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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!"Thank you for supporting global jazz, our legacy..."
NICKi MATHIS, Ed.M, Sunday 6 Dec 5-7P w/Lynn Tracey/Something Cool
Distil, 270 Worthington St, Springfield, MA. 413.737-5557; 860.212-0209
Saturday 19 December 7:30 pm, and Sunday 20 December 2:00 pm,
Annie Mae Smith in Pender County… by, Liston Filyaw, directed by Frances Sharp
Aetna Theater, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main St, Hartford, CT.
OJAY Images 860.683-8881; $25
Sunday 17 January 2010 4 pm, NMAAJazz featuring Norman Johnson, Jr. Ortiz
FREE Martin Luther King Jr Celebration
Yale University Peabody Museum of National History
70 Whitney Avenue, at the corner of Sachem Street, one block north of Trumbull Street, New Haven CT. Contact Josue Irizarry 203.432-3778
http://matchbook.org/ArtistProfile1.aspx?ProfileId=741 BOOKINGS:860.231-0663
http://cdbaby.com/cd/nickmathis
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The name gives it all away: the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. There can be no genuine “democracy” in a nation that is governed by religion, since religion, as a vertically-structured cultural institution, is based on privilege and intolerance. Hence, the notion of inclusion in decision-making is shunned, if not suppressed.
Dear friends,
The name gives it all away: the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. There can be no genuine “democracy” in a nation that is governed by religion, since religion, as a vertically-structured cultural institution, is based on privilege and intolerance. Hence, the notion of inclusion in decision-making is shunned, if not suppressed.
So, about what is the real point being made, as well as the insistence upon the supporting of “democracy” – whether in Afghanistan or Pakistan, by the military/industrial complex of the United States government? At least to me, it is: those who possess the greatest amount of military puissance (might) dictate the rules. Please remember that the United States of America has only been a “world” power for six decades; that is, since it dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Besides, the essence of “democracy” is non-violent conflict resolution.
Nevertheless, on the link below is a concise, yet informative piece, by the always impressive Stephanie Kraft of the Valley Advocate that reveals continuing growth of the far-reaching tentacles belonging to the aforementioned United States’ military/industrial complex. Meanwhile, after the people of Afghanistan have been explopited, for centuries, by alien marauders, earlier this year (2009), the Embassy of Afghanistan, in Washington, DC boasted, "More than 70 American companies have registered in Afghanistan since 2003, representing $75 million in potential investment, and more than 15 foreign and domestic banks have opened their doors in Afghanistan...Ford, 3M, and Boeing are examining business opportunities in Afghanistan, and Coca-Cola has opened a $25 million bottling plant in Kabul."And the beat goes on...
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=10881
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"This is a very credible cause. Please consider."
Dear friends,
One of my siblings just sent me the e-mail below. This is a very credible cause. Please consider.
One Love, One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
*******************************************************
Subject: 2009 Guide to Gifts Saving Zimbabwean Musicians' Lives
With 100 children dying EVERY DAY in Zimbabwe, there is not only a humanitarian catastrophe, but also a real danger that, in the struggle to survive, traditional music will not be passed on to the next generation.
Every year at this time, MBIRA suggests gifts that you can order from our non-profit organization, that help to support over 150 Zimbabwean traditional musicians (at the bottom of the economic ladder there), and their large extended families, including the children that hopefully will survive to be the musicians of tomorrow.
If you prefer to make a tax-deductible donation, go to http://www.mbira.org/ and click on the DONATE button, or send a check or money order made out to MBIRA to PO Box 7863,Berkeley, CA 94707-0863, USA.
MBIRA's non-profit sales of traditional music CDs played by over 150 musicians from all over Zimbabwe, and mbiras by 16 Zimbabwean instrument makers, are estimated to help support more than 2000 men, women and children in Zimbabwe...AND are helping to preserve respect for traditional culture and music.
You can make a difference, and enjoy great music, too! When you buy a CD from MBIRA, the musicians on it get a minimum of 12 times more money than if you buy a CD in almost any other physical or online store. Please consider giving great gifts this year, that support Zimbabwean musicians.
Here are our gift suggestions, and thank you for helping us to support Zimbabwean musicians!:
1. "First Mbira Lessons" DVD with video lessons, audio play-along tracks,graphics and text for the new mbira player. Also available with an mbira -http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=dvds
2. Give MBIRA CDs - when we sell even one, it may feed a rural musician'sfamily for 2 weeks. Proceeds go to the musician(s) on the CD.*** A list of CDs on which some or all of the musicians earned less than $100 this year is at the end of this email - ordering these is especially helpful, and they are ALL great recordings, sometimes just have too many people on them for each one to earn much. Try one!
