Saturday, February 28, 2009

THE AFRO-ARAB CIVILISATION DIALOGUE

B.F. BANKIE:

Due to its denigration of African culture Arabia, since it’s incursion into Africa, has seen the continent as a civilization vacuum waiting to be filled by Arab culture and Islam.

The painful fact is that it was only with the initiation of the current peace process between Khartoum, in central Sudan and Juba in south Sudan and the international focus on the genocide in Darfur, that it became apparent to the public at large, that from Mauritania on the Atlantic coast, moving eastwards to Sudan on the Red Sea, despite careful concealment, that a system of apartheid was in operation in the Afro-Arab Borderlands, where Africa meets Arabia, in places such as Mali and Niger, which border on southern Algeria and southern Libya.

The potential for fighting arising from such a situation has manifested itself already in parts of Sudan, in Niger and in the on-going conflicts in the Sahel, involving groups such as the Touaregs in Mali and Niger. Concerned persons such as Prof Helmi Sharawy of the Arab Research Centre for Arab-African Studies and Documentation (ARAASD ) in Cairo, Egypt and Prof Kwesi Prah of the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) in Cape Town, as well as Prof Dani Nabudere of the Marcus Garvey Pan-African Institute (MPAI ) in Mbale in Uganda, have been working towards the creation of a security mechanism to prevent conflict, by way of dialogue. Meetings have taken place between progressive Arabs and progressive Africans to find common ground and to implement restorative justice, by way of dispute resolution strategies, in a situation of historical opposition and mistrust. The former Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Prof Alfa Konare convened such a meeting of scholars in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia towards the formulation of ‘A Strategic Geopolitical Vision of Afro-Arab Relations’ from 11-12th May 2004 at the headquarters of the AU, in order to determine the various views and to look at potential solutions, by way of a civilization dialogue. It is all too apparent that some would wish to intensify the divisions and exploit them. Such forces have had the upper hand in the past. Only protracted, laboured, internal solutions, within the area, will help in the long term.

As the deep rooted historical problems of the Borderlands receive better understanding, well meaning people of peace will be obliged to find ways and means to handle an area of Pan-African affairs, where black Africans, due to their geopolitical weaknesses, have been in denial since self government came about in Africa in the mid-1950s. Indeed these skewered relations date back a millennia, from the initial interaction between the two peoples. It was only with the Darfur issue emerging as a genocide, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, that the organization for Pan-African unity, formerly called the Organization for African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU), concerned itself with developments in the Borderlands. Formerly these were off-limits. During the long years of war in south Sudan starting in 1955, the fighting there was not a matter of concern for the Pan-African body. The south Sudan conflict was said to be an Arab issue, for decision by the Arab League only. Such a view was supported by Libya.

Paradoxically, as it may appear, it was the Republican Administration of George Bush in the USA, which championed the cause of the Darfuri against the genocide and pushed the international community to conclude the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between Khartoum and Juba. History will draw its own conclusions as to why it was Bush and not the previous Clinton Democrat Administration which opted for peace in South Sudan. The Democrats did nothing to stop the war in South Sudan or to decisively intervene in the Sudan issue. They are remembered for bombing a civilian target in Khartoum, which was a pharmaceutical factory. They failed to concern themselves with the lives of the marginalized millions living in the Borderlands and were part of the cover-up. The last Democrat Administration in the USA saw central Africa, the Great Lakes and particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in flames. The Democrats were part of the problem, not part of the solution. This might have been the most murderous period in the self-government era in this area of Africa. The policies in this area of the incoming Obama Administration have yet to receive clarity.

On the 22nd February 2003 the Drammeh Institute in New York and CASAS convened the Conference on Arab-led Slavery of Africans in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was attended by scholars from around the world, especially from Sudan and Mauritania. Conference stated that after centuries of silence and non-expression, it was time to speak out on the inequities visited against Africans in their relations with Arabs. It recognized the need to overcome collective amnesia and the need for research on African interaction with Arabs, the Ottomans and the Turks, all of whom played a key role in making north Africa what it is today. Conference promoted closer relations with the eastern Diaspora in Arabia, the Gulf states and points eastwards. It censored the implementation of genocide in Sudan and charged Arab societies with the ethnocide of African people through forced cultural Arabization processes over a millennia. Finally the conference called for the institution of a civilization dialogue between the Arab and African people.

Such a dialogue needs to take place between those living in the Borderlands, such as in Mauritania and in Sudan, with those in that area who profess to be Arabs. Some might assume that, for example, Afro-Brazilians, could conduct such a dialogue with the Arabs of the area. This would not be helpful. Neither would it assist if, for example, South Africans dialogued with Arabs. Africans in general, as has been said, have been in denial on these issues, and some still are. It is those who have felt the effects of the expansionist hegemony over a millennia, not the African Union, who can best begin a process of possible reconciliation, as seen in southern Africa.

Such a dialogue will, as and when initiated in an organized fashion, be fraught with difficulties and take centuries to have effect. The current Government of National Unity (GONU) in Khartoum, Sudan, illustrates that the attempt at cohabitation of the National Islamic Front (NIF)/National Congress Party (NCP) of Omar el Bashir in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Juba, South Sudan, has been anything but harmonious. The relationship has been characterized by deceit, lies and betrayal by Khartoum from day one.

Finally, the civilization dialogue between the African and the Arab must be conducted on a basis of strict equality and mutual respect. Such a dialogue, once its existence is formerly established, will take place in both formal and informal settings, where people meet formally and informally. It will need to be worked towards deliberately and continuously. At the moment Arab superiority to the African is a given, both in the Arab world and internationally. This explains China’s position on the Sudan issue, where due to economic interests, China is the principal defender of the Khartoum government and its main supplier of weapons. Another surprisingly vocal supporter of Bashir and Khartoum has been Tabor Mbeki.

The current international positioning for and against Khartoum, in the issue by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the Writ against President Bashir of Sudan, needs to be carefully scrutinized and followed. These manoeuvres do not just reflect support for a despot, but relate to initial positioning on the broad issue of Afro-Arab future relations and their global implication. What happens in Sudan today has application, for example, in Mauritania and the rest of the Afro-Arab Borderlands tomorrow. The domination of Arabs in this area was in the past a ‘given ‘ in the geo-political discourse. The facts of the area were difficult to locate ( the ratio of Arab to African in Sudan is concealed by the government of Sudan – the same applies in the rest of the Borderlands, right across to Mauritania ) and the area was not subject to analysis in the international media, being ‘off-limits ‘ for discussion in the west and east, in so-called ‘traditional diplomacy’. The well being of the area was determined by the neo-colonial arrangements left by the departing external actors, who monopolized developments in the area according to their own interests. The first generation of post-colonial leaders, such as Sekou Toure and Modibo Keita abided by these rules and did not seek to interfere with the colonial dispensation in the Borderlands.

What broke the mould was the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) of South Sudan, lead by Dr John Garang de Mabior, fighting on behalf of all the marginalized people of Sudan, including the Darfuri, the Beja of the east, the Nubians in the north of the country and others. The SPLA together with the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) forced Khartoum to sign the CPA. This changed the course of history and the strategic balance in the Borderlands, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, creating the opportunity to open the Borderlands to public scrutiny - an area which had been shut off from view. This led to the Darfur ‘rebellion’ and the further ramifications which are underway. The significance of the CPA, which cost three millon+ lives and long years of war, should be compared with the implications of the battle of Cuito Cunavale in Angola for Southern Africa. In the instance of the CPA the military struggles took longer due to international marginalization and indifference to the loss of African lives and was undertaken by Africans. In the international relations of the period 1950s-2005 the events in South Sudan did not feature in the media. The implications of this are that the resolution of issues such as Darfur and the Borderlands in general will have to be done by African actors, not by external players. Until Africans are strong enough the area, including Somalia, will remain war prone. Indeed this lesson should have been long learnt in the Congo basin. All these mean that the Pan-African body, the AU alone, has to be up to the historical responsibilities it faces. Gone are the days of external solutions. There is no other option to peaceful co-existence, combined with a preparedness to met force with force.

B.F.Bankie, former Researcher, Kush Institution, Juba, South Sudan

Friday, February 27, 2009

The genocide in South Sudan and Darfur and its implications

B.F. BANKIE:

There were two main migrations out of Africa. There was the first exodus of the original man ( Homo sapiens sapiens ), who was black and who settled all over the world. The next migration out of Africa was forced by slavery. Although the western Diaspora in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe is known, the eastern Diaspora, which preceded the western Diaspora by a millennium, is not generally known. The African eastern Diaspora is found wherever Africans were taken in Caucasia and Turkey, in Arabia, in the Gulf, in India and points further eastwards. The eastern Diaspora is coming into view, largely as a result of an increasing conscientiousness of African identity in places such as South Sudan and Darfur, where Africans who formerly, since time immemorial had identified themselves as Arabs, are coming to realise that they had been denationalised of their African identity, due to enslavement, colonisation, forced Islamization and Arabization.

