" Should African American politicians and public officials be free from criticism by us?"
Dear friends,
One of several things that we have learned from the recent Sherrod resignation is that many African Americans are hesitant to criticize Barack Obama for his errors in judgment. Part of the problem lies in the notion that he is the "first Black president". That may be true of the USA, but there are actually many Black presidents of modern nations and have been for scores of years. Was Nelson Mandela's presidency less worthy than President Obama's? Was the presidency (Prime Minister) of the Congo by Patrice Lumumba , an African leader who was murdered by the C.I.A. almost 50 years ago, less valuable than Obama's? Obviously, because of his assassination and having been replaced by a hand-picked successor by the same C.I.A. proves that his death was crucial to the United States and other Western powers.
While we all like great music, the author, a European American reporter in Philadelphia, makes some very important points, regarding Condoleeza Rice's role in the Bush administration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0wbpKCdkkQ,
As well, on the link below, we may be led to ask: Why don't African American journalists raise questions about Condi's past actions as Bush's National Security Adviser and, later, his Secretary of State? After all, we see Nigerian journalists and scribes from other African nations criticize their presidents. Why shouldn't we do the same with those officials, elected or not, who act against human progress? Should African American politicians and public officials be free from criticism by us?
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/99184804.html
Read full post
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sherrod, a USDA official, resigns - For what?
“ ‘Why is it that, for example, a “Black” president receives open death threats and harangues in public from European American politicians, clergy, and mass groups, as well as the agents of the mainstream media, while any African American who acted in an undesirable way towards a “white” president would be lucky to be alive the next day?’ ”
Dear friends,
If a person belongs to a “marked minority” group that has a centuries-long history of experiences with daily injustices from an artificial “majority” group that, based upon a phony, non-scientific, means-spirited claim of being “white”, as opposed to its members identifying themselves as people from a variety of cultural groups, does a so-called “minority” person have a right to address her or his injustice, in whatever way that s/he feels equipped to do at the time?
Apparently s/he does not, according to the super-racist corporate- and government-controlled mass communications media – the opinion makers of this nation. After all, as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah contended,"In societies where there are competing ideologies, it is still usual for one ideology to be dominant. This dominant ideology is that of the ruling group. Though the ideology is the key to the inward identity of its group, it is in intent solidarist. For an ideology does not seek merely to unite a section of the people; it seeks to unite the whole of society in which it finds itself. In its effect, it certainly reaches the whole society, when it is dominant. For, besides seeking to establish common attitudes and purposes for the society, the dominant ideology is that which in the light of circumstances decides what forms institutions shall take, and in what channels the common effort is to be directed." (see Nkrumah's Consciencism)
Well, that also explains why the NAACP, an organization that has been irrelevant for almost fifty years, has the audacity to side with racists in condemning a Black woman who was “exposed” by the Tea Party for acting in a non-deferring way towards a “white” farmer. Besides, were her actions based upon the racist arrogance of the aforementioned farmer? That question does not seem to have been asked.
At any rate, , the same people who are guilty of promoting the aforementioned injustices define racism, the euphemism for White Supremacy, as a “xenophobia” or “disease” that any person can possess in this society, where people discriminate against others. That suggests that everyone in this country, regardless of skin color, is on equal terms. In other words, the here-to-mentioned “majority” group insists: we’re all equal, we just have a few bigots hanging around.
If that is true, then, at least to me, the question should be, “Why is it that, for example, a “Black” president receives open death threats and harangues in piblic from European American politicians, clergy, and mass groups, as well as the agents of the mainstream media, while any African American who acted in an undesirable way towards a “white” president would be lucky to be alive the next day?”
Please imagine that the Tea Party made its members resign from their jobs if any of them had ever done anything racist towards one African Americans, That organization would then, rightfully, become the Pee Party of the Unemployed.
Finally, all of this reminds me of the response that my late father would give to me, back in the Seventies, whenever I mentioned to him how “crazy” that “white” folks are with their constant, daily racial injustices towards Black folks, like, for instance, Alan Bakke’s case against Affirmative Action. To that, my Dad would say, “White folks ain’t crazy son, they think we’re crazy.”
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100720/pl_yblog_upshot/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy
Read full post
Dear friends,
If a person belongs to a “marked minority” group that has a centuries-long history of experiences with daily injustices from an artificial “majority” group that, based upon a phony, non-scientific, means-spirited claim of being “white”, as opposed to its members identifying themselves as people from a variety of cultural groups, does a so-called “minority” person have a right to address her or his injustice, in whatever way that s/he feels equipped to do at the time?
Apparently s/he does not, according to the super-racist corporate- and government-controlled mass communications media – the opinion makers of this nation. After all, as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah contended,"In societies where there are competing ideologies, it is still usual for one ideology to be dominant. This dominant ideology is that of the ruling group. Though the ideology is the key to the inward identity of its group, it is in intent solidarist. For an ideology does not seek merely to unite a section of the people; it seeks to unite the whole of society in which it finds itself. In its effect, it certainly reaches the whole society, when it is dominant. For, besides seeking to establish common attitudes and purposes for the society, the dominant ideology is that which in the light of circumstances decides what forms institutions shall take, and in what channels the common effort is to be directed." (see Nkrumah's Consciencism)
Well, that also explains why the NAACP, an organization that has been irrelevant for almost fifty years, has the audacity to side with racists in condemning a Black woman who was “exposed” by the Tea Party for acting in a non-deferring way towards a “white” farmer. Besides, were her actions based upon the racist arrogance of the aforementioned farmer? That question does not seem to have been asked.
At any rate, , the same people who are guilty of promoting the aforementioned injustices define racism, the euphemism for White Supremacy, as a “xenophobia” or “disease” that any person can possess in this society, where people discriminate against others. That suggests that everyone in this country, regardless of skin color, is on equal terms. In other words, the here-to-mentioned “majority” group insists: we’re all equal, we just have a few bigots hanging around.
If that is true, then, at least to me, the question should be, “Why is it that, for example, a “Black” president receives open death threats and harangues in piblic from European American politicians, clergy, and mass groups, as well as the agents of the mainstream media, while any African American who acted in an undesirable way towards a “white” president would be lucky to be alive the next day?”
Please imagine that the Tea Party made its members resign from their jobs if any of them had ever done anything racist towards one African Americans, That organization would then, rightfully, become the Pee Party of the Unemployed.
Finally, all of this reminds me of the response that my late father would give to me, back in the Seventies, whenever I mentioned to him how “crazy” that “white” folks are with their constant, daily racial injustices towards Black folks, like, for instance, Alan Bakke’s case against Affirmative Action. To that, my Dad would say, “White folks ain’t crazy son, they think we’re crazy.”
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100720/pl_yblog_upshot/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy
Read full post
Monday, July 12, 2010
The "New" Black Panther Party - provacateurs or buffoons?
“Please keep things in their proper context, and remember that there were almost no Black politicians, much less Black police officers anywhere in this country, during the heyday of the real Black Panther Party (@1968-72).”
Dear friends,
Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the “New Black Panther Party” being let off the hook, by the Obama administration, for the group’s criminal behavior inasmuch as the "New Panthers" forced European American (so-called “white”) voters, in Philadelphia, away from the polls in 2008, on the day that then Senator Obama was elected to the presidency.
But what is the “New Black Panther Party”? The purpose of the alleged combining of the original Black Panther Party with the Islamic Movement, as its national spokesperson, an attorney. claims, is for African Americans to have an organized body that moves towards Black liberation. However, what they have mostly done is defame the legacy of the real Black Panther Party, making many of us who were part of the original organization smell a great big C.I.A. - or some other reactionary group’s - rat!
As a matter of fact, the so-called New Black Panther Party reminds me of the so-called Symbionese Liberation Army that kidnapped Patty Hearst back on 1973, which, inevitably, along with their thoughtless actions brought about a decline in support from the large amount of youth in North American Black communities who had previously agreed with Brother Malcolm’s mantra “By any means necessary”.
First of all, because the so-called “New Black Panther Party” insists that its chief method of confronting US rulers is similar to the “legal gradualism” of the NAACP, perhaps, they should call themselves the “New NAACP”. Moreover, with so many of the leaders bearing Muslin names and relating to the teachings of Islam, they totally contradict the secular humanist value judgments that guided the real Black Panther Party.
Nevertheless, if anything, their name should actually be the “Different” Black Panther Party. As a former member of the Black Panther Party (1969-71), mostly in Boston, but for nine months in New Haven, CT. helping to successfully get Bobby Seale freed from his unjustified murder case, I have been hearing about these so-called "New Black Panthers" for some time (10 years?).
Moreover, I cringe each time that I hear their name.
They are in no way connected with the group that held community education classes (which I taught for the entire nine months that I was stationed in New Haven), had the Free Breakfast program across the nation that, for several years, fed about 10, 000 or so kids, in churches, Panther offices, and community centers, each weekday morning (long before the US government offered such programs for youngsters in public schools). We opened Free Health Clinics nationwide (again, long before Medicaid serviced many “poor” folks to that extent), the Free Clothing program nationwide (before the Salvation Army had bins set up everywhere), and we, literally, started the Prison Reform Movement, with our Free Buses to Prisons program in this country, again, nationwide. In fact, when New York state’s Attica Prison Rebellion happened in 1971, the inmates called on Black Panther Party co-founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to be the chief negotiators for them.
Still, while we, the real Black Panthers, would, ultimately - and thereafter constantly, criticize ourselves and move to correct the status that we had allowed ourselves to develop by making the image of violence too much of an issue, we were mostly, on a daily basis, about community service - knocking on doors, then after, usually, being invited in, sitting down in people’s homes talking about social issues featured in our nationally-renowned weekly newspaper, and confronting problems, for example, like getting legal help – and bail - for any relatives or friends of our hosts who’d just been arrested. Also, it must be mentioned that we received almost all of our financial support from the Black community itself.
The members of the “New Black Panther Party” are not our descendants and they are, in fact, at least to me, insulting. Please keep things in their proper context, and remember that there were almost no Black politicians, much less Black police officers anywhere in this country, during the heyday of the real Black Panther Party (@1968-72).
At any rate, on the link below is a statement about the “New Black Panther Party” from the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, a non-profit educational organization that was established and is still overseen by my old comrade David Hilliard and Fredricka Newton, the widow of another old comrade of mine, the late Dr. Huey P. Newton.
“Dare to struggle – dare to win” – Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.blackpanther.org/newsalert.htm
Read full post
Dear friends,
Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the “New Black Panther Party” being let off the hook, by the Obama administration, for the group’s criminal behavior inasmuch as the "New Panthers" forced European American (so-called “white”) voters, in Philadelphia, away from the polls in 2008, on the day that then Senator Obama was elected to the presidency.
But what is the “New Black Panther Party”? The purpose of the alleged combining of the original Black Panther Party with the Islamic Movement, as its national spokesperson, an attorney. claims, is for African Americans to have an organized body that moves towards Black liberation. However, what they have mostly done is defame the legacy of the real Black Panther Party, making many of us who were part of the original organization smell a great big C.I.A. - or some other reactionary group’s - rat!
As a matter of fact, the so-called New Black Panther Party reminds me of the so-called Symbionese Liberation Army that kidnapped Patty Hearst back on 1973, which, inevitably, along with their thoughtless actions brought about a decline in support from the large amount of youth in North American Black communities who had previously agreed with Brother Malcolm’s mantra “By any means necessary”.
