The Fight For/Against Palestinian Statehood

World leaders are gathering in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly. This year the international community will consider a bid for Palestinian statehood. Although it is likely to fail, the bid refocuses attention on the 63-year-old land fight between the Israelis and Palestinians. Long before 9/11, riots in Tahrir Square and rambling audio messages from Muammar Gadhafi and Osama bin Laden, the original Middle East crisis began on a strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea.

I have always been a fan of history, current events and multicultural affairs. Particularly, I am fascinated by how different cultures interact with each other. Some divisive relationships I can understand better than others - Tutsis vs. Hutus, Turks vs. Armenians, Cuba vs. United States. But there is something about the Palestine/Israel question that continues to capture the world's attention - and I simply just don't understand.

My first real introduction into Middle Eastern politics began in university, where I minored in post-colonial studies. Tom Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem was a book I was required to read in a course on Arab-Israeli cinema. It was a good primer into the conflict, and since its first publication two decades ago, it is still considered a fair assessment of the major players. I also remember after graduation viewing a documentary on female hijacker Leila Khalid which gave me the Palestinian point of view. But the history of the conflict is just too confusing for me to understand.

As for the Palestinian bid, it seems like it is dead on arrival at the UN, although Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has extended an invitation for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in New York.

Maybe something good could come out of the meeting... Probably not...

The (Post-Colonial) Ties that Bind

As the "no fly zone" continues over the Libyan skies, many analysts are speculating about Muammar Gadhafi's possible exit strategies. Yesterday Uganda cited that it might be open to receiving the dictator, while Venezuela could also be an escape option since Gadhafi and Hugo Chavez are "friends." Even Zimbabwe is on the table.

From Bloomberg:

Several African nations could take Qaddafi, the diplomat said, citing Ethiopia or Mauritania as examples. The likeliest countries to let him in are those that aren’t parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, a tribunal based in The Hague that seeks to try despots charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.

“All you need is one country to take him,” Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, said in a telephone interview. “Uganda sounds like a good option. We are most likely talking about Africa.”

So why are other African nations willing to take in Gadhafi? This brings up a fascinating conversation many are not talking about: the everlasting bind among one time revolutionaries turned tyrants. Gadhafi is still considered a anti-colonial hero and Arab nationalist throughout the post-colonial world. So there should be no shock that the likes of Chavez, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe are quick to come to his defense.

Speaking of which, the same is true of Mugabe's reputation in Africa as a leader against the apartheid regime in southern Africa. Peter Godwin, author of "The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe" recently explained this phenomenon.

From NPR:

GODWIN: ...The government in Pretoria has protected Mugabe from a ratcheting up of international pressure, that he's basic that Pretoria has basically insured his longevity in power. And that's one of our big problems, is that by appointing South African presidents as the sort of referee in Zimbabwe, we've actually protected Mugabe because the referee is, in this case, is partisan.

NPR: Why would the president of South Africa want to protect Mugabe?

Mr. GODWIN: Well, it's interesting. I mean and even going back to President Bush, who said Thabo Mbeki, who was then the South African president, was his point man on Zimbabwe, and that was an easy handoff. You handed it off to South Africa and then you could get on with other things. And to some extent that's continued under the Obama administration.

Systemically, I think that why - that Pretoria supports Mugabe, and more importantly, not just Mugabe but his party Zanu-PF. I think from talking to people in South Africa and the administration what they had originally hoped, was that they might pressure Zanu-PF to reform, to become a sort of Zanu-PF light and to maybe get a technocrat, someone like Simba Makoni or one of these other guys who don't actually have blood on their hands, to take it over.

The reason they don't want to see the opposition winning, the MDC winning in Zimbabwe, is if you look at the southern African countries that all fought liberation wars, anti-colonial wars, those original parties, those liberation parties are all still in power - the ANC in South Africa, Swapo in Namibia, the MPLA in Angola, Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe and the Frelimo in Mozambique; they're all still in power. And it's not in any of their interests for any one of them to lose power, because it's a terrible precedent. It sort of shatters the myth of the sort of aura of liberation invincibility.

