Nia

I trust that the Negro peoples of the world are now convinced that the work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association is not a visionary one, but very practical, and that it is not so far fetched, but can be realized in a short while if the entire race will only co-operate and work toward the desired end... it shall be the purpose of the Universal Negro Improvement Association to have established in Africa that brotherly co-operation which will make the interests of the African native and the American and West Indian Negro one and the same, that is to say, we shall enter into a common partnership to build up Africa in the interests of our race.

-Marcus Garvey

Ujamaa

Let Edison turn off his electric light and we are in darkness in Liberty Hall in two minutes, The Negro is living on borrowed goods."

Those of us who study industrial conditions among the race must have noticed that Negroes in AMerica have been thrown out of jobs that they occupied formerly, and their positions taken by European Immigrants.

Negroes are still filling places, and as time goes on and the age grows older our occupations will be gone from us, because those for whoom we filled the places will soon appear, and as they do we shall gradually find our places among the millions of permanently unemployed...A race that is solely dependent upon another for it's economic existence sooner or later dies.

-Marcus Garvey

"Ujamaa," then, or "familyhood," describes our socialism. It is opposed to capitalism, which seeks to build a happy society on the basis of the exploitation of man by man; and it is equally opposed to doctrinaire socialism which seeks to build its happy society on a philosophy of inevitable conflict between man and man.
We, in Africa, have no more need of being "converted" to socialism than we have of being "taught" democracy. Both are rooted in our own past--in the traditional society which produced us. Modern African socialism can draw from its traditional heritage the recognition of "society" as an extension of the basic family unit. But it can no longer confine the idea of the social family within the limits of the tribe, nor, indeed, of the nation. For no true African socialist can look at a line drawn on a map and say, "The people on this side of that line are my brothers, but those who happen to live on the other side of it can have no claim on me." Every individual on this continent is his brother.

-Julius Nyerere

This is My Country

From the NY Times:

“There’s a lot of racism here” that goes both ways, she insisted. “When you’ve been insulted and called a ‘sale Française’ ” — a filthy Frenchwoman — “you think: ‘Wait, this is my country.’ ”

This underscores my previous position regarding the Swiss vote. It is their country.

Ujima

The greatest stumbling block in the way of progress in the race has invariably come from within the race itself. The monkey wrench of destruction as thrown into the cog of Negro Progress, is not thrown so much by the outsider as by the very fellow who is in our fold, and who should be the first to grease the wheel of progress rather than seek to impede it.

But notwithstanding the lack of sympathetic co-operation, I have one consolation-That I cannot get away from the race, and so long as I am in the race and since I have sense and judgment enough to know what affects the race affects me, it is my duty to help the race to clear itself of those things that affect us in common.

-Marcus Garvey

[The] New Negro woman desires to take in the rebirth of Africa at home and abroad: To work on par with men in the offices as well as on the platform...

-Amy Jaques Garvey

Kujichagulia

The Negro who lives on the patronage of philanthropists is the most dangerous member of our society. because he is willing to turn back the clock of progress when his benefactors ask him to do so"

Every man has a right to his own opinion. Every race has a right to it's own action; therefore let no man persuade you against your will, let no other race influence you against your own."

-Marcus Garvey

Africans argue, and rightfully so, that one does not refer to the natives of England, or the natives of France, why then are they called natives, with the inference of contempt for their condition of handicap and suppression[?]

-Amy Jaques Garvey

Umoja

"Show me a well organized nation, and I will show you a people and a nation respected by the world."

"The greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization"

-Marcus Garvey

"It will make you Cinderella.”

Precisely the reason I believe black parents ought to steer clear of Disney:

“It’s O.K., dear,” said her mother, Seo Hye-kyong. “It will help make you pretty and tall. It will make you Cinderella.”

A growing conviction that tallness is crucial to success has prompted South Korean parents to try all manner of approaches to increase their children’s height, spawning hundreds of “growth clinics” that offer growth hormone shots, Eastern herbal medicine and special exercises to ensure that young clients will be the ones looking down, not the ones looked down upon.

NY Times

"There's Nothing We Can Do"

Jason Green, 32, and Melissa Jackson, 23, were suspended after witnesses said they callously walked out with their bagels and said "Call 911" instead of trying to help Eutisha Revee Rennix, who was gasping for air while sprawled on a coffee shop floor on Dec. 9.

NY Daily News

This really happened. Really. I think the above speaks for itself.

No One Calls Them Out

So please tell me, how are we supposed to help build something decent and self-sustaining in Afghanistan and Pakistan when jihadists murder other Muslims by the dozens and no one really calls them out?