For instance in Darfur, in western Sudan there are three main black African groups, the Fur, the Masaaleit and the Zaghawa. Interestingly, in the past the Islamic leaders of Sudan, such as Turabi, tended to all originate from Darfur. These three African ethnic groups, which in recent times have been the subject of genocide by central government in Khartoum, were widely used by Khartoum as shock troops in its war against south Sudan, and to good effects. They are remembered in the south for their callous brutality against southerners.

With the war coming to an end in south Sudan, with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the southerners attained some measure of self-government. The Darfuri Africans got nothing. It is this, and their long-term marginalization, which caused the Darfuri to go to war with Khartoum, in the realisation that they had been used by Khartoum, which through it’s genocide in Darfur, clearly saw the Darfuri not as fellow Arabs, but as inferior Africans. There is that well recorded statement by some Arab and Sudanese leaders that the Darfuri have yet to achieve full Arab status ( ie that they remained too African and insufficiently Arabised).

One of the central connections of Africa with its Diasporas is culture. However Arabised and westernised the African Diasporas are, they retain elements, sometimes distant, of African culture.

The study of African society, especially from the cultural perspective, teaches us that the unity movement of Africans should have consciously advanced through culture, then the economy, to finally arrive at the political union of Africans within or outside the continent – for the movement towards unity began in Africa, was taken outside Africa and was then carried back to Africa. The Charter of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) taught us that the organisation was dedicated to continental unity only, despite the Pan-African impulses which lead to its creation. Neither the OAU nor the African Union (AU) made any pretence to include the African Diasporas in their deliberations or administration. Yet the key link in the history of the African unity project is the linkage of Africa with its Diaspora.

As the significance of the struggle in the Afro-Arab Borderlands is better understood, so will the contestation around the African identity intensify. The Mauritanian, Garba Diallo says, ‘ a millennium of massive religious/ideological and human influx from the Middle East into the region has not only physically pushed the native population towards the south, but it has also displaced their African identity. The problem has become so profound that many of the Sahelian people cannot tell whether they are African, Arab or a mixture of both. This identity crisis is the root cause of the bloody wars of the Arabized regimes in Africa’. As the realities of this area are better understood, one of the consequence is likely to be fresh thinking about the sequences and consequences of unity.


Despite the happenings in the Borderlands (e.g. slavery, genocide, wars, racial oppression etc), which developed over a millennium, the states of Africa have in general been in denial and have chosen to ‘look the other way’, as regards these events, on the basis of non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states. Thus the realities in the Borderlands were ignored as an issue in the OAU/AU and elsewhere by those who would be expected to champion the cause of their kith and kin. There has even been talk that concerned persons should ‘not disturb the peace’ by raising such issues at this time. Some Africans are saying that the issue of reparations for Arab-led slavery should not be addressed in this period of world history, due to ongoing developments in the Middle-East, again deferring the Arab question.

One of the first steps taken by the Khartoum government after self-government, was to join the Arab League. The support by the Arab League states to the government of the Sudan in Khartoum in its fight against south Sudan and African nationalism is long standing and substantial. The support of the Arab world by way of finance and in terms of military supplies, has at times taken the form of volunteers. Ben Laden, the Muslim fanatic, spent time in Sudan and in Juba, fighting on the southern front of the fundamentalist global Jihad. After Sudan he went to Afghanistan. Will he next proceed to Somalia ? This war by the central government in Khartoum has received consistent support from the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hamas, it’s Islamist wing. Hamas is on record of receiving substantial material support from Khartoum. Africa has no comparative reaction to the quest of Arabia to push southwards its interests and to secure for the National Islamic Front (NIF)/National Congress Party (NCP) control of the headwaters of the Nile, as far south as Uganda, if needs be. The OAU/AU was unable to discuss these matters, given it’s internal financial situation.

The mercenary Lords Resistance Army (LRA), after moving from northern Uganda, was installed in Juba and supported for many years by Khartoum. Now that the LRA has relocated to the Congo, it most likely is still financed by Khartoum, to cause mayhem on the southern boundaries of Sudan. Such mayhem is used to soften up the area, before the jihadists go in to convert. This terror tactic was used in west Africa, in places such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. Africa, in the past remained in a defensive posture in its handling of Arab hegemony, suffering in silence, while sustaining its support for Arabia in its conflict with Israel. This embittered the southern Sudanese, who had begun fighting Arab colonialism on their own with traditional weapons in 1955. But for the protracted fighting of the southerners against Khartoum, Arab hegemony would have overrun the south and moved into Uganda. Turabi was intent on achieving this. As it was the southerners stemmed the tide of the Arab onslaught. In point of fact what has happened is that Arab influence moved round the south and into Somalia. It will not stop there. It must be understood that these are historical processes. After Somalia will come Kenya and after Kenya will come Tanzania. It is this push south, starting over a thousand years ago, which is the older and historically more significant feature of our oppression as a people, as compared with the western enslavement, which began some 500 years ago.

Despite the various international conventions supposedly assuring human rights for all, Africans were only recently considered subjects of international law, whereas before they were treated as its objects, and it was well known that in places such as South Africa, they were denied human rights by the apartheid system, later considered to be a crime against humanity. It was only by 1994 after the racist authorities in South Africa had come under sufficient international pressure, that a planned regime-change took place in that country, prior to which the international community had chosen to ‘look the other way’ as far as the human rights abuse, which went on in the country, despite the work of Smuts in the formation of the League of Nations. The question needs to be asked, why no anti-apartheid movement developed in solidarity with the south Sudanese or the Mauritanians? South Sudan lost some three million persons during the long years of war. Why are Africans apparently indifferent to the genocide currently going on in Darfur?

Sudan and other countries in the Borderlands continue to experience a similar situation as South Africa and Namibia prior to 1994. However, it needs to be stressed, that the situation in the Borderlands is more complex and its problems far more deep rooted than those found in Southern Africa. Sudan today, like South Africa was in 1994, is ruled by a minority, in this instance, a ‘coloured’ mixed race group, centred on Khartoum, implementing a Bantustan – type policy of separate development, with Khartoum accorded the benefits and South Sudan, Darfur, Nubia, Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains, the East etc, being marginalised and denied resources. Under Khartoum’s social conventions, black Africans are permitted status, only if they Islamise, Arabise and denationalise.

Central government in Khartoum is at war with large parts of the rest of the country, including areas, such as Darfur, where the population is largely Muslim. Weapons of mass destruction such as poison gas, aerial bombardment were/are used by the government against defenceless people. Rape is used as a weapon. The pattern of human rights abuse by Khartoum against not just South Sudan, but other areas and the absence of a co-ordinated international response substantiates the claim that Africans remain partial beneficiaries, of international human rights norms. For Arabia, Africa remains a civilisation vacuum, waiting to be filled by Arab culture and Islam. Whatever the truths of history concerning the African origins of world civilisation (Cheikh A.Diop), such tenets are not taught in schools in Arabia. The knowledge that the original civilisation in the Nile Delta was black African is denied the Arab people. African political elites are accorded deference in the Arab world and diplomatic protocols are observed in state to state relations. Sudan teaches that it is at the level of ‘people to people’ or ‘state to people’ relations that the spirit of the OAU/AU supposedly guided by Pan-Africanism, is in need of improved performance by the Arab brothers. Those in the Borderlands tell us that double standards are deliberately implemented and that cohabitation in places such as Sudan and Mauritania is an apartheid nightmare.

B.F.Bankie, former Researcher at the Kush Institution, Office of the President, Juba, Southern Sudan.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Take Back the Land Liberates Another Home

Max Rameau
takebacktheland.org
takebacktheland@gmail.com

At 12:00 noon today, February 23, Take Back the Land liberated a vacant house in order to move an extended family of 12, including six minors, back into the home they lost to foreclosure on Friday, February 20th. The foreclosure was a result of a fraudulent refinance scheme by a predatory lender.

The home is located at 849 NW 137th St. in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. As this message is sent, Take Back the Land is assisting the family in their move back into the home.

Take Back the Land identifies vacant government owned and foreclosed homes and moves homeless people into the people-less homes. The organization has been "liberating" foreclosed homes since October 2007, a year after liberating a vacant government owned piece of land and building the Umoja Village Shantytown, housing homeless individuals until a fire destroyed the community. Take Back the Land has liberated eight (8) homes to date.

After Mary's husband lost his job, the couple and their two teenage children were forced to move back in with her mother. Soon after, the contracting job market forced Mary's adult daughter and fiancee back to the house with their four children, all under 10. The crashing economy ultimately forced 12 relatives, spanning four generations, to cram into Grandma Carolyn's two bedroom one bath house.

