money is because people who make over $102,000 a year pay NO social security tax on what they make over $102,000 (if they did, we'd have enough money in Social Security for the next 75 years!).
** Bring back the draft -- but only draft the rich. If they have to serve, they won't be so eager to start ridiculous wars.
** Despite what you've heard, we actually pay more "taxes" than France or any European country -- and get none of the benefits they receive.
** Why we must arrest Misters Bush and Cheney as they slip out of the White House this coming January 20th for the crimes they have committed.
The early reviews are in. The New York Daily News declares that "Mike's Election Guide" "takes no prisoners." The Associated Press calls it "a manual of mockery for the 2008 presidential election." And the St. Petersburg Times says that "Mike's Election Guide" is a "mix of outrageous humor, passionate partisanship and common sense." The McClatchy Newspaper chain calls it a "no-holds-barred examination of our politics. Pages explode with so much humor, you'll find yourself laughing out loud at Moore's sharp wit on serious topics such as health care, childcare, taxes and terrorism." And this piece from AlterNet ( http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/95906/michael_moore_dares_to_ask:_what27s_so_heroic_about_being_shot_down_while_bombing_innocent_civilians/ ) lays out my reasoning for telling the whole truth about what John McCain did in the Vietnam War -- and asks why everyone else seems afraid to bring this up.
I've written this book to give you some good arguments to make as you discuss the election with family and friends. And I've laid out the 12 Senate seats and 30 House seats we can win -- and how to do that.
I need to warn you -- I don't let the Democratic Party bigwigs off the hook. I challenge them to have a spine, to not repeat the past mistakes they've made in the past two elections, and I ask them why they're so afraid of Republicans ("Is it true that Democrats still drink from a sippy cup and sleep with the light on?").
I hope you get a chance to read my book and that it gives you a good (and needed) laugh -- and also a bit of inspiration as we head toward that fateful day on November 4th.
Click here to order ( http://www.amazon.com/Mikes-Election-Guide-Michael-Moore/dp/0446546275?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219768845&sr=1-1 ).Click here to visit "Mike's Election Guide" on the web ( http://www. michaelmoore. com/mikeselectionguide/ ).
Thanks for all your support of my work.I wish all of us well as we have but ten weeks to go before Redemption Day!!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www. michaelmoore. com/
Join Mike's Mailing List ( http://www. michaelmoore. com/mikesmailinglist/index. php ) | Join Mike's Facebook Group ( http://www. new. facebook. com/pages/Michael-Moore/24674986856 ) | Become Mike's MySpace Friend ( http://www. myspace. com/mmflint )
August 20, 2008
H.I.M. Future Youth !
H.I.M Future Youth Apparel Design
August 12, 2008
Uhuru organizer speaks out on why the struggle with Obama
Diop asks, "What about the black community?" On Friday, August 1st I led a contingent of the Uhuru Movement into Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida to raise the question, “what about the black community, Obama?” Without the benefit of a big media budget, our organization attempted to bring the serious issues experienced by African working class people across this country into the national political debate.
These issues include the targeting of African and Latino communities with predatory “sub-prime” mortgages – a scheme that has made millions for people like Obama’s chief financial advisor Penny Pritzker, while stripping black families of billions of dollars, the greatest loss of wealth our community has suffered since being brought in chains to this country. We also challenged Obama to take a stand against the police shootings of unarmed African people, and explain why he has publicly defended the judge’s acquittal of the NYC police who murdered Sean Bell.
He has said that he cannot speak out on behalf of those who have been historically oppressed for fear of offending other people. Yet in Miami, he promised the Jewish community, which considers itself a historically oppressed community, that he supports turning all of Jerusalem over to Israeli control, despite the internationally enforced sharing of that city with the Palestinians. When Obama speaks to black audiences, he attacks us, attributing our community’s poverty, not to systemic oppression, but to bad culture and lack of work ethic.
Barack Obama has criticized African fathers for abandoning our children, although a recent study showed that black fathers stay more involved with their children after a split from the mother than white fathers. And Obama says nothing of the unjust imprisonment of 1 in 9 black men of child-bearing age, the overwhelming majority of whom are locked up on minor drug or other non-violent economic violations stemming from conditions of desperate poverty. He has failed to achieve any meaningful program of economic development for the African community. In speaking to a group of black legislators, Obama said “a good economic development plan for our community would be if we make sure folks weren’t throwing their garbage out of their cars.”
Barack Obama wants to increase military spending and praised Clinton for abolishing AFDC and welfare. He has reversed his position opposing the death penalty and speaks out against reparations. He wants to escalate the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and has threatened Venezuela and Iran with military aggression. He has upheld the FISA, supporting wire-tapping and government spying on citizens. He receives unprecedented financial backing from Wall Street. His close advisors and potential cabinet members include war criminal Richard Clarke, Tri-lateral commission founder Zbigniev Brzezinski, Madeleine ‘it’s worth the price of 1 million dead Iraqi children’ Albright, and Free Trade advocates Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee.
Some argue that we must support Obama or else we are supporting McCain. We in the Uhuru Movement don’t believe our community should restrict our political options to a choice between one white ruling class party or another. In fact, the black community’s most recent experiences in the U.S. electoral arena have resulted not only in the Republican Party’s theft of our votes, but prior to that we suffered some of the worst attacks on our community at the hands of the Democratic Party administration of William Jefferson Clinton, who put 100,000 more police on our streets to murder our people, privatized the prisons to exploit our unpaid labor, and discontinued the public subsidies for impoverished children and families that had been won by African people as a concession to our movement of the 1960s.
African people’s experiences with these last several elections and the desperate conditions facing our community have created a willingness by our people to seek independent political alternatives. In response to this crisis, the white rulers put forward Barack Obama – a pied piper taking African people back into clutches of the Democratic Party. If anyone looks seriously at the positions, programs and advisors of Barack Obama, they will see that he does not stand for any kind of real change, but for the defense of the same old status quo, with a new face. America is in an economic crisis and the white ruling class hopes to save itself by deepening the exploitation of African people in the U.S. and on the continent of Africa, where the world’s biggest reserves of oil and precious minerals lie. How better to do it than with an African face at the head of state?
Our success as a people requires that we achieve our own independent political agenda. African people’s votes should be contingent on the willingness of a candidate to support and fight for that agenda. The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement has invited Barack Obama, John McCain and Cynthia McKinney to attend our annual convention on September 27-28 in St. Petersburg, Florida to clarify their position on the question, “what about the black community?’ Based on their response, we will consider endorsement of a U.S. presidential candidate.
Diop Olugbala is the International Organizer for the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement
Source:http://www.uhurunews.com/
August 04, 2008
"What About the Black Community, Obama?"
ST. PETERSBURG, FL — On Friday, August 1, the Barack Obama presidential campaign hit a serious bump in a St. Petersburg, Florida town hall meeting as members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) challenged Obama on his unwillingness to speak to the interests of the African community.
While demonstrators outside chanted "Obama, McCain, its the same game," InPDUM members inside raised a banner that read "What about the black community, Obama?"
InPDUM International Organizer Diop Olugbala challenged Obama asking, "In the face of the numerous attacks that are made against the African community or the black community by the same U.S. government that you aspire to lead - and we are talking about attacks like the subprime mortgage that you spoke of that wasn't just a general ambiguous kind of phenomena, but a phenomena that targeted the African community and Latino community; attacks like the killing of Sean Bell by the New York police department and Javon Dawson right here in St. Petersburg by the St. Petersburg police, and Jena 6 and Hurricane Katrina, and the list goes on. In the face of all these attacks that are clearly being made on the African community, why is it that you have not had the ability to not one time speak to the interests and even speak on the behalf of the oppressed and exploited African community or black community in this country?"
After stammering, Obama made the claim that he had addressed all of those issues with public statements, but that he just may not have spoken out in the way desired.
It is well known that he did make a statement after the acquittals of the police who pumped 50 bullets into Sean Bell's car on his wedding day stating that the unjust verdict needed to be respected.
On the U.S. government's leaving African people for days to die after Hurricane Katrina he stated on September 6, 2005, "I do not subscribe to the notion that the painfully slow response of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security was racially-based. The ineptitude was colorblind."
Obama was right that he had not spoken to these issues as would be desired. While he may have conceded that the subprime loans were predatory, he has failed to condemn Penny Pritzker, his national finance advisor, for having made a fortune through the subprime mortgage scheme at the expense of Africans and Latinos.
In fact, Obama's painting the U.S. as some place on the verge of a "post-racial" society with "race problems" being "90 percent" solved, his opposition to reparations for African people and his liquidating the colonial relationship that African people in the U.S. are held in are disarming. His role as a pied piper - leading African people who are disenchanted with the inability of the U.S. electoral process to provide any solution for them right back to the Democratic Party - is problematic for African people.
His role is one that works against African people’s struggle for self-determination - the loss of which was necessary for the building and maintaining of the United States of America.
The question for African people cannot be confined to whom to vote for in a bourgeois election where freedom and self-determination for African people will never be on the ballot. The question instead must be one of what must be done to win self-determination.
Source:http://uhurunews.com/radio/
July 21, 2008
One Australian company showing the world how its done, taking charge of climate change.
Australia, Commonwealth of (Press Release) July 17, 2008 -- The owners of an Australian website will plant tens of thousands of trees to try to offset the carbon emissions of hundreds of thousands of drivers.
Sensis, which runs the navigation website Whereis, has launched the GreenRoad campaign, allowing environmentally friendly drivers to calculate and offset the carbon emissions of trips up to 200km.
With the help of not-for-profit group GreenFleet, Sensis will then plant the number of trees to offset the carbon footprint. Sensis expects to plant more than 17,700 trees to offset about 4700 tonnes of carbon emissions before the campaign ends on August 6.
Belinda Lang from Sensis said she was hopeful many of the four million visitors to Whereis.com would register with the GreenRoad campaign.
"Were hoping to educate people about how easy carbon offsetting is and that anyone can do it. not just big business," said Lang, who also revealed the trees would be protected for 100 years.
She hoped the campaign would lead to more motorists reducing their carbon footprint. "It'd be great if people who dip their toe in the water with the GreenRoad campaign extended that to offsetting their vehicles in their household," she said. "If we can have that kind of impact it'd be wonderful."
The GreenRoad campaign will run until August 6.
Driving more than 200km each week produces almost three tonnes of greenhouses gases a year.
To register, visit www.thegreenroad.com.au.
Sensis, which runs the navigation website Whereis, has launched the GreenRoad campaign, allowing environmentally friendly drivers to calculate and offset the carbon emissions of trips up to 200km.
With the help of not-for-profit group GreenFleet, Sensis will then plant the number of trees to offset the carbon footprint. Sensis expects to plant more than 17,700 trees to offset about 4700 tonnes of carbon emissions before the campaign ends on August 6.
Belinda Lang from Sensis said she was hopeful many of the four million visitors to Whereis.com would register with the GreenRoad campaign.
"Were hoping to educate people about how easy carbon offsetting is and that anyone can do it. not just big business," said Lang, who also revealed the trees would be protected for 100 years.
She hoped the campaign would lead to more motorists reducing their carbon footprint. "It'd be great if people who dip their toe in the water with the GreenRoad campaign extended that to offsetting their vehicles in their household," she said. "If we can have that kind of impact it'd be wonderful."
The GreenRoad campaign will run until August 6.
Driving more than 200km each week produces almost three tonnes of greenhouses gases a year.
To register, visit www.thegreenroad.com.au.
Bright Lights 
- Carib City
Bright Lights - Carib City
Forget Carrie from Sex In the City. On Wednesday, June 4th, there was a Cari-Fest in the City, at the Carifest CARES: Keep A Child Alive launch party and benefit at 40/40 on 25th Street, and the Sumfest launch party at Negril on West 3rd Street.
The launch for Carifest CARES was attended by scheduled performing artists Matisyahu, Caution, Kayla Bliss, Meta & The Cornerstones, Uriel Hamilton and Midnight. Joseph Israel greeted the crowd via a pre-recorded message played on 40/40’s many flat screens. He offered his regrets at not being able to attend the event because he is currently on tour; however, he will also be performing at this year’s Carifest. Lee Scratch Perry did not attend; however, his new album’s producer, Andrew WK, did.Carifest, an annual, New York-based, Caribbean diaspora celebration that combines food, crafts, and a concert, will also include a charitable theme this year: “Carifest CARES: Keep a Child Alive (KACA)”. Keep a Child Alive is a non-profit organization founded by Leigh Blake, in response to the desperate cry for much-needed AIDS-combating medicines in Africa.
