"If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"

At the end of Sherman Alexie's 1999 movie "Smoke Signals", which is adapted from his book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven", a powerful poem by Dick Lourie is read.

Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph

The poem is somewhat adapted to fit the storyline about two Native American men in their late teens who take a trip from their Couer d'Alene reservation in the Pacific Northwest to Pheonix Arizona.

The journey is about coming to terms with absent fathers and making peace with discordant memories that weigh heavy.

And so the question of "how do we forgive our fathers" is brought to bear on the consciousness of both young men.

I saw the movie in Seattle about 8 years ago but rented it again and watched it alone in Portland a couple years later.

Both these cities are in the Pacific Northwest.

It struck me that in the decade that I lived there I never met more than a handful of folks who were Couer d'Alene. They have been made to disappear.

In this movie we meet Native Americans who are real.  Not stereotypical Injuns of the American West that played under the racist boot of John Wayne.

Tonight I caught about an hour of the movie on a local satellite channel and it reminded me of my own struggle to come to terms.

One scene that stuck out tonight is one I would not have paid too much mind to when I saw the movie previously because my dad was still alive.

The scene has one of the lead characters driving his deceased dad's beat-up beige pick-up truck.

It is a Ford F250 and it is a bucket of late-1970s vintage.

My dad's pick-up truck is a beige Isuzu 250 Diesel and it is a bucket of mid-1990s vintage.

Just made me smile that's all :0)

The journey to forgiveness, or at least coming to terms, is about confrontation. The past is never just about stuff that happened before now.

We must confront the past or live on in denial forever.  Confrontation promises freedom through greater meaning, and even resolution.

To live in denial is to live suspended.

This is true at the interpersonal level or the societal (nation) level.  No nation can unburden its past without a measured and purposeful confrontation. 

Denial is not a reasonable option.  Not for individuals and not for nations.

Read the poem below and see the movie if you have not already. And it is OK for men to cry about their fathers.  You too Guru :0)

Life is too hard without the comfort of tears.

The closing question is deep.  Would like to know what you think.

For me the journey has been a reaffirmation of how fragile and human we are.  I have learned to accept that life is not about controlling outcomes.

And I now know that to really love your father, you must learn to forgive yourself too.

Onward!

How do we forgive our fathers?

Maybe in a dream.

Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often,

or forever,

when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage,

or for making us nervous

because there never seemed to be any rage there at all?

Do we forgive our fathers for marrying,

or not marrying,

our mothers?

Or divorcing,

or not divorcing,

our mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses

of warmth

or coldness?

Shall we forgive them

for pushing

or leaning?

For shutting doors?

For speaking through walls?

Or never speaking?

Or never being silent?

Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs?

Or in their deaths,

saying it to them,

or not saying it?

If we forgive our fathers, what is left?

- Dick Lourie-

Picture Credit

"Last Time I Saw Her She was Howling at the Moon"

A couple of days ago a friend said she thought that moving back to Kimberley had made me "mellow".

I thought her text was a generous and perceptive compliment given that my life feels a lot more meaningful now.

I sat back in my morning chair where I was having breakfast and folded my arms thinking how nice she was to call me "mellow".

Of course I could see my adversarial friend, the Guru, thumbing his nose and blowing caustic smoke in my direction.  So, I hit my newly-installed personal virus protection button and sent the b*tch packing.

Then I picked up my nice new cell phone and sent the beautiful one a kind reply saying that no-one has ever called me "mellow", ever.

I put the cell down.  Sighed out the calmness that is now me and thought it was gonna be a wonderful day.

The kind of day where stuff just fits.  When your fists are unclenched and the paragraphs flow easily from your fingers across the keyboard.

The kind of day when love and butterflies float your magic carpet.

I poured another slow cup of coffee and contemplated a nice long run in the late afternoon.  You know, the kind of run where you stay inside your fitness level because you like how feeling close to tired is sometimes more meaningful than coughing up a lung.