First of all, because the so-called “New Black Panther Party” insists that its chief method of confronting US rulers is similar to the “legal gradualism” of the NAACP, perhaps, they should call themselves the “New NAACP”. Moreover, with so many of the leaders bearing Muslin names and relating to the teachings of Islam, they totally contradict the secular humanist value judgments that guided the real Black Panther Party.
Nevertheless, if anything, their name should actually be the “Different” Black Panther Party. As a former member of the Black Panther Party (1969-71), mostly in Boston, but for nine months in New Haven, CT. helping to successfully get Bobby Seale freed from his unjustified murder case, I have been hearing about these so-called "New Black Panthers" for some time (10 years?).
Moreover, I cringe each time that I hear their name.
They are in no way connected with the group that held community education classes (which I taught for the entire nine months that I was stationed in New Haven), had the Free Breakfast program across the nation that, for several years, fed about 10, 000 or so kids, in churches, Panther offices, and community centers, each weekday morning (long before the US government offered such programs for youngsters in public schools). We opened Free Health Clinics nationwide (again, long before Medicaid serviced many “poor” folks to that extent), the Free Clothing program nationwide (before the Salvation Army had bins set up everywhere), and we, literally, started the Prison Reform Movement, with our Free Buses to Prisons program in this country, again, nationwide. In fact, when New York state’s Attica Prison Rebellion happened in 1971, the inmates called on Black Panther Party co-founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to be the chief negotiators for them.
Still, while we, the real Black Panthers, would, ultimately - and thereafter constantly, criticize ourselves and move to correct the status that we had allowed ourselves to develop by making the image of violence too much of an issue, we were mostly, on a daily basis, about community service - knocking on doors, then after, usually, being invited in, sitting down in people’s homes talking about social issues featured in our nationally-renowned weekly newspaper, and confronting problems, for example, like getting legal help – and bail - for any relatives or friends of our hosts who’d just been arrested. Also, it must be mentioned that we received almost all of our financial support from the Black community itself.
The members of the “New Black Panther Party” are not our descendants and they are, in fact, at least to me, insulting. Please keep things in their proper context, and remember that there were almost no Black politicians, much less Black police officers anywhere in this country, during the heyday of the real Black Panther Party (@1968-72).
At any rate, on the link below is a statement about the “New Black Panther Party” from the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, a non-profit educational organization that was established and is still overseen by my old comrade David Hilliard and Fredricka Newton, the widow of another old comrade of mine, the late Dr. Huey P. Newton.
“Dare to struggle – dare to win” – Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.blackpanther.org/newsalert.htm
Read full post
Monday, July 5, 2010
More about us needing sexual liberation – not “gay” liberation
“…does having females cover up their breasts when sunbathing, specifically designate them as sexual objects who are born and bred to satisfy the sexual greed of males, at the whim of the latter?”
Dear friends,
Recently, I read a piece by a very dear friend of mine who wrote about semi-nude sunbathing and the outcry that it causes among some folks. Additionally, she questioned whether or not the practice of females publicly showing their breasts is a good idea at this time, especially considering the fact that , as she put it, “In France, where the practice has been commonplace, more women reportedly are covering up, citing concerns about skin cancer and unwanted attention. There was talk a few years back about banning semi-nude sunbathing in Australia, but it didn't get far..”
Well, I must admit, first of all, that I was disappointed that she never drew a connection between those who either castigate females about showing their breasts in public, ignoring the latter’s own feelings of getting whatever kind of relief, as well as those that rebuke females who breastfeed in public. By the way, both types of breast-revealing females just mentioned are victims in our sexually-repressive society. They are NOT perpetrators of either immoral or naive behavior!
Yet, if people in any particular culture (civilization) do not recognize their sexuality within the context of the relatedness of those sexual feelings towards, especially, those of the opposite sex, then can they even enjoy their sexuality in a mentally- and physically-healthy way?
And what does that say about male/female relationships in such an environment? Can that culture survive very long?
In any case, as would be expected, there were brief remarks made about breast size, regarding both females and males. After all, in this market-driven, possession-oriented society of ours, people confuse self-pride with self-esteem. The former is a silly mask that people wear in order to trick people into thinking that they’re someone other than who they really are, whereas self-esteem develops from folks recognizing their inner powers, then revealing those strength capabilities to the world, because, each of the abovementioned folks, as individuals, knows what it’s like to be alone and accomplish goals on his or her own. Dig?
Therefore, for example, wearing expensive suits, a guy like Donald Trump rides around in limousines like a “big man”. But his gestures are only those of self-pride. As a matter of fact, he hides the real “him”, along with his often questionable business dealings, especially from his various wives and the authorities, because he prefers that people not know the real Donald Trump. Consequently, he has low self-esteem, particularly since his ascendance to wealth was bequeathed to him by his father, He didn’t earn it.
Likewise, women who get their breasts enlarged feel no better about themselves than they did prior to their operations. Consequently, just as the late Michael Jackson never tired of facial surgery, in spite of his great showmanship, popularity, and wealth, he was also a person who suffered from low self-esteem. He didn’t feel very good about himself.
Considering all of this mentioned above, how can we expect for females to appreciate who they are, if they are raised in a civilization that judges them (and we men too), according to how well they’re/we’re able to trick others into thinking that we are someone other than who we really are?
Moreover, does having females cover up their breasts when sunbathing, specifically designate them as sexual objects who are born and bred to satisfy the sexual greed of males, at the whim of the latter? And, if so, does that serve the purpose of not just maintaining, but proliferating Male Supremacy?
Nevertheless, in essence, people who call themselves “homosexual” deny the various aspects of power relations and discriminating tastes, much less sexual urges, that lead individuals to engage themselves in sexual relations from Jump Street. Moreover, and unfortunately, what passes off today as the “Gay Rights Movement” doesn’t address the direction that we need to take, as species beings, so that males and females can live as people who equally respect and trust each other, so that we can extend our existence as a species as far as possible into the future.
Finally, in a country where dialogue of any kind is, generally, unwelcome (and in some cases, at least, quasi-illegal), the specter of violence against females is clouded by the unwillingness of even female journalists and politicians to dare raise issues that will lead to the liberation of us all. Some “democracy”. Eh?
Still, imagine if millions of women in our country decide to show their breasts in public? What other freedoms would then be on the horizon?
To be sure, such inquiry may then stimulate the thought, “Perhaps, human beings really can appreciate freedom (liberation).”, as opposed to the way that things are now, where most people are more comfortable when they take no personal responsibility for ending their social bondage, and, instead, become anonymous, that is go un-noticed, by joining a herd (i.e., group or crowd) and running from it (freedom)?
“Dare to struggle, dare to win” - Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100629_Jenice_Armstrong__Taking_off_the_top_at_Asbury_Park_.html
Read full post
Dear friends,
Recently, I read a piece by a very dear friend of mine who wrote about semi-nude sunbathing and the outcry that it causes among some folks. Additionally, she questioned whether or not the practice of females publicly showing their breasts is a good idea at this time, especially considering the fact that , as she put it, “In France, where the practice has been commonplace, more women reportedly are covering up, citing concerns about skin cancer and unwanted attention. There was talk a few years back about banning semi-nude sunbathing in Australia, but it didn't get far..”
Well, I must admit, first of all, that I was disappointed that she never drew a connection between those who either castigate females about showing their breasts in public, ignoring the latter’s own feelings of getting whatever kind of relief, as well as those that rebuke females who breastfeed in public. By the way, both types of breast-revealing females just mentioned are victims in our sexually-repressive society. They are NOT perpetrators of either immoral or naive behavior!
Yet, if people in any particular culture (civilization) do not recognize their sexuality within the context of the relatedness of those sexual feelings towards, especially, those of the opposite sex, then can they even enjoy their sexuality in a mentally- and physically-healthy way?
And what does that say about male/female relationships in such an environment? Can that culture survive very long?
In any case, as would be expected, there were brief remarks made about breast size, regarding both females and males. After all, in this market-driven, possession-oriented society of ours, people confuse self-pride with self-esteem. The former is a silly mask that people wear in order to trick people into thinking that they’re someone other than who they really are, whereas self-esteem develops from folks recognizing their inner powers, then revealing those strength capabilities to the world, because, each of the abovementioned folks, as individuals, knows what it’s like to be alone and accomplish goals on his or her own. Dig?
Therefore, for example, wearing expensive suits, a guy like Donald Trump rides around in limousines like a “big man”. But his gestures are only those of self-pride. As a matter of fact, he hides the real “him”, along with his often questionable business dealings, especially from his various wives and the authorities, because he prefers that people not know the real Donald Trump. Consequently, he has low self-esteem, particularly since his ascendance to wealth was bequeathed to him by his father, He didn’t earn it.
Likewise, women who get their breasts enlarged feel no better about themselves than they did prior to their operations. Consequently, just as the late Michael Jackson never tired of facial surgery, in spite of his great showmanship, popularity, and wealth, he was also a person who suffered from low self-esteem. He didn’t feel very good about himself.
Considering all of this mentioned above, how can we expect for females to appreciate who they are, if they are raised in a civilization that judges them (and we men too), according to how well they’re/we’re able to trick others into thinking that we are someone other than who we really are?
Moreover, does having females cover up their breasts when sunbathing, specifically designate them as sexual objects who are born and bred to satisfy the sexual greed of males, at the whim of the latter? And, if so, does that serve the purpose of not just maintaining, but proliferating Male Supremacy?
Nevertheless, in essence, people who call themselves “homosexual” deny the various aspects of power relations and discriminating tastes, much less sexual urges, that lead individuals to engage themselves in sexual relations from Jump Street. Moreover, and unfortunately, what passes off today as the “Gay Rights Movement” doesn’t address the direction that we need to take, as species beings, so that males and females can live as people who equally respect and trust each other, so that we can extend our existence as a species as far as possible into the future.
Finally, in a country where dialogue of any kind is, generally, unwelcome (and in some cases, at least, quasi-illegal), the specter of violence against females is clouded by the unwillingness of even female journalists and politicians to dare raise issues that will lead to the liberation of us all. Some “democracy”. Eh?
Still, imagine if millions of women in our country decide to show their breasts in public? What other freedoms would then be on the horizon?
To be sure, such inquiry may then stimulate the thought, “Perhaps, human beings really can appreciate freedom (liberation).”, as opposed to the way that things are now, where most people are more comfortable when they take no personal responsibility for ending their social bondage, and, instead, become anonymous, that is go un-noticed, by joining a herd (i.e., group or crowd) and running from it (freedom)?
“Dare to struggle, dare to win” - Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100629_Jenice_Armstrong__Taking_off_the_top_at_Asbury_Park_.html
Read full post
Friday, July 2, 2010
Update on Western media blackout of Exxon/Mobil's cirrent monstrous oil spill in Nigeria
"“The company is acting with impunity because there’s nobody holding them to account. Would they dare do the same thing in Europe or the US?” "
Dear friends,
This is an important point in world history. People from all over Africa are thoroughly in support of the team from Ghana, hoping that that productive African nation will win the World Cup. This is exactly the spirit of Pan-Africanism that Drs. W.E.B. DuBois and Kwame Nkrumah, two of the most recognizable original Black leaders to call for a United States of Africa, would have enjoyed. Now, if we can only get the same enthusiasm between African peoples, on all five peopled continents, to give attention to the horrific oil spills that continue to plague Africa without any notice from the Western media, including the USA with its “black” president.
