The Ancient Griot

Is America Obsessed With “Putting Blacks in Their Place”?

2012-01-27T03:15:00.017-05:00

Arizona governor Jan Brewer yesterday crashed the President of the United States’ scheduled stop-over in Phoenix and “put him in his place” by berating him publicly with insults and rude gestures for the consumption of a pack of salivating press hounds. The images arising out of the encounter have met with much-expected approval and jubilation from the fringe American Right and a majority of “ordinary” folks, judging from the reaction on the streets.

Earlier this month at the GOP primary debate in Iowa, Republican Party presidential candidate Newt Gingrich offhandedly dismissed the characterization of the moderator (and Fox commentator) Juan Williams that his racially charged pronouncements and coded rhetoric including a reference to Obama as “the food stamp president” was “belittling”. With his ignorant arrogance, he “put him in his place”, as his supporters hooted and cheered.

Yesterday, the state of Georgia’s Secretary of State Brian Kemp presided over a circus of court proceedings to challenge the eligibility of Obama on the ballot for the November elections. You catch my drift: the general idea is to “put him in his place”, whatever the phrase means in this
context.

These are just three randomly picked instances of gross coarseness meted out daily by white Right-wing persons toward a Black man in the highest office in this land just so they may “put him in his place”. This happens daily. From Donald Trump to Sarah Palin via Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor and a host of equally rabid misguided “patriots” along the way.

And yet, Americans would want the nation, and the world to believe that this is a society at the dawn of post-racial maneuvers. Where are the voices of the post-racial proponents? Every day in America, some high profile eejit like South Carolina’s Joe Wilson, Santorum or Bachmann, whether running for office or not, will drop dog whistles to incite their packs towards racial distrust just because they have this deep-seated compulsion to, you guessed right, “put Obama in his place”. All this time, mainstream America somnambulates through an alternative reality of cable news, consumerism and an insultingly disturbing pretense that silence and complicity are all about objectivity, in deference to the second amendment.

According to Indiana’s former Congressman Lee Hamilton, the recent racially motivated attacks on the presidential office yield both financial and moral support from the wider population. “When you do show disrespect, when you yell out at the State of the Union or you shake your finger at the president, you get a lot of support. You raise a lot of money and get a lot of plaudits and emails for standing up.”

So my question is: who are these people who have been financing this unruly culture these past three years? What do they hope to achieve when they “put Black people in their place”? Where are the so-called conscious White circles of influence and opinion leaders and why are they not holding these wolves accountable for their deeds? Looks like, after all these years of international wars and beautifully crafted speeches and amended constitutions and social networking and hip hop and all that is beautiful and sane, the real underlying motive for our actions in this society may not be too far removed from how kinky a person’s hair looks and how sun-kissed the skin. Sad, really.

The truth is, Black people must wake up from this senseless state of complacency and stand up for a level of respect. The civil rights gains were not achieved by the benevolence of the oppressive system. Left to the establishment, the status quo will remain the same, just like Ron Paul and New Jersey's Chris Christie would have it. The modest gains had to be wrestled from the clenched fists of haters, sometimes with blood, always with a lot of pain. Black people, like all other tribes in this country, must establish their own rules of engagement with others, and then insist on their strict observance. Use your vote, your wallet, your patronage, and your numbers wisely.

Review of 'I Dream a Song' by Baba Abdulai, The Finder

2012-01-21T17:07:00.011-05:00

A Review of Nana S. Achampong’s new collection of verse, “I Dream a Song”

‘I Dream a Song (Odes and Epodes)’, the sixth collection of verse from prolific Ghanaian writer Nana S. Achampong, hit the stands last Monday to giddy expectations. It may have come a day too late for Christmas, but boy does it carry 140 pages of great verse for every season and occasion of the New Year. Like the mystical wheels along the human frame, the body of ‘I Dream’ is divided into the five chakra points: crown, throat, heart, loins, and root. Under each of these parts are crammed lush servings of linguistic brilliance. Of course one would expect nothing less following the critical successes of the sinfully sensuous ‘Salt in Her Womb' and ‘…and Soft!’, the tribute book ‘My Kikuyu Princess’, and the groundbreaking “traditional” treats ‘Floating’, and ‘The Equilibrists’.

One interesting point to note though: when Widdup Leroi Coubagey published Achampong’s first collection ‘The Equilibrists’ in 1995 and launched it at a plush ceremony at the Accra National Theater, it was a time of mourning; for the author had just arrived in Ghana to bury his father. Sad to say, with the release of ‘I Dream’ came the news of the death of Joseph K. A. Amoah, his step-father who is credited for introducing him to high literature. Needless to say, a new edition was quickly put together dedicated to the late publisher’s agent, complete with a tribute aptly titled ‘Papa’. In it, Achampong comforts that:

“he is a silent storm that provides the rain
that nurtures a good harvest of fine grain”.

So true, for ‘I Dream’ is a bountiful harvest of words that describe the human experience in all its highs and lows. Altogether, the collection is an optimistic view of the power of love in the world through positive thinking. By dreaming a song, Achampong is rearranging reality in a more harmonious way. He establishes unfairness and then he counters it with fantasies of what could be. For instance, he dedicates a significant portion discussing unabashedly depressing
themes in graphic, almost pathological terms, in which:

“I quake from fear that a stranger may bless me, in truth,
When all I crave in deed is just for me to lie morose,
Close my life like yesterday’s sports pages, and…yield.”

O yes, a lot of the sadness in the world finds their way into the book. There is sadness from unrequited love, disconnection from society, sadness from just being human, as in ‘Again’:

“I hear shaded sounds this time from within my tortured chest,
that little box wherein trapped gods feed on stoked fears
up, down, up, and then higher and higher and higher
drilling inside odds ringing willfully in deafened ears.
I roll my defeated heart and curl, sighing, into a barren nest”.

And then there is the frustration of impotence in a changing world, and more significantly the apparent powerlessness arising from a continent unable to reach her potential. And yet there is always a brighter tomorrow, maybe, somewhere, in another dimension, somehow. The optimistic bard in this vein exhorts the broken Africa he bemoans throughout the collection as if she were a beautiful woman with untapped potential, and pledges undying loyalty in ‘Valley of the Sun’:

“so, hug me with those warm tentacles of eternal love,
those antennas that leap from the furnace of thy core.
seek me, o Sun, star of spirits especially sanctified:
to thee I submit my all… in this lush valley.
absorb me, old orb; and mold me in thy very model.”

Thus Achampong dreams songs even in the most miserable and desolate of circumstances. This is a collection from a matured poet and a consummate wordsmith. Every line seems to be crafted deliberately to serve a purpose. And there are enough topics to represent the gamut of life: twisted philosophy, losing religion, disappointing politicians, defeatist pop culture, and many more.

Of course, we all know a feast of an Achampong book will certainly be incomplete without the titillating garnishing of sensuous play. There is ample representation of that category in ‘I Dream’. Scattered throughout the book are sultry odes and epodes dedicated to significant others, some with intergalactic features, alien powers and yummy coyness, all embodied in a single mystery maiden to whom this dreamt song is generally directed. In ‘I Dream a Song IV’:

“Her face is the sun, stoked full of radiant charm.
She raids my eager soul with one kiss so warm.
Now I see her lips, delicious, full, moist and fetish,
so enticing she licks them herself twice with relish.”

And then in ‘Waist-beads’,

“she wades elegantly through the shallow portions,
anointing the forsaken ground with delighted drops
dripping from her divinely crafted curves and mounds,
nature’s truest gift of sin, satiation and some salvation”.

Playfully, Achampong asks some serious questions though about fidelity and trust in relationships. In ‘How Do You Love?’, he demands of her love:

“How do you love,
my sweet
honey, really?
Do you love
openly, like a flu
pandemic
or silently,
like HIV?”

The ever-present tropical reality - and its interplay with the elements - is addressed amply. Numerous references to flowing waters and lush valleys and nourishing firmaments establish a firm ground for the collection. In this respect, the sun features very prominently both as a spiritual symbol and as an environmental essential:

“Each day, she arrives in time to tickle the throats of cocks.
Swiftly she sucks away spoors of the olden night’s haze.
Soon by noon, traces of gloom are exiled from earth’s box;
with each stay, she scrapes scars on sweet moon’s face.”

‘I Dream’ is another masterpiece from probably Africa’s greatest new writer. This is a must-read for every lover of words and poetry and certainly every follower of Achampong’s work. The shame though is that this book, as with the other 13 books by Achampong, is unavailable in bookstores here in Ghana. They may be purchased online at www.lulu.com/achampong or downloaded from the iBook store.

Martin and Malcolm: Emblematic Perspectives in the Struggle for Rights

2012-01-16T21:28:00.017-05:00

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X

Martin Luther King Jr. Day never ceases to bring to the fore some of the fundamental dilemmas that confront any struggle for rights, whether individual or collective. The pacifist King’s somewhat waning leadership role with the civil rights (plea) movement of the 60s occurred during a period when the general mood among African Americans seemed to have shifted toward a struggle of a more militant nature as was embodied in the sound bites of the charismatic Malcolm X.

It is obvious that both saints basically engaged the system with a view to achieving the same objective: to emancipate in essence the African in America (the Negro). It was however their starkly opposite preferred modus operandi that seemed to grab attention. King seemed to favor an approach that was gradual in pace toward the attainment of the eventual goal; X’s was urgent and immediate, almost existential. King wanted a solution based on inclusion; X was a separatist, viewing King's position in terms of cell biology (inclusion referring to a 'nonliving mass in the cytoplasm or nucleus of a cell'). King’s context was about individual rights for the Negro as provided in American constitutional canon; X simply believed in Black Nationalism. King wielded the weapon of peace to achieve love through activism; X toted an AK to claim the love of/for his people through militancy. King believed in the power of the promises of his Christian faith in the manner of a Moses who would lead his people to overcome someday; X was about taking what is his, IN THE MOMENT, by any means necessary.

These seemingly conflicting points of view and methods of the most prominent vanguards of the American civil rights movement are illustrative in all struggles. In the anti-colonial fight to regain Sub-Saharan Africa for instance, Kwame Nkrumah demanded independence IMMEDIATELY while his equally patriotic counterparts pleaded for a “pragmatic” path to self-government. Half a century earlier, while Marcus Garvey was rallying families to come aboard the home-bound Black Star Line, W. E. Du Bois who headed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was appealing for the acceptance of the Negro into mainstream American society.

It is necessary though for us to fight the temptation to criticize from this vantage point; instead, we must empathize with the choices our leaders make. It is essential that we understand that the unripe fruits of their labor, the incomplete results of their tactics, are in no way a reflection of the depth of their personal commitment to the cause. We should understand also that the favored techniques they choose are more likely to be a product of their social background and/or their peculiar individual aspirations.

Knowing that physiognomy cannot help us understand motivations, I maintain that the temperaments and styles of leadership, especially in rights struggles, are influenced to a high degree by social background: religion, class, education, and even residential geography. In the case of King and X, we need to consider their choices in the context of North v. South, Islam v. Christianity, urban v. rural, for-profit v. for-cause, and so on.

They may have seen the world differently, thus the different ways they chose to solve the same problem. Essentially. they both offer solutions of different efficacies that have their unique place in the fight. Once we understand that their intentions are noble, we are able to put their strategies and tactics in perspective and thus maintain focus on the common goal - the prize of real freedom.

My dear friend activist Vera Hope Walston was with King a week before he was assassinated. In the following passage shared on Facebook on the ocassion of the slain leader's birthday, she sums up succinctly how different is not necessarily wrong.

“The week BEFORE Dr. King was assassinated he was meeting in Washington, D.C. with Black community leaders, activists, and Black Nationalists. I was among those in the Black Nationalist contingent with the leader Kwame Toure fka Stokely Carmicheal, a mixed bag of students, NOI, SNCC, and New School of African American Thought members. We thought Dr. King's idea of a Poor Peoples March was ill-advised since it would put innocent people in the line of fire and we told him so with great disrespect, belligerence, and frustration. I remember feeling that he was a "has-been" who didn't know “what time it was".

"Finally, frustrated with us himself, he said, "...I must be consistent!" I wish I could tell the rest of what he said but all I heard was 'I MUST BE CONSISTENT". With that, the entire meeting erupted in screams and shouts directed at him. I remember leaving with my comrades, muttering all manner of epithets and shaking our heads in disgust. We dismissed him as a sell-out, not relevant, and one who was standing in the way of what we saw as the imminent revolution.

"I have relived that evening over and over these last 44 years. Today, armed with the wisdom of my senior years I now understand what he was attempting to explain. He could not change and pick up the gun so late in his career and still remain credible. That was for someone else to do.

"It's funny, but when you are actually witnessing history, you don't know it then. Little did any of us know, that this was Dr. King's last week on earth and that after his death DC would burn and martial law would be invoked with the National Guard, and US Army armored vehicles (tanks) lumbering down many streets and even in front of my house. Telephone service would be disrupted for many days, Post Office, Bureau of Engraving, and Government Printing Office employees and others would be locked in and not able to leave their jobs. There would be no bus service, and 4 p.m. curfew.

"I wish we could have been able to talk to Dr. King with love and respect and agreed to disagree without being disrespectful and I wish we had not treated him with the contempt we did. This I shall always regret and never forget”.

Both King and X were assassinated by a system that negates truth and fairness. Both of them martyred themselves for a dream larger than their realities. Both of them perished before their dreams would be realized. They both wanted to see a time when the Negro would be emancipated for real: overcoming by any means necessary, whether via force of arms, or civil disobedience. A generation later, isn’t it interesting to note which tactic seems to have left a legacy that continues to stand today?

X and Kwame Nkrumah

Arab Spring Uprising Influenced by Kenya’s Orange Movement – Kenya Deputy PM.

2012-01-03T15:49:00.000-05:00

Credit: Washington DC photos by Brian Mudavadi

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Wycliffe Mudavadi is Kenya’s former Vice-President under President Daniel arap Moi. He has been involved in ruling the country for the past 22 years even though he just turned 51. He is credited as being a vanguard of the Orange Democratic Movement, ODM, the grassroots uprising which sprouted out of the passions surrounding Kenya’s 2005 constitutional referendum. Currently, he also serves as Kenya’s Minister of Local Government. The Deputy PM was in town last week and I caught up with him in Washington DC for an interview. Following are excerpts:

NSA: Howdid the Orange Movement start?

Mudavadi: The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) startedin Nairobi as a breakaway group from a national alliance that took overimmediately after President Moi’s retirement. Unfortunately, there weredisagreements among the factions. But despite that, likeminded groups gottogether and we decided to establish a movement with a strong ideology asdefender of the rights of the people. That is ODM. It then gathered strengthwhen we had the first referendum on our constitution in 2005. That was theturning point. The public wanted an all-embracing party, a party of unity. Theywanted unity among the leadership. We mobilized for democracy, and then weturned it into a political party. ODM is therefore the backbone of democratizationin Kenya. The movement has brought a lot of vibrancy to the democratic process.

NSA: Doyou see any connection between ODM and the Arab Spring?

Mudavadi: I believe there is some connection. Youcan look at the development of new technology and its effect on communicationthese days. No country is an island anymore. I think the events that took placein Kenya - where we had a president who had been in power for so long and was successfullylet go without violence - got a lot of publicity worldwide. I won’t be surprisedif our process and the publicity it received struck the right chord with ourneighbors. The Orange Movement more than likely influenced the so-called ArabSpring uprisings.

NSA: Are there any similarities between ODMand the Occupy Movement from an organizational standpoint?

Mudavadi: Well, there may not be exact similaritiesin the sense that the Occupy movement is a different and separate kind of popularexpression. The Orange Movement was principally about democratization andrespect for the basic rights of the ordinary person. The Occupy movement seemsto revolve more around an economic expression in terms of what the grievancesand messages are about. Their actions and messages do not necessarily say theyare dissatisfied with the political process. It may suggest that they aredissatisfied with the management of the economy by the big corporate entitieswhich they may feel are not sensitive enough to their concerns.

NSA: As movements go, do you have anyadvice for the Occupy Movement?

Mudavadi: First, they seem to have organizedthemselves very efficiently, but they need to find a way of crafting theirmessage more effectively and a way of communicating it in terms that everyoneunderstands. There’s the feeling that the element of a coherent message is not beingcommunicated. There are too many people professing different messages. Secondly,they have not come out clearly about what they are proposing as a solution towhat they consider to be the problem. If this continues, people may not takethem too seriously.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Wycliffe Mudavadi

NSA: Inlight of the collapsing economy of the European Common Market, do you still thinkthe East African Community with the common market idea is a viable one?

Mudavadi: I think the East African Community isstill very viable. I don’t think the tribulation of the Eurozone should discourageemerging markets. SADC, ECOWAS, EAC all have a reason to be. It makes sense toharmonize neighboring economies and governance in regions; after all, a widermarket is always better for the citizens. There are lessons to learn fromEurope though: one lesson to learn from the European problems is that, as webuild up, we have to be very careful with the standard of performancebenchmarks that we accept as a community; we need to have a clear understandingwhat the debt ratio should be, and so forth. The other lesson is that thesystem must be made to work, and it must be seen to be working so that nobodyrides on its back as Greece did. In the end, after all, good governance demandsthat we establish a system that works. This will support our redevelopmentefforts.

NSA: Talkingabout redevelopment efforts, is there a role for the African Diaspora to playin Africa?

Mudavadi: Well, the African Diaspora as onegroup commands a huge economy. Combined together, Africans in the Diaspora can changethings on the ground. We need them to involve themselves in influencingpolicies that introduce new approaches to development. They can come as consultants,investors, tourists, students…We encourage and welcome them to take part in thedevelopment effort. Already we have enshrined in the mother law of Kenya themechanism of dual citizenship. Spouses and offspring of Kenya-born citizens areautomatically entitled to citizenship. There are paths toward citizenship andother mechanisms already enacted that Africans in the Diaspora can follow inthat respect.

NSA: Doyou think Gadhafi deserved to be removed by NATO?

Mudavadi: From a personal point of view, Ithink Gadhafi had taken his people for granted for far too long. It isridiculous that he talked about Libya like it was the lawn in his backyard. Towardthe end, he was talking about how he would crash his own people and all. He andhis children fully controlled the entire country. He had no respect for thepeople. Basically, he was a bad example of what a leader should be. He shouldhave seen the signs and left earlier as a response to and respect for thewishes of the people. I have no sympathy for him. In this particular case, hegave NATO a reason to do what they did when he turned on his own people. Ithink it is very hard to find a lasting legacy for Gadhafi. He talked about theAfrican Union, but one can only imagine what he would do if he was the head ofsuch a union. Would he have respected the law? Is this the way he would have treatedthe citizens? For other African leaders, this should let them know that one hasto respect human rights, uphold good governance, and embrace democracy. Thatsaid, how the whole thing was handled, especially after he was captured, wasnot right. Two wrongs do not make a right. You can’t replace one form ofextremism with another.

NSA: Is this a message for Zimbabwe’sPresident Mugabe?

Mudavadi: It will do him a lot of good if thistime around he was to give way for the good of his country.

NSA: What do you see as the reasonfor and future of the African Union?

Mudavadi: The African Union is still veryimportant. There are a lot of regional, continental and global issues whichhave to be dealt with in a unified manner. An example is Somalia: the interventionsin trying to bring stability there is really an A.U. matter. We need to have theAfrican Union because there are bound to be challenges in future. When thesechallenges arise in, say, la Cote d’Ivoire, or Central Africa and othercountries, the much needed stability depends on solutions brought from aunified effort.

Mudavadi speaks to Kenyans at Zayed Hall

- 30 -

'I Dream a Song' Collection of Verse Out Now

2011-12-31T06:30:00.004-05:00

Art by Bansky

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/i-dream-a-song/18790651

'I Dream a Song’ is out. This is my fifth book of verse. It is an immersion into a wonder-filled world of words. Also available at http://www.achampongbooks.com/ and eBooks.

The content covers various styles and themes and traditions. Following is French, from I Dream a Song.

French

French is sexy, so even when she queefs

During our dance my veins pop.

She smiles back, lip cultured,

And I melt in her able embrace.

Clothed in light, she spreads across my space

Dripping hints of style and taste

Over every sound, sight and sense

As if she were the priestess Epicurus ordained.

Her eyes colored by yearning

Flit through a kalaidescope of need

But her lips are sewn together by love

So she offers not what she feels.

I am her funny man, ever at attention.

The clown with the red nose

My shadows dance

Realer than the heartbeat of the living

Happiness is...Chasing the Wind

2011-11-26T13:45:00.001-05:00

This is a reproduction of a MySpace entry I made on October 2, 2008. I'm reblogging it in reaction to a Facebook post made by my good friend Elon QuiQui.

Happiness is...Chasing the Wind

The essential doctrine of Epicureanism, which is regarded asone of the leading schools of moral philosophy of all time, is that pleasure isthe supreme good and main goal of life. According to the reports of Diogenes Laërtius, theGreek philosopher/prolific author Epicurus (341-270 bc) left 300 manuscripts inwhich he taught that true happiness is the serenity resulting from the conquestof fear of the gods, of death, and of the afterlife. The ultimate aim of allEpicurean speculation about nature therefore is to rid people of such fears.This is where the notion of H A P P I N E S S first appears in the history ofmankind…circa 270 BC!

Before this school of thought gained currency, mankind liveda full complete life of 'contentment' with a few excesses here and there; therewas no concept however of "the pursuit of happiness" as a 'primal'urge. One took the good with the bad; it rained and the sun shone; night felland day broke; there was joy and pain. The cardinal virtues in the Epicureansystem of ethics concentrate on the balancing of pleasure and pain by, crudelyput, reducing our higher essence to a statement such as: "eat, drink andbe merry for tomorrow you die". Your soul and all. Period.

This doctrine has stood the test of over two millennia and,unlike those of its arch rival Stoicism, Epicureanism remains remarkably intacttoday as a living tradition and has been the moral philosophy that has fueledWestern civilization, capitalism and consumerism.

Basically, the general idea is that happiness is our pursuit;we must do whatever it takes to achieve this goal; pain, strife andunpleasantness are therefore antithetical to our purpose. I can hear youwondering what in the world I am going on about. And I shall tell you. This ishow it all started - I posted a photo comment with these words below:

"MAYBE theentire notion of HAPPINESS

Is the biggest fallacy evolved over time

to fasten our unsettled hearts to consumerism.

Maybe we must strivefor the blessed basics –

contentment, notbliss;

Sufficiency, notprofusion;

Compatibility, notperfect synchronization;

Attainment, notexcellence!

Mighty mortal deity,

Hug a tree, and kissthe skies.

This may be as goodas it gets."

A barrage ofinteresting reactions filled my message box. I couldn't pass on thisopportunity to air my thoughts and clear my head and walk towards aconsciousness that was closer to my God. Thus this cursory dissection of thenotion of Happiness and the pursuit thereof.

Now, the Key words inthis short blog may be divided into two groups: one, sensual and intellectualgratification [also related to 'happiness', 'Epicurus', 'pleasure', and'materialsm', words which manifest when we are intoxicated by narcotics orhormones or aesthetics, where we are the beneficiaries of pleasant occurrencesand coincidences, or when we get 'satisfaction' from external titillation];and, two, spiritual elation [also related to deep peace, which is a zone wefulfill - a consciousness we become, a mindset shift we undergo - when weexperience that quietness of the soul that surpasses mortal understanding].

What is happiness? Isit a noun such as a place or a state or a situation where one reaches? Is it aformula through which one arrives at a predetermined, measureable destination?Is it the same sensation every time we experience it? When we are happy, do weknow we are happy in the moment? Or is it just a pleasant ephemeral relativeretrospective realization? Is it the loss of sensual alertness or the totalrepudiation of societal sanctions? Is it a euphoric condition of perfectabandon such as when your senses are compromised by narcotics? Is it theabsence of unpleasantness? Is it the promise of fulfillment? Is it theattainment of a subjective state of bliss? Is happiness a state ofgratification? Or is it the road there? Is it the point of completion of apredetermined project or undertaking? Is it unbridled consumption? Is it just ahit we human junkies crave? Is it quantifiable, measurable, comparable, andempirical?

When we say we are happy, what does it mean? I know it means– at least as I have experienced it - we acknowledge that we are in a 'moment',surrounded by the fulfillment - or promise of fulfillment – of an urge wedeliberately crave. I further know that we wish the 'moment' to last forever.However, I also know that as soon as we articulate this realization, the momentis over.