As I settled to taste the nectar of the gods, my cell offered a gentle beep that suggested the beautiful one may want to add a sentence, or perhaps two, to emphasize my balanced "mellow".

I opened the screen to let the revealing light flow towards my eyes and there it was, her ego sapping and ass-kicking response:

"Lol.  Not a good thing.  Mellow is a step away from comatose."

Huh?

Did the sista just retract the compliment?  Am I doomed to just about get there all the time only to be turned around?

Or, was I just needy and buying into the delusional calmness some say I have embraced on my return pilgrimage to hell by the hole?

I did not put up too much of a fight to reclaim my "mellow" me delusion.  She is right.  That damn sanctimonious Guru dude who has more money than the gods is right too.

The Manhattans used to say "there is no me without you" and I guess there is no me without being pissed off and grumpy.  

I mentioned to the beautiful one that her comment reminded me of a Tears for Fears song in more than one way.  She did not respond but I felt her rolling eyes walk over my aging consciousness.

Now I know some of you who know me 'long time' think I think there is a Tears for Fears song for just about everything and you are right.

I like their self-absorbed meaningless post-modern white-boy drivel.  It defines my vacuous American youth.

Oh did I tell you they touring and making big cash in South America as I write?  OK I know you don't care but humus a brother.

The song, "Call me Mellow", is on their last album entitled  "Everyone Loves a Happy Ending".

I have spent many years thinking about the lyrics because it speaks to the dread of running out of being cool.

What?

Boet I was cool once upon a time.  Around the time that other dude lit a dubie and walked across the lake in a flannel robe.

The dude, by the way, was my boy Mark and the lake in north Canada was frozen.  And you were thinking blasphemy!

OK OK ... the dudes in the band are about my age and the lyrics are about being taken by a much younger woman calling a middle-aged man "mellow".

They obviously took it as a compliment.  Maybe I should just forward the deconstruction text from the beautiful one, no?

OK this video is live from the Conan O'Brien show in the US.  

If only I was half my age and she was older
We'd live on ice-cream on Coney Island
And though it's gravity that drags down my balloon
She stays in orbit way after midnight

Woah slip and slide
Does she go all dewey-eyed?

But then she knows it's like a curse
To find our chosen roles reversed
To unify my universe
To call me mellow

***

Middle-age sucks big time. Especially when half the sh*t I want to do still lays way out there.

No time for being "mellow", huh Guru?

Onward!

Ps. An angry man is a creative man.  Ask the soul sapping Guru - he knows first hand.

The UN is a War Making Machine

This article in the Guardian (UK) caught my attention because it seems so familiar and contrived given what the UN orchestrated inside of Libya.

The headline reads: "Syrian Troops have killed more that 250 children, UN finds" (28/11)

That is a very serious accusation and must be backed up by clear and incontrovertible evidence and facts.  Right?

Not the kind of lying facts drawn from manufactured reports of Gaddafi attacking his people with fighter jets that appeared alongside other 'factual reports' that he gave his troops Viagara to help them rape defenseless women.

The UN after all is supposedly an organization that must guard the interests of all and not pander to the powerful elite like it did in the recent recolonization of Libya.  Right?

So where did the UN get its facts you must be thinking and asking alongside of me and other concerned humans all across the world.

Well the Guardian article puts it so:

The 39-page (UN) document includes testimony from defectors from the security forces, who described indiscriminate shooting at unarmed protesters and snipers targeting those using loudspeakers or carrying cameras and mobile phones. A defector described the shooting of a two-year-old girl by an officer who said he did not want her to grow up to be a demonstrator. The figure of 256 children killed up to 9 November was attributed only to unspecified "reliable sources".

Read the last sentence again just to make sure you getting the source for these damning and inhumane 'facts' and figures.

How can the UN go on record with bullsh*t like this?  Are these fools serious?  Do you even consider the UN to be a "reliable source" of anything anymore?

Don't get me twisted here.  I hold no brief for President Assad or his goons or anyone linked to the turmoil in Syria.