I believe I said this before

NY Times

NYT: Propaganda arm of the US Govt.

I swear reading this piece in the "Global" version of the NY Times, was like reading the daily report out of the Pentagon.

CAIRO — Iran announced Wednesday that it had test-fired an improved version of its most advanced missile capable of reaching Israel and parts of Europe, in a move that appeared aimed to discourage a military attack on its nuclear sites and to defy Western pressure over its nuclear program.

Ohhh Iran has a missile capable of reaching Israel! And Europe! Oh my. Israel has missiles that can reach Iran. And Israel has shown it is quite willing and able to use such weaponry on civilians. What's the bigger threat in the region? England, France, Germany, Russia and the US, a country separated from Iran by a couple of land masses and an entire ocean has missiles that can reach Iran. And the US has shown it will use said arms right next door to Iran. And the "news" is that Iran has tested a missile? That's the news?

The announcement provoked immediate rebukes from the White House and leaders in Europe, and appeared likely to intensify pressure from the United States and other Western powers to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran.

Really? Exactly why is it the business of anyone in Washington or Europe that Iran, a sovereign nation with the right to self-defense. How is it legal in any framework of international law to impose sanctions on a nation exercising it's sovereign rights? Why is this news?

A White House spokesman told Reuters that the test undermined Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is peaceful, and said it would “increase the seriousness and resolve of the international community to hold Iran accountable” for its provocations.

Provocation? What provocation? Accountable for what? This is total BS. Total. Utter. BS. Provocation is threatening sanctions. Provocation is "all option on the table" threats. Those are provocations. Was anyone in the NY Times editorial staff actually awake and sane when this piece was written?

“It shows that Iran has the ability to stir unrest in the region and impact U.S. interests,” said Mustafa el-Labbad, director of The East Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “It can reach the oil fields on the other side of the Gulf.”

Stir unrest in the region? If exercising one's sovereign rights is "stirring unrest" pray tell, what is invading Iraq? What pray tell are predator drones blowing up people miles away? And this fellow is a "Director of Strategic Studies". Iran has "interests' in blowing up oil fields. Really. How many cups of coffee did he have before that idea popped into his head? oh I know! Iran will blow up Oil fields in Saudi Arabia in order to corner the market on crude oil! I mean that is some junk straight out The Wire. Iran is going to do a drive by so it can have "the corner." I want to know how I can become a "Director of Strategic Studies" So I can get paid to make up Hollywood style scenarios and get quoted in international newspapers. I could be more popular than Tiger Woods at the Playboy mansion.

2009 Klan Shit

Regardless of your position on illegal immigration the following is simply unacceptable and is as nasty as the Klan shit Black folk been subject to. From CBS News:

Four youths - including Donchak and Piekarsky - were previously charged in state court in connection with Ramirez's death. Piekarsky was acquitted by an all-white jury of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation; Donchak was acquitted of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Both were convicted of simple assault, which carry possible one- or two-year prison sentences.

A man lays in the hospital after being beat up. Later dies and the perpetrators get convicted of simple assault. "simple assault" is grabbing an arse on a subway. Putting a man in the hospital is not simple assault. That man dying is not simple assault. This is some straight out of the 50's Klan shit replete with police involvement.

More

Whadayawaaant?

According to the AP:

An 8-year-old boy was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after he was asked to make a Christmas drawing and came up with what appeared to be a stick figure of Jesus on a cross, the child's father said Tuesday...

An educational consultant working with the Johnson family said the teacher was also alarmed when the boy drew Xs for Jesus' eyes.

What do these people want? Every frickin'year I hear people yammering on and on and on and on about how people have taken the "Christ" out of Christmas. They yammer on tv. They yammer on radio. They boycott stores that have "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" in the store windows. Never mind that a great deal of them will have a shrine to the Norse God Thor (The Christmas tree) in their homes. Never mind all of that.

Here's a kid who put the "Christ" in Christmas and people want to get all worked up. They ought to be impressed that the kid nailed it. Pun intended.

[update]

I've been thinking about this some more. This child would be considered well balanced if he had drawn an obese white man in a red suit on a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer who "by magic" slides down chimneys to place gifts under trees. And who apparently eats cookies left for him by children. 100 million households. 100 million cookies.

Right.

[/update]

Achebe

His new volume of essays, “The Education of a British-Protected Child,” is his first book since he was paralyzed from the waist down, in 1990, in a car accident in Nigeria...in this book he tangles further, and profitably, with the obsessions that have defined his career: colonialism, identity, family, the uses and abuses of language. And he returns to some of the still smoldering controversies that have shaped his reputation. These include his groundbreaking 1975 analysis of the racism lurking in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” and his defense against critics who have attacked him for writing African literature in the colonizer’s language, English.

