honestlyAbroad

"Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s..."

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:53:11 +0100

“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.”

- Mae Jemison

Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American physician and NASA astronaut. On June 4, 1987, she became the first African American woman ever admitted into the astronaut training program. On September 12, 1992, Jemison finally flew into space.

Video biography HERE

Uglish (Ugandan English) : A Practical Guide

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:08:18 +0100

typicalugandan:

All languages change and evolve over time as they are used in different places. English is no different (lol there’s also Ugandan swahili, but that’s for another time). However, Ugandanised English, or (Uglish) could be a bit of a culture shock to tourists and other foreigners. There are some phrases which have been “localised” from European or North American English that native speakers might struggle to understand (but should know) when communicating in Uganda. Fail to learn them at your own peril. They have found their way into the common vernacular with such regularity that they can be heard in schools, parliament, you name it!

While English is the official language in Uganda remember that it is not most people’s native language and translation is still occurring which results in verb trouble such as, “Me I”, or “Me am” or phrases like, “sometimes back”, “discuss about”, “meet me those ends”, or “how comes?”

We’ve compiled a small guide to help you find your way:

“Please extend”

When looking for a little space to sit down, Ugandans will say, “Please extend!” They are not wanting your hand, or assistance, but for you to move to create some space.

“Beep me”

Saying, “Flash me”, or “beep me” means to make an incomplete phone call. This generally happens when you want the other person to call you back at their expense. The person is not speaking of a ‘beeper’ and by no means should you disrobe or consider any other action.

“You are lost”

“Hi, you are lost,” is a classic greeting line in Uganda. This might be confusing since you don’t remember being lost or unsure of directions. However, this is simply a friendly means of saying, ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you in awhile.” Don’t worry. You are not lost.

“Well done”

This is based on the Luganda greeting ‘Gyebaleko’ which is translated, ‘thanks for your work’. It has nothing to do with achievement, real or imagined.

Read More

"You have to understand the Arab mind,” Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth..."

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:21:33 +0100

““You have to understand the Arab mind,” Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. “The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face.””

- New York Times, December 7, 2003.

This racist, dehumanizing and imperialist understanding of the Eastern world is more than rampant in the West and its armed forces: It’s ingrained. This type of thinking has been applied to Central and South Asia as well.

(via mehreenkasana)

‘ARTist’ is a piece that explores how everyday...

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:21:00 +0100

‘ARTist’ is a piece that explores how everyday images and moments inspire us, and how important we are in the struggle of today’s world. Choreography by Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar
This piece was performed in collaboration between Cirque du Soleil and Nevada Ballet Theatre.

1.”Lost & Found” by Amon Tobin,

2.”Comptine D’un Autre Ete:L’apres” by Yann Tierson,

3.”Crystallize” by Lindsey Sterling,

4.”Dialectics” by Anthony Anaxagorou

Mr Mukhtar O.S Mukhtar has been directing, choreographing and dancing for the past 12 years and began at the age of 18. It was his dream as a child to be a performer. He attended the University of Westminster in London UK where he studied Forensic science from 2003-2005. Also, at the same time as studying, Mukhtar was training hard in his dancing and choreographic ability, during this time, mukhtar was in the process of creating one of the most successful hip hop company (PLAGUE) to come out of the UK. Mukhtar created Plague in 2000 and handpicked the dancers he thought would bring his vision to the stage. After training his dancers intensely for 2 years, Mukhtar then led the company to their first UK Streetdance championship beating 25 other companies to the prestigious prize of being the best in the UK in 2003.
Mukhtar with his crew PLAGUE then decided to defend their crown in 2004 and became the first Hip Hop Company to win the UK streetdance championships 2 years in a row. This was a great achievement and showed how mukhtars work and creativity was expanding.
Mukhtar Led Plague to their 3rd UK championship success by winning the UK (Idance) Hip hop championships in 2005 meaning they were selected to represent the UK at the WORLD Hip Hop international Championships in Los Angeles, USA where they competed against 30 other nations.

Mukhtar became the latest addition to The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage in Las Vegas and the show has since won 3 Grammy awards and performed on big shows such as:

The tonight show (jay Leno), Americas got talent, Larry King Live, The NHL awards, BBC “IMAGINE” television special, 3D Movie with James Cameron and Andrew Adamson, due in theaters August 2011 and many more.

Mukhtar has since Choreographed 2 special events shows for Cirque du soleil, flown out to India to dance in Bollywood movie ‘Singh is King’, hired to be an assistant choreographer and performer in the 2008 Beijing Olympic opening and closing ceremonies

Mukhtar was also requested to judge the UK streetdance championships as his knowledge and experience for the dance had flourished. He was also in the same show awarded ‘Most outstanding achievement award’ for his contribution to streetdance and the arts in the UK.
He was also contacted by the hip hop international championships in Las Vegas to judge the US hip hop championships in 2009.

Anthony Anaxagorou began writing short stories and poems at the age of 14 influenced mainly by both hip-hop and folk music until in 2002, at the age of 17, he entered and won the London Mayors Poetry Slam with his poem Anthropos.^[1] Following this he made a number of television and radio appearances where he read out various poems, including a live recital on BBC London Radio and a television interview followed by a recital with Vanessa Feltz on the Community Channel.