If we accept the fact that this idea of happiness is afleeting one, is it wise among thinking people – as we are wont to believe weare - that we dedicate the qualitative aspects of our lives in its pursuit? Isit wise that we consume our lives and our dreams on momentary notions we areunable to employ other than as exaggerated, romanticized anecdotes at the bong?

Granted, the pursuit of this phantom has been the impetusfor most of the scientific, medical and physical strides and comforts of ourcivilization as we experience it today: we believe the more we physicallyexplore, the happier we become so we expand as societies; we love the idea thatwalking less and arriving sooner will make us happy so we invent transport andcommunications to allow us to network in this cesspool; we feel reducing painand increasing joy makes us happy so we generate pharmacopoeia. We thinksatisfying all our wishes in the moment will make us happy so we createcurrency and plastic and proceed to dedicate our lives to the pursuit ofamassing wealth and excess. We suppose happiness in sex has to do with morethan affection and intercourse so we create hard porn and a trillion dollarflesh industry.

And yet never in the written history of the world hasmankind been so reduced to such misery and desolation: suicides, wars, rumorsof war, iniquity, deviance, "hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts ofwrath, self ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness,revelries" and many more.

The entire economic - and now social - system is based onthe assumption that we earth zombies shall, in the pursuit of the illusivealmighty happiness – discard what we have treasured and rush immediately forthe new, improved, better version. And we all know that if this amount ofhogwash was currency, it would be more than enough to bail out Wall Street.What we may have may not be as fancy as what we may desire, but it does thejob; it does not require whole new industries to support its innate purpose andhonor and character. But do we think of such things when we are confronted withthe occasion to decide between sticking with our trusted partner - who has asmany foibles as we do – or rushing for the possibility that another promises?In the pursuit of happiness, against our better judgment, don't we trade in ourpaid-off car for the bigger, loaded truck which requires more to maintain, moremoney, more work for you, less time with self, more grumpiness, more misery…allfor happiness!?!

Is this fixation with the phantom worth it?

Can't we - shouldn't we – instead, focus more on the triedand tested blessed basics that have propped our existence up since antiquity?Can't we decide to get back to the notions that make the world go round, smoothand dependable, that ensure the flow of love, joy, peace, mercy and such? Can'twe decide to embrace solid, good old CONTENTMENT, instead of chasing after thefleeting promise of bliss? Can't we abide in the abundance of SUFFICIENCYinstead of wasting our lives in the amassing of profusion? Can't we see thetruth in COMPATIBILITY instead of falling for the illusion of the probabilityof perfect synchronization? Can't we just explode in joy when we reachATTAINMENT instead of chasing the parochial winds of excellence?

Mind you, by Contentment, Sufficiency, Compatibility andAttainment, I am not suggesting that one must settle for a lesser alternativeor nurture a complacent characteristic of lacking a need to better oneself. Iam merely saying that superlatives are just excuses for bad judgment and aeuphemistic expression of a mindset of greed/ indecision. By this I mean thatsometimes instead of waiting for or seeking 'the right moment' or 'the righttime' or 'the right person' before we do what we have to do [i.e. love or liveto our fullest potential etc], we should just work with what we have – and loveit.

According to Encarta.com, paradoxically, "Epicurus' personal hedonism taught thatonly through self-restraint, moderation, and detachment can one achieve thekind of tranquility that is true happiness."

Because I believe he understood that every great andworthwhile invention or contribution to civilization is derived from a state ofUN-happiness [and occasionally the pursuit of happiness]. After all, pain is areflection of joy. Where would children be without birth pangs [and I guessepidurals]?

My point is that there's never going to be the perfectcircumstance - when/where all things will align - IF/when we do not have theenterprising spirit to utilize whatever we are dealt with when the opportunityarises.

After all, happiness is - to me - only a transient, albeitpleasant, subjective retrospective, relative, analysis of/reaction to stimuli.Pain is not the enemy. Sadness is not the devil. Calm is not the opposite ofbliss. Remember, "for whom [He] loves he chasteneth".

here's to life.....

2011-11-15T18:23:00.001-05:00

These past few years have managed successfully topush most of us into very uncomfortable corners under the most tormenting self-interrogatingbeams. For the first time in our lives, most of us have been compelled to askourselves the serious questions, questions regarding our long-held aspirations,our beliefs, our faith, our lives. Sometimes, we get caught up in the complicatedfutility of it all and get tempted to throw tired hands in the air and just surrender.But before we lose hope and give up, it may be time for us to pause for a moment,take a deep breath, and rearrange all the mess in perspective. After all, this messis all that life is about. Life is the struggle, the small achievements, theups, the downs, the tears, the laughter, the loves, the losses, the birth, andthe death. So, here’s to life!

Here's To Life/Shirley Horn

NO COMPLAINTS AND NO REGRETS.

I STILL BELIEVE IN CHASING DREAMS AND PLACING BETS.

BUT I HAVE LEARNED THAT ALL YOU GIVE IS ALL YOU GET,

SO GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT.

I HAD MY SHARE, I DRANK MY FILL,

AND EVEN THOUGH I’M SATISFIED I’M HUNGRY STILL

TO SEE WHAT’S DOWN ANOTHER ROAD, BEYOND A HILL

AND DO IT ALL AGAIN.

SO HERE’S TO LIFE AND EVERY JOY IT BRINGS.

SO HERE’S TO LIFE TO DREAMERS AND THEIR DREAMS.

FUNNY HOW THE TIME JUST FLIES.

HOW LOVE CAN GO FROM WARM HELLOS TO SAD GOODBYES

AND LEAVE YOU WITH THE MEMORIES YOU’VE MEMORIZED

TO KEEP YOUR WINTERS WARM.

BUT THERE’S NO YES IN YESTERDAY.

AND WHO KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS OR TAKES AWAY.

AS LONG AS I’M STILL IN THE GAME I WANT TO PLAY

FOR LAUGHS, FOR LIFE, FOR LOVE.

SO HERE’S TO LIFE AND EVERY JOY IT BRINGS.

HERE’S TO LIFE, THE DREAMERS AND THEIR DREAMS.

MAY ALL YOUR STORMS BE WEATHERED,

AND ALL THAT’S GOOD GET BETTER.

HERE’S TO LIFE, HERE’S TO LOVE, HERE’S TO YOU.

MAY ALL YOUR STORMS BE WEATHERED,

AND ALL THAT'S GOOD GET BETTER.

HERE'S TO LIFE, HERE'S TO LOVE, HERE'S TO YOU

Lyrics from www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/shirley_horn/

Cops in da Hood: Policing in the Black Communities

2011-11-10T01:41:00.000-05:00

The overarching sentiment voiced especially in thecyber community regarding the relationship between Diaspora Africans and thepolice is not unlike that of an illegitimate child/victim in a family/schoolyard and the favored sibling/bully. The generally accepted understanding isthat the police are trained to exist mostly for the purpose of invadingunderprivileged communities with the sadistic aim of damaging unsuspectingyoung men. As perceptions go, this optic may seem very true to life since ithas come to symbolize the dominant experience among black youth.

Usually, the blame is placed on the multifaceted effectof recent history, or other diabolical designs including systemic racism andclassism in society, and the famed fear of the Black “unknown”. But a view from another angle could show therelationship in a different light; the reasons for the disproportionally highpolice presence in the hood may be more complex than is summarily first assumed.On whom does the original blame fall?

I maintain that the high presence of police in poor Blackand certain Hispanic neighborhoods is directly linked to the absence of self-regulationin these communities. This absence of self-policing is a result of integration.

This, I believe, is the fundamental reason. Mind you, I am not blamingthe victim for the crime, and I am not vindicating the police here.

First of all, let’s agree on the premise that the systemof the machine known as the human being has an annoying characteristic of malfunctioningoccasionally. This trait, depending on one’s unique perspective, may beclassified as a safety fuse or a design flaw. This foible especially becomes moreprobable when one is out of balance due to the bombarding influences of life’smany stresses and pressures or perhaps the coopting of some form of narcotic.Fortunately, the typical human in most cases utilizes an internal system of conscienceand temperance in order not to be a constant nuisance to neighbors.

On an extrapolated level, we can further agree that theproclivity of individuals in families, clans, neighborhoods, and communities toact out tends to be restrained by social agreements in the form of cultural norms,religious guidelines, traditional observances and such conventions. Thus has thelarger society progressed through the ages. In the event that a member of the communewere to display anti-social behavior arising out of either deliberate design oraccident, the society collectively sanctions them with the appropriate counteractionwhich at times may come in a form significant enough to act as a futuredeterrent to others. The main goal of the sanction here, we agree once more, isto ensure that one person’s joy does not result, advertently or not, in causinganother person unnecessary grief.

In today’s typical Jewish community in America forexample, just as is present in equally tribal enclaves inhabited by Indians, Koreans,Arabs etc., specific indigenous traditions are established to ensure thatwhatever any single member does may not become a “burden” on immediatecommunity members or society at large. According to popular folklore, DiasporaAfricans used to be organized along similar lines as well…that is, untilintegration.

During the era before integration, segregated Blackshad no choice but to nurture and mold their growing communities into independent,proud, purposive, enterprising, and thriving environments. It was during this era that the seed of uprightnesswas sown; it was this era that produced a harvest of leaders who managed successfullyto change the politics, American society, in fact the entire landscape of this world.It was this era - based on the aforementioned communal conditions - that made aconcept such as integration, ironically, realizable.

With integration came migration; with migration camethe dispersing; and with the dispersing came the shedding of all conventions hithertoheld dear. This state of dysfunction under integration has deteriorated to such an extent that todayBlack folk have lost the cohesiveness as a people that allowed an elder, forinstance, to enforce discipline of minors even where they were unrelated byblood to the miscreant. In the absence of the sanction of tradition, Blackcommunities have crumbled and fragmented into little insignificant individual unitsand small groups without social connection. Communal discipline, an essential requirementfor any group’s progress, is abhorred. The joy of certain individuals istherefore beginning to result in the pain of others. In the absence of self-restraint,social order has broken down in the neighborhoods, and everyone believessincerely that they are at some degree of risk. Even the larger societybelieves so too. The absence of tradition, of conventions, has created anabhorrence of organized communal direction. Enter the police to occupy the void.

It is from this viewpoint that I maintain that the policeoffensives on poor Black and certain Hispanic neighborhoods are due principallyto the absence of systems of self-regulation in these communities. Until thecommunities start policing themselves, this situation will never change. Infact, the dysfunction will get worse. The reasons of racism and systemicoverreach usually erroneously ascribed to reported abuse become authentic only inas far as they concern the degree of punishment meted out to perceived offenders.

Remember, it takes a village…

So what?

2011-11-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

Painting by George Morton Clarke

So what?

If you find your head in the grips of defeat’s jaws

And your plea for mercy brings no comfort in sight,

Just breathe and shrug; remember Murphy’s Law:

It could get worse, and it just probably might.

So what…

If the routine things in your world get harder

Than a malfunctioning Viagra-induced boner

And your awful life sucks even deeper

Than a hungry Bangkok Patpong hooker

And your fake so-called friends betray you

Like the snitch Iscariot did Emmanuel too?

So what…

If your soul mate abandons you in the night

Like Americans do their friends worldwide

And Satan rules and messes up the mood

Like the curse of crack in the black hood

And God decides to forsake you yet again

As he promised in Deuteronomy 31:17-18?

So what…

If the murky future looks even more bleak

Than a rehashed plot to a neo-noir freak

And you’ve lost your uncertain religion

Like Romney on every major position

And narcotics can’t numb the nudging pain

Because even Death holds you in disdain?

So what?

If you find your head in the grips of defeat’s jaws

And your plea for mercy brings no comfort in sight,

Just breathe and shrug; remember Murphy’s Law:

It could get worse, and it just probably might.

Hoboken, sun-kissed

2011-10-30T03:59:00.003-04:00

Hoboken rests coyly, snoozing cozily under cloudswarm.

A philandering breeze strokes softly, on purpose,

Parting knowingly the aroused heavenly billows.

Heady virile rays of the autumn sun then beam through,

Poking deeply the tender hearts of keen believers.

From inside them, blissful cries of insecurity arestimulated

Like rimy Slurpee running through pores sweatinghormones.

On the sumptuous leas hemming Sinatra Drive’s Pier A

Roll thirsty lovers in various phases of shameless disrobe.

With dedicated abandon, they throw all caution asunder

Into misty promises of shrugged shoulders and confusedpassions.

Feverish, they dream pleasurable emotions, wickedand moist,

The musky air an accidental aphrodisiac to lead themon

Like chocolate milk dripping from a maiden’s squashedbosom.

Before long, limbs entangle under the conspiracy ofthe elements.

Scorching orifices wish for some comfort in a satiatingsqueeze.

Lips embrace urgently as if life itself is all aboutslithering tongues.

The kiss of the sun caresses inflamed minds of a boyand girl,

Playing tricks skillfully on fickle moods like astringed kora,

Driving weakened wills to melt into guiltysubmission,

Like ice cream that thaws on the sweaty skin of excitednerves.

Sun-kissed, their spirits bid reason and comportmentadieu;

Judgment wavers swiftly in the corrupting enchantingair.

All scruples are submerged rationally in breathlessanticipation

Of that abstract joy professed, rumored and whisperedfrom old.

And even after the now remorseful clouds recover dignityabove,

The lovers’ hearts still throb from the deceitful promiseof the sun’s kiss,

Like honey snaking down the agitated loins offorbidden desire.

Echoes of OccupyWallStreet: Are You Mad Yet?

2011-10-28T21:29:00.000-04:00

To: Nana S. Achampong
From: James Butch Warren
Fwd: Bill Cosby's done it again!

"TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS: AND JUST THINK. ALLIT TOOK WAS A LITTLE $5.00 MONTHLY FEE FOR DEBIT CARD USE FROM BANK OF AMERICATO GET A COUNTRY WIDE MOVEMENT STARTED THAT HAS TURNED INTO VIOLENCE, RIOTS AND ARRESTS. WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR COUNTRY?

THE 99% IS TRYING TOTELL YOU. WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTIONBEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. IF WE DID ANY OFTHESE THINGS, WE WOULD BE LOCKED UP! DON'TFORGET THESE ITEMS DURING THE NEXT ELECTION. WE CANNOT FORGET. THE PRESS ISCONTROLLED.

THANKS, BUTCH"

> > AfterThe 8 Years Of The Bush/Cheney Disaster, Now You Get Mad?
> > You didn'tget mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recountand appointed a President.
> > You didn't get mad when Cheneyallowed Energy company officials to dictate Energy policy and push us to invadeIraq.
> > You didn'tget mad when acovert CIA operative got outed.
> > You didn't getmad when the Patriot Act got passed.
> > You didn't getmad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
> > You didn't getmad when we spent over 800 billion (and counting) on said illegalwar.
> > You didn't getmad when Bush borrowed more money fromforeign sources than the previous 42 Presidents combined.
> > You didn't getmad when over 10 billion dollars in cash justdisappeared in Iraq.
> > You didn't getmad when you found out we were torturing people.
> > You didn't getmad when Bush embraced trade and outsourcing policies that shipped6 million American jobs out of the country.
> > You didn't getmad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
> > You didn't getmad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.
> > You didn't getmad when Bush rang up 10 trillion dollars incombined budget and current account deficits.
> > You didn't getmad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.
> > You didn't getmad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.
> > You didn't getmad when we gave people who had more money than they could spend, thefilthy rich, over a trillion dollars in tax breaks.
> > You didn't getmad with the worst 8 years of job creations in severaldecades.
> > You didn't get mad when over 200,000 US Citizenslost their lives because they had no health insurance.
> > You didn't getmad when lack of oversight and regulations fromthe Bush Administration caused US Citizens to lose 12 trilliondollars in investments, retirement, and home values.

You finally gotmad when a black man was elected President and decided that people inAmerica deserved the right to see a doctor if they aresick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job lossesby the millions, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer,and the worst economic disaster since 1929 are all okay with you,but helping fellow Americans who are sick...Oh, H ## L No!!

> > Ps. This one definitely needs to be circulated just for areminder sake!!!!!

Gadhafi’s assassination: Obama’s Message to Self

2011-10-20T22:15:00.000-04:00

Obama aand Gadhafi in New York, 2009

"The rule of aniron fist inevitably comes to an end," U.S. president Barack Obama statedupon getting confirmation of the assassination of Libyan Pan-Africanist leader MuammarGadhafi. So, another one has bitten the dust. Obama and his NATO goons havesucceeded after 8 months where no other has…CIA, M16, Mossad, Reagan, Bush, andcountless more. The story of the kill was recycled on cable networks consistingmainly of ignorant talking heads, confused right-wing spin doctors,sub-standard phone video aimed to tarnish whatever remaining shred of dignitythe ousted leader may have retained, and a few staged “pro-America” Libyanssprinkled on the Misrata streets “in jubilation” chanting the anthem "AllahuAkbar."

The National Committeeon African Unification Front (AUF)’s Alimamy Bakarr Sankoh insists the Libyaninvasion is “because of its Oil-Riches, nothing more…This determination toeither kill the Libyan leader or split the country into two is being done underthe thin veneer of a purported UN Security Council resolution that has imposeda no-fly zone on the country”. Wall Street must be beside itself with glee, rubbingits clammy palms in contemplation of the future of the vast oil reservesbelieved to be the richest in the world which, thanks to Obama and N.A.T.O, arenow at the disposal of “the free market”. This may be so, but how does thishelp Americans? The truth is, Libyan oil reserves - sweet as they are - cannotpostpone the decline and fall of the market system as it is ran today. The debilitatingfactors are systemic. And internal. And based on flawed premises.

So, the question is:what is the point of the Libyan invasion? The point is simple; even moreimportant than oil to the West is the deliberate policy to de-Islamize theregion. The West has become so paranoid about the onslaught of Islam that itsintelligence focus is trained directly on the space occupying the longitudesbetween Afghanistan and Algeria and the latitudes between Syria and Yemen. Thisspace is filled by the countries with the highest concentration of Moslems bypopulation. It does not take a fetish priest to see that the more “westernized”this region is designed in future, the less religious they will continue to become.This is why the West has been wasting lives and resources and ideas in thisregion.

Nations in the azure region have majority Moslem populations who sit on oceans of oil.

With the rise of Islamin recent times, European and American leaders have been employing differentpretexts to advance a policy of de-Islamization. After bin Laden’s hit on NewYork, the issue became urgent. Whips were cracked when opponents were not comportingenough (e.g. Iraq); carrots were dished out when they tended to acquiesce(which is why in January 2004, Bush II convinced Libya to forego armament/Condi Rice visited in 08 to pour libation/ Obama welcomed him in New York warmlyin 09 etc.) All these were encouraged toward the weakening of the grip of the religionof Islam on the region. And then came the so-called Arab Spring.

The U.S. administration’sargument for intervention in Libya is that, in this case, Libyans called for it;then the regional body the Arab League endorsed it; and then friends of theU.S. i.e. NATO supported it; and, then finally the United Nations approved it. Damn.Since when have the wishes of a few in a sovereign nation been reason enoughfor foreign-led coup d’états? Would the Tea Party numskulls’ invasions ofstreet corners to protest the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency, sometimes with guns,count as the people “calling for it”? The Arab League: since when did the ArabLeague decide what happens on African soil? It’s like the Union of SouthAmerican Nations (USAN) “endorsing” a regime change in the United States. NATO?Latin America’s ALBA bloc of nations would be too happy to “support” any such schemessuggested by Chavez/China. Remember: The rule of an iron fist inevitably comesto an end.

A handful of orchestrated demonstrators on the streets of Misrata "in jubilation".

As for the crippled,disgraced United Nations, the less said the better. “What these so-calledteachers and defenders of democracy have however forgotten is that the SecurityCouncil is not authorized, according to the U.N. Charter, to intervene in theinternal affairs of any country, and any attempt to do so using any kind ofreason will be the legalization of injustice and aggression which willundoubtedly have grave consequences not only for the Middle East but Europe andAfrica as a whole” challenges AUF’s Sankoh.

Today it’s Gadhafi; whowill it be tomorrow? With OccupyWallStreet picking up momentum by the second,Obama and his goons should remember: The rule of an iron fist inevitably comesto an end.

aging...

2011-10-17T04:34:00.000-04:00

Chafing these journeyed eyes with words,
Sounds that comfort nor soothe not,
I clasp irate lids resolutely with rusty rings,
Just to sieve the light that youth brings.

No use, kindred. No use, I assure you.
These eyes still can see, if only hazily,
The shadows relating the sorry songs
Of the lives we left unlived in our lungs!

Confused, our seed won’t dare dream;
Spoiled in the calm of clean cool pools,
Soiled, nurtured in the cesspits hither
They flower, blossom and wait to wither.

These weary winkers they waveringly witness
Entombed scandals discarded at life’s banks,
Our offspring trudging pointlessly through dead streams,
Whistling in the wind verses of haunted dreams.

If only you knew, youth, it’s just a silent breath,
And you too can see the broken moaners on life’s carousel,
These who once upon a painfully forgotten memory
Peacocked about with ignorant arrogance in ceremony,

These who loudly proclaimed the flimsy plumage of youth -
For they too used to be beautiful, nectar dripping in eachsmile.
They too were mindless and impudent and invincible
Until dependable time arrested them at life’s crucible.

Alas, at sea today, they manifest as mere mourners,
Wailers dutifully wishing on an anointing rhyme,
A disappointed stream with no intentions to flow
Besides backwards the pledge of promised woe.

No need to shed scarce tears now, dear blood.
These eyes see…faltering crawling shadows
Draped in veils of random aches and invisible tears,
Their indwelling dignity eroded by wasted years.

Rubbing my eyes with thoughts for momentary relief,
Guiding frail steps on a path strewn with discarded egos,
I succumb to the unapprised certainty of my progeny
All reason usurped by thieving time in its eternity.

Again

2011-10-17T01:52:00.001-04:00

The plucking of strings in the air, like echoes on the brain,

keeps stirring constantly, albeit muffled, like a broken record -

from start to finish, and then over and over and over -

retelling each line, reciting every verse, relating each chord,

whispering in the manner of a ghost’s voice a lonely refrain:

“Again. Again. Hear my tired aria;

test my range; spread your mind.

Dance even as your tongue swipes.

Again. Take this hand. Take my hand.”

Was it the same noise that affirmed that then time;

the singing that slowed down my deliberate dance steps -

left, right, left, and then louder and louder and louder -

until it embraced with intent my heart and stymied its quest?

It ended up bungling my moves, debasing with mime:

“Again. Again. Heed my old soul;

feel my rage; stretch your imagination.

Move even as your tongue wags.

Again. Take this heart. Take my heart.”

I hear shaded sounds this time from within my tortured chest,

that little box wherein trapped gods feed on stoked fears

up, down, up, and then higher and higher and higher

drilling inside odds ringing willfully in deafened ears.

I roll my defeated heart and curl, sighing, into a barren nest:

“Again. Again. Listen to my sad song;

feed my rage; pump your heart.

Dance even as your tongue waves.

Again. Take this life. Take my life.”

I spy the coda sharply, through failed lessons darkly

filled with reflections of tomorrow’s tears brewing.

And then drip, drip, drip, rising coyly with resolve, higher,

a well of our joint intentions readies for renewing.

But alas both drown under heavy weights, crying starkly:

“Again. Again. Protect this blood journey;

Disremember our past; mind my heart.

For we shall dance even as tongues wag.

Again. Save my life. Make her heart believe.”

2nd New jersey Fashion Week under Way

2011-10-10T02:42:00.001-04:00

An unseasonably summery afternoon this October 9 noon ushered in the 2nd New Jersey Fashion Week at Pier A (1st and Sinatra Dr) amidst a sprinkling of semi-nude sun-worshippers on the lush bank grounds of historical Hoboken’s waterfront. The beautiful atmosphere was made the more gratifying by the accommodating organizers, designers, models, professional support, and fashion lovers who graced the opening event. At this point, the fine tone and high expectations for the three-day fashion extravaganza were set by the new collections of charming bridal wear by Jean-Ralph Thurin and Conquer Style’s smart low-key gentlemen’s casual wear.

Donnella Tilery, Founder of the Fashion Week

Story to follow...