But is this not so familiar by now?  Think of how the UN nuclear verification process f*cked over Iraq.  Are they not busy helping the US do the same sh*t in Iran?

It is becoming crystal clear, the UN is helping the US and its empire of lapdogs make war all over the middle east and beyond.

This passage from the article makes the not so surprising connection with reference to western "pressure":

 Further pressure came from France's foreign minister, Alain Juppé, who said Assad's days were "numbered". Britain condemned the "horrific and shocking actions carried out by the Assad regime against its own civilian population".

It's all going nice and smoothly and according to a well worn invasion and conquer script.

And here in the delusional rainbow some muthaz are wondering why I am not even excited about Cop 17 in Durban.

Are they going to ban war and its carbon emissions at Cop 17?  Is the US war machine not one of the greatest emitters of carbon - if not the greatest?

Or will the US walk out of Cop 17 like it did out of the Durban racism talks in 2001?

F*ck the UN is my thinking.  It is on the side of the rich and warmongering western states and deserves to be discredited at every juncture.

More children have died as a result of the UN's lying and compliant sh*t in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya, than anywhere else.

And why is the UN not stoking the fires of consciousness in defense of its supposed mandate to protect the universal human rights of all, by calling Obomber on his drone murders of innocent children?

What is the tally for innocent children and other civilians killed by drones?  Is the UN counting or too busy kissing the ass of the empire to even notice?

The truth is that the UN is in the business of racist demonizing and warmongering on the side of the lapsing empire; an arbiter and guardian of universal human rights it is definitely not.

Onward!

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, FEBRUARY 4, 2012

We call on you as sisters and brothers to join us for THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, LEONARD PELTIER MARCHES AND RALLIES FOR CLEMENCY, FEBRUARY 4. 2012, either at the Tacoma Regional March, or by organizing a march and rally where ever you maybe in the world, as we send the message: We will not give up! We will not surrender! We will continue to stand for justice for Leonard Peltier and for justice for all that he represents for as long as it takes to set him free! Our strength is building and time is on our side, the sweep of justice is moving throughout the world and we are a part of that great wave of truth and justice.

Please join with us on February 4,  2012 for a tremendous show of solidarity, a march and rally in Unified Solidarity for Justice for Leonard Peltier. All of us working together will free Leonard Peltier.

In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse
Tacoma Chapter,  Leonard Peltier Offense/Defense Committee
Susan Morales
Steve Hapy
Arthur J. Miller

For donations for the NW Region March: Please make checks payable to the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee (mark them for NW March) and send them to: Tacoma Chapter LPODC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415.

TACOMA CHAPTER, LPDOC
P.O. BOX 5464, TACOMA, WA 98415-0464
bayou@blarg.net

LINKS
Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at:
http://facebook.com/tacoma.lpdoc

Subscribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at:
nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
March web site; http://leonardpeltiermarch.wordpress.com/

On the web
http://zinelibrary.info/international-day-solidarity-leonard-peltier-
feb-4-2011-fliers-and-info

Two page flier for NW Regional March:
http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2011.pdf
One page flier for NW Regional March:
http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2001_info.pdf
Portland flier for NW Regional March:
http://zinelibrary.info/files/Portland_Peltier_Flier.pdf
March statements and flier:
http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2001_info.pdf

The Case of Leonard Peltier - short summary www.youtube.com LPDOC NW Regional Organizer& Tacoma LPDOC Chapter member Arthur Miller speaking about the case history of political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

LPDOC: Constitutional Violations in the Peltier Case:
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/violations.htm

Picture Credit

Onward!

Favorites and Sunday Soul

I'm gonna leave these up for those of you who have no need to stress about bandwidth and then it is coming down so it can be a seriaz thinkaz blog again.

OK I know the blog's been a little erratic of late but hey did I tell you about my writing schedule?

The cuts below are just in case you feeling like a little old skool cause yo' heart be broken, or better yet, cause you getting ready to do some serious f*ckin' before the weekend is over.