We now have a great chance to connect, worldwide, with the Internet. Why not put pressure on Exxon/Mobil, a huge North American oil company, so that it is as isolated as BP?
On the link below, our Nigerian brothers and sisters at SaharaReporters.com provide us with an update of the current deadly spill that is spewing oil in the Niger Delta.
Long live African peoples – here and abroad!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/6394-exxonmobil-nigerian-officials-blamed-for-akwa-ibom-spills.html
Read full post
Dear friends,
This is an important point in world history. People from all over Africa are thoroughly in support of the team from Ghana, hoping that that productive African nation will win the World Cup. This is exactly the spirit of Pan-Africanism that Drs. W.E.B. DuBois and Kwame Nkrumah, two of the most recognizable original Black leaders to call for a United States of Africa, would have enjoyed. Now, if we can only get the same enthusiasm between African peoples, on all five peopled continents, to give attention to the horrific oil spills that continue to plague Africa without any notice from the Western media, including the USA with its “black” president.
We now have a great chance to connect, worldwide, with the Internet. Why not put pressure on Exxon/Mobil, a huge North American oil company, so that it is as isolated as BP?
On the link below, our Nigerian brothers and sisters at SaharaReporters.com provide us with an update of the current deadly spill that is spewing oil in the Niger Delta.
Long live African peoples – here and abroad!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/6394-exxonmobil-nigerian-officials-blamed-for-akwa-ibom-spills.html
Read full post
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
BP is spilling in the Gulf, Exxon/Mobil is doing just that, right now, in Nigeria - only worse!
"“It is a paradox that the current oil spill in the Mexican Gulf is attracting so much outcry from the American public and leadership but an American oil company is doing worse damage and poisoning the lives of hundreds of millions of Nigerians who depend on fish as the cheapest source of protein and nobody is talking about it...” - Rev. Samuel Ayadi
Dear friends,
For all of the hype about British Petroleum's oil spill in the Gulf, why is it that we have not heard a peep about US compabies like Shell, in the recent past, as well as Exxon/Mobil - a company that is currently responsible for a great oil spill in Nigeria that's going on at this very moment. Moreover, why are North Americans so perturbed about what's happening in the Gulf, while US companues ravage Africa soil and cause vast amounts of deaths from oil polution?
As one man said jusr last month, "The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very different...We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US," said Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International.
Another Nigerian man, Beb Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people said, "But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa." (see "Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it." ( see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell ) As I wrote earlier this month on a blog post called "Yes, Marvin sang "Mercy, Mercy, Me", but it's not just about BP (originally posted 6/10/10)"
Still, what is even worse, regarding all of this mess is: there's never any consideration, much less talk, about cleaning up spills around Africa, whenever or wherever they occur. What's that all about?
In any case, please peruse an article from the very reputable Nigerian Website called SaharaReporters.com on the link that is directly below my name..
Long live African peoples - here and abroad!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/frontpage-slideshow/6244-exxonmobil-oil-spill-in-niger-delta-exposes-nigerians-to-poisoned-fish.html
Read full post
Dear friends,
For all of the hype about British Petroleum's oil spill in the Gulf, why is it that we have not heard a peep about US compabies like Shell, in the recent past, as well as Exxon/Mobil - a company that is currently responsible for a great oil spill in Nigeria that's going on at this very moment. Moreover, why are North Americans so perturbed about what's happening in the Gulf, while US companues ravage Africa soil and cause vast amounts of deaths from oil polution?
As one man said jusr last month, "The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very different...We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US," said Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International.
Another Nigerian man, Beb Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people said, "But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa." (see "Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it." ( see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell ) As I wrote earlier this month on a blog post called "Yes, Marvin sang "Mercy, Mercy, Me", but it's not just about BP (originally posted 6/10/10)"
Still, what is even worse, regarding all of this mess is: there's never any consideration, much less talk, about cleaning up spills around Africa, whenever or wherever they occur. What's that all about?
In any case, please peruse an article from the very reputable Nigerian Website called SaharaReporters.com on the link that is directly below my name..
Long live African peoples - here and abroad!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.saharareporters.com/real-news/frontpage-slideshow/6244-exxonmobil-oil-spill-in-niger-delta-exposes-nigerians-to-poisoned-fish.html
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National Black Theatre of Action Arts NYC event!!!
" Fertile Ground" An Original Artist Showcase
EVERY 2ND THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
8pm-11pm $10.00
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103462928380&s=6492&e=001zBzDkiIUgFNUKV-DhoLsUj2m62SF5pRO9QiUr3LnTTLrVS_1lK6OI_4MP58LtxSx2NzfnhbyCiNn07S5BzVb2HxZ0wsZ2Hyb4KQFTij8prsm5NBNrJNx8bLTQexA8ZB_
1-800-838-3006
On these special evenings,
YOU - the audience have an opportunity to witness
and participate in new artists presenting original material
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Friday, June 25, 2010
Should Boy Scouts ban "gay" troop leaders?
Ultimately, nonetheless, avoiding any dialogue what-so-ever, the argument of many “gays” deteriorates to, “I’m just gay…that’s all to it!” At least to me, the question for which that declaration then begs is, “How can a proposition be proof of itself?”
Dear friends,
Very recently, there has been a lot of controversy in Philadelphia, regarding the city government’s decision to renege on its decades-old promise and practice to provide a rent-free building to the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, because the legendary organization has banned openly “gay” troop leaders (which is against newly-legislated city discrimination laws).
I wrote a letter to the editor, in response to a brilliant piece that was written by Philadelphia Daily News journalist Christine Flowers about this issue. My letter has been published; however, a few important points were edited out. Therefore, below, you will find the original letter, while on the link below it, you will find the published version.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
****************************
Dear Editor:
Christine Flower’s thoughtful piece called, “Philadelphia’s odd case against the Boy Scouts”, posted 6/18/10, reveals a disturbing practice by our city government to acknowledge a group of “gay activists” that appears to be ignoring the actual fact that homosexual relationships are no less based upon power and sexual greed than heterosexual ones. Yet, when do we hear heterosexuals establishing themselves as a distinct group based upon the ability to walk around pronouncing unproven claims about with whom they’re having sex? So what kind of guidance should we provide to our youth, so that they can replace us in the future?
One of the real dilemmas of a society that is socially-stratified such as ours, lies in the fact that a person can be a member of an oppressor group and an oppressed group, simultaneously. This was adequately proven, with the Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill debacle.
Let’s face it; except for African American women, but not limited to them, particularly women who call themselves "white", are oppressed as women, but, also, serve as oppressors, as part of the artificial "majority" group that calls itself "white".
Therefore, the attempt by some of these same “white” women to form an artificial "minority" group, by calling themselves "lesbians" or having “white” men calling themselves “gay” for the same purpose is disingenuous - at best.
Besides, what difference does a person's skin color, gender, or any other "orientation" make, if once you are with the person to whom you claim to be oriented, either you wish that you weren't there - or he or she wishes the same? Is anyone “oriented” to be with anyone else? That’s silly.
Well, is there a “sexual preference”? Actually, we already have a name for people like that. We call them rapists. In other words, some amount of mutual consent must be involved between parties. One does not have sex with whomever he or she prefers.
Ultimately, nonetheless, avoiding any dialogue what-so-ever, the argument of many “gays” deteriorates to, “I’m just gay…that’s all to it!” At least to me, the question for which that declaration then begs is, “How can a proposition be proof of itself?”
So-called “gay activists” undermine the real notion of citizens’ rights, when they attempt to re-invent themselves as a distinct population group. Moreover, Flowers hit the nail right on the head, when she insists about city officials and their cohorts engaged in this heartless move to evict children and their mentors from a city-owned property, “They need to get a better answer. Or maybe a conscience.” for discontinuing support for the Boy Scouts of America, a wonderful, life-enhancing group to which my five brothers and I belonged, many decades ago.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20100624_Letters__The_Boy_Scout_case_has_oppressors_and_the_oppressed.html
Read full post
Dear friends,
Very recently, there has been a lot of controversy in Philadelphia, regarding the city government’s decision to renege on its decades-old promise and practice to provide a rent-free building to the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, because the legendary organization has banned openly “gay” troop leaders (which is against newly-legislated city discrimination laws).
I wrote a letter to the editor, in response to a brilliant piece that was written by Philadelphia Daily News journalist Christine Flowers about this issue. My letter has been published; however, a few important points were edited out. Therefore, below, you will find the original letter, while on the link below it, you will find the published version.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
****************************
Dear Editor:
Christine Flower’s thoughtful piece called, “Philadelphia’s odd case against the Boy Scouts”, posted 6/18/10, reveals a disturbing practice by our city government to acknowledge a group of “gay activists” that appears to be ignoring the actual fact that homosexual relationships are no less based upon power and sexual greed than heterosexual ones. Yet, when do we hear heterosexuals establishing themselves as a distinct group based upon the ability to walk around pronouncing unproven claims about with whom they’re having sex? So what kind of guidance should we provide to our youth, so that they can replace us in the future?
One of the real dilemmas of a society that is socially-stratified such as ours, lies in the fact that a person can be a member of an oppressor group and an oppressed group, simultaneously. This was adequately proven, with the Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill debacle.
Let’s face it; except for African American women, but not limited to them, particularly women who call themselves "white", are oppressed as women, but, also, serve as oppressors, as part of the artificial "majority" group that calls itself "white".
Therefore, the attempt by some of these same “white” women to form an artificial "minority" group, by calling themselves "lesbians" or having “white” men calling themselves “gay” for the same purpose is disingenuous - at best.
Besides, what difference does a person's skin color, gender, or any other "orientation" make, if once you are with the person to whom you claim to be oriented, either you wish that you weren't there - or he or she wishes the same? Is anyone “oriented” to be with anyone else? That’s silly.
Well, is there a “sexual preference”? Actually, we already have a name for people like that. We call them rapists. In other words, some amount of mutual consent must be involved between parties. One does not have sex with whomever he or she prefers.
Ultimately, nonetheless, avoiding any dialogue what-so-ever, the argument of many “gays” deteriorates to, “I’m just gay…that’s all to it!” At least to me, the question for which that declaration then begs is, “How can a proposition be proof of itself?”
So-called “gay activists” undermine the real notion of citizens’ rights, when they attempt to re-invent themselves as a distinct population group. Moreover, Flowers hit the nail right on the head, when she insists about city officials and their cohorts engaged in this heartless move to evict children and their mentors from a city-owned property, “They need to get a better answer. Or maybe a conscience.” for discontinuing support for the Boy Scouts of America, a wonderful, life-enhancing group to which my five brothers and I belonged, many decades ago.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20100624_Letters__The_Boy_Scout_case_has_oppressors_and_the_oppressed.html
Read full post
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sandy Banks on a community-building ceremony
There’s an African proverb that goes, " To live together is to have a common fate."
Dear friends,
Almost all of the problems in our society are based upon the fact that, generally-speaking, we have no sense of “community” anywhere in this country. This is largely due to the simple fact that: in this market-driven, possession-oriented society of ours, people do not think in terms of “we”.
Now, that notion may sound like a platitude; however, such a seemingly trite proclamation is very necessary, because those who control the “market” make a point to have people think only of themselves, even within their individual households, not just our society at large.