Marie Davis, a woman living with HIV, gave a powerfully poignant speech to the evening’s attendees about the need for HIV and AIDS testing within the community. She stated, “The African and African- American community is the largest community living with HIV and AIDS, yet we are the least frequently tested voluntarily. Too often, I hear people, especially parents, say they don’t want to get tested because they are afraid to know if they are infected, or not. If you are a parent, you have a moral obligation to find out of you are living with either HIV or AIDS, so you can protect your children.” Her speech was met with thunderous applause from the rapt audience. She also stressed the importance of the use of condoms, and explained the difference between HIV and AIDS, emphatically stating that they were not the same thing.
People living with HIV and AIDS can prevent or delay some of the more serious symptoms and complications, if given anti-retroviral treatment (ARV) medication. These medicines are easily accessible in the United States, but are virtually non-existent in Africa, where the AIDS pandemic has reached its peak, killing tens of millions of people. That is where Keep A Child Alive comes in. According to KACA, ARV medicines can miraculously prolong the lives of those dying from AIDS. KACA forwards 100% of their donations to this cause, and supports 14 clinical and orphan care sites in 7 countries. According to KACA, there are over 15 million children worldwide who have lost one, or both, parents to the AIDS pandemic.
To learn more about what you can do to help this cause, contact info@keepachildalive.org, or attend Carifest CARES on Sunday, July 6th, at the USTA National Tennis Center, in Flushing, Queens, from 5pm until 11pm.
Meanwhile, across town, at Negril, media, friends and Jamaican government officials came together to support the launch for Sumfest, an annual concert event which takes place in Montego Bay, Jamaica on July 13th-19th.
Sumfest organizers, Johnny Gourzong, Executive Director, Robert Russell, Chairman, Sydney Reid, Director of Sites & Services, and Marcia McDonnough, Promotions Director, were at Negril to answer questions from the media about this year’s upcoming event. The organizers were joined by Jamaican political bigwigs such as Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Carole Guntley, Director General in the Ministry of Tourism, Basil Smith, Director of Tourism, David Shields, Deputy Director of Marketing, and Donnie Dawson, Deputy Director of Tourism. The Jamaican politicians attended alongside their New York-based counterparts like Guillemo Linares, Commissioner of Immigration Affairs, and Genieve Brown Metzer, Jamaican Counsel General to New York.
Despite the withdrawal of former Sumfest sponsors, Red Stripe, due to what they expressed as a disdain for the increasingly violent and inflammatory lyrics in dancehall music, the show must, and will indeed, go on. If the love and support that was apparent at the jam-packed launch was any indication of the support for the actual event, this year’s Sumfest will be just as successful as before, without sponsorship from Red Stripe.
If you were unable to attend the launch parties, there is still plenty of time to get tickets to either, or both, of the events. Between Carifest CARES and Sumfest, it will certainly be a memorable Summer-fest of Cari-fun.
By Brittany Somerset
Please Link to JamaicaPressRelease.com
Reggae Legends John Holt and Winston “Merritone” Blake to headline Concert to Commemorate Jamaica’s 46th Year of Independence
Posted by CaribbeanVibesRadio.com
 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In what is billed as “An Evening of Elegance,” reggae veterans John Holt and Winston “Merritone” Blake will headline a concert to celebrate Jamaica’s 46th anniversary at the swank Zanzibar Night Club. This semi-formal event will take place Aug. 2, and doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are available online—at www.pumpstn.com—for $25 and $30 at various tickets outlets.
Presented by Pumpstation Entertainment, this “Evening of Elegance” is a first-of-its-kind event catering to a broader Caribbean and urban base audience. “We plan to take people back down memory lane, particularly Jamaican people,” says Omar Stephenson of Pumpstation Entertainment.
The event coincides with Jamaica’s 46th independence celebration, where traditional celebrations “back-home” are often laced with sweet reggae music, delicious Jamaican food and beautiful people.
Zanzibar On the Waterfront will provide drink specials and a complimentary Jamaican style buffet. Reggae crooner John Holt, backed by Ruff Stuff Band, will deliver a sweet serenade of classic tunes like “Dusty Road”, “Further You Look,” “The Tide Is High” and the unforgettable “Stick By Me.”
With well over 50 years in the reggae music business, both Holt and Merritone carry equally a sense of pride and tradition, representating what can be claimed, as truly Jamaican. After all, that’s what it’s about, as an important milestone in Jamaica’s history is celebrated 46 years from British rule.
Additional music will be presented by Pumpstation Sound System and Caribbean Vibes Radio’s own PauL MacK, who promises to dig deep into his musical vault to keep the vibe right.
For more information and store locations, visit www.pumpstn.com.
Sourec:http://www.jamaicapressrelease.com
July 13, 2008
Rick Ross Charities, Inc in association with the City of Miami Gardens and The Children's Trust present the 2nd Annual Rick Ross Be Out Day
Miami, FL, July 7, 2008 -- To date, Rick Ross Be Out Day is Rick Ross Charities, Inc. Signature Event which assist parents with preparing for the back to school experience by distributing backpacks and school supplies while providing an entertaining day at the park with complimentary food, drinks, health screenings and entertainment. The presentation of the annual Rick Ross Charities, Inc Scholarship Award is presented at Be Out Day as well. In 2007, Miami Carol City Senior High School Graduate Juanita Williams was the scholarship recipient and the event was attended by over 2500 children and families. Recording Artist Flo Rida, Yung Joc, Brisco, Gorilla Zoe, DJ Khaled and a host of others assisted Rick Ross with entertaining the many children and families attending Be Out Day. The 2nd Annual Rick Ross Be Out Day will be held on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 from 12noon – 5pm at Miami Carol City Park. The goal of Rick Ross Be Out Day is to promote education advocacy and social responsibility. Rick Ross Be Out Day is sponsored in part by the City of Miami Gardens, The Children Trust and MediumFour.
ABOUT RICK ROSS CHARITIES, INC
Rick Ross Charities, Inc. is a non-profit, 501(c) (3), founded by Rick Ross in 2006. Rick Ross Charities, Inc. mission is to strengthen the lives of today's at-risk youth from all backgrounds and create diversity by providing solid resources through education advocacy, mentoring programs and financial resources to deserving students. Rick Ross is committed to having Rick Ross Charities, Inc. serve as a catalyst to inspire positive change by creating and supporting programs that uplift the well being of today's youth. Rick Ross Charities, Inc. provides community support through various programs and projects such as the annual Rick Ross Be Out Day, Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaways, Holiday Gift Giveaways, College Scholarship Fund, Financial Seminars and a host of others.
ABOUT RICK ROSS
"Rick Ross place in the hip-hop universe was solidified in 2006 when his single "Hustlin" became the first master tone ever certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1 million copies before the associated album had even been released. The debut album "Port of Miami" was certified Gold with over 800,000 copies sold. Now Slip N' Slide/Def Jam recording artist Rick Ross joins the exclusive VIP club reserved for MCs whose first two consecutive major label album releases have entered the Soundscan chart at #1, as TRILLA (in stores March 11th) debuted at #1 on first week sales of over 198,000 units. TRILLA follows the success of Port Of Miami, the Slip N Slide/Def Jam debut album (released August 2006) which entered at #1 with first week sales of 187,000 units." Rick Ross plans are now to open the door of opportunity for other aspiring artist with the launch of his Maybach Music Group Label.
2ND ANNUAL RICK ROSS BE OUT DAY
Who: Rick Ross Charities, Inc in association with the City of Miami Gardens & The Children's Trust
What: 2nd Annual Rick Ross Be Out Day
Where: Miami Carol City Park
3201 NW 185th Street, Miami Gardens, FL 33056
When: Wednesday, August 6, 2008
12noon – 6pm
More Info: www.rickrosscharitiesinc.org
305-851-5699
Editors Note: Pictures and interviews available upon request
--
Elora Mason
E. Mason & Associates
305-851-5699 Phone
646-390-9414 Fax
elora@emasonassociates.com
June 23, 2008
Eek-A-Mouse Removed From Carifest Benefit Concert
Reggae legend and Dancehall pioneer, Eek-a-mouse has been removed from the anticipated lineup of this year’s Carifest Benefit Concert because of his outburst at the event press launch in New York recently.
Promoters of the event are concerned that the outburst by the artiste has sent shockwaves throughout the Reggae community worldwide, and has widened a growing racial rift that has been downplayed by industry professionals for years.
In his blunt and uncharismatic statement, Eek-a-mouse expressed his disgust and anger at the preference the mainstream music community has shown for white or lighter skinned reggae oriented artistes.
He accused UB40, Matisyahu, Sean Paul and Shaggy of all being successfully accepted because of the marketability of their skin color.
Eek-a-mouse was scheduled to perform on July 6th alongside Lee Scratch Perry and Jewish Musician Matisyahu.
The Reggae News Agency
www.riddimja.com
June 11, 2008
10th Annual RCC
10th Annual Reggae Carifest – CARIFEST CARES!.
http://impoetryious.com/blog7/2008/06/10th_annual_reggae_carifest_ca.html
Alfonso D'Niscio Brooks, Musician Mathisyahu, the 2008 Carifest C.A.R.E.S Press conference 6/4/08, The 40/40 Club, NYC. Photo by N. Jeremiah
2008 is a year to celebrate – Reggae Carifest turns 10 this year.
So, we made it past the so-called seven-year itch and now we are looking forward to a great milestone, our ten-year anniversary. This marks a great moment in the lives of reggae lovers the world over. Taking a moment to reflect on all that we have accomplished and now we are ready to celebrate the one-decade mark on Sunday July 6, 2008 at the USTA Arthur Ashe Tennis Center.
2008 is a year to celebrate our history, our accomplishments, our community and our future. We have laid the groundwork for another great 10 years, years where we can influence each other for the better, demonstrate what openness, transparency and broad participation look like, marvel at the distributed excitement and fierce dedication to the Reggae Carifest vision for The Planet, The People, The Arts and our Survival, and do things we haven’t even dreamed up yet.
This summer cultural activity to attend in New York City will once again be granting you the opportunity to have the rewarding social experience you have been awaiting. We will be offering a social and/or personal encounter with artists you love. It promises to be relaxing and educational, highlighting the many things we as a people can do to bring about change for a better. As the producer D’Niscio says: “Reggae Carifest is not just an Event it is more so a place to go if your into “having fun”, a “good time’ or “meeting new people”.
In its tenth year, Reggae Carifest has decided to get you more involved. We want to know your desires and showcase the artists you long to see. We have set up a hot line 718 856 3336 to take your calls, voice your opinions and basically let us know how Reggae Carifest has impacted your life. You can always text the word Carifest to 23907 for up to date info. If it’s more convenient you can always log onto www.reggaecarifest.com and let your voice be heard. Free from hate, mischief and jealousy don’t bury your heart; make your dreams a reality – Bob Marley.
The Reggae Carifest Experience is an explosion of Cultural exhibitionism. You are invited to take part in this celebration of Culture. Past shows are as vivid today as the original dates when talked about. Our legacy has excited a passion in our loyal attendees that revel in the memories of our year-to-year captivating presentations allowing for a continuous growing attendance. It truly is a festive occasion enjoyed by an eclectic strain of folks spanning all walks of life.
Looking back to the inaugural event launched in 1998 at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, and monitoring its growth as it moved through venues such as The Keyspan Park, Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium and Randall’s Island Park.
The luster of our event’s illumination continues to shine as the beacon occurrence of all that is diverse, catering to any and all that appreciate authentic cultural expressions and aesthetics. In this sphere we dominate the playing field, we at Team Legendary seek to out do our past year’s productions going into each “Carifest”. This mandate was impressively achieved at “Reggae Carifest 2k5” where we were the first promotional company in America to film a West Indian concert in large scale in High Definition and Dolby 5.1 digital surround sound. Team Legendary is opening roads for the West Indian genre with the support of its community and the artists, steadfastly keeping the foundation ever present in today’s ever changing market.