If a CD on the list is one of your favorites already, give a copy to a friend. Consult our gift guide at http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=favorites
Or browse all the CDs and make your own selections after listening to audiosamples at http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=cds To just look at new releases, go to http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=new
3. BOOK/CD "Shona Lessons for Mbira Students" by Patience Chaitezvi athttp://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=books
4. Make a tax-deductible DONATION in someone's name...even a small donation can make a big difference in Zimbabwe. 100% of donations received between now and December 31st will go to the Zimbabwe Musicians Fund (100% of your donation goes to Zimbabwean traditional musicians we have recorded who earned less than $100 this year, including some great musicians we have recorded, but haven't had time to finish making their CDs). Go tohttp://www.mbira.org and click on the DONATE button at the top of the page
5. Mbira player EBONY SCULPTURES by very talented village mbira player andartist, Fradreck Manjengwa. We have both female and male solo mbira players in stock. To order, go to http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=sculpture
6. Copper and brass BANGLES, THUMB PICKS for mbira players, also bubble padded-ziplock BAGS for mbira travel and storage at http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=mbira-accessories (scroll down)
7. Give an MBIRA T-SHIRT - short-sleeved t-shirts, babydoll tees, and hooded SWEATSHIRTs too. Sizes and colors currently available are listed at http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=shirts and ALSO note what color(s) and size(s) you want on your order, please.
8. Give an mbira WORKSHOP (or part payment of one) to a new or continuingmbira student. For example, weekend workshops in various locations, or an 8-day Mbira Camp. For dates and cost of workshops, seehttp://www.mbira.org/events.html In the San Francisco Bay Area, give the gift of mbira lessons, too. Just send a check to MBIRA with details, and wewill send a gift certificate (include name of the recipient and address tosend it to).
9. Mbira INSTRUMENTS - Browse what we have in stock at http://www.mbira.org/catalog.asp?cat=mbiras and we are are expecting MORE mbiras and dezes to arrive about December 1st, so check back if what youwant is out of stock.ORDER ONLINE: Order with a credit card or PayPal account online athttp://www.mbira.org, and we will ship your CDs by first class mail (Priority Mail if order is for 4 or more within the US, and all mbiras go byPriority Mail within the US) the next business day.
ORDER BY PHONE: You may order by phone between 9 am and 7 pm PST (West CoastUS time) by calling 510-548-6053.ORDER BY MAIL: You may also order with a check or money order by mail, and we will ship when we receive it ***please include an order form printed from the website, and include the proper amount for shipping, and tax if you arein California.
ORDER A GIFT: Please send us an additional email if you wish the gift shipped to an address other than your own, as PayPal will not always tell us this when you order online!
BUY IN PERSON: Those who live in the San Francisco Bay Area may also come to Berkeley to make purchases in person at MBIRA house or at the Musicians Fund benefit mbira concert Sat. Dec. 12 at 8 pm , email: erica@mbira.org for directions to either.----------*CDs of Zimbabwean Musicians Who Earned Less Than $50 Each This Year*Solo Nyamaropa Tuning:3406 Alois Mutinhiri (w/hosho)3411 Golden Nhamo 3427 Goliath Rambakudzibwa 3451 Herbert Matema & Kajawu Chingodza (vocals) Duet Nyamaropa Tuning:3409 Vitalis Botsa & Fabian Rujuwa3429 Munwanenzewe & Chasi3452 Kadungure & Mutizwa (2 x dongonda) 3453 Muchapondwa & ChikupoGroup Nyamaropa Tuning: 3404 Muchumi/Hoto/Magaya 3410 Jekanyika Mbira Group 3423 Dzapasi Mbira Group 3424 Mhondoro Mbira Group 3425 Rushanga Mbira Group 3428 Sungano Mbira Group3438 Mhuri yekwaRwizi – The Next Generation3440 Dendera Resango Mbira Group3441 Mhuri yekwaManomano3442 Rwizi Mutoro Mbira Group 3444 Munongedzo Mbira 3449 Mandarendare Mbira Group – Nyamaropa & Dongonda Tunings 3471 Muzanenhamo Mbira GroupGandanga/Mavembe Tuning: 3413 Courage Njenge3420 Murawo Tembedza & Langton