NPR: Of the original freedom leaders, the original anti-colonialists...

GODWIN: Absolutely. I mean it's a very, very potent well that you can dip your bucket in and pull out this sort of, you know, this history. It's very potent and it can kind of re-anointed you, you know, for decade after decade.

But when is it time to pull out a bucket of new history?

Viva La France...and Racism!?

When in doubt, blame the black guy!

Or this seems to be the route some French folks have resorted to in light of the country's sour loss at the World Cup this week. All racial hell has broken out. I was listening to the BBC this morning when I heard a French dude blame the loss on team members who are "millionaire thugs from the Paris suburbs."

From New York Times:

The philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who has often criticized the failures of French assimilation, compared the players to youths rioting in the banlieues, France’s suburban ghettos. “We now have proof that the French team is not a team at all, but a gang of hooligans that knows only the morals of the mafia,” he said in a radio interview.

While most politicians have talked carefully of values and patriotism, rather than immigration and race, some legislators blasted the players as “scum,” “little trouble-makers” and “guys with chickpeas in their heads instead of a brain,” according to various news reports.

Fadela Amara, the junior minister for the racially-charged suburbs who was born to Algerian parents, warned on Tuesday that the reaction to the team’s loss had become racially charged.

“There is a tendency to ethnicize what has happened,” she told a gathering of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing party, according to reports in the French news media. “Everyone condemns the lower-class neighborhoods. People doubt that those of immigrant backgrounds are capable of respecting the nation.”

You mean to tell that France isn't post-racial? Oh, the horror! Read on.

...France is confused about its identity and uncomfortable with the growing numbers and sometimes the attitudes of its poorer, darker immigrants and their children, he said. “What is certain is that we are going through in France questions of disobedience, of incivility, of loss of bearings, and this group of irritated young kids is an excessive reflection of those questions.”

In 1998 the successful French team that won the World Cup was widely praised for its multiethnic nature — black, white and Arab, and seen as a symbol of a more diverse nation. But today, Mr. Tétart said, the talk is the opposite...

...On Tuesday, Mr. Le Pen said that “the myth of anti-racism is a sacred myth in France.” He added, with no apparent irony, that he hated politicians who turn the national soccer team into “a flag of anti-racism instead of sport.”

Just in the last few months a French government official was convicted for making racial remarks about Arabs and the French Parliament is currently debating creating a ban on burqas. Of course, the 2005 Paris suburbs riots should have been a wake-up call to the country.

Anti-racism certainly is a myth these days...

African Land: The New Colonialism

And you thought colonialism was over...

I just read a fascinating article that just about sums up everything that is wrong with globalization. Guardian environmental editor John Vidal recently wrote about how multinational companies, governments and rich individuals are acquiring every piece of available (and unavailable) land in Africa for their own food and biofuel production.

From The Guardian:

The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price rises in 2008, growing water shortages and the European Union's insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015.

In many areas the deals have led to evictions, civil unrest and complaints of "land grabbing."

This article uses the example of the Ethiopian born, Saudi businessman Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi buying up land in his impoverished homeland, but here is the kicker.

Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world's most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.

According to the article, al-Amoundi's 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of greenhouses could potentially employ 10,000 Ethiopians. My concerns with this and other such agricultural ventures being made by "The Outsiders" are the following:

1. Sure, it is good to give jobs to poor people, but are they getting good jobs? Decent wage? What about worker exploitation?

2. Why isn't any of the food being produce in Africa not being resold in Africa?

3. There seems to be little concern about land rights for the indigenous populations...

4. Isn't anyone worried about the already sensitive problem of food security in Africa? With more biofuel production comes less food for Africans (and the rest of the world).

5. The environmental impact goes beyond water intensive farming. What about the carbon impact of flying food from Africa to another continent?

6.The new land grab doesn't look any different from the original Scramble for Africa?