Source:http://reggaecarifest.com
June 07, 2008
REGGAE LOVERS FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
Reggae lovers are fighting back! There is a commission formed to defend freedom of speech where reggae music is concerned.
Based on the tremendous pressure some dancehall artistes have been facing with gay rights group the commission is now formed to fight back.
The most recent attack surfaced in Waterloo, Ontario on May 10th where Mr Vegas was scheduled to perform but could not, as the venue was threatened by gay activists stating that if Vegas perform they would picket the event.
Unfortunately, the venue cancelled the show to avoid the unwanted negative attention the establishment would receive had the show gone
on. In an effort to fight these many cancellations and in some cases song withdrawals, blogger Maria Jackson has put a group together called REGGAE LOVERS FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. The purpose of the group is to investigate and challenge these gay activists as oppose to simply giving in to their every requests. The group which currently has members hailing from different parts of the world is open to the public and does invite any and everyone who believes that reggae is being unfairly targeted to join the fight.
Posted by yardFlex on 02:36 PM | Comments (14
"One of our sons are Missing" ;June 19 - 21, 2008, Brooklyn
"One of Our Sons is Missing": June 19 - 21, 2008, Brooklyn
We All Have Secrets... Some Kill
Provocative and engaging, One of Our Sons is Missing explores the lies we tell ourselves and the truths we hide from others when a Caribbean family is forced to confront dark secrets, prejudices and fear as the threat, and reality, of HIV/AIDS invades their world. It also examines the risks to which young people may be exposed in their relationships, often without being fully aware of the consequences.
When first staged in his native Trinidad, Godfrey Sealy's work was considered at once groundbreaking and scandalous for dealing openly with the issues of sexuality and HIV/AIDS in the English-speaking Caribbean. Unfortunately, after almost two decades, the scandal is its narrative remains painfully contemporary.
Kumble Theatre for the Perfroming Arts
Long Island University - Brooklyn Campus (corner Flatbush Ave Extension & Dekalb Ave)
June 19 - 21
May 28, 2008
IYAGO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP Presents WHAT BLACK MEN THINK
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IYAGO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP Presents WHAT BLACK MEN THINK
An In Depth View of How Myths, Stereotypes and Misrepresentations render Black Men Non-Necessities in their Communities and Families... In the most provocative Black film of the year, Janks Morton presents a searing examination of the role that myths, stereotypes and misrepresentations have played in the decimation of modern era black relationships, and how the symbiotic relationship between government, the media and black leadership perpetuates misinformation to further marginalize the role of black men in society. Since the triumphs of the civil rights legislations of the early 1960s havoc and decimation has been wreaked on the Black family with a specific devastation on the Black man. With negative imagery of the media, the failed policy of the great society and modern era black leadership abandoning tenets that historically held the community together, a new form of mental slavery has perpetuated an undeclared civil war in the Black Community...
May 27, 2008
REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL - THE EMPIRE’S HYPOCRITICAL POLITICS
REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL
THE EMPIRE’S HYPOCRITICAL POLITICS
http://www. cuba. cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2008/ing/f250508i. html
It would be dishonest of me to remain silent after hearing the speech Obama delivered on the afternoon of May 23 at the Cuban American National Foundation created by Ronald Reagan.
I listened to his speech, as I did McCain’s and Bush’s. I feel no resentment towards him, for he is not responsible for the crimes perpetrated against Cuba and humanity. Were I to defend him, I would do his adversaries an enormous favor. I have therefore no reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on his words frankly.
What were Obama’s statements?
“Throughout my entire life, there has been injustice and repression in Cuba. Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy.
(…) This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century – of elections that are anything but free or fair (…) I won't stand for this injustice, you won't stand for this injustice, and together we will
stand up for freedom in Cuba,” he told annexationists, adding: “It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime. (…) I will maintain the embargo.
”
The content of these declarations by this strong candidate to the U.S. presidency spares me the work of having to explain the reason for this reflection.
José Hernandez, one of the Cuban American National Foundation directives who Obama praises in his speech, was none other than the owner of the 50-calibre automatic rifle, equipped with telescopic and infrared sights, which was confiscated, by chance, along with other deadly weapons while being transported by sea to Venezuela, where the Foundation had planned to assassinate the writer of these lines at an international meeting held in Margarita, in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta.
Pepe Hernández’ group wanted to renegotiate a former pact with Clinton, betrayed by Mas Canosa’s clan, who secured Bush’s electoral victory in 2000 through fraud, because the latter had promised to assassinate Castro, something they all happily embraced. These are the kinds of political tricks inherent to the United States’ decadent and contradictory system.
Presidential candidate Obama’s speech may be formulated as follows: hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable hand-outs and visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it.
How does he plan to address the extremely serious problem of the food crisis? The world’s grains must be distributed among human beings, pets and fish, which become smaller every year and more scarce in the seas that have been over-exploited by the large trawlers which no international organization could get in the way of. Producing meat from gas and oil is no easy feat. Even Obama overestimates technology’s potential in the fight against climate change, though he is more conscious of the risks and the limited margin of time than Bush. He could seek the advice of Gore, who is also a democrat and is no longer a candidate, as he is aware of the accelerated pace at which global warming is advancing. His close political rival Bill Clinton, who is not running for the presidency, an expert on extra-territorial laws like the Helms-Burton and Torricelli Acts, can advice him on an issue like the blockade, which he promised to lift and never did.
What did he say in his speech in Miami, this man who is doubtless, from the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency? “For two hundred years,” he said, “the United States has made it clear that we won't stand for foreign intervention in our hemisphere. But every day, all across the Americas, there is a different kind of struggle --not against foreign armies, but against the deadly threat of hunger and thirst, disease and despair. That is not a future that we have to accept --not for the child in Port au Prince or the family in the highlands of Peru. We can do better. We must do better. (…) We cannot ignore suffering to our south, nor stand for the globalization of the empty stomach.” A magnificent description of imperialist globalization: the globalization of empty stomachs! We ought to thank him for it. But, 200 years ago, Bolivar fought for Latin American unity and, more than 100 years ago, Martí gave his life in the struggle against the annexation of Cuba by the United States.
What is the difference between what Monroe proclaimed and what Obama proclaims and resuscitates in his speech two centuries later?
“I will reinstate a Special Envoy for the Americas in my White House who will work with my full support. But we'll also expand the Foreign Service, and open more consulates in the neglected regions of the Americas.
We'll expand the Peace Corps, and ask more young Americans to go abroad to deepen the trust and the ties among our people,” he said near the end, adding: “Together, we can choose the future over the past.” A beautiful phrase, for it attests to the idea, or at least the fear, that history makes figures what they are and not all the way around.
Today, the United States have nothing of the spirit behind the Philadelphia declaration of principles formulated by the 13 colonies that rebelled against English colonialism. Today, they are a gigantic empire undreamed of by the country’s founders at the time. Nothing, however, was to change for the natives and the slaves. The former were exterminated as the nation expanded; the latter continued to be auctioned at the marketplace men, women and childrenfor nearly a century, despite the fact that “all men are born free and equal”, as the Declaration of Independence affirms. The world’s objective conditions favored the development of that system.
In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban revolution as anti-democratic and lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of genocide. I don’t want to see U.S. children inculcated with those shameful values.
An armed revolution in our country might not have been needed without the military interventions, Platt Amendment and economic colonialism visited upon Cuba.
The revolution was the result of imperial domination. We cannot be accused of having imposed it upon the country. The true changes could have and ought to have been brought about in the United States. Its own workers, more than a century ago, voiced the demand for an eight-hour work shift, which stemmed from the development of productive forces.
The first thing the leaders of the Cuban revolution learned from Martí was to believe in and act on behalf of an organization founded for the purposes of bringing about a revolution. We were always bound by previous forms of power and, following the institutionalization of this organization, we were elected by more than 90 percent of voters, as has become customary in Cuba, a process which does not in the least resemble the ridiculous levels of electoral participation which, many a time, as in the case of the United States, stay short of 50 percent of the voters. No small and blockaded country like ours would have been able to hold its ground for so long on the basis of ambition, vanity, deceit or the abuse of power, the kind of power its neighbor has. To state otherwise is an insult to the intelligence of our heroic people.
I am not questioning Obama’s great intelligence, his debate skills or his work ethic. He is a talented orator and is ahead of his rivals in the electoral race. I feel sympathy for his wife and little girls, who accompany him and give him encouragement every Tuesday. It is indeed a touching human spectacle. Nevertheless, I am obliged to raise a number of delicate questions. I do not expect answers; I wish only to raise them for the record.
Is it right for the president of the United States to order the assassination of any one person in the world, whatever the pretext may be?
Is it ethical for the president of the United States to order the torture of other human beings?
Should state terrorism be used by a country as powerful as the United States as an instrument to bring about peace on the planet?
Is an Adjustment Act, applied as punishment on only one country, Cuba, in order to destabilize it, good and honorable, even when it costs innocent children and mothers their lives? If it is good, why is this right not automatically granted to Haitians, Dominicans, and other peoples of the Caribbean, and why isn’t the same Act applied to Mexicans and people from Central and South America, who die like flies against the Mexican border wall or in the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific?
Can the United States do without immigrants, who grow vegetables, fruits, almonds and other delicacies for U.S.
citizens? Who would sweep their streets, work as servants in their homes or do the worst and lowest-paid jobs?
Are crackdowns on illegal residents fair, even as they affect children born in the United States?
Are the brain-drain and the continuous theft of the best scientific and intellectual minds in poor countries moral and justifiable?
You state, as I pointed out at the beginning of this reflection, that your country had long ago warned European powers that it would not tolerate any intervention in the hemisphere, reiterating that this right be respected while demanding the right to intervene anywhere in the world with the aid of hundreds of military bases and naval, aerial and spatial forces distributed across the planet.
I ask: is that the way in which the United States expresses its respect for freedom, democracy and human rights?
Is it fair to stage pre-emptive attacks on sixty or more dark corners of the world, as Bush calls them, whatever the pretext may be?
Is it honorable and sound to invest millions and millions of dollars in the military industrial complex, to produce weapons that can destroy life on earth several times over?
Before judging our country, you should know that Cuba, with its education, health, sports, culture and sciences programs, implemented not only in its own territory but also in other poor countries around the world, and the blood that has been shed in acts of solidarity towards other peoples, in spite of the economic and financial blockade and the aggression of your powerful country, is proof that much can be done with very little. Not even our closest ally, the Soviet Union, was able to achieve what we have.
The only form of cooperation the United States can offer other nations consist in the sending of military professionals to those countries. It cannot offer anything else, for it lacks a sufficient number of people willing to sacrifice themselves for others and offer substantial aid to a country in need (though Cuba has known and relied on the cooperation of excellent U.S. doctors). They are not to blame for this, for society does not inculcate such values in them on a massive scale.
We have never subordinated cooperation with other countries to ideological requirements. We offered the United States our help when hurricane Katrina lashed the city of New Orleans. Our internationalist medical brigade bears the glorious name of Henry Reeve, a young man, born in the United States, who fought and died for Cuba’s sovereignty in our first war of independence.
Our revolution can mobilize tens of thousands of doctors and health technicians. It can mobilize an equally vast number of teachers and citizens, who are willing to travel to any corner of the world to fulfill any noble purpose, not to usurp people’s rights or take possession of raw materials.
The good will and determination of people constitute limitless resources that cannot be kept and would not fit in a bank’s vault. They cannot spring from the hypocritical politics of an empire.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 25, 2008
10:35 p.m.
THE EMPIRE’S HYPOCRITICAL POLITICS
http://www. cuba. cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2008/ing/f250508i. html
It would be dishonest of me to remain silent after hearing the speech Obama delivered on the afternoon of May 23 at the Cuban American National Foundation created by Ronald Reagan.I listened to his speech, as I did McCain’s and Bush’s. I feel no resentment towards him, for he is not responsible for the crimes perpetrated against Cuba and humanity. Were I to defend him, I would do his adversaries an enormous favor. I have therefore no reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on his words frankly.
What were Obama’s statements?
“Throughout my entire life, there has been injustice and repression in Cuba. Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy.