In 2009 he published his first book Card Not Accepted, which stands as a collection of essays, short stories and poetry all reflecting moments from his life and an overall commentary of western living. Much of his work consists around the spiritual search for inner peace and the detachment from various societal ideals, however a huge section of his work encompasses themes that deal with politics, racism, history and philosophy. He writes from his own personal experiences in a style that is honest and compelling, this is what has so far won him the admiration and affection of many.

In May 2009 the poem “Himself” taken from the book Card Not Accepted, was chosen by MOBO award winning hip hop artist Akala to be read out on BBC News Night Review as part of the arts and poetry weekend.

He has also attended workshops set up by the Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company who collectively came together to discuss more innovative and captivating ways Shakespeare could be taught in schools across Britain.

June 2010 saw the release of his fourth publication. A digital ebook entitled The Lost Definition of Hope which featured a number of poems written over a space of four months. A portion of the books price was given to Médecins Sans Frontières, an independent organisation who deal with getting aid out to countries caught in heavy conflict.^[3]

In November 2010 he toured the UK supporting MOBO award winning hip-hop artist Akala in his ‘DoubleThink’ tour. He performed poetry from all the major titles of his work in cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Exeter and Liverpool.

In July 2011 he wrote a spoken word piece called If I Told You which begins by questioning the validity and accuracy of historical documentation especially that regarding Africa. The poem then begins to explore current affairs, propaganda systems, the prison industry complex as well as the more existential issues such as ego, love, insecurity and hope.

Blaming the lobby

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:35:00 +0100

U.S policies and interests are the problem, the pro Israel lobby just sharpen the details.

As someone who has been facing the full brunt of the might of the pro-Israel lobby in the US, Joseph Massad explains the deceit behind blaming the lobby for US policies towards the Palestinians and the Arab world. Article published in Al-Ahram Weekly in 2006

In the last 25 years, many Palestinians and other Arabs, in the United States and in the Arab world, have been so awed by the power of the US pro-Israel lobby that any study, book, or journalistic article that exposes the inner workings, the substantial influence, and the financial and political power of this lobby have been greeted with ecstatic sighs of relief that Americans finally can see the “truth” and the “error” of their ways.

The underlying argument has been simple and has been told time and again by Washington’s regime allies in the Arab world, pro-US liberal and Arab intellectuals, conservative and liberal US intellectuals and former politicians, and even leftist Arab and American activists who support Palestinian rights, namely, that absent the pro- Israel lobby, America would at worst no longer contribute to the oppression of Arabs and Palestinians and at best it would be the Arabs’ and the Palestinians’ best ally and friend. What makes this argument persuasive and effective to Arabs? Indeed, why are its claims constantly brandished by Washington’s Arab friends to Arab and American audiences as a persuasive argument? I contend that the attraction of this argument is that it exonerates the United States’ government from all the responsibility and guilt that it deserves for its policies in the Arab world and gives false hope to many Arabs and Palestinians who wish America would be on their side instead of on the side of their enemies.

Let me start with the premise of the argument, namely its effect of shifting the blame for US policies from the United States onto Israel and its US lobby. According to this logic, it is not the United States that should be held directly responsible for all its imperial policies in the Arab world and the Middle East at large since World War II, rather it is Israel and its lobby who have pushed it to launch policies that are detrimental to its own national interest and are only beneficial to Israel. Establishing and supporting Arab and other Middle East dictatorships, arming and training their militaries, setting up their secret police apparatuses and training them in effective torture methods and counter-insurgency to be used against their own citizens should be blamed, according to the logic of these studies, on Israel and its US lobby. Blocking all international and UN support for Palestinian rights, arming and financing Israel in its war against a civilian population, protecting Israel from the wrath of the international community should also be blamed not on the United States, the studies insist, but on Israel and its lobby. Additionally, and in line with this logic, controlling Arab economies and finances, dominating key investments in the Middle East, and imposing structural adjustment policies by the IMF and the World Bank which impoverish the Arab peoples should also be blamed on Israel, and not the United States. Finally, starving and then invading Iraq, threatening to invade Syria, raiding and then sanctioning Libya and Iran, besieging the Palestinians and their leaders must also be blamed on the Israeli lobby and not the US government. Indeed, over the years, many pro-US Arab dictators let it leak officially and unofficially that their US diplomat friends have told them time and again how much they and “America” support the Arab world and the Palestinians were it not for the influence of the pro- Israel lobby (sometimes identified by the American diplomats in more explicit “ethnic” terms).

While many of the studies of the pro-Israel lobby are sound and full of awe-inspiring well- documented details about the formidable power commanded by groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its allies, the problem with most of them is what remains unarticulated. For example, when and in what context has the United States government ever supported national liberation in the Third World? The record of the United States is one of being the implacable enemy of all Third World national liberation groups, including European ones, from Greece to Latin America to Africa and Asia, except in the celebrated cases of the Afghan fundamentalists’ war against the USSR and supporting apartheid South Africa’s main terrorist allies in Angola and Mozambique (UNITA and RENAMO) against their respective anti-colonial national governments. Why then would the US support national liberation in the Arab world absent the pro-Israel lobby is something these studies never explain.