Once Upon A Time In Palestine.....

2011-09-23T17:21:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time long, long ago, there was an ancient nation called Palestine, with Jerusalem their holy city. Palestinians lived among themselves and loved and sang and fought and messed themselves up as all nations do. One day, the Zionist among the Jews, who, unlike Africans in the diaspora, did not have a home they could call their own, said:“We’ve been kicked around long enough. We need a soil we can plant as our own, our own nation, the nation of Israel.”

So they lobbied and lobbied and lobbied. And in 1917, some right-wing Scottish lord called Balfour heard their plea and, after a few shots of whatever, declared:“We the British favor ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing…Palestine’" [italicized quotes his very words, not mine].

So a part of Palestine was grabbed – for no reason - and Jews from around the world were paid money to go and plant a new nation. Except Jews from Africa who were not allowed. Well, except the Falashas. But anyway, their numbers grew. And then the Zionists desired more space. So they encroached inland of Palestine surreptitiously. And they captured Jerusalem. And they made it their own holy city. And when the Palestinians complained, they called on their British friends for superior help. And together they whopped the Palestinians proper and seized more resources includiing the water sources.

And when the Jews had acquired enough land, the United Nations partitioned Palestine – in 1948. Out of this, a new nation was created called Israel, with the Palestianian holy city Jerusalem as their capital. The British and the Americans insisted that the rest of the world recognize the new settlers as a bona fide nation, with its own stool at the United Nations lounge. And so more Jews were encouraged to continue to flock to the new nation. And soon, they desired more space. So they invaded, this time openly, the borders of their host and seized more land. And when the Palestinians complained, the Jews called on their British and American friends for high-tech help. And together they sieged their benefactors, whopped them some more, barricaded their existence, seized more resources, and occupied it firmly. That was in 1967.

However, this morning, Palestine woke up fed-up with all the mess. Palestine said: “Please leave us alone. We are kind of tired of all this ass-whopping. For real though. Go ahead and enjoy the land you have stolen up until 1967. We don’t want to have anything to do with yall. We want to be our own state.”

And Obama said:

Hell, no, you won't. You can only be a nation when the bona fide recognized nation of Israel says so. Jewish life is more precious than yours. And they are our first priority. And I need the AIPAC. You know the elections' just coming up.

.And Palestine said:

But the land they live on is stolen from us. How can they be a recognized nation and we are not?

And Obama said:

It is kinda complicated.

Member of the Gang

2011-09-02T18:46:00.002-04:00

Obama has arrived. He is almost a full member of that rare coveted gang of special persons who constitute American presidents. With his relentless but pointless onslaught on innocent lives around the world, the American president has become initiated into that exclusive gang. He has shown them that he will kill to be part of them.

For right-wing Birthers and "cultural purists" in this country, 'Odyssey Dawn' must come as a real head-scratcher. To them, one of the major marks of 'American exceptionalism' is the divine capability/ability/desire/passion/compulsion to blow other nations up at their own whims. It doesn't matter if such a foolhardy chest-thumping maneuver results in untold casualties. It is something the president does. After all, the targets are usually sub-human, far away, and out of sight. It doesn't matter if some casualties are sustained in the process on their side.
For instance, as at December 13, 2010, over a million Americans have died in senseless battles initiated by their gore-thirsty presidents. In the past 30 years alone, the nation of America - under non-military commanders - has invaded/attacked/occupied or otherwise flexed its muscles in at least 10 sovereign nations, bringing the average to one major senseless war every three years.

This is American. And the right-wing loves it.
This time, regarding this turn of events - the invasion of Libya and the coup against Gadhafi and drones in Yemen and Pakistan etc. etc. - has confused the likes of Eric Cantor, Lou Dobbs, and that bunch of small-minded idiots on a major scale. This wasn't supposed to happen. They - the right-wing conservatives - are the traditional hawks. Obama isn't even American enough to do join the gang.

From 1982 till the end of his term, Reagan messed up Lebanon, blew up Granada, and dropped some bombs on this same Libya under this same Gadhafi outlaw. Reagan's successor Bush I attacked Iraq. And then came Clinton: he sent his goons over to Eastern Europe and kicked backsides in Bosnia etc. After him was another Republican Bush II who took in Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously to show how American he was. All these men, like all the like all their predecessors, were Caucasian, all-American, mostly Republican. Given the recent history of race and racism in diplomacy and international politics and the resultant demonization of every creature non-Caucasian, one can understand how the WASP offshoots may be unable to empathize enough to consider the scheduled damage, both collateral and intended.

But the issues begin to get confusing when it comes the turn of our colored president, Hussein Obama, who apparently felt the need to show his critics in the gang how decisive, foolhardy, and a totally clueless puppet he is...indeed, he felt he needed to prove how so like the rest of "mainstream" America he is. Thus started the war talk and the rumors of war, and the new-tech battles in completely sovereign nations, and fresh-spilt blood on the parched soils on the other side of the globe where the dead used to thrive under their colorful despots. (For instance Libya’s literacy rate is at least two times that of America’s).

The Obama administration’s pretexts continue to baffle: for Libya, American might is to help prevent lives of Eastern Maghreb Arabs that may have been snuffed by that evil, demented dictator. In Yemen, the targets are supposed to be somehow connected to Bush II's unfinish-able wars of choice.

What is wrong with these guys? Is any reelection bid worth the spent lives of the murdered? Are the little geopolitical gains worth the shed blood? Is it worth taking a single life for admission into an exclusive club? The cyber-world was outraged by the sick lynching of Troy Jones - and rightly so - and mobilized in vain to stay it. Alas, the bastard got it. Who in America, who is Libya, who in the world is working on ensuring that the Husseins and Hamids and Hadijas across the world are not hunted down by new technology?

I guess this is the price one must pay to belong…sort of like the initiation for an uncertain gang member. Obama must be proud of himself that he has arrived. He is a almost a full member of the gang now.

TAWk's Knowing Scent of Thee Olde Ways

2011-09-02T17:57:00.002-04:00

The eclectic trip-hop collective TAWk is out with two scents, the masculine Inspiration, and the androgynous Elevation; the first flaunts a truly masculine edge, while the latter flirts with a naturally sexy aroma. Both surprisingly classic fragrances fall right into the category of traditional top-shelf, mostly-masculine scents: musky, outdoorsy, strong. Just like TAWk's one-love cultural worldview and post-difference post-category flavor, a whiff of the stuff...and one is buoyed on a luxurious trip, indulging in evocative olfactory experiences reminiscent of familiar comforts and fulfill-able desires. Obama, Kobe, Mos Def, Phelps, in fact any man of means who dares to wear his potential on his chest will conveniently wear either scent with comfort and ease and a deserved sense of entitlement.The new iiiTAWk scents - Inspiration and Elevation - are an attractive, complex blend of smoky organic herbs created exclusively by cosmetic chemist Michael Marano. Marano mixes his fragrance notes as TAWK does with musical ones. Says the collective's MeWe about the modern, sophisticated, but playful scents and their creator:

“I’ve been approached on several occasions to produce a fragrance for TAWk…and I have always had my reservations. But this time it felt different; when things are right, we have the ability of knowing…I was getting real good vibes from Michael Marano (the creator of iiiTAWk perfume). I love the fact that his recipes are all natural. It took us a few months to perfect the formula because of the distance, but here we are”

The excitement of Marano the intense skin therapist is palpable. His entire life has led to the creation of the iiiTAWk scents Elevation and Inspiration. “TAWk’s music has been such an inspiration to me. Working in this field I am constantly making different products and I would typically be listening to TAWk as I formulated. This was the initial catalyst that started our collaboration. I could smell TAWk’s vibe and attempted to recreate the emotion MeWe was audibly rendering, and then translate it through an olfactory medium...I have found my path, my destiny. I love what I do and my work comes from my heart. I believe when people sense the passion and the art behind anything we have created, it can transcend most barriers”, gushes the New Yorker.Unlike other men’s fragrances, the iiiTAWk scents are surprisingly minimalist, yet elegant, and authentic. Marano hand-blends organic scents - at times irreverent but always powerful - that complement the body’s other senses, with “juxtaposed notes that are light, exotic, and sweet, colliding against elements that are dark, spiritual, and clean [and] demonstrating the obverse symmetry of life,” an official iiiTAWk release describes. “What I feel from the scent is that it’s absolutely and completely me! It’s part of my DNA, my story. The recipe that's in the iiiTAWk fragrance works differently on each individual allowing each to tell his own story”says MeWe.The masculine Inspiration evokes fragrances of old masterworks deliberately wrapped in weathered leather, while the unisexual Elevation conjures up images of luxury. Both fragrances “weave a tapestry of color that dances through the air reminding us not to take life too seriously… provoking a childlike wonder that is playful and lighthearted yet grounded in stark reality,” says Marano. Since only the highest quality natural organic essences are sourced to make the perfumes, both fragrances smell uniform, wear uniquely, and as a result translate into unique aromatic narratives that have longevity and are designed to balance individual wearers’ distinct body chemistries. They are seductive, functional, rich, available, and hell-yeah sexy. Says Marano:

“I wouldn't say there is a targeted user group specifically; both perfumes were created with the idea of men, woman and children wearing them; that is, perfumes for everyone, for all seasons, day and night. We wanted it to be extremely natural and of the highest quality. We knew the TAWk family would appreciate how natural it is which also leads to the unique wear the perfumes have"

Like the music of TAWK, the fragrances transcend category and pidgeon-holing. They will feel natural to any wearer irrespective of difference, age, race, creed, religion, sexuality or swag. For the scent behind Inspiration, Marano displays top notes of lily of the valley, cilantro, geranium, bergamot and coconut with alchemic prowess; its base notes are of ambroxan, dark amber resin, black coffee, Indian cypriol and dark patchouli. These notes surround a spirited heart of dark chocolate, berry, wild flower honey and rum, producing an original fragrance that is well-balanced and flavorful, with a beauty that flies immediately out of the vial and comforts the essence! The Elevation scent is fresh, warm, seductive, and it flirts with mysterious promise. It’s topped by organic Earl grey tea, kola nut and ho wood, notes that calm, and merge smoothly with the woody base notes. The middle is complimented by black pepper, dark chocolate and dry birch smoke.

Like Inspiration, Elevation is handsome for those long, formal events as it is perfect for casual dos. The longevity of especially the former is amazing and consistent. It has a distinctive mossy, musky note to its scent that opens stunningly suddenly and grabs attention. MeWe adds:

“The iiiTAWk perfumes are just an extension of TAWk’s music, but what it does create is more experience! It creates more relationships, and also allows the fan base to get a closer look inside our world...people get to view another side of the artist; they truly get to chime in”

Both Inspiration and Elevation are scheduled for initial online release while negotiations continue for future distribution through a fine shop near you.

Sudan.

2011-07-10T21:23:00.002-04:00

[For John Garang, Zurich, Switzerland 1999]

One sits high upon a stool
Burnt chocolate with ancient blood shed.
Nuba, her dangling matted locks Whisper
and she nods aye.
Ethiopia, her ankh nostril ring intimates
And her planted soles
Rooted on golden soil
Respond, tapping.

Prostrate men of standing
Worship from the four cardinal points
As if with an opus at her feet
Baring stony rolling souls,
Lapping at her salt of wisdom
At the altar of mystery
Between parted confident thighs:

We come. Teach us.
Explain to us your mysteries
So we may be deserving of the honor
Of sucking the dust off your toes
And licking the marks of your prints
Where you tread, Sudan.
Her eyes, sclera wide and white,
Irises black as diamond
Survey south, espy east,
Watch west, navigate north
And then scan secret scrolls,
Pan on the past,
Foray into the far and near future,
And settle on the center of the universe in the moment
Directly under the sun, also called home.

Her face, wrinkled with wisdom,
Shines in love,
Captivating with the inexplicable.
Usually bewraying naught but sweet truth,
Her mood now saddens in countenance
And her lips spill spells of words,
Her torso heaving rhythmically along with life’s beats;
Her graying crown flirts with heaven’s antennae
And her nipples, jutting out of her breasts
And dark burnt umber skin,
Beam hypnotic charges of intelligence
Across the equatorial belt,
Saying:

What you seek flows before you.
Journeyed have ye all this far
Through the geography of my philosophy
Vandalizing my essence
Messing with my senses
Invading my privacy
Raping my mind…..
And you seek the secrets of my mysteries?!

I am Sudan
I be Ethiopia
I is Egypt
I am.

Recount your travels thus far
From the very first step you felt
Through the dark hot valleys of bliss
And the slippery heights of mortal understanding.
One dark door shall open.
Enter, smell the musk, lift your gaze and palms high
And ask for Grace and Mercy.
And when they do come,
With inscriptions burning the sounds of my names,
See if the picture that materializes before thee
Is different from One who sits high on a stool.

And then when my inspiration is long gone,
That day,
When there is no mirror to reflect my worth,
That moment,
When my zygomaticus are no more
And my face refuses to smile,
That time,
When greed and shame turn my eyes black,
My labia pried apart and infested by uncouth flies,
My royal house counted among your swine,
Then,
Only then must you ask me
‘Sudan, may you tell us about the secrets of your mysteries?!’

One sits high upon a black stool in a turbulent sea,
Naked with divine pride,
Indifferent and yet cognizant of a dire tomorrow
When gaping mouths of wizened infants
Shall groan for wisdom, drowning in the abundance of plenty
When ample chests of royal maids
Shall sag from indignity, the mighty hands of warriors
Hanging limp with impotence;

Foreseeing the plight of her progenitors,
Her chest begins to heave with pain at their agony,
The hull of their lives ravaged by unholy alliances from bow,
The insatiable appetites of capital from stern,
Envy from the greedy skies above,
And indifference from lethargic spirits below,
The keel imploding with confusion.

Washed ashore, her decapitated body,
Sprawled across a bloody landscape,
Weak with disgrace
And pain and geopolitics
And hopelessness,
Shall wail in the silence
While the elements conspire To level her dignity
Until
The coming of age of the royal house
Of she who sits upon a black throne.

Sudan.

David v. Goliath: Christianity Under Fire

2011-06-21T04:56:00.004-04:00

Next Sunday is exactly one month since Carrollton Bank illegally seized by force of arms the sanctuary of Full Gospel Tabernacle Baptist Church. Even though the bank has since prevented church members from any access to the building, your calls seem to be working!!! Thanks. Let us now keep up the pressure on Carrollton Bank and your representatives. Other churches from Gaithersburg and Baltimore are joining Full Gospel in the fight to take back what is rightfully theirs. Just remember, if they can do it to a place of worship, they will do it to you. Your calls to demand justice from them and your reps are working. Carrollton Bank is taking its final stance. Who would have thought that David would kick Goliath behind? Help stop this madness by telling Carrollton Bank to back javascript:void(0)off Full Gospel!!!

The Full Gospel Tabernacle Baptist Church Inc. whose worship center is at 8025 Liberty Road in Windsor Mill, Maryland, has been locked out of its sanctuary by Carrollton Bank headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. On Wednesday May 26, 2011 (without advance notice, warning, court order, sheriff or constable) Carrollton’s agents trespassed on the property, broke the locks, tore down the church signs, disarmed the security system, changed the locks, and then posted their own “No Trespassing” sign and a 24-hour security guard whose duty it was to deny all access to the property. Why would a bank continue to pay an armed security agency to stop Christians from worshiping in their sanctuary?

Where is the outrage? Could this bank have defiled a Synagogue, a Mosque or a Temple in such a manner? What would have been the repercussions?

The seizure of the church's worship place was unnecessary. Simple notice would have given Full Gospel the opportunity to plan an orderly transition, and preserve its institutional operations, values and image. But Carrollton has other plans. At this very moment, it still has possession of Full Gospel's implements of sacred worship which are now subject to desecration by persons who neither understand, respect nor honor what the items symbolize to the congregation.

Carrollton Bank’s illegal seizure of the sanctuary without common courtesy is mere arrogant provocation. If this kind of seizure is tolerated, this society is in a very tenuous and dangerous place where anyone with power and slick lawyers can take any action whether it is legal or sanctioned by the court or not. It is back to vigilante justice.
Help stop these people from continuing to defile Full Gospel's place of worship!

This issue is about the blatant breach by a bank of due process regarding basic rights. To show your outrage, share this with at least 10 friends! and please call the following:

Carrollton Bank HQ – (410) 312-5400; U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division)Special Litigation Section - (202) 514-4609; Elijah Cummings - (202) 225-4741,(410) 719-8777; Gov. Martin O’Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown – (410) 974-3901; WJZ Newsroom - 410-568-7568; President Barack Obama (Switchboard) – (202) 456-1414.

Carrollton Bank Seizes Church Property without Due Process

2011-05-29T21:40:00.010-04:00

"If they can do it to a place of worship, they will do it to you. Following is the outrageous travesty of the unlawful confiscation of Full Gospel Tabernacle Baptist Church's sanctuary by an overreaching Carrollton Bank. Help stop this madness by letting the world know what Carrollton bank is really about. They claim they are about people, but they really are about profits without principles. Tell Carrollton Bank to back off Full Gospel!"

The Full Gospel Tabernacle Baptist Church Inc. whose worship center is at 8025 Liberty Road in Windsor Mill, Maryland, has been locked out of its sanctuary by Carrollton Bank headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. On Wednesday My 26, 2011 (without advance notice, warning, court order, sheriff or constable) Carrollton’s agents trespassed on the property, broke the locks, tore down the church signs, disarmed the security system, changed the locks, and then posted their own “No Trespassing” sign and a 24-hour security guard whose duty it was to deny all access to the property.

This seizure was blatantly provocative, incendiary and unnecessary. The seizure of the church’s worship place, including its implements of sacred worship and place of sanctuary using this type of Gestapo tactic is not only unconscionable but illegal and un-American. Simple notice of pending action would have afforded the church the opportunity to plan an orderly transition, and preserve its institutional operations, values and image. More importantly, the church would have been given the chance to protect and preserve its implements of sacred value which are now subject to desecration by persons who neither understand, respect nor honor what the items symbolize to the congregation.

Again, the bank’s illegal seizure without common courtesy was a power-based, arrogant provocation. Hence the initial opinion of the board and the management of the church were to take the building back using the same tactics. However the church in its wisdom decided not to respond in kind. The church rejected actions which might endanger lives or cause harm to innocent people. It decided to pursue this issue by appealing to people and leaders who value the rule of law, common sense and courtesy.

If this kind of seizure is tolerated, our society is in a very tenuous and dangerous place where banks or anyone with power and slick lawyers can take any action whether it is legal or sanctioned by the court or not. Expensive, slick and unethical lawyers can trump both constitutional rights and common courtesy by using legal nuances. They are breaking laws knowing that the average citizen or church cannot protect themselves from such maneuvers because they cannot afford it.

Again, the church appeals to every law-abiding citizen to show their displeasure of this kind of illegal tactics where lawyers knowingly break the law with impunity on behalf of relatively powerful institutions by writing to Carrollton Bank and anyone who can help achieve civility and order in this matter. Pick up a phone and call any and all the parties below. Let them know your outrage regarding the defiling of Full Gospel's sanctuary.

This issue is about the blatant breach by a bank of due process regarding basic rights. To show your outrage, share this with at least 10 friends! and please call the following:

Carrollton Bank HQ – (410) 312-5400
U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division)Special Litigation Section - (202) 514-4609
Elijah Cummings - (410) 685-9199
Ben Cardin - (202) 224-4524
Barbara Mikulski - (202) 224-4654
Gov. Martin O’Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown – (410) 974-3901
The Sun – (410) 332-6000
WYPR Newsroom (NPR 88.1 FM) – (410) 735-1619
WEAA Newsroom (NPR 88.9 FM) – (410) 319-8888, (443) 885-3564
WJZ Newsroom - 410-568-7568
The President (Switchboard) – (202) 456-1414

"Carrollton Bank Seizes Church, Bars Members from Worshiping. Help Stop Them Now!"

Send emails to the following regarding this injustice:

Carrollton Bank: responsecenter@carrolltonbank.com, nick.madigan@baltsun.com, justin.fenton@baltsun.com, talkback@baltimoresun.com, laura.smitherman@baltsun.com, julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com, dan.rodricks@baltsun.com, skhalid@wypr.org, talkback@baltimoresun.com, sandra.cooper@morgan.edu, scheduler@mikulski.senate.gov, press@cummingsforcongress.com, wade@chieforganizer.org, countycouncil@baltimorecountymd.gov, council2@baltimorecountymd.gov, council4@baltimorecountymd.gov, council5@baltimorecountymd.gov, council5@baltimorecountymd.gov, general@ij.org, aclu@aclu-md.org, lcoakley@nul.org, mom@gov.state.md.us, general@ij.org, aclu@aclu-md.org, lcoakley@nul.org, mom@gov.state.md.us, washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org, mayor@baltimorecity.gov, skhalid@wypr.org, talkback@baltimoresun.com, sandra.cooper@morgan.edu, scheduler@mikulski.senate.gov, press@cummingsforcongress.com, washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org, www.colorofChange.Org

Help protect the rule of law! Join the discussion on Facebook at The Equity Movement by clicking this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Equity-Movement/119374994744152

Subway Ride o5.2i.2oii

2011-05-22T14:47:00.005-04:00

Mustn’t there be a major riot?
Some failed definitely certified idiot
predicts the end of life on earth today
and national media these views replay?

A good ride from Rogers Station to Charles Street
may unruffle my anxious mind, cool this crazy heat,
and print a lasting taste of Baltimore in my heart,
breathe in some culture and embrace some new art.

Up the escalator, wrestle mechanical bouncers,
stroll along patient platforms aloft to East
and get swallowed by an indifferent beast,
spitting destinations from drunken announcers.

Start: beep beep! Doors clang together…
“This is the Eastbound train to Johns Hopkins Hospital,
The next stop is …”

Rows of stubborn townhouses whiz by.
In the blur they seem desolate and shy.
Their flight is broken by happy trees
with nubile branches dancing at ease.

Unperturbed utility poles defy elements -
hot one day, unfriendly the next, like scents.
Gas stations, empty auto repair workshops,
parking lots, busy liquor stores, wailing cops

and more trees covering ugly walls
of uninspired, mispelt graffiti calls.
This is what MTA subways bring:
“The next stop is West Cold Spring.”

Continue: beep beep! Doors clang together…
“For your safety and comfort,
this vehicle is being monitored…”

Dark sucking tunnel attacked by shooting lights
on either side like bullets flying in the nights,
unruly youth bent on breaking simple laws
designed to lead to the penal system’s jaws.

"Next stop is Mondawmin," follows a beep.
Dark skins descend and throng the deep;
wheelchairs and prostheses transport leisurely
stripteasers, junkies, and wannabe-pimps wearily

who dispense cursory hellos and goodbyes
with air kisses, backslapping and batting eyes
to connections, kin, neighbors and frenemies
all destined east like purposeless human bees.

Continue: beep beep! Doors clang together…
“Please be mindful” the speakers warn,
“of MTA prohibited acts…"

Lighter skins in filthy McDonald uniforms,
snore as loose precocious kids wave their arms.
Police presence manifests in better-lit caves
bursting with sour-smelling overheavy babes

flirting with little men of various cults
wasting away from snorting bath salts
bobbing to lurid tunes emanating from little hos
sexualizing to rationalize their inherited woes.

A Muslim hawker pushes perfumes in vials
in supersonic street slang all along the aisles.
While the train announces Upton/Avenue Market
third world tourists retrieve maps from pockets.

Continue: beep beep! Doors clang together…
“This is the Eastbound train to Johns Hopkins Hospital:
The next stop is…”

A clueless tourist gets schooled by two natives
with an iPad patting and scratching their weaves.
Another is engrossed in games on cell phones
blasting intermittently special effects ring-tones.

Nymphs chirp loudly regarding unsafe sex
while an aged gay man with his faux Rolex
switches back and forth with an umbrella
clutched by a crooked left wrist like a koala.

A vacant African woman in full dark sartorial
reeking of homemade incense, musk and oil
shifts away from passengers refusing to share space
while the beast says “This is Shot Tower/Market Place”.

Continue: beep beep! Doors clang together…
“For your safety and comfort”, the beast assures,
“this vehicle is being monitored…”

More pastier skins with fancy headphones
reading from tablets about their loans
wear orange Orioles and purple Ravens jerseys
as if somehow these are needed on these journeys.

