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" Read full post

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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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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President Barack Obama invites President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria to the White House

"Half of Obama’s heart may be Kenyan, but he is, when all is said and done, a quintessential American original. Given his cosmopolitan outlook, Obama is unquestionably more informed than his recent predecessors, about the poor places of the world, and more sympathetic to the plight of the world’s poor… "


"Goodluck Jonathan calls on Barack Obama"

By Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com)

Goodluck Jonathan gets his first strutting experience as “president” next week when he visits the U.S. at the invitation of President Barack Obama. How Jonathan handles himself, and the image he projects, will determine how seriously his American host takes him and the country he runs.

Umaru Yar’Adua set a poor tone when, during a visit at the White House in 2007, he acted like a child let loose in a candy shop. Eyes glimmering, he gushed to President George W. Bush that coming to America was the best day of his life.

It would serve Jonathan to avoid such callow exuberance. He better come properly briefed, and fully prepared, to articulate Nigeria’s take on the topics of discussion.

The two men, and their respective countries, have a large menu of bilateral issues to bite into. There are such issues as oil, terrorism, democracy, trade relations, anti-corruption measures, and Nigeria’s tense – and, it appears, worsening – sectarian divide.

It’s easy, in talking with Obama, to misread his ties to Africa – as the son of a Kenyan father – as an indication of deep sympathy for African causes. Half of Obama’s heart may be Kenyan, but he is, when all is said and done, a quintessential American original. Given his cosmopolitan outlook, Obama is unquestionably more informed than his recent predecessors, about the poor places of the world, and more sympathetic to the plight of the world’s poor.

Even so, his deepest loyalties lie – as they should – with America, and especially with America’s corporate giants, many of them with tentacles in Nigeria. It’s Jonathan’s place to recognize this fact, and to do his best to champion Nigeria’s economic interests as strongly as Obama pushes America’s interests.

Oil is at the center of America’s interest in Nigeria’s vicissitudes. With the rise of anti-American sentiments in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, U.S. authorities have made no secret of wishing to buy more of their crude oil from Nigeria.

That prospect means that the U.S. is attentive to Nigeria’s domestic stresses. There’s little doubt that Washington closely monitors both the deepening militarization of the oil-rich Niger Delta and the incessant outbreaks of religious violence in such places as Jos, Maiduguri, and Bauchi.

America is, in short, invested in easing the pressures that have caused sharp declines in Nigeria’s daily oil output. But Jonathan, who happens to hail from the Niger Delta, ought to convey to Obama that economic justice is key to reducing militancy. The Nigerian state and the oil companies have exploited the resources of the oil-producing delta.

It would be a mistake to imagine that Obama is less than enthusiastic about George Bush’s plan to establish an African Command. Should Obama try to sell the idea, Jonathan ought to unambiguously register Nigeria’s continuing opposition. At the very least, such a command would further undermine the sovereign will of African nations. At worst, it is likely to subordinate African nations, willy-nilly, to American control. Put bluntly, it is a recipe for re-colonization.
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In honor of Marvin Gaye's 70th year - some vintage videos

"What' goin' on?"


Dear friends,

I got the link to the videos below from the page of a Facebook friend, and thought it would be hip to share on this blog. Marvin, a love prophet, would have turned 70, just a few days ago. Moreover, his music will live on for a very long time.

Love is the weapon of the strong!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9KC7uhMY9s

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Nicki Mathis - with Lynn Tracey - a truly dynamic duo of jazz

"This is a must-see act!"





Dear friends,

I've seen several great female jazz singers/perfomers, from Betty Carter to Nancy Wilson to Patti LaBelle, over the four decades-plus. Nicki Mathis is no less in their league. I mean that literally. Moreover, there are times when Nicki appears, locally, around western New England, in cities like Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA. Along with Lynn Tracey, an up-and-coming great in her own right, this duo is nothing short of top notch. Their shows are as good as any that you'll see at Birdland in NYC (and I've been to that famous club as both acustomer and an invited guest).

At any rate, I've been catching them, whenever they're doing a show anywhere near my area. I strongly suggest: if you want to have an incredible experience with real jazz music, from real players, check them out!

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
*******************************
NICKi MATHIS
Friday 23 April 6pm
International Women In Jazz Festival
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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Jen Armstrong on Student Loan Reform

"It has now been passed and signed by our president."

Dear friends,

Just last week, award-winning journalist Jen Armstrong of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote about a bill that was attached to the Health Care Reform bill being on the verge of passage itself. It has now been passed and signed by our president. Jen's prophetic piece is on the link below. Cheers!

G, Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100323_Jenice_Armstrong__Student_loan_bill.html
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Elmer Smith reflects upon a special kind of longevity

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100319_Elmer_Smith__A_quiet_life_of_eventfulness__in_God_s_unchanging_hand.html
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Is there a connection between the US Federal Census and White Supremacy?

“…upon what basis does one believe that the aforementioned resources will be fairly distributed, if the manner in which folks describe themselves for the aforesaid distribution is unfair?”
Dear friends,

At least in town hall records around New England, immediately prior to Hitler’s ascent to power and for decades before that, Irish, Polish, and Italian citizens were, randomly, checked off as “race other than white”. Since then, the descendants of all of those three groups just mentioned are only considered “white”.

The federal census then, at least to me, seems to be used to justify the phony claim of being “white” that allows many citizens in our country to mean-spiritedly pit themselves against others who are labeled "non-white", while, simultaneously, the former group magically becomes an artificial “majority” group. Moreover, in an alleged “democracy” (defined by our government and other cultural institutions conveniently, but improperly, as “the rule of the majority”), such a claim (of being “white”) makes being “white” supreme.

Consequently, millions of citizens mull over the scores of categories for self-description, while millions more who are in the “white” category have little to do, in terms of describing themselves.

To be sure, the ancestors of the aforementioned “majority” group were not considered "white” in their homelands. Only economic factors distinguished them their fellows. As a matter of fact, that’s why their poor butts came here, from the git-go. After all, generally-speaking, aristocrats don’t leave their homelands. They have no reason to. Notwithstanding, ships were sent to Europe in order to bring millions of people here, when there were already millions of African Americans in the South who were forced into the plantation economy of "sharecropping", after the Reconstruction Era was ended by the US government itself, along with quasi-government agencies like the Ku Klux Klan.

Still, why use cultural descriptions for citizens when it pertains to people from places where the inhabitants have a skin color other than pale, but not use cultural descriptions for people who are of European descent? None of the ancestors of the three groups that were noted above even spoke the same language when they came to North America. That means that their cultural distinctions were just as prominent between themselves as Europeans, as they were/are between themselves and people of non-European descent. What’s wrong with this picture?

Furthermore, on our federal census forms, why is skin color the only reference for "whites", when for others it is, for example, African American, Asian, Latino, and so forth. Why can’t they be called European American, for instance? To that question, I often hear the objection, “But what’s the difference in calling yourself European American instead of “white”, if you’re still talking about the same people?” It’s an incredibly lame objection, but here’s my response, “Since there is an advantage to being ‘white’, because it makes you part of an artificial ‘majority’ group, in an alleged ‘democracy’, it is, disempowering to call yourself anything other than ‘white’ .” I mean, who wants to give up an illusion of power, especially since tens of millions of those who call themselves ‘white’ live far below the poverty level, and scores of millions more are only so many paychecks away from bankruptcy?