There’s an African proverb that goes, " To live together is to have a common fate." In other words, as a community, in the grand scheme of things, as it were, we need each other, regardless of the extent to which we are physically-able or whatever social differences that we have - like gender and age, for example. But if people, in any specific community, share a common fate, as mentioned earlier, then it only seems fair that all parties involved should have a voice in their destinies. Unfortunately, for all of America’s brave words of "freedom and democracy", when do our children ever experience either of these lofty ideals, particularly, democracy?
What young people actually feel is that they are controlled, having little or no input, regarding decisions that directly affect their existences. That, to be sure, makes them feel powerless.
As a consequence, they become angry and frustrated. Moreover, in their feeling of powerlessness, quite intelligently, they rebel. Yet, the problem with much of the rebellion of our youth, particularly in inner cities is: young folks often protest in ways that are self-destructive. Of course, this is largely due to the types of options available to them.
Consequently, we should no longer ignore the anger and frustration that our youth must necessarily express in a negative way, if we do not provide them with opportunities to make good choices, through positive support.
The participation of our youth, in both the decision-making and application processes of building our communities, will help young people to look inside of themselves and resolve the anger, fear, sadness, and frustration which results from their feeling of powerlessness here-to-mentioned. As well, they will then discover their inner powers, through the personal strength of positive energy and group support.
Mastering skills in most activities, whether for business or pleasure, requires using energy in a positive way, relying upon focus and concentration - each being human powers just as energy itself is. We must help our youth develop these skills. Therefore, for instance, affording young folks educational opportunities through scholarship programs, is a great method for enhancing the progress of our communities.
In any case, with the piece on the link below, through an incredible journalist, Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times, we get a chance to have a vicarious experience that shows how each of us can help young people build progressive and productive futures for our communities. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/me-banks15-20100615,0,5203647,full.column
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Thursday, June 17, 2010
Yes, Marvin sang "Mercy, Mercy, Me", but it's not just about BP (originally posted 6/10/10)
"Oh, Mercy, Mercy, Me, aw, things ain't what they used to be...nah, nah, oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas..."Dear friends,
Currently, each “analyst” seems to plagiarize the previous one. Blather about whose fault it is - and whether President Obama’s present level of popularity will suffer in his inevitable re-election bid - does not change the reality that far too many adults in this nation have more concern about four female airheads going to Morocco and showing off their trinkets and baubles in the movie “Sex and the City” than the damage that has been done to the eco-system in and around the Gulf of Mexico due to the now-infamous oil spill attributed to British Petroleum (BP).
Even worse, many Republicans seem more concerned about when “the drilling” will start again, as opposed to helping to figure out how we all can help clean up this mess.
Consequently, for the most part, what is currently being delivered by the mainstream media, regarding this topic, is nothing more than a series of false abstractions that serve more to hoodwink people than to inform them. After all, at least to me, the real question is: If it wasn’t BP, then would it not have been, say, Exxon/Mobil, for example - or some other company to have created such a disaster? Personally, for me, as someone who has been in the boxing game for the past four decades, singling out BP for the oil spill is like people who point fingers at boxing promoter Don King, when most boxing promoters are no less indecent – and many are far worse. Imagine that!
Nevertheless, the callous destruction of both land and sea by multinational corporations is, of course, preceded by the same type of environmental devastation that started with the sheep walks in Europe, several centuries ago. Moreover, between the International Slave Trade that started about one thousands years ago between Eastern Europeans and Arabs, before deteriorating into the Atlantic Slave Trading Operations that brought Africa a Holocaust that has yet to end, as well as both the murder, kidnapping, and rape of persons and their land throughout Europe that forced the aforementioned persons to flee to cities and find a minimal subsistence in factories, then on top of that serve as the buyers of the commodities that they just produced in those factories, the true history of our current political economy (capitalism) or process of social reproduction, as it were, is mired in, as it has been said, “Blood, sweat, and fire!”.
Moreover, greed, has been the chief motivator for continuing this process mentioned above, while, simultaneously, ignoring anything other than the present. Hence, greed is always short-sighted. The current BP debacle is adequate proof, let alone the world financial crisis that has been caused by the greed of both multinational corporations and banks.
So why BP? Where are the questions regarding multinational corporations and banks, with their lack of respect of and concern for the territories that they exploit, whether with land – when they constantly overproduce everything from crops to cows and pigs, or at sea – with the over-fishing, oil spills, travel boats, and the dumping of toxic wastes? And what about the politicians and agencies in our own US government who collude with the firms just mentioned?
Let’s keep it real, folks. We need to change our existing system of making value judgments, instead of pointing fingers at anyone. Dig?
At any rate, on the link below, is a video that has Marvin’s classic song about the death of our environment.
One Love One Heart, One Spirit,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxgeYXCjM8
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Thursday, June 10, 2010
International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT, Wednesday 16 June 1:45 pm
Wednesday 16 June 1:45 pm
International Festival of Arts & Ideas
Come and see Texas native, Nicki Mathis, with her innovative ideas, effervescent classic performance style, & selection of original material, as well as jazz standards reflect her ties to Africa as well as Mexico
& Brazil. Children are invited to sing, dance, clap their hands,
tap their feet, & keep the beat as Mathis returns to the Festival
w/Joey, Paulette, Lynn Tracey on Family Stage Series
Elm Street Stage.New Haven Green 203.498.2715
FREE GLOBAL MUSIC
http://www.artidea.org/event.php?id=310
***************************************************************************** Che
Check outNick Mathis' Itapuã on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jKR0c0qK_w&feature=related (btw, this short video is a very good piece to which you should listen - Djata)
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Where was Rahm Emanuel as Israel attacked and murdered innocent people
"...why has the Netanyahu administration waited to commit its two most recent unconscionable acts in the full presence of a high level US official?
Dear friends,
The online newspaper article read, “Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret after at least nine people died when troops stormed ships trying to break the Gaza blockade. But he said soldiers had been defending themselves after they were ‘clubbed, beaten and stabbed’ ." Huh?
Get this. Israeli troops were sliding down ropes from a helicopter onto a ship full of civilians who were carrying humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, then these same rope-descending marauders began shooting firearms, and BiBi (Netanyahu) wonders why people resisted their massacre with only sticks and clubs. Go figure.
Meanwhile, Gerald Seib of the WSJ just wrote, “Two weeks ago, the president met with 37 Jewish Democrats in Congress and told them that he had spent more time one-on-one with Mr. Netanyahu than any other world leader, and that ties were solid. Geib follows by mentioning that “Israel apologized for embarrassing Vice President Joe Biden by announcing more East Jerusalem construction just as Mr. Biden was visiting.”
Excuse me, Mr. Geib. Where's Rahm Emanuel, Obama’ Chief of Staff who is the son of one of Israel's pioneers/invaders of Palestine? Wasn’t he in Israel, as the slaughter occurred? It was announced only a few days ago that he was. I wondered why he was there, when I first heard about it. Now this. By the way, is Mr. Emanuel looking for an apology too, as Biden was? If not, then why not? As a matter of fact, why hasn’t anyone from either the mainstream or “progressive” media been raising that point?
Additionally, where is the useless Black Caucus of the US Congress on this one? Are they in cahoots with the 37 Congress people with whom Obama bedded with recently, as mentioned above?
Moreover, why has the Netanyahu administration waited to commit its two most recent unconscionable acts in the full presence of a high level US official? Is there something wrong with this picture?
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Dear friends,
The online newspaper article read, “Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret after at least nine people died when troops stormed ships trying to break the Gaza blockade. But he said soldiers had been defending themselves after they were ‘clubbed, beaten and stabbed’ ." Huh?
Get this. Israeli troops were sliding down ropes from a helicopter onto a ship full of civilians who were carrying humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, then these same rope-descending marauders began shooting firearms, and BiBi (Netanyahu) wonders why people resisted their massacre with only sticks and clubs. Go figure.
Meanwhile, Gerald Seib of the WSJ just wrote, “Two weeks ago, the president met with 37 Jewish Democrats in Congress and told them that he had spent more time one-on-one with Mr. Netanyahu than any other world leader, and that ties were solid. Geib follows by mentioning that “Israel apologized for embarrassing Vice President Joe Biden by announcing more East Jerusalem construction just as Mr. Biden was visiting.”
Excuse me, Mr. Geib. Where's Rahm Emanuel, Obama’ Chief of Staff who is the son of one of Israel's pioneers/invaders of Palestine? Wasn’t he in Israel, as the slaughter occurred? It was announced only a few days ago that he was. I wondered why he was there, when I first heard about it. Now this. By the way, is Mr. Emanuel looking for an apology too, as Biden was? If not, then why not? As a matter of fact, why hasn’t anyone from either the mainstream or “progressive” media been raising that point?
Additionally, where is the useless Black Caucus of the US Congress on this one? Are they in cahoots with the 37 Congress people with whom Obama bedded with recently, as mentioned above?
Moreover, why has the Netanyahu administration waited to commit its two most recent unconscionable acts in the full presence of a high level US official? Is there something wrong with this picture?
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Sojourner Truth commemoration in Florence, Mass.
Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue 7th Annual
Celebration and Commemoration
Sunday, May 30, 2:00 p.m.
at the Corner of Park and Pine Streets
Florence, Massachusetts
Rain or shine (held at the nearby Florence Community Center in the event of rain)
Performers include:
Umoja Too Dance Ensemble
Heather Cohen
Stephany Marryshow of
Enchanted Circle Theater’s Sojourner’s Truth
Speakers include:
Scholarship Recipient Isabella Leo
Steve Strimer on the David Ruggles Center
Lilly Lombard on the Bean/Allard Farm
11:00 am: Walking Tour of Florence’s African American
Heritage Trail, starts at the Sojourner Truth Statue
www.davidrugglescenter.org
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Friday, May 21, 2010
Philly cop lies about being shot by "Black man"
"The latest scar caused by the black-man-did-it excuse was left to fester..."
Dear friends,
While this latest insult to the African American community by the Philadelphia Police Department seems “par for the course”, hopefully the protest held in response to it will finally make folks start moving towards community control of the force.
On the link below, award-winning journalist Jenice Armstrong was at the small rally. Historically, protests have usually begun with only a handful of people. Consequently, there’s no surprise that not a lot of people turned out. Still, those who attended were proud and determined to display their dignity for themselves and all of us.
All power to the people!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100519_Jenice_Armstrong__Cop_s_lies_draw_few_protesters.html#axzz0oOMvAGCw
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Smith on the Supreme Court's recognition of Redemption for Youth
"A life without parole sentence improperly denies the juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate growth and maturity," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority."
Dear friends,
The US Supreme Court is not necessarily known for its fairness. However, just recently, they’ve made a decision that is encouraging about the future of that body.
On the link below, Elmer Smith tells us about the ramifications of the Court’s special decision to not hold juveniles accountable for life, for their crimes/mistakes. Hopefully, one day, that will happen for all inmates. Redemption is possible, after all. Yet, if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, who wins?
Besides, after either 30 or 40 years in prison, it seems unlikely for a person to do anything to ever land himself/herself in jail again? Moreover, we have to start making sure that second- and third-graders have enough love in their lives from the community, so that they try harder and stay in school. It starts way back there. As well, we need community, as opposed to “government” programs that address issues while folks are incarcerated, so that they will want to contribute, as opposed to destroy their communities, when they come back. Dig?