Unbeknownst to the families, almost two years prior, Carolyn fell victim to a scam predatory lender. The salesman convinced her that with a new reverse mortgage she would only be compelled to pay the taxes on the house, significantly reducing her expenses as she entered retirement age. When they started receiving the foreclosure notices, it was too late, even with almost every adult in the house regaining employment.

The family was evicted from their home on February 20, upon which they called Take Back the Land requesting assistance. Since then, they have been sleeping together in a van and bread truck in the parking lot of a local supermarket. Local homeless shelters are full and not fitted for families and, therefore, can only split the family between Homestead and Miami and then divide the men and women.

The house itself is in need of repairs and there are at least three other vacant homes on that street and numerous others on adjacent streets. As such, the home is unlikely to be sold or occupied in the next year or even two years and will only contribute to blight and unsafe conditions in the neighborhood. Furthermore, homes vacant for even short periods of time are often vandalized and stripped for valuable parts and fixtures. The vacant house, therefore, does not help the family, the neighborhood or even the bank who owns a structure rapidly decreasing value.

It is inhumane and immoral to evict a family of 12 human beings, who are left to sleep in a truck, and not even fill the house with another family, but leave it vacant, potentially for years to come.

Housing is a human right which is threatened by corporate demands to maximize profits. Take Back the Land calls on people of good conscience to defend their communities and fight for the right of human beings to housing, particularly during this economic crisis.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Free ourself from the smell of the Master - Tribute to the revolution movement in Guadeloupe

(in English & en Francais)

How can the slave frees himself from the smell of the Master and from the visceral fear which eats his intestines knowing that this fear is passed to the future generations by the education of the subjection and the submission? This terror is maintained by the Master and bequeathed to a colonial ideology which rages even today.

It's important to know how the cult of the terror was thought and maintained since the slavery in our days. During the slavery the runaway slaves were tortured, mutilated or simply murdered then the organized executioners of carnivals or parades to excite their power and of plantation in plantation showing their inhumanity they inculcated the cult of the terror to all the enslaved populations furthermore soft child, tightened very hardly by his mother who can be will not see him growing if the Master decides to sell him, to the bravest and most strong man. These collective punishments maintained the cult of the terror and dissuaded the most fly-away slaves. These same methods were maintained during the colonization with ill treatment physical, the torture the hard labours, the deportations. Nowadays these same methods are maintained with the prison universe, the media lynching and the isolation of every rebels in search of dignity, emancipation and freedom. Every time black populations got up to fight, their fights were repressed in a big brutality even in a big inhumanity. We all saw the landing of excessively armed squadrons in Guadeloupe to break the movement and to break Negros. We can see examples of this repression everywhere worldwide.

They give us the example of United States as the example of racial integration but just know when I write this message there are persons like Soundjata Acoli, Mumia Abu Jamal, Jalil Muntaqim, Mutulu Shakur and so many others whom is in prison for more than 30 years their only purpose was to aspire to freedom in front of racial segregation. Imagine countries which say themselves civilized or in democracies to lock people who fought for more justice and freedom more than 30 years. We have all shocked by Nelson Mandela's story but the story of Soudjata Acoli or Assata Shakur shocked me more. Imagine you in the 21th century that a bonus of 1.000.000 of the dollars is offered for the capture or the murder of Assata Shakur appears symbolic of the black resistance in United States. It was the same rewards as the Master offered to bounty hunters to capture or kill a runaway slave. And we are in 2009. It shows all the extent of the hypocrisy of this system which shows symbols of evolution of a highly-rated and in the otherside maintains symbols of terror. The President Obama shouldn't guarantee and feeds this hypocrisy because it's incomprehensible to sign the decree for the closure of Guantanamo and not sign a decree to raise the veil on Conteil Pro and the detention of all the political prisoners in the United States. Political prisoners the sacrifices of which contributed to his election. The problem lives in the fact that it's the same executioners who imprison and kill who judge. The same executioners who inform, master and manipulate the public opinion.

How to free itself from the smell of the Master? How to free itself from the fear and from the terror which crush our intestines of traumatized Negros?

By the balance of terror.

Neg Marrons had included it well and we can return them big tribute because by their clear-sightedness and their actions they were able to eradicate the slavery but the historymakers will always glorify Schœlcher in place of Nat Turner or The brave Marron Solitude. Marrons knew how to rebalance the terror by action as high as the inhumanity of the Master. They slaughtered when it was necessary by love for their freedom, their dignity and to protect their honor. During the fight for the civil rights and the fights of decolonization the movements as the Blacks Panthers or the Mau Mau took the relai to rebalance the terror of the colonial or segregationist machine, the same system which wants to protect the white supremacy on the black race. In the current day we are in the reign of hypocrisy and lie. The reign of a white supremacy which wants to continue to protect these privileges by denying the ignoble inheritance and by their actions try to continue to maintain their oppress system on black people worldwide. They speak to us about abolition of the slavery but maintained over centuries the same slave system with lands, wealth and tools of repressions in the hands of their sons or the grandson of slave drivers. During this time sons and the grandsons of the Marrons forgot the values and the codes of transmission of Marrons because the black populations don't know how to protect their codes of transmission, nor the values which restore their pride and their dignity. They tell us about independence, decolonization but they maintain the same cogs and the strategies to take advantage of our raw materials, wealth of the former colonies by a system of sponsoring of traitors, dictators and military bases to repress, support and maintain the neocolonial regims (the French aviation making raids air in African ground to protect its) interest). Then they tell us of forging ahead, they tell us that the slavery is finished, that the colonization is finished. How to be also naïve while the systems and the ideologies which were on the base of the slavery and the colonization are maintained.

It's high time for us to free us from the smell of the Master, to emancipate us from the fear and terror. And only the balancing of the terror, the courage and the bravery can allow it.

A Marron said to free me from the smell of the Master I had to knife him and wash me with his blood.

It's high time for France to assume and begin to think about the price of the blood before the nature and the time takes care of the price of the blood.

France completely has to become aware blood has a price. It is what we call collectively " the price of the blood ". It is necessary to begin to think of paying the price of the blood. And It's by two processes to pay " the price of the blood ". Let be to pay it by a recognition of its crimes and a financial compensation for the crimes appointed during the slavery and the colonization to the victims. Let be the victims some day will protest " the price of the blood " by pouring the blood of the executioners.
And every generation with its mission.
It's a generation which is the generation of the break, the generation of the insubordination, the generation of the honor, dignity and emancipation, the conscious generation which becomes aware of every extent of the hypocrisy of the system set up to maintain us in the servitude and in the submission, in the assimilation and the negation of our own identities.

A revolution gets ready.

A black revolution must be connected with the historic revolutions to learn from it and especially the values which were the mainspring of it. The youth must re-appropriate the value of Neg' Marrons, the determination of Black Panthers and Mau Mau to plunge in souls of ours big and brave fighters who throughout this history to sacrifice everything to give us dignity and honor.

The leitmotiv of our generation has to be: sacrifice, our slogan: "no more", our shield: the memory (that they want to erase or eradicate), and our iron of arrow: the consciousness that it is necessary to us to sublimate the fear and the terror to become free and emancipated beings.

I see them sticking labels: villains, vandals, gansters … But it's this stigmatized youth left in margin who shouts with its language and its weapons that it doesn't want to be any more the martyr of this history. It's this youth who shouts you that they doesn't want to be any more a slave and colonized. It's this youth who shouts you that they won't live any more subdued by bending the spinal column by saying " yes bwana ". It's this youth who shouts you that they won't accept any more the violence and the police brutalities. It's these young people slandered on the trays of TV by puppets negros which like reassuring the Master by persuading him that everything is ok in aim of pity crumbs and privileges and not knowing that the world of the Master is collapsing. But these young people had to put in danger their life and their freedom when these same Negros marionettes benefit from an appearance of evolution. In the current day these shouts of freedom and emancipation are repressed in a big police brutality and a judicial harassment. Now, only the fight allows to cover its freedom, and these young people can fight only with the language and the weapons in their ownership. Instead of slandering them they would be time to offer them the other weapons and the means to triumph in their fight because they are often alone in front of a rough and well oiled machine trained in the repression. It is the same youth which is the lively strength of our people with extremely limited perspectives. The system tries to dissolve their fight and to canalize their strength by incorporating them into police forces or into army at best, and in the worst by breaking them in a jail system.

It is necessary to us to find a just balance of terror and a deterrent power.

Only those who have the same strength can have a fair discussion otherwise the one who has more strength finished always to impose its ideas. The victim can discuss with his executioner only when he is capable of forcing him to listen to him.

We have to find the ways and the means today to force the crakers to listen to us.