Additionally, if people stop calling themselves "white", then we will not need either affirmative action or any other special considerations for some citizens. But people do not want to stop calling themselves "white", because, again, it is disempowering to do so. That proves in and of itself that there is an advantage to being "white". So about what are all of the arguments against afirmative action?

Finally, the notion that resources are distributed based upon census figures ignores the mere reality of the outright thievery of corporations and their sycophantic politicians who use our tax dollars as a means to fill their own coffers. Besides, upon what basis does one believe that the aforementioned resources will be fairly distributed, if the manner in which folks describe themselves for the aforesaid distribution is unfair?
Ultimately, it becomes quite obvious that the most crucial result of the Federal Census is to legitimize White Supremacy )euphemistically-called "racism").

Let’s keep it real.

G. Djata Bunpus

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Dr..Ndibe recalls a truly religious man

The late Lamido and my father

By Okey Ndibe



With the death on March 13 of Aliyu Musdafa, the 11th Lamido of Adamawa, Nigeria strikes me as a slightly dimmer space. The death of this extraordinary Nigerian touched me – and my mother as well as four siblings – in a deeply personal way. We – on behalf of my late father – owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to this unusual traditional and religious leader. For us, his memory will remain a richly treasured and profoundly admirable one.

It was in Yola that my parents, Christopher Chidebe and Elizabeth Ofuchinyelu Ndibe, began their lives as a young couple. Father worked as a postal clerk in Jimeta, Yola, whilst Mother taught at Saint Theresa’s, a Catholic elementary school in the same town. Three of my four siblings as well as I were born in Yola.

My earliest memories are rooted in that quiescent town. We lived in a small brown-brick building called “Clerical Quarters,” a whispering distance from the post office where Father toiled. Looking back, I remember an oddly charmed life. There’s the tree in front of our flat under whose shade we played childhood games. I recall a bearded Hausa friend of my father’s. He was a lanky man who, in my recollection, always sported long flowing robes. Fascinated by his grey beard, I would perch on his lap whenever he came to visit and occupy myself by tugging at those lush, spongy tufts.

I remember, too, days when our father fetched his double-barrel gun and went out to the banks of River Benue to hunt. He would return, his hunting bag sagged with the weight of several guinea fowls. I recall days when our parents walked us to the courts where Father played tennis, his spare athlete’s body accentuated by his white sports outfit. Then there were sightseeing excursions to the banks of the river, or to clearings in the savanna where, with the sun irradiating the sky in the distance, bare-bodied young beat each other’s chests with sturdy sticks in a test of fitness for initiation into manhood.

It was for me – speaking from the perspective of a child – a beautiful, even magical time. Doubtless, my parents must have encountered some hard and harsh facts of daily life, but I was, like many children, oblivious to them. Life, for me, was idyllic.

Then things changed quickly. Snarls replaced the portraits of smiling faces. Anger usurped the bonhomie we were accustomed to. There were violent rumblings in streets where we once played with innocent abandon. Suddenly, our parents became wary when we wanted to play out in front of our flat. Gaiety disappeared from our lives. I was too young to put a name to my parents’ awkward silences and strange whispers, or the inexplicable absences of the adults and children who used to frequent our home – and who once welcomed us warmly to theirs. Unbeknown to me, the fetus of war was being nurtured in the womb of Nigeria’s history.

As the rumbles grew, my father decided that Mother and we, the children, should return to the safety of Amawbia – my paternal hometown which was then, in many ways, a strange address to me. I was then more a Yola boy; I had a richer grasp of Hausa than Igbo.

Despite our mother’s pleas, Father couldn’t flee Yola with the rest of his family. He was a conscientious employee, and the Federal Government had warned that civil servants who absconded would forfeit their posts. He stayed back in a Yola that convulsed with hate, a town where violence simmered, waiting for a trigger to explode and spew its murderous lava.

One day, Father and other postal workers – most of them Christians – were hard at work when a mob besieged them. Fear-stricken, he and his embattled colleagues barricaded themselves in. but their hiding place was far from an impregnable fortress. The mob, armed with cudgels, machetes, hammers and other tools, began to hack at the locked doors of the post office. It was a matter of time before the mob had the better of their quarry.

At the nick, when things looked gloomiest for my father and his cornered fellow workers, providence intervened on their side. Or, to be more accurate, the Lamido happened to be passing by. Spying the mob, he ordered his convoy to stop. After ascertaining the mob’s mission, the Lamido chastised and ordered them to disperse. He then conveyed my father and other postal clerks – men, mind you, who were mere moments away from certain death – to his palace. There, he gave them shelter and food for several weeks until the wave of orgiastic violence abated. He then arranged for Father and others to be boarded on the last ships to leave Yola for the south east.

When my father finally arrived in Amawbia, a scrawny shadow of his former vibrant self, it was as if he’d risen from the dead. Our mother had for months been in an inconsolable state, a woman paralyzed with the fear (verging on certainty) that some mindless merchants of death had killed her husband. Gunshots boomed and reverberated all over Amawbia as the town celebrated Father’s improbable return.

As I matured and learned this history, it struck me that – but for the Lamido’s vote for sanity and his insistence on the sanctity of life – my father would have been dead that distant afternoon in 1967. Instead, the Lamido – himself a relatively young man at the time – stepped into a grim situation and made a choice that was courageous and deeply heroic.

What moved the Lamido to be an agent of life and decency in a season ruled by death and unreason?

In July of 2008, I traveled to Yola to meet Mr. Musdafa in order to, one, express my family’s abiding gratitude for his uncommon act of kindness and, two, to satisfy my curiosity. It was my first visit to Yola since our flight in 1966 when I was hardly six. The town had changed significantly, but not so fundamentally as to nullify all my childhood memories.

I found the flat where we lived – and that tree in front of it, now twisted with age and much smaller than I remembered. Visiting the banks of the Benue where Father used to hunt, I saw kids diving in and out of the river and fishermen lounging in makeshift sheds, their boats abandoned in the languorous blaze of the noon heat. I visited Saint Theresa’s Church where our parents used to take us to mass. Inside, the old church was dim and derelict, a small forgotten structure now dominated by an imposing cathedral built nearby. I then went to see the now dilapidated school where Mother once taught.

The highlight was, of course, that meeting with the late Lamido. He ushered me into his sparse, clean reception room moments after my arrival was announced. He was a very tall, lean man with cropped white beards and lively eyes. There was not about him that fussy insistence on grandeur cultivated by many who occupy traditional offices. He seemed to project a moral gravitas much more than he exuded royal pomp. He was a man of quiet dignity whose carriage proclaimed the effortlessness of his deep humanity.

He insisted that he did nothing special in saving my father and other Christians. “As a true Muslim, I could not let allow the spilling of innocent blood.” He remembered that my parents had written a letter to thank him – but he was adamant that his action was a simple one.