(…) This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century – of elections that are anything but free or fair (…) I won't stand for this injustice, you won't stand for this injustice, and together we will
stand up for freedom in Cuba,” he told annexationists, adding: “It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime. (…) I will maintain the embargo.
”
The content of these declarations by this strong candidate to the U.S. presidency spares me the work of having to explain the reason for this reflection.
José Hernandez, one of the Cuban American National Foundation directives who Obama praises in his speech, was none other than the owner of the 50-calibre automatic rifle, equipped with telescopic and infrared sights, which was confiscated, by chance, along with other deadly weapons while being transported by sea to Venezuela, where the Foundation had planned to assassinate the writer of these lines at an international meeting held in Margarita, in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta.
Pepe Hernández’ group wanted to renegotiate a former pact with Clinton, betrayed by Mas Canosa’s clan, who secured Bush’s electoral victory in 2000 through fraud, because the latter had promised to assassinate Castro, something they all happily embraced. These are the kinds of political tricks inherent to the United States’ decadent and contradictory system.
Presidential candidate Obama’s speech may be formulated as follows: hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable hand-outs and visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it.
How does he plan to address the extremely serious problem of the food crisis? The world’s grains must be distributed among human beings, pets and fish, which become smaller every year and more scarce in the seas that have been over-exploited by the large trawlers which no international organization could get in the way of. Producing meat from gas and oil is no easy feat. Even Obama overestimates technology’s potential in the fight against climate change, though he is more conscious of the risks and the limited margin of time than Bush. He could seek the advice of Gore, who is also a democrat and is no longer a candidate, as he is aware of the accelerated pace at which global warming is advancing. His close political rival Bill Clinton, who is not running for the presidency, an expert on extra-territorial laws like the Helms-Burton and Torricelli Acts, can advice him on an issue like the blockade, which he promised to lift and never did.
What did he say in his speech in Miami, this man who is doubtless, from the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency? “For two hundred years,” he said, “the United States has made it clear that we won't stand for foreign intervention in our hemisphere. But every day, all across the Americas, there is a different kind of struggle --not against foreign armies, but against the deadly threat of hunger and thirst, disease and despair. That is not a future that we have to accept --not for the child in Port au Prince or the family in the highlands of Peru. We can do better. We must do better. (…) We cannot ignore suffering to our south, nor stand for the globalization of the empty stomach.” A magnificent description of imperialist globalization: the globalization of empty stomachs! We ought to thank him for it. But, 200 years ago, Bolivar fought for Latin American unity and, more than 100 years ago, Martí gave his life in the struggle against the annexation of Cuba by the United States.
What is the difference between what Monroe proclaimed and what Obama proclaims and resuscitates in his speech two centuries later?
“I will reinstate a Special Envoy for the Americas in my White House who will work with my full support. But we'll also expand the Foreign Service, and open more consulates in the neglected regions of the Americas.
We'll expand the Peace Corps, and ask more young Americans to go abroad to deepen the trust and the ties among our people,” he said near the end, adding: “Together, we can choose the future over the past.” A beautiful phrase, for it attests to the idea, or at least the fear, that history makes figures what they are and not all the way around.
Today, the United States have nothing of the spirit behind the Philadelphia declaration of principles formulated by the 13 colonies that rebelled against English colonialism. Today, they are a gigantic empire undreamed of by the country’s founders at the time. Nothing, however, was to change for the natives and the slaves. The former were exterminated as the nation expanded; the latter continued to be auctioned at the marketplace men, women and childrenfor nearly a century, despite the fact that “all men are born free and equal”, as the Declaration of Independence affirms. The world’s objective conditions favored the development of that system.
In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban revolution as anti-democratic and lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of genocide. I don’t want to see U.S. children inculcated with those shameful values.
An armed revolution in our country might not have been needed without the military interventions, Platt Amendment and economic colonialism visited upon Cuba.
The revolution was the result of imperial domination. We cannot be accused of having imposed it upon the country. The true changes could have and ought to have been brought about in the United States. Its own workers, more than a century ago, voiced the demand for an eight-hour work shift, which stemmed from the development of productive forces.
The first thing the leaders of the Cuban revolution learned from Martí was to believe in and act on behalf of an organization founded for the purposes of bringing about a revolution. We were always bound by previous forms of power and, following the institutionalization of this organization, we were elected by more than 90 percent of voters, as has become customary in Cuba, a process which does not in the least resemble the ridiculous levels of electoral participation which, many a time, as in the case of the United States, stay short of 50 percent of the voters. No small and blockaded country like ours would have been able to hold its ground for so long on the basis of ambition, vanity, deceit or the abuse of power, the kind of power its neighbor has. To state otherwise is an insult to the intelligence of our heroic people.
I am not questioning Obama’s great intelligence, his debate skills or his work ethic. He is a talented orator and is ahead of his rivals in the electoral race. I feel sympathy for his wife and little girls, who accompany him and give him encouragement every Tuesday. It is indeed a touching human spectacle. Nevertheless, I am obliged to raise a number of delicate questions. I do not expect answers; I wish only to raise them for the record.
Is it right for the president of the United States to order the assassination of any one person in the world, whatever the pretext may be?
Is it ethical for the president of the United States to order the torture of other human beings?
Should state terrorism be used by a country as powerful as the United States as an instrument to bring about peace on the planet?
Is an Adjustment Act, applied as punishment on only one country, Cuba, in order to destabilize it, good and honorable, even when it costs innocent children and mothers their lives? If it is good, why is this right not automatically granted to Haitians, Dominicans, and other peoples of the Caribbean, and why isn’t the same Act applied to Mexicans and people from Central and South America, who die like flies against the Mexican border wall or in the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific?
Can the United States do without immigrants, who grow vegetables, fruits, almonds and other delicacies for U.S.
citizens? Who would sweep their streets, work as servants in their homes or do the worst and lowest-paid jobs?
Are crackdowns on illegal residents fair, even as they affect children born in the United States?
Are the brain-drain and the continuous theft of the best scientific and intellectual minds in poor countries moral and justifiable?
You state, as I pointed out at the beginning of this reflection, that your country had long ago warned European powers that it would not tolerate any intervention in the hemisphere, reiterating that this right be respected while demanding the right to intervene anywhere in the world with the aid of hundreds of military bases and naval, aerial and spatial forces distributed across the planet.
I ask: is that the way in which the United States expresses its respect for freedom, democracy and human rights?
Is it fair to stage pre-emptive attacks on sixty or more dark corners of the world, as Bush calls them, whatever the pretext may be?
Is it honorable and sound to invest millions and millions of dollars in the military industrial complex, to produce weapons that can destroy life on earth several times over?
Before judging our country, you should know that Cuba, with its education, health, sports, culture and sciences programs, implemented not only in its own territory but also in other poor countries around the world, and the blood that has been shed in acts of solidarity towards other peoples, in spite of the economic and financial blockade and the aggression of your powerful country, is proof that much can be done with very little. Not even our closest ally, the Soviet Union, was able to achieve what we have.
The only form of cooperation the United States can offer other nations consist in the sending of military professionals to those countries. It cannot offer anything else, for it lacks a sufficient number of people willing to sacrifice themselves for others and offer substantial aid to a country in need (though Cuba has known and relied on the cooperation of excellent U.S. doctors). They are not to blame for this, for society does not inculcate such values in them on a massive scale.
We have never subordinated cooperation with other countries to ideological requirements. We offered the United States our help when hurricane Katrina lashed the city of New Orleans. Our internationalist medical brigade bears the glorious name of Henry Reeve, a young man, born in the United States, who fought and died for Cuba’s sovereignty in our first war of independence.
Our revolution can mobilize tens of thousands of doctors and health technicians. It can mobilize an equally vast number of teachers and citizens, who are willing to travel to any corner of the world to fulfill any noble purpose, not to usurp people’s rights or take possession of raw materials.
The good will and determination of people constitute limitless resources that cannot be kept and would not fit in a bank’s vault. They cannot spring from the hypocritical politics of an empire.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 25, 2008
10:35 p.m.
May 20, 2008
Malcolm X
original name Malcolm Little , Muslim name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz
born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.died February 21, 1965, New York, New York
Malcolm X.
© Archive Photos
African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam, who articulated concepts of race pride and black nationalism in the early 1960s. After his assassination, the widespread distribution of his life story—The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)—made him an ideological hero, especially among black youth.
Born in Nebraska, while an infant Malcolm moved with his family to Lansing, Mich. When Malcolm was six years old, his father, the Rev. Earl Little, a Baptist minister and former supporter of the early black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, died after being hit by a streetcar, quite possibly the victim of murder by whites. The surviving family was so poor that Malcolm's mother, Louise Little, resorted to cooking dandelion greens from the street to feed her children. After she was committed to an insane asylum in 1939, Malcolm and his siblings were sent to foster homes or to live with family members.
Malcolm attended school in Lansing, Mich., but dropped out in the eighth grade when one of his teachers told him that he should become a carpenter instead of a lawyer. As a rebellious youngster Malcolm moved from the Michigan State Detention Home, a juvenile home in Mason, Mich., to the Roxbury section of Boston to live with an older half sister from his father's first marriage. There he became involved in petty criminal activities in his teenage years. Known as “Detroit Red” for the reddish tinge in his hair, he developed into a street hustler, drug dealer, and leader of a gang of thieves in Roxbury and Harlem (in New York City).
While in prison for robbery from 1946 to 1952, he underwent a conversion that eventually led him to join the Nation of Islam, an African American movement that combined elements of Islam with black nationalism. His decision to join the Nation also was influenced by discussions with his brother Reginald, who had become a member in Detroit and who was incarcerated with Malcolm in the Norfolk Prison Colony in Massachusetts in 1948. Malcolm quit smoking and gambling and refused to eat pork in keeping with the Nation's dietary restrictions. In order to educate himself, he spent long hours reading books in the prison library, even memorizing a dictionary. He also sharpened his forensic skills by participating in debate classes. Following Nation tradition, he replaced his surname, “Little,” with an “X,” a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to have originated with white slaveholders.
Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam
After his release from prison Malcolm helped to lead the Nation of Islam during the period of its greatest growth and influence. He met Elijah Muhammad in Chicago in 1952 and then began organizing temples for the Nation in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston and in cities in the South. He founded the Nation's newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, which he printed in the basement of his home, and initiated the practice of requiring every male member of the Nation to sell an assigned number of newspapers on the street as a recruiting and fund-raising technique. He also articulated the Nation's racial doctrines on the inherent evil of whites and the natural superiority of blacks.
Malcolm rose rapidly to become the minister of Boston Temple No. 11, which he founded; he was later rewarded with the post of minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, the largest and most prestigious temple in the Nation after the Chicago headquarters. Recognizing his talent and ability, Elijah Muhammad, who had a special affection for Malcolm, named him the National Representative of the Nation of Islam, second in rank to Muhammad himself. Under Malcolm's lieutenancy, the Nation claimed a membership of 500,000. The actual number of members fluctuated, however, and the influence of the organization, refracted through the public persona of Malcolm X, always greatly exceeded its size.
An articulate public speaker, a charismatic personality, and an indefatigable organizer, Malcolm X expressed the pent-up anger, frustration, and bitterness of African Americans during the major phase of the civil rights movement from 1955 to 1965. He preached on the streets of Harlem and spoke at major universities such as Harvard University and the University of Oxford. His keen intellect, incisive wit, and ardent radicalism made him a formidable critic of American society. He also criticized the mainstream civil rights movement, challenging Martin Luther King, Jr.'s central notions of integration and nonviolence. Malcolm argued that more was at stake than the civil right to sit in a restaurant or even to vote—the most important issues were black identity, integrity, and independence. In contrast to King's strategy of nonviolence, civil disobedience, and redemptive suffering, Malcolm urged his followers to defend themselves “by any means necessary.” His biting critique of the “so-called Negro” provided the intellectual foundations for the Black Power and black consciousness movements in the United States in the late 1960s and '70s (see black nationalism). Through the influence of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X helped to change the terms used to refer to African Americans from “Negro” and “coloured” to “black” and “Afro-American.”
Kenyatta, Jomo
Jomo Kenyatta
died August 22, 1978, Mombasa, Kenya
original name Kamau Ngengi
born c. 1894, Ichaweri, British East Africa [now in Kenya]died August 22, 1978, Mombasa, Kenya
Jomo Kenyatta.