I feel united of this youth deprived of everything and delivered to itself which uses the means which they have to express their shout of freedom without forgetting that it undergoes the police and judicial repression while a "elite" benefits gaily from experiences of their fights. I recognize that often their actions and their expressions of revolt offer us headways.
I feel united of all the women and all the men who stand up and fight with all their strengths, their talents and their weapons against this colonial ideology.
Today I am the colonized, in the same spirit as colonized African deported in Guadeloupe, colonized African, colonized African deported in USA or colonized African living in Europe which on three continents knows that he has to fight for freeing himself from the smell of the Master.
And By Any Means Neccesary said Malcolm X.

Mbegane NDOUR
Jambar of Saloum

Littérature:
http://www.menaibuc.com/Ma-conscience-aiguisee

Musique:
www.believe.fr/mbeganendour

Pour L'émergence des Consciences Africaines

(French)

En soutien au mouvement révolutionnaire, mouvement d'honneur et de dignité en Guadeloupe

Saturday, February 21, 2009

But, Can They Read?

commonsense 714
John Maxwell:

Some of the most amazing things happened within the last two weeks. Hundreds of miles above the earth, an obsolete Russian satellite collided over Siberia with a American communication satellite, and the odds against that happening are so astronomic that nobody had bothered to calculate them.

So, many of us were more than surprised when we heard a few days later that two nuclear submarines, one British, the other French, had collided deep under the Atlantic That was scary, each sub was armed with enough nuclear warheads to destroy a couple of continents. They were patrolling in stealth mode, trying t ensure that the evil Russians didn't steal a march on the rest of us by destroying Switzerland or the Cayman Islands and thus throwing the world financial system into so much more confusion.
Some says the likelihood of these sub colliding was about as great as someone winning the top prize in the same lottery four times in succession.

Natural and unnatural phenomena keep defying the odds. The global financial system has vaporised, destroyed by its own greed, criminality and selfishness. Capitalist journalists, conservative politicians and people once considered Gods in Jamaica, like Professor Jeffrey Sachs are busy calling for socialist or proto-socialist solutions to get the world out of the mess we're in.

Only in the Caribbean are people unaware of what's happening in the rest of the world. Our politicians, central planners and central bankers, immobilised by the super-glue of globalisation, are still speaking the language of the IMF and World Bank, still calling for the poor to be disciplined so that the rich can generate the kind of profits which once pleased Sandy Weill, David Rockefeller and Richard Fuld. The people who paid a million dollars fora tin of an Italian 'artist's excrement ten years ago may still e in the markets in Jamaica.

Deep in the DooDoo

For one thing, the Jamaican Port Authority is still fixated on destroying Falmouth to create the world's largest and most expensive excrement disposal facility– the so-called homeport for the world's single largest floating generator of human waste –the cruise liner called the Oasis of the Seas.

The essential thinking behind the Port Authority's planned destruction of Falmouth is very simply to provide a sewage disposal facility for the 15,000 passengers and crew of this ship after a few week's cruising and then, once ever so often, to allow the Oasis time to release its captive audience to molest dolphins and other innocent denizens of Jamaica. In addition to the enormous amount of faecal matter to be deposited in the sewage disposal plant the new Falmouth will require hundreds of 'comfort stations' to deal with the tourists ashore.

That, is of course,, if the ship ever manages to make it to Falmouth. Our ginnigogs do not appear o have heard of the great capitalist meltdown, with Goldman Sachs and other investment banks laying off hundreds of thousand of workers. These are the people whose droppings fertilise the markets for cruise ships and, when they are gone, the cruise ships and their patrons also disappear.

But our ginnigogs apparently cannot read and so, they are investing for the ultimate rainy day, building on sand for an economic hurricane.

When our Caribbean knights like Allen Sandford go up in smoke, when the Union Bank of Switzerland agrees to tell the US about the criminal activity formerly protected in its numbered accounts, when the Germans, the French and the British take off after the money laundering industries of the Bahamas, Cayman, Bermuda, Antigua, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Zurich to name a few, the bottom is likely to drop out of the Caribbean sewage disposal market.

In the meantime, Mr Sandford has created some really hairy problems for West Indies cricket. If his activities are as shady as the SEC and FBI allege, all the money he caused the WI Board to distribute to Chris Gayle, for instance, will have to be repaid. The WICB is going to end us owing an enormous amount to the criminal estate, and they won’t be able to get it back from Gayle and Co.
Perhaps the Port Authority might be able to help?


The secret to this crazy investment is quite simple. Our ginnigogs believe the globalisation myths and truisms of four and five years ago, such as: Water is the new oil which means that anything to do with sewage and the sale of water in large quantities, such as cruise shipping, is sure to make a few millionaires. The Contractor General and the Public Defender should have a look.
Additionally, the PAJ does not appear to realise that super cruise ships like the Oasis are aimed directly at the destruction of the Jamaican hotel industry, providing the modern 'tourist' with no excuse to go ashore and mingle with the natives.

Bankers a go go

The world is beginning to recognise that there is no function that bankers perform that entitles them to live at such gargantuan removes from the rest of us. Basically, Bankers are supposed to be bookkeepers and custodians of our savings. Over the last few decades, the bookkeepers and finance managers of this world have carried out a wave of coups, taking control of our savings; and under the guise of 'improving shareholder value' – i.e. our prospects) have employed our wealth to criminally enrich themselves, oppress workers, reduce the workers levels of skill and job satisfaction, destroy productive diversity in the interest of more raw profit.

The market has turned out – as Marx and others forecast, to be an antihuman machine, creating misery, promoting conflict and destroying the conditions for happy and sustainable futures.

As we gaze at the ruins of the Enrons, the Lehman Brothers, the Allen Sandford and Madoff houses of cards, many of us will be tempted to seek qualitative difference between them, to try and find something good that distinguishes them from the generically criminal and elevates them into something that advances the public interest.

I should like to be informed when you make those discoveries.

Long ago the state – that is us in corporate guise – was the trustee for the public interest, that is, us in plain clothes.

In every country, for instance, there were laws against usury, imposing limits n the levels of interest a lender could charge a borrower.

In the seventies the IMF and World bank persuaded many of us to abolish the laws on usury, and the result was what the IMF and World Bank called growth. Usury, which used not only to be a crime, but a sin, became the hobby of perfectly respectable folk who went to church every week and did not commit adultery.

Then, the more adventurous set off on their piratical excursions into globalised capitalism. What is most strange is that this Gadarene adventure was led by, of all people, the sober, starchy accountants and bookkeepers who in losing their inhibitions have also lost their own souls and destroyed an enormous quantum of human savings and satisfaction. The World Bank and the IMF are even now embroiled in huge financial scandals going to the very top of these organisations, but they are still pretending that it is the poor who are dishonest, that it is the mendicants who are corrupt.

All over the world there are people trying to assemble hanging parties for the financiers. In New York a few months ago, remember that placard on Wall Street – 'JUMP, YOU F**KERS!"

In the present context it is going to take a great deal of persuasion to convince voters around the word that they should put their trust in anything resembling the old financial systems.

When Jeffrey Sachs and people of his ilk begin calling for nationalising the banks, even our Jamaican ginnigogs should take notice.
Of course, some of them may be waiting to hear from the once celebrated Professor Grassl.

I wish the Port Authority and the political parties the best of luck. I am old enough to remember, however, walking into the JBC newsroom more than half a century ago, to be confronted by an AP story which said inter alia, that the citizens of Istanbul had awakened that morning to find their entire cabinet hanging from lampposts in the centre of the city. The prime Minister, Mr Menderes, and his ministers with charming names like Cayalangil and Menemencioglu were all among those pendent. No one was spared.

The army apparently, had had enough.

Copyright© 2009 John Maxwell
jankunnu@gmail.com

Thursday, February 19, 2009

A Thief by any other name.....

Odhiambo T Oketch:

Yesterday was a sad day for the many Kenyans on whose behalf President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila were begging food for from the International Partners just recently at KICC.

In the floor of Parliament, we all watched with shock as Parliament voted against a censure motion against the Minister of Agriculture. This cleansing, at whatever cost it was, proved once more that the big THIEVES can never be touched in Kenya. They will steal and look you in the face as they deny.

The simple question is; Where is the maize that was supposed to be in the strategic reserves?

Professional defenses will not alter the fact that maize was given to the wrong people, not to the millers. And instead of Parliament voting to put an end to this impunity, many of them joined ranks to entrench impunity.

I know for sure that this weekend, all the 'maize millers' will converge somewhere in Rift Valley to chest thump. The days are indeed bad, and I hope many Kenyans are taking note.