A Nigeria beset by rising sectarian violence stands in need of citizens, Christians and Muslims, possessed of the late Lamido’s moral clarity, commitment to humanistic values, and deep nobility and conscience. My mother, siblings and I will ever treasure the colossus that was Alhaji Aliyu Musdafa who died a month shy of his 88th birthday. His legacy is rare, and will endure.
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Dr. Ndibe on Nigeria's most recent man-made disaster in Jos

"Nigeria chalked up another dubious record in infamy with the recent pre-dawn massacre of innocent men, women and children near Jos."




"Chronicle of innocence murdered"

by Okey Ndibe

Nigeria chalked up another dubious record in infamy with the recent pre-dawn massacre of innocent men, women and children near Jos. Reports of the bloodbath became a staple on radio and cable news broadcasts around the world, complete with macabre pictures of bloodied corpses, gaping mass graves, and disconsolate wailing women. These reports were also splashed on the front page of major international newspapers, including the New York Times.

Haiti and Chile are still reeling from the aftermath of devastating earthquakes, a natural disaster. Nigeria continues to be beset by man-manufactured crises and disasters.

In the age of the Internet, accounts and photos of the savage attack – which, in its use of machetes to dismember targets and bonfires to immolate many, came across as a mini version of the Rwandan genocide – seemed to be everywhere one turned. Scores of photos were forwarded to my e-mail addresses and posted to my facebook account.

Where I could, I deleted the photos. For there is, after all, something that’s deeply wounding to the psyche in peering at the monstrous work of the depraved and – one inescapably concluded – the deranged. To glimpse the pictures – and glimpse was all one managed, it being impossible to look – was to confront barbarity on a scale that caused one to shudder at the human capacity for evil.

I was not only appalled and horrified by the wantonness of the nocturnal attackers; my sensibility also recoiled from what, in my suspicion, is a growing appetite for gore and horror. This appetite is daily facilitated and fed by the Internet. Thanks to the communicative ease offered by the Internet, anybody can sit before a computer anywhere in the world and widely disseminate any information, complete with (often gory) photographs.

It’s true that, in many cases, these photographs serve to corroborate or lend dimensionality to written accounts of events. Yet, the raw, stark manner in which some grotesque photos are distributed leaves me worrying that we are in danger of losing our ability to flinch. I worry, besides, that our seeming fascination with gazing at extremely sickening photographs of callous acts – in this case, the Jos massacres – is bound to accelerate the erosion of our sense of the sacredness of human life.

That fear is real enough for me – which was why, once I heard and read about the latest episode of sectarian bloodbath in Jos, I tried my best not to linger over the pictures of victims. I’m not one to seek photographic authentication of dastardly acts. Yet, as I already hinted, it’s often impossible to avoid all the images thrown at you from multiple sources, known and unknown. In the case of the carnage in Jos, several well-meaning “facebook” friends must have thought they were doing me a favor by bombarding me with the horrific images. In order to delete them, one had, perforce, to glance at them.

In the process, two images from that photographic gallery of evil branded themselves on my mind. One photograph is of a mother and a baby – in all likelihood her child – lying side by side, both bodies burnt. It was as if their assailants wished to make them into human barbecues.

The other picture was just as haunting. It’s of a child, at most three years old, its skull gashed open to expose a reddened brain. Perhaps the deadly blow was struck with a machete or some other sharp instrument. The dead child has a thumb in its mouth; he or she must have been in deep sleep when the terrible blow was struck. That child’s posture – with a thumb frozen in the mouth – tells its own disturbing story. It spoke to me of the murder of innocence.

The immediate murderer is, of course, the man (or woman, perhaps?) who was so crazed as to take an axe to the skull of a sleeping, absolutely harmless and defenseless child. The perpetrator, whatever his or her grievance, cannot possibly produce any justification for snatching that child’s life.

But there’s also a sense – a deep sense at that – in which the thumb-sucking child as well as the charred mother and child indict the Nigerian state – a state run by vampires who “eat” the citizens’ flesh and “drink” their blood.

Truth be told, the recurrent spate of so-called religious violence in Nigeria is but a symptom of a nation that’s sabotaged every opportunity to achieve itself. Nigeria remains a discounted dream, a space run (and ruined) by (in)human parasites who suck the life out of their quarry, leaving the nation-space feeble and wobbly.

Those who sneaked upon the sleeping victims in a town near Jos and executed their murderous designs were – to some degree – proxies for a Nigeria that devalues its citizens’ lives. For despite the religious coating that served as ostensible motive, the attack was, at bottom, evidence of colossal dehumanization wrought by pervasive economic misery.

Nigeria might have nurtured that thumb-sucking child to grow up into a productive citizen. Perhaps the burnt woman was a suckling mother, a small trader who rose up daily and did what it took to provide food for her family, or a farmer whose produce gave her a means of sustenance and a way of meeting the world. But a Nigeria whose resources are looted by a few, whose police are too busy collecting bribes at roadside blocks to pay attention to the real task of law enforcement, whose bureaucrats spend their waking hours inventing novel ways to make the lives of their fellows harsher – that Nigeria betrayed the victims of our latest man-made disaster.

It is up to citizens to reclaim their lives by taking back their nation. The first step is to insist that their so-called nascent democracy learn to respect the wishes of the people in next year’s general elections. It should surprise no one that Nigerian “leaders” who usurp office and get away with it treat Nigerians as cattle or worse. It is only when the people establish their sovereign power that they can compel the state to respond to them as citizens – not fodder for senseless death.

(okeyndibe@gmail.com)
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Israel's latest insult to the world,and a story about 800 "settlers"

"The claim that Israel is the 'closest ally' of the US in the Middle East reminds me of the African proverb that goes: It's better to have an intelligent enemy than a dumb friend."

Dear friends,

With the recent announcement (March 10, 2010) by Israel to build an additional 1600 units for "settlers" in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, it should be obvious, even to those with the most infinitesimally small brains, that Israel, with its nuclear warheads, is nothing but a colonial power that is sponsored by the US government through the despicable likes of Senators Charles Schumer and Joe Lieberman and their ilk. Moreover, the claim that Israel is the "closest ally" of the US in the Middle East reminds me of the African proverb that goes: It's better to have an intelligent enemy than a dumb friend.

At any rate, as bloody and inhuman as the situation in Gaza is, there is a much wider story, regarding the plight of Palestinian people. On the link below is a piece that was written in 2008 that points to a problem that all Palestinians share, whether in Gaza or elsewhere.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://judaismandisrael.blogspot.com/2008/01/abomination-800-jewish-settlers-of.html
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Post-racial America?

"The adults in the church sanctuary were itching for a fight, eager to redress years of indignities absorbed growing up black in San Diego."

Dear friends,

A few weeks ago, I posted the link to an article about a noose being hung in a library on a California campus. Since then, Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times has written a thorough piece regarding the whole issue of racism on that whole campus just mentioned, and the valiant work of African American students to counter it (the aforementioned racism). Is it a surprise that incidents of racism have been getting more frequent and vicious, beginning with the successful campaign and now the presidency of Barack Obama? Meanwhile, there are those who still quite foolishly use the term “post-racial America". On the link below, at least to me, there is adequate information to refute that claim.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks6-2010mar06,0,6616905,full.column
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For Women's History Month should one be a Lady?