John Moss—Black Star
African statesman and nationalist, the first prime minister (1963–64) and then the first president (1964–78) of independent Kenya.
Early life
Kenyatta was born as Kamau, son of Ngengi, at Ichaweri, southwest of Mount Kenya in the East African highlands. His father was a leader of a small Kikuyu agricultural settlement. About age 10 Kamau became seriously ill with jigger infections in his feet and one leg, and he underwent successful surgery at a newly established Church of Scotland mission. This was his initial contact with Europeans. Fascinated with what he had seen during his recuperation, Kamau ran away from home to become a resident pupil at the mission. He studied the Bible, English, mathematics, and carpentry and paid his fees by working as a houseboy and cook for a European settler. In August 1914 he was baptized with the name Johnstone Kamau. He was one of the earliest of the Kikuyu to leave the confines of his own culture. And, like many others, Kamau soon left the mission life for the urban attractions of Nairobi.
There he secured a job as a clerk in the Public Works Department, and he also adopted the name Kenyatta, the Kikuyu term for a fancy belt that he wore. After serving briefly as an interpreter in the High Court, Kenyatta transferred to a post with the Nairobi Town Council. About this time he married and began to raise a family.
The first African political protest movement in Kenya against a white-settler-dominated government began in 1921—the East Africa Association (EAA), led by an educated young Kikuyu named Harry Thuku. Kenyatta joined the following year. One of the EAA's main purposes was to recover Kikuyu lands lost when Kenya became a British crown colony (1920). The Africans were dispossessed, leaseholds of land were restricted to white settlers, and native reservations were established. In 1925 the EAA disbanded as a result of government pressures, and its members re-formed as the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). Three years later Kenyatta became this organization's general secretary, though he had to give up his municipal job as a consequence.
Evers, Medgar
Medgar Evers
died June 12, 1963, Jackson, Miss.
in full Medgar Wiley Evers
born July 2, 1925, Decatur, Miss., U.S.died June 12, 1963, Jackson, Miss.
Medgar Evers.
© Archive Photos
American black civil-rights activist, whose murder received national attention and made him a martyr to the cause of the civil rights movement.
Evers served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. Afterward he and his elder brother, Charles Evers, both graduated from Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University, Lorman, Miss.) in 1950. They settled in Philadelphia, Miss., and engaged in various business pursuits—Medgar was an insurance salesman, and Charles operated a restaurant, a gas station, and other enterprises—and at the same time began organizing local affiliates of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They worked quietly at first, slowly building a base of support; in 1954 Medgar moved to Jackson to become the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. He traveled throughout the state recruiting members and organizing voter-registration drives and economic boycotts.
During the early 1960s the increased tempo of civil-rights activities in the South created high and constant tensions, and in Mississippi conditions were often at the breaking point. On June 12, 1963, a few hours after President John F. Kennedy had made an extraordinary broadcast to the nation on the subject of civil rights, Medgar Evers was shot and killed in an ambush in front of his home. The murder made Evers, until then a hardworking and effective but relatively obscure figure outside Mississippi, a nationally known figure. He was buried with full military honours in Arlington National Cemetery and awarded the 1963 Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.
Charles Evers immediately requested and was granted appointment by the NAACP to his brother's position in Mississippi, and afterward he became a major political figure in the state. Evers's widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, was the first woman to head the NAACP (1995–98).
Byron de La Beckwith, a white segregationist, was charged with the murder. He was set free in 1964 after two trials resulted in hung juries but was convicted in a third trial held in 1994. Beckwith was given a life sentence, and in 2001 he died in prison. Source:http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/article-9033366
Du Bois, W.E.B.
W. E. B. Du Bois
died August 27, 1963, Accra, Ghana
in full William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
born February 23, 1868, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S.died August 27, 1963, Accra, Ghana
W.E.B. Du Bois, 1918.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
American sociologist, the most important black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and edited The Crisis, its magazine, from 1910 to 1934. Late in life he became identified with communist causes.
Early career
Du Bois graduated from Fisk University, a black institution at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1888. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895. His doctoral dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870, was published in 1896. Although Du Bois took an advanced degree in history, he was broadly trained in the social sciences; and, at a time when sociologists were theorizing about race relations, he was conducting empirical inquiries into the condition of blacks. For more than a decade he devoted himself to sociological investigations of blacks in America, producing 16 research monographs published between 1897 and 1914 at Atlanta (Georgia) University, where he was a professor, as well as The Philadelphia Negro; A Social Study (1899), the first case study of a black community in the United States.
Although Du Bois had originally believed that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem, he gradually came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism, expressed in such evils as lynching, peonage, disfranchisement, Jim Crow segregation laws, and race riots, social change could be accomplished only through agitation and protest. In this view, he clashed with the most influential black leader of the period, Booker T. Washington, who, preaching a philosophy of accommodation, urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and elevate themselves through hard work and economic gain, thus winning the respect of the whites. In 1903, in his famous book The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois charged that Washington's strategy, rather than freeing the black man from oppression, would serve only to perpetuate it. This attack crystallized the opposition to Booker T. Washington among many black intellectuals, polarizing the leaders of the black community into two wings—the “conservative” supporters of Washington and his “radical” critics.
Two years later, in 1905, Du Bois took the lead in founding the Niagara Movement, which was dedicated chiefly to attacking the platform of Booker T. Washington. The small organization, which met annually until 1909, was seriously weakened by internal squabbles and Washington's opposition. But it was significant as an ideological forerunner and direct inspiration for the interracial NAACP, founded in 1909. Du Bois played a prominent part in the creation of the NAACP and became the association's director of research and editor of its magazine, The Crisis. In this role he wielded an unequaled influence among middle-class blacks and progressive whites as the propagandist for the black protest from 1910 until 1934. (See also the Britannica Classic Negro literature.)
Both in the Niagara Movement and in the NAACP, Du Bois acted mainly as an integrationist, but his thinking always exhibited, to varying degrees, separatist-nationalist tendencies. In The Souls of Black Folk he had expressed the characteristic dualism of black Americans:
One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.…He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.
May 18, 2008
African dies in Belgian immigration officials’ brutal custody
Published Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Democratic Rights Law and Legal Cases Police and Prisons
Europe and Russian Federation
Demonstration in response to Ebenizer Sontsa's death By Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary-General of the African Socialist International
MERKSPLAS, Belgium — Prisoners sparked a rebellion inside the Merksplas detention center in Belgium on Thursday, May 1, 2008 after 32-year-old Ebenizer Folefack Sontsa was found dead inside the prison. The prisoners clearly understood that the death of the African from Cameroon was no suicide, despite prison official’s claims that he hung himself.
Instead his death was but one of several acts of colonial violence imposed on him. Ebenizer Sontsa was thrown into the prison by the Belgian colonialist government that maintains a policy of locking up Africans on the pretext of immigration offences while Belgium continues to live off of our riches.
Brother Sontsa could have been killed the previous Saturday when he was assaulted by the police while screaming for help on board a Brussels Airline flight headed to Cameroon. A courageous African named Serge Fosso stood up and questioned the police’s violent attack on the brother while recording with a video camera. According to Fosso, he had to act as he was reminded of an African woman suffocated to death with a pillow by two Belgian police on a SABENA flight in 1998.
As more passengers began to protest the attack, the police were forced to abandon their action and move Ebenizer Sontsa to the detention center where he was found dead. The brother who defended him was thrown out of the plane without reimbursement, detained for 11 hours and banned from ever flying on Brussels Airlines again.
Ebenizer Sontsa’s case is not an isolated event. According to the website www.dibussi.com, “On March 27, [2008], 136 Nigerian passengers were ordered off a British Airways flight to Lagos after they complained about the brutal treatment of a man who was being deported to Nigeria. One of the passengers, Ayodeji Omotade, whom police considered the ringleader of the protest movement, was arrested, abandoned at the airport and banned from flying on British Airways.”
We agree with Brother Ebenizer’s lawyer, Maitre Alexis Deswaef, who holds the Belgian government responsible for his client's death and reveals that police tortured his client during the first expulsion attempt. In fact, witnesses say he was beaten so bad he could barely walk.
Officials at the Merksplas detention center have even had to admit that when Ebenizer’s body had signs of trauma when he returned to the center on Saturday.
We call on the African world to build an international world tribunal in the hands of Africans workers ourselves so that we can put our oppressors on trial and deliver justice on our own terms.
The Belgian police are guilty of murder The Belgian government, led by Prime Minister Yves Leterme, is also guilty of murder.
The government of Paul Biya in Cameroon as well as other neocolonial governments throughout Africa are all guilty of crimes of oppressing and exploiting African people.
The African working class must have power in our own hands!
Uhuru!
Source:http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=african-dies-in-belgian-immigration-s-brutal-custody
May 16, 2008
The Balleot or The Bullet (revised) is Obama Black Power?
Invitation
The conditions in the African community in the United States are dire, much like the conditions Africans find ourselves in around the world. African communities in the U.S. have been devastated by the subprime mortgage crisis. While the U.S. government bails out bankers, brokers and lenders who created and profited from the predatory lending practice that targeted Africans for subprime and adjustable rate mortgages, hundreds of thousands of African families have lost our homes.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to imprison more and more Africans to feed its failing economy. The current situation where one out of every nine African men of childbearing age is in prison in the U.S. is but a continuation of the brutally vicious convict leasing system established immediately after the emancipation proclamation supposedly “freed” enslaved Africans, the establishment of slavery as a means of punishment in the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the development of designer laws to drag masses of African people to prisons to provide free labor.
The so-called education system violates our children on a daily basis. As if an anti-African curriculum were not enough, the schools brutalize our children. Small children, like five-year-old Ja’eshia Scott in St. Petersburg, Florida or six-year-old Desire’e Watson in Avon Park, Florida, are handcuffed and imprisoned by police for so-called “temper tantrums.” Sixteen-year-old Pleajhai Mervin had her arm broken in Palmdale, California by one of the many cops who function in schools as military forces just because the cop said she didn’t clean up a dropped cake to his liking. Then there is Shaquanda Cotton who was locked up and sentenced to seven years in prison in Texas for allegedly pushing a hall monitor.
Lynch mob fervor continues to rise, be it from mobs of white workers or mobs of State military agents in the form of the police. The Jena Six case is but one example. Another example can be found in the case of Sean Bell who New York police decided to massacre with 50 bullets just hours before his wedding. Then there is the case of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnson of Atlanta, Georgia, who was shot down like a dog by a unit of police who kicked down the door of her home. Cases like these of vicious attacks against the African community can be found throughout the U.S.
Then again, no one can forget the Katrina situation in the Gulf Region, where the U.S. government not only left Africans to die with no access to food or clean water, but contained the African community of New Orleans with armed police and sent in troops from private contracting firms like those found in Iraq to murder African people. Even now, the government-imposed Katrina crisis continues as a fierce gentrification process is making it impossible for African people to return to our homes.
Amid this sea of colonial misery stands Barack Obama. Charming and articulate, Obama beckons us to follow him.
Obama is being presented to African people in this time of extreme crisis — when Africans would be looking for solutions other than through the system that has created all of our problems — as the solution. We are told that he brings “change we can believe in.” Never mind that he is the U.S. presidential candidate who has received the most funds from Wall Street. Nevermind that his advisors include Penny Pritzker, who made riches through the subprime crisis that is making Africans homeless now, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who as former U.S. president James Earl Carter’s national security advisor created the modern jihad to destroy the Soviet Union.
But does Obama actually represent a solution to the conditions of African people? Up to now, Barack Obama has refused to speak to the conditions African people face. The one time he was forced to mention African people — following statements made by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright — he only glossed over them, equating the experience of African people, who exist as a domestic colony within U.S. borders, with that of working-class white people who feel “anger over welfare and affirmative action.”
So what solution would Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president mean for Africans suffering under unbearable conditions in what is being called a “post-racial” society?
Malcolm X raised the question of “the Ballot or the Bullet” back in the 1960s, another time when African masses were looking for our own solutions of Black Power independent of the Democratic and Republican parties. During that time, one response by white power, in addition to a massive military assault against the African community and our organizations, was to put forward as our representatives people who look like us but who actually served white power.