The sanitization of Hon William Ruto is only but a continuation of the same process that we have seen before. Hon George Saitoti went to the courts to sanitize his involvement with Goldenberg Scandals. The courts granted him the orders that he negotiated and declared him clean, but in the eyes of the public, the ghosts of Goldenberg will forever hang on his neck.

We then saw Hon Kiraitu Murungi and company with Anglo Leasing.scandals. They were relieved of their cabinet posts in what Kiraitu clarified yesterday, were cleared of the scandals by the Executive, and promptly reappointed into the cabinet. But in the eye of the Public, Kiraitu is Anglo Leasing and Triton combined.

Do you know how much the Triton saga is worth? Kshs 7.9 billion. And do you know what the maize saga is worth? Kshs 850 million. The truth is, they are all crimes against humanity.

Kenyans are paying high prices for fuel simply because Kiraitu does not know where the oil went, and yet, he is the Minister. Kenyans are paying the high price of maize simply because Ruto says no maize was stolen. If no miaze was stolen, where is the maize?

Kenyans must wake up from deep slumber. Kenyans must take note that all the THIEVES are coming together to frustrate efforts at having them being held accountable.

The sad thing is that as Kenyans are dying of hunger, a reality, as children are going to school without food, your MP has chosen to vote with the THIEVES. Your MP has chosen to use the floor of Parliament to defend thievery.

You have the card right in your hands. Show them RED.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarock Nairobi

komarockswatch@yahoo.com

Monday, February 16, 2009

NO MORE SAGGING! Brothers, pull up your pants.

COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS LEAD NATIONAL IMAGE CAMPAIGN THROUGH "NO MORE SAGGING" POSTERS AND WORKSHOP SERIES





Atlanta, GA - (BlackNews.com) - President Barack Obama made an adverse national appeal for “brothers” to “pull up their pants” during a MTV program in November. In support of the President's plea, community, business, education, and faith based leaders have launched the ‘No More Sagging' campaign led by bestselling author, activist and television talk show host JL King. The campaign encourages young men to dress with a positive purpose and relay favorable messaging through a classic public image.

The ‘No More Sagging' campaign mirrors the lifestyle and elegant portrayal of President Obama through a series of full color 18 x 24 artwork reproductions. The first phase of the series blends American imagery – President Obama, Air Force One and the White House - compared with graphics of men 'sagging.'

The second phase features an action oriented workshop facilitated by Alvin Ferguson, renowned clothing designer, buyer, model and celebrity stylist. The workshop teaches young men and registrants the fundamentals of fashion, trends of the Hip Hop era, clothing messaging and education.

To see if young urban Black males realized how they looked when sagging, King conducted a focus group of 10 young men ranging in age from 17 to 25 years old. Based on the discussion and survey results, most of the young men wore their pants below the waist because it was popular, trendy and it made them feel cool. According to them, sagging is a style and fashion statement. As a result of this focus group, being a father to two sons, a uncle to nephews and a mentor, King created the ‘No More Sagging' campaign to serve as a catalyst to change the fad.

“One interesting thing I learned was that many of the [heterosexual] young men didn't realize that there are gay men who love looking at them with their butts showing,” says King. “They serve as eye candy to gay men even though they think they're being cool and hard core.”

The mission of the 'No More Sagging' campaign is to promote progression rather than prison and individuality with integrity. The ‘No More Sagging' posters are a must have for community outreach groups, schools, churches, detention centers, employment offices and associations. To place artwork reproduction orders ($10.00 USD) and for additional information on the ‘No More Sagging' workshop, visit Atlanta, GA - (BlackNews.com) - President Barack Obama made an adverse national appeal for “brothers” to “pull up their pants” during a MTV program in November. In support of the President's plea, community, business, education, and faith based leaders have launched the ‘No More Sagging' campaign led by bestselling author, activist and television talk show host JL King. The campaign encourages young men to dress with a positive purpose and relay favorable messaging through a classic public image.

The ‘No More Sagging' campaign mirrors the lifestyle and elegant portrayal of President Obama through a series of full color 18 x 24 artwork reproductions. The first phase of the series blends American imagery – President Obama, Air Force One and the White House - compared with graphics of men 'sagging.'

The second phase features an action oriented workshop facilitated by Alvin Ferguson, renowned clothing designer, buyer, model and celebrity stylist. The workshop teaches young men and registrants the fundamentals of fashion, trends of the Hip Hop era, clothing messaging and education.

To see if young urban Black males realized how they looked when sagging, King conducted a focus group of 10 young men ranging in age from 17 to 25 years old. Based on the discussion and survey results, most of the young men wore their pants below the waist because it was popular, trendy and it made them feel cool. According to them, sagging is a style and fashion statement. As a result of this focus group, being a father to two sons, a uncle to nephews and a mentor, King created the ‘No More Sagging' campaign to serve as a catalyst to change the fad.

“One interesting thing I learned was that many of the [heterosexual] young men didn't realize that there are gay men who love looking at them with their butts showing,” says King. “They serve as eye candy to gay men even though they think they're being cool and hard core.”

The mission of the 'No More Sagging' campaign is to promote progression rather than prison and individuality with integrity. The ‘No More Sagging' posters are a must have for community outreach groups, schools, churches, detention centers, employment offices and associations. To place artwork reproduction orders ($10.00 USD) and for additional information on the ‘No More Sagging' workshop, visit www.nomoresagging.com

CONTACT:
Shed Jackson, Media Relations
(866) 205-9228
pullthemup@gmail.com

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Chokwe Lumumba Is Running For Jackson, MS City Council

Chokwe Lumumba For Jackson, MS City Council
Building a New Jackson, Building a New South, Building Self-Determination!

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) is taking a bold step to advance the cause of New Afrikan Self-determination. Building off the experiences of developing the Freedom Party in Selma, Alabama and the Reconstruction Party in New Orleans, Louisiana, MXGM co-founder, Chokwe Lumumba, is running for City Council in Jackson, Mississippi.

The aim of this run is to implement a program of progressive social and economic change that will not only improve the lives of New Afrikan people in Jackson, but also empower Black and other oppressed people throughout the Kush District (the Mississippi Black Belt) and the Deep South by advancing a new social and economic agenda and strengthening their self-organization.

"The People's Platform"

So, what is this new social and economic agenda? As we are all too well aware, we are facing extremely trying economic and social times. With the economy in freefall and capitalism in deep crisis, MXGM believes that we have an agenda and an approach that can adequately address this crisis and transform the future of Jackson and the Southern region. Our agenda as expressed through the campaign's "People's Platform", is centered on the following four points:

1. An economic, social, and cultural human rights based approach to solve the economic crisis afflicting the city and state. We will use this approach to stop evictions, foreclosures, mass unemployment, and hunger.

2. Economic growth and job creation that brings Jackson into the forefront of the struggle to create a Green economy and increase employment opportunities.

3. Create job training programs and a better educational system that supports the real needs of our youth.

4. Public safety and an end to police misconduct. To explore the full Platform visit
www.electlumumbaward2.com

Be a part of the change

Help us build this movement for genuine development and self-determination in Jackson. You can do this by:

1.
Donating money to support your aspirations and interests as reflected in this campaign.You can make an electronic donation at www.electlumumbaward2.com or send a check payable to the "Committee to Elect Chokwe Lumumba". Mail the check to: 440 N. Mill Street, Jackson, MS 39202.

2.
Throwing a fundraiser for the Campaign to Elect Chokwe Lumumba in your city or region. To conduct a fundraiser please email electlumumba@gmail.com or call 601-353-5566 to obtain the information and materials you need.

3.
Spreading the word to your family, friends, co-workers, and congregants; ask them to make donations, promote the Peoples Agenda, and raise media attention for the campaign and its agenda for change in your local and regional media outlets.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan, Update

Greetings Family,

How are you? I am a little tired but I am okay. It is a busy time for me. African-American Heritage Month or Black History Month or whatever you choose to call this time of year is very demanding, and the scholars tend to really push themselves during this time. Last weekend I lectured in Detroit and Chicago and right now I am in the middle of an Ohio lecture series. I am trying to get at least a few hours of sleep every night. My diet could be a lot better but I am drinking a lot of water and trying to walk at least a little bit everyday. Which brings me to the point of this morning's email. This is an update on some of our greatest scholars, several of which have health challenges lately.

Dr. Richard King, psychiatrist, author and researcher on melanin, is back in the Intensive Care Unit. Brother Richard has had some health challenges of late but seems to be doing a little better. We will update you as time goes along.

Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, a great scholar and mentor of mine, and the world's leading authority on the African presence in early America, remains largely in seclusion. Periodically I exchange messages with Jaki Van Sertima and she keeps me updated on Ivan's health status.