"...does being a lady call for her to surrender her integrity and ignore her divine inner powers of both intellectual and physical ability at her own expense, in order to benefit from a relationship, of whatever kind, with another person?"




Dear friends,

What is a lady? Is she a female who smiles and responds to an indignity - no matter how harsh, with grace and magnanimity? Moreover, does being a lady call for her to surrender her integrity and ignore her divine inner powers of both intellectual and physical ability, at her own expense, in order to benefit from a relationship, of whatever kind, with another person?

On the link below, a dear friend, award-winning journalist Jen Armstrong from the Philadelphia Daily News, gets into this topic, quite aptly. Enjoy!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100203_Jenice_Armstrong___Lady__is_a_minefield.html
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Dr. Ndibe shows how time is running out for Goodluck Jonathan

"Jonathan and the end of a honeymoon"
By Okey Ndibe

Those handling Goodluck Jonathan better tell him that this week marks the end of the honeymoon phase of his “acting presidency.”
This week, Mr. Jonathan must demonstrate his awareness, first of his personal burden, and then of the Nigerian crisis. If he can’t find the spine to begin to serve the Nigerian people, then he should ask his speechwriters to compose one heck of a resignation letter for him. He should then submit it and get out of the way.

Jonathan, to be sure, is a creature of a difficult historical circumstance. In 2007, he and his principal, Umaru Yar’Adua, were imposed on Nigeria. Far from earning the electoral mandate of Nigerians, they – Yar’Adua and he – were foisted on Nigeria by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other elements.

Their chief sponsor, Obasanjo, could not have intended that the duo would deliver magnificent leadership. If anything, both Yar’Adua and Jonathan had exemplified gubernatorial mediocrity. In choosing them, then, a vindictive Obasanjo perhaps sought to punish Nigerians for daring to deny him his illicit desire for a third term.
Yar’Adua and Jonathan inspired low expectations, and performed worse. They could not transcend the crooked circumstances that tossed them into power.

With Yar’Adua hobbled by sickness, his “presidency” became little more than a residency in Aso Rock. Even at the best of health, the man merely occupied space, but remained incapable of making his presence felt in any positive manner.

Today, Turai Yar’Adua’s delusions notwithstanding, Umaru Yar’Adua is physically (and, in all likelihood, mentally) incapacitated to carry on the pretence of running Nigeria.
That circumstance has thrown up the prospect of Jonathan’s “acting presidency.” Nigerians have a right to wonder if Jonathan has what it takes to step into the role.

It is a measure of how desperate Nigerians are that some expect Jonathan to perform impressively. There’s nothing in the man’s political resume that suggests that he’s cut out for excellent leadership. Even so, history is replete with examples of men and women who managed, in defiance of the odds, to rise to momentous challenges. Nigerians are hoping – praying – that Jonathan would be one such accidental success story.

But let’s be fair: if Jonathan’s political skills are mediocre or average, he’s entitled to them. But he should, in that event, be fair to Nigerians by confessing that he doesn’t have what they expect – and that he wishes to de-commission himself as “acting president.”

This week is decisive.

Nigerians have watched with growing impatience and irritation as Jonathan appeared barely capable of chairing the weekly meetings of the cabinet. Last December, as Nigerian commuters were crippled by fuel shortage, Jonathan “ordered” that the ministers in the oil sector should not travel out of town on vacation. Mr. Rilwanu Lukman, who holds the main oil portfolio, skipped out of town, ignoring Jonathan’s directive. Why has Lukman not been fired?

Jonathan gives the impression of incessantly looking over his shoulder, afraid that the “forces” loyal to Turai and Umaru are out to get him. He runs the risk of allowing the fear of Turai to paralyze him. If he can’t overcome that fear, Jonathan might as well admit to his wimpy disposition, surrender what power he has, and leave the arena. If he stands pat, doing nothing, it will be a question of when, not if, the enemies he fears will pick him apart.

There’s work to do, and Jonathan’s best bet is to get cracking. For one, he ought to shape up the federal cabinet. There are too many ministers who don’t appear to understand the most elementary thing about their ministry – but who relish the sound of the pompous title of “honorable minister.” Given the shortness of his “tenure” – a year – Jonathan ought to fish for the most outstanding technocrats to help think up and implement solutions for Nigeria’s perennial infrastructural crises.

Nigerian roads are in a shambles. Nigerian schools are poorly funded and ill equipped. Nigeria’s healthcare is in a grim state. Erratic power supply remains a pervasive feature of Nigeria’s reality. Violent crime, especially armed robbery, festers. These problems did not crop up overnight, and they won’t be solved by the wave of a magic wand. But any focused leader, once who sets out to work instead of to steal, could make enough of a difference for Nigerians to notice. And Nigerians, long beset by disastrous leadership, deserve a break.

Jonathan must look into himself and discern if he has it in him. He’s never been known for stellar leadership, but the historical circumstances of his emergence as “acting president” are ripe for courageous performance.

A product of a shameful election, Jonathan has a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact by pushing credible electoral reform, not the half-baked, ineffectual brand that a hypocritical and self-serving Yar’Adua supported. He should indicate his readiness to champion passage of the key elements of the recommendations made by the Justice Muhammadu Uwais panel.

Before Jonathan can get to these substantive issues, he must, at minimum, steer the federal executive council to do the right thing by declaring Yar’Adua incapacitated. That should happen this week. Every Okoye, Musa and Adebayo knows that Mr. Yar’Adua is too gravely sick to be of help even to himself, much less to 150 million Nigerians.

This, I restate, is the week that Jonathan’s free pass will end. Henceforth, he must work to earn any goodwill. My hunch is that a Jonathan who can’t lead his colleagues to reach and express a commonsensical conclusion on Yar’Adua’s status is not worthy of being entrusted with running the complex organism called Nigeria – even in an acting capacity.
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National Black Theatre's Cultural Development Program in NYC

National Black Theatre's House Band:

Bert Price on keyboard Olamide on guitar
Brady Watt on bass guitar Jamal Hampton on drums

National Black Theatre presents An Artist Showcase: " Fertile Ground" Thursday March 11, 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 material
Contact Bert Price at: http://us.mc1136.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=berttheproducer@gmail.com

Join 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. 922&s=6493&e=001-u2yBJz40mJyvEyQZvVFOz2Ip3E7qWEEQuG8ijOFy1D9HZMf98pwPK21LaJoXXpbqPWHgHDku3JZibGXpuRnEUA2h1SArYOhIdMa0FG0tYp9pOmsB09

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Sandy Banks on Gloria Allred and Tiger Woods

"Her client says she loved Woods. She knew he was married, of course. But Woods told her she was his only girlfriend, Allred said." 'A woman ought to be able to believe a man when he tells her that.' "

Dear friends,

As a follow up piece about the whole Tiger Woods debacle, Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times brilliantly and humorously reveals why renowned attorney Gloria Allred made a point to "show her face in the place", on the link below. Enjoy!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks23-2010feb23,0,7652618.column

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New Orleans Police Dept. cover-up about Katrina killings revealed after a former detective pleads guilty

"Far too often, the relationships between ordinary citizens and the police officers from whom the aforementioned citizens are looking for various types of assistance find thenselves find themselves caught up in conflict..."