Inviting unapproachable ladies with locked crowns
squashed with repulsively unclad bitches with frowns
ignore a bald lady in all-reds without pity
and an androgenous mulatto pool of humanity

whose identities, spiritual or otherwise, defy all odds,
all codes, all sense and every meter given by the gods.
And soon enough, the beast announces as if on beat
my destination: “Charles Street, this is Charles Street.”

Continue: beep beep! Doors clang together…
“Please be mindful of MTA prohibited acts.”
The giant millipede’s final warning

rings in my ears as I jog up the broken escalator,
wrestling with a mean menacing mechanical bouncer.
I stroll outside to enjoy a taste of the street feast
after being vomited out of the big indifferent beast.

The faces of the walls and humans and machines
and the scavenging fiends and catwalking queens
bewray no anxiety regarding the aforementioned
announcements predicting this very world’s end.

Am I ready for existence after this rapture today?
Does it even matter? It’s my sister Foriwaa's birthday.
I guess I’ll pop in a bookstore and get her a card
before I jump back into the beast toward my yard

where i'll hear two beeps, doors clanging together…
“This is the Westbound train to Owings Mills!”
End.

that flower called Diona.

2011-05-16T17:47:00.006-04:00

Trembling, in the mild manner of a child,

Like a fresh flower out of its secure vase,

Dallying, dancing naked in Life’s amorous breeze

Fickle, inadvertently flirting with untold ease,

Like a statuette devoid of its original base

Unsteady, yet ably capturing her beguiled.

The presence of her essence is incense

To the tangled hormones of licentious egos;

This is sex to the gods, their souls wooed

Into colonizing fools with an enraged mood

If only for a moment, like the stuff of heroes -

One sniff, and it’s all just effervescence.

Quivering, her bashful petals softly pry open,

At the fleeting kisses of dandy Dawn's dew

Heavenly rays denude her airs even further

And she is revealed without her careful cover

As lover, as blood, as a dream in full view

Alarmed of Morning’s promise, scared of hoping.

Delicate Diona, deity demystified by nonchalant Time,

What desireth her poor craving restless heart?

Where does she whisht her swollen pollen to blow?

As unhurried Dusk gathers the remains of Sun’s glow

Where would she and her fading dreams agree to part?

Will Life’s garden of stones pacify her in this clime?

From the forthcoming collection of poems "Dream a Song" by Nana S. Achampong

Who's Victory Is It Anyway?

2011-05-04T16:13:00.003-04:00

A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll published yesterday Tuesday May 4 finds that (shock!) Conservatives in America believed that, in the matter concerning the killing of Bin Laden, George W. Bush deserved more credit than President Obama. Their assertion was based on the weird understanding that Bush was president when America declared war on the Al-Qaeda master-mind so, almost a decade later, it was only logical that the win be attributed to him.

That silly little vacant Rush Limbaugh this morning spewed out during his equally fatuous radio broadcast that Obama was just performing his duty as Commander-in-Chief, and that the kill wasn’t such a big deal. Any president, he contended, would have done the same on their watch. So, he queried, why the hoopla about ‘Obama’s gutsy decision’ and all that.

Limbaugh of course conveniently forgot that Bush had been offered just such a moment to be gutsy at Tora Bora in 2002 at which he failed miserably to take advantage. After the towers were hit and brought down, Bush’s competence and leadership were not questioned. It was the sum of intelligence bequeathed by his predecessor Clinton that was blamed.

Today, Bush’s war architect, the clueless, ignorant and unsurprisingly arrogant Don Ramsfeld, who was unable to capture Laden in that foray, has mastered the nerve to add his two cents to the matter. In the strangest most convoluted manner, he leads a horde of war-mongering Righties including Peter King, Karl Rove, Lindsey Graham and, of course, Fox News to shamelessly attribute the Obama victory to information garnered from prisoners by the use of torture. This plot has three goals: first, it delegitimizes the non-Caucasian president and minimizes whatever he does; two, it vindicates Bush and his henchmen from the futile, purposeless, criminal techniques they used on prisoners; finally, it presents such an obviously uniting national event as a divisive, partisan, issue of opinion that can be span and rewritten in any manner desired by politicians and their echo chamber, the beltway media.

Granted. It takes a lot to capture a wanted fugitive. These matters do not happen overnight. The hunt is expensive and time-consuming and is based on information gathered from the piecing together of myriad data from various sources by a variety of experts and agencies. And since it is incremental, I suppose the victory should belong to the entire community, namely America and Americans…and not Obama per se. The truth of reality however is that the unique circumstances and forces of events presented themselves on Obama’s watch. And boy did he answer the 3 Am call.

If the Conservatives are that desperate to take credit for everything happening now – under the African American President Barack Hussein Obama – let them. But how do they propose to eat their cake and still have it? How do they blame the president for the mutilated global perception of America, the damaged fiscal condition the country is in, and the extreme sense of division left behind by George Bush while at the same time praising Bush for any successes arising from the valiant attempts by Obama to repair and enhance the mess?

Now just imagine if this mission on Sunday had failed…who would be getting the blame? So who's victory is the Ben Laden kill?

Back to reality: since the pretext for the Afghanistan invasion was to capture/kill Osama and his Al-Qaeda clique, and since the major goals have been achieved, the question is: should America still be spending billions of much needed money and thousands of unembloyed lives meddling in other peoples’ business arrogating to herself and pretending to be the trooper of the world? I wonder. What would Donald Trump say?

and the placenta?

2011-05-03T23:03:00.000-04:00

Of Deficits and Debt Ceiliings: Another GOP Smokescreen

2011-04-15T16:40:00.003-04:00

The confused Republicans, in their desperate bid to regain the reins of power - as all politicians are wont to do - have managed rather successfully to change the discussion in mainstream America (definately in DC and among the Beltway media) from the nurturing notion of the pursuit of happiness (life and love and joy and jobs and such) to the apocalyptic diagnosis of "National Debt" (which is the cost of doing business in ONE year of the nation's total federal budget deficit) and the evil "Debt Ceiling".

The first part of the narrative is that in 10 years the American government - and by inference the American people - will wallow in debt to the tune of $14 Trillion; the second part maintains that the weight of the debt will be so heavy and unbearable that it will crash the country and grind it into a powder of hoplessness ala old Europe (Portugal etc). American youth thus will be enslaved by the evil Chinese machine and worked in their sweat shops endlessly.

The GOP reasoning is that Washington should do what ordinary American families do: live within their means. Simple as this sounds, most Americans live under their means. Most Americans are able to survive only because of some social net from DC heaven. In addition, most Americans are banned from printing the money they need; Washington has the power to, and indeed mints dollars as and when needed - nay, wanted.

This scare tactic may be cyclical since both Dems and Reps (opposing teams in this game called national politics) tend to use it whenever there is the need to introduce some fear and uncertainty factor among the lackadaisical general population. Yet, as predictable as this may be, Obama and his lot seem to have securely bought into the present reinicarnation of this paradigm.

The truth is, in its couple of centuries of existence, America has always had varying degrees of massive deficits. The deficits are the engines that push the economy. These are the periods when the economy thrives and innovation rears its head and hopeful leaders emerge. These are the times when the Russel Simmonses are born and the Kobe Bryants soar and the Zora Neal Hurstons create.

In truth, in the handfull of times when the country has lowered its deficit significantly or enjoyed a surplus, the U.S. economy has tanked. Everything slowed down, complacency stepped in, and Americans become heartless, souless zombies.

Why do Dems follow the GOP's talking points?

Van Impe, The Anti-semitic conspiracy, and Obama the Anti-Christ

2011-04-04T21:56:00.006-04:00

I was watching Baltimore's CW (WNUV) last night when an infomercial came on. It was from the Jack Van Impe Ministries, featuring the "Walking Bible" Jack Van Impe himself with his wife blonde bimbo sidekick Rexella.

Once upon a time Impe was nationally known as a fundamentalist Baptist crusader, when he played second fiddle to Jerry Falwell. Today he claims he has discovered the “spiritual riches” found ONLY in Roman Catholicism and in the Papacy of Rome.

Impe the born-again televangelist talked in his infomercial for close to half-an-hour about apocalypse, the rapture and the second coming of Christ Jesus. He laid down the elaborate conditions for this momentous occasion to be ushered in, quoting extensively from the books of Revelations and Daniel.

Impe then settled on the core of his heresy: the New World Order mooted by world leaders since time immemorial (to introduce balance, justice and fairness in world dealings for to ensure equity and representation for all) is the vehicle for this cataclysmic change; and an American president is the designated driver. The new world order is supposed to offer an opportunity for poorer, disenfranchised nations such as Papua New Guinea to be able to bargain fairly with richer, stronger countries such as America. Thus will the world see peace. Impe is emphatic that this is sinful, and in fact is the very concept that will bring the world to an end. Impe screams out loud that this so-called new world order of things that promise peace for all is EVIL. Changes in the status quo is anti-God.

He quotes from the bible and establishes the fact that all this talk of world peace and a new world order is an anti-semitic conspiracy especially designed to wipe out the nation of Israel.

And guess who is behind this all? You guessed right - Barack Obama, the anti-Christ.

"The peace he promises is just false hope," he assures.

Impe questions Obama's christian-ness directly and connects him to Islam through a series of confusing calculations. He further 'explains' that China (representing the east) and Islam under the direction of Obama are plotting urgently to root out all jews from the earth, thereby inadvertently ushering in the promised second coming onto earth of Christ.

But wait, that's not all...His sidekick lifts up a copy of "Attack on Christian America" and Impe warns that if all viewers fail to get themselves copies (of ONLY $24.95) or get one or the other of his numerous zionist rubbish, they are themselves to blame when the time came for him and his fellow jackasses left them behind in the rapture.

Does this idiot actually believe what he's selling on TV? Is his wife blinded by the money they are raking in from this fear mongering? Is his shrink unable to diagnose his mental illness?

O the price of free speech...!

Anatomy of the American Right: A Race Apart

2011-03-30T15:02:00.009-04:00

Who/what is the American Right today? What is their thinking? Is Conservatism an acquired ideology or is it a genetic predisposition?

What kind of person thinks that the right to life ends at birth? Or that corporations have more compassion than humans? What manner of man would whine about welfare mothers and is opposed to increasing the minimum wage for the majority but would count on major subsidies, tax breaks, etc. and cut off his nose to further enrich the very few wealthy?

Well, it is the same person who believes Affirmative Action is unfair. Why them negros still whining after forty years? Hasn't affirmative action already erased the effects of 246 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow? Aint the prezdint one a them?

Regarding the answer to the question of how to create wealth for the country, these people believe that the main method is to cut spending. Period. These guys really believe that cutting taxes for instance increases government revenue, somehow. But then you have to remember that these are the men (and women) who tend to fondle their rifles more than their partners.

These are the idiots who believe that NPR is a communist conspiracy and should be shut down, that the USA is the only 'free' country in the world, claim to value democracy, yet hate democrats, and believe they are 'good Christians' but hate every one who isn't exactly like them. They believe that 'Liberty and Justice for All' refers only to rich, white, straight men, or people like themselves, if you dare to stretch the notion a tad.

They are angry for reasons they are unable to explain; discussing issues with them only makes them the madder...and the more confused. To make themselves feel better, they resort to belittling everything else they do not understand or agree with.
This is why they skeet empty talking points when confronted about their beliefs, hoping that that would make them sound 'committed'.

For instance, they shout 'pro-life', but vote for the death penalty; they scream pro-war slogans, as long as they are not affected personally; they advertize that labor unions are communists (as if communists were some evil, alien race lurking behind their trailers to steal 'American ideals' away) while complaining about workers' rights.

They are made from a different mould for sure: they are designed to have the ability to hear, but are physically incapable of listening. Using this unique ability, they tend to supply simple solutions for every problem no matter how complex. They start by offering tax cuts. And then when pushed further towards reality, they oversimplify the issue. Their solution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic is to defund sex education and addiction management. To solve escalating crime, they want to build more prisons, not schools.

Who are these guys? Well, you see them in Legislative halls, on Fox News, around the Koch brothers, flying American flags around their trailers, spitting patriotic chants, and covering their gas-guzzling trucks with anti-Obama stickers. While for some this definately may be genetic, there are the vocal few who seem to make a successful career out of this pathology.

They are all over the place: like the pompous, ign'ant Donald Trump who just shoots vomit from his backside, the ridiculous, incontinent and very obtuse Lou Dobbs who wanys to multiply his ill-gained means by inciting anti-immigrant rage, the very vacant Glenn Beck whose main belief is that Obama is the anti-Christ (care of Jack Van Impe Ministries) planted in America by the communists to do al Qaida's bid, and all those other gormless freaks whose opinions seem to get stronger and louder the less they actually know about a subject. You see/hear them: Bill O'reilly, Jan Brewer, Shaun Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough, Clarence Thomas, Ted Nugent...

But my pick of the Top 10 Idiots on the American Right this very moment (drum roll) not because they are more foolish that the rest, but because they are the vocal few who seem to be raking in loads and loads of money at the expennse of their mostly hillybilly followers (drum roll) are

1. Sharon Angle [for being such a witch. she forgets her name sometimes. and she would kill - literally - to balance a budget so she can hold on to Nevada]
2. Sarah Palin [for having a small head packed tight with cotton wool, but not caring because she's blundering all the way to the bank]
3. Scott Walker [for being such a douche bag. Unfortunately, as per his use, he will be discarded without much thought after the Koch brothers get through using him to do their dirty work]
4. Michele Bachmann [sadly, this woman is insane. she needs Depakote for real, but like Palin, she seems to make more money the more insane she sounds]
5. Karl Rove [for being just another schnook with unliimited TV face-time]
6. Ann Coulter [for being a shameless, opportunistic jackass. she most definately needs a life]
7. Rick Santorum [for being a bitchy tea-bagger. PS he maintains that he actually believes that evolution is a myth]
8. Darrell Issa [for being a blank tracing sheet who just wants to belong, poor bugger]
9. Chris Christie [for carrying a rather heavy weight complex that has sucked all the rational sense in his fat head]
10. Allen West [for being just another nigger who lost his way]

[this list is not exhaustive. it is not in any particular order]

The Ways of the IMF/World Bank and the Maghreb

2011-03-28T20:35:00.009-04:00

There are a few lessons we can learn from the mayhem in the Maghreb: that it is against the nature of the IMF/World Bank to positively impact the economic or social life of any of its beneficiaries. We can also learn that, by ceding your life to the IMF, your very existence is at their flimsy whims - and they are not afraid to use it, trust me. Glaring as it is, we always convince ourselves that IMF programs fail to work in our neck of the woods because, despite the clever Western models they are fashioned on, 'we' are incapable of doing anything right and end up being the ones who mismanage everything.

Is it possible that these IMF conditionalities are designed TO WORK only by tightening a noose around your scrawny neck so you do their bid?

The countries that make up the Magrheb are among the richest in the world. They have small populations, optimal education, large untapped space, massive stores of natural resources, and lots and lots of money. And yet, somehow, their economic conditions have deteriorated since they jumped into bed this past decade or so with the IMF/World Bank. It has gotten to such an unbearable extent that the region is practically burning down.

The miserable economic conditions in Tunisia, the lack of employment opportunities and and blatant consumption among an elite class in the country pushed the 'man-on-fire' Bouazizi, like thousands of other young men and women in the Maghreb countries, to the margins of society. When Tunisia went up in flames, the national unemployment rate, dangerously understated, stood at 14% (eventhough the real number was more like 31%). It is interesting to note that this conflagration occurs under the watchful eyes of their partner the International Monetary Fund and its agency the World Bank.

The International Monetary Fund had worked hard with the governments of this region to "encourage good governance" and ensure prosperity. This finance body hailed Egypt's 2004 reforms as a move that would trigger the acceleration of growth. Mind you, the youth of Egypt are those most severely affected by the official 10% (but really 24%) unemployment problem. Egyptian graduates have to wait for more than five years on an average to get employed by the labor force administration. Hence, unemployment is highest among the young graduates in Egypt. In such a hopeless situation, what is there to do but freak out?

Libya, which had been the smarter cousin in that family, unfortunately opened up to the world in 2003. Then, the IMF advised Quaddaffi to open up the economy, privatize it, and allow the market (outside capital) to control the destiny. This magic free market pill prescribed for Libya, just as the pills prescribed for Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria, is what has caused the country over 20 percent unemployment (despite massive profits made by certain investors).

Energy exporter Algeria has over $150 billion in foreign currency reserves, almost no external debt, and forecasts economic growth of 4 percent in 2011. They consulted Dr. IMF/World Bank and today they are at the brink of their own demise. According to official figures, Algeria's unemployment rate is around 10 percent, while joblessness among the young is more than twice that figure.

Now understand that I am not one for conspiracy theories and such, but coming from Ghana which suffered terribly under the Structural Adjustment Programs of the IMF in the late 70s/early 80s, I kind-of am a survivor of their unique kind of 'fix'. I know how this world body uses the guise of a handout to work effectively as a noose. They prescribe for us deadly austerity measures that they would not dare hint to their compatriots. They privatize everything we have even as they subsidize their largest 'too-big-to-fail' cartels. They separate the ruling classes from the working masses and work to guarantee civil strife. This i know.

So what is the IMF lesson from the Maghreb? Is it that hunger causes revolutions? Is it that more freedoms must be granted citizens internally to prevent revolt? I am not sure if there's a single lesson. For me, it is the establishment of fact that if you court the IMF, it is powerful enough to bring you to your knees (and its natural instinct is to do so) so as to maintain the equilibrium of Western economies. All without firing a single bullet!

Revolution is for the hungry: Of Empty Bellies, Idleness and Revolt

2011-03-28T15:42:00.009-04:00

Over the weekend, an old Moroccan friend called me from Casablanca. Now, this is the city of cities. This city is in the northwest on the Atlantic Ocean south-southwest of Tangier. It was 'founded' by the Portuguese about 600 years ago (after they destroyed the ancient magnificent city of Anfain), and then handed over to the French. Still, Casablanca, Morocco's largest city (of over 3 million) showcases the best of African culture.

After letting her know how much I envied the idyllic location of her geographical position that very moment, our conversation ventured into current affairs. We talked about today's uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and Algeria and Lybia and the rest of it. And then we talked about yesterday's revolts in Ghana and Nigeria and Togo and Burkina Fasso and all those as well. She wondered aloud if the virus was going to spread to her heaven. And then she asked me:

"What do you reckon are the reasons for revolution?"

Discontent is what came to mind. But after talking through a few scenarios, the following empirical conditions seemed to be present whenever/wherever there was discontent:

1. empty bellies
2. idleness (due to no job prospects)
3. blatant display of comsumption by a few
4. general air of hopelessness

And that is why Morocco will not catch the virus. Despite the hopelessness there, just like in Western countries, a mass revolution is very unlikely. The system has a way of making sure there is enough food - if even genetically modified - to keep the bellies full.

Idleness is filled by mindless television programming (and in the West, available pornography). Consumption, we are told constantly, is what keeps the wheels of the great civilizations turning. So we never become hopeless; we dream of days and times and conditions under which we shall splurge like the celebs and spend our way out of our depression.

Viva Consumption! Viva Marketing! Viva Advertising! Viva Full Bellies!

PS. Casa Blanca means The White House

Scent of Spring

2011-03-25T21:47:00.004-04:00

the very hint of your healing presence
is like the scent of its own essence.
it prays the desolate Winter of my heart
to condense, and break down, part by part -
like thirsty rain upon the distant Libyan sand,
falling in pointless drops - a virgin's garland.

Fall seductively squashed the fruity Summer
with her icy noons and an unwholesome whisper.
she lapped the juices of the season sweetly dry
knowing here is no place for one sunburnt as I.
she rolled my soul into a cocoon of heavy funk,
waitiing the purgatory out in depression's bunk.

hurray! it's the Ides of March: frozen spirit thawing,
flowing, embracing red rivers of madness and mourning.
we all after all bring the turmoil of the season -
mayhem in the Maghreb, sinners scream for no reason,
programmed men follow forbidden bids of their equals
while Mars plays god behind our imaginations' walls.

i smell Spring, the fragrance of the renewal of death,
the period designed to muster the illusion of birth.
i feel the jaded hopes and possibilities in the air
as masses are rewarded with frustration if they dare.
i sense energies awakening around this cemetary of life
just to kiss a moon in full phase to reduce this strife.

Does 'Odyssey Dawn' Quiet Tea Party Obama Concerns?

2011-03-23T20:16:00.006-04:00

For right-wing Birthers and "cultural purists" in this country, 'Odyssey Dawn' must come as a rather terrible cause for a real head scratcher. To them, sudden, swift moves of mindless exhibition of machismo are the exclusive preserve of the GOP. To them one of the major marks of 'American exceptionalism' is their divine capability/ability/desire/passion to blow other nations up to their own caprices. It didn't matter if such foolhardy chest-thumping maneuvres resulted in real casualties. That would be counted as a worthy collateral. For instance, as at December 13, 2010, over a million Americans have died in senseless battles initiated by their presidents. In the past 30 years alone, just in this generation, Americans have invaded/attacked/occupied or otherwise flexed their muscles in at least 10 sovereign nations, bringing the average to one war every three years. This is what the American Right consider 'American'. And they love it.

From 1982 until the end of his term, Reagan messed up Lebanon, blew up Granada, and dropped some bombs on Libya. His successor Bush I attacked Iraq. These men were applauded and deified, they being both Republicans. And they are the Right's national heroes.

Then came Clinton. He went over to Eastern Europe and kicked backsides in Bosnia etc. Despite some reservations, the Right cut him some slack. After all, he was a white, all-American boy from Arkansas. But a hero he was not. After him was another Republican - the malapropic Bush II who took in Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously just to show his predecessors that he carried some pretty weighty testicles. And lived to brag about it.

However, by using his powers as U.S. President to authorize force on Libya (albeit as part of a U.N. coalition), Obama inadvertently joins this enviable rank of his compatriots Eisenhower, Nixon, (even Kennedy), etc. Now, this turn of events is confusing the president's critics to no end: the little heads of Cantor, Pawlenty, Palin, Barbour, Lou Dobbs, Limbaugh, Kudlow and all that bunch of small-minded idiots are spinninig like crazy spin tops. This wasn't supposed to happen. Americans are the hawks. Obama isn't American, or is he?!?!?!

Maybe now that the Kenyan Muslim has shown his true American colors, the Tea Party minions and their puppet masters are going to zip their thin lips and shut the intercourse up!

Congress Should Fund Cancer Early Detection Program - ACS

2011-03-17T19:05:00.002-04:00

The American Cancer Society has called on all citizens to support the Society's Action Network's campaign by urging members of congress to fully fund the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.

This call was made last Sunday October 15 by American Cancer Society's boss Gail Roddie-Hamlin, in her keynote address at this year's annual 4-mile noncompetitive cancer awareness walk 'Making Strides Against Breast Cancer' at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg YMCA at Stadium Place on East 33rd Street in Baltimore.

"Progress has been made with the fight against breast cancer. Numerous studies show that early detection saves lives and increases treatment options. Based in part to our work, today, women's diagnosis has increased significantly. The five-year survival rate for breast cancer is up 98 percent among individuals who test early enough. By encouraging Congress to fully fund this program, everyone will be able to test early," she added.

Roddie-Hamlin explained that the Society is working hard so that fewer women have to suffer with the diagnosis of advanced breast cancer. "We want to provide all women - especially low income women who may not be able to afford mammograms - access to early detection screening and the advancement in technologies," she added.

Over 4000 supporters undertook the four-mile 'Making Strides Against Breast Cancer' walk which started and ended at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg YMCA guided by marshals to keep walkers on course.

Leslie Gerhardt, Senior Vice President of the Society, was ecstatic. "Today's event was awesome. So many people came out to support us and our fight against breast cancer. It shows that many more people are getting to know about the event and are actually participating in raising money. A lot of our sponsors came with hundreds of people to support us".

In an interview, Gloria Jetter, the Maryland Regional Executive Director of the American Cancer Society, ACS, said the main purpose of the Walk is to raise community awareness about breast cancer. "We also use the occasion to honor survivors, and today, I believe we did an excellent job at that. And naturally, we use the chance to raise funds to continue our efforts at early detection, information services as well as research".