Dr. Yosef A.A. ben-Jochannan, Egyptologist, remains in a Bronx nursing home. He surely does not want to be there and, indeed, nobody is happy about it. But, based on a personal visit and long talks with his daughter and primary care giver Ruth ben-Jochannan, he is doing okay. He has bunches of visitors and people are trying hard to put him in a better place. He also now has a private room. Many people have asked me about sending money to him. If you want to send something just let me know and I will give you his daughter's mailing address. It is her home address and I won't just post it all over the Internet. So, if you are serious, let me know and I will tell you where to forward your contribution.

Another senior scholar that I've had a bit of a relationship with and would like to have more is Dr. Edward Robinson in Philadelphia. Happy to say that Dr. Robinson seems to be doing fine.

I also met last night here in Kent, Ohio Dr. Edward Crosby -- one of the founders of the Pan-African studies department at Kent State University. While getting up in years he remains committed to the struggle. It was a real pleasure to meet him.

Well, I will leave it at that for now. I promise to keep you posted.

African love,

Runoko Rashidi Okello
runoko@yahoo.com


Latest Events - TheBlackList Pub

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Are The Sanctions Against Zimbabwe A Weapon Of War ?

James C. McIntosh, M.D.:

The great Prussian general, and before I get into trouble and anybody is asked to denounce me, for calling a Germanic leader great, let me cautiously say wickedly great. The wickedly great Prussian general Frederick the Great wrote in his instructions to his generals, that "The greatest secret of war and the masterpiece of a skillful general is to starve his enemy.

That's what sanctions do.

In Zimbabwe sanctions have created critical shortages of supplies of clean water, water purification equipment, agricultural equipment and medications. The health system of Zimbabwe that had once been described as the best in Africa is now described by some as in a shambles.

Even government opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking to CNN described Zimbabwe as having a "deepening food insecurity" Put that under the category even a broken clock is right twice a day. At any rate that's an echo of what Wickedly Great military strategist, Frederick was talking about starvation as a tactic.

Thats what sanctions do

General Colin Powell,

the wickedly great General Colin Powell, said when asked about his strategy for handling the Iraqi military, these infamous words "First we cut it off; listen, First we cut it off -----then we kill it."

That's the plan of the American Government for Zimbabwe.

That's what sanctions do.

Even in a country with a highly developed, sophisticated and well functioning medical system like Cuba certain inevitable consequences have been suffered because of US imposed sanctions in the form of an Embargo.

The American Association for World Health Report in their summary findings of 1997 said that sanctions had the following 4 negative impacts on the health of the Cuban People

"1. Malnutrition: The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies. In addition, food shortages were linked to a devastating outbreak of neuropathy numbering in the tens of thousands. By one estimate, daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.

2. POOR Water Quality: The embargo is severely restricting Cuba's access to water treatment chemicals and spare-parts for the island's water supply system. This has led to serious cutbacks in supplies of safe drinking water, which in turn has become a factor in the rising incidence of morbidity and mortality rates from water-borne diseases.

3. SHORTAGES OF Medicines & Equipment: Of the 1,297 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 889 of these same medicines - and many of these are available only intermittently. Because most major new drugs are developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals, Cuban physicians have access to less than 50 percent of the new medicines available on the world market. Due to the direct or indirect effects of the embargo, the most routine medical supplies are in short supply or entirely absent from some Cuban clinics.

4. SHORTAGES AND DELAYS OF Medical Information: Though information materials have been exempt from the U.S. trade embargo since 1 988, the AAWH study concludes that in practice very little such information goes into Cuba or comes out of the island due to travel restrictions, currency regulations and shipping difficulties. Scientists and citizens of both countries suffer as a result. Paradoxically, the embargo harms some U.S. citizens by denying them access to the latest advances in Cuban medical research, including such products as Meningitis B vaccine, cheaply produced interferon and streptokinase, and an AIDS vaccine currently under-going clinical trials with human volunteers. "


Are sanctions a weapon of war ??

Well they are certainly a weapon of economic war. And economic war is just that war. There would be no need to debate the point that economic war is war were it not for the fact that we are living in a period when US government officials are known to argue with straight faces that coerced hypothermia that is freezing a person to a state of ill health, sleep deprivation and drowning a person until he gives up information, are not torture but technically just harsh interrogation. HARSH INTERROGATION -They make it sound as though they are just cussing somebody out while they question him- You better tell me where those weapons of Mass distruction are you Son of a Bush- but it is nothing so benign. We are living in a time when there are politicians who still maintain that the events in Korea, involving mainly U.S. Troops was not war but technically just a U.N. police action. We are told that what occurred between Bill and Monica was not sex. What was it torture, harsh interrogation? 4 years f medical school and if it wasn't sex I don't know but seriously. We are told that if you take a person out of a U.S. prison and send him to an Uzbekistani prison prison for the purpose of having him beaten, shocked and boiled, that's not torture its an extraordinary rendition- They make it sound like Beyonce had changed the inaugural program and instead of singing At last had sung Mirriam Makeba's song, Piece of ground--- and sounded just like Etta James or as if if Sachmo got up out the grave and showed up at the Obama inauguration and played the national anthem- ----- you know, of Zimbabwe- and mixed it in with The Creator Has A Master Plan, now that would be an extraordinary rendition. But this Cheyney Bush crap is torture and sanctions are nothing but weapons of war.

1. Like weaons of war, sanctions kill people

2. Like weapons of war, sanctions are usually used in excess against and among poor and black nations

3.Like weapons of war. sanctions are killing the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet the children

Case in point Iraq: The 88 thousand tons of ordinance the US dropped on Iraq in the first Gulf War, killed by most estimates maybe 37,000 Iraqi's., the economic sanctions imposed on iraq after the war are blamed for killing 5,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 per week

Thats over 500, 000 or a half a million children IN UNDER 10 YEARS


That's what sanctions do.

In Zimbabwe during the last few weeks 67 thousand people have been infected from a totally preventable form of diarrhea. Over 3 thousand of them have died This deadly watery form of diarrhea called Cholera is TOTALLY PREVENTABLE.

All you have to do to prevent Cholera is have clean water. All you have to do to treat Cholera is to replace the persons fluids so they don't become dehydrated from the diarrhea which in severe cases can cause the loss of several quarts of fluid per hour.

IV fluids are THE best and most rapid way to replace these fluids However there is a cheap oral solution that can be used pretty effectively if you have clean water and utensils to serve it in. The cure can also be speeded up if the antibiotic tetracycline is used.

But under Sanctions shipments of chlorine gas necessary for water purification are blocked that keeps the water supply from being purified in the first place, Under Sanctions the government has credit problems that don't permit the purchase of the antibiotics, or water purification equipment or IV fluids, or even enough of the cheap oral solution that is curative. Under sanctions aircraft parts necessary to repair crop dusters to grow the grain necessary to stop malnutrition are blocked. Malnutrition makes the children die of diarrhea and respiratory infections from germs that would only cause a sore throat an ear ache or cold in a well nourished child.

So because of Sanctions In Zimbabwe, children die for lack of clean water, IV solution, common place antibiotics or an asthma pump.

That's what Sanctions Do

Please recognize that the imposition of Economic

sanctions on a developing nation like Zimbabwe is not an alternative to war but such imposition is war itself.

Sanctions like wars are used for economic motives to foster political change, specifically regime change.

Sanctions like wars have historically been used to attempt regime change. We have the examples of sanctions for attempted regime change in Chile, Cuba, and Iraq. Zimbabwe is no different

In Zimbabwe the first sanctions were of the unofficial variety where various lenders and banks began to refuse credit to Zimbabwe in the context of a call by the western powers for regime change. These unofficial sanctions were followed by official declaration of sanctions in 2001 under Zidera the so called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery ACT. The ACT authorized the US to officially use its veto power to make the multilateral lending agencies, IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank stifle Mugabe's efforts to get credit. This meant that not only were efforts to borrow new money necessary for development stifled but efforts to restructure existing loans were nipped in the bud. All of this was sparked by Mugabe's having responded in 1999 to the peoples demand to the reclaim their stolen land. Was'nt it Malcolm X who said that land is the basis of all revolution. Should the Zimbabwe revolution be any different. Of course not, Land reclamation is in fact the real revolution. And The reaction of imperialism to revolution is always war.

That's what Sanctions are one a the weapon of Imperialist Economic War.

And the purpose of the war is the same purpose as in war in chile, cuba, grenada, Iraq etc etc economic gain and political change specifically regime change in the interest of the US government.

Sanctions Like weapons of war are proliferated mainly by the US government and imposed all over the the Black and Brown world

The National Association of manufacturers reported in 1997 that at that time 42 percent of the world's population from over 190 countries were being. sanctioned by the United States for alleged offenses ranging from terrorism to failure to protect the Sea Turtles of Costa Rica. So to save the sea turtles you starve the children, make them drink dirty water, catch cholera, malaria and pneumonia and call it an alternative to war.