Dear friends,

Communities should control their police departments - not local governments. Far too often, the relationships between ordinary citizens and the police officers from whom the aforementioned citizens are looking for various types of assistance find thenselves caught up in conflict, due to the very real fact that the two parties have different interests.
On the link below is an article that makes this point quite clearly. It involves the local police response during the deadly hurricane that was called Katrina.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.propublica.org/nola/story/former-new-orleans-detective-pleads-guilty-in-katrina-shooting-cover-up-224
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A Taste of Nicki Mathis

"Thank you for supporting our legacy, global jazz,"


Nicki Mathis


You are invited to view/increase my website view total - I can take a hit: http://matchbook.org/ArtistProfile1.aspx?ProfileId=741
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jKR0c0qK_w&feature=related
Audio samples: cdbaby.com/cd/nickmathis
Now taking/accepting dates for performance.
Bookings opportunities: 860.231-0663: Enjoy Photographs:

http://themanycolorsofawomanincorporated.webs.com/apps/photos/
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=424956023
Hartford Stage Marketing Department selected Nick to be a part of their 2010 Motherhood Out Loud Poster Mom media marketing campaign. Mathis plans to be in the audience Wednesday March 3d. Castonguay/White photo hartfordstage.org/files/shows/motherhood_out_loud/mhportal/index.htm
Warm Wishes - Much Success - Hope/Support for Haiti/New Orleans/Gulf Coast

* * *
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Noose found on California college campus

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/UCSD-ghetto-party-Compton-Cookout-noose/wTt--T9Odk227q6ObcEauA.cspx
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Elmer Smith explains "Reconciliation" and Health Care hill

"McConnell yesterday called on Democrats to "renounce ramming it through" by reconciliation. But Republicans use it extensively when it suits their purpose. They used it in 1996 to end welfare as we know it. McConnell had no problem voting for that historic legislation when Republicans were 'ramming it through.' "

Dear friends,

If President Obama adds in a public option, before doing the reconciliation thing, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. However, as someone who teaches ordinary people how to fight for a living (for the past two decades-plus), frankly, I feel that just like his predecessors Bush and Clinton, President Obama lacks the kind of personality that will make him “fight back” against big business (his sponsors). We’ll see.

Still, without the public option, no bill will help tens of millions of Americans, although it will, probably, help those who currently have employer-based health insurance, whether they remain on their jobs or not.

Ultimately, in our market-driven, possession-oriented society, citizens, generally-speaking, always seem to find themselves in a “survival mode” where everyone is looking out for himself or herself and no one is concerned about the next person. Therefore, at least to me, what’s happening is: the majority of people in this country will only be concerned about themselves and will not care that the aforementioned tens of millions of their fellows remain uninsured. It’s all so very sad.

Nevertheless, on the link below, Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News delivers what amounts to the most courageously informative piece about the health care debate that I've seen lately.

One Love,
G. Djata Bumpua
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100226_Elmer_Smith__Health_care_won_t_get_fixed_on_TV.html
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Annette John-Hall covers Health Care Reform Walk to DC

"Through ice and mud, rain and biting cold, through the worst winter in recent memory, they walked 135 miles for health-care reform. "

Dear friends,

While most of the mainstream media are concentrating on the rumble in our miscreant-laden US Congress over health care reform, there are others who are fighting for the right for all US citizens to have affordable health care.

On the link below, veteran columnist Annette John-Hall of the Philadelphia Inquirer provides some close-up interacting with real warriors for "freedom, justice, and equality". Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20100226_Annette_John-Hall__Parade_of_anger_over_health-care_mess.html
Read full post

Is Annette John-Hall un-American?

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20100219_Annette_John-Hall__Un-American__Well__let_s_see______.html
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Yar'Adua's replacement in Nigeria must act!

"After the disingenuous maneuver that made him “acting president,” Goodluck Jonathan appears in danger of wasting his opportunity to lead – and also wasting Nigerians’ time."

"Jonathan’s burden"

by Okey Ndibe

After the disingenuous maneuver that made him “acting president,” Goodluck Jonathan appears in danger of wasting his opportunity to lead – and also wasting Nigerians’ time.

Since his investiture, Jonathan’s calendar has been taken up with courtesy visits by former heads of state as well various delegations, including so-called traditional rulers.

One hopes that he understands the gravity of the burden he must discharge, if he is to be worth his hire. If he fancies that he and Nigerians have time for some ceremonial interlude, then he hardly grasps the depths of Nigeria’s desperation.

Jonathan had better make a polite but firm statement asking those who wish to pay a visit to hold off. He ought to tell the horde of professional well-wishers that he has a job to do for long-suffering Nigerians, and that he needs to get to it with alacrity.

Nigerians did not agitate all over the world these past two months against Umaru Yar’Adua’s facile idea of offshore governance so that Jonathan could take over and host an endless stream of “royal fathers” pledging their loyalty and support. No, Nigerians wanted somebody to take up the full-time job of fixing their rutted roads, improving power supply, solving the problem of fuel shortage, combating sectarian violence and its concomitant high casualty, and sending bills to the National Assembly to address a plethora of issues, from electoral reform through job creation to adequate funding for education and health.

Nigerians know as much as Jonathan that the hangers-on who profited from Yar’Adua’s moribund “presidency” do not wish him well. They are, it is safe to assume, regrouping even now to torpedo his “acting presidency.” But Jonathan’s handlers must tell him that the way to silence these foes is not by looking over his shoulder or even by garnering a long register of big-name supporters. His safest bet is to set to roll up his sleeves and apply himself to the task of working to change the lot of the generality of Nigerians.

In doing so, he must recognize his own limitations. One, he doesn’t have a lot of time; better, then, to get cracking immediately. Two, it’s unrealistic, even counterproductive, to take on a long menu of challenges at once. He should focus on a few critical sectors that are likely to have widespread impact. His wife’s arrests several years ago on corruption charges are already serious deficits. He should both rein in his wife’s materialistic impulses and steer clear of any impeachable conduct himself.

Above all, Jonathan ought to take a hard, honest look at himself. If he doesn’t have the mettle to work for Nigerians, he should avert a looming personal and national disaster by relinquishing the crown of “acting president.”
Read full post

The Passing of a great Black father - McKinley Armstrong

"Love lives forever" -- Stevie Wonder






McKinley Armstrong
Teacher/Maker of Giants




Jenice Armstrong
award-winning journalist

Dear friends,

We all come into this world - going out. We forget that, while we're here "caught up in the throes", as it were. Nevertheless, recently, a very dear friend of mine, Jen Armstrong of the Philadelphia Daily News, lost her father. Her work appears on this blog, at times.