Below, here are a few ways that we can fight against the proliferation of the Crime Industry which robs African American people of so much of Our potentially productive energy and resources. They are:
1.) Free Buses To Prisons Program
Transport children to prisons for the explicit purpose of having reading lessons with their incarcerated parents. Dr. Seuss books and other “phonics” type of reading materials are a great way to start. Many of these folks who are incarcerated have only first- and second grade reading levels. By learning their phonics better and due to the fact that they are older than their children, thus more experienced in life, invariably, these "parents" will begin to read at a higher grade level, acquiring deeper comprehension as well as greater mental stamina. This means that they will gain new ideas, by reading more informative literature, instead of only consuming thoughts from people who, like them, are locked up as well and just as clueless about how to be productive citizens.
As stated above, many of the brothers in prison either cannot read or read only at first- or second grade levels. More help in the classrooms at the first- or second grade levels (and a relationship with a loving elder) may have kept them trying in school longer. Their children deserve a better chance than they had. Also, regarding females, sisters in prisons are often there because of some knucklehead males. Therefore, young girls too will also benefit from having a wider range of caring adults in their lives, whether those elders are incarcerated or not. Note: A dear friend of mine who lives in Florida has assured me that her state gives youngsters at the lower elementary level (2nd- and 3rd grades) statewide exams that help that state government decide how much additional prison space will be needed in future years, based upon how many youngsters fail the aforementioned exams. Imagine that! Did someone say, "Crime Industry"?
2.) Letters to Prisoners Program
Get people to be pen pals with inmates in area prisons. The main problem here will be that We need to make sure that inmates are not being selfish and engaging in deceitful behavior, in order to borrow money or get “favors” done on the outside. Telephone calls should be prohibited from being a way for inmates to connect with their pen pals. Incarcerated people should learn to write, if they know how to, so that they can think about why they are in that situation in the first place. A phone call does not require such reflection; people can just talk and feel good - then hang up.
3.) Convict Redemption Program
Get those convicted of either human or property damages - of any kind, to construct ways themselves to make up for their transgressions against their fellow community members. For example, as part of the “Buses” program, inmates who are not parents can still donate time to read and learn with young people.
Inmates must redeem themselves! Merely proclaiming belief in “God” or asking to be forgiven does nothing to repair the damage done. Besides, neither apology or cla”ims of religious loyalty has meaning, if the person has not repaired the damage that he or she caused. For example, people go to AA and NA meetings and hold what amounts to religious revival forums. Yet, as far as I know, not a single member of those groups has ever gone back to a victim and said, "Here's the $100 that I stole from you." Instead, that AA (Alcohol Anonyous) or NA (Narcotics Anonymous) person says, "Will you forgive me for what I did?...I believe in ‘God’ now." Well, guess what? Everyone on death row, conveniently - now - believes in “God”, after the fact. Moreover, no one can forgive anyone else. Rather, people must forgive themselves, then redeem themselves, by trying to undo the wrong committed against the victim. Otherwise, there is no justice. You just have a crook who has gotten away once more.
The three programs mentioned above are only some of the ways that the community can reach out to Our fallen brothers and sisters, in hopes that they will be appreciative for the love that the community has shown them, and, thus, return to the community as productive members.
One Love!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100519_Elmer_Smith__New_hope_for_juveniles_sentenced_to_life.html#axzz0oOFI15cq
Read full post
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
If Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is a a "lesbian", what will that mean?
"if Elena Kagan is a “lesbian”, considering her actions, people, particularly European Americans who claim to be “homosexual”, should feel as fortunate as many African Americans do about having Clarence Thomas on the nation’s highest judicial bench "
Dear friends,
The nonsense with which the government- and corporate-controlled media is riling people up, regarding Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan being a "lesbian" is a total red herring.
As the present Solicitor General, Kagan is nothing more than the watch dog for the proliferation of the Bush Administration’s reactionary policies towards civil liberties that are founded on falsehoods about the alleged “War in Terrorism”.
Consequently, at least to me, it is completely irrelevant how she satisfies herself sexually. Besides, no one ever wholly knows anyone else’s sexual habits or fantasies.
Moreover, it is dishonest for any person to claim a particular “sexual identity” outside of whether one is sexually liberated or sexually repressed. Most people fit somewhere in between, I can only imagine.
Still, what one does to relieve himself/herself of sexual tension has absolutely nothing to do with decisions that are made apart from sexual fulfillment, except for, perhaps, a prostitute of either gender (even then, sexual release is often not either the case or purpose.)
At any rate, if Elena Kagan is a “lesbian”, considering both her statements and actions as our Solicitor General, people, particularly European Americans who claim to be “homosexual”, should feel as fortunate as many African Americans do about having Clarence Thomas on the nation’s highest judicial bench – i.e., Uncle Thomas' appointment as a Supreme Court justice has been the antithesis of something of which be proud. n the link below is an interesting piece from the weekly Valley Advocate of Western Massachusetts.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
alleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=11751
Read full post
Dear friends,
The nonsense with which the government- and corporate-controlled media is riling people up, regarding Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan being a "lesbian" is a total red herring.
As the present Solicitor General, Kagan is nothing more than the watch dog for the proliferation of the Bush Administration’s reactionary policies towards civil liberties that are founded on falsehoods about the alleged “War in Terrorism”.
Consequently, at least to me, it is completely irrelevant how she satisfies herself sexually. Besides, no one ever wholly knows anyone else’s sexual habits or fantasies.
Moreover, it is dishonest for any person to claim a particular “sexual identity” outside of whether one is sexually liberated or sexually repressed. Most people fit somewhere in between, I can only imagine.
Still, what one does to relieve himself/herself of sexual tension has absolutely nothing to do with decisions that are made apart from sexual fulfillment, except for, perhaps, a prostitute of either gender (even then, sexual release is often not either the case or purpose.)
At any rate, if Elena Kagan is a “lesbian”, considering both her statements and actions as our Solicitor General, people, particularly European Americans who claim to be “homosexual”, should feel as fortunate as many African Americans do about having Clarence Thomas on the nation’s highest judicial bench – i.e., Uncle Thomas' appointment as a Supreme Court justice has been the antithesis of something of which be proud. n the link below is an interesting piece from the weekly Valley Advocate of Western Massachusetts.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
alleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=11751
Read full post
103 years of revealing inner powers...
"In light of negative issues like the Elena Kagan nomination, I'd like to share some positive info, as well..."
Dear friends,
In light of negative issues like the Elena Kagan nomination, I'd like to share some positive info, as well. Theefore, on the link below, you'll find a wonderful piece from the Philadelphia Daily News that just came out the other day. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/20100514_She_s_103__with_plenty_of_drive.html#axzz0nuYZCxuA
Read full post
Dear friends,
In light of negative issues like the Elena Kagan nomination, I'd like to share some positive info, as well. Theefore, on the link below, you'll find a wonderful piece from the Philadelphia Daily News that just came out the other day. Enjoy!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/20100514_She_s_103__with_plenty_of_drive.html#axzz0nuYZCxuA
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Africa in pictures: 8 - 14 May 2010
Please click on the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8682472.stm
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Thursday, May 13, 2010
Arizona's Politicians outdo themselves as White Supremacists
“State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the bill for years, said he believes the Tucson school district's Mexican-American studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people.”
Dear friends,
Yesterday (5/12/10), the Associated Press headline read, “Arizona governor signs bill banning ethnic studies.”
If the recently-signed Immigration Bill by Governor Jan Brewer had you concerned about the resurrection of Jim Crow laws, have no fear. Brewer has just signed another bill into law that makes it illegal for any Arizona school district to offer courses that, as State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the bill for years, said he believes: teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people… Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race.
Ouch!
I wonder what Horne thinks about the “ethnic chauvinism” (as he calls it) of official stories told in our school books, regarding Columbus’ voyage, much less landing on American soil, or the lie about the folks on the Mayflower coming here in the early-17th Century for religious freedom, or the roles of the Irish, Polish, Italian, German, or so many other people of European descent in relation to the aforementioned “Pilgrim” enterprise?
In any case, Horne continues: It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it.
Double “Ouch!!”
Imagine that. Horne’s concerned about Mexican American children so much that he “resents” them having a sense of self, identity-wise. There’s no law against his disapproval, of course. However, his is the same kind of drivel that “white” missionaries, historians, and “educators” have been using for generations, since the 19th Century, to “help” both Early American Natives and African Americans assimilate into the “mainstream” US citizenry. That is, in his own way, Horne and others like him are asking, “Why can’t we all be the same?”
Yet, sameness does not mean equality. In fact, why do we have to be the same in order to be considered equals? As a matter of fact, the idea of “sameness as being equal” is the intellectual basis upon which injustice and inequality flourish.
After all, for example, a person does not have to add numbers as quickly as you, run as fast as you, jump as high as you, lift as much weight as you, fist-fight as good as you, or have as much money as you, to be equal to you.
You are, in fact, equal, because you are both human individuals who have the exact same basic physical needs and you each understand that which you want to at a speed that is specific to you as individuals. That means also there is even an equality of intelligence among all people, in that context.
In other words, if you compare any individual with yourself, you will find: 1) You each require food and drink, in periodic intervals, or you will cease to exist in the form of a living being. 2) You each feel lonely and separate, as individual beings, even when you are sleeping beside someone. 3) No matter how few or many, you each have physical, mental, and emotional shortcomings. Every single person does. 4) You can each do well at one thing, but do poorly at some other activity. That is why you are equal to everyone, and everyone is equal to you.
Nevertheless, the descendants of immigrants like, for example, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jews of various nationalities, and other European Americans have often started out by living in homogeneous communities; that is, segregated. However, they need not "integrate" in order to receive access to opportunity or responsibility with that opportunity. They merely have to claim that they are “white”. Neat trick.
Moreover, not only are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Early American Natives, and others expected to “integrate”, we are also expected to reject our non-European pasts, in doing so.
To be sure, the descendants of European immigrants who were mentioned above have relinquished their true historical and cultural identities to be “Americans”. Still, and oddly enough, for all of their opposition to “gay” marriage and non- European immigration, it’s interesting that these same people do not appreciate the strong history of homosexual culture in both European and North American history, as well as the incessant “illegal” immigration of folks from all over Europe to our country - to this day.
Finally, the notion that, “The measure signed Tuesday prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.”, is clearly the language and legislation of colonial rulers.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0512/arizona-governor-signs-bill-banning-ethnic-studies/
Read full post
Dear friends,
Yesterday (5/12/10), the Associated Press headline read, “Arizona governor signs bill banning ethnic studies.”
If the recently-signed Immigration Bill by Governor Jan Brewer had you concerned about the resurrection of Jim Crow laws, have no fear. Brewer has just signed another bill into law that makes it illegal for any Arizona school district to offer courses that, as State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the bill for years, said he believes: teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people… Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race.
Ouch!
I wonder what Horne thinks about the “ethnic chauvinism” (as he calls it) of official stories told in our school books, regarding Columbus’ voyage, much less landing on American soil, or the lie about the folks on the Mayflower coming here in the early-17th Century for religious freedom, or the roles of the Irish, Polish, Italian, German, or so many other people of European descent in relation to the aforementioned “Pilgrim” enterprise?
In any case, Horne continues: It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it.