That's what sanctions do That's what the United States does.

The same study by National Association of manufacturers also concluded that sanctions are costing the United States $15 billion to $19 billion annually in potential exports. And in only 13 percent of the cases in which they have been employed do they achieve the foreign policy goal for which they have been employed.

They are not even working and yet they are used to cause suffering for more than 41 percent of the earths population.

These kind of facts about sanctions do not make sense to a rational mind. The rational mind says why would you kill babies when the strategy only works 13 percent of the time. But the capitalist mind is not a rational mind. 13 perecent yield is an excellent yield for a Capitalist during Imperialism's last gasping breaths. No only would they kill our babies for a 13 percent yield, they would kill their own. In Vietnam they watched their babies step on punji sticks. In Somalia they watched their babies get dragged through the streets, and in Iraq they are sending their own and our own 18 and 19 year old babies toff to war only to bury them by the caseload as they return or to hospitalize them for traumatic brain injury or post traumatic Stress Disorder after they return. But for a pipeline , for a 13 percent yield they will do this.

And they will say it is worth it.

I am not speaking figuratively.

When former Secretary of State Madeline Albright was told by Leslie Stahl that these sanctions had caused the death of a half a million children more dead children than in Hiroshima, Albrights response was

"-we think the price is worth it."—

She said

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind some people dying

all the time

or maybe only starving

some of the time

which isn't half bad

if it isn't you

Nah, She didn't say that last part that was the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti

but that's what she meant !

She meant the price is worth it. So long as its not me and Bill and Hillary and George and Condy. Its worth it!

For the American Government not only is it worth it for the most innocent and vulnerable to die. In the case of Sanctions as with all siege warfare,

The innocent and the vulnerable are the intended targets.

Military Strategists have know since the time of wickedly great Frederick and beyond that The lord of a feudal castle eats well until the last of the provisions are gone. The children and the sick hunger and die first. That's the whole point of siege warfare and sanctions to make the populace suffer to the point that they scream for the ruler to open the gates.

This was never better expressed than when Richard Nixon instructed the CIA, in the case of Chile to

"make their economy scream." MAKE THEIR ECONOMY SCREAM The barbarism of the sentiment comes forth even THRU the euphemism economy . Economies don't scream people scream.

And what better way to make people scream than to negatively impact on their health, food, drinking water, education, shelter and safety'

Writer Joy Gordon points out in her two papers Sanctions as Siege Warfare and Sanctions as weapons of mass destruction that it is perhaps contradictory and immoral for the UN to be involved in sanctions given the madate of the, Universal Declaration of Human Rights to insure that every person has a right to "to health, food, drinking water, education, shelter and safety'

For my last point I would like to suggest that it is immoral for the US and any of the western powers to engage in Sanctions against any country in the so called developing world

To make this point I refer to General Tecumsah Sherman, whom the white folks of Georgia still refer to as wickedly great. Sherman said War is Hell

Why should Hell be imposed on anybody, but if it is to be imposed on someone why the innocent children. George Bush and the Crusaders say they are fighting the axis of evil. Well you all know that the axis of evil runs in the line right between that dunce's ears. In runs right up Condelizza's -------nose through the sphenoid bone through her brain-

Sanctions bring hell to the children of Zimbabwe.

I ask you to close your eyes and think of a little boy or girl in Zimbabwe with a face just like your child or grandchild. I ask you to imagine your child or grandchild shivering, on soiled bedding, sweaty, thirsty, malnourished, vomiting, afraid, innocent, screaming and in hell. Then I ask you to hold that image and support D12 as they gather supplies and money to bring relief to our people.

Call December 12th Movement if you want to help

(718) 398-1766

Africa for the Africans and Long Live The Zimbabwe Revolution!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Humanitarianism or the rape of our imagination.

Mbegane NDOUR:

Ousmane SEMBENE in one of its memorable films " Guelewar " delivers us this timeless message: " if you want to kill the dignity and the honor of a person gives him its subsistence every day and at the end you will make him an attended deprived of any dignity and any honor. "

HuHumanitarianism was for a long time a concept invented by the west to support the ideology of the civilizing mission of the said "enlightened" populations on the "lower" peoples. It takes source with the missionaries who, besides this "civilizing" mission, coupled it with a conquering, economic and military mission.

By their infiltration within the native populations they studied their strengths and their weaknesses and gave these informations to their respective hierarchies. Seen that in this period there was no separation between the church and the state, the missionaries became of this fact of the intelligence agents in the service of the colonial machine.

During the colonization, manitarianism was used to control better the poles of resistance, starve the rebel populations and corrupt or co-opt puppets.

After " the independences ", Humanitarianism was there only to maintain the networks of influence. During all this time, the assisted populations are educated in the culture of the "assistant" and the " beg hand " so depriving them of their capacity to take their destiny in their own hand.

Humanitarianism was lucrative in every stage of its setting-up, it generated the business of poverty and hunger. He allowed to keep puppets network in the native population. Humanitarianism maintains it from father to son and generations after generation in fact of the dynasties without end.

At the same time as it depreciates the assisted populations, Humanitarianism values his "enlightened" said populations by giving them a feeling of superiority. He also allows his populations to relieve their consciousness because at the bottom they are not fool. They know pertinently that they starve some to nourish the others. The fact of helping populations in economic distress gives them good consciousness and allows them to forget their own human distress.

I can't refrain from being revolted to see us maintained in an "assistant" generation after generation. I can't refrain from being revolted to see our imagination raped, while this business of misery and hunger continues in a shameful way. NGO (NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION) and the other associations replaced the missionaries and continue to feed the colonial ideology in an aware or unconscious way. Furthermore, Humanitarianism allows especially to mask the extent of the slaughter committed on the populations. She allows to cover a genocide by this, one traffics with weapons there, traffics with children, with organs... It also covers all the plunder of wealth. At the same time as planes or cargo boats of food aid land, at the same time arrive the mercenaries and the boxes of weapons, at the same time fly away kilos of gold, diamond, coltan …

The destiny of a people cannot join infinitely the "assistanat". It arrives one moment when this people want to take back his destiny in his own hand. We are in a transition where the face of the world is little by little changing. The concept of " dominant " or " enlightened " populations is swept by an universal awareness. At the same time as the consciousnesses get clearer, it is normal that the most ignoble facets of this business are revealed.

It is not conceivable any more in 2009 to see so much distance in the lifestyles. Entrance, main course and desserts for certain children while the others even have no access to the drinking water. The obesity faces to badly nutrition. Archaic diseases come back in certain places of the globe while the medicine was never so successful.


It goes on the human dignity there to restore a right balance.


We cannot turn away any more from these realities and make as if nothing happen.


The certain truths become too striking and whip our lives everyday. The feelings of guilt and shame on one hand are counterbalanced by feelings anti " dominant populations " that we see increasing more and more in four corners of the world. The racial barriers are growing when the injustices and the economic plunder organized by the same business are revealed. We cannot separate Humanitarianism of the colonialism, the neocolonialism and the imperialism.

I keep all my conviction to tell the dignity of a people lives in his capacity to take his destiny in their own hands far from the "assistant" and from the business of the poverty and the hunger. By this rape of the imagination imposed by the Humanitarianism the assisted populations will always say to themselves their Salute will come other where even they sit on goldmines and diamond. And the old African wise man would say to us: " it's like a beggar who holds out his hand begging his thin sustenance when he does not know he sits on a golden bag ". They persuade us that we are poor by forgetting to tell us they impoverish us, and the same with their puppets small circles take advantage gaily of our wealth.

I dream one day to see one of the big puppets bequeathing his memories and some secret files to the future generations to enlighten them a little more on this macabre business and protect them against this rape of their imagination. The old dinosaurs of this ugly business like Senghor, Houphouet, Moboutou, Eyadema, Bokassa, Idi Amin Dada, Samuel Doe and so many others left with their secrets in the grave. Then I start dreaming one of the last dinosaurs will bequeath to the world its memories and its secrets and reveal the truth in broad daylight. That will allow the future generations to turn definitively the page of the colonialism veiled by the concept shameful of the Humanitarian.

Today we are the generation which becomes aware in a big pain and a suffering of the rape of our imagination. We were full of ambitions, dreams and perspectives, but our breasts restrain more and more by the awareness of so many injustices and the striking truths. This awareness is made in a big suffering and pain. Our glances become harder every time we see pieces of these ignominies, and our smiles disappear. The rape of our imagination have created generations of oppressed more and more conscious, ready to cover their dignity by taking back their destiny in their hands.

The road to cover our dignity will be a long road because a civilization built on the wealth, the blood and the suffering of another people keeps its survival in its capacity to maintain those people under its domination. But this domination is more ignoble and more unbearable when it is cover by the business of the famine and the misery: this snake concept of " the Humanitarian ".