The United States has had a consistent policy since World War II of fighting all regimes across the Third World who insist on controlling their national resources, whether it be land, oil, or other valuable minerals. This extends from Iran in 1953 to Guatemala in 1954 to the rest of Latin America all the way to present-day Venezuela. Africa has fared much worse in the last four decades, as have many countries in Asia. Why would the United States support nationalist regimes in the Arab world who would nationalise natural resources and stop their pillage by American capital absent the pro-Israel lobby also remains a mystery unexplained by these studies. Finally, the United States government has opposed and overthrown or tried to overthrow any regime that seeks real and tangible independence in the Third World and is especially galled by those regimes that pursue such policies through democratic elections. The overthrow of regimes from Arbenz to Goulart to Mossadegh and Allende and the ongoing attempts to overthrow Chavez are prominent examples, as is the overthrow of nationalist regimes like Sukarno’s and Nkrumah’s. The terror unleashed on populations who challenged the US-installed friendly regimes from El Salvador and Nicaragua to Zaire to Chile and Indonesia resulted in the killing of hundreds of thousands, if not millions by repressive police and militaries trained for these important tasks by the US. This is aside from direct US invasions of South East Asian and Central American countries that killed untold millions for decades. Why would the US and its repressive agencies stop invading Arab countries, or stop supporting the repressive police forces of dictatorial Arab regimes and why would the US stop setting up shadow governments inside its embassies in Arab capitals to run these countries’ affairs (in some cases the US shadow government runs the Arab country in question down to the smallest detail with the Arab government in question reduced to executing orders) if the pro-Israel lobby did not exist is never broached by these studies let alone explained.

The arguments put forth by these studies would have been more convincing if the Israel lobby was forcing the United States government to pursue policies in the Middle East that are inconsistent with its global policies elsewhere. This, however, is far from what happens. While US policies in the Middle East may often be an exaggerated form of its repressive and anti- democratic policies elsewhere in the world, they are not inconsistent with them. One could easily make the case that the strength of the pro-Israel lobby is what accounts for this exaggeration, but even this contention is not entirely persuasive. One could argue (and I have argued elsewhere) that it is in fact the very centrality of Israel to US strategy in the Middle East that accounts, in part, for the strength of the pro-Israel lobby and not the other way around. Indeed, many of the recent studies highlight the role of pro-Likud members of the Bush administration (or even of the Clinton administration) as evidence of the lobby’s awesome power, when, i t could be easily argued that it is these American politicians who had pushed Likud and Labour into more intransigence in the 1990s and are pushing them towards more conquest now that they are at the helm of the US government. This is not to say, however, that the leaders of the pro-Israel lobby do not regularly brag about their crucial influence on US policy in Congress and in the White House. That they have done regularly since the late 1970s. But the lobby is powerful in the United States because its major claims are about advancing US interests and its support for Israel is contextualised in its support for the overall US strategy in the Middle East. The pro- Israel lobby plays the same role that the China lobby played in the 1950s and the Cuba lobby still plays to this day. The fact that it is more powerful than any other foreign lobby on Capitol Hill testifies to the importance of Israel in US strategy and not to some fantastical power that the lobby commands independent of and extraneous to the US “national interest.” The pro-Israel lobby could not sell its message and would not have any influence if Israel was a communist or anti-imperialist country or if Israel opposed US policy elsewhere in the world.

Some would argue that even though Israel attempts to overlap its interests with those of the US, that its lobby is misleading American policy- makers and shifting their position from one of objective assessment of what is truly in America’s best interest and that of Israel’s. The argument runs as follows: US support for Israel causes groups who oppose Israel to hate the US and target it for attacks. It also costs the US friendly media coverage in the Arab world, affects its investment potential in Arab countries, and loses its important allies in the region, or at least weakens these allies. But none of this is true. The United States has been able to be Israel’s biggest backer and financier, its staunchest defender and weapon-supplier while maintaining strategic alliances with most if not all Arab dictatorships, including the Palestinian Authority under both Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. Moreover, US companies and American investments have the largest presence across the Arab world, most prominently but not exclusively in the oil sector. Also, even without the pathetic and ineffective efforts at US propaganda in the guise of the television station Al-Hurra, or Radio Sawa and the now-defunct Hi magazine, not to mention US-paid journalists and newspapers in Iraq and elsewhere, a whole army of Arabic newspapers and state-television stations, not to mention myriad satellite television stations celebrate the US and its culture, broadcast American programmes, and attempt to sell the US point of view as effectively as possible encumbered only by the limitations that actual US policies in the region place on common sense. Even the offending Al-Jazeera has bent over backwards to accommodate the US point of view but is constantly undercut by actual US policies in the region. Al-Jazeera, under tremendous pressure and threats of bombing from the United States, has for example stopped referring to the US occupation forces in Iraq as “occupation forces” and now refers to them as “coalition forces”. Moreover, since when has the US sought to win a popularity contest among the peoples of the world? Arabs no more hate or love the United States than do Latin Americans, Africans, Asians, or even and especially Europeans.