Double “Ouch!!”
Imagine that. Horne’s concerned about Mexican American children so much that he “resents” them having a sense of self, identity-wise. There’s no law against his disapproval, of course. However, his is the same kind of drivel that “white” missionaries, historians, and “educators” have been using for generations, since the 19th Century, to “help” both Early American Natives and African Americans assimilate into the “mainstream” US citizenry. That is, in his own way, Horne and others like him are asking, “Why can’t we all be the same?”
Yet, sameness does not mean equality. In fact, why do we have to be the same in order to be considered equals? As a matter of fact, the idea of “sameness as being equal” is the intellectual basis upon which injustice and inequality flourish.
After all, for example, a person does not have to add numbers as quickly as you, run as fast as you, jump as high as you, lift as much weight as you, fist-fight as good as you, or have as much money as you, to be equal to you.
You are, in fact, equal, because you are both human individuals who have the exact same basic physical needs and you each understand that which you want to at a speed that is specific to you as individuals. That means also there is even an equality of intelligence among all people, in that context.
In other words, if you compare any individual with yourself, you will find: 1) You each require food and drink, in periodic intervals, or you will cease to exist in the form of a living being. 2) You each feel lonely and separate, as individual beings, even when you are sleeping beside someone. 3) No matter how few or many, you each have physical, mental, and emotional shortcomings. Every single person does. 4) You can each do well at one thing, but do poorly at some other activity. That is why you are equal to everyone, and everyone is equal to you.
Nevertheless, the descendants of immigrants like, for example, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jews of various nationalities, and other European Americans have often started out by living in homogeneous communities; that is, segregated. However, they need not "integrate" in order to receive access to opportunity or responsibility with that opportunity. They merely have to claim that they are “white”. Neat trick.
Moreover, not only are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Early American Natives, and others expected to “integrate”, we are also expected to reject our non-European pasts, in doing so.
To be sure, the descendants of European immigrants who were mentioned above have relinquished their true historical and cultural identities to be “Americans”. Still, and oddly enough, for all of their opposition to “gay” marriage and non- European immigration, it’s interesting that these same people do not appreciate the strong history of homosexual culture in both European and North American history, as well as the incessant “illegal” immigration of folks from all over Europe to our country - to this day.
Finally, the notion that, “The measure signed Tuesday prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.”, is clearly the language and legislation of colonial rulers.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0512/arizona-governor-signs-bill-banning-ethnic-studies/
Read full post
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black THeatre NYC event
National Black Theatre's House Band Bert Price on keyboard Olamide on guitar Brady Watt on bass guitar Jamal Hampton on drumsJoin us as an audience member for this unique experience of discoveringnew untapped talent.
2031 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10035
BETWEEN 125TH AND 126TH STREETS
212-722-3800
Acknowledgements
This program is funded in part by:
Council Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th C.D., Speaker Christine Quinn and the New York City Council, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and your individual contributions.
presents
An Artist Showcase:
" Fertile Ground"
Thursday May 13, 2010
8pm-11pm $10.00
On this special evening,
YOU - the audience have an opportunity to witness ten new artists present original material
TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE
"FERTILE GROUND" EXPERIENCE!
Click here to watch the video
To be one of the ten artists presenting original materialContact Bert Price at: http://us.mc1136.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=berttheproducer@gmail.com
VISIT US AT
http://www.nationalblacktheatre.org/
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103383786839&s=6493&e=001cm7Sk4vWOHp0u_Z6VxAb9SKJTnvNFUSwS7pPbCckrg-LiixrvR-QmJXTZnie0PBNBPxExcTx_Zps1uJJK3W8DsAGKLtk6yvz-04PMHX-A73aYtSDWxXwGUNYhniCTZAA
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Monday, May 10, 2010
Patty Jackson remembers Lena Horne
Dear friends,
On the link below, through a couple of rare video interviews, Patty Jackson, America's foremost radio personality for both R & B as well as Classic Soul music, helps us recall the contributions of the great Lena Horne. Please enjoy!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.wdasfm.com/pages/pattyjackson.html
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Friday, May 7, 2010
Sandy Banks on Foster Care
"...after age four, NO child, regardless of skin color, has much chance that s/he will ever be adopted. This sudden and odd equality condemns all of the children who, for whatever reason, are orphaned in this country to spend their entire youth in the horrid foster care system."
Dear friends,
Lately, during our, currently, long distance phone calls, my oldest daughter (middle offspring) and I have been sharing ideas about the subjects of both child adoption and forster care. Through her research, she has found that from birth to four years old, when looking at the adoption rates of African American children, it goes like this: Light-skinned boys, then light-skinned girls, then dark-skinned girls, with dark-skinned boys going last.
Unfortunately, all four of those types of kids mentioned above are less likely to be adopted than, say, European American ("white"), Asian, or Latino children. However, after age four, NO child, regardless of skin color, has much chance that s/he will ever be adopted. This sudden and odd equality condemns all of the children who, for whatever reason, are orphaned in this country to spend their entire youth in the horrid foster care system.
On the link below, is an incredible piece by the incomparable Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times, that gives a professional as well as personal look at this far-too-neglected, but important topic.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus .
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/topstories/la-me-banks-20100501,0,6996,full.column
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Dr. Ndibe reminds us of Police Brutality in Nigeria from his own experiences
"My intervention earned the officers’ ire. They decreed that I alight from the bus. When my two colleagues tried to reason with the officers, they, too, were dragged down..."
">"Police brutality and Onovo’s challenge "
by Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com)
When Nigerians think about the disappointments of their perpetually infantile nation, they often focus narrowly on rigged elections and the abuses of their gluttonous public officials. These are, without question, serious symptoms of dysfunction.
Even so, I fear that we neglect to zero in on the way that police (and often military) brutality serves to remind Nigerians that they are serfs in their own country.
Any Nigerian who has had an unwelcome encounter with the Nigerian police – and that, I suspect, is most of us – can tell you that the experience is akin to being besieged by a horde of rabid hyena.
I know. More than twenty years ago, I was arrested in Onitsha (along with two of my journalist friends) just because we stood up for a young man who was slapped by a police officer – and then ordered to sit down on the wet ground (it had rained heavily). What was the young man’s offense?
We were all in the same bus (headed for Awka) when the police flagged it down and asked the driver to come down. The young man leaned out of the window and beckoned to one of the officers. “My father died,” he explained to the officers, “and I’m coming from Kano to go and make arrangements for his burial.” He then begged the officer to let us go.
“Shut up!” barked the officer, smacking him on the face.
“Why do you have to slap me?” the passenger asked.
“You want to know why?” the officer fumed. “Oya, come down!” As soon as the man got down, the officer pointed to the wet earth. “Quick, quick, sit down!” the officer instructed.
Outraged by this senseless humiliation of an innocent citizen, I asked the passenger not to sit in the wetness.
My intervention earned the officers’ ire. They decreed that I alight from the bus. When my two colleagues tried to reason with the officers, they, too, were dragged down. One of my colleagues began to scribble the name of one of the officers on a piece of paper. Another officer ran from behind and, with the butt of his gun, dealt a blow at my colleague’s hand, knocking down his pen and paper. With his boot, the officer then smashed both the pen and paper into the soggy earth.
At this point, the officers were so infuriated that they ordered other passengers in the vehicle to get down and look for other buses. Then they herded my two colleagues, the smacked man and me onto the bus. Three officers hopped in as well, and the driver was commanded to turn around and head for a police camp in a remote part of Onitsha. As we drove there, the three officers cursed and threatened us. He promised that, once at their camp, we’d be so beaten up that our mothers would not recognize us.
In the end, we had a lucky – “narrow” – escape. We were marched before a senior officer who sat on a stump in the early afternoon heat, his eyes bloodshot, attending to a large bottle of Guinness Stout. Our captors then proceeded to tell him a series of lies. They said they’d stopped our vehicle for a simple routine check, but that we then boasted that we were journalists, that we knew all the big men in the country, and that no police officer dared question our driver.
“Bastards!” screamed the senior officer, fixing his fiery eyes on us. But the officer must have sensed a calm in us, and so asked us to tell our own side of things. After we did, he asked if we were really journalists. We produced our ID cards – we were all members of the editorial board of National Concord. Shaken, the senior officer scolded his subordinates. He told them that we could write all of them, himself included, out of their jobs. He apologized to us, asked our hitherto exuberant arresters to apologize, and sent us on our way.
For us, it was an ambivalent moment. What if we were not journalists? What if we had not been “arraigned” before an officer who had a fear of the written word?
Since then, I’ve had many more run-ins with the police. In 2002, five police officers held me up at Oshodi for close to two hours. I was driving to a meeting at a newspaper house where I then wrote a weekly column – and ran into a terrible traffic snag at Oshodi. I was already on edge, trying to navigate between hordes of pedestrians crossing the highway, a colony of “okada” motorcyclists who respect no traffic rules, and other motorists when, suddenly, an officer stepped in front of my car and demanded that I pull up to the curb. After inspecting the documents of the Honda, he then told me he suspected the car was stolen. The car belonged to my father-in-law, and I knew he was not a thief. But the officer was not impressed. He accused me of being a thief – “since you’re operating a stolen vehicle.”
I asked to be taken to a police station if he believed I’d stolen the car. Instead of doing so, he and his four colleagues took turns painting the most dreadful portrait of what would happen to me if they took me to the station. I remained unrepentant: “If you think I stole this car,” I told them, “you have a duty to arrest me and take me to your station.”
The officers had a different game and outcome in mind. After detaining me at Oshodi for an hour and forty minutes, the most senior officer made his proposal. “Oya,” he said to me, “give us some money and go.” In a voice that tried to belie my anger, I told him that I would not part with a kobo of my money. “You accuse me of stealing a car, and you think I’d reward you with a bribe?”
The officer looked me up and down, his contempt raw and on the surface. Turning to his colleagues, he pointed to his head and said in a mocking tone, “Dis one dey craze. Make we leave am.”
Many – perhaps, most – other Nigerians have their own versions of horror stories with rogue police officers.
A headline in a Next edition of April 30 read: “Policemen brutalize Tribune reporter in Ondo”. The report is harrowing: “The Ondo State correspondent of the Nigerian Tribune, Yinka Oladoyinbo was Wednesday evening assaulted by men of the Okuta Elerinla Police Station, Akure, Ondo State, who thoroughly beat him up and detained him at the police station for four hours.” The fifteen officers who took part in the operation “dragged Mr. Oladoyinbo from his car and forcefully handcuffed him.” They also “dragged [him] on the floor before he was bundled into a police Hilux van.”
The Next report disclosed that the policemen “acted in a commando manner.” As they mauled the reporter, the officers “threatened to shoot any person who intervened”. Why was this citizen subjected to vigilante-like beating? The policemen, Next reported, “claimed that their Station Officer, Ayodeji Oyeyemi, was molested in the area.”
Current police Inspector General Ogbonna Onovo must serve notice to his subordinates that their job specification does not include assaulting Nigerian citizens at will. He should dismiss the officers who took part in beating Mr. Oladoyinbo.
Nigerians are daily beset by criminals – corrupt government officials who grow fat on public funds, armed robbers and scam gurus. There’s a lot of work for a well-trained, professionally sound police force to do. Unfortunately, the Nigerian police have established a reputation for incompetence, for harassing law-abiding citizens whilst letting criminals thrive, and for sheer brutality.