Then I feel united and connected to all points of resistance and sound boxes which fight to cover their dignity as free and emancipated human being wherever they are on the African continent, in Guadeloupe, in Martinique, in Guyana, in the United States, in Europe, in the ghettos implanted worldwide.

The Humanitarian is there only to kill our honor and dignity and to continue to violate our imagination.

As could say the old African wise man: " instead of giving fish to the people every day, learn him to catch his own fish and you will make him an emancipated people. "

:Mbegane NDOUR
--
Littérature:
http://www.menaibuc.com/Ma-conscience-aiguisee
Musique:
www.believe.fr/mbeganendour

Pour L'émergence des Consciences Africaines

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

THE APARTHEID IN BENTON HARBOR, MI


The apartheid conditions in Benton Harbor still continue as my husband the Rev Edward Pinkney continues to fight for justice for the people. The power brokers of Whirlpool, Cornerstone Alliance, Harbor Shores and the Benton Harbor city commissioners have attempted to silence his voice and shackle his legs with their 24/7 house arrest.

My husband is not allowed to speak at any church or even attended a church meeting. My husband expressed his political opinion in a newspaper article stating that GOD and only GOD would curse Judge Butzbaugh unless he hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy GOD to do all that is right. It is obvious that this Judge Butzbaugh is doing a lot of wrong in his life. If he were doing the right things he would not be afraid of GOD. It must be because of this fear of GOD that Judge Butzbaugh and his partner decided unconstitutionally to give my husband 3 to 10 years in prison for quoting the Bible. My husband is the first preacher in the history of mankind to be sent to prison for quoting the Bible.

History and those who write it often leave out important facts. Therefore, I have a problem when I hear the term the first black president or first preacher. It makes me nervous because of what distorted picture the powerful may be painting. On January 20, 2009 at 12:05 in Washington D.C. Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th President. According to the media, Obama is the first black President of the United States of America. I am here to tell you he is not the first black president. Obama is the second black president. John Hanson was the first (1781-1782). John Hanson was one of the greatest men who got lost in history. President Hanson was elected by Congress not only as the first black President but as the first President under the Articles of Confederation. He established the great seal of the United States, which all presidents since have been required to use on all official documents. He also established the first treasury department,
the first secretary of war and the first foreign affairs department. President Barack H. Obama was definitely not the first black President of the United States. He is the first black President of the United States under the Constitution we follow today. By not recognizing John Hanson, the powerful slave owners and traders could continue their unjust ways.

Another first that isnʼt listened to by many preachers today is Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.. What would Rev Martin Luther King, Jr., the first black minister to win the Nobel peace prize, say to the ministers today? He would say we need all of you. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longing and aspirations of the people more than a preacher? Somehow, the preacher must have a kind of fire burning within his bones and whenever injustice is around he proclaims it to the world. Somehow, the preacher must be an Amos and proclaim that when GOD speaks who can but prophesy? A preacher must proclaim the word as Amos, to let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Somehow, the preacher must say that the spirit of Jesus is upon me because he has anointed me to deal with the problem of injustice. Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. would say I want to thank all of them and I want you to thank all of them because so often preachers
are not concerned about anything but themselves most of are just too selfish. I am always happy to see a relevant ministry. We need all of you to take a stand for the poor and for injustice.

Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. would say that Whirlpool is imposing a manifest brutal siege against the people of Benton Harbor similar to the Israeli siege of Gaza. The modalities and circumstances may be somewhat different but the mentality of hatefulness and vindictiveness are undoubtedly the same. Then he would say in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our pastor.

Contact:
Pinkney Freddie
banco9342@sbcglobal.net

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Around the Globe, Technology Widens Rich-Poor Gap


Oil has made us billions and fuelled our economic stability, but oil has also become the bane of our existence. For some, it is a curse that has caused poverty and corruption, but for others it is an essential source of untold wealth and power. But as the gap between rich and poor countries continues to expand, it is clear that intellectual capital and technology rule the world, and that natural resources such as oil, gold, and diamonds are no longer the primary determinants of wealth.

Surprisingly, nations with few natural resources demonstrate greater economic growth rates than OPEC countries. Japan’s economic growth, driven by technological superiority, outpaces that of Saudi Arabia; South Korea is growing faster than oil-rich Nigeria; and Taiwan’s economy has moved well beyond that of oil-rich Venezuela. The United States and Norway are also rich in oil, yet their staggering economic growth comes from intellectual capital.

In reality, it is not money but intellectual capital that drives prosperity. More important, perhaps, is the reality that poverty is driven and sustained by a lack of intellectual capital. The intimate relationship between intellectual capital and economic growth is as old as humanity itself, and is well illustrated by this parable from ancient Babylon (modern-day Iraq). A man asked his children:

“If you had a choice between the clay of wisdom or a bag of gold, which would you choose?” “The bag of gold, the bag of gold” the naïve children cried, not realizing that wisdom had the potential to earn them many more bags of gold in the future.

Seven thousand years later, Iraq — the cradle of civilization — has its own private bag of gold as it sits perched atop the world’s third largest oil reserves. Meanwhile, Israel, tucked away in the hostile terrain of a barren desert, has the clay of wisdom — the weightless wealth of intellectual capital embodied in the collective mind of its people.

The striking economic gap that persists between rich and poor nations has increased sevenfold over the past century to what is now an all-time high. The accumulation of intellectual capital by rich nations has helped broaden this gap because it has enabled them to control technology and collect hidden taxes from less affluent nations. For instance, Nigeria pays a 40-percent “royalty” tax on its petroleum revenues to foreign oil companies that are ripping out its family jewels — the huge store of wealth in its oilfields. These oilfields started forming when prehistoric, dog-sized humans — our common ancestor with the apes — walked African grasslands on four legs.

It’s a shocking reality, but the deep oil reserves laid down by Mother Nature millions of years ago and nurtured through the millennia in Africa have been whittled away within decades. And, for the dubious privilege of surrendering its natural resources forever, Nigeria is required to pay half its petroleum revenue in the form of “royalties” to the rich kids on the global block, the United States and the Netherlands. That oilfield has been exchanged for a bowl of porridge, and the black gold that should serve the underserved in Nigeria is helping wealthy Westerners get wealthier.

Today, half the world’s population — three billion people — live on an average of $500 a year. In contrast, Bill Gates earns $500 every second. By controlling technology and taxing computer users, Gates has become wealthier than each of the 70 poorest nations on earth and using his financial might has conquered more territory than Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great combined.

While Bill Gates is the new millennium’s Prince of Technology, he is by no means the first to have taken on the huge potential offered by the realm of technology. The Romans used roads and military technology to expand their empire. And, for centuries, Britain ruled a quarter of the Earth due to its unparalleled ability to command maritime technology and conquer the Seven Seas.

Britain undoubtedly established itself as the world’s first superpower through its rapid and ruthless colonial expansion program. The British raised the Union Jack over Canada and Australia, India and Hong Kong, Egypt and Kenya, and countless other countries — even the United States. The Union Jack cast its shadow in every global time zone, giving rise to the saying, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” a fact that was cold comfort to the colonized nations.

In the same way, the United States has embraced its technological supremacy, both offensively and defensively, to build its own global empire without a physical presence in any of its “colonies.” The sole remaining superpower is at the forefront of every major technological advancement, which it has used to become deeply embedded in three-quarters of the globe. The US has accomplished a virtual economic colonization manifesting its presence throughout the globe by harnessing the power of technology and capitalizing on its clay of wisdom.

Africa’s inability to realize its potential and embrace technology has left it at the mercy of the West. The time has come for Africa to seize the day and resist the efforts of America and others to leave their imprint and plunder its natural resources.

Numerous examples throughout history support the idea that technology can be used as a tool of oppression. And there’s little doubt that America’s technological advancement has allowed it to exploit natural resources around the world. This is particularly evident in Africa, where the US is exploiting oilfields beneath the pristine rainforest — and being rewarded with a 40-percent tax at the expense of the African people. This lends credence to history’s assertion that those who control technology oppress those who do not, eventually enslaving them and, finally, wielding power around the globe.

Transcribed from speech delivered by Philip Emeagwali on April 4, 2008 at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia at the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The entire transcript and video are posted at emeagwali.com.

Philip Emeagwali was inducted into the gallery of history's 70 greatest black achievers by the International Slavery Museum and into the Gallery of Prominent Refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Philip Emeagwali has been called “a father of the Internet” by CNN and TIME; praised as an “unorthodox innovator [who] has pushed back the boundaries of oilfield science” by a leading European oil and gas industry journal; extolled as “one of the great minds of the Information Age” by former US president Bill Clinton, and voted history’s 35th greatest African by New African. He won the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, the Nobel Prize of supercomputing.

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