Finally we come to the financial argument, namely that the US gives an inordinate amount of money to Israel — too exorbitant a cost that is out of proportion to what the US gets in return. In fact, the United States spends much more on its military bases in the Arab world, not to mention on those in Europe or Asia, than it does on Israel. Israel has indeed been very effective in rendering services to its US master for a good price, whether in channelling illegal arms to central American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, helping pariah regimes like Taiwan and apartheid South Africa in the same period, supporting pro-US, including Fascist, groups inside the Arab world to undermine nationalist Arab regimes, from Lebanon to Iraq to Sudan, coming to the aid of conservative pro- US Arab regimes when threatened as it did in Jordan in 1970, and attacking Arab nationalist regimes outright as it did in 1967 with Egypt and Syria and in 1981 with Iraq when it destroyed that country’s nuclear reactor. While the US had been able to overthrow Sukarno and Nkrumah in bloody coups, Nasser remained entrenched until Israel effectively neutralised him in the 1967 War. It is thanks to this major service that the United States increased its support to Israel exponentially. Moreover, Israel neutralised the PLO in 1982, no small service to many Arab regimes and their US patron who could not fully control the organisation until then. None of the American military bases on which many more billions are spent can claim such a stellar record. Critics argue that when the US had to intervene in the Gulf, it could not rely on Israel to do the job because of the sensitivity of including it in such a coalition which would embarrass Arab allies, hence the need for direct US intervention and the uselessness of Israel as a strategic ally. While this may be true, the US also could not rely on any of its military bases to launch the invasions on their own and had to ship in its army. American bases in the Gulf did provide important and needed support but so did Israel.

AIPAC is indeed powerful insofar as it pushes for policies that accord with US interests and that are resonant with the reigning US imperial ideology. The power of the pro-Israel lobby, whether in Congress or on campuses among university administrators, or policy-makers is not based solely on their organisational skills or ideological uniformity. In no small measure, anti- Semitic attitudes in Congress (and among university administrators) play a role in believing the lobby’s (and its enemies’) exaggerated claims about its actual power, resulting in their towing the line. But even if this were true, one could argue, it would not matter whether the lobby has real or imagined power. For as long as Congress and policy-makers (and university administrators) believe it does, it will remain effective and powerful. I of course concede this point.

What then would have been different in US policy in the Middle East absent Israel and its powerful lobby? The answer in short is: the details and intensity but not the direction, content, or impact of such policies. Is the pro- Israel lobby extremely powerful in the United States? As someone who has been facing the full brunt of their power for the last three years through their formidable influence on my own university and their attempts to get me fired, I answer with a resounding yes. Are they primarily responsible for US policies towards the Palestinians and the Arab world? Absolutely not. The United States is opposed in the Arab world as elsewhere because it has pursued and continues to pursue policies that are inimical to the interests of most people in these countries and are only beneficial to its own interests and to the minority regimes in the region that serve those interests, including Israel. Absent these policies, and not the pro-Israel lobby which supports them, the United States should expect a change in its standing among Arabs. Short of that, the United States will have to continue its policies in the region that have wreaked, and continue to wreak, havoc on the majority of Arabs and not expect that the Arab people will like it in return.

Joseph Massad is an associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. Books include Persistence of the Palestinian Question was published by Routledge. Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan [2001]. Daymumat al-Mas’alah al-Filastiniyyah was published by Dar Al-Adab in 2009. He is the author of Desiring Arabs [2007], which was awarded the Lionel Trilling Book Award.

"Every black woman I spoke with who was/is an ardent moviegoer, a lover of the Hollywood film,..."

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:22:51 +0100

“Every black woman I spoke with who was/is an ardent moviegoer, a lover of the Hollywood film, testified that to experience fully the pleasure of that cinema they had to close down critique, analysis; they had to forget racism. And mostly they did not think about sexism.”

- Bell Hooks

(via wretchedoftheearth)

‘A Tree Never Grown’ Mos Def Featuring Fre, J-live,...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:06:00 +0100

‘A Tree Never Grown’

Mos Def Featuring Fre, J-live, Invincible, Wordsworth, A.L., Kofi Taha, Tame One, Jane Doe n Grafh.

Hip Hop for Respect was a 2000 project which released one EP for Rawkus Records. It was organized by Mos Def and Talib Kweli to speak out against police brutality in general, and the case of Amadou Diallo in particular.

[88 Keys]

Yo, this is 88…
This is for Amadou Diallo
Rest in peace, you still here

[Fre]

Yo, I’m in a brownstone singin like Brownstone
Bird’s eye view wit the bodega
Know Omega like Rakim
Thinkin about brother Diallo
I find it hard to swallow
Cuz 41 is a hard act to follow
Who is it, it can happen tomorrow
Goes down all the time in some African community
This one just hit closer to home
Cuz it happen it in our backyard
This that *shit* bring us closer to home
They ask “What you writin fo’? What you writin on that paper fo’?”
Don’t ask me nuttin, just tell me
How is safer got me safe, that’s why my raps sour
My peoples screamin “Black power!” and la razah
From the Bronx, police bustin, it’s redemption time

[J-Live]

Now in the squad car, CPR’s supposed to be the motto
But in they minds, they be like “Yo, I’ma do Diallo”
I guess master’s noose was a bitter pill to swallow
Cuz nowadays, tips ain’t the only things that’s hollow
Constitution, 41 more holes in it
And cops swingin sticks like they tryin to win the pennant
And stickin sticks places where they ashamed to admit it
But that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back
THEY GON’ GET IT!!