Bapiro Dambatsoko Tuning: 3208 Elder Mujuru Mbira Players 1996 3339 Stanley, Norman, Sam and Munyaradzi Mujuru 3439 Dambatsoko Mbira Group 3445 Fradreck & Nyarai ManjengwaOther Tunings & Instruments:3453 Newton Gwara & Chaka Marimba 3265 Rinos Simboti Mukuwurirwa & Tiri Chiongotere – Saungweme TuningCompilations & Intensives: 1100 Vashauri Vol. 1 Great Mbira Singers 3903 Nyama musango – Nyamaropa Tuning3914 Bangidza3911 Shumba yangwasha3928 Nyama musango – Gandanga/Mavembe tuning 3941 Shanje *CDs of Zimbabwean Musicians Who Earned Less Than $100 Each This Year*Solo Nyamaropa Tuning: 3307 Boniface Mutandwa3422 Friday Chamunorwa 3426 Ephraim Musekiwa3432 Daniel Taveshure 3437 Tavengwa Chikupo3442 Albert ZinhumweDuet Nyamaropa Tuning: 3268 Luken Pasipamire & Chris Mhlanga 3455 Gift Mzarabani & Ignatius MutandwaGroup Nyamaropa Tuning: 3015 Mhuri yekwaMuchena 1991Gandanga/Mavembe Tuning: 3062 Ephat Mujuru 19863144 Healing Tape on CD 3433 Madziva & SanyikaDambatsoko Tuning:3454 Nicholas Jemwa & Fungai MujuruOther Tunings & Instruments: 3435 Dzongodza TaonezviNote: at least one musician on each CD earned less than the amount indicated Thanks for your support for Zimbabwean musicians!Happy holidays to all! Erica********************************
Erica Azim MBIRA: the non-profit organization devoted to Shona mbira music of Zimbabwehttp://www.mbira.orgphone (510) 548-6053; fax (510) 548-2454 P.O. Box 7863, Berkeley, CA 94707-0863, USA email: erica@mbira.org
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"Leaders who can’t, or won’t, solve problems for other citizens should have no right to run off to better-run countries when their health is ravaged."
Yar’Adua’s luck, Nigeria’s misfortune
By Okey Ndibe
Last week, Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa went out of his way to establish his closeness to Aso Rock resident, Umaru Yar’Adua. With Nigeria gripped by widespread rumors of Mr. Yar’Adua’s death in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, Aondoakaa set out to squelch the whispered falsehood. In a statement, he told Nigerians, in effect, to relax. In Nigerianese, the statement was akin to declaring, “Nothing spoil!”
Aondoakaa wanted Nigerians and – why not – the world as well to know that he’d been on the phone to Yar’Adua, and Umaru was, as one newspaper reported, “hale and hearty”. Well, good for Mr. Yar’Adua, but how about millions of Nigerians who can’t afford to fly abroad for the succor of Saudi or German doctors?
A day after Aondoakaa’s upbeat, “nothing spoil” report, Yar’Adua’s personal physician finally owned up, in a statement released by Segun Adeniyi, that the former Katsina governor has been diagnosed with “acute pericarditis,” described as an inflammation of the covering of the heart.
Nigerian clerics, Christian and Moslem alike, weighed in with prayers for Mr. Yar’Adua’s quick and complete recovery. Moved, no doubt, by Christian and Islamic sense of charity, these ecclesiastical authorities urged adherents of their religions to storm heaven with petitions for Yar’Adua’s physical mending.
I’m not one to argue against praying for any ailing person. In fact, I wish Mr. Yar’Adua nothing less than vibrant, exuberant health. Even so, each time I made to pray for the man, I stumbled. A voice within me kept protesting, “How about the millions of sick Nigerians dying silently, slowly, in excruciating pain in Nigerian hospitals laid waste by the avarice, greed, idiocy of so-called Nigerian leaders?” Since assuming – I’d say usurping – the Nigerian presidency in 2007, has Mr. Yar’Adua taken any significant step to improve the quality of health care in the country?
My answer was there – it was easy – No! There’s no question that many Muslims and Christians heeded their leaders’ entreaties to storm God with petitions for Mr. Yar’Adua’s well being. I hope the Aso Rock resident recovers well enough to answer a simple question: What have you ever done to give ailing Nigerians a praying chance at revamped health?
Mr. Yar’Adua was enthroned on Nigerians on May 29, 2007 – thanks to a combination of Olusegun Obasanjo’s colossal malice, Maurice Iwu’s shameless mischief, and (later) the Supreme Court’s tragic misjudgment. Since his investiture in office, Yar’Adua has made several trips abroad – specifically to Germany and Saudi Arabia – on account of his sickness.