Hating Your Own Race

A friend of mine just forwarded me this, and I think it speaks for itself. SMH!

The White Beauty Myth (Documentary About Minorities In U.K. Wanting To Be White)

To Qaddafi with Love

I think it might be time for Muammar Qaddafi to call it a day. I guess he was so excited to be making his debut at the United Nations today that his speech may have sounded...a little off???

From The Guardian:

...Muammar Gaddafi - for it was he - grabbed his 15 minutes of fame at the UN building in New York today and ran with it. He ran with it so hard he stretched it to an hour and 40 minutes, six times longer than his allotted slot, to the dismay of UN organisers...

...He tore up a copy of the UN charter in front of startled delegates, accused the security council of being an al-Qaida like terrorist body, called for George Bush and Tony Blair to be put on trial for the Iraq war, demanded $7.7tn in compensation for the ravages of colonialism on Africa, and wondered whether swine flu was a biological weapon created in a military laboratory. At one point, he even demanded to know who was behind the killing of JFK. All in all, a pretty ordinary 100 minutes in the life of the colonel...

...He then turned his wrath on to America, Britain, France, Russia and China - the permanent members of the security council, or "terror council" as he renamed it. Their veto was tantamount to terrorism. "This is terrorism, like the terrorism of al-Qaida. Terrorism is not just al-Qaida, it takes many forms."

In case the point was lost on anyone, he tore up his copy of the UN rule book.

Having thus abused and alienated 99.99% of the world's top diplomats, he suddenly changed tack, heaping praise and devotion on the one man he appears to respect. "Now the black man doesn't have to sit in the back of the bus, the American people made him president and we are proud of that. We would be happy if Obama stayed president of America forever."

Poor Barack Obama. Having Gaddafi applaud his stance towards the world must have been as pleasing as being congratulated on his domestic policy by the leader of the birthers, who insist Obama was not born in America.

So much for Pan-Africanism...

Summer Book Reading List 2009

This is a long weekend for many of us, and there is no better time to enhance your intellectual curiosity than to take a good book with you on your summer vacations. Independence Day is also a celebration of our freedoms, including freedom of speech and press.

So, here are some books I hope to read in the next two months:

Of course, I have to read a book on food politics.

The Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food--Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation's Food Was Seasonal

I'm attending the Harlem Book Fair in a couple of weeks, and what better way to celebrate black literature than a book about a Harlem legend.

Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism 1883-1918

I minored in Cold War and post colonial studies in college, and I always wanted to read a book on Krushchev. Before there was Kim Jong-Il, Krushchev was the resident nut of world politics, threathening America will missiles.

K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist

Any other recommendations? What are you reading?

Cuban Revolution Revisited

As the world revels the first day of 2009, Cubans are having more subtle celebrations upon the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.



This BBC video discusses Castro's involvement in Angola.



So what's been going on in and out of Cuba for the last half century? Check out this video I found on YouTube. (Note that it is about an hour long and it is more biased to the anti-Castro point of view.)

Education and Black Youth

Just like in the United States, there are educational disparities among black and Asian youth in Britain, and advocates are looking at ways to close the gap. Recently, it became mandatory to teach black history following a review of the national curriculum.

From The Telegraph:

All pupils aged between 11 and 14 will be taught about the slave trade and the British empire when term begins next month to help them understand modern-day issues such as immigration.

The two subjects, aimed at highlighting the influence of ethnic minorities, will join the two world wars and the Holocaust as periods that must form part of the history syllabus.

Schoolchildren will learn about the roles of William Wilberforce, the MP who campaigned for the abolition of slavery, and Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who drew attention to the horrors of the trade after buying his freedom and writing an autobiography.

They will also be taught about the origins of the empire, with one unit looking at rise and fall of the Mughals in India and the arrival of the British. Another is titled "How was it that, by 1900, Britain controlled nearly a quarter of the world?"