In any case, on the link below, Jen not only shows immeasurable appreciation for her Dad, but she also urges us to show our gratitude to so many other great Black fathers. Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
ttp://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100224_Jenice_Armstrong__Here_s_to_a_great_Dad.html


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Bumpus on Tiger Woods' "apology"

"...the whole Tiger Woods “infidelity” story, is, as usual, a mass expression of personal inadequacy..."

Dear friends,

Panic fear is an old term used by certain psychologists to describe sudden frantic behavior by an individual who, for whatever reason(s), has ceased to feel emotional ties with any particular group, of whatever size, to which s/he has been connected, and is only concerned about his or her own well-being. This happens with soldiers who desert their units during war, parents who abandon their families, or people who stampede out of a movie theater or an amusement park, due to a perceived danger.

Tiger Woods experienced such a moment, a few months back, when he ran out of his house and jumped into his car, leaving begind his wife and children, along with his mother and mother-in-law.

Initially, that moment of panic led to him crashing his “hog”. However, the insatiable greed of the government- and corporate-controlled media turned the unfortunate, private incident into a “story”.

Yet, this whole mess regarding Tiger Woods’ “sex-capades” , at least to me, is a laugh a minute. After all, how is his behavior different than most men around the world who can afford to be that way? Besides, the same people pointing fingers are doing the same thing as Woods has been doing, no matter how many married women, naively, believe that their husbands are somehow different.

And what about Woods’ choice of women? In fact, perhaps, even more importantly, what about his father’s choice of women? Really.

Also, did Tiger think of doing all of this on his own, or does his behavior reflect the typical kind of cultural value judgments of someone who is part of a sexist, racist, possession-oriented, market-driven society where all economic/social relations are based upon power and sexual greed?

Moreover, American citizens swear that they have their own ideas, when, in reality, most folks are simply parroting what has been super-imposed on their minds by the various cultural institutions of education, religion, and information.

Worse yet, it is essential to the rulers of any civilization to make sure that citizens’ ideas are fairly homogenous. This, of course, helps keep down protest (and, in the US, a Homeland Security Act and The Patriot Act serve to guarantee the legitimacy of those wielding power just mentioned).

Ultimately, all of this adds up to the group (or herd) mind versus the mind of the individual. On the link below is an interesting piece by Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times that, at least to me, reveals how the whole Tiger Woods “infidelity” story, is, as usual, a mass expression of personal inadequacy, as folks try to come to grips with the realization that they understand so little about that to which they claim, as well as, why they must constantly attempt to assuage their consciences by finding humor in their own here-to-mentioned inadequacies.

Finally, I distinctly remember hearing, back in 2009, that soon after the inauguration of Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, for the first time, identified himself as “African American”. To be sure, such a claim was troublesome to many of the people who call themselves “white”. Even worse, the son of an African American, he is being said to only be ¼ African American. Huh? Additionally, his mother, a Southeast Asian woman, from whom he has inherited half of his bloodline, apparently, from what I’ve witnessed over the years, has no great love for African Americans, as Tiger’s father Earl obviously didn’t either. Still, Tiger’s alleged disclaiming of the idiotic moniker “Caublanasian”, and, therefore, his partial “whiteness”, was too much for the pathetic females who claim to have bedded with him, and many of his fans, as well as his corporate sponsors. Nonetheless, no matter what he calls himself, one thing is for sure: Tiger Woods now knows what it’s like to be a Black man. Eh?

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks20-2010feb20,0,5293316.column

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During Black History Month, Hartford Magazine honors Nicki Mathis

"...the magazine's first Black Women of Achievement Award winner…Women who have made – and are continuing to make their marks in Connecticut and beyond…"


Hartford Magazine marked Black History Month by honoring Nicki Mathis as one of the magazine’s first Black Women of Achievement Award winner’s…Women who have made – and are continuing to make their marks in Connecticut and beyond…These women, who serve Greater Hartford in so many important ways, are a credit to our community. Hopefully their stories will serve as an inspiration to other members of their own generations, and to the young women who will follow in their footsteps.

Wednesday, 24 February
NMAAJazz on Better Connecticut TV Show,
WFSB/CBS Channel 3, 10am w/Dawn Dumas, Jr. Ortiz, Paulette, Lynn Tracey
Rocky Hill/Hartford, CT

* Sunday 28 Feb 5 – 7pm
Nicki w/Lynn Tracey/
Something Cool Distil
270 Worthington St,
Springfield, MA 01103
413.737-5557 no cover

Hartford Stage Marketing Department selected Nicki to be a part of their photographic Motherhood Out Loud media marketing campaign 2010.

~ Thank you for supporting our legacy, global jazz, and for sharing performance news with jazz lovers, family, friends and colleagues ~

Bookings: matchbook.org/ArtistProfile1.aspx?ProfileId=741

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jKR0c0qK_w&feature=related

Warm Wishes - Much Success - Hope for Haiti, New Orleans/Gulf coast
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Dr. Ndibe uncovers a potentially huge mistake by the Obama administration towards Nigeria

"One hopes that the Obama who went to Accra and spoke eloquently about Nigeria’s leadership crisis has not permitted himself to be led into the contradiction of prescribing IBB as the answer. Or even as a factor in finding the answer to Nigeria’s quagmire."



Is Obama romancing Babangida?

By Okey Ndibe

Last Wednesday, February 10, the Barack Obama administration made a move that’s likely to hurt its credibility among Nigerians. Johnnie Carson, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Robin Sanders, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, traveled to Minna to confer with former Nigerian dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, at his hilltop mansion.

That visit was, I suggest, a serious diplomatic gaffe – and one unworthy of the Obama administration.

That neither the American diplomats nor Babangida disclosed the subject of the meeting compounded the gravity of the misstep. For one, it raised speculation that the US government wanted to signal its tacit support for Babangida’s run for the presidency in next year’s elections. At the very least, the parley suggested that Obama’s team regards the retired general as an instrument for solving Nigeria’s myriad, and deep, political crises.

Either goal represents a serious lapse in judgment on the part of the Obama administration.

It would appear that Babangida covets the Nigerian presidency. Four years ago, he and his cohorts orchestrated what was tagged Project 007, implying that the former military head of state considered himself a shoo-in as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s successor. Nigerians, for understandable reasons, were disquieted by the prospect of another IBB presidency. Many heaved a sigh of relief when Obasanjo, for reasons hard to fathom, foiled Babangida’s ambition.

There’s no question: Babangida is one of the most enigmatic figures to have emerged in Nigerian politics. I have always found the man intriguing, but in a sad, even tragic sort of way. In 1986, on the first anniversary of the man’s rule, I wrote a column in the (now defunct) African Guardian in which I likened Babangida’s political style to the dribbling wizardry of Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona. That name, Maradona, stuck on Babangida and has become one of his more famous monikers. Evil genius, I understand, is a tag Babangida adopted. My argument, in baptizing IBB with Maradona in 1986, was that, while the soccer player dribbles in order to create scoring opportunities, Babangida dribbled as an end in itself. There was little or no sense of purpose to his statecraft.

In 1993, Babangida lost power in one of his costly, purposeless gambles. His annulment of the June 12 election, an act of supreme perfidy, precipitated his own political downfall. In characteristic fashion, he euphemized his fall from power as a decision to “step aside.”