Come to African Liberation Day in Washington, D.C. on May 25, 2008 and participate in a symposium to discuss the question: “Is Barack Obama Black Power?”
Speakers participating include:
- Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP)
- Queen Mother Dorothy Benton Lewis, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA)*
- Chokwe Lumumba, Chair of the New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO)
- Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report
- Claudette Perry, Global Afrikan Congress (GAC)*
- Ajamu Sankofa, National Conference of Black Lawyers and N’COBRA*
- Dr. Aisha Fields, Director of the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP)
- Ivory Muhammad, President of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) source:http://www.alduhuru.org/index.html
May 15, 2008
Do You Get Harassed, Stopped, or Arrested By The Cops?
(MxGM) Every year thousands of people are improperly stopped, detained, arrested, brutalized and even murdered by the police. Young people of Afrikan descent are frequent targets of the cops. Although most cops don't respect them, you do have legal rights.
IF THE COPS STOP YOU...
- .Ask if you are free to go.
- Stay calm; don't physically resist or run - you might get shot!
- Try to remember the badge number, name, and physical description of the cop(s) who stopped you.
- Say as little as possible, and only answer their basic questions (name and address).Talking to police will NEVER help you.
.They can only LEGALLY search you if they think you are armed and dangerous.
IF THE COPS SEARCH YOU...
- They can only LEGALLY search you for weapons, NOT for drugs.
-.Say loudly "I DO NOT CONSENT to this search" so that others around can hear you.
- Cops may search you illegally, but your lawyer might be able to get the evidence thrown out in court if the search was illegal.
IF THE COPS ARREST YOU...
- Don't say ANYTHING - Just ask for a lawyer! Don't talk to the police, speak on videotape, talk to a District Attorney, or other inmates about anything that has to do with the crime you may have been arrested for.
- You will be handcuffed, searched, photographed, and fingerprinted.
- Do not sign anything!! Cops are trained to trick you.
IF THE COPS INTERROGATE YOU...
- Cops have to read you your rights before they interrogate you.
- You should ask to speak to a lawyer - it will never help you to talk to the cops.
- If you decide to talk to the cops anyway, you can decide to stop talking at ANY time and ask for a lawyer - the cops then MUST stop interrogating you.
IF YOU ARE IN A CAR...
- If cops legally stop you and see something illegal in "plain view", they can search your car without warrant.
- If cops legally stop you, they can can frisk the driver and serarch the passenger compartment - they CANNOT search your trunk. Even if they arrest you - they CANNOT search your trunk on the scene.
- BUT if cops have probably cause that something in your trunk contains illegal contraband OR the car is impounded, cops can search the ENTIRE car (including the trunk).
- Never consent yo a search of your car - even if you have nothing illegal.
IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 16...
- Cops have to make a "reasonable effort" to reach your parent/guardian before they can start interrogating you. Your parent/guardian is allowed to sit in the room with you while you're being interrogated.
- Remember that even if your parent/guardian is there, you should still ALWAYS ask to speak to a lawyer before answering questions.
- Cops can stop you if you are hanging out during school time or if they suspect you are a runaway.
Need info on a friend/relative who's been arrested? Call Central Booking in that borough:
Bronx: 718/590-2817
Brooklyn: 718/935-9210
Manhattan: 212/374-5818
Queens: 718/520-9311
Staten Island: 718/876-8493
If you need legal representation or advice on a police abuse or brutality case please call one of the following organizations:
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
718-254-8800
Neighborhood Defenders Service of Harlem (Harlem Residents Only)
212-876-550
National Lawyers Guild
212-679-5100
New York Civil Liberties Union
212-607-3300
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
212-614-6464
NYPD Report 2006-2007
Total Number in New York City Population:
White: 3.6 million
Black: 2.2 million
Total Police Stops:
White: 94,530
Black: 453,042
Number of Stops That Did Not Result In An Arrest Or Summons
White: 83,452
Black: 402,943
Stops As Percentage of Population:
White: 2.6%
Black: 21.1%
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is an organization of Afrikans in America / New Afrikans whose mission is to defend the human rights of our people and promote self-determination in our community. In order to survive as a people, it is necessary that we not only UNDERSTAND OUR RIGHTS but also DEFEND THEM.
MXGM's People's Self-Defense Campaign (PSDC) observes, documents, and prevents incidents of police misconduct and brutality through educating and organizing our community and supporting survivors/victims of this misconduct.
The Goals of PSDC:
1 - Immediately convict all police officers guilty of misconduct in our community.
2 - Fire Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and make the role of Police Commissioner an elected position.
3 - Community Control: we determine how our community is policed.
4 - Independent investigations of ALL Police killings.
5 - End to militarized anti-crime programs such as Operation Impact.
This program is not intended to engage police in conflict. It is geared to see that we are protected from widespread abuses that have become commonplace and have largely gone without punishment.
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM)
P.O. Box 471711
Brooklyn, New York 11247
www.mxgm.org
(718) 254-8800
"If we're going to talk about police brutality, it's because police brutality exists. Why does police brutality exist? Because our people in this particular society live in a police state"
- Malcolm X
May 14, 2008
Kevin Epps, hip hop filmmaker, wins Silver Telly Award
May, 2008 – San Francisco, CA - Mastamind Productions LLC. announces that Hip hop filmmaker Kevin Epps' production on Current TV, "Popped in Oakland" has won a Silver Telly Award. "Popped in Oakland" shows the victims of street violence side of the story that's mostly discarded by the nightly news, says Current TV's Roberto C. Grijalva, also co-producer of "Popped in Oakland", 'Epps has done a great job making sure these stories are not ignored. "Popped in Oakland" won the Silver Telly Award in the Cultural category.
Information about the production
"Popped in Oakland" takes a deep look at gun-related violence and the affects it has on young black men. Here the testimony of those who've survived shootings and get a deeper look into what one doctor is calling "an epidemic of violent crime in the African-American community."
About Current TV Current TV is an Emmy award winning independent media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. Current features "pods", or short programs, of which a portion are created by viewers and users. Current TV is the first 24-hour network based around viewer-created content, which it dubs VC2. Users (called VC2 Producers) contribute three-to-seven- minute "pods", which are on a variety of subject matter. The content is filtered by registered users on Current's website through a voting process, but pods are ultimately approved or disapproved by Current's on-air programming department. VC2 makes up a portion of the material aired on the channel. Users can also create Viewer Created Ad Messages, or V-CAMs and Current TV promos which are small promotions for either Current TV or the general topic of VC2. The channel has exclusive broadcast rights in all medium for perpetuity on viewer-submitted pods, and in some cases outright ownership of the pod and its raw footage, although this is negotiated on a pod by pod basis.
About Telly Awards The Telly Awards recognizes distinction in creative work," honoring outstanding local and regional television commercials and productions, as well as non-broadcast video productions. The Telly Awards were founded in 1978 by David E. Carter, a past Emmy and Clio Award winner who has written several books on corporate branding and design. In recent years, the Telly Award has become a highly sought award and is recognized as a true accomplishment in the field of Commercials and Television Programs. www.tellyawards.com
About Kevin Epps Kevin Epps (2002) hardcore hip-hop documentary "Straight Outta Hunter's Point" won local and national acclaim, launched Epps into the spotlight, and pioneered a new genre, shot all digital it established him as a leader in digital, independent film and new media. Epps other work, Rap Dreams (2006) about the struggles of upcoming rappers receive recognition as well. Kevin is in the process of completing a new documentary feature, The Black Rock: The Untold story of the African-American experience at Alcatraz. His other most recent work ranging from gun violence to black fatherhood can be seen airing nationwide on Current TV, a network founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Epps sits on the board (DMAC), Digital Media Advisory Council, and is an advisory Board member, of the San Francisco Black Film Festival.
Press:
Kevin Epps
kevepps@gmail.com
TWISTA RELEASES FIRST GROUP FROM HIS LATEST KOCH RECORDS VENTURE OF GET MONEY GANG (GMG)
SPEEDKNOT MOBSTAZ
MOBSTABILITY II: NATION BIZNESS
IN STORES MAY 27, 2008
New Video "Money To Blow" Playing on MTV Jams Now!
Chicago, IL (May 12, 2008) Multi-platinum rapper, Twista launches his Get Money Gang (GMG) Imprint via Koch Records, with yet another anticipated Speedknot Mobstaz album entitled MOBSTABILITY II: Nation Bizness, set to release Tuesday, May 27, 2008. With new single "Money To Blow" both radio and MTV Jams are strongly supporting group members Liffy Stokes, Mayz and Skooda. "No lie, this album is on some real street shit, none of that Ringtone shit. This music we're putting out is for the everyday Hustla on the grind. Its been a long time coming for me and the crew, now that everything is in place we can finally give the fans what they want," says Speedknot Mobstaz member Liffy Stokes.
Surrounding all of the hype in regards to the release of the new album, the Speedknot Mobstaz recently accepted the offer to perform on the Rock The Vote Tour scheduled to hit over 20 cities throughout the United States . In addition to that, the Speedknot Mobstaz will introduce their video "Money To Blow" on BET's Rap City next week. In 1998, the Mobstaz released their first album entitled MOBSTABILITY: Nation Bizness which ultimately certified them RIAA gold status with over 700,000 in sales. Strategically, prepped with a half a million copies sold from three compilations, the group feels they are ready and set to really jumpstart their career and never look back.
Rolling out the red carpet for the team he believes in, Twista is on a mission to expand his music and entrepreneurial vision with Get Money Gang. The Speedknot Mobstaz are just one of the many artists that will be unveiled from the GMG imprint through other label deals. "Expect to hear real music coming from the heart of the Chi. I am dedicated to making this GMG label a movement first in Chicago , then nationwide. If you got real talent and about getting money, then you got a spot at my label," says Twista. The release of this album promises to set summer radio on fire!
View "Money To Blow" Video Here:
Hi-Bandwidth: http://kochent.edgeboss.net/wmedia/kochent/twista/money2blow512k_stream.wvx
Brandon Moore
Echoing Soundz
Lifestyle Marketing | Public Relations | Event Production
www.echoingsoundz.com
www.myspace.com/buziness
818.787.7633 Office
818.787.8748 Fax
310.259.5973 Cell
thebiz@echoingsoundz.com
ILL BILL, KILLAH PRIEST, DEFARI (DILATED PEOPLES), APATHY, OUTERSPACE, RA THE RUGGED MAN, SMIF-N-WESSUN, C-RAYZ WALZ & MORE JOIN WITH GERMAN PRODUCTION TEAM SNOWGOONS FOR THEIR SOPHOMORE SET "BLACK SNOW"
May 12th, 2008 Album hits streets June 24th on renowned indie Babygrande Records; first video premiered featuring Reef The Lost Cauze
Amidst critical fanfare and a rapidly expanding US profile, The Snowgoons, the renowned German production team of Det, DJ Illegal, Torben & DJ Waxwork, prepare their sophomore offering, "Black Snow," featuring a veritable who's who of the independent hip-hop scene.
Building off of the critical and commercial acclaim of their debut release, 2007's "German Lugers," The Snowgoons once again enlist the upper echelon of independent talent for "Black Snow," including Defari (Dilated Peoples), Killah Priest, Smif-N-Wessun, ILL Bill (Non Phixion & La Coka Nostra), Outerspace, C-Rayz Walz, R.A. The Rugged Man, Apathy, Edo G., Sabac Red (Non-Phixion), Doap Nixon, Reef The Lost Cauze, Sick Jacken, Rasul Allah (Lost Children of Babylon), Scheme (The Molemen), Main Flow, El Da Sensei, Block McCloud, Pace Won, Slaine & many more. With a line-up of features that rivals (and outshines) most independent labels' rosters, The Snowgoons once again storm the US shores with their distinctive blend of beats paired with the cream of the independent emcee crop.
In connection with the announcement of the release, The 'Goons unveil the first of multiple videos showcasing the gritty underground stylings that will define their sophomore entry "Black Snow:"
"This Is Where The Fun Stops" featuring Philly's own Reef The Lost Cauze.
Check for more videos in the ensuing weeks featuring guest emcees from the album...