Mr. Onovo should outline measures to weed trigger-happy men from the police, to make service conditions more attractive, and to radically retrain officers to give them a deep sense of what’s meant by law enforcement.
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Friday, April 30, 2010
About what is the new Immigration Law in Arizona?
"...the real laugh is: much of the area where the greatest amount of “illegal” immigration has been occurring was actually called Mexico, only five or six generations ago."
Dear friends,
With all of the brouhaha going on about the new immigration law in Arizona, there now needs to be a new call for not just cooperation, but a united front made up of African Americans, Africans, Caribbeans, Latinos, Asians, and Early-American Native peoples, along with any just European Americans who support the liberation of humanity.
There were attempts to do that, especially from the late-Sixties to late-Eighties. However, changes, beginning with the Reagan administration, made social awareness, much less activism, more difficult, because the powers-that-be, as it were, gave up a few crumbs, in the form of trinkets and baubles as well as a new “pop culture” to the “masses”, so that the former could maintain its legitimacy, in light of bank scandals, the Iran/Contra debacle, financing the Israeli (which it still does) and Iraqi regimes as well as South Africa when it was more obviously apartheid than it is today, and so many other national and international misdeeds in which our government was - and continues to be -strongly involved.
Nonetheless, I’m willing to bet that there are far more illegal Irish, Russian, Italian, and Polish immigrants in this country than there are, say, Jamaicans and other Caribbean immigrants here, for example. Additionally, there may even be more of them than there are of Mexicam immigrants, as far as we know. Why don’t we ever here about those European folks? Where is the uproar about them? Moreover, the real laugh is: much of the area where the greatest amount of “illegal” immigration has been occurring was actually called Mexico, only five or six generations ago. Also, that means that the West Coast is actually more like the West Bank.
Finally, on the link below, you will find a piece that I saved for the occasion - since last December (2009), from the New York Times. It paints a more genuine picture of the
“immigration” issue.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/us/03immig.html?_r=1&hp
Read full post
Dear friends,
With all of the brouhaha going on about the new immigration law in Arizona, there now needs to be a new call for not just cooperation, but a united front made up of African Americans, Africans, Caribbeans, Latinos, Asians, and Early-American Native peoples, along with any just European Americans who support the liberation of humanity.
There were attempts to do that, especially from the late-Sixties to late-Eighties. However, changes, beginning with the Reagan administration, made social awareness, much less activism, more difficult, because the powers-that-be, as it were, gave up a few crumbs, in the form of trinkets and baubles as well as a new “pop culture” to the “masses”, so that the former could maintain its legitimacy, in light of bank scandals, the Iran/Contra debacle, financing the Israeli (which it still does) and Iraqi regimes as well as South Africa when it was more obviously apartheid than it is today, and so many other national and international misdeeds in which our government was - and continues to be -strongly involved.
Nonetheless, I’m willing to bet that there are far more illegal Irish, Russian, Italian, and Polish immigrants in this country than there are, say, Jamaicans and other Caribbean immigrants here, for example. Additionally, there may even be more of them than there are of Mexicam immigrants, as far as we know. Why don’t we ever here about those European folks? Where is the uproar about them? Moreover, the real laugh is: much of the area where the greatest amount of “illegal” immigration has been occurring was actually called Mexico, only five or six generations ago. Also, that means that the West Coast is actually more like the West Bank.
Finally, on the link below, you will find a piece that I saved for the occasion - since last December (2009), from the New York Times. It paints a more genuine picture of the
“immigration” issue.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/us/03immig.html?_r=1&hp
Read full post
Dr. Ndibe on the Death Penalty in Nigeria
"Who will execute condemned governors?"
by Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com)
Last week, whilst reading an essay and half-listening to the AIT’s news broadcast on my computer, I was so startled by an item in the broadcast that I dropped the essay and focused on the news. The startling news that compelled my attention was this: that, as a means of decongesting the prisons, Nigerian governors wanted to expedite the execution of condemned criminals.
I looked up in time to see Governor Theodore Orji of Abia speaking to reporters on the issue.
I wanted to write down Mr. Orji’s exact words, but couldn’t find a pen quickly enough. But the next day, the Tribune reported on the matter. In the words of the paper, “The National Economic Council (NEC), presided over by the Acting President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, resolved that all condemned criminals should be executed, as the government explored ways to decongest the nation’s prisons.” It continued: “Briefing State House correspondents on the decision of the council after the meeting, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State revealed that the council was faced with the problem of those who had been condemned to death but were still kept in jail because the authorities had not mustered the courage to execute them. He said even though the state governors were not the ones to initiate the execution process, they were willing to obey the order by actually executing those found guilty of serious offences.”
Then the paper quoted the governor’s exact words: “The council was faced with the problem of those who committed capital offences and have been condemned to death, but are still living because perhaps the authorities have not mustered the courage to execute them and in considering that the governors were seen as not been very responsible for that, because the thing has to be initiated from the prison itself. It is when the recommendation comes to the governor that it can be implemented.” Mr. Orji then affirmed that “the governors are willing to obey this order by actually executing those who have been found guilty of crimes of murder, kidnapping and armed robbery, among others.”
The council, Governor Orji revealed, also “considered the people who are in detention.” He disclosed that “80 per cent of those who were in detention were awaiting trials and it was decided that efforts should be made to ensure that the prisons were decongested by looking into the cases of those people who are awaiting trials.” In a rare display of humane concern, the governor stated that “there is no basis for somebody who has not been convicted to be in prison for 10 years. So, the proper thing is to decongest the prison by looking at these cases and leaving them to go.”
Put quite simply, the governors’ prescription on executions struck me as crude, coarse and hypocritical. It amazed me that Nigerian governors would, without a sense of irony or shame, push for quickening the pace of executions of any criminals. For, truth be told, many serving and former governors as well as other government officials, are the nation’s biggest criminals. So, if governors must visit the subject of hastened executions, why didn’t they spend some time to create a protocol for executing those of their number who act as criminals-in-chief in their respective states?
Why not, indeed?
Two weeks ago, I commented on a sobering report by the Washington, DC-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) on the phenomenon of illicit fund transfers by African leaders. The report revealed that African nations, led by Nigeria, illegally exported – and this was a conservative estimate – close to one trillion dollars between 1970 and 2008. Nigerians – those who are defined as “stakeholders” – led the way with $240.7 billion.
My question to Nigerian governors and other government officials: Who will execute you when you steal your people blind? Who will tie you to the stakes for exporting Nigeria’s cash to foreign banks and importing misery to your land? Pray, where’s your own executioner?
The timing of the governors’ statement on executions was intriguing. As I write, former Governor James Ibori of Delta is in hiding – perhaps in the deltaic creeks or even in a foreign country. Mr. Ibori is dead set against submitting himself to the EFCC. Ibori is once again being investigated for alleged acts of corruption and money laundering during the eight years he presided as governor.
How about the Halliburton bribe scandal that the Nigerian government appears determined to keep concealed? Several online and print media have reported that the names of four or five former presidents are on the list of Nigerians who took bribes to funnel contracts to Halliburton. Why didn’t the governors demand that the government prosecute these economic saboteurs and herd them off to jail for the rest of their lives – or execute them? Too many Nigerian public officials – presidents, governors, ministers, and local government councilors – are guilty of setting the tone of misery in their homeland. They gut the public treasury and cart away billions of dollars in looted funds to foreign banks. These official thieves create grave economic hopelessness, low wages, and serious unemployment. Their actions generate and fertilize such crimes as armed robbery and 419 scams.
That Nigeria has a prison congestion crisis is well known. Prisoners and detainees are kept in overcrowded prisons, whose conditions are fetid. There are, of course, many men and women who have been properly convicted. Sadly, there’s a scandal as well – that many detainees and convicts are innocent of any crimes. There are, simply, too many victims of a corrupt system tailored to perpetually incarcerate indigent suspects or to convict those who cannot afford to bribe law enforcement or to hire good lawyers.
Governor Orji and his fellow governors must know about this horrible fact of Nigeria’s penal system. They must know that many convicts, including those on death row, are absolutely innocent.
The answer to prison congestion, then, is not to go on a spree of execution. Instead, Nigeria should – in the short term – embark on an audit of its prison population to separate those who are there for provable crimes from those pulled in by corrupt police officers as well as serious lapses in the judicial system. In the long run, the nation should get serious about cracking down on the real villains – public officials, including governors – whose thieving expertise breeds other crimes. Until governors, serving and former, as well as other top officials are held to account for their unconscionable crimes, until their crimes are properly defined as capital in nature, Nigeria should not be in a hurry to start an execution bonanza.
Read full post
Monday, April 26, 2010
In memory of Harrison Ridley Jr.
"...for decades, both Harrison and I have always preferred the term African American - or Black - Classical Music for much of what is called jazz."
Dear friends,
It's always sad to learn about the passing of an old friend who you'd been meaning to coniact. Only a few days ago, I decided to stop vacillating and look up an old pal/colleague, using the Internet. His name is Harrison Ridley Jr. As far as I'm aware, there is/was no one with his outstanding wealth of scholarship, regarding both the history of the music idiom known as jazz, and its artists. (BTW, for decades, both Harrison and I have always preferred the term African American - or Black - Classical Music for much of what is called jazz.)
In any case, a tireless music historian and legendary radio personality who liked to be referred to as a “musicologist”, Harrison was a lifelong Philadelphian. Back in the Eighties, along with “Cousin Mary" (the namesake of Coltrane's classic number from the Giant Steps album), as well as the wife of the legendary drummer Philly Joe Jones and two other Philadelphia music notables, Arnold Boyd and saxophonist/teacher Lovette Hines, Harrison and I served as officers in a longtime jazz organization that was known as Trane Stop (founded by Boyd, and, obviously, named after the great John William Coltrane).
To think, I had planned on doing an interview for this blog with him. It would have been an incredible amount of wisdom to share. And while that will never happen now, unfortunately, still, on the link below, is some info about Harrison Ridley Jr.; he was truly a gentle giant, in so many ways. A very wonderful person, I’ll always remember his huge and constant smile.
"Love lives forever!" - Stevie Wonder
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wrti/.artsmain/article/17/208/1472515/WRTI.Spotlight/WRTI.Remembers.Harrison.Ridley,.Jr./
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Thursday, April 22, 2010
John-Hall attends a Tea Party
"Once you become involved with the freedoms that you have, you learn to love them. God bless the Founding Fathers!" said Republican James Jones, running for Congress in Bucks County, the only black candidate there. .."Dear friends,
We've been hearing a lot about the Tea Party lately. I saw a television interview, about a week ago, where the organization's newly-elected president, an elderly British woman who came to the States some years back, talk about the aims of her group. Interestingly enough, the just mentioned Englishwoman seemed more proud of her native origin than being an "American".
Additionally, a quack named James Jones, an apparent incognegro, took the stage, at some point, during the Tea Party's recent Philadelphia rally. As one of my siblings and I have always maintained, "No matter how stupid some 'white' folks get, there is always, at least, one Black person who will join them, grinning all the while."