NY Times

"America Has Never Fought a War Against a Democracy."

Obama Lies

Obama lied in omission in his Orwellian Peace Prize acceptance speech by claiming, “America has never fought a war against a democracy.” Technically, a war is reciprocated armed conflict. However, the etymology of the word, “war” is “confusion,” which is part of the CIA role in wars against democracy in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, and Vietnam beginning with US support of French colonialism against Vietnamese independence and extending beyond US approval of election cancelation that began the Vietnam War. ...

In 1953, the United States CIA led by one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s grandsons, initiated a coup in Iran (Operation Ajax [8]) to remove the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The Iranian government was understandably dissatisfied with the terms of its contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company that allowed British interests to claim 85% of the oil profit from Iran.[9]

Iran, the same country that Obama has continued messing with about democracy and nuclear arms.

Reservation Life

Gang Violence Grows on an Indian Reservation
-NY Times

The prevalence of Hip Hop in this is disturbing. If Hip Hop had it's revolutionary voice it once had (and I mean popular voice, not the underground stuff) I wonder if things would be different?

Odd Quote on FGM

But, this big thing about female circumcision - I don't like saying this, but since it has become a world discussion I might as well say it - there are women who were never circumcised as young girls, and now that they're getting older, they are getting so many problems with their whatever (genitals) that they go to doctors and appeal to doctors to cut them off.

-Shirley Yeama Gbujama
All Africa

Someone please explain to me what can happen 'down below' that would make a woman go and have her genitals cut.

The Lego Gun

So Jeremy Bell had an encounter with the SWAT police over his Lego gun which got me to thinking about Skip Gates. But I'll get to him in a second. Firstly I'd like to know why a SWAT team, undercover police, helicopters and cordoned off streets are called in for something legal.
Stop and think for a minute. Citizens have a right to own guns. Calling the police and saying that someone has a gun in a building and is not pointing it at anyone, is not a crime. It is not a crime in progress. It is as innocent as walking down a public street. Perhaps there is a need for civic lessons. Citizens are apparently so in fear of crime and guns that they think actually possession of one is a crime. Some will say, well they needed to be careful because you never know. Careful like they were careful about Sean Bell?

And what if per chance this fellow had an actual gun? Would that have justified the SWAT team? There was no crime in commission or even reported to be suspected to be imminent. But going back to our friend Skip, imagine if Bell had decided that he would observe his constitutional right to cuss out the police on sight? Can you imagine how that would have ended? I would dare say that given the history of the NYPD, Mr. Bell is alive today because he hasn't made Skip Gates an example of how to deal with police who are "just doing their jobs".

What. The....

About that illegal immigrant thing...

Attacking the Mosque

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Attackers lobbed grenades and opened fire on worshipers, mostly active and retired military officials, at a mosque in the garrison city of Rawalpindi during Friday prayers, striking a further blow against the military establishment as the army pursues militants in the lawless tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan...

The attack stunned Pakistan for its brazenness and the apparent ease with which the attackers breached what should have been a secure area.

You would think the greater concern, particularly among those who are willing to riot over cartoons, would be the fact that so called "Holy Warriors" apparently have no respect for Mosques. Knowing full well if an "infidel" attacked a mosque these folks would be posting death threats on YouTube.

Of course there's always the possibility of agent provocateurs.

Blood They Spilt

In remembrance of Fred Hampton

They musta thought he could invade dreams
musta
thought he wore striped sweaters
had bladed gloves
and a fedora
'cause the blood they spilt
sho nuf woulda
made you think they was scared
like
they thought he mighta been Jason
masked up
soon to crash through walls
and put a chainsaw to work
cause the blood they spilt
sho nuf woulda
made you think they was scared
like they thought he was an Alien
a
Predator
something otherworldly
a visitor
come to take their bodies
but the chi town PD
were body snatchers
move like
thieves in the night
room shot up
like this was the Matrix
and he was Neo
Agents who declared
Morpheus must be killed
For he holds to the key to Zion
Killed cause he saw the truth
You're living in a dream world people
Niggas be batteries
fueling complexes
whole economies dependent
on sleepy head negroes
having waking dreams
think they are free
while under greater control
cause the blood they spilt
sho nuff woulda
made you think they was scared
of slumbering negroes
Like they was scared of sitting bull
and crazy horse
Like Israelis scared of home made rockets from bombed out houses
cause the blood they spilt
sho nuff
made you believe they was scared
of
us.