[Rubix]

Possessed by a nervous twitch and itchy writin finger
41 strokes through the barrel of pen for Amadou
More than a few of my personal friends
Since the beginning, it seems like it never ends
The story, ancient as lyrical allegory and it’s all gory
The Little Shop of City Hall Horrors
Who bakes infiltrate, agent, provocator mission statement
Assassinate the Senate candidate, heavenly mandate

[Chorus: Mos Def]

We proceeded on a country road
His mother’s eyes withered swoll
Her child was never comin home
Said a prayer for his soul
As the coffin had closed, committed to the earth below
First seed she would sew, would be a tree never grown
Shade that was never known
Who controls the Terrordome, the member hearts made of stone
Who love only what they own

[Invincible]

Stay on your toes for a true bruise description
Match blue suits, walkin round wit a stick and *edit*
Ready to blast wit the wrath of a hollow tip
And the fact is my task is a scholarship
I feel it in my chest cavitity
The only death’s apathy, so I change it for who’s next after me
And that’s the fullest reward
Keep the face of the lost on my bulletin board

[Wordsworth]

Yo yo, it’s blue uniform, sirens, names, and badge numbers
Clubs, walkie-talkies, recipies for bad summers
Frisked, pissed after I tuck in my stuff
I really think they just like touchin my *nuts*
What’s real stain they thoughts
Swear, but they won’t say it in court
All they do is change the report
Riots, tryin to keep the crowd under control
They even got shows, Cops, LAPD, Highway Patrol yo yo

[A.L.]

From the cradle to the grave, they made you a slave
Brainwash to kill each other, that’s the plague that they made
I search em like readin scripts that could save you today
White is right, black is wrong, that’s the label they gave
Fryin in hell, applyin jails, they got you dyin in cells
Triple six in the mix, Levine to ?spell?
Prepare for the worst, and try to hope for the best
I take a stare at the hearse, can we cope wit the stress?

[Kofi Taha]

I live in the land of punches
Illegal chokeholds and excessive gunshots
Where there’s one millionaire for every billion empty pot
And Adolf Guily think we static but he’s in for a shock
They come wit automatics but we flip it
Use the one, create the four glocks and while stocks get washed
While school doors get locked and when jobs get blocked
The confi-dence get’s rock
And when the welfares drop into the jails we stock now
After Amadou wrestlin wit freedom tacks my mind into a headlock
But *fuck* H&R, I’m a true cat
Refundin power back to our Blocks

Chorus

[Tame One]

Good life, you can bubble or struggle
Use your brain muscle if you hustle
Don’t let nobody touch you
Don’t even trust the ones that trust you
Cuz the ones you showin love to might bust
Seekin as a cancer, my man got shot by Haitians or Jamaicans
? wit confrontations and school my mind’s racin
I pride these sensations over this, now I’m hopin this
We shine for, I never got a chance to rhyme for
My role models sold bottles and stole cars
And when they got locked, I accepted all the phone calls
That’s when *niggas* was real
Back before I had a deal
Back when people called Villsburg Hooterville
ILL!!!

[Jane Doe]

My mind wonders on melodic jams
An exotic bird, caged wit the rage and the violence of my words
The same things I down I turn around and do
The white cops say *Fuck you* but I say *Fuck you too!*
Truth be totally hypocrites
And materialistic society, spirituality shunned or
While young kinds get gunned on
Hibernatin in projects, which you project-ing
The pigs is crucifyin but Africans is resurrectin, Jane Doe

[Grafh]

Battacky, sends cops to come and catch me
He better send a runnin back to run and track me
When I’m runnin through the back streets
The rat teeth of beast lovin to black me
Eatin brothers like a picinic color cuz that’s sweet
To lock a man up in prison, the standard of livin
Thinkin they make a better bred of man
Than the man when he went in
Rub up a man for sinnin
Handcuff his hands to the system, banned from his wisdom
Wit insanity in him, his mind roams wit like a cyclone
Damagin victim, his eyes hold savage within him
Wrath wit the venom, poison his life
No ointment to boisten the might
If it’s on the left, walk to the right
Until death, do your part do your life
Like a boyfriend and wife, because the day times shorter than night
You know?

Chorus

[88 Keys]

Yo, black is fragile remember that
Cherish everyday
Live life to the fullest, aight?

Amadou Diallo had been shot and killed by the New York City Police Department the previous year when he attempted to retrieve his wallet and the police fired 41 shots at the unarmed man, so the subject of police brutality was prevalent.