Babangida introduced a structural adjustment program (SAP). The economy policy, as the propaganda went, was meant to endow Nigerians with the benefits of a free market economy. When Nigerians complained that the ostensible gains were elusive, Babangida counseled patience. But he and his cohorts were far from willing to be patient. As SAP sapped Nigeria’s poor and widened the blanket of misery, Babangida and his closest friends acquired mansions, private jets, and fat bank accounts. When he was done, IBB boasted a 50-room mansion and dizzying wealth.

Such a man has no business seeking to return to his country’s seat of power. Some of his acolytes have said that Babangida’s mission is to correct the mistakes he made the first time. Remediation is a nice concept, but he need not become president to make amends.

One hopes that the Obama who went to Accra and spoke eloquently about Nigeria’s leadership crisis has not permitted himself to be led into the contradiction of prescribing IBB as the answer. Or even as a factor in finding the answer to Nigeria’s quagmire.

Obama must guard against the Bill Clinton error. Even though former President Clinton is popular in Nigeria, many Nigerians are still appalled by his bizarre statement, in the heydays of Sani Abacha’s self-succession plan, that the US was open to recognizing the bespectacled dictator if he won an election. That statement came at a time when any neophyte knew that Abacha didn’t plan to hold a credible election.

In making such a public show of coddling Babangida, the Obama administration risked being perceived as wishing to forestall the ongoing mobilization of a progressive force to serve as a viable alternative to the grubby, visionless elements who have steered Nigeria to perilous waters.

If Washington doesn’t want to see a cataclysm befall Nigeria, with horrible consequences for Nigerians and the international community, then it must rethink its seeming courtship of the Babangidas of Nigeria.
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Sandy Banks on community-building

Dear friends,

If there is anything that humanity needs more than even sufficient nutrients for our bodies, it is: a sense of community. We just do not have that anywhere. Yet, we can have it.

With the incessant practice of outsiders invading urban neighborhoods and gentrifying homes, starting new businesses, and the like, at the expense of residents who have lived in the aforementioned neighborhoods for generations, it is refreshing to know that there remain places in our country where citizens still care about their communities, as opposed to simply taking the money from greedy “developers” and running away with those proceeds.

However, communities must begin fighting for control of institutions like schools and police departments, so that young people (our future) will have a reason to sustain, instead of destroy our communities.

As a matter of fact, what is currently happening in Haiti can be very useful to both African Americans and Latinos, as long as people like the Clintons, Bushes, and their ilk are not allowed to continue marauding that small island nation.

At any rate, on the link below is a piece by one of North America’s foremost journalists, Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times. Enjoy!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks13-2010feb13,0,4128806,full.column
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National Black Theatre presents Black History Month Play Festival

"COME OUT AND JOIN US TO SEE THIS EXCITING SHOW. MS. RUBIN'S PORTRAYAL OF BILLIE HOLIDAY IS RIVETING. "









COME OUT AND JOIN US TO SEE THIS EXCITING SHOW.
MS. RUBIN'S PORTRAYAL OF BILLIE HOLIDAY IS RIVETING. THIS IS A MUST SEE PERFORMANCE.APPEARING FOR THREE DAYS ONLY AT DR. BARBARA ANN TEER'SNATIONAL BLACK THEATRE, 2031 FIFTH AVE @125 STGET

YOUR TICKETS NOW!!! 212-722-3800


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AN NYC EVENING WITH AVERY BROOKS - Valentine's Day 2010 !!!

"Among Mr. Brooks' musical accomplishments, are the title role in Anthony Davis' opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, the role of Cinque in the opera Tania and Temptations of St. Anthony, directed by Robert Wilson. He performed vocals and narration in the Pushkin Project, by world renowned jazz saxophonist, David Murray..."

When: February 14, 2010
Where: The Algonquin Hotel-Oak Room
59 West 44th Street (5th and 6th Avenues)

Produced By Jill Newman Productions

The Oak Room will present distinguished actor, musician, director, producer and educator, Avery Brooks, in concert Sunday evening February 14, 2010 at 7:30 and 10:30 pm. There is a $75 admission charge plus either a $30 food and beverage minimum or a $63 prix fixe Valentine's Day Dinner
Dinner seating is 7 pm.
Reservations: 212-419- 9331 or bmcgurn@algonquinhotel.com

Among Mr. Brooks' musical accomplishments, are the title role in Anthony Davis' opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, the role of Cinque in the opera Tania and Temptations of St. Anthony, directed by Robert Wilson. He performed vocals and narration in the Pushkin Project, by world renowned jazz saxophonist, David Murray.

In 2006, Brooks was the featured vocalist for the Black Rock Coalition's Tribute to Ray Charles, at Symphony Space. He has performed with Joseph Jarman, Butch Morris, Craig Harris, Lester Bowie, Henry Threadgill, Jon Hendricks, and recorded on James Spaulding's album "Legacy of Duke Ellington."

Mr. Brooks' extensive theatre roles include his recent portrayal of Willy Loman, in Death of A Salesman, the Oedipus Trilogy, and King Lear. He played the title role of Paul Robsen in the Philip Hayes Dean Play "Paul Robeson:, and Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? "

His film credits include American History, X, Fifteen Minutes and The Big Hit. Among the TV documentaries he has narrated are Mandela: A Man of Vision, Marian Anderson: A Passion for Faith and the award-winning The Musical Legacy of Roland Hayes. He starred as Hawk on the Warner Bros./ABC series, A Man Called Hawk, and co-starred as Hawk in Spenser: For Hire. He starred as Captain Sisko, in Paramount Studio's Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine.

For further information contact
Jill Newman Productions
email:http://us.mc1136.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=meszmusic@hotmail.com Read full post

Dr, Ndibe: Anambra Election brings new Hope

"Anambra put itself forward, in my view, as a pivot for the democratic renewal that Nigeria so sorely needs."





"Anambra’s “Verdict 2010” as lesson and revenge "

By Okey Ndibe

Last Saturday, voters in Anambra State came out in impressive numbers to elect a governor. The stakes were extremely high, and the obstacles formidable, but the people of Anambra did themselves great credit. After it was all over, incumbent Governor Peter Obi made history as the first two-term occupant of the Government House. And Anambra put itself forward, in my view, as a pivot for the democratic renewal that Nigeria so sorely needs.

It was a fitting and welcome transformation – a kind of revenge, in fact.

Anambra has been a victim of some of the most tragic and traumatizing schemes in Nigeria’s political history. It’s been a turf for the depraved antics of so-called political godfathers who exploited their connections to the seat of power in Abuja to make the state virtually ungovernable. It’s been run, and ruined, by the human disaster called Chinwoke Mbadinuju. This man, a genius at quoting scripture but less than adept at living it, holds the unflattering distinction of presiding over a year in which the state’s children didn’t go to school – because their striking teachers were not paid.

There was more: the brazen kidnap of former Governor Chris Ngige, a man smuggled into office by the ruling party and then hounded when he refused to surrender the treasury to his sponsors; the three-day spree of arson against public property carried out by thugs who may have been empowered by the highest authority; and the short-lived imposition of Andy Uba as governor.