In any case, on the link below, one of North America's premier journalists, Annette John-Hall of the Philadelphia Inquirer, gives us an up close look at an afternoon with the "Teabaggers". Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20100420_Annette_John-Hall__Beyond_the_pale__tea_and_little_sympathy.html
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Monday, April 19, 2010
International Women In Jazz Festival w/Nicki Mathis
NICKi MATHIS
NICKi MATHIS
International Women In Jazz Festival Friday 23 April 6pm
Nicki in IWJ Chorus, 7:30 pm
St. Peter's Church, Lexington Av @ E. 54, NYC
Tickets $25 day; 2-day discount $45 212.560-7553 www.intenationalwomeninjazz.com
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Dr. Ndibe on Ibori, Peter Odili, and Justice Buba
"Ibori, Peter Odili, and Justice Buba"
by Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com)
A week ago today, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it sought former Governor James Ibori (of Delta) to answer questions related to the alleged mismanagement of over N44 billion during his governorship tenure.
A day later, several newspapers and online forums reported that Justice I.N. Buba of the Federal High Court in Asaba had issued an injunction prohibiting Ibori’s arrest. In a report last Friday, NEXT stated that Buba had granted an “injunction restraining the EFCC and any other anti-crime agency ‘from arresting, harassing, intimidating, or attempting to arrest, harass, and/or intimidate the applicants (Mr. Ibori) in any manner whatsoever and howsoever.’”
My first reaction was one of incredulity. How could a judge – even if he earned his bench in Mars and practiced there – seek to permanently cuff the hands of law enforcement agents in order to detain them from doing their work? Would that not be a recipe for anarchy? Then my doubt gave way to recognition: Mr. Buba, I realized, had done it before.
He’s the man – lest we forget – who ordered that neither the EFCC nor other agents of the government should ever disturb the peace of Peter Odili, the former governor of Rivers State. At the time of this improbable reprieve, Odili – a medical doctor by training whose wife is a justice of the Court of Appeal – was the target of an ongoing investigation for corruption.
Today, Mr. Odili basks in the splendor of retirement in Abuja. A year ago or so, he treated himself to a lavish birthday party. His servile coterie flatters him with the title of “golden governor”; yet, Odili has been in no hurry to return and reside in the state where he allegedly gave surpassing leadership. In fact, since leaving office, he has been reluctant to make frequent trips to his home state.
Perhaps – just perhaps – Mr. Odili’s record as governor was clean, beyond reproach. Perhaps, he can easily account for every naira and asset that he owns. If so, why did he seek to be shielded from answering questions from investigators? Why did he go to extraordinary lengths to acquire immunity from investigation?
I am neither a lawyer nor a legal scholar, but my hunch is that few serious lawyers and students of the law would be proud of Justice Buba’s injunction prohibiting the questioning of Odili. The ruling, quite simply, doesn’t stand up to reason. It’s the kind of judgment that inspires cynical statements about the law and those who practice it.
This isn’t a case of Buba reviewing investigators’ evidence and concluding that it is too weak to warrant an ex-governor’s trial. Nor is it a case where a judge determined that investigators used illegal methods to incriminate an accused. No, Buba simply ruled that the very idea of investigating an ex-governor – one accused of fiddling with state funds – was not to be countenanced.
A nation that fosters the idea that some people are above the law cannot long hope to ward off the debilitating effect of pervasive lawlessness. Justice Buba’s gift of a permanent protective blanket to Odili represents such a grave threat to the notion of the rule of law that the Nigerian Bar Association should have strongly decried it. One wonders why Mrs. Waziri Farida, the current leader of the EFCC, did not retain lawyers to mount a vigorous appeal against Buba’s blunder of a verdict?
Taken to its logical conclusion, Buba’s verdict could only result in an absurdity. Imagine a situation where the leader of a feared armed robbery gang obtains a permanent injunction barring the police from ever arresting, detaining or questioning him – or other members of his group. What, then? Or where a serial rapist is granted a shield from interrogators. If an ex-governor, alleged to have betrayed the trust by corruptly enriching himself, must never be called to account, why should an accused armed robber or rapist be denied the same prerogatives?
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Monday, April 12, 2010
A National Black Theatre Event!!!
"AS PART OF IMMIGRANT HERITAGE WEEK
NBT'S THEATRE ARTS PROGRAM
IS OFFERING 2 FREE SHOWS!!!
THURSDAY and FRIDAY
APRIL 15 & 16, 2010"
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NBT'S THEATRE ARTS PROGRAM
IS OFFERING 2 FREE SHOWS!!!
THURSDAY and FRIDAY
APRIL 15 & 16, 2010"
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More of Nicholas Kristof's falsehoods about African poverty
“As a matter of fact, even to this very day, it is the continuous exploitative behavior of Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas, by their maintaining the underdevelopment of Africa and other lands, including neo-colonialist South Africa, that lends to the creation of Mugabe and his ilk,..”
Dear friends,
There is a particular writer from the New York Times who is given a great deal of exposure as an “expert” on the plight of non-European peoples around the world. His name is Nicholas Kristof. To be sure, he knows more about us than we know about ourselves. By the way, he is the same person who insisted, after the recent tragedy in Haiti, that the answer to providing economic development to a new Haiti is to open up more sweat shops. Huh? (Apparently, he’s a friend of the Clintons and Bushes. Eh?)
Now Kristof wants the world to know the ease with which one can understand why Africa is “poor”, by explaining to us, “…a visit to Zimbabwe highlights perhaps the main reason: bad governance. The tyrannical, incompetent and corrupt rule of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, has turned one of Africa’s most advanced countries into a shambles. “
Of course, not only does his “analysis” deny the process of exploitation and oppression of African peoples and others worldwide, as well, Kristof makes no mention here of the role of the C.I.A., for example, with its multi-billion dollars budget and absolute free reign without monitoring, that allows that “agency” to constantly work to destabilize governments around the world that don’t bend to the hegemony of both European and North American capitalism (e.g., the C.I.A., along with the soulless Israelis, recently assassinated an Iranian scientist as part of their expression of diplomacy in keeping Iran from developing nuclear weapons http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6868090.html ).
Additionally, what Kristof doesn’t talk about is: soon after independence, petty tribalisms and so forth - like "religious" squabbles, set in, and were, in fact, instigated by agents of the former colonial rulers. Moreover, as the great Walter Rodney taught us in his landmark book called “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” what continues to happen on the Mother continent stems from the aforementioned hegemony. Kristof acts as if non-Africans have no part in the problem. Besides, are the leaders of African nations any more exploitative than those of the US, for instance?
At any rate, unemployment in Africa, which was already rampant under colonialism, became even worse, because the formerly colonized "leaders" had no understanding of running industry. After all, while European rulers and others have and still do take raw materials from the African continent, they send the aforementioned materials overseas to places like Asia and Latin America where they are refined into consumable products. Also, when the colonizers “left”, those vindictive, alien marauders took everything that they "owned" with them (in many cases, they even took the light bulbs from the administrative offices that they had been forced to abandon).
That meant that, for many people, farming on a rather unsophisticated scale and petty merchantry would reign. People do have to eat and sustain themselves, after all. Hence, in that context, when it came/comes to government collection and expenditures, along with other matters, corruption necessarily followed/follows.
As a matter of fact, even to this very day, it is the continuous exploitative behavior of Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas, by their maintaining the underdevelopment of Africa and other lands, including neo-colonialist South Africa, that lends to the creation of Mugabe and his ilk, whether on the Mother continent of Africa or here in the Diaspora - and the rest of the world.
Finally, when is Kristof going to focus on misery, squalor, and ignorance in places like South Boston, Massachusetts, Dublin, Ireland, and a myriad of other places, both here and in Europe, where people who look like him suffer under corrupt politicians, greedy businesspeople, and such?
Nevertheless, below is the link to Kristof’s usual condescending, unconscionably racist venom with which the New York Times so proudly infests the world.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11kristof.html?hp
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Dear friends,
There is a particular writer from the New York Times who is given a great deal of exposure as an “expert” on the plight of non-European peoples around the world. His name is Nicholas Kristof. To be sure, he knows more about us than we know about ourselves. By the way, he is the same person who insisted, after the recent tragedy in Haiti, that the answer to providing economic development to a new Haiti is to open up more sweat shops. Huh? (Apparently, he’s a friend of the Clintons and Bushes. Eh?)
Now Kristof wants the world to know the ease with which one can understand why Africa is “poor”, by explaining to us, “…a visit to Zimbabwe highlights perhaps the main reason: bad governance. The tyrannical, incompetent and corrupt rule of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, has turned one of Africa’s most advanced countries into a shambles. “
Of course, not only does his “analysis” deny the process of exploitation and oppression of African peoples and others worldwide, as well, Kristof makes no mention here of the role of the C.I.A., for example, with its multi-billion dollars budget and absolute free reign without monitoring, that allows that “agency” to constantly work to destabilize governments around the world that don’t bend to the hegemony of both European and North American capitalism (e.g., the C.I.A., along with the soulless Israelis, recently assassinated an Iranian scientist as part of their expression of diplomacy in keeping Iran from developing nuclear weapons http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/6868090.html ).
Additionally, what Kristof doesn’t talk about is: soon after independence, petty tribalisms and so forth - like "religious" squabbles, set in, and were, in fact, instigated by agents of the former colonial rulers. Moreover, as the great Walter Rodney taught us in his landmark book called “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” what continues to happen on the Mother continent stems from the aforementioned hegemony. Kristof acts as if non-Africans have no part in the problem. Besides, are the leaders of African nations any more exploitative than those of the US, for instance?
At any rate, unemployment in Africa, which was already rampant under colonialism, became even worse, because the formerly colonized "leaders" had no understanding of running industry. After all, while European rulers and others have and still do take raw materials from the African continent, they send the aforementioned materials overseas to places like Asia and Latin America where they are refined into consumable products. Also, when the colonizers “left”, those vindictive, alien marauders took everything that they "owned" with them (in many cases, they even took the light bulbs from the administrative offices that they had been forced to abandon).
That meant that, for many people, farming on a rather unsophisticated scale and petty merchantry would reign. People do have to eat and sustain themselves, after all. Hence, in that context, when it came/comes to government collection and expenditures, along with other matters, corruption necessarily followed/follows.
As a matter of fact, even to this very day, it is the continuous exploitative behavior of Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas, by their maintaining the underdevelopment of Africa and other lands, including neo-colonialist South Africa, that lends to the creation of Mugabe and his ilk, whether on the Mother continent of Africa or here in the Diaspora - and the rest of the world.
Finally, when is Kristof going to focus on misery, squalor, and ignorance in places like South Boston, Massachusetts, Dublin, Ireland, and a myriad of other places, both here and in Europe, where people who look like him suffer under corrupt politicians, greedy businesspeople, and such?
Nevertheless, below is the link to Kristof’s usual condescending, unconscionably racist venom with which the New York Times so proudly infests the world.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11kristof.html?hp
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A few photos of how some Africans are faring these days (originally posted 10/16/08)
How about a brief journey through the continent of Africa, with its many cultural experiences?
Dear friends,
While the mainstream media in North America pays little attention to the Mother continent - Africa (outside of her misery), I like to, occasionally, keep viewers of this blog aware of Africa's many looks - and peoples. Please check out the small set of pics below, from BBC.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7664176.stm
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Dear friends,
While the mainstream media in North America pays little attention to the Mother continent - Africa (outside of her misery), I like to, occasionally, keep viewers of this blog aware of Africa's many looks - and peoples. Please check out the small set of pics below, from BBC.
G. Djata Bumpus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7664176.stm
Read full post
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