Kevin Brennan, the children's minister, said: "Although we may be ashamed to admit it, the slave trade is an integral part of British history. It is inextricably linked to trade, colonisation, industrialisation and the British Empire.

"It is important that children learn about this and its links to wider world history, such as the American civil rights movement - the repercussions of which are still being felt today. That is why the slave trade will join the British Empire, the two world wars and the Holocaust as compulsory parts of the secondary school history curriculum from this September."

Meanwhile, others advocate for "segregated" schools for blacks.

From The Daily Express:

Lee Jasper, who advised former London Mayor Ken Livingstone on equalities, said it was time the black community ran its own schools, with black teachers and black governors.

He said black schools and colleges could prove to be a "beacon of excellence" for the black community.

Mr Jasper said Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities already had their own schools. And he accused the "liberal community" of dismissing the idea of black schools, while failing to address "institutional racism" within education.

The comments come after a study suggested that black Caribbean students are less likely to be entered for higher-tier science and maths exams because of low teacher expectations...

..."The US has many historically black colleges and universities. They cater for the needs of the African American and they excel. I am not arguing here for a BNP-style 'apartheid education system'. I am talking about black business, parents, schools and our magnificent churches coming together and establishing schools that are open to all and are organised around the behavioural, pastoral, psychological and cultural requirements of black young people growing up in a economic environment that excludes black people."

First, the only thing here is that HBCUs were created at a time when African Americans weren't allowed to attend other schools. Secondly, I am not sure about this argument to racially segregate schools. In the United States, there has been much debate about having schools just for black and Latino boys.

But I am wondering what you think about the state of education for black youth, both in the United States and the UK. Do you think we need to revert to racially segregated schools, and is there a need to have a more culturally relevant curricula?

Libya back in the fold

Libya is back in Western favor.

Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tripoli today to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, the first visit in more than half a century by a U.S. secretary of state to the North African nation.

Apparently, no one told Rice that she is his new boo.

From CNN:

After their meeting, Gadhafi, who once called Rice "Leeza ... my darling black African woman," was hosting a dinner for Rice.

Last year in an interview with Arabic TV station al Jazeera, Gadhafi suggested that Rice ran the Arab world, with which he has sometimes had stark differences.

"I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders," he said. "I love her very much because she's a black woman of African origin."

Just last week, Italy signed an agreement to pay Libya $5 billion as part of a deal to resolve colonial-era disputes. Libya is the first African country to be compensated by a former colonial country.

From BBC News:

...Berlusconi explained that $200m would be paid annually over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects, the main one being a coastal motorway between the Egyptian and Tunisian borders.

There will also be a colonial-era mine clearing project.

As a goodwill gesture, Italy also returned an ancient statue of Venus, the headless "Venus of Cyrene", which had been taken to Rome in colonial times.

The settlement was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era", the Italian prime minister said.

"In this historic document, Italy apologises for its killing, destruction and repression against Libyans during the colonial rule," Col Gaddafi said for his part...

What a difference an image change makes...

Kureishi on Islamic Radicalism

My hero, postcolonial literary genius Hanif Kureishi was featured in last week's New York Times about his new book, Something to Tell You.

I fell in love with Kureshi's work while I was in college, when I was first introduced to his book, The Buddha of Suburbia. Being of Jamaican ancestry, in a way, I was able to identify with Karim's experience of "otherness." This book, as well as Kureishi's other famed novella, My Son the Fanatic, were also ahead of the curve on discussing Islamic extremism, which he discusses in this article.

From The New York Times:

...Although Kureishi recognizes the sense of powerlessness and sting of
racism that have helped push many young British Muslims toward radicalism, he is
intolerant of such intolerance. “The antidote to Puritanism isn’t
licentiousness, but the recognition of what goes on inside human beings,”
Kureishi wrote in the title essay of “The Word and the Bomb.” He added:
“Fundamentalism is dictatorship of the mind, but a live culture is an
exploration, and represents our endless curiosity about our own strangeness and
impossible sexuality: wisdom is more important than doctrine; doubt more
important than certainty. Fundamentalism implies the failure of our most
significant attribute, our imagination.”