I truly hope it is the latter.  And if it is please don't call to tell me about it.  I live in Kimberley (again) where the Big Hole is actually a really big hole in the ground and life just chokes your chicken till it's dust.

Why you think the place is so dusty?

Freudian slip?  Paradoxical?  Are you impressed by the level of subtlety here? :0)

Did I tell you I lost my virginity in Kimberley?  True story.  A longggggggggg time ago, OK.  For real!  Geez.

Oh I should probably mention I found it the other day.  It was hidden under my bed with all the rubbers I been saving since high school.

Kweli was wondering where the Guru's been.  Actually brother, I heard from the 'spiritually deluded one' this week and he was quoting the US Declaration of Independence for some reason.

Did not ask why but it sounds as if he has either had his heart broken (again) or he is f*cking someone else's .. well let's just say where he ain't got no legitimate bidness f*cking there (again).

Either way.  The mutha is still on full tilt crazy.

I wonder if that boy ever heard of Karma?  He a Guru sumthen ain't he?

Geez and he is a really good lawyer too and can sue the you know what out of my behind.

I hope the young 'uns can find a listen down below too.  You know there is life after high school, right?  And after you fall in love for the 20th time and then can't stand their lying ass.  And after you just don't give a f*ck about any sh*t or anyone you offend anymore - including folks who write your checks.

Angela did I tell you I'm supposed to be writing for a deadline next week?  Ummm oh yeah I did.

Oh oh ... the After 7 cut is for your ass.  Yeah you know who you are!  (All forty-three of you.)  You better believe I ain't ever talking to your contrived ass again ... well till you call that is ;0)

Onward!

Doctor Migration Costly for sub-Saharan Africa

News24
November 25, 2011

Sub-Saharan African countries that invest in training doctors have ended up losing $2 billion as the expert clinicians leave home to find work in more prosperous developed nations, researchers said on Friday.

A study by Canadian scientists found that South Africa and Zimbabwe suffer the worst economic losses due to doctors emigrating, while Australia, Canada, Britain and the United States benefit the most from recruiting doctors trained abroad.

The scientists, led by Edward Mills, chair of global health at the University of Ottawa, called on destination countries to recognise this imbalance and invest more in training and developing health systems in the countries that lose out.

"Many wealthy destination countries, which also train fewer doctors than are required, depend on immigrant doctors to make up the shortfall," Mills' team wrote in a study, which was published in the British Medical Journal.

"Developing countries are effectively paying to train staff who then support the health services of developed countries."

'Brain drain'

Experts say the migration, or "brain drain", of trained health workers from poorer countries to richer ones exacerbates the problem of already weak health systems in low-income countries.

The World Health Organisation adopted a code of practice in 2010 on international recruitment of health personnel that highlighted the problem of doctor brain drains and called on wealthy countries to offer financial help to poorer ones affected.

The code is seen as particularly important for sub-Saharan Africa, which suffers from a critical shortage of doctors and has a high prevalence of diseases such as HIV, TB and malaria.

The latest United Nations global HIV/AIDS report released on Monday found that 68 percent of the around 34 million people worldwide who have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes Aids live in Africa.

Using various data including published reports on primary and secondary school spending from UNESCO, Mills' team estimated the cost of educating a doctor through primary, secondary and medical school in nine sub-Saharan countries with some of the world's highest rates of HIV.

South Africa suffers greatest loss

The countries studied included Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The research team then added the figures together to estimate how much the origin countries paid to train doctors and how much the destination countries saved in employing them.

The results show that these governments spend between $21,000, the figure for Uganda, and $59,000, in South Africa, to train a doctor, only to see them in many cases migrate to richer countries.

"Among the nine sub-Saharan African countries most affected by HIV/Aids, more than $2 billion of investment was lost through the emigration of trained doctors," the researchers said. "Our results indicate that South Africa incurs the highest costs for medical education and the greatest lost returns on investment."

