Uncle Barry or Uncle Tom?

Dear friends,

The kind of racist behavior that has been shown by far too many European Americans, including those who call themselves “liberal”, since Barack Obama was first elected in 2008, points to the fact that neither he nor the super-Uncle Tom, Eric Holder, have done anything about redirecting the values of White Supremacy that have dominated this country ever since the Civil War.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/18/north-carolina-school-board-bans-ralph-ellisons-invisible-man/ Read full post

Superstition in Africa - a short video

"When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer...Superstition ain't the way." - Stevie Wonder

Dear friends,

The short video on the link below seems very disturbing, in this day and age. Yet, if we look at the behavior of African peoples in the Americas, we can truly understand that "Culture hides more than it reveals". And interestingly enough, what it conceals best, it does so most effectively from its own participants.

In explaining that concept, I always point to the practice of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, when they placed bombs in soda cans that they then would place on their roadsides, knowing that young, urban Americans of the pre- “Don’t litter” era often played a street game called"Kick the can". As a result, a lot of American soldiers lost their feet and other parts of their lower limbs. The Viet Cong fully understood the quote mentioned above.

At any rate, while this video by the New York Times, a story about an Albino population in an African territory, tries to put a racial slant on the topic, wih it's use of the terms "black" and "white", the real problem is: an unwillingness for African peoples to let go of so many superstitions that we've carried on for far too long.

We must learn to confront our fears, inadequacies, and insecurities, so that we can relate to each other and all that is around us, in a more thoughtful way, as opposed to surrendering to our aforementioned fears, inadequacies, and unexplainable “feelings”, in order to enhance the conditions of our lives. That was exactly what our ancestors had to, literally, fight to do, in order to gain freedom from chattel slavery (i.e., those of our ancestors who weren't slavemasters themselves in the antebellum South).

G. Djata Bumpus
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/06/06/world/1194817478108/albino-killings-in-tanzania.html Read full post

Mentoring Our Youth in Philly and elsewhere

“My experience has been that people choose their own mentors…”

Dear friends,

Ever since the 1960s, well-meaning men in the African American community have talked about and, periodically, set up “mentoring” programs for African American youth, with special attention to boys.

At face value, it seems to be a worthy idea. The problem is: My experience has been that people choose their own mentors.

In other words, going to a young man’s house and talking with him, or taking him to a movie, as do, for instance, men who are affiliated with the Big Brothers Association, is, obviously, a nice gesture. However, the guidance and direction that that same young fellow, especially an African American one, will need in order to make his way through the foggy path of life’s journey that will eventually lead him to a worthwhile destination requires deliberate planning that is based upon the solid ability of the aforementioned youngster to know how to distinguish a “goal” from an “ambition”. Unfortunately, due to their over-exposure through the mainstream media, politicians particularly have folks confused about the difference between the two, since pols rarely speak in terms of goals, even though they usually proclaim to be doing so.

In any case, almost 30 years ago, while at Temple University, I developed a kind of intellectual model that I call the "Urban Fire Department Paradigm", in order to help people distinguish goals from ambitions. The aforementioned intellectual model goes like this: A person is named as the new chief of a fire department. A reporter asks, “Chief, what are your new goals for the fire department?” The chief confidently responds, “I’m going to have a truck at every fire in city limits, before the fire becomes dangerous.” Well, actually, that is not a goal. Rather, it is an ambition. Consequently, an answer by the chief that would represent a goal should have been, “I’m going to have a truck at every fire in city limits, in twenty minutes”. In other words, the chief does not know how bad the fire will get or how quickly it will spread; yet, s/he is determined that there will be a truck full of fire-eaters there fairly soon.

Hence, in order to help our youth maintain their focus on the future, it is best to encourage them to set goals of say 5 years ahead, regarding what they plan on doing for that specific time period. Moreover, once they become accustomed to setting specific goals, they will do that in all of their activities, whether for school. work, sports, or recreation.

By the way, as I continue to insist, let Us stop asking children what they want to be, in the context of what they will possess, when they grow up. Instead, let Us ask, what they want to be, regarding their relatedness to others. Let Us ask, "How will you help the community when you grow up?". Let Us ask, "What kind of work will you do to help people when you grow up?".

Still, ultimately, if we provide young people with proper and adequate guidance, they will do quite well, when it’s time for them to replace Us. As the great Franz Fanon warned: Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.

Finally, if people (i.e., children or adults), generally-speaking, choose their own mentors, it's better that men – and women - make themselves available in the community by setting up basketball and other such sports teams, or acting, writing, and singing clubs, for instance, to give kids, and not just boys, a chance to interact with positive community people; rather than to just go hangin’ out with a particular kid whose name has been drawn from a hat.

Besides, by this society's shaky standards, there are a lot of "successful" people, both male and female, who would be a bad example for anyone to follow. Ya dig? I'm just sayin'.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus Read full post

Should we Bomb Israel for having and using Chemical Weapons?

Dear friends

From: America's Tricky Relationship with My The Chemical Brothers Romance- Warfare - OpEdNews.com

"Vietnam War: America/President Lyndon Johnson uses 20 million gallons of herbicides and defoliants during the Vietnam War. About half a million children suffer from severe physical or mental disabilities as a result of the highly toxic Agent Orange. About 3 mi...llion have been affected altogether. A joint Vietnamese-US panel recommended in 2010 the US government, corporations and other donors spend $300 million to compensate Vietnamese victims and clean up their ecosystems. So far, the US government has not pledged such compensation. Similarly, many Congressmen appalled by the Syrian attack have failed to champion the House's "Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act" introduced three months ago. 