...As if it weren’t already clear, Kureishi isn’t a moralist. In one
conversation, he was adamant that he’s “not advocating anything,” just
observing. (He did, however, say he was opposed to Muslim women in Britain
wearing the veil, “because of what it symbolizes: a part of Islam that’s deeply
oppressive to women.”) At the reading in London in March, Kureishi was
dismissive of rhetoric about British national identity and the notion that
immigrants should become more integrated into the society. “I don’t think
there’s any obligation for anyone to integrate,” Kureishi told his audience.
“They are people entitled to live as they wish.” Besides, he added, why are only
immigrants or their children asked to integrate? “The royal family don’t
integrate,” he said. “Prince Philip doesn’t integrate.” Kureishi mentioned Rainer
Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 film “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,” in which a German
woman is reviled by her neighbors after she marries a Muslim guest worker.
“Everyone hates them,” Kureishi told me. “He says: ‘I’m trying to integrate
here. If we don’t integrate, they say we’re isolated. If we do integrate by
trying to marry your women, you hate us even more.’ The guy can’t win.”

Mahmoud Darwish 1941-2008

Palestinian poet and social activist Mahmoud Darwish was paid last respects today in Ramallah by crowds of supporters. He will be most remembered for his literary audacity and fairness in the Arab-Israeli question.

“Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile,” he said. “The sarcasm is not only related to today’s reality but also to history. History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.”

Harlem Book Fair 2008!

We are heading down to New York City today to attend the 10th annual Harlem Book Fair, the largest black-oriented literary event in the United States. This is a great event for those of you who support the future of literacy and cultural sustainability in the African Diaspora.

If you can't come to New York this weekend, you can still participate by watching it on Book TV. Scheduled authors to appear include activist Amiri Baraka, journalists Herb Boyd and Cora Daniels and former Jamaican first lady Beverley Manley.

Of course, Global Wire will be reporting on this year's participating authors as well as the hottest topics in black arts and letters.

'AfroPop" brings African Diaspora together through film and Internet

By Talia Whyte

Originally published in The Bay State Banner

The advent of new media tools have made the world a smaller place, and the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) is taking advantage of what it considers an opportunity with its new series, “AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange Program.”

The three-week program, premiering for Boston audiences Sunday night on WGBX Channel 44, shows documentary films that examine and celebrate different aspects of black identity as they are expressed around the world. The films also provide an alternative view of the African Diaspora rarely seen in the mainstream media.

Filmmaker Regi Allen was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University when he traveled five years ago with a group of other African Americans from Pittsburgh to Ghana, Senegal and Ivory Coast to make “10 Days in Africa,” the premiere film in the “AfroPoP” series. The trip, he says, was a soul-searching experience not only for himself, but also for the people he met.

“It was a personal journey for me,” Allen said. “The trip brought down barriers … Connecting with Africa is important to me because the only thing I saw about Africa before the trip was AIDS and war.”

Misperceptions were on both sides.

“… And many Africans think African Americans are rich and didn’t have any connection with the continent,” he said.

“AfroPoP” will be hosted by someone who knows a little something about transcending identities — actor Idris Elba. Born to West African parents in London, Elba now lives in the United States, where he is one of Hollywood’s rising stars and perhaps best known for his role as Stringer Bell on the critically acclaimed HBO series “The Wire.” He says he was ecstatic when he was asked to take on hosting duties.

“I loved the idea of cultural exposure,” Elba said in a recent interview with the Banner. “I love truth. Many of the images we get are so slanted. I relished the opportunity to give accurate accounts of African life and true African interests.”

The NBPC sees “AfroPoP” as not only an opportunity to share some of the best documentaries being produced by the industry’s young black filmmakers, but also a chance for those displaced in the African Diaspora to talk to each other about commonalities.