The findings suggested the benefit to Britain was around $2.7 billion, and to the United States was around $846 million. Australia was estimated to have benefited to the tune of $621 million and Canada was $384 million better off.

*****

Comment: The mining from the north continues.  It is how Walter Rodney said the west got developed and the rest got f*cked.

Predatory immigration policies find those folks with skills and they decide (lured?) to go where the grass is greener (supposedly).

It is somewhat of a waste of time to blame those who leave (or have left).

Working conditions on the continent are not easy in the best of situations.

State hospitals in South Africa are a nightmare.  It takes one helluva strong medical professional to want to stay and work through the pathetic conditions (here is where young medical professionals start out).

In the private sector things are not as bad and those more seasoned folks make a mint and live much better here than they would in Australia or Canada, among other chosen spots.

I am trying to say we are losing the younger professional.  It makes sense for the government to provide incentives for professionals to stay (particularly those just starting out but also the ones who can mentor). 

Blaming folks and threatening them with this and that won't do sh*t.  Everybody just wants a better slice of life.

Make it better and folks will stay.  Some will even come back.

Onward!

Six Afghan Children in Kandahar 'Killed by NATO'

CommonDreams.org 
Agence France-Presse
November 24, 2011.

Officials including Afghan President Hamid Karzai have accused NATO-led international forces of killing up to seven civilians, six of them children, in an air strike in the south.

The incident happened late on Wednesday in Zhari district of Kandahar province, a traditional Taliban stronghold where NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops claim significant progress in recent months.


The Kandahar governor's office said the air strike was aimed against insurgents who were planting mines, but they then fled into a village, where ISAF forces pursued them and struck.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul acknowledged that the "unfortunate" incident had involved "several civilians being killed and injured" and said it came in response to insurgent action.

It has launched an inquiry into what happened.

The issue of civilian casualties in air strikes is highly sensitive in Afghanistan and has fuelled tensions between Karzai and his Western backers.

Karzai's office issued a statement saying he "strongly condemned" the strike, which it said killed seven people including six children, as well as injuring two young girls.

The president has also tasked a team with investigating the incident.

The governor of Zhari district Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi said that the strike was aimed at Taliban fighters planting roadside mines in the area but missed its target and hit residential areas nearby.
But the governor's office in Kandahar gave a slightly different explanation.

It said that two insurgents had been killed in an air strike, "while the three remaining fled and hid themselves among civilian houses".

It added: "The ISAF aircraft pursued the three remaining insurgents and dropped bombs on a road where they were hiding but as a result, six children were killed and three others were injured."
ISAF commanders say the Taliban and other insurgents frequently hide among the local population in a bid to protect themselves.

However, ISAF forces are supposed to take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties.

The United States general who commands ISAF troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, wrote in July that he expected "every member of ISAF to be seized with the intent to eliminate civilian casualties caused by ISAF".

Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq said three Taliban had died out of a total death toll of nine, while investigations were continuing to ascertain the identity of the others.

Earlier this month, Afghan elders held a loya jirga or traditional meeting to discuss a strategic partnership deal with the US which will govern Kabul's relations with Washington after 2014.

This is the date by which all foreign combat troops in Afghanistan - currently totalling 140,000, most from the US - are due to leave.

The loya jirga's stipulations for the deal included that Afghan security forces should lead all military operations, the Afghan air force be better trained and equipped and American citizens committing crimes on Afghan soil should not face immunity.  (© 2011 Agence France-Presse)

*****

Comment: Killing children in any circumstance, and anywhere, is absolutely evil and immoral.

Imagine the uproar, though, if these were American or British kids.  Do you think this story would be tucked away in the consciousness of the west?

I wonder how many Americans remembered the kids their taxes are killing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, south Sudan, this 'Thanksgiving'?

And the OWS so called movement?  Was there a vigil for these kids I missed?  Or was it just the usual lefty liberal wanking with Starbucks coffee in hand?

How delusional hey, the oh so fashionable revolution by BlackBerry, Twitter, and Facebook?