The project aimed to assemble 41 emcees to represent the 41 shots. Rappers featured on the EP include Kool G Rap, Rah Digga, Sporty Thievz, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Common, Pharoahe Monch, Posdnous, Dante and Main Flow of Mood, Nine, Tiye Phoenix, Breezly Brewin’ of Juggaknots, Punchline, Imani Uzuri, EL-P and Mr. Len of Company Flow, Aesop Rock, Jah Born of Medina Green, What? What?, John Forté, Fre, J-Live, Rubix, Invincible, Wordsworth, A.L., Kofi Taha, Tame One, Jane Doe, Grafh, Shyheim, Channel Live, Wise Intelligent, Crunch Lo, Rock of Heltah Skeltah, Nonchalant, Ras Kass, Dead Prez, & Parrish Smith.

Producers included DJ Khalil, Organized Noize, and 88-Keys.

Text: Wikipedia

A Litany For Survival: the Life and Work of Audre Lorde For...

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 23:41:00 +0100

A Litany For Survival: the Life and Work of Audre Lorde

For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours:

For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid

So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive

- Audre Lorde, The Black Unicorn

An epic portrait of the eloquent, award-winning Black, lesbian, poet, mother, teacher and activist, Audre Lorde, whose writings - spanning five decades - articulated some of the most important social and political visions of the century. From Lorde’s childhood roots in NYC’s Harlem to her battle with breast cancer, this moving film explores a life and a body of work that embodied the connections between the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s movement, and the struggle for lesbian and gay rights. At the heart of this documentary is Lorde’s own challenge to “envision what has not been and work with every fiber of who we are to make the reality and pursuit of that vision irresistible.”

Reviews

“An inspirational testimony and powerful portrait of a remarkable woman who continues to inspire a whole new generation of women today.”
- Noelle Reilly, QFest, 2009

Dear England by Lowkey Feat. Mai Khalil [Chorus]Whoa, give me...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 14:38:00 +0100

Dear England

by Lowkey Feat. Mai Khalil

[Chorus]
Whoa, give me the words, give me the words
That tell me nothing
Dear England,
Whoa, give me the words, give me the words
That tell me nothing

[Verse 1]
They say God save the queen,
Britannia rules the waves,
Britannia’s in my genes
But Britannia called us slaves
Britannia made the borders
Cause Britannia’s forces came
Britannia lit the match
But Britannia fears the flame
Where blood stains the pavement
Tears stain a cheek
And privilege is threatened, the fear reigns supreme
Where bankers are earning, from burning and looting
The nervous are shooting, search for solutions
I shed a tear for the father in Birmingham
Quick swerve of the car and it murdered them
In Tottenham the apartments were burning
And nobody came just arson is circling
All wanna be down
Till TV’s get robbed like jewels on the queens crown
They say now no cause for a rebound
See now they call me a fool cause I speak out
People are humans but mind is animals
This violent tyrannical system is fallable
Hand in the loot by the minute you see ‘em
But the biggest looters are the British museum
This happened here and you think it’s a accident
Just relax as we slip into fascism
And the fear gets drilled into your hearts
But remember these children are all ours

[Chorus]
Whoa, give me the words, give me the words
That tell me nothing
Dear England,
Whoa, give me the words, give me the words
That tell me nothing

[Verse 2]
If a policeman can kill a black man where he found him
A soldier can kill an Afghan in the mountains
A petty thief can get ransacked from his housing
While the bankers are lounging
That’s my surroundings
Took land, no one in your family has heard of
Before you sleep, whisper the mantra you learnt cause
Never will there be a day that cameras are turned off
Who runs this country, Cameron or Murdoch
Who’s the government, a government that can’t govern
Can’t you figure it’s ways bigger than Mark Duggan
Bigger than Smiley, bigger than Jean Charles
Hundreds are dead not one killer is on trial
Just a familiar sound of hysteria
Bombs over Libya but not this area
Downing Street I can find villains
Cut education, privatize prisons
Surprised by theft when it’s organized,
But mass immorality is normalized
Assumptions surrounding the looting of London
But this is a system consumed by consumption
Yea it happened here and you think it’s a accident
Just relax as we slip into fascism
And the fear gets drilled into your hearts
But remember these children are all ours

[Chorus x2]
Whoa, give me the words, give me the words
That tell me nothing
Dear England,
Whoa, give me the words, give me the words
That tell me nothing

Lowkey is a British musician, poet, playwright and political activist of English and Iraqi descent. He first came to fame through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He is featured in the upcoming film ‘Hip Hop Revolucion’ Venezuela’s Underground Rebels (Directors Jody McIntyre & Pablo Navarrete, Alborada Films, 2012)

Analysis | What Israel’s anti-African pogroms tell us about Zionism

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 10:32:43 +0100

Analysis | What Israel’s anti-African pogroms tell us about Zionism :

A week ago, Tel Aviv’s African migrant community came under a sustained mob attack, including vandalism, looting and firebombing. Robert Kazandjian, Ali Hocine Dimerdji and Samantha Asumadu argue that these events, and their aftermath, provide further evidence of the inherently racist nature of political Zionism.