“Hip Hop Revolution,” another “AfroPoP” film, examines how hip-hop culture has become a worldwide phenomenon, transcending black and colored communities in Cape Town, South Africa. South African filmmaker Weaam Williams says she wanted to show that just as black and Latino youth used hip-hop to speak out about urban blight during the 1980s, young South Africans also rhymed about the detrimental effects of apartheid during that same time period.

“I was inspired by the hip-hop artists in my community,” Williams said. “I wanted to show in my film that hip-hop is international. I also think there is a creative resurgence in Africa, and I wanted to tap into that.”

Elba agreed that hip-hop is universal, as well as infectious. When he is not acting in film and television he finds time to put on his other hat as DJ Driss to spin records at night clubs all around the country.

He actually started out as a DJ when he came to the United States in order to pay the bills while auditioning for acting roles. Now that his acting career has taken off, he continues to DJ for fun these days.

“I fell in love with hip-hop during the mid-80s,” he said. “There was this radio DJ in London, Dave Pierce, who had started an on-air freestyle battle. It became really popular and hard to call into. I got through and didn’t win, but was hooked on the music and making the music ever since.”

The NBPC is the leading provider of black-oriented programming on PBS. It has also been on the forefront of using new media to reach the public.

The organization hosted a new media training session last year working with WGBH in Jackson, Miss., where filmmakers could learn about implementing digital technology into their projects.

“AfroPoP” viewers can view segments of the films and interviews with the filmmakers online at www.blackpublicmedia.org, and can also leave comments and start conversations about them as well.

The series is just one example of how blacks around the world are connecting with each other.

Such discussions have seen an unprecedented spike this year due in part to the presidential aspirations of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, whom many members of the African Diaspora find inspiring and have embraced.

“First off, I want to say he’s a good leader who happens to be black, rather than a black leader who happens to be good,” Elba said. ”I feel politics is politics — it really has no color. He’s a dynamic person who is bringing a wind of change and happens to identify with who I am.”

“AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange Program” premieres Sunday, July 13 at 7 p.m. on WGBX Channel 44.

For more information, visit www.blackpublicmedia.org, or www.wgbh.org

Racism in Europe still lives

Sometimes I have to snap back into the reality that America isn't the only place in the world with a "race" problem.

From The Associated Press:

Racist violence and discrimination persist across the European Union, and most members of the 27-nation bloc aren't taking advantage of tough legislation to crack down, the EU's rights agency warned.

Britain and France lead a list of nine countries credited with actively fighting racism and xenophobia, but most other EU members aren't making the most of a tough EU-wide "racial equality directive," the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights said.

Between 2006 and 2007, Britain punished 95 offenders, more than the other 26 members combined, the Vienna-based agency said. It also lauded Bulgaria, France, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Sweden.

By contrast, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia issued no sanctions during the same period.

While the report praises the UK for "fighting racism and xenophobia," how much progress has a place like London made if they elect resident lunatic Boris Johnson to be mayor?

During his mayoral campaign, Johnson came under fire for statements perceived to be racist by many in London's black community, including Labor MP Diane Abbot and Doreen Lawrence, mother of racially slained Stephen Lawrence.

Following an inquiry into Stephen's death, better known as the Macpherson Inquiry, Johnson, who was a journalist at the time, called the racial charges against the police to be plain "hysteria," and also said that the inquiry's "recommendation that the law might be changed so as to allow prosecution for racist language or behaviour 'other than in a public place'" was akin to "Ceausescu's Romania."

Johnson was also critized for a column he wrote in the Telegraph, mocking then Prime Minister Tony Blair's diplomatic trip to the Congo. Johnson said Blair would arrive as "the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief", just as "it is said the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies."

While Johnson did apologize for the above at a January debate for his use of piccaninies, many of his colleagues then came out and said that the mayor uses the derogatory term all the time.

The saga continued this weekend when one of the mayor's aides, James McGarth, quit over statements made towards London black immigrants who didn't like that the Tory party now ran the city.