I bet this 'Thanksgiving' was just another navel-gazing day when the overfed heirs of Indian genocide sat in denial thinking God was listening.

Until that day.

Onward!

Zapiro on Secrecy Bill

Credit

See Tutu slams 'insulting' Information Bill.  And also Veteran reporter slams 'all-white' Press Club for Don Mattera's important critique of the call for a "Black Tuesday" (how do you say appropriation so white folks and their agents can understand?)

And we are not free.

Onward!

Saif Gaddafi's Future

Credit

Kenya Bombs Somalia Islamist Camp

News24
November 21, 2011.

Nairobi - The Kenyan military said on Sunday that its jets, supported by fire from warships off the coast, had destroyed a training camp for Islamist militants in Somalia.

Kenyan troops entered Somalia six weeks ago vowing to wipe out the al-Shabaab rebels, who it accuses of a series of kidnappings and attacks on tourists on Kenyan soil.

"Today, 20 November at around 12:00 hours, [Kenyan Defence Forces jets] supported by naval fire, destroyed an al-Shabaab/al-Qaeda key training facility in Hola Wajeer/Lacta area in Badade district, Lower Juba," a military statement said.

"This infrastructure accommodates foreign fighters, most of them trainers of the al-Shabaab fighters."

Comment: Wow!  That easy huh?  A very visible training center where the 'bad guys' train and then go out and capture tourists for money - who knew huh?

All this f*cking time I was thinking Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda were more devious than that.  I mean they so foolish to just open a "training facility" that is so easy to bomb from the air and sea.

Those freedom loving Kenyans should be applauded for escalating the fight against evil and bad guys.

Kenya deserves at least a couple of drones for their effort to remove those dirty Islamists from the human gene pool (are you listening Killary Clinton?).

Oh and don't forget the very eager Ethiopians who are joining in to kill all the bad guys by invading Somalia too (and you were worrying that they would be too busy killing off indigenous Omo peoples to join in on the fight against terror).

And it really warms my heart that both the Kenyans and Ethiopians want American and Israeli help to f*ck up those idiotic terrorists that make going on safari so dangerous.

That will learn the Islamists not to f*ck with freedom loving anglicized Africans (Fanon was obviously so wrong about the ass-kissing colonial mind). 

I feel so proud of our east African siblings (now the good guys) and the role they are playing to pave the region for an increased AFRICOM presence.

Wow again!  First they gave us half of the pliant genetics that brought Tom to the crack house and now this.

It can't get any better.  Right?

And we are not free.

Onward!

Indigenous Guarani Chief Killed in Brazil

PressTv
November 20, 2011.

Ni'sio Gomes, a Guarani shaman shot dead by 

gunmen, in a photo taken this week.

Masked armed men have burst into a Guarani Indian camp in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul and killed the local chief.

According to the government agency for Indigenous people (FUNAI, 42 heavily armed men attacked the Kaiowa Guarani community in the village of Amambai, near the border with Paraguay, and shot the 59-year-old indigenous chief, Nisio Gomes, in the head, chest, arms, and legs early on Friday morning, AFP reported.

Gomes' body was then driven away. He is believed to have been the main target of the attack.

FUNAI said other indigenous people from the tribe might also have been killed or kidnapped.

“They came to kill our chief,” said one Indian who witnessed the attack and requested anonymity for security reasons.

Most of the community's 60 residents fled the camp and sought refuge in the forest during the attack.

Members of the community say this is not the first time they have been attacked since their return.

Gomes was the leader of a group of Guarani Indians, 60 of whom returned to part of their ancestral land in Mato Grosso do Sul in early November, after being evicted by cattle ranchers.

The tribe has seen virtually all its land stolen in recent decades by farmers and cattle ranchers.

One Guarani Indian said, “We'll stay on the camp. We'll all die here. We will not leave our ancestral land.”

The incident was the latest outbreak of violence linked to land disputes in Brazil, where one percent of the population controls 46 percent of the cultivated land.

The Guarani have been trying to recover a