These frequent medical trips have proved costly for Nigerians. Nigeria is in woeful shape, and demands a full-time, energetic and visionary leader to devote himself to the generation and execution of sound policies to rescue the country. Yet, Yar’Adua has been far from focused on Nigeria and its myriad crises. Quite simply, the hardest thing the man does in a typical day, it seems, is to nurse himself to sleep.
In a moment of comical diversion during his “run” for the presidency, Yar’Adua had challenged those doubting his superb physical conditioning to step into an arena and face him in several rounds of squash. That sad attempt at swagger has since earned a spot as one of the theatrical interludes in Obasanjo’s “do-and-die” campaign against a people who had the effrontery to deny him an unconstitutional third term in office. Since his investiture in office in May 2007, Yar’Adua has cut the image less of a swashbuckling squash player than of a man who, on many a day, would be incapable of sitting up to watch one round of squash.
Rumors have swirled in Nigeria that Yar’Adua has cancelled numerous state functions because he was in no shape to sit through them, or to stand up for a few minutes to make a speech. Nigerians wasted billions of naira on an election to choose a leader, and ended up with a man that must rank as one of the costliest liabilities in the history of leadership. Again, Nigerians must be in no hurry to forget that Yar’Adua is a product of vengeance. Even so, Yar’Adua deserves scolding – he’s grown up, after all – for consenting to be a pawn in Obasanjo’s diseased game of vindictiveness. Yar’Adua knew full well that he was a feeble man, that his body could not withstand the sheer physical tax of being a president. For his own sake, for the sake of his family, and in the interest of the Nigerian collectivity, he should have had the courage to tell Obasanjo: “Sorry, but I can’t serve as the instrument with which you whip Nigerians.”
Aondoakaa wants to toast what he alleges to be Yar’Adua’s strong health. It’s fine if Saudi doctors nurse Yar’Adua to health, or even a semblance of it. The trouble is that, in a perverse way, Yar’Adua’s health care translates a health scare for most Nigerians. Let me explain.
The record is that Yar’Adua has been seriously sick for a long time, even spanning the eight years he operated as Katsina governor. Yet, the man didn’t see fit to build and equip one hospital in his state that would cater to other residents facing similar health issues. He was apparently like most Nigerian “leaders,” content to take care of himself – by flying abroad for treatment. It never occurs to these so-called leaders to use their offices to improve the quality of health care in Nigeria and for Nigerians.
Last week, a young man contacted me from Lagos to report his shock at the dismal state of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. “The place is not even fit for pigs to be treated there,” the man said, pleading that I write about the issue.
LUTH is no isolated case. Nigerian hospitals, almost without exception, are a ghastly sight. In the 1970s, Nigeria boasted a number of teaching hospitals that were well equipped and run by some of the best doctors in the world. Today, those teaching hospitals have come to abject ruin, the result of neglect by the country’s cast of misbegotten “leaders.”
Nigerians ought to awaken to the scandal, and resist the rule of men and women who wreck the nation’s health sector and then run abroad for medical care. Has Yar’Adua ever paused to ask himself whether Saudi Arabia has more doctors than Nigeria?
Has it ever occurred to him that Saudi monarchs do not fly to Nigeria when they urgently desire a doctor’s attention? Why then does he – do other “prominent” Nigerians – have a habit of rushing off to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany or elsewhere to worry their doctors? Don’t Nigeria’s rulers realize that a good health care system does not emerge by accident? Instead, that such a system is the product of vision, planning, and seriousness of purpose on the part of genuine political leaders in partnership with medical professionals. What is Yar’Adua’s record, even, in paying doctors or equipping existing federal hospitals? Is that record not – bluntly put – wretched?
That’s the kind of conversation Nigerians ought to be having. Those who wish to pray for Yar’Adua’s restoration to health should, by all means, do so. Here’s my own prayer: That Yar’Adua’s luck in Saudi hospitals should not continue to spell misfortune for millions of Nigerians.
On his return to Abuja, Yar’Adua should (as a priority) outline what he intends to do to lift the quality of Nigerian hospitals to Saudi levels. If he can’t come up with a plan, then Nigerians ought to insist that he should head for a Nigerian hospital when next he needs to see a doctor. That way, he would gain first-hand experience of the grim reality at Nigerian hospitals – and a deserved taste of the desperate fate facing most Nigerians who suffer from common and severe ailments.
Leaders who can’t, or won’t, solve problems for other citizens should have no right to run off to better-run countries when their health is ravaged.
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