Please follow LINK to read full article in Ceasefire Magazine

Bert Heller, portrait of Bertolt Brecht, 1955-56 “The worst...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 09:07:44 +0100

Bert Heller, portrait of Bertolt Brecht, 1955-56

“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”

Bertolt Brecht

thecabinet:

‘War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is...

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:05:00 +0100

‘War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength’

Big Brother is watching you. 1984

Murder of an Angolan woman and the roots of anti-black, anti-African ideologies in Brazil

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:56:09 +0100

Murder of an Angolan woman and the roots of anti-black, anti-African ideologies in Brazil :

cosmicyoruba:

While Brazil’s national identity seemingly prides itself in its mixed race heritage, it is important to realize that the goal of elites in the 19th century was not the complete mixture of the population but rather the complete whitening of the population. This white dream is captured perfectly in 1895 painting entitled A Redenção de Cam (The Redemption of Ham) by the Spanish artist Modesto Brocos. As the old Bible myth declared descendants of the character Ham to be cursed, this painting can be interpreted as such:

The black grandmother on the left had had a relationship with a white man, which produced her mulata daughter sitting next to her. The mulata daughter had a relationship with the Portuguese immigrant sitting next to her that produced the phenotypically white baby that sits on her lap. The grandmother gives thanks and praise because the “black stain” has finally been removed from the family. The palm leaves behind her are a symbol of hope.

Thus, today it should not be surprising that black exclusion, murder, anti-African sentiments, racism and an obsession with whiteness continue to be blatantly present in Brazilian society.

It is a part of the nation’s very history.

1. For many examples of everyday racism in Brazil, click the word “racism” in the “labels” section toward the bottom on this blog.

Part of this article was based on an article in Estadão as well as José Carlos Rui’s article “O sonho racista de um povo branco” taken from the Jornal dos Economistas, May 2005

‘The Return To Innocence Lost’by Ursula Rucker ...

Sat, 19 May 2012 16:12:00 +0100

‘The Return To Innocence Lost’
by Ursula Rucker

Muffled sound of fist on flesh
Blows to chest
No breath
Air gasps
You ain’t nothing but white trash, bitch!
With each hit, each kick, each…broken rib
Crack, Crack!
Bones are crying
Mommy’s crying and bleeding
And pleading
And then…
Daddy wants to fuck
Dick hard, swelled with power rush
And as if all that wasn’t enough
Mommy’s seven months heavy with birth
As…Daddy grunts and cursed drunk nothings in her bloodied ear

First…lullaby
First…Son…will…ever…hear
And never forget

Mommy almost bled to death when she have him…finally
She’d already lost…three
Uterus-bruised, shredded, and weak
From being daily beat
And Friday nights were the worse and…
Daddy never came with flowers
Instead he spent hours at some corner spot
With some bar pop named Cookie
Putting his thing down
Soiling Mommy’s sheets with…
Sweet…talk shit,
Cookie’s cheap lipstick,
Hair grease, sperm, and jezebel juice

To hell with the good news that…
He was a father for the first time
His thirst for wine and women
Clouded his vision…
No warm welcome for mother and son
Just…
The rank smell of ass-crack, funk, and cum
But Mommy’s prayerful strength-her best defense
She…burned the dirty linens
Made a fresh bed
Laid sleeping First Son down
And never made a sound
As she purged her scourge
With birth-blood and quiet tears
Watching as her fears and love and sacrifice
Lie there in his soft skin and new life
Breathing, dreaming, fresh from God’s eye
Mommy’s little survivor
Like…her

Mommy called crazy and scorned
‘Cuz she two more born
One boy soon after
The girl much later and…
Although they were both sung the same lullabies of hate
Her…First Son, the first one
Whose…womb-world was profaned
Came of age playing street games
With Stewie, Rezzie, and Little Brother
‘Till his heart start to wither
In pain and shame
Blamed Mom for the wrong she let Daddy do to her
And him…
Let…sins of the Father cause his Innocence to wander
Found out amongst thieves
Chose to squander his dreams
Stopped believing in himself
Become prodigal with his life
Make impossible shit right with…
Gang-ties, crime, lies
Erase wise, woeful words of Mother
Replaced them with absurdities of others
Who had also lost their way

Played a different kind of street game now
First Son plunged deep
Speak street-family vows
Espouse no causes but his own
See, he couldn’t protect Mommy’s neck from Daddy’s grasp
Or…protect Mommy’s ass from Daddy’s wrath
Couldn’t shield her ears from…
Daddy’s foul-mouthed, liquor-breath jeers
His only defense-served be confidence
Brown bottles housed his swift descent
Phones called cops on block frequent for his shenanigans
Now…Daddy and him twins in addiction
Driven to false-hearted heavens and friends
By liquefied demons
Had become what he despised from Conception ‘til End
Destined for a demise
Survived nine lives of staying high
Conning, jewelry-pawning, arrests, theft
Womanizing…only for money, never for sex
Bullet in chest, baseball bat to the head
Left for dead
So, eyes wide and glassy
Speech…slowed and slurred
Lips twitched with caked-up codeine candy
And mouth corners one December 24th
Mr. Hide and False Friend
Took final ride to suburban supplier
Shots were fired by the gray man
With shaky hand
But not shaky enough to miss…
Hit…Lost Boy in back
So-called Friend runs for door
Leaves First Son blood-born
Lying alone in blood on cold floor

Death was the cause of…
Returning to Innocence Lost…

Baby ‘Sis awake for dawn on Christmas morn
To Mommy’s sobs and shakes
Daddy’s silhouettes of regret
All past, omitted, and absolved by lost
As they clung to each other
Knowing…

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:12:53 +0100

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

- Aldous Huxley

The Armenian Genocide – 97 Years On - by Robert Kazandjian

Wed, 16 May 2012 20:30:00 +0100

The Armenian Genocide – 97 Years On - by Robert Kazandjian:

The forgotten holocaust that inspired Hitler.