She continued: "Almost everyone has been touched by breast cancer in some way. My own aunt is a breast cancer survivor of eleven years. 'Making Strides Against Breast Cancer' not only gives us the chance to celebrate those who've survived the disease, but also to help ensure that future generations are not faced with this life-threatening disease."

According to the National Cancer Institute, between 1991 and 2002, the breast cancer death rate has declined 2.1 percent in Maryland. Jetter attributes this in part to programs such as the walk and others organized by the American Cancer Society. She said an event such as this year's Walk grows every year. "It's amazing. This year, new survivors came forward. Sponsors brought in hundreds of supporters. We really had a great showing today".

Five-month breast cancer survivor Shirley Simms of White Marsh who couldn't participate in the Walk proper due to recent chemotherapy she has undergone said the day's event was very important to her. "It raises awareness about, not only breast cancer, but all cancers, and the funds raised help with technological innovations for the management and cure of the disease. They've come a long way."

For the last three years Simms, has been the coordinator between Rockwell Collins, the company she works for, and the American Cancer Society for the Walk event. Little did she know that she would be benefiting from the fruits of her voluntary work. Simms said she found out about her diagnosis through self-examination. "All women including even young adolescents should do self-examination on a daily basis. That is how I found out I had the disease. It is very important," she stressed.

The Society estimates that 212,920 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women this year alone in the country. About 41,430 will die of the disease. For men, a quarter of the 1,720 who will be diagnosed this year will die.

Jerry Fader, President and Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Automotive more commonly known as Mile One, one of the Society's five flagship sponsors, said his company has been involved with the American Cancer Society and the annual walk for the past six years. "We donate a car each year for the Relay For Life and raise millions of dollars towards research and information. We also sponsor breast cancer awareness, and today we brought with us 340 workers".

Fader who is being honored by the Society for outstanding contributions towards their objectives said he is very passionate about the search for a cure. "My wife is a lung cancer survivor and the disease is very real to me".

Luwanda Jenkins of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, another flagship sponsor, in a short speech encouraged businesses and other institutions to support the fight against breast cancer. "It is closer to all of us than we think. That is why we took on the challenge to bring out teams of supporters and make financial contributions towards Society's mission".

The American Cancer Society's main goal is to work towards providing all women the access to early detection screening. 'Making Strides' supports the Society's unique mission to fight cancer on four fronts: research, education, advocacy and patient services. Over time, the Society has invested more in breast cancer research than any other voluntary public health organization. Since 1972, it has funded more than $290 million in breast cancer research, resulting in some of today's treatments.

Five-Year Healthy Marriage Initiative Kicks Off In Baltimore

2011-03-17T18:44:00.004-04:00

Over the next five years, more than seven hundred couples in Baltimore will benefit from the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative, a government funded marriage education program established to strengthen the basic structure of the society. Dr. Cecil Conteen Gray, Pastor of the Northwood Appold United Methodist Church and Head of the Marriage Education and Servant-Leadership Development made these revelations last Saturday December 16, 2006 at an event to launch the city-wide program at the Church's Loch Raven premises.

"The purpose of this Marriage Education and Servant-Leadership Development (MESLD) program is to help build and sustain healthy marriages, and encourage safe, secure, loving relationships that are built on friendship, passion and commitment. That way, we establish partnerships based on respect, trust and willingness to communicate and resolve differences", explained Rev. Dr. Gray.

"It has been five years coming but now we have the funding so we can actually do the things we have been dreaming about all this time. We can get the resources and put the programs in place to actually help couples irrespective of background, or faith, or race. The thing is, there are numerous benefits of healthy marriages: they make children and youth more likely to be productive citizens; they give women a more fulfilling life; they give men a better quality of life and they provide a better standard of living for communities."

The first 'Growth Opportunity', the actual training session, starts January 6, 2007 and will continue until September", explains Gloria Billups, Assistant Program Manager for the project. "These sessions will give participants the tools needed for a better marriage. We all know that a healthy marriage is the beginning of everything. By the end of the first year, we hope we would have provided the skills and information to help people strengthen their marriages."

In 2007, MESLD plans to serve at least 100 couples, ninety percent of whom shall demonstrate healthier practices by the end of the first four-month program. To that end, guests who attended the launching event were encouraged to sign up for the upcoming 'Growth Opportunity' sessions. Apart from tutorials, counseling, retreats and seminars, MESLD's programs would also include a massive public advertising campaign to generate interest among the youth especially about healthy relationships and marriages, and the celebration of city-wide special events.

Katherine Scott of MESLD partner agency Sharon Baptist Church bubbles with passion when she talks about the project. "When it comes to young people, I think it is our duty to help them to make good choices so they can avoid all the nasty pitfalls," starts Katherine, wife of 16 years. "We want to encourage the young to adopt good old-fashioned values such as courtship, abstinence, etc through our workshops, seminars and meetings. And hopefully, we would be able to point a few people on the right path."

Husband Dread Scott, is very optimistic about the program's impact. "I believe some of the most essential things that keep relationships strong are, first, love, and then a willingness and desire to want to be married. If we are able to let people know that, even though it takes a lot of hard work, it can also be exciting and fun, and it is definitely rewarding. If our sessions can let people see that, there is a lot of hope. Like in any profession or any endeavor for that matter, you need to work at it. If we can let people understand that, then we will be getting somewhere".

Fr. Joseph Muth of partner agency St Matthew's Roman Catholic Church says his church and Northwood Appold United Methodist Church (NAUMC) have a long history between them, and that it was only too fitting for Dr. Gray to invite them as partners to assist and help young couples to learn about relationships and practices that augur for strong marriages. "We are committed to the theme of healthy marriages and healthy communities and we are very grateful and proud to be part of this great event".

Catalina Stewart of St. Matthew's United Methodist Church shares Fr. Muth's enthusiasm. "Trust is probably the single most important aspect of marriage. If we are able to encourage more understanding, we should see people ending up with a better life." Other project partners are Northwood Appold Community Academy, the Family Tree, and Morgan State University.

As the day wore on, participants took turns to share their experiences regarding marriage and relationships while a group of young couples readying themselves for the big leap looked on with rapt attention. In a particularly humorous address, Dr. Benson, married to his wife for 59 years, reduced the secrets of a successful marriage to "honesty, humility, humor, and holding. Just keep it simple, brace yourself that you are in for the long haul, use humor, stay honest and faithful, respect your spouse and you shall definitely reap the benefits of this sacred institution"

Sonia, wife of Dr. Gray for the past fifteen years, agreed with her husband that the secrets to a successful marriage included love, commitment to making the journey, and ability to communicate. "There are bound to be problems. After all we are all human. That is why it is important that we can provide resources such as this to inform people about the realities of life, of relationships and of marriage".

In a related development, the Administration for Children and Families at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in partnership with five universities and Child Trends of Washington, DC, launched in April 2006 www.healthymarriageinfo.org, a national healthy marriage resource center to provide information to millions of married Amercians.

The event was compeered by V. G. Billups

Earl "The Pearl" Joins BPH Fight

2011-03-17T18:24:00.004-04:00

Four-time NBA All-Star Earl 'The Pearl' Monroe returned to Baltimore Thursday July 20, to add his voice to the call for men to check up regularly to prevent prostate cancer. At a well-attended press conference at Baltimore City Health Department Men's Health Center on West North Street, The Pearl answered questions about the disease as part of a national campaign to educate men about male urinary symptoms.

Baltimore is the fourth stop of the campaign which began in October last year. "My main message is to urge men to get regular check-ups. It's all about early detection. Needlessly, I suffered for three years," Monroe said of his own battle with the disease.

"I'm a prime example of a person who didn't like to go to the doctor. After three years of suffering benign prostatic hyperplasia, BHP (an enlargement of the prostate gland that is common in aging men), my wife convinced me to go. One week after consultation and after being put on medication, I was doing better already".

Earl Monroe, now 61, wearing his NBA's 50 Greatest All Stars ring, said the disease affects nearly 15 million people in the country. He stressed the need for proper diet and regular exercise and charged all to go out and spread the word. "Tell everyone. It's about quality of life"

The cheerful 1990 NBA Hall of Fame inductee, who played for Baltimore Bullets for four years, said "it is a privilege to come home again. It's been a heck of a journey and I'm glad to be back."

During the visit, The Pearl, who was instrumental in getting the rival New York Nicks to win the 1973 NBA championships, spent time with his daughter Danielle and grand child who live in Baltimore.

The national campaign is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc which co-markets Flomax, the medication that treats Monroe who now divides his time between public speaking, running his Long Island-based Reverse Spin Records and The Pearl Restaurant.

Thomas Higgins, Acting Director of Men's Health Center, MHC, said the unit was opened six years ago to provide quality, comprehensive out-patient services for men in Baltimore City who don't have health insurance. "It is promoting health for men. Our motto is 'Building healthy families one man at a time'."

Assistant Commissioner of Adult School and Community Health, Francine Charles described Monroe as a real pearl with flair and sportsmanship on the court and a big heart for life.

Mr. Jerard D. White, a 27-year old account executive with 92-Q believes The Pearl is an idol especially among older gentlemen and his message will go a long way to help get more men who would otherwise not be too interested to test. "I think it is important to get athletes like him to come out and speak out."

Michael Hurd, 65, who works for the Health Department, said he was glad Monroe is back and spreading the word. "He is doing a great thing. Women always go to the doctor, but men shy away from it. I always test. And I think it is great that he is lending his weight to the cause. It is really important for us to test."

African American men, who are at a greater risk of getting the disease, are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than their white counterparts. Last month a group of Baltimore residents led by C. Hines Early and Rev. Dr. Maceo Williams, both prostate cancer survivors, met at the 3rd Fathers' Day Breakfast held at the Martin Luther King, Jr Methodist Church in Windsor Mill, Baltimore to publicly discuss the disease.

"Our main focus is to spread the word about early testing. It's like we are planting a mustard seed. So far we have succeeded in getting a lot of men to test," C Hines Early, the event coordinator, said then.

More than 180,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed each year in the country and more than 30,000 men die from it. For reasons yet unclear, the highest rates of prostate cancer are among men of sub-Saharan African descent. And because of their greater risk of getting the disease and poorer survival rates after the cancer is detected, African American men are disproportionately dying from it.

"Survival rates for all stages of the disease have steadily improved over the past 30 years. For men with the disease that has not spread beyond the prostate gland, only one in a hundred will die from it within five years. This is why our best defense is early testing. By testing early, if you find out that you have it, you've got a better chance that it can be treated effectively," Rev. Dr. Maceo Williams added.

"Our best defence is early detection, but let's try and live a more restful lifestyle and hopefully we may prevent it. Even though statistics say you become prone to the disease when you hit 50, I would suggest that the men in our community start testing from age 25 and then once every year from

Howard Rollins Jr. Inducted into National Wax Museum

2011-03-16T22:03:00.003-04:00

Ten years after his untimely death, actor Howard E. Rollins, Jr. has become the first Marylander to be inducted into the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. The wax figure of the late Baltimore-born actor was unveiled last Thursday October 26 at the Classic Senator Theater on York Road.

Also at the impressive event that was sponsored by the Howard E. Rollins Foundation was the premiere of "An Evening with Howard", a fifty-five-minute documentary about the life of the Oscar-nominated actor.

Presenting the wax figure, Dr. Joan Martin, co-founder of the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum - probably the first black history wax museum in the world - said she was enormously proud to be part of the effort to preserve Rollins' legacy. "We are aware of his tremendous contribution to film, theater, and acting, and we are also aware that he paved the way for so many actors who continue to come after him. We had a vision of permanently portraying the rich African American history in a major museum in wax figures, and in written and oral forms. Rollins fits right there with the rest. Tonight is also to help realize the dream of his family".

The unveiling of the life-size wax figure which was simulcast in the Senator Theater lobby, was done by the late actor's mother, assisted by his sister Hattie Fields, who is President and Chair of the Howard E. Rollins Foundation, Inc. Fields, and other members of this close-knit family, after which guests solemnly milled and interacted.

Fields, described by event compeer and former NAACP President Hon. Kweisi Mfume as the guiding light and force behind the induction effort, said she was humbled by the love she felt around her.

"'Nicey' [Rollins] leaves a legacy of achievement, accomplishment, and promise for those who are willing and determined to pursue their dreams and careers in film, theater and television. And that is why we established the Foundation. Our mission is to continue Howard's legacy by awarding scholarships to inner city, minority and disadvantaged youth and by providing them with cultural and educational programs in the performing or film arts. And we also strive to identify young talent, give incentives and recognize those who are out there and need inspiration and support through awards. We want them to know that we believe in them and they can dream the impossible dream and see it come true. With your support, we will accomplish our mission in Howard's name for years to come".

"Tonight is about dreams, it is about achievement, it is about accomplishment and it is about recognition", started Master of Ceremony Kweisi Mfume. "This is in many respects the culmination of a great deal of work, the celebration of a great life and the commencement of a great opportunity here in Baltimore to recognize one of our own. Tonight really is about dreams and the courage to act on those dreams," explained the former Senator who presented Fields with a posthumous citation to the late actor from Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley "for the splendid quality of public service which [he has] rendered". Another citation from Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich went to the Rollins Foundation in recognition of their commitment to the preservation of the actor's legacy.

Earlier in the evening, the audience which included students of performing arts from Towson, Coppin State, Villa Julie, UMBC, and Morgan State universities and guests from near like Sen. Lisa Gladden and far away as Hugo Weinberg from Paris, France, were treated to the premiere of Baltimore film maker Steve Yeager's award-winning "An Evening with Howard", a fifty-five-minute documentary about the life of the Oscar-nominated actor.

The film documented the extremely diverse career of Howard Rollins who fortuitously broke into acting as a teenager in Yeager's production of "Of Mice and Men" at the Spotlighters, and followed his move through the business as he worked steadily on stage, screen and film, earning numerous nominations, awards and accolades and acclaim.

Sundance Film Festival laureate Yeager recalls their first meeting: "Actually, Howard came to the audition as a moral support for his friend Frank Knox who was trying out for a role in the play. Howard won the part but was so nervous opening night I literally had to shove him on stage when I heard his cue. Howard Rollins' career had begun."

"An Evening with Howard" chronicles Rollins' early roles as 'Slick' on the nation's first black soap opera, "Our Street", his sojourn in New York working the stages on Broadway through his rise onto the big screen as 'Captain Davenport' in "A Soldier's Story", and as 'Coalhouse Walker Jr.' in "Ragtime" (a role he beat O. J. Simpson to) that won him a rare nomination at the 54th Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. In between the montage of film clips, tributes by colleagues, family and friends, and television interviews, the director sprinkles overly sympathetic takes of some of Rollins' unfortunate escapades in drugs, rehabilitation, unfulfilled come-back attempts, illness and finally, death at 46 to lymphoma.

"When I was filming "On The Block", Howard took time off from playing 'Virgil Tibbs' in the TV version of "In The Heat of The Night" with Carroll O'Conner to come to Baltimore and play the lead role in my movie. He was that kind of friend. Tonight's film presentation is my tribute to my friend's life and career," Yeager said tearfully.

"I said to Hattie, 'if there ever comes a time to make a documentary about my friend, please call me. I am the only one who should do it.' This movie shows his acting experience. There's a legacy there. He did bridge a gap between Sidney [Poitier] and Denzell [Washington]. I intend to extend the documentary into a full feature film for the whole world to see", he concluded emotionally.

The keynote address was delivered by Baltimore's inimitable John Waters, the witty off-beat icon who has directed some sixteen cutting edge films including "Hair Spray", "Pink Flamingo" and "Cry Baby". Lutherville-born Waters who never actually met Rollins, traced parallels both real and imaginary between their backgrounds, history, upbringing, crafts and careers using humor and wit to raise the temperature of the otherwise solemn occasion.

"They talk about him as a great black actor, which makes me very angry, because he is just a great actor. Period", the world renowned photographer and author of five books observed.

Elaine Beasley cofounder of the Young Film Makers presented two Howard Rollins Awards, based on merit, to deserving teenagers in her program "who displayed notable personal growth and are true to their passions of aspiring to great things".

She praised Rollins for setting "high standards for performance on the stage and the screen which continues to serve as a model for aspiring performers everywhere. In partnership with the Howard E. Rollins, we know we will be able to find other disadvantaged kids who may grow into becoming celebrated actors, filmmakers, production designers and achieve whatever dreams they allow themselves to dream."

Mentally Ill and Homeless Crisis Getting Worse

2011-03-16T21:53:00.001-04:00

African American men are generally overrepresented in the country's homeless population. Their numbers are disproportionately higher among the 2.5 to 3 million persons who are made homeless every year. And the number is rising, according to census statistics. According to a 2005 census, about 82 percent of homeless people in Baltimore were African-American; about half of them lacked high school diplomas and therefore reported annual incomes under $10,000 a year. The story has not changed. If anything at all it is getting worse.

"This homeless phenomenon is driven by high housing costs and mental illness coupled with other social factors such as higher poverty rates and lower unemployment rates," explained Nan Roman, President of National Alliance to End Homelessness ( N.A.E.H.), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to mobilize the nonprofit, public and private sectors of society in an alliance to end homelessness. "Generally, I think there are way too many homeless. On a given night, there are about 750,000 homeless in the United States and they are remaining homeless longer and longer," she lamented.

Of the 2.5 to 3 million homeless, twenty-five percent have been documented as mentally ill. These individuals, who are among the most vulnerable on the streets to such dangers as substance abuse, exposure to infectious disease, brutal victimization and exploitation, tend to lack adequate treatment. The consequences are many including worsening symptoms, chronic homelessness, incarceration, victimization and often, suicide.

Unfortunately many of the social workers lack the experience, skills and often the desire to engage and successfully treat the serious and complex problems that this population has. "It is a complex picture and clearly the kinds of appropriate treatment are frequently not there. Residential stability is an important element of any therapeutic strategy for the homeless mentally ill. Where there is increased focus on getting housing faster, there is always an improvement in the state of homelessness and their recovery," Nan Roman noticed. "In cities where the homeless are caught early and accommodated such as San Francisco, Newark, Columbus, Minneapolis and New York, the number of homeless people are reducing in some cities up to 70 percent. Treatment can then be managed properly," she added

In Baltimore, the Maryland Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Outreach Project helps homeless mentally ill people become enrolled in the Supplemental Security Income program by providing services such as outreach, help with record gathering and application completion, and advocacy on the clients' behalf. Starting in 1998, the Social Security Outreach Project coordinated with the Baltimore continuum of care in order to obtain $190,000 in HUD funding each year. The Project, which is geared toward severely mentally ill people living on the street, also takes referrals from the Department of Social Services, transitional housing programs, emergency shelters, and drop-in centers. But they serve only about a 100 people a year

"The bigger picture view is that we are experiencing a net loss of affordable low-cost housing units. There is a big deficit and that is getting worse every year," continued Roman. According to the census, homelessness is Baltimore is up 10 percent. The city alone lost more than 3,000 units of public housing in recent years. The waiting list for public housing now exceeds 18,000 households. The list of people trying to get Section 8 housing vouchers - a subsidized housing program that helps poor, elderly and disabled people to rent decent housing - is over 16,000 long.

"There needs to be more funding for Section 8 housing especially. Otherwise, the future is very bleak," said Carl Mazza, Director of Cecil County's Meeting Ground Homeless community. "It is disturbing that a third of all homeless people in Cecil County is African Americans but even more surprising is this phenomenon of homeless children and the mentally ill. About 33 percent of our homeless residents are children." He added that most of his residents are there because of lack of affordable housing and a living wage.

"We are open and offer accommodation to anyone who is homeless, but with the issues of mental health and employment and other needs, we refer them to other specialized agencies like Social Services and Child Services", Mazza added.

"All these people need is subsidized housing and over 90 percent of them will be stable. All they want is a place to live," said Roman. It is estimated that as many as 8,000 people are homeless in the city over the course of a year. Jules McCarthy, homeless for the past five months and a substance abuser says "I would love to get off the streets. But where do I go? Got no job, no family, no health insurance."

"I am hopeful of the future though because a lot more cities are investing in the housing problem. It is proof that when we refocus on housing the homeless population, we save more on shelters, incarceration, medical bills etc.," she added.

"The Pact" Inspires Baltimore Youth

2011-03-16T21:41:00.003-04:00

About 640 youths from twelve schools predominantly in Baltimore City sat through the sometimes emotional and always inspirational feature documentary 'The Pact' at Charles Theater in Baltimore last Wednesday November 15. The special morning screening of the award winning documentary that follows the story of three doctors who wrote the bestselling book 'The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream' and their newly published children's version 'We Beat The Streets' was organized by The African American Male Leadership Institute, the Urban Leadership Institute and the Dialogue with the African American Male Radio Program

The movie documents how three poor African American New Jersey teenagers, George, Remeck, and Sampsonn who vowed to fight the odds and become doctors, managed to navigate seas of psychological and social challenges, and achieved their goals. They accomplished this - two physicians and a dentist - and are actively encouraging personal goal setting, community involvement and health care awareness especially among the urban youth. The movie traces the story of their deprived background and spotlights the achievement of their dream with emotional scenes of how their current star-studded, glitzy paths cross with the struggling lives of young Malique and his family, and other youth in New Jersey.

Richard Rowe, president and CEO of the African American Male Leadership Institute said the event is an attempt to show young people that they have alternative possibilities and options by exposing them to the story of the three young men who made a choice not to follow the negative stereotypes.

"We have extended our invitation to schools throughout the state, and today, we have students from twelve schools coming to view. Hopefully, other schools will invite us in to continue with this conversation. We gave out books and handouts and work sheets to encourage them to take the initiative and start making their own pacts so we can follow up and keep their focus on the prize," the host of WEAA's "Dialogue with the African American Male" radio program added.

"We believe the film represents young people who are winners. Often times the community gets inundated with stories of men in gangs and prisons. But that is not the complete story. We are here to show them the options available to a young black male. There's no way we can allow 75 percent of our young drop out rates, homicides, drugs, incarceration and the likes to continue. The community has to get involved. We need to let the youth see more images that are positive", explains David Miller, Chief Visionary Officer of the Urban Leadership Institute.

"Our mission here is to be there for the youth. If young people want to succeed, we are here to reach out to them to help them along the way. It is about seizing the opportunity and moving forward," Miller, also a renowned author, added.

Forest Park High School teacher of five years William Nolen, said he brought 32 of his students to the Charles Theater to see "The Pact" because it is important for them to see the options the movie presents. "I grew up in the projects of New York and I understand where the brothers are coming from. Out of say ten friends growing up there, only three of us managed to get out. It is very important to let our young see movies like these because they are going through a lot of issues and all the images they see are about gang violence, drugs, prisons and stuff like that. I wanted to show them something positive".

Like most of the students who packed the venue, the movie's inspirational message and content got Forest Park High Grade 12 student Carvet Funderburk, 18, to say "from what I seen in the movie, it got me thinking. I'd always wanted to be a doctor anyway, but now its got me thinking of actually doing, doing it, researching into where to start and stuff like that."

Grade 11 student 17-year old Anthony McKoy was also moved. "I thought it showed a lot of stuff that you don't see around, that is, for a black man like me, to show me a way out. Before I saw the movie, I wanted to be a stock broker. And when I saw it, it inspired me to go for it. And also be a role model for others."

Community activist Keith Snipes, who, while the students milled out after the film, chanted on "the twenty-first century is yours, the twenty-first century is yours. Seize it" said he has been closely associating with the organizers in their aspirations to make a positive impact on the youth and that he found parallels between the work of the Baltimoreans and that of the Newark natives. "The youth have to see the other side of all that negative stereotypes. Life is about grabbing positive opportunity. That's what the three doctors did. And the interesting twist is that, they continued to stay in their communities and worked. Now that is a strong statement."

LaMarr Darnell Shields, President of Urban Leadership Institute, says he saw the movie in terms of offering hope despite challenges. "I grew up poor and fatherless in Chicago. My mother always told me not to let my circumstances dictate my choices and outcomes. I never use poverty as a reason. I use it as a solution. Today, I was in tears watching the movie because I knew that the young men in the theater were going through the same things that the three brothers went through. Later on I asked one of the students to describe the effect the movie had on him, and he said 'inspirational'. I felt then that we have at least started something."