``Well, let them go if they don't like it here,'' McGrath said, according to the account on the-latest.com.

It just so happens that I am renting the full two season of the fabulous black britcom, Desmond's, which was about a Caribbean immigrant family dealing with London life during the Thatcher years. When I first watched the show a few years ago, I actually thought it was a bit dated, considering the amount of racial advancement London has made over the year. But with this Johnson in office now, advancement could be stalled for a while.

The New World Digital Information Order

The world has spoken, and they want more access to fair and balanced information and ideas.

From IPS:

According to a major new survey of more than 18,000 adults in 20 countries released on the eve of International Press Freedom Day May 3, an average of 56 percent said they believe that media "should have the right to publish news and ideas without government control".

At same time, an average of 36 percent of respondents -- concentrated mostly in Russia, several Arab states, China, and Indonesia -- believe "the government should have the right to prevent the media from publishing things that it thinks will be politically destabilising".

And while strong majorities in every country agree with the notion that their compatriots should have the right to read publications from other countries, including those that might be considered enemies, significant minorities in India, South Korea, Egypt, and the Palestinian Territories disagree.

Many news outlets, most notably Al-Jazeera, has taken steps in recent years to present alternative information that would otherwise be left out of mainstream, Western media, especially with its coverage of the so-called War on Terror. Now, the network is making strides to present an English-language offshout to America.

But it is cyberspace and the actions of ordinary citizens who are changing the way we get our news. The recent tragedy in China presented why social media will change the world. China is one of the most secretive, repressive countries in the world. Usually the world didn’t know about the tragedies that happened within its borders until long after when nothing could be done about it. But, this all changed when the Chinese government couldn’t suppress information because of the unprecedented number of earthquake victims using text messaging and blogging to get relief and find loved ones.

The news media is paying attention to this development. While many journalists are slow to getting into the social media revolution, there are many in the media who are embracing the change, including the Society for Professional Journalists, who is offering training for bloggers on ethical journalism, as well as nontraditional media like YouTube and Global Voices.

The world has come a long way since the MacBride Report.

Radical Music Videos: Benjamin Zephaniah

In this "Empire Writes Back" edition, Howard University professor R. Victoria Arana recentley gave an interview with Foreign Policy in Focus on British post colonial literature and its impact.

From Foreign Policy in Focus:

E. Ethelbert Miller: Briefly describe the political, social and economic issues that have shaped the literature.

Arana: Scholars have conveniently labeled this particular “boom” a case of the “Empire writing back.” The first wave of black British writers (from 1950 though the 1980s) considered themselves post-colonial and addressed issues relating to colonialism, its cultural legacies and hang-ups. Those British-born writers publishing in the 1990s and 2000s, however, tend to think of themselves as more forward-looking, more concerned with contemporary life in Britain and their connections to people all around the world, not even necessarily to the countries from which their forbears emigrated...

...Miller: How do black writers in Britain approach their writing while living in an empire that has seen a political decline?

Arana: The fact of the decline per se for many is seen as a plus since it means that the empire is not over-lording and exploiting colonies in the old ways. Benjamin Zephaniah, for example, an edgy, radical poet from Birmingham with a huge following in England, was offered an Order of the British Empire, a highly coveted honor, and he flatly turned it down, quipping that the Queen must not have been reading any of his poetry before deciding on the award or he certainly would not have been named. His rejection of the title hasn’t hurt him with the establishment; he is a regular recipient of generous prizes and travel funds to visit foreign lands as a cultural emissary of Britain...

Meanwhile in Trinidad, apparently there is no love for V.S. Naipaul.

From The New York Times:

...In the nearly six decades since Naipaul left for England, the relationship [between Naipaul and Trinidadians] has taken on the character of a bad marriage, with Trinidad setting Naipaul up to spurn it and Naipaul obliging. When asked about Naipaul, Trinidadians will first talk not about his books, though they are widely read in schools here, but about the idea that he has turned his back on the country. “He’s a bit salty about being Trinidadian,” a local bar owner and guide said when I asked him to show me Naipaul’s ancestral home. Others put it less diplomatically: “He hates Trinidad” was a common refrain...