With this history as background, and Nigeria’s current climate of uncertainty, so much rode on the Anambra election. Local and international pundits, deeply troubled by Nigeria’s penchant for fraudulent elections, tagged Anambra’s Verdict 2010 a veritable window into the shape of general elections to come in 2011. At a December 11, 2009 colloquium convened at Brown University by Professor Chinua Achebe, speaker after speaker was at pains to underscore the point that, as Anambra went last Saturday, so would Nigeria go next year. These speakers, Nigerians and foreigners alike, also warned that the country could ill afford the manipulation of the Anambra election, and may not survive another of the kind of electoral farce we got in 2007.

Bearing this onerous burden, Anambra made Nigerians proud. Anambra, the erstwhile headquarters of anarchy, has become a beacon of democratic hope for all Nigerians.

Last week’s election was, I stress, a truly Nigerian affair. By the same token, it was a triumph for all Nigerians, not just the residents of Anambra. I had never seen a state election that generated as much interest across the spectrum of Nigerians as that of Anambra. It was clear that Nigerians, and in some ways the world, paid attention to the election. It called up the best – the deeply patriotic – in many.

Let me illustrate. I signed up to participate in a project called Anambra Election iReporters. Initiated by Okwy Okeke, an energetic and passionate patriot, the project entailed monitoring the progress of last week’s election by phoning observers right there in the field – and then posting our findings on numerous websites. Mr. Okeke, who holds an MBA and works for a large American corporation, saw the project as one way that we could invest in the cause of credible elections.

Several of us, including Okeke, are from Anambra, but volunteers came from other parts of Nigeria. I rose at the crack of dawn on Saturday and immediately began to make calls to our contacts in Anambra – some of them lawyers sent by the Nigerian Bar Association to observe. What struck me was the number of participants in the exercise, in Anambra as well as abroad, who are not from Anambra. If you ever wondered whether pan-Nigerian collaboration was still viable, perish your doubt. From my small corner, I beheld the cooperative spirit that’s alive among Nigerians when the challenge is to reclaim their badly battered lives and commence the task of mending.

Given Nigeria’s long habituation to scams dressed in the garb of elections, it’s understandable if some are in a hurry to declare the days of rigged elections over. Nothing is farther from the reality. At any rate, to mistake what happened in Anambra as spelling the demise of electoral hanky panky is to both underestimate how impermeable our politicians can be and to risk slipping into complacency.

Complacency is a virus that Nigerians can’t afford now. Vigilance and a state of heightened alert, not a slackening off, are called for. This is a time to consolidate the gains from the Anambra election – and to think about how to vastly improve on them in 2011 and beyond.

We’d do well to remember that as many things went well in the Anambra election as went wrong. Two or three persons called or wrote to me waxing ecstatic about the electoral commission’s conduction. One trumpeted Maurice Iwu, the commission’s chairman, as a born-again champion of credible polls.

Not so fast, I retorted. What transpired in Anambra should not really be regarded as epitomizing superior performance by INEC. Nor should Nigerians hasten to canonize Iwu for overseeing an election in which the voice of the voters was permitted to prevail. Transparently free and fair elections are the right of Nigerians, not a privilege that Iwu may – according to his mood or whims – dole out to us or withhold.

There were indeed heroes in last week’s elections, but Iwu doesn’t make my list of them. In the 21st century, his electoral body failed to produce serialized ballots. Then its voter registers were, for the most part, an anthology of missing names.

The foremost heroes were the voters who, undeterred by past experiences of stolen mandates, came out in droves to vote. The images of determined voters, many of them waiting for hours in the sweltering heat before voting materials were produced, reflected a widening quest by Nigerians to reclaim their country from the calloused hands of its destroyers.

Then there were the troop of monitors, their eyes set on the proceedings, determined to keep everybody – police officers, polling officials, party partisans – honest. And then there were the officials who must have decided not to lend themselves as instruments for would-be riggers.

Some of the governorship candidates ran vibrant campaigns that managed to touch on such urgent matters as security, educational collapse, and festering joblessness. Those of them who agreed to take part and spar in a televised debate also deserve commendation for taking Nigerian politics in a salutary direction.

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Is Sarah Palin a Lousy Comedian or a "Retard"?

"If her vision and grasp of even the most basic issues - with or without cribnotes - were any lighter, you would have to tie a rock to her to keep her from floating away."

Fear friends,

The totally hilarious piece on the link below deserves perusal, if for no other reason than to have a good laugh. . Cheers!
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G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/08/2010-02-08_sarah_believe_me_you_have_delusions_of_grandeur.html
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Elmer Smith and Djata Bumpus share some ideas about current Economic Issues

"Bruce pointed out something that I didn’t have space for or the time To confirm. He says that American textile manufacturers have been flocking to Haiti for the past Five to 10 years to produce apparel using workers that they pay less than subsistence wages... "

Dear friends,

We've been hearing from government officials a lot about "stimulus" packages and the whole bit in resurrecting the economy. On the link below, is a piece from Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News.

Elm and I are longtime and very dear friends - not simply colleagues. Therefore, we frequently share ideas about a variety of social topics. When the aforementioned piece on the link below was published the other day, there were some ideas, because of space consideration, he had to leave out. However, I thought it necessary to share this brief exchange with the readers of this blog, having his permission to do so, of course. After the link, our comments follow.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http: /www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100202_Elmer_Smith__Tax_credits_won_t_help_small_business_end_the_recession.html
*************************************
From: Djata Bumpus
To: Smith, Elmer L.:
Re: Tax credits won't work...

Yo Bro’,

That’s a very good piece, Elm. You and Bruce both made some great points.

However, an important point that neither you or Crawley mentioned is: We need quality employment that allows people to have an interest in the work that they do and the company itself. A pizza parlor chain owner is just a greedy bastard. Plain and simple. After all, what does it do for the community other than create low-paying jobs and gall stones for the customers? Those are the kind of punks that Wharton deliberately turns out.

We need workers’ cooperatives, for example. They already exist, to a small extent, in some progressive communities.

Another dear friend of mine has one such enterprise that fixes cars. That’s something the community needs – again, NOT PIZZAS.

Cheers!

Djata

RE: Tax credits won't work...‏
From: Smith, Elmer L.
To: Djata Bumpus

The real frontier is to produce what we call “good jobs”; they pay a minimum of $32,000 - which Is what it cost to provide even a modicum of food and shelter and a small savings for a family Of four, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. That sounds low to me. But when you consider that the greatest job growth is in jobs that pay half that, you can see the dangerous trend and the need for at least that.

Bruce pointed out something that I didn’t have space for or the time To confirm. He says that American textile manufacturers have been flocking to Haiti for the past Five to 10 years to produce apparel using workers that they pay less than subsistence wages. You’re right about Wharton and any number of these “business" schools. But the real culprits for me are guys who are going right from Wharton into major exploitations like the one Bruce describes in Haiti, or in call centers in India and Pakistan and everywhere else where American companies are exporting their manufacturing and even service jobs. It’s ugly out here my brother.

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