The young, widely traveled social activist continued: "The interesting thing is, these are brothers in their thirties and it showed everybody in the room that they can make it too. It says that even though they came from humble beginnings, they went on to right the end of their life. At the end of the film, Malique goes inside saying he's going to be the next chapter of the 'Pact'. I thought that was a very fitting ending."

"We believe that the issue of liberating our youth is not only our duty but our mission. We have lost too many boys to drugs, disease, prison and our charge is to try and mobilize our young people to engage in overcoming the stereotypes," charges the tireless Rowe.

According to Miller, the Urban Leadership Institute believe this issue of improving the quality of life for black males is the single most important challenge that has to be dealt with. "In a tangible way to move forward, we run a Saturday School, the Paul Robeson Academy at the University of Baltimore, which has 35 African American students who are taught academics and practical aspects of manhood. If we don't deal with this issue, we're in trouble. Our black males are going to prison at high rates. And that is the dominant picture we see. We've got to show them when they are young that they are not destined for prison."

Nolen, on his part, says he will be meeting with his school board to take up that challenge and put together a positive Young Men's Group to make sure that we give them more positive role models so they see the alternatives available to them.

Museum Unveils Historic Black Military History Expo

2011-03-16T21:32:00.002-04:00

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture in Baltimore last Monday showed its rare recently-acquired 27-piece collection which would serve as the center-piece of the upcoming historic exhibition entitled "For Race and Country: African Americans and the Military Experience, from Bunker Hill to Saigon".

The acquisition, part of the Dr. L. Albert and Mrs. Katherine Scipio II Collection of Minority Military Artifacts, consists of rare military items related to African American service from the late 19th through mid twentieth century. The "Discovery Luncheon", held last Monday August 6 at the Museum premises in Baltimore, was an exclusive afternoon of fine food and living history at which the items were previewed.

The Luncheon showcased selected pieces from the Scipio II collection including apparels, uniforms and regalia of various fighting units, ornaments, tools and equipment, maps, documentary items, photographs and graphic materials, rare and out-of-print books on military history, oral history captured on analog tapes and research material.

In attendance were war and army veterans, history buffs, art aficionados, collectors, patrons and family including Scipio's daughter Karyn Salman who flew in from California for the event.

In an interview, the Museum's Executive Director Dr. David Taft Terry said the Scipio Collection was going to be the basis of the "For Race and Country" exhibition which is slated to run for six to eight months in Spring 2008. He said the Luncheon was to offer a more intimate opportunity for patrons, friends and supporters to appreciate a close-up view of the rare items.

"Warrior soldiers have always been accorded admiration and respect with special rights and privileges for the services they render to civil society. The Scipio Collection chronographs the participation of Black people in the United States army. The items reflect some of the most impactful time markers in our nation's history and it has a unique task of showcasing the role of the military in pushing the civil rights agenda, among other things."

On his part, the benefactor Dr. L. Albert Scipio II told me "it took about two-and-a-half years to recognize that I should let this material go to the general public so they will know that people of color did serve in the US army." Talking to an attentive audience with the flag of the 24th Regiment Infantry [Scipio was designated mascot for this regiment when he was three] in all its colors and insignia on his right, the 84-year old Howard University Professor Emeritus who started collecting 79 years ago at five, said it was with "tremendous pride and gratification that I turn over this collection to the Reginald Lewis Museum. The significance is not merely a documentation of the history of African American soldiers but it is geared to a period which we recognize as the segregation of the army," he started.

"I feel so proud that we have been able to hang on to these items that trace the Black American military and its path to becoming part of the regular army."

He lamented the fact that the popular media do not represent the role and part of the Black military in mainstream American history: "Anytime you look at television and you see documentaries of activities during the wars, I look for somebody who looks like me, but it seems we were all out fishing on that day!"

"The Smithsonian also has an exhibition called the 'Price of Freedom' and it doesn't tell the story from an African American perspective and they are not really focusing on what these heroes endured to get freedom," agreed Kathryn Coney, the museum's Registrar.

"That is why it is such a thrill for people to come and see them here. Every single piece has a story, most of them with a name to go with it. And it is kept in such a wonderful condition."

Coney told me that when the museum first acquired the collection, they did not know what they were getting into. After about four months of negotiations with several other bidders, Dr. Scipio chose Reginald Lewis over the US Army because he believed the collection will serve a better purpose in Baltimore. "It is enormous and it is outstanding. It is priceless," gushed Coney.

In his welcome address, the museum's Board vice chairman Aris T. Allen Jr. said the vision of our museum is to share the drama of unknown Marylanders over the years. "We look forward to telling the story through exhibitions such as this. This collection will further advance our mission and vision."

Dr. Freddie L. Harper, Senior Pastor of Truth and Love Lighthouse International Church in Owings Mills quoted rather liberally from the Bible but finally settled on a rather apt allusion: "'for my people perish for the lack of knowledge': now we can be very knowledgeable about our history and our contribution to our country." He continued, addressing the veterans who were present, "we are sitting in history, in freedom, because of what you did, and we should all be ever so grateful and ready to pass the news on."

Clara Floyd, President of the Maryland State Teachers Association which represents over 65,000 members said the event was exciting. "It is a pleasure to be included in something so important. I can't wait for the boys and girls in the state public schools to see these so they will know the role of the African American in the country and appreciate the major contribution we have all given to make our country such a great place to live and grow up."

Asked what item was most important to him, Dr. Scipio, who dedicated the donation to his parents, said his collection spans from the 1770s but he was particularly fond of items number 15 and 20 which are the 369th Infantry Enlisted Tunic (Old 15th New York) and a 1918 Distinguished Service Medal. Registrar Coney was however partial to No. 6, a tan Indian Scout hat which she described as having been "kept in an immaculate condition. It is very rare that you see a hat from the 1800s like that."

"Therefore, when the exhibition opens, let us throng the museum and let the information be part of our knowledge and reality," added Pastor Harper.

Conference on Fatherhood: Overcoming Challenges, Renewing Commitment, Reclaiming Families

2011-03-16T21:19:00.003-04:00

More black men may be staying in college and out of prison, but a staggering 76 percent of Baltimore's African American youth do not graduate from high school. Over 17,000 children of those in school are in special education. These revelations were made by renowned educator Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu in a charged keynote speech at the second Young Fathers Conference held at the New Shiloh Baptist Family Life Center in Baltimore on Thursday June 29.

"There is a direct correlation between illiteracy and incarceration. We can only increase the number of responsible fathers if we can help our youth learn some skills and go back to the Booker T Washington principle of self-help," the author of 24 books added.

Dr. Kunjufu was speaking on the theme 'Fatherhood: overcoming challenges, renewing our commitment, reclaiming our families' at a one-day conference organized by Casey Family Services, Maryland Regional Practitioners' Network for Fathers and Families, and the African American Male Leadership Institute.

"We can put our youth back to work and on track if we can help them learn some blue collar skills, and then we can reduce the number of kids in single parent houses. That will then have an enormous impact on the future of our community. So let us strive to create an environment that will enable our young men to do that."

During the lively eight-hour event, the excited attendees - comprising teenagers, young fathers, representatives of shelters, practitioners from Departments of Juvenile Services, Social Services and Child Support, and advocates - were served gourmet food, a lot of hope and self-help literature.

The event moderator, Darryl C. Green, Male Services Facilitator of the Baltimore Division of Casey Family Services, called on practitioners to be mindful of the state of mind of the clients they deal with. "We need you to be more empathetic towards young fathers regarding child support and the like. By the time they come in contact with you, they already have problems. We ask that you assist them on their way back onto their feet. The fatherhood movement is not anti-women or anything. We are pro-family."

But other speakers put the responsibility back on the young fathers: "This is the time for action. We must stop bemoaning the things that are done to us and concentrate on what we can do. The government cannot do your work as fathers. They can help but we must function as if no one is coming to our rescue," stated Richard Rowe, President/CEO of African American Male Leadership Institute.

"Our communities have now become breeding grounds. 'Fatherlessness' has gone up. Today, let's put our time and strength where our mouth is and use this opportunity to receive information, ideas, and strategies on the all-important work of fatherhood."

The WEAA radio host also expressed concern over the negative images and ideas promoted by popular culture especially in some rap lyrics in music and on reality shows on television.

"We need to sound the alarm now. There is a state of emergency in our community. Responsible fathers are missing. Fathers need to take up their ordained job. This is serious business," charged Dr. Willie Barber, President and CEO of Kelechi, LLC, during a discussion that featured some young fathers as panelists.

"Events such as these provide hope to young men who want to be beacons. That is why we support the national fatherhood movement. We think it is critical work, important work, work that needs to be done. Our kids need the particular support and sustenance that only a father can provide," said Casey Family Services Executive Director, Raymond L. Torres.

"This is a wonderful opportunity. I am pleased all of us have come together to face the crucial issues. There are great benefits to those who want to reestablish communication with their children. I hope new fathers will learn effective ways to navigate the opportunities that the system offers to assist them," added Dedra Layne, Baltimore Division Director of Casey Family Services.

Johnny Rice, II, president of the Board of Directors of Maryland Regional Practitioners' Network for Fathers and Families - which was founded in 1966 with the core belief that with positive male involvement, responsible fatherhood makes a significant difference - said New Shiloh is the perfect venue to discuss the strengthening of our families.

"We must strengthen fathers to better child outcomes. Let's look at today's problems as opportunities to better the future".

Workshop sessions focusing on health, relationships, violence, juvenile justice and empowerment were held. At the closing session, special presentations of six awards and four computers were presented to deserving advocates, practitioners and young fathers.

Panelist Jonetta Rose Barras, President, Esther Production, Inc and author of 'What Ever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl' advocated for faith-based reconciliation centers to deal with family and ancillary issues to help families heal. "We should also involve our young men in Male Pregnancy Prevention to reverse the trend of 'fatherlessness'".

"There has been a lot of talk today. I hope sincerely that this time we can do something concrete from the momentum that has been built," cautioned transition specialist Martha Schaeffer of Baltimore City Juvenile Justice System. However young father and fellow panelist Andrew Moore, who is also a beneficiary of the father's program, said he was hopeful regarding the event's potential. "I thought it was silly at first, just sitting around a bunch of guys, just talking. But it made me finally open up and I realized my problems. Now I am able to deal with the roots of my problems and I thank the Casey Family Services for showing me the way".

The hopeful spirit of the event was further captured in the closing speech by panelist Adeyemi Bandele, Executive Director of Men on the Move. "Fatherhood requires us to be providers and supporters. We've got to lift up and celebrate the fathers that work. We have got to create the support systems that are needed to keep them doing their job. Census figures show that more dads are stepping up".

Milwaukee native unsigned R-&-B hopeful, Cincere, treated the attendees to music from his current album including the appropriately titled "Daddy"

The first Fathers Conference was held in 2004.

Post Office Named After First MD African American Congressman

2011-03-16T21:08:00.003-04:00

An act of law 109-327 has enabled Baltimore's Gwynn Oak Post Office to be renamed after the legendary pioneering congressman Parren J. Mitchell. At a solemn ceremony held at the Enoch Pratt Central Library in Baltimore last Friday January 26, a plaque bearing the name of the frail yet alert 85 year old Mitchell was unveiled to enthusiastic guests made up of family, friends and admirers.

Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, and his team who worked tirelessly to make this possible, said the event was to "honor a great man. Parren Mitchell is indeed one of my true heroes. He is a role model to many of us. He has dedicated his life to opening doors for thousands and thousands of people like me. Whether as a decorated officer who got injured in World War II or a politician or a professor of sociology, Congressman Mitchell has always put at the center of his life the fight for advancement of common people. We express our appreciation tonight for his service to this country, to Maryland and to Baltimore".

Mitchell, who was assisted into the hall in a wheelchair, received a long standing ovation.

Postmaster William Ridenour, who unveiled the plaque flanked by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Hon. Cummings, Hon Kweisi Mfume, Clarence Mitchell III, Councilman Keith Mitchell and other members of the Mitchell family, said the decision to rename the Post Office after Mitchell was easy. "We are doing this to show appreciation for his commitment to public service. He is one of our most distinguished citizens. We are doing this so that this plaque will be hung to preserve his memory and to inspire others".

A teary eyed Mfume, in a short tribute, thanked Mitchell for his life's work. "Thank you for your vision and your foresight and for taking people like me in thereby providing us with an alternative dream and allowing me to be part of the fight for making our lives better. I love you more than words can express."

"His name has become synonymous with economic empowerment", said Gov. Martin O'Malley. "He is a great man indeed and the example he has set continues to inspire all of us. I am proud to be part of tonight's event."
Vernon Reid, Vice President of Enoch Pratt Free Library Board said the event was "to honor a truly great man. His legacy is unique. And we are proud to be associated with the renaming ceremony."

Judge Kenneth Johnson, who flew in from Mississippi for the event, thanked Congressman Cummings and the organizers of the ceremony on behalf of Mitchell who did not speak. "There is none more deserving than Parren," he said. Last year, Cummings and his team succeeded in getting another post office in Baltimore renamed after the late centenarian Del. Lena k Lee.

"Tonight's event means a great deal to me," said Vera E. Holman, President of VLAN Technology. "Parren represented my district when I was in school. And I remember him coming to the school talking to us kids. He was always available and ready to help. It is important that he is recognized as a leader and a pioneer. This will forever establish what he did for this community on our landscape".

The Mitchell family has been very involved with civil rights, and Parren has been at the forefront of it all. You can imagine the struggles he went through to fight to change the system as it was then," chipped in Christopher B. Costello of Public Sector Consulting Group. "It is important that people don't forget who paved the way. Congressman Cummings went out of his way to ensure that this happened. And I think it is a great day for everyone."

Dave Johnson of Johnson Consulting Group remembers that "Parren was very instrumental in empowering a lot of African Americans. It is a great day that his contributions are being recognized. Hopefully the future generations will see it and get inspired by it too."

Mitchell's nephew Councilman Keith Mitchell thanked the organizers and supporters on behalf of the Mitchell family after a vocal request from Clarence III. He recounted his days as a school boy when his uncle Parren would take him on tours of the US Congress. "As I stand here, I feel very honored and privileged that I am in the company of such great men who all owe something to my uncle."

In an invocation, the Rev Marion Bascom summed up the sentiments of those that gathered at the library hall: "Thank God for Parren".

Black Heritage Art Expo is 12

2011-03-16T20:56:00.003-04:00

Over 5000 patrons visited the 12th Annual Black Heritage Art Show last weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center to sample the works of over 100 artists from across the country and beyond. This premiere occasion, the largest celebratory event held in the Mid-Atlantic region during Black History Month, afforded art lovers of all nationalities the opportunity to celebrate African American culture collectively through the use of visual and performing Arts.

Also present at the three-day event that kicked off Friday, February 2, 2007 were some 25 notable personalities including self-taught visual artist Leroy Campbell who designed the show's poster, and seminal all-African-American television sitcom 'Good Times' actress Bernadette 'Thelma' Stanis who used the occasion to promote her new books 'Situations 101' on relationships, and 'For Men Only', her romantic and sensual book of poetry.

Other performers were reggae artiste Angelo Carter, soul jazz singer Avery Sunshine, internationally acclaimed author and playwright Tiffany Alexander who read from her 'Braided in My Hair' book, and blues singer R. C. Holmes.

"This was to showcase local artists and artists from all over who depict our culture through the arts", explained Belinda Merritt, Public Relations Director of the Baltimore-based Visual Arts Marketing Corporation which organized the show.

"Through promoting the work of African American artists, we provide a chance for the community to come together and celebrate as well as support our fund-raising component, proceeds of which go to the African American Visual Arts Association Scholarship Fund to benefit students who wish to pursue careers in the arts", Merritt added.

The Black Heritage Art Show started in Baltimore twelve years ago as a small community program to promote the work of local black artists. Apart from visual art, the show features live entertainment in gospel, jazz and R&B music, spoken-word poets and life-empowering seminars.

Opening the WEAA-sponsored Jazz Soirée, City Council President Hon. Stephanie Rawlings Blake, 6th District, lauded Milton and Glenda Boone who founded Visual Arts Marketing Corporation, organizers of what has become the largest black arts event held in the Mid-Atlantic during Black History Month. Rawlings-Blake presented the couple with a Council President's Citation acknowledging the consistency of their efforts and the significance of its occurrence during Black History Month.

The Black Heritage Art Show, which is presented by Comcast and sponsored in part by, ABC 2, Bon Secour Hospital, Amtrak, MD Lottery, Borders, Upscale, E&J Gallo Wines, and Paint Magazine, has attracted more than 46,000 attendees since its inception.

The show's theme this year as has been always is "A Celebration of African American Culture." Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, Visual Arts Marketing Corporation is a nationally recognized, innovative management consulting firm specializing in event, strategic planning and multi media publicity management. The company is also credited with developing the Annual 30 & Over Soulfilled Cruise Vacation.

We've Failed Baltimore - NAACP Boss

2011-03-16T19:53:00.002-04:00

About 120 young men and women last Wednesday October 25, gathered at Morgan State University's Theater Room to hear NAACP's president admit that his organization has failed the people of Baltimore.

"We've gotten so bourgeoisie. We're disconnected as an organization not only from this city, but from a number of other communities as well. We seem to have reached a point where we don't seem to be touched by the issues affecting African Americans anymore," Marvin 'Doc' Cheatham, President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, confessed candidly as part of a response during Election Forum 2006, a symposium organized by the Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity of Morgan State University.

Cheatham continued that the NAACP has a long way to go "which is why we are trying to bring more young people into the fold. The youth should join the chapters that we have established in institutions such as Coppin State University and here at Morgan State University (MSU) and actively participate and help mould the organization into a more responsive entity."

Cheatham, who was part of a six-member panel of speakers at Election Forum 2006, also chastised elected representatives for failing to honor their promises to the city that got them into office. "Delegates, senators, council people...they have been elected to make a difference, but unfortunately, they have failed us. Once they get your votes, they seem unable to deliver on their promises. And it behooves on you to call them to come and address the issues" Other members on the panel were Del. Cathy Pugh, Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young, City Attorney Patricia Jessamy, Kelly Fox and Del. Melvin Stukes. The event, which covered an array of social, political, economic and justice issues, was moderated by WEAA's Doni Glover.

The panelists, all liberal, seemed unanimous in getting President Bush out of office and gaining back Congress and the Senate. They also admitted that Baltimore's public education system was a failure which disappointed MSU alum and Phi Beta Sigma frat Gerald Milledge "They couldn't really address the issues of education because of the abysmal failure of the system. I'm glad at least they acknowledged that".

Discussing HIV/AIDS and public health in Baltimore, the NAACP President and Del Melvin Stukes both demanded more involvement from the community and greater accountability on the part of government.

City Attorney Patricia Jessamy deplored the proliferation of gangs and violence in the black community and insisted that the most effective way to overcome the scourge is to start addressing the issue at the elementary level. She quickly gathered addresses of the forum participants so she could update the mailing list of her anti-gang newsletter. Earlier, Jessamy had cautioned the forum about 'the politics of expediency'. She said a lot of the politicians present themselves in specific ways only to further their agenda. "That is why we need to question them more in-depth on what they stand for about the things that are important to us", she advised.

Panelist Kelly Fox, in his closing remarks, called on everyone to actively get involved with the process. "Make sure you make a sensible vote come November 7, and after all is said and done, we the people in the city should support the leadership we elect. If we expect our leadership to stand up and fight for us, we have to stand behind them and support them".

William Powell of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity said the Forum was intended to bring some knowledge to the MSU community and to get some elected officials to "talk to us about the importance of voting, the history of voting, and address some of the issues we consider pressing. After the event, I hope most participants will take with them what I gathered; that voting is essential and that your vote does count; that there are multitudes of ways to get involved in the political process, starting with the individual".

Phi Beta Sigma Frat Gerald Milledge, who is now in education, said the forum attempted to reconnect the Baltimore political structure with the large number of disenfranchised African American students at MSU. "This is a major black city and there is a lot of apathy here. But somehow, today we learn how easy it is for college students to get involved with the political process".

Speaking about his over-all impressions of the forum, Milledge said he was somewhat surprised that "the political affiliations of a large number of students were different from that of the panelists, who were mostly baby boomers and democrats. Quiet a few of the students were independent and republican leaning and therefore they tend to be drawn more to issues than parties and names".

"Therefore, don't look at those running for office in the elections to change your lives. Look at your life, get involved in the political process, question yourself and politicians on what they stand for regarding the issues that are central to your life, and I believe positive change will come", ended Jessamy.

The Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity of Morgan State University organizes a variety of forums year-round with a view of bringing community awareness to the institution's population.

Re-incarceration Rate Drops in Baltimore: Prison Retraining Program Responsible

2011-03-16T19:02:00.009-04:00

A recent study on recidivism (February 2011) within the Connecticut Department of Correction by the State Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division of the Office of Policy and Management has confirmed the obvious: a period of supervision in the community prior to the end of sentence is an effective means of supporting successful reintegration and reducing recidivism. The study which followed 16,286 sentenced offenders recognized that within two years of their release, 56 percent were rearrested, 47 percent were returned to prison, 39 percent were convicted on new charges and 27 percent began a new prison sentence. However, with supervision, the return to prison rate declined from 2005 to 2008 from 49.2 percent to 47.4 percent. The return to prison with a new sentence rate was reduced from 27.7 percent to 27 percent.

Baltimore has known this fact all along. In fact, Maryland is a leader in preparing offenders for a productive life back in society. In July 2007, I did a story about the Maryland Prison Retraining Program. It follows:

Recent research indicates a nineteen percent drop in recidivism for Maryland inmates who participated in education and occupational skills training. Considering that 95 percent of all inmates will one day return to society, and that nearly half of all inmates are back in the system within three years, it is critical that appropriate education and job skills be provided in addition to drug treatment and other programs.

These observations were made by Mary Ann Saar, Secretary of Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in Baltimore last Friday July 7 when she accompanied Deputy Assistant US Labor Secretary Karen M. Czarnecki, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, and Secretary of Maryland Department of Labor James Fielder on a guided tour of the Metropolitan Transition Center's Occupational Skills Training Center.

Since its opening in the fall of 1993, the Occupational Skills Training Center, OSTC, which is operated by the Maryland Division of Correction in partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education, has graduated 1,875 men and women, seventy percent of whom found jobs with the center's employer partners while they were still incarcerated.

These revelations come in the light of findings of a recent study by Dr. Stephen Steurer and Dr. Linda Smith on the topic 'The Three State Recidivism Study' which covered over 3,600 inmates in Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio. The longitudinal study, which uses educational participation while incarcerated as the major variable, shows that simply attending school behind bars reduces the likelihood of re-incarceration by 29 percent.

"These programs demonstrate a great partnership between Dept of Public Safety and Correctional Services, DPSCS, and the Maryland State Department of Education, MSDE, which has produced important results," Ms. Karen Czarnecki, who also oversees the Department of labor's outreach to diverse typically underserved portions of our workforce, noted. "The job training programs here at the OSTC give you stunning proof of how serious the Department of Public Safety and Education and the Division of Correction are helping inmates become employable," she added.

The Center's Principal Ken Weeden said DPSCS and MSDE annually provide academic, library, and employment readiness classes and logistics for 10,000 inmate-students throughout the correctional system. Approximately half of all inmates enter prisons without a high school diploma or GED. Most had no jobs at the time of their arrest.

The program which instructs in-mate students in skills valued by the printing, automotive, warehousing, office technology, HVAC repair, roofing and building maintenance industries, lasts between three and seven months. Students also receive comprehensive assistance with resume writing and job placement.

"We have more than 70 employer partnerships in local industry that have helped make this possible with curriculum review, supplies and employment. The graduates have gone on to jobs in more than a half-dozen fields and some have left prison for jobs paying as much as $13 an hour," said a proud Principal Weeden who showed off the Center's seven-program facilities and encouraged beneficiaries to meet with the visiting dignitaries.

"The state invests about $12 million in prison education while the drop in recidivism saves us about $24 million yearly which means for every dollar invested, the state gets two dollars in return each year", calculated an impressed Secretary Fielder, who took the opportunity to schmooze with the students and instructors.

"This means last year, Maryland alone saved the state almost $25 million from this program", added Sec Mary Ann Saar.

"All segments of our workforce must be as well prepared as possible to meet the demands of employers," said Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who was glowing from news of new favorable May unemployment figures. "At the same time, employers must look to segments of our workforce that had gone under-utilized and/or even ignored in the past."