 Chemical Weapons Convention: The 1975 international treaty prohibits the use and production of chemical weapons and sets a timetable for their destruction. To date, seven countries in the world, including Israel and Syria, have either not signed or not ratified it. The United States signed the treaty in 1997, basically gutting its provisions through limits. The US also missed the deadlines established in the convention for destroying the vast majority of their chemical weapons. Needless to say, the treaty does not allow military force to be taken in case of noncompliance.

Side note on international treaties: Other countries could not legally bomb the US for violating treaties that it has not ratified (or has unsigned) that are agreed to by the vast majority of the world. A few include the Convention of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Yet action without United Nations Security Council approval would violate international law.

Iraq-Iran War: Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush sell Saddam Hussein toxic poisons and biological viruses which Iraq uses in the Iraq-Iran War. The American government knows and approves of this use. In fact, the Reagan administration provides intelligence to Iraq to identify Iranian targets for chemical warfare. Additionally, Saddam Hussein uses chemical weapons against the Kurdish people in 1987.

Gulf and Iraq Wars: America/George Bush uses white phosphorus in Fallujah, Iraq, reportedly melting the skin of Iraqis and causing a higher incidence of birth defects, cancer, leukemia, and infant mortality than after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The United States also used weapons and munitions containing mildly radioactive and toxic depleted uranium in both the Gulf and Iraq Wars, causing cancer and birth defects, while leaving toxic land behind for the Iraqi citizens to live in.

Israel-Palestine Conflict: Israel uses the chemical white phosphorus in Gaza in the 2008-2009 war. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch found white phosphorus was used in civilian areas, inflicting major injuries and chemical burns. Israel initially denied the chemical was used, but later admitted to it."

Let's keep it real, please!

G. Djata Bumpus

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Some Wisdom from Albert Schweitzer about LIFE

“A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.” - Albert Schweitzer

Dear friends,


It is obvious to me that people who hunt down and kill non-human animals for fun have serious mental health issues, just as those who murder other humans for power and wealth -through war - do, as well. Moreover, the crazies are not only the ones who murder people in movie theatres, temples, and the like.

Of course, Australopithecus Africanus, the earliest known hominid related to humankind (beginning @ four million years ago) was a meat-eater. Vegans be damned! Nevertheless, they killed for food, not fun. Finally, we should embrace the idea that all fauna and flora are sacred, as long as that belief does not interfere with our ability to maintain our existence.

At any rate, below is an excerpt from the work and wisdom of the great Albert Schweitzer. Please reflect and enjoy.

G. Djata Bumpus
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“REVERENCE FOR LIFE" by Albert Schweitzer

The following words by Albert Schweitzer are excerpted from Chapter 26 of The Philosophy of Civilization and from The Ethics of Reverence for Life in the 1936 winter issue of Christendom.

"I am life which wills to live, in the midst of life which wills to live. As in my own will-to-live there is a longing for wider life and pleasure, with dread of annihilation and pain; so is it also in the will-to-live all around me, whether it can express itself before me or remains dumb. The will-to-live is everywhere present, even as in me. If I am a thinking being, I must regard life other than my own with equal reverence, for I shall know that it longs for fullness and development as deeply as I do myself. Therefore, I see that evil is what annihilates, hampers, or hinders life. And this holds true whether I regard it physically or spiritually.

Goodness, by the same token, is the saving or helping of life, the enabling of whatever life I can to attain its highest development. In me the will-to-live has come to know about other wills-to-live. There is in it a yearning to arrive at unity with itself, to become universal. I can do nothing but hold to the fact that the will-to-live in me manifests itself as will-to-live which desires to become one with other will-to-live.

Ethics consist in my experiencing the compulsion to show to all will-to-live the same reverence as I do my own. A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives. If I save an insect from a puddle, life has devoted itself to life, and the division of life against itself has ended. Whenever my life devotes itself in any way to life, my finite will-to-live experiences union with the infinite will in which all life is one.

An absolute ethic calls for the creating of perfection in this life. It cannot be completely achieved; but that fact does not really matter. In this sense reverence for life is an absolute ethic. It makes only the maintenance and promotion of life rank as good. All destruction of and injury to life, under whatever circumstances, it condemns as evil. True, in practice we are forced to choose. At times we have to decide arbitrarily which forms of life, and even which particular individuals, we shall save, and which we shall destroy. But the principle of reverence for life is nonetheless universal and absolute.

Such an ethic does not abolish for man all ethical conflicts but compels him to decide for himself in each case how far he can remain ethical and how far he must submit himself to the necessity for destruction of and injury to life. No one can decide for him at what point, on each occasion, lies the extreme limit of possibility for his persistence in the preservation and furtherance of life. He alone has to judge this issue, by letting himself be guided by a feeling of the highest possible responsibility towards other life. We must never let ourselves become blunted. We are living in truth, when we experience these conflicts more profoundly.

Whenever I injure life of any sort, I must be quite clear whether it is necessary. Beyond the unavoidable, I must never go, not even with what seems insignificant. The farmer, who has mown down a thousand flowers in his meadow as fodder for his cows, must be careful on his way home not to strike off in wanton pastime the head of a single flower by the roadside, for he thereby commits a wrong against life without being under the pressure of necessity. " Read full post