Malcolm X said ‘If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it all the way out, that’s not progress. The progress comes from healing the wound that the blow made. They haven’t even begun to pull the knife out. They won’t even admit the knife is there.’

The catastrophic wound inflicted upon our collective identity by the Armenian Genocide cannot begin to heal. The blade of the Ottoman Gendarme’s bayonet is lodged deep in our hearts. There can be no progress without recognition.

Ataturk built his modern Turkish state on the myth of resistance against the imperial powers and their influence. The reality is his immediate predecessors had expunged all minority peoples from the land. From Ataturk, to Erdogan, successive Turkish governments have followed a policy of fierce denial, perpetuating historical lies through propaganda and repression.

Self-declared beacons of democracy, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, still fail to officially recognise the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has long been of great strategic importance to these nations, during the cold-war era as NATO defender on the Soviet border, today as a proxy in the crusade to liberate specific Middle Eastern states. It is not surprising that the Armenian Diaspora in Syria, directly descended from genocide survivors left to languish in desert deportation camps, shudders at the increasing prospect of a Turkish-led military intervention.

Any move towards international recognition prompts a predictably angry response from Ankara.

French parliament submitted legislation that would make it a crime to deny any genocide officially recognised by the state. France only recognises the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. The legislation prompted a furious response from Prime Minister Erdogan. Turkey threatened retaliatory measures against its NATO ally.

In the United States, an Armenian Genocide resolution was proposed by congress to President Clinton. The resolution sought to ensure that recognition of the genocide became constitutional, a simple bill with no legal ramifications. Ankara warned the United States that passing the resolution would have disastrous consequences, Turkish airbases would be closed to American planes and weapons contracts would be cancelled. The resolution was quashed and a super-power had been censored by a client state.

Any attempt to recognise the Armenian Genocide within Turkey is punishable by law and can have tragic consequences. Under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code it is illegal to insult Turkey, Turkish ethnicity and Turkish government institutions. Article 301 is an overt suppression of free speech…Read the rest of the article HERE

Published in The Comment Factory - 24th April 2012

Robert Kazandjian is a writer and freelance journalist published by The Independent, Comment Factory and New Writing. Twitter: @RKazandjian

His website HERE

Israeli occupation forces and undercover policemen arrest...

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:07:03 +0100

Israeli occupation forces and undercover policemen arrest Palestinian protesters that you can see children among them and notice the mothers trying to prevent them from taking their children during clashes in the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Issawiya on May 15, 2012 as Palestinians marked Nakba day, which commemorates the exodus of hundreds of thousands of their kin after the establishment of Israel state in 1948.( AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI 2012 AFP)

thepalestineyoudontknow:

An appreciation post for the Palestinian youth : From...

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:56:09 +0100

An appreciation post for the Palestinian youth : From Clashes Outside Ofer Prison Marking 64 Years Of Nakba on May 15, 2012.

(photos by Ahmed Mesleh -Majdi Mohammed , ABBAS MOMANI/AFP - REUTERS/Darren Whiteside - REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman - Bernat Armangue )

thepalestineyoudontknow:

A Mark Fiore political animation. “All painful death...

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:55:41 +0100

A Mark Fiore political animation. “All painful death options are on the table of flaming hellfire with the fork of vengence for your eye”

News-in-a-Nutshell is back, this time looking into the latest Middle East nuke scare. Find out all about those irrational theocrats who are trying to control a nuclear arsenal.

"I have never really understood exactly what a “liberal” is, though, since i have heard “liberals”..."

Sun, 13 May 2012 09:44:50 +0100

“I have never really understood exactly what a “liberal” is, though, since i have heard “liberals” express every conceivable opinion on every conceivable subject. As far as i can tell, you have the extreme right, who are fascist, racist capitalist dogs like Ronald Reagan, who come right out and let you know where they’re coming from. And on the opposite end, you have the left, who are supposed to be committed to justice, equality, and human rights. And somewhere between those two points is the liberal. As far as i’m concerned, “liberal” is the most meaningless word in the dictionary. History has shown me that as long as some white middle-class people can live high on the hog, take vacations to Europe, send their children to private schools, and reap the benefits of their white skin privileges, then they are “liberals.” But when times get hard and money gets tight, they pull off that liberal mask and you think you’re talking to Adolf Hitler. They feel sorry for the so-called underprivileged just as long as they can maintain their own privileges.”

- Assata Shakur (via capitalism-kills)