The gubernatorial hopeful praised employers who have taken the initiative to use the services of skilled ex-offenders. Present for the tour were such employer partners as Mr. Jim Jung of Hallmark Industries, Phil Holmes of Goodwill Industries of Chesapeake and Jack Weber of Uptown Press.

"It makes business sense to employ these guys. Everyone deserves another chance and we benefit from their skills. Employers get tax credits and support community development. It is a win-win situation," explained Weber.

Citizens Lending Group in Towson, for example, has had success hiring ex-offenders to work as telephone sales agents. Isaac Dilver, the company's head of marketing, says the company is determined to give ex-offenders a second chance. But more importantly, the hires have done a good job in jobs paying at least $12 an hour, plus commissions. "They tend to be committed workers whose success rate is comparable to that of the company's overall workforce".

Ex-inmate OSTC graduate Roger Bagley, currently employed and showcased as a model of the program, said he has benefited from the training immensely. In a private conversation, he told Lt. Gov. Steele that he was in the process of buying his own house.

Another ex-offender graduate of the program employed full time at Uptown Press who gave his name only as Louis agreed that the program was essential to post-sentence rehabilitation. "It offers you dignity, skills, a second chance, and it keeps you busy. You will be crazy to go back to whatever you were doing that sent you in there in the first place."

A current inmate who preferred not to be named already two months in his HVAC training said "for the first time in my life I see my way clear. Now I know there is something I am qualified for that will pay me well."

Earlier in the day, the Lt. Governor had announced that Maryland "continues to benefit from a strong economy and low unemployment rate. May numbers had 3.8 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, the lowest since 2000". The rate was the 15th lowest in the country, well below the national rate of 4.6 percent. From January to May this year, Maryland business has added 30,700 jobs adding up to 128,774 new Maryland jobs from January 2003 to January 2006 since the Ehrlich-Steele administration began).

"We recognize that those new jobs and economic growth mean not only greater opportunity for all of us but also increased demands on our workforce," Lt. Gov. Steele added.

The nation's economic growth continues to be strong, as it is in the Baltimore region. As a result, we've been experiencing a tight labor market and rising wages for workers," said Czarnecki. "Because of this, we need to increase the participation rate of our untapped or alternate labor pools. I'm excited to tour the training center to learn more about job skills being taught to those being re-introduced to the workforce."

...like jazz...

2011-03-15T22:51:00.005-04:00

what is a man...what in essence is he
but a dreamer foraging hungrily, it seems?
like jazz, he establishes life's themes
reeling in fresh boundaries when hopes flee,
non-stopping, eternally engaged constantly.

he is to nature the seed of life
even as he shields against strife
while woman as fertile soil unfurls each dawn
every consciousness he causes to spawn.

what is black...what is the nature of color
but life itself since all we once called home East?
like jazz, black is blues in the bowels of a beast,
or mixing with muddled minds in a metrosexual bar
soothed sootily by the fleeting comforts of a lodestar.

it is the dusky style that embraces the nature
in which we manage with so much composure
the oppressive opportunities of lack and needs
and the accompanying bearing of awe and ease.

what then, my brethren, is a black man?
like jazz, he is the seed among the sand and stones
that struggles from the womb of his mother's bones
for the survival of self, tribe, and often clan.
he is the sigh that seldom reaches the sun.

he is the one for whom failure is no option
even as the success of man eludes his gumption;
like jazz, he is the promise of a hopefully better day
when the strong choose to drop their tools to pray.

David Walker: These Are Some of Our Heroes

2011-03-15T18:32:00.006-04:00

David Walker was born September 28, 1785 in Wilmington, North Carolina. He died June 28, 1830 in his adopted home of Boston, Massachussettes. The son of a slave father and a free mother, Walker was educated and traveled widely before settling in Boston, where he became an abolitionist lecturer and wrote for the New York-based antislavery "Freedom's Journal".

In his famous pamphlet "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World" (1829), he called for armed revolt by African descendants against the slavery system. He smuggled the pamphlet into the South by hiding copies in clothing that he sold to sailors from his used-clothes store in Boston.

When his words became a threat to the establishment, Walker was warned to flee for his life to Canada. He refused, and his lifeless body was found soon after; it is generally believed that he was poisoned.

His son, Edwin G. Walker, was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1866.

"End of America 2011": Of Scoundrels and Scallywags

2011-03-11T15:56:00.009-05:00

You may have noticed a new commercial on the cable networks promoting "End of America", a one-hour-seventeen-minute free online 'documentary' at www.endofamerica2011.com. I made the unfortunate mistake of sitting through this rubbish last night and am still recovering from the dross.

The commercial promoted an apocalyptic America backed by irrefutable gospel presented by Nostradamus; instead, all I got was some scoundrel called Porter Stansberry and his Fox-inspired right-wing conspiracies packaged to scare the fool into parting with $50. Ostensibly, his dire predictions are intended to 'educate' the viewer into procuring investment advice cheaply from his good self in order to escape the inevitable demise of America this year under Barack Obama.

Stansberry's out-of-context facts and figures point to massive riots on the streets of New York over the scarcity of food and water, conflagration in L.A. over fuel shortages, and mass migration to Alabama in search of safety and security. All because Obama's spending the country into chaos. But wait until you hear his pitch, that is, what he offers as remedies/shields WHEN the impending great apocalypse arrives.

First, all viewers who want to circumvent the end of America must buy his report at fifty bucks (half-price ) in which you will read that (as an American citizen) the best way to save/protect yourself and your country against and even benefit from Obama's destructive tendencies is to move your assets into some secret, untraceable offshore investment opportunities thereby denying the nation of taxes. Second, forget about the Dollar; just invest in precious comodity metals such as gold and silver. Finally, put your trust and your savings in Stransberry and all will be well with you and your family for ever and ever Amen. In other words, actively undermine the American economy and you will come to agree with this crazy conman that Obama is a dogmatic socialist with a single raison d'etre - wiping from memory the American experiment!

Stransberry fails to inform his viewers about his own checkered credentials - or lack thereof - such as when the Securities and Exchange Commission fined him $1.5 million over another scheme such as this one he is offering. Instead, his video is made up of him appearing in a self-promoting and self-endorsing monotone that fills the pits of your stomach with his bile until you feel physically ill.

I'm not trying to hate on a hustler, but this attempt to extort people's life savings using concocted fears brewed in some sick, extreme-Right cauldron of excrement is as low as they come.

Wisconsin Standoff Great Case for Unions

2011-03-09T20:23:00.006-05:00

This evening, as Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker and his sponsors rush to illegally ram through an edict outlawing collective bargaining for hard-working employees, a brand new anti-union ad campaign funded by Karl Rove’s Conservative PAC American Crossroads gets under way nationally on cable networks. Essentially, the commercial confirms the fact that the WI standoff had everything to do with the emasculation of organized labor and absolutely nothing to do with the state’s budget management.

The fact is, the strength of Unions reflects and symbolizes the state of the rights of a people's middleclass. These are rights of/for workers that others have laid their lives down for over the years. It is the power of unions that brought down apartheid in South Africa; in Poland, it was Unions that brought down dictatorship. In America, it was unions that ensured that it was enshrined that you are not forced to work more than 8 hours a day and that you have weekends off and enjoy all the worker rights that we take for granted.

The GOP ad, with an intention to ostensibly demonize organized labor, states among other things that unionized workers stand to gain 42% more in wages, enjoy untold benefits such as fat pensions, health insurance etc and that their contributions/dues tend to go towards supporting a progressive agenda that includes ideas such as those which Barack Obama ran on in 2008.

In other sound bites, undoubtedly with a view to sticking a wedge between workers of the private sector and their public counterparts, Walker and his surrogates bemoan the facts that unionized workers cannot be fired unnecessarily, they enjoy better job conditions, and generally live a better and more fulfilling life. Isn't that what America is all about? Aren’t these the securities in life that everyone seeks?

I understand that these GOP ads are supposed to make me – and you, and all workers – livid with Unions, but honestly, the only other emotion in my heart at the moment - besides empathy - is ENVY. A huge growing green ENVY! Damn…42 percent more than I make at the moment, retirement at fifty-five, job security until then, lunch breaks, paternity holidays…doesn’t that make you wanna go out and march with Wisconsinites, wielding huge hand-written placards and a megaphone?

As for me, the scenes and sounds that have played over and over the networks in the past three weeks or so make a rather compelling case for workers of America, private or public, to unionize…and unite. Membership would ensure that your rights are not trampled on this casually by ignorant rednecks at the behest of their pimps.

And if for nothing at all, joining will just piss the hell out of those Righties at the Republican Conventions and their mouthpieces Fox-TV, WSJ and AM talk radio.

American Revisionism a Right Perspective – On Republicans’ attempt to Repackage Ronald Reagan

2011-02-24T20:38:00.006-05:00

As a youth, the dominant intellectual conversations I overheard regarding the re-telling of my history centered on the methodology by which the history was written. The general consensus among the grown-ups was that nothing in our recent history was based on facts. Apparently the accounts in the books were surgically revised by a think-tank of devious but intelligent white folks with the single purpose of defending their aggression and supporting their continued domination. I may have hated the idea of some foreign gentlemen deciding my past, but my envy for their calculating intelligence seemed to always placate me with a sense of awe.

As I went through college, the more I studied the cultural environment within which I grew; the more I followed the politics of the day, the more I interacted with white folks. The more I thought I knew, the more incredulous the entire scheme begun to seem to me.

Before long, it became increasingly clearer that it was very unlikely that the revised accounts were due to a deliberately diabolical obsession on the part of Caucasians to manipulate history to their advantage so as to control the present and dominate the future. It occurred to me that it probably had to do more with the manner and methodology by which current events are recorded, codified, and presented for retrieving than some plot to mislead. Thus is history recorded and represented in the west, and by extrapolation, the world at large.

However, in the decade that I have lived in the U.S., a new understanding has dawned on me. Through the reporting that I have done covering Maryland gubernatorial and Baltimore city politics for “The Afro”, through the frustration I have suffered watching America through the lenses of cable news (Fox, CNN, chiefly) during the 2008 primaries, the subsequent Barack Obama presidential campaign and the recent mid-terms last November, it has been revealed onto me that the false stories that have been told in place of my history had nothing to do with race, nor geography nor politics. It has nothing to do with intentions to control or manage. It is strictly about ideology. Right-wing Conservative ideology.

Do not misunderstand me. I am saying that, it’s not like a group of clever men agreed to meet around a table in a smoky room to pore over endless data, dissect every little detail, and plot to reorganize data with the aim of rewriting history for the sole benefit of ensuring their future in politics. I do not believe they are that …ummm… ‘together’… in the mind. Just look at them - Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity... They just do not present themselves as persons who may have the smarts to attempt to dominate the world. Neither do their “intellectual” circus masters - Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Michelle Bachman. These are not exactly specimens of fine thinking.

Revisionism, as I have come to understand with age, has to do with the methodology of the Right wing. It is the modus operandi of Conservative politics. It has to do with the manner in which they receive, perceive, categorize, codify and file current affairs for posterity. Due to some unfathomable reason, Conservatives actually do hear - and interpret - statistics differently from normal people, say liberals. And once heard, they use the information to justify their hopes rather than actual issues and events. Thus they writhe in a cesspool of their own manufactured alternative reality playing with skewed facts and figures that almost always are diametrically opposed to reality. Somehow this little detail about facts and truth does not subject them to any dilemmas of contradiction. In fact, contradiction is their game.

It is with this understanding that I observe the GOP’s feverish celebration of Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. The general talking point is that Ronald Reagan was an American president worthy of emulation. A kind of Conservative Jesus. And that he was a world leader who positively changed the politics of this universe. Absolute twaddle. Sad, really. It is not surprising that these are the same persons who actually chose the very vacant Palin as a possible candidate for the country’s highest office, endorsed the zombie-like Bachman on the Congressional Intelligence Committee (‘intelligence’ being the operative word here), and appointed self-indulgent minion Boehner House Speaker. All this with unwavering conviction and resounding noise.

The GOP has recreated Ronald Reagan as an American hero. With unwavering conviction and resounding noise. They have anointed him as a man of resolve who strengthened America’s image both at home and abroad, brought prosperity to all, spoke to American exceptionalism, and made the world safer for all. Ronald Reagan? They have to be living in a parallel world.

Reagan probably has the most appalling record on civil rights in America. As governor of California, he made it known that he was staunchly against black people and that he hated the idea of changing the status quo that would consider all races equal in the country. Reagan believed in a world where things stood as they were, a world of the privileged and the pauper. His whole presidency was about decimating the American middle-class and enriching his sponsors. For instance, he thought the idea of universal health care for Americans would make people lazy, calling it communist. This is the guy the Right says brought prosperity? He is the man the Right is venerating for making drastic tax code changes that favored the privileged. His passion was to destroy organized labor. You can understand why Wisconsin’s comprador governor Scot Walker cites him as the inspiration for his ill-advised anti-labor schemes to break the state’s Unions.

Before Reagan became governor, the state of California probably had the highest quality of tertiary education in the northern hemisphere. And it was as affordable as it was excellent. True to his belief that education is a privilege, not a right, Reagan successfully managed to destroy this set-up and subsequently presided over the systematic destruction of that and everything else that was meaningful to the middle-class.

Talking about international politics: Reagan’s policies towards Africa were disastrous beyond measure. Even as the hardest of the reactionary European leaders softened their rhetoric for the intransigent apartheid South African government, Reagan’s support for the regime intensified. He continued to prop up the racists and arm them to quell all “terrorist acts” by the freedom-demanding kaffirs to such an extent that Bish. Desmond Tutu called him what he was: a racist! This racist, union-busting, anti-middle-class, has-been actor is the Right’s Jesus!

One would think that the facts are so obvious and the reality is so recent that it would take a very mentally disturbed person to believe otherwise, but just chill for one moment. It isn’t that the Right wing is concocting new stories to bamboozle society and advance their claims. It isn’t that the Right wing is attempting to manufacture a sort of icon around whom they can rally. The truth is, there is a name for their pathology: it is called ‘compulsive selective perception’. There is the real Ronald Reagan who messed up big time, and the perceived Ronald Reagan whom the Right adores. For a fact, if one were to do a content analysis of the publications, broadcasts etc of the Conservative media during the period in question, one would be making notes of the Reagan that the GOP worships. It is a Reagan who met their innermost hopes and dreams (not the real needs and aspirations) with reactionary policies and rhetoric. The world of the Conservatives is a totally different world, an alternative realm where everything is subjective [by the way, has anyone seen any of the recent episodes of “Fringe”?]. This is how their opinions, policies, and ideologies are informed. Not from reality, but from their wishfully airbrushed perception of it.

Just to put it to the test: if you want to study Americans under their first African president Barrack H. Obama through the lenses of Right-wing commentary from sources such as Fox cable (and CNN for that matter), you are more likely to see a country divided along racial lines, with intense hatred for the office of the president and his illegitimate government, distrustful of innovation, pining for some illusory Americana, and itching to invest the last drop of their blood in the coffers of the super-rich and in any wars that will show the world that America kicks ass. You will find a country where everyone hates universal healthcare, all Latinos are criminally-motivated illegal immigrants, guns are a symbol of freedom and rights and must be toted from age 14, gay rights are orchestrated by anarchists to undermine the sanctity of modern marriage, and women are second–class citizens who need to be controlled by laws.

The picture above is not a carefully recreated photo. It just so happens to be a combination of the opinions, conversations, and records the Right has been keeping for the past two years. If one were to source all one’s information for a documentary about the period from the archives of the Right-wing media, one would begin to see why their versions of stories seem so radically fictional. Not deliberately from an evil point of view, but due to the way they perceive and recall events, file stories, and categorize them for retrieval.

If in future therefore, I am confronted with a revisionist position – no matter how degrading – I shall spare the parrot, the bearer of the news, my pious anger, and say a little prayer for his pathology instead.

Assange gets my vote for ‘Man of the Year 2010’.

2010-12-14T15:33:00.003-05:00

The British granted WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange a 200,000 pound ($316,000) up-front bail this morning but the founder of the whistleblower website will still remain in custody for at least another 48 hours pending a challenge by Swedish prosecutors against the decision. The 39-year-old Aussie has already spent a week in jail following his surrender to police in a Swedish sex-crimes investigation.

Granted, Assange may be a necrophilic perv for all anyone cares, but the issue here seems to have more to do with a curtailment of a basic human right than sexual perversion. It is about the freedom of and right to expression. This is not a new phenomenon. With every leap in technology comes inplications for basic human rights.

In all earnest, all WikiLeaks has done is to exploit the vulnerability of a World Wide Web that has been used by governments and the powerful in various ways to suppress and destroy the powerless. You would think that American libertarianism and all that stands for would laud a push towards more transparency and better access to information. You would think America would be giving Assange a freedom prize and a contract for his company to work toward the prevention of any future breaches.

Interesting is the use of denial-of-service attacks by ‘hacktivists’, a disparate group of spontaneous virtual communities who are blocking and disrupting PayPal, some banks, and other websites as solidarity for and in defense of what the whistleblower stands for. Here again, this is not a new phenomenon. In fact, where was the sanctimonious uprising when the Russians assaulted Estonian networks with floods of traffic that completely interrupted operations in that country? Where was the outcry when the targets were the IRAA , filesharing, the Scientology community etc etc.?

If the doors to a library were left open and a good Samaritan made the books and data therein available to the students of an underprivileged school in need of information, how would the general public react should the Samaritan be harassed by the Department of Education for burglary? At stake in this case is the fundamental freedom of expression.

Following our silence, the big powers, including governments are going to systematically undermine this right and in the process establish all sorts of punitive regulations and unfair precedents.

First, there is going to be ridiculously abundant over-classification; websites, data, and information will be classified such that it would be unlawful or impossible for persons without 'clearance' to access most meaningful sites.
This will be followed by copyright protection for the classified information to ensure that any breach thereafter would be prosecutable.

it will therefore be necessary to establish a new intrusive task force, a cyber-police force, to monitor and follow your search-and-visit trail ostensibly so that you may be preemptively denied access whenever deemed justified. This will be the finial formalization of governmental electronic censorship.

Finally a new cyber-court system will have to be set up to deal heavy penalties on cyber-trespassers and even shut down sites that may be deemed potentially ‘treacherous’.

Unless we all communicate to the powers that be by invokinig the right to the freedom of expression in this case, we should just lay down and brace ourselves for a strict, severe, and complete incursion of government in all aspects of our lives. After all, our phones, our televisions, our credit cards, our entire history, in fact, our very lives, are totally interfaced with information and the workings of the internet and the World Wide Web. What WikiLeaks did may make the punks among us cringe, but truly, it is not such a big deal; if we sit down for Assange to be muffled, anyone among us may be next.

This is what I think: make the Australian pervert ‘Man of the Year’ and use his tactics to ensure better safety and security next time.

I’m grateful for…America!

2010-11-24T23:46:00.001-05:00

At dinner tonight with my old Lit. Agent and a couple of media friends, the flat screen TVs bombarded us with Thanksgiving Specials every second. The question was directed to me: as an African in America, what does the commercial Thanksgiving Holiday mean to you?

I thought about it a few seconds and was tempted to sound clever and say something smart like how brutal the English pilgrims were to the natives, and how the entire affair is just part of a system that thrives on over-consumption etc etc

Then I thought about the symbolism of it all and my place in the larger scheme of things and I realized that despite everything that has come and passed, I am grateful for America, and a holiday that enables me to recognize this fact cannot be a bad thing.

I am grateful for America. Despite the Tea Party and Glen Beck and Sarah Palin and ignorance, I’m grateful for this land that also birthed John Coltrane, Ayn Rand, ee cummings, and Kobe Bryant.

I’m thankful for the waves that have encouraged HBO, PPV boxing and Bill Maher even as fascism and the likes of Fox follow in their trail.

Xenophobia may be lurking in the background and universal health care may never truly happen, yet I celebrate the society that has motivated the need for AAA road assistance and drive-thru pharmacies.

And certainly, under the weight of piling bills and the suffocating bearing of an unregulated capitalism, I appreciate another day off just to remind myself and others like me that ‘I AM’.

And just in case I manage somehow to forget all of the reasons above and the many more, I am eternally grateful just for being part of the idea of the land that stands for opportunities and second chances.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving: an attitude of gratitude

2010-11-23T21:56:00.003-05:00

The last Thursday of November is the day especially set aside by the Americans to consume copious portions of genetically modified food in appreciation of the harvest of their efforts. This may be a tradition that was originally carved out of the systematic brutality of marauding British pilgrims against unsuspecting native Americans, but the point here – today - is all about the symbolism: Thanksgiving has evolved to become and represent a commercial occasion during which grateful people may count their blessings.

Social research suggests that primitive man is wired to be pessimistic, distrustful and full of suspicion. You can’t blame him, I guess: what with wild predating animals lurching and ready to pounce around the clock, disease everywhere, natural disasters, unrequited love, and the like. And even today, with all his “civilization”, man is still weary of the pressures and the nonsense of everyday living and survival so much so that he is sometimes unable to notice the gleams of hope and possibilities.

Recent studies can prove that attitudes towards our perception may be engineered…by external or internal means, deliberately or accidentally. These research findings also state that an attitude of gratitude increases the chances for miserable man to enjoy sustained happiness or at least the perception of a better quality of life.

Maybe, as Thanksgiving draws near, maybe we should just ignore the mess we find ourselves in just for the time being, forget about the hell we are going through just for now, and concentrate on what matters in this moment: the fact that we have life, and tomorrow, and therefore hope, and possibilities. Just for these moments around this Thanksgiving, let us thankful for just BEING. Smile, and breathe. And while you are at it, toss a grateful kiss to the frustrated sky for her bounties.

New TBA screening methods: think mammography

2010-11-22T22:55:00.003-05:00

Mammography is the process of using low-dose amplitude-X-rays and lots of kneading pain to examine the female breast as a diagnostic and a screening tool. Its goal is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through detection of characteristic masses and/or microcalcifications. The general consensus is that mammography reduces mortality from breast cancer significantly. As science stands today, no other imaging technique has been shown to reduce this much risk, despite the unubearable pain it gives. In the United States, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening regular screening for maturing women. As most women who have undergone this procedure may tell you, this is painful and invasive and personal and sometimes even demeaning.

In a similar vein, the U.S. TBA has recently started the implementation of procedures initially set up in 2007 with the singular goal of early detection of the cancer of terrorism. The methods include the scanning and groping of some 2% of the flying public. Somehow, the entire nation has become caught up in hysteria regarding the issues of privacy.

Just like Americans to swallow the bait of extremist opinion makers and blow every little thing out of proportion. In these days of double-digit unemployment, with the right preventing the ratification of the nuclear treaty with Russia, with the right promising to make the U.S. government ungovernable come time to vote on the debt ceiling, in these treacherous times, the current talking point revolve around the new security checks and TBA screening methods.

Of course they are invasive and sometimes personal. That’s the whole point. Like mammograms. What would you rather? A series of painful mammograms or risk cancer? I haven’t been flying much lately, but I really do not see the big deal of 2 % of the flying public being targeted for either scanning or groping. It is true that at most international airports these checks are generally less invasive, but then you may have to report at the departure lounge hours and hours before your scheduled flight.

Now, stop the bloody whining. You want security? Give up some privacy. I am almost positive that most people would rather go through the pain if it meant early detection of suspicious intentions, the prevention of catastrophes and the assurance of a better quality of life.

Daggers out for Steele after doing GOP job on Obama

2010-11-18T16:36:00.004-05:00

Republican Party boss Michael Steele must be feeling somewhat like President Obama is feeling at the moment as he stares at knives from his party heads aimed at his reputation and self – scared, friendless, alone, broken. This is made the more traumatic coming after ‘spearheading’ an extremely successful ‘witch-hunt‘ against president Obama.

The Steele campaign had nothing to do with the president’s policies or procedures. It was principally targeted at his person, his blackness, his unfitness for the office. Sometimes the attacks were coded; most of the time they were just lies. Steele, ironically aided by the white-power smear machinery, decidedly went about his business month after months, successfully chipping away the already enfeebled manhood of a generally spineless president. This led the GOP and the bigots of America to a sound victory ending in the take-over of the U.S. Congress.