WATCH "THIS IS WHERE THE FUN STOPS" FEATURING REEF THE LOST CAUZE:
www.hiphopcrack.com/viewVideo.hhc?videoId=1050
CHECK OUT THE WIDGET FOR MORE INFO AND TRACKS!!!
www.crackspace.com/snowgoons
SNOWGOONS
"BLACK SNOW"
IN STORES JUNE 24th!!!
www.crackspace.com/snowgoons
www.snowgoons.de
www.babygrande.com
Hidden in Plain Sight -Positive Messages in Mainstream Rap Songs
Hidden in Plain Sight -Positive Messages in Mainstream Rap Songs courtesy of Rap & Rock confidential
rockrap@aol. com
"Hip-hop needs to find the next subject. Politics and social stuff—those are going to be the next real subjects groups get into.
"
—George Clinton-
, Detroit Free Press, summer 2007
Too many in the hip hop audience accept the big lie promoted by opportunist preachers and politicians that hip-hop is only about madness and misogyny. The truth is very different. There are many, many hip-hop songs reaching millions of people which carry a message of unity, songs whose protests and promise promote a vision of a world without war, poverty, and racism. The truth here should set us free, free of false divisions between mainstream and underground, between bling bling and backpack.
Let us know what we've missed.
"All of Me," 50 Cent featuring Mary J.
Blige—Two heavyweights talk about politics at square one, between a man and a woman in a relationship. Fifteen rounds of intense negotiation lead to the kind of "win win" outcome music manages best.
"Bendicion Mami," Fat Joe—A tribute to his mother and, just like Tupac, it resonates beyond the individual situation because our mothers are held up as subhuman by the media and by the masters of puppets in the White House. Here it's also about unconditional love for one's family and support in the face of physical illness and the sickness of the system.
"Black and Brown," Xzibit—"80% of inmates are black and Hispanic/They're trying to wipe us off of this planet/Dammit….That's why we've got to sit down/And talk about the black and the brown." A love song to brothers thrown against brothers in Los Angeles, nationwide and worldwide, with a dream of what could happen if we learned to focus on our real enemy.
"Buck the World," Young Buck—"My rent due/Baby need food and shoes/I'm flat broke/Still I refuse to lose." A song about reaching the breaking point and choosing life anyway, changing a "Fuck the World" goodbye to a "Buck the World" throwdown.
"Cold World," Xzibit—A rap that follows the money at the root of a young woman savaged by a dehumanizing job then by unemployment, of a kid locked into a losing street hustle and of an Iraqi family facing guns and bombs.
"Concrete Jungle," Jim Jones, featuring Max B, Rell, Dr.
Ben Chavis and Noe—There's power to Jones's shout out to his "political soldiers" behind bars—without romanticizing the streets, he's dreaming of the world that can come out of making the culture of those streets work for us.
"Do Your Time," Ludacris with Beanie Siegel and C-Murder—A roll call of friends and loved ones locked down by a justice system "fucked up," bolstered by details of life behind bars, suggestions for how to support these brothers and sisters and contemplating what MLK would think of how far we have to go.
"Dreams," The Game—King's dreams again, asking us to contemplate what they have in common with those of Huey Newton, Easy E, Marshall Mathers, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Jackson, Aaliyah and Left Eye Lopez.
"Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It," Ice Cube—Lays waste to the logic that blames rap for everything from selling crack to college shootings, in fact arguing that gangsta's the loudest voice against everyday violence. And the reason, Cube explains, "Lyrically I'm so lethal…Just to feed all my people.
"
"Georgia Bush," Lil' Wayne—Sums up the first year after Katrina, calling the President out for ongoing genocide. A sample of Ray Charles's "Georgia" not only emasculates the president but restores the power of that refrain free of nostalgia.
"Get Ya Hustle On," Juvenile—Life after Katrina's a lot like life before Katrina, "your mayor ain't your friend/he's the enemy," your friends are behind bars, and there's no government for the people just a hustle to stay alive. But this song's not about defeat—"It's crunch time," Juvenile declares, "It's the movement.
"
"Ghetto, Arab Remix," Ali B featuring Yes-R & Akon—This call for worldwide unity features Morrocan rappers Ali-B and Yes-R joined by R&B singer Akon, who has his own roots both in St. Louis and West Africa.
"Hangin' On (My Song)," Chingo Bling—Biggie rapped about contemplating suicide, here it's the terrorism of the immigration police that puts a man in that mind state.
"Hard Out Here for a Pimp," Three 6 Mafia—Oscar or not, this song stands strong on its own, deromanticizing the hustle of "seeing people killed and seeing people deal and seeing people live in poverty with no meal.
"
"Hate It or Love It," The Game and 50 Cent—"The underdog's on top, and I'm going to shine, homie, until my heart stop." Summons Rakim and Marvin Gaye to remind listeners that playa hatin' avoids the hard work of dealing with the power structure.
"Hip Hop Police," Chamillionaire featuring Slick Rick—Cites Snoop Dogg's "Murder Was the Case" to suggest hip hoppers not let themselves be turned against each other but, instead, stay focused on the real sources of injustice.
"Hope," Twista and Faith Evans—Twista wishes, "I could go deep in a zone/And lift the spirits of the world with the words within this song." He does just that and so much more, calling for his brother to get out of jail, his grandmother to get well, an end to drug dealing, war and poverty. Faith's refrains make it easy to "take this music and use it, let it take you away.
"
"Imagine," Snoop Dogg, Dr.
Dre and D'Angelo—In this world without hip hop, there's all the same poverty, sickness, madness and death except no music to bring people together to fight.
"Let's Get This Paper," Rich Boy—May be the angriest, hardest-hitting political statement anyone's made about the war against the poor, here at home and over in Iraq.
"Lighter's Up," Lil Kim—In English and in Spanish, Brooklyn's self-proclaimed queen of rap serves up this reggaeton-flavored rap for unity, "no matter where you from.
"
"Live Again," Yin Yang Twins—Dirty South bad boys contemplate the quiet agonies of women forced out of their homes and into the streets, taking off their clothes to feed their kids and hoping for a second chance at life. D-Roc bemoans the fact that the schools don't prepare these women for the world they face, and the preachers don't give them refuge, so their hopes and dreams only find voice in rap.
"Make Me Better," Fabolous and Ne-Yo—A Brooklyn rapper joins forces with a sweet voiced refrain to show just how much we need one another.
"Memphis," Eightball & MJG—A rally cry for unity among all the hoods of the Mid-South, calling upon the region's rich musical history and pointing toward a future where all the ghettos nationwide come together.
"My Hood," Young Jeezy—"Everytime I do it, I do it for my hood/And everytime I do it, I do it for your hood/and everytime I do it, I do it for they hood/It's understood….
"100 Years," Plies—Story after story indicting a justice system out to put every young man in the hood behind bars, asking such pointed questions as "how in the fuck can four birds get you a life sentence, but give a cracker seven years for money launderin' millions?"
"Over and Over," Nelly—Even without the video of a day in the parallel lives of Tim McGraw and Nelly, these blues suggest the strong ties that bind Nelly being "country" to country music.
"Pal Norte," Calle 13—This rap about the political vision of an immigrant to El Norte ran in heavy MTV rotation after its album knocked Jennifer Lopez off the top of the Latin pop charts in 2007.
"Ridin'," Chamillionaire—A tribute to the Undeground Kings's "Ridin' Dirty," this huge hit is the catchiest, boldest protest of racial profiling yet.
"Runaway Love," Ludacris with Mary J.
Blige—Just what it sounds like, a love song to children fleeing violence and a dream of a future those kids can live for.
"Slap," Ludacris—A working man's blues that runs through the details of a hard scrabble life, growls at the wealthy, tells the President to just shut up, and then stops and contemplates the abyss. "Troops gone and we still at war/Nobody even knows what for/Even more I'm scared to find what the world really has in store.
"
"Slippin'," Lil' Kim featuring Denaun Porter—"Fuck the law, the whole system's corrupt," Kim declares as she describes just what's universal about the dog-eat-dog situation that landed her in jail.
"Speaker," David Banner featuring Akon, Lil Wayne & Snoop Dogg—West Coast and Southern unity "busting out of your speakers," relishing a sense of power and self control that comes with others at your side.
"Stand Up," Eightball & MJG—A call to the South, East, West and Worldwide for rappers to talk straight, stay true, stand up for each other, go the distance and forget those who've got nothing better than do than hate on other artists.
"Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)," Wyclef Jean with Lil' Wayne and Akon—A redemption song for a high school sweetheart all but lost to that same mess that threatens to take us all down.
"The Message," Styles P—To each member of his family, to his hood, to his crew, to the poor, to the jail, to the kids, to the ladies, to the rich, to the world, the messages P leaves vary in specifics, but they're tied together by "one is all and all is one/I'm going to see us all rich before all is done.
"
"The Morning News," Chamillionaire—After the enormous success of his debut album, this Houston rapper opened his second album with this attack on the emptiness of television news, where Rosie debates the Donald and the latest gaffes by Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson are worth more time than the reality that your tax dollars just "pay for classes," CEO's are "slavemasters….and if you ain't upper class/then your opinion is irrelevant.
"
"The Way I Live," Baby Boy Da Prince—An appreciation of life in Marrero, one of the neighborhoods spared by Katrina's floodwaters but not New Orleans' neglect and devastation before or after.
"We Takin' Over," DJ Khaled (with Rick Ross, T.I.
, Lil' Wayne, Fat Joe and Akon)—Exactly what it sounds like, blasting off with tympani and some kind of outer space choral/keyboard part that says, think big and then think bigger. Arab-American, West African, Latino and African-American voices plan a takeover, "one city at a time….with enough work to feed the whole town." A manic Lil' Wayne vocal promises that those who polite society most fear will soon be heard.
"What's Going On," Remy Ma with Keisha Cole—A heartbroken prayer to an aborted child from a young mother, without money or even support from her family or the father of her child, waiting for an answer.
"Why We Thugs," Ice Cube—The original gangsta still standing spells out the tough questions gangsta's critics either don't think hard enough to ask or willfully dismiss.
"Call me an animal up in the system/But who's the animal that built this prison?/Who's the animal that invented lower living?
*****
"The turn to death themes in the spirituals was partly due to the execution of Nat Turner in 1831. Soon after, many songs included references to the coming 'Judgment Day' for the plantation regime and, later, for the Confederacy—'Can't stand the fire.' Turner's rebellion also sparked a movement that spread white Christian missionaries across the South in order to establish churches for African-Americans that used only approved songs. The battle over lyrics and music censorship, sacred and secular, has been fully engaged ever since. The day-to-day life of the plantation bloc was built around perpetual monitoring of the behavior of blacks and whites.
"— Clyde Powers, from Development Arrested: Race, Power, and the Blues in the Mississippi Delta
5:08 PM
May 13, 2008
Jamaican Author Tells Immigrant’s Story
Jamaican Author Tells Immigrant’s Story Written by GeorgeGraham on May 6th, 2008
Popular author George Graham, whose book, “Hill-an’-Gully Rider,” sparked widespread comment in the Caribbean, explores the life of a Jamaican immigrant in his new novel, “The Color of Ice: A Canadian Serenade.”
Born in Black River, Jamaica, Graham immigrated to Canada during the late 1950s and lived there for about 20 years, with two breaks to return to live and work in Jamaica. During one break he was Public Relations Director for the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation, and during the other he was one of the founding editors of The Jamaica Daily News.
His Daily News columns created intense controversy, and when he declared he was “voting with his feet” to return to Canada in 1973, he was subjected to a torrent of abuse and even received threats on his life.
The episode that sparked his decision to leave Jamaica had nothing to do with his columns, however. It was sparked by a car-jacking during which an escaped prisoner held a pistol to his head for nearly half an hour before dumping him in the street and taking off.
The gunman was killed a few days later in a shoot-out with police, and the car was found wrecked and abandoned on a country road. The trunk was full of ganja (which, Graham hastened to make clear, was placed in the trunk by the car jacker).
“I didn’t think I was a coward,” Graham recalls. “But when I heard the click of the gun’s safety catch that night, every hair stood up straight on the back of my neck.”
In “Hill-an’-Gully Rider,” Graham attempted to reconstruct a Jamaica that might have been if the policies he deplored had been rejected by the island’s leaders.