Speaking of Zephaniah, who we have much love for here on this blog, check out a classic music video by him:

Obituary: Aimé Césaire 1913-2008

When anti-colonial literary giant Aimé Césaire passed away last week, he left behind a lasting legacy of using the written word to promote social justice.

Césaire was best known for initiating Negritude, a political and literary movement that rejected colonialism and promoted black pride. He also served as an inspiration to Franz Fanon, one of the great thinkers of our time. I first learned about Césaire when I was in college, where I minored in post-colonial studies. I read his book, Discourses on Colonialism, and I was blown away by his passion for political engagement.

My fondest memory of him is when he criticized the then minister of the interior Nicolas Sarkozy endorsement for legislation citing the “good things” that come out of colonialism. The language was immediately taken out of the bill thereafter.

“I remain faithful to my beliefs and remain inflexibly anticolonialist,” Mr. Césaire said at the time.

Could you imagine if he had a blog!

Zim calls British ban "racist madness"

Zimbabwe is reacting today to reports that the British government is considering banning all Zimbabwean athletes from entering its country. The move is an alleged attempt to suppress Robert Mugabe’s regime. But the Zimbabwean information secretary said that British ban is racist and is an attempt to treat his country as if it is still a colony.

From BBC

"I don't think the British Government will sink so low as to implement that - and if they do, well, we are appealing to the world community to express their concern and urge the British to stop that madness," he said.

Mr Ndlovu said Zimbabwe had the support of the International Olympic Committee and Fifa and he said the joke would be on the British government if measures to ban Zimbabwean sports competitors were introduced.

He said Britain had a "vendetta" against Zimbabwe because of Mr Mugabe's seizure of white-owned land…

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said that no final decision had been taken.

"While there are currently no sporting sanctions on Zimbabwe, we should not let international sport become a propaganda tool for dictators."

Such a move by the British government would be seen as controversial for other reasons. Under a ban tennis player Cara Black, Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry and golfer Nick Price would all have trouble competing in respective upcoming competions.

As usually, I blame this mess on Robert Mugabe for letting his country fall deeper into isolation because of the insane human rights violations he allows to happen in Zimbabwe. Today happens to be the 28th anniversary of his election to presidency, and what a disappointment it has turned into.

Obits: Shomron and Bravo

Two names from the past died in the last couple of days...


From CNN

Former Israeli military chief Dan Shomron, the paratrooper who commanded the famed 1976 hostage rescue at Entebbe airport in Uganda, died Tuesday from the effects of a stroke. He was 70. Promoted to brigadier general in 1974, he was put in command of Israel's paratroopers and infantry. It was in that post that he oversaw the daring Entebbe mission in 1976. His commandos landed at the Ugandan airport under cover of darkness and freed more than 100 airline passengers who had been held hostage by Palestinian and German hijackers for a week.

From the Jamaica Gleaner

MARION Bravo, regarded as one the pioneering women of Jamaica's trade union movement has died at the age of 96.

"She was a jovial, hard-working and loyal person," said former BITU senior vice-president and current minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Dwight Nelson.

"She was the epitome of the ideal support staff for trade unionists; she was well respected and she contributed immensely to the trade union movement," Nelson added.
BITU general secretary, George Fyffe, recalled Bravo as "a warm and kind" staff member "who was devoted to the trade union movement".

Bravo along with Gladys Longbridge (Lady Bustamante) and Edith Nelson were once regarded as the most powerful women in the BITU, all serving the union for more than 50 years, mainly in charge of financial and secretarial affairs.

Longbridge later married the union's founder, the late national hero Sir Alexander Bustamante, while Nelson rose to become the general secretary prior to her retirement.

Bravo will be buried on Saturday, March 1, following a thanksgiving service at the Holy Cross Church, Half-Way-Tree Road.