Significantly among the new horde of thugs and bullies is a clique of lawless skin-head vigilantes in suits, staking their myopic claim on the legislature, and pretending to give a damn. In support, by their side, and sometimes in the lead are the extremist white-power networks such as Fox and the conservative talk show hosts who have made it their crusades to clean the blot of Obama graffiti off the pure, white pages of American history. To show the level of contempt for his presidency, they snubbed a presidential invitation to discuss the way forward for the entire nation, and instead chose to jerk each other off at a contrived party conference.

This is not politics as usual. For one thing, the appeal of these newcomers - sometimes also called the Tea Party movement - demographically lies with blue-collar white workers living in the hinterlands of the country, those that history passed by, those who are now ready to “take back our country”.

So Obama has to go. The Republican Party heads have pledged that they will do all in their power to make him a one-time president. They do not want his kind occupying the ‘white’ House. And if the hither-to charismatic biracial African-American wouldn’t do in the white house, whatever would have possessed Steele to think he was welcome?

Steele, who was co-opted by the right-wing Republican Party establishment which has fundamentally refused to recognize the Obama presidency right from Day 1 to do their dirty bidding, now faces the sharpened daggers of his masters who are not too shy about showing their true whites colors now. Their premise, I suppose, is that since Obama is not quite 100 percent human, it is beneath them to take him on. Thus Steele, the token black Republican to play the role of the attack dog… so he and his president can fight, dog to dog.

And this dog did his massa’s work so well the GOP under his ‘leadership’ gave the spineless, confused, divided congressional democrats the trashing of their public-opinion-motivated lives. He also succeeded in yanking the last few bones that may have been left to prop Obama’s back. As would be expected, Steele managed to do all his massa’s dirty biddings without soiling the hands of his puppeteers.

So what does Steele do after working himself to the point of unemployment? Of course, there is no room for Steele under the new paradigm which is modeled around the notion of “taking back our country”. And, thanks to him, there may be very little or no room for Obama to maneuver on the hill. So, what is to be done?

It was exciting to see Steele all fired up by his conservative bosses when he was Party Chief. Whatever they put into him molded him into a high-flying media-savvy man, but the impression I took away the couple of times I interviewed him for the Afro when he was Lt-Governor of Maryland was more like a person who was particularly blank and was ever eager to be plied by establishment. Not exactly unlike Barack Obama who always struck me as being a man of endless potential but without a single scrotum. The issue with these two typifies the fratricidal tendencies within the black races across the world. Now they both may be heading towards joblessness, a place where, like dogs after a grueling fight, they may lick each other’s wounds.

Or, Obama could grow a pair of huge testicles to help him offer the needed leadership and direction of the 44th President of America in fact and indeed. As for the impact of Steele’s hugely successful Operation Judas, the only way to sufficiently diminish and vaporize its lingering effects is to stand up to those who gave him the pieces of gold, the extreme right in the land of the left.

'i, immigrant' out!

2010-07-22T01:10:00.009-04:00

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/i-immigrant/11905857

This new novel is an eerie, disturbing and misty introspective of the immigrant underground experience in Maryland as witnessed through the lives of an unlikely cast; the incursions of the characters into cyberspace, the supernatural, and the back streets of Baltimore leave behind a trail of darkness and chills.

Through the eyes of undocumented Cape Verdean immigrant Mascarenhas Pestalozzi Sonhando, this pseudo-murder mystery provokes candid discussions on race, citizenship, undocumented immigration, the whispered 'akata' infamy, interracial America, gender roles, and the vestiges of colonization.

As an archeologist with the intuition, practiced knack and ability to sculpt unearthed information into relevant, recognizable wholes, one thing particularly bothered Mascarenhas. Despite his life-long search, he could not find any threads in his native Cabo Verde, and all other former Portuguese colonies for that matter, that he could weave into any coherent, enduring whole. To all intents and purposes, Portuguese colonial presence in Africa and the rest of the world was without significant remains. They came, they stole, and they vanished. They just plundered and looted and drained their colonies dry leaving behind diluted consanguineous ties and a cursed whisper. Mascarenhas couldn’t say the same for the other European colonizers though: at least the Dutch erected massive castles if only for warehousing their slave stock; the French assimilated the locals into their own civil systems if only to create a labor force of second-class citizens; the Swiss and the Danes christianized the natives if only for the express purpose of brainwashing and subjugation; even the British constructed communication lines though they were just so they could smuggle out much-needed indigenous resources. But the Portuguese…they left everything uninfluenced.

Mascarenhas reasoned that if an indigenous person had a choice of who his colonial oppressor should be, by far the preferred option of tormenter would surely be the Americans. They were considerate bullies; to their brutality was always added a commensurate portion of compassion. They would bomb you, and then help you re-develop; they would rape you, and then rehabilitate you, complete with complimentary therapy; they would plunder, and then recapitalize. Populations such as Germany, South Korea, and Japan are only a few manifestations of America’s peculiar brand of imperialism.”

And yet, with his student visa expired (because he dropped out of his PhD program) it was only a matter of time for his name to show up and the Immigration guys would be on his back like a famished flea on a homeless dog. He had a whole file of correspondence from the immigration folks, the INS - CIS, BCIS, ICE - or whatever they call themselves this week, asking him to leave the country voluntarily by himself or face their wrath and forcible deportation. To get a decent job that would pay enough, he needed to sort his status out. To sort his status out, he needed money. And as if that was not enough, when driving, he had to reserve the larger portion of his attention on other vehicles around him, wondering when his expired registration tags would be spotted by accident by a keen, overenthusiastic and - at that very moment - idle police officer who would ran the registration number through their system and notice that it is flagged. And then their beacons will start flashing and their sirens will whistle, as they assumed their official position behind him.

Fact is, America was stolen and rebuilt by immigrants. So what was this all about? From the disembarkation on Plymouth Rock in the Seventeenth century to Ellis Island in the Twentieth, all sorts of people fleeing religious persecution, political turmoil, and mostly economic hardships from other countries have descended on this land to partake in the advertized raping and looting.

This sets the scene for 'i, immigrant', the new novel about the lengths an out-of-status Afrcan immigrant goes towards fulfillin hos half-life in America.

Click this link for more information.
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/i-immigrant/11905857

Bradford takes Equity Movement campaign to street

2010-07-21T08:22:00.003-04:00

Rev. Gene C. Bradford Monday July 19, 2010 morning took to the streets his Equity Movement campaign to eradicate government waste and focus recovery funds and resources on investing in small business. He met with several local politicians who, with their campaign staff, have been lining the junction of Liberty Road and Washington Avenue to greet and wave potential voters for the impending November elections.

The chosen site for the campaigners coincidentally was also the site for the proposed $21 million two-year I-695 interchange ‘economic recovery project’.

On April 14, 2010, Rev. Bradford published an article on his blog entitled “ How does proposed I-695 interchange help Randallstown residents recover economically?” in an attempt to focus the attention of residents on the potential waste inherent in the project. In the blog, he wondered how the disbursement of $21 million for the construction of the proposed Liberty Road/695 Beltway interchange would inject much-needed energy into the local economy towards the broader national recovery effort.

Rev. Bradford brought these concerns to democrats Joe Bartenfelder, Emmett Burns, and representatives of Lenoria A. Josey on Liberty Road. Specifically, he asked how the project, which will disrupt life in the Randallstown-Windsor Mill-Gwynn Oak areas, stands to benefit and empower the 100,000 primarily African-American residents, many of whom are affected severely by the current economic crisis.

Bartenfelder spent time to listen to Rev. Bradford explain that funds allegedly spent for economic recovery will be spent to build an interchange, but would not produce economic recovery, “because the very persons that need empowerment by these projects are locked out of the process”. Bartenfelder promised to meet Bradford and the Equity Movement again to discuss the crucial issues of misplaced priorities, government waste and real empowerment.

how many ways?

2010-05-24T01:44:00.007-04:00

while our bodies remained incommunicado,
my heart vaulting resolutely the unwearied stacks of space,
i resigned to counting the many reasons in this season

why this unfortunate fluttering heart
loves the idea of the inspiration that is you;
I tried to count the various ways your fervent flair

resorts to satisfy my excited soul by the second,
the countless constant urging motivations
behind the desire to spend my life with you...

i was already on my twenty-sixth finger,
when it dawned on me how numerous the variety,
and how endless and infinite your many ways.

given a leisurely lifetime, you my lifeline,
maybe then i could begin to enumerate

by counting sand at the beach

for your delights are more than sky stars,
your comforts, more than ocean ripples
and your embrace, more than rain drizzles.

from the forthcoming book of verse, 'Breath of the Ankh's Chakra'

Shonibare, first African to exhibit at Trafalgar Square

2010-05-24T01:23:00.004-04:00

‘Nelson’s ship in bottle’, the latest sculpture piece to be exhibited on the empty Fourth Plinth at London’s Trafalgar Square, is the work of Nigerian artist and Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare. The artwork is a replica of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson's ship, HMS Victory, with 37 colorful sails, made from African fabric, sitting in a large glass bottle. This is the first commission on the Fourth Plinth that reflects specifically on the historical symbolism of Trafalgar Square, which commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, and links directly with Nelson’s column. It is also the first commission by a non-Caucasian artist.

Yinka Shonibare was chosen over several competing artists to exhibit his work from today Monday May 24, 2010 after participating in the Royal Academy of Arts' Sensation show and the Venice Biennial. ‘Nelson’s ship in bottle’ can be seen on the Fourth Plinth, in the north-west of Trafalgar Square, in central London until the end of 2011. The Fourth Plinth was built in 1841; it was originally intended for an equestrian statue but is now the location for specially commissioned artworks. Exhibition are always free to attend.

Shonibare's works generally explore themes of race and class through the media of film, painting, sculpture and photography. In ‘Nelson’s Ship in bottle’, he directly draws on the history of the landmark which owes its name to the famous sea battle. Nelson died aboard the HMS Victory after defeating the French battle fleet.

Progress Ahead! but for whom?

2010-05-22T13:34:00.002-04:00

Sign at Northern Parkway and Falls Road

Once again, economic recovery funds assigned to programs with the express purpose of rejuvenating local economy fails to reach the target group. Millions of tax-payer dollars have been allocated for road reconstruction on Baltimore’s Northern Parkway between Falls Road and Park Heights.

This community, majority of its residents being African Americans, has several businesses and skills. Yet, the contracts for the projects, employment for the jobs, and the financial benefits of the program seem to pass the locals by. Unemployment in the area is at epidemic proportions.

Progress ahead, sure. The road will be finished. But who benefits?

For the economic recovery effort to succeed, affected communities and their residents should be involved in these projects. It is they who will recover the economy, not the same old big guns who blow in, finish their jobs, and exit with the funds which could have been the capital seed to turn the local economy around.

aging!

2010-05-22T12:55:00.006-04:00

Chafing these journeyed eyes with words,
Sounds that comfort nor soothe not,
I clasp irate lids resolutely with rusty rings,
Just to sieve the light that youth brings.

No use, kindred. No use, I assure you.
These eyes still can see, if only hazily,
The shadows relating the sorry songs
Of the lives we left unlived in our lungs!

Confused, our seed won’t dare dream;
Spoiled in the calm of clean cool pools,
Soiled, nurtured in the cesspits hither
They flower, blossom and wait to wither.

These weary winkers they waveringly witness
Entombed scandals discarded at life’s banks,
Our offspring trudging pointlessly through dead streams,
Whistling in the wind verses of haunted dreams.

If only you knew, youth, it’s just a silent breath,
And you too can see the broken moaners on life’s carousel,
These who once upon a painfully forgotten memory
Peacocked about with ignorant arrogance in ceremony,

These who loudly proclaimed the flimsy plumage of youth -
For they too used to be beautiful, nectar dripping in each smile.
They too were mindless and impudent and invincible
Until dependable time arrested them at life’s crucible.

Alas, at sea today, they manifest as mere mourners,
Wailers dutifully wishing on an anointing rhyme,
A disappointed stream with no intentions to flow
Besides backwards the pledge of promised woe.

No need to shed scarce tears now, dear blood.
These eyes see…faltering crawling shadows
Draped in veils of random aches and invisible tears,
Their indwelling dignity eroded by wasted years.

Rubbing my eyes with thoughts for momentary relief,
Guiding frail steps on a path strewn with discarded egos,
I succumb to the unapprised certainty of my progeny
All reason usurped by thieving time in its eternity.

From the forthcoming collection of verse "Breath of the Ankh's Chakra"

'The Blight' is out.

2009-06-20T11:42:00.005-04:00

'The Blight', my new novel, is a tragicomic African mystery about a disorientated man's quest to regain his soul, literally. This creepy tale unravels through the flawed protagonist’s own twisted observations on a journey with disparate characters from the mean, pathetic psyche of turn-of-the-millennium urban West Africa.

‘The Blight’, an introspective of contemporary sensibilities, tackles the burning taboos of sexuality, politics, religion, education, tribe, pan-Africanism, corruption, class, sexual repression and wealth from a humorous and original, yet lucid point of view.

Ansong wishes to die so he can regain his soul; Larepoh desires new breasts so she can ‘live’; Valentin needs to steal so he can become honest; Doc’s yearning is to cheat so she can taste love; and, Sgt. Tackey dreams of achieving recognition by any means necessary so he may gain the respect of his unfaithful wife.

‘The Blight’ is about the broken lives of these characters, humorous from a distance, but heartrending close-up.

Available: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-blight/6644573

2009-02-11T13:56:00.004-05:00

Late Spring last year, I happened to be lounging with a few friends and acquaintances at my Pikesville place when the idea of this anthology got sparked. I have always wanted to collaborate with other writers and thinkers and analysts on topics and themes that are important to me. So when these friends intended their interest – we being all from different parts of the African diaspora - the conversation gradually steered to our differences, and similarities and how to foster a common future.

Before the night was over, we had agreed on a theme (bridging the gap between us), deadlines had been set, and the scope [or lack thereof] had been agreed. The only aspects missing were other representative voices vis-à-vis female, Caribbean, European and any other perspectives that would make our project whole; so I sought out and found blogger Adjua Dubb [who had actually repatriated from her native Washington D.C. to The Gambia]; and then I contacted Shantelle George in England, who brought in fellow Caribb/Brit Nathan Richards [both of whom had travelled to Africa and the West Indies].

And the project was on.

By the time our deadline matured, I had in front of me a rich collection of varying points of view that covered the major aspects of our travels, our ‘cultures’ and our literary styles.

While editing the pieces, I found myself nodding in agreement to George’s academic observations, appreciating knowingly Dubb’s practical tips for the homeward-bound, laughing to tears in reaction to Richard’s hilarious account of his recent sojourn in Ghana, and pondering on Jeffrey’s Christo-philosophical/psychological take on the way forward.

All in all, Building Bridges is an anthology of our pure, non-scholarly, truthful and painfully personal stories regarding our individual and collective intentions and endeavors towards fostering a closer, more meaningful and sustained connection between Africans the world over.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed writing them. http://www.lulu.com/content/5523181

Time for a third Zanj uprising: a case for Black Iraqis

2008-12-03T14:34:00.002-05:00

In Iraq, a Sunni political party – the National Dialogue Front – has joined forces with the more than two million African-Iraqis seeking official recognition as a minority, like Christians, whose rights are protected. Although these Zanj (Arabic term for people of African descent) have lived in the country for over 1,000 years, they are still discriminated against because of the color of their skin and referred to as ‘abd’, which means ‘slave’ in the southern port city of Basra.

While these are descendants of the people who were abducted and transported to the Middle East from East Africa as slaves over the course of centuries, it is important to note that large numbers of African sailors, pilgrims and craftsmen chose to settle in the Middle East in countries such as present-day Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine/Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, the Persian Gulf countries and Turkey. From the descendants of the latter are such prominent Afro-Arabs as Kuwaiti Crown Prince Saad, Saudi Arabia's longtime U.S. ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and luminaries such as Saudi’s Mohamed Abdu, and Yemeni Abu Rab Idriss.

In Iraq however, because the Afro-Iraqis are descendants of slaves, they are not as welcome in the nation’s political, commercial or educational life. They have long been relegated to menial jobs just like in slavery days. The only privileges allowed them fall under the category of entertainer, a player of musical instruments or dancer at social events.

They are denied basic rights and basic equal opportunities; they live in horrible, overcrowded ghettos; they are disenfranchised from mainstream Iraqi politics; they are portrayed and perceived as inferior by nature and are therefore relegated to the bottom of the societal ladder; they are barred from participating in the social discourse; and, they – of course - bear the brunt of numerous forms of human rights and other abuses. And the so-called government continues to ignore their justified demands for recognition.

It is in this vein that we should commend and support Iraq’s National Dialogue Front in their effort to support the Zanj struggle for acknowledgment.

According to WYPR’s Sunni Khalid, millions of Africans who did not make the voyage west across the Atlantic wound up in bondage in the Middle East. He traced the link between Africa and the Arab world back more than 1,500 years to African villages where slaves were captured, tied together and marched to seaside fortresses.

“They were herded onto ships, and many wound up in what is now southern Iraq and Kuwait, where they became laborers, farm hands, servants, concubines and eunuchs. Initially many of the slaves came from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and what is now Somalia,” writes Khalid.

Here they were enslaved on plantations around Basra, doing the hard labor, until they revolted - twice - in the mid-800s, taking over the reins of the entire government for some fifteen years in their own capital Moktara. Slavery was then abolished in the 19th century; black people in modern-day Iraq however still face discrimination of the most appalling kind.

These East Africans deserve a decent quality of life with equal opportunities even as they struggle to preserve many traditions from their African roots, including the shtanga’ and ‘nouba’ healing ceremonies for the sick, for remembrance of the dead, and for joyous occasions. These are a free proud people; in 2008, to still refer to them derogatorily as abd is simply retarded.

Candombe: West African Heartbeat in South America

2008-10-28T00:49:00.008-04:00

Candombe (pronounced "can-dome-bey") is the rhythm that West African slaves introduced to Uruguay. The multi-ethnic and culturally diverse swath of slaves (mainly from Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Ghana) crafted this pure blend of drum rhythms and patterns on the shores of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay circa 1750.

The artform itself is based on the processional carnivals and durbars that continue to be held in West Africa during harvest and other festivals. The sound of candombe continues today as the heartbeat of the Montevideo streets, halls and carnivals. It has been an integral part of Uruguayan culture these past two hundred years. Some say it even helped the small enchanting South American country win her independence from the Spanish. It is said that the freed slave Ansina aka Joacquin Lezina, unsung unofficial father of the nation, inspired Jose Artiga with sound counsel and musical compositions that spurred the freedom fighters on during the struggle.Others see the sound as the only remains of culture which the surviving Morenos [Africans] could hold on to.

Candombe is what survives of the ancestral heritage of Bantu roots brought by the West Africans arriving at the Río de la Plata. The term is what the Morenos used generally for all their [ritual] dances. The drums they called "tango", a term also used to mean the venue for candombe performances, and by extension, the dance itself. Tangó (or tambo), therefore is the word that encapsulates African venues, instruments and dance.

Needless to say, the art form and all its surrounding bits and pieces, was banned by a threatened and confused Montevideo establishment who considered it "a threat to public morals" in the early 19th Century, harshly punishing participants. In 1808 performers were clamped down on and the general consensus was to "prohibit the tangós of the Morenos."

From 1751 to 1810, the culture was terribly repressed by the Spanish in an attempt to remove the ability of the captives to express themselves. This gave candombe a meaning beyond the mere expressions of aesthetics and culture: it became a political tool for liberation. It called warriors to clandestine meetings; it reconnected the sojourner to his past; it offered a vehicle for sweet dreams; it even became the presence from the past that could be evoked when desired.On the 28th of October, 1846 president Joaquin Suarez abolished slavery in Uruguay after a twenty-one year struggle.

Unfortunately - as befalls most African slave populations [Argentina's black population for instance all but disappeared, decimated in the 1800s by yellow fever, intermarriage and massive military recruitment who then died in wars] - Uruguay's fifty percent African population two centuries ago has been annihilated to fewer than 200,000 today [in a nation of 3.2 million]. Gone are most of the physical and cultural contributions to Uruguay except the musical gathering, and the "llamadas" of Barrio Sur and Palermo where on Sundays or in moonlit nights rows of drummers assemble by firelight at historically African street corners to mesmerize with their raw hypnotic ritual of rhythm, muscles, sweat, musk, light and shadows.

The candombe rhythm is created by the sounds from three drums or tambores [together referred to as a cuerda] – the tambor piano, tambor chico and tambor repique. The piano is the largest in size, and lowest in pitch; its job is to hold the rhythmic base not unlike the function of the upright or electric bass. The chico [small] is the smallest with a thin drumhead, and a high pitch and the rhythmic pendulum of the cuerda. Finally, the repique's (ricochet) is the show piece. This is where the accomplished can impress peers and onlookers alike with improvised phrasings.

Isla de Flores [also named after the candombe marvel Carlos Gardel] is the main street that joins the Montevideo neighborhoods of Cuareim and Ansina, the two main candombe social groups [known as 'asafo' in Ghana's Akan language]. For over a century spontaneous cuerdas, heralded by rehearsed escobilleros deftly displaying their dancing and baton-handling prowess, have paraded on this narrow street, attracting excited neighbors who dance in entranced abandon and schmooze the cuerda when they pause to use lit fires to tune their drum skins.

It is beyond drum sound. It is a way of life. It is tango complete with the Lubolo [white performers] who affectionately paint their faces black to perform during the Montevidean carnival, the sage elder figure El Gramillero and his mate the candombe matron Mama Vieja.

Uruguay is located between Brazil (population: 162 million) to the East, and Argentina (population: 34 million) to the West. Parallel developments in other parts of South American include the 'son' and 'tumba' in Cuba, and, the 'maracatu' and 'congadas' in Brazil.

Candombe

Rhythms of brighter days dreamt and now gone
Feelings from a future undecided but feared forlorn
These mix and blend in measured, fated movements
In communion with the ancient souls for improvements

Hear I dream heaving bosoms and breaths in haste
Displaying taut sweating skins and twirling waists
That invite into this shadowy world of abandon
Tickling fires licking shades deep, the faces mixing.

It's candombe, the sound from deep in the severed source
Angling the whispers in the ocean with uncommon force:
Even in desolation, we grow with the promise of hope;
Even in death we rise with the spirit of old just to cope

Rhythms of the new truth dragged from the old soils
Assuring that all is alright, even in these spoils
Tomorrow may be back to bills and chills and spills
But under this moonlight it is all kisses and thrills

From "Salt in Her Womb", the forthcoming book of verse by Nana S. Achampong

West African Ritual Presence Found in Annapolis

2008-10-22T10:11:00.004-04:00

Maryland’s capital city Annapolis is where a team of anthropologists and archeologists from the University of Maryland has uncovered a bundle of artifacts used by African slaves in the 18th century for religious rites. The discovery may shed new light on the life of slaves in America.

"There are almost 300 pieces of lead shot at the bottom of the bundle, above them two dozen nails, also above them are almost two dozen common pins several of which are bent at a right angle, sticking out the top is a stone axe," anthropologist Mark Leone, of the University of Maryland said on PRI’s The World Tuesday October 21.

According to Leone, the bundle of artifacts [which must have been used by slaves for religious rites] was excavated 1000 feet from the capitol building. It is believed that the package is connected to a Sango ritual that must have been observed in public even as white magic was also performed then. It suggests that African religions were thriving - or at least tolerated - during this era of the slave trade.

The package, which will soon go on display at The Banneker-Douglass Museum, the state of Maryland's Center for African-American History and Culture, had a prehistoric stone axe protruding from the top with iron nails and pins which establishes that it was made by West African [Yoruba] slaves in Annapolis for offering or invocation purposes. It is believed that a fetish priest must have carried it around to invoke Sango, the god of thunder.

That these proceedings were held in public suggests that they must have had an impact on the Europeans, signifying that African culture was alive and well around 1708 - in public. This means Annapolis has as much African influence and character as it does European. It is time therefore for Annapolis to recognize its African origins 300 years ago. Can the city see itself, in the light of this find, also as African and not just as European?!

The Middle Passage was the forced trafficking of people from Africa to the New World. During the 17th and 18th centuries, trans-Atlantic slave traders brought millions of kidnapped Africans to America. Many slaves tried to stay connected in some way to their West African heritage.

In the 18th century, Annapolis was bustling with oyster-packing, sail-making and slave trade.