In “The Color of Ice: A Canadian Serenade,” Graham sings a gentler tune. He tells the heartwarming and often-amusing story of a Jamaican country boy who immigrates to Toronto in the early 1960s and finds himself in a strange and hostile environment.
Alone and half-frozen, he longs for the sunshine and sensuality of his homeland.
The civil rights movement is at its height and the Vietnam War is raging. Catastrophic events in the United States have a profound effect on his perceptions – and on his life.
Early encounters with bigoted Canadians make him acutely self-conscious of his swarthy skin and Caribbean accent. And when he falls in love with a white Canadian girl, his mind is filled with self-doubt and mistrust.
But his talent for music and help from newfound friends open doors he never knew existed, and shape a destiny beyond his wildest imaginings.
“The Color of Ice: A Canadian Serenade” is available on the web at :http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/index.htm
“Hill-an’-Gully Rider” is available at http://stores.lulu.com/georgeg
April 20, 2008
The Battle to keep ancient Egypt Black. By Fred Muhammad
PHILADELPHIA - National Geographic magazine insulted the historical and cultural legacy of Blacks during Black History Month by distorting history and blatantly insinuating that ancient Egyptians were anything but Black, said a critic. In an exclusive interview with The Final Call, Temple University scholar Dr. Molefi Kete Asante decried the article’s entire framework, beginning with its title “The Black Pharaohs-Conquerors of Ancient Egypt.” “If you assume that this article is about the Black pharaohs then the question that is begged is that, who were the other pharaohs?” Dr. Asante asserted. According to the author of “The History of Africa,” a comprehensive history of the continent, National Geographic writer Robert Draper erroneously suggests the pharaohs were not Black and it didn’t matter since “the ancient world was devoid of racism. At the time of Piye’s (the Nubian monarch who reunified Ancient Egypt) historic conquest of Egypt, the fact that his skin was dark was irrelevant,” he argued. Mr. Draper jabbed at Black scholarship stating, “Revisiting that golden age in the African desert does little to advance the case of Afrocentric Egyptologists, who argue that all Ancient Egyptians . . . were Black Africans.”
Mr. Draper added, “Tut’s own grandmother, the 18th dynasty Queen Tiye, is claimed by some to be of Nubian heritage.” He points to a bust of Queen Tiye and asks, “Did the powerful Queen Tiye, King Tut’s grandmother, have Nubian ancestry? This bust, made of wood that has darkened with age, has inspired claims that she did.” Dr. Asante scoffed at that notion. “Look at the lips! These days what we have to do is assume that these people will never accept it. They will never accept the truth ... that nothing like this was in Europe. Greece and Rome combined do not make Egypt.” Referring to Septimus Severus, a Black Emperor of Rome, Mr. Asante said, it would have been better to write an article called “The Black Emperors of Rome.” “That would of made sense since most of them are White. But to say ‘The Black Pharaohs of Egypt’ where most of them were Black, that doesn’t make sense,” he said. “I disagree with the article’s intent because the intent is to throw African people a bone. This article came as the result of the tremendous attempt on the part of Europeans to claim Egypt as not African. That was the attempt of the King Tutankhamen’s exhibit when it was first presented. So this is a long struggle.” National Geographic has a history, going back at least to the 1940s, of portraying the ancient Egyptians as anything other than Black. The June 2005 edition featured a Caucasian-looking King Tut on the cover. The same image was used on a King Tut exhibit that recently toured the country and featured on the cover of the February 2008 edition. Seemingly anticipating some backlash, the online edition of National Geographic provides a video of Dr. Zawi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council for Egyptian Antiquities, who said the race and the origin of the ancient Egyptians are difficult to ascertain. He attempted to explain away the Black statues. “If you look at the statues that were colored black, it doesn’t mean anything. Sometimes black can show the fertility of the land,” said Dr. Hawas. Another video provided is of Shomarka Omar Keita, a Black geneticist who postulates that modern Egyptians look similar to ancient Egyptians, i.e., light skinned Arabs or non-Black. “The idea that the Ancient Egyptians are like the current Egyptians is so far off that it is laughable. General Amr ibn al As was invited by the Black people of Egypt of the 7th century to come over to help throw out the Romans, when this was so he remained. This was the beginning of the large Arab presence in Egypt, 639 (B.C.) was the major movement of Arabs to Egypt. They found the Black people already there. “The presence of Arabs today in Egypt should not be read as an ancient presence just as a White presence in Australia should not be read as an ancient presence. The same for America. We have to take back the writing of our own history for it is absolutely essential,” Dr. Asante said. He pointed to ancient firsthand testimony from the 5th century Greek historian Herodotus who referred to the ancient Egyptians as “melanchroes” (Black-skinned). Dr. Asante argued if the ancient Egyptians were White, Herodotus would have used the term “leucochroes” and if brown or red skinned “phrenychroes” would have been used. Professor Asante debunks the notion that ancient Egyptians did not refer to themselves as Black as European Egyptologists suggest. The meaning of Egypt or Kemet is “Black nation,” “Black country,” “the Black City,” “Black land,” or “Land of the Black People,” Dr. Asante Source: http://www.playahata.com/hataforum/viewtopic.php?t=11543
The Daily Telegraph talks about an "English Story" Reggae compilation on Soul Jazz Records that attempts to document dancehall's lasting influence on popular British music.
An England Story: how Jamaica changed the voice of teenage Britain
In the US, Jamaican-style MCs created hip hop. In the UK, says Peter Lyle, their influence has been subtler but just as strong Listen to Tippa Irie's hit 'Complain Neighbour' It is one of the mysteries of modern life. 'Maddest comedian is Kenny Everett': Papa Levi, who took British MCing to number one in Jamaica How on earth did a peculiar kind of mockney patois become the default spoken English of a generation of British kids - white, black, Asian; rural, urban; posh, poor (and Ali G)? A new CD offers one solution. An England Story, a musical anthology that charts the impact of Jamaican reggae on British pop culture, is a fascinating survey of the musical scene in which that patois first took hold on these shores.Jamaican MCing - also known as toasting, chatting, and, confusingly, deejaying - has been around since the late Sixties. As Jamaica's DJs invested in ever grander and louder equipment, the sound systems sought to outdo each other with both raw power and exclusive material. This led not only to the invention of the modern remix, but also the rise of the live MC, whose job was to enliven the crowd and insult rivals.Jamaican expats in New York took these elements and turned them into something new: hip-hop. In Britain, though, their localisation was slower, more subtle, and truer to their roots.An England Story started life as a mix by the DJ duo the Heatwave (Gabriel Myddelton and Gervase de Wilde) who wanted to make an aural history of the British reggae MC. Over the 25 years that the compilation covers, the consistent thread, Myddelton says, is "a feeling that you're the underdog and up against it. It is to some extent anti-authority, kicking out at being poor and living in some s*** place." From Tippa Irie's Complain Neighbour ("Turn that noise down!") to Things Change, a new track by Warrior Queen ("London no bed o' rose…me have to wipe me runny nose"), the lyrics contain a lingering resentment of the law, the lifestyle and the weather that greeted Jamaican immigrants to this country. Crucially, there is always humour, too - this was Saturday night music; even when they wanted to moan, MCs had to make their listeners want to party. British dialects, particularly cockney, are a frequent source of comedy in the music, as are the delights of belonging to two cultures. "Sweetest singer is Sugar Minott/Maddest comedian is Kenny Everett," rhymes Papa Levi on My God My King, the 1984 single that put British MCs on the map. With its new, super-speedy style of MCing, it topped the British reggae charts, became the first Jamaican number one by a British MC, and had an audible influence on Jamaican stars. Soon after, Irie made the top 10, and fellow funnyman Smiley Culture won a cameo in Absolute Beginners.That was probably the scene's pop peak. Soon, American rap would muscle in and present music-making Britons of Caribbean descent with an alternative, angrier sound to aspire to, and a harder one to make their own. Rodney P - an MC who toured with Big Audio Dynamite when he was 15, and has since worked with Roots Manuva and Björk - found a way. In 1988, his London Posse released Money Mad, a record that crudely but brilliantly spliced rap, reggae and local observation into a gleefully noisy new sound that finally gave British rap an identity of its own. "We had been to New York by then," he recalls. "In New York, I became very nationalistic: I'm English, I'm not American. I was speaking more cockney." It's remarkably similar to the way Damon Albarn was later to define Blur's invention of Britpop as a response to US grunge. Britpop is long gone, but the comic, kitchen-sink vernacular of British MCs still has echoes in the storytelling style of Lily Allen and Mike Skinner. "You kind of forget, in England, that though reggae isn't really mainstream, it is all around," says Myddelton. "The places where reggae was really important - Southampton, Birmingham, London - are the places where things like garage and dubstep took off later." It's no coincidence: grime, jungle, and other dance scenes also owe the bulk of their DNA to the conventions of the reggae sound system. An England Story is available now from www.souljazz.co.uk
BET/MTV STUDY: the galring truth on Bet & MTV daytime Programming.
BET/MTV STUDY:The glaring truth on BET and MTV daytime programming is transparent.The limited selection of misogynistic, sex and violence themes label them as corporate predators. Almost half the audience are under age… Leaving your child watching BET is like trusting a klansmen to teach black
history.The facts speak for themselves!-Paul Porter http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/RapStudy/STUDYBET-MTV080410.pdf
BOlivia Alternitative For teh Americas (ALBA) - Key to Caribbean Self- Determination, By SC Admin
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) - a Viable Replacement to Globalization
Raleigh, NC – April 29th, 2007 – In his intellectual and timely re-examination of the scholarly works of two well-known Afro-Caribbeans in his dynamic book “In-Dependence from Bondage: Claude McKay and Michael Manley: Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations”(ISBN 978-1592214655, Africa World Press, 2007), author and former Jamaican public servant, Lloyd D. McCarthy makes the case that the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) was a vision of these two men and, if successful, could well be the kind of initiative that shows the masses of the South, the African Diaspora and the world’s poor how to cooperate to achieve self-determination and deeper democracy.According to McCarthy, globalization - the spread of American Capitalism—is being discredited around the world as ordinary working people and those representing them become aware, that although the “Cold War” has ended, the return of militarism is being used to advance the interest of big corporations and global elites, while human development and wealth distribution is more acutely skewed now than ever.
“In-Dependence” From Bondage pairs novelist/poet, Claude McKay (1890 - 1948), whose innovative works ignited the Harlem Literary Renaissance, and Michael N. Manley (1924 – 1997), the Jamaican politician whose ideas, and revolutionary political activites lifted the political awareness of the people of the Caribbean, as well as internationally in the form global relations.
McCarthy illustrates that both men were committed Internationalists who advocated greater economic, cultural and political cooperation among peoples and nations worldwide—for everyone’s benefit; not just for the profit of a few multinational corporations.
“McKay and Manley, through their art and politics demonstrated a firm belief in the inter-connections of the world, as well as preserving equality and justice for all people irrespective of race, color, or class,” says McCarthy. “They viewed international politics from a historical perspective; they shared a common vision of ordinary people asserting their democratic rights for liberty and equality; and they both expressed deep concerns with how power was distributed in society and between societies."
As such, McCarthy surmises that both Claude McKay and Michael Manley would have supported the political and economic initiative called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) with its plans for education scholarships for Latin America and the Caribbean, a Social Emergency Fund, Development Bank for the South, a Regional Petroleum Company and shipping, airlines and telecommunications plans. The ALBA is being led by Venezuela with first members being Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua. Through “In-Dependence” From Bondage”, McCarthy examines the impact of globalization (capitalism) on human development in the African Diaspora, as led by corporations, imperialism and the global elites. He differentiates the dominating political ideology of the developed nations of the North, with the oppressed and developing nations of the South, and the policy gaps that continue to undermine the struggle for self-determination of people in the African Diaspora.McCarthy successfully illustrates the historic crossroads of social change facing the entire global community and the corrective tactics currently being considered. He provides deep explorations into the writing of McKay and Manley and their well-documented common awareness despite differing historic periods, professional backgrounds and intellectual traditions. McKay and Manley’s strident call for an adherence to the continued struggle for self-determination echoes through the pages of “In- Dependence” from Bondage.” McCarthy has produced a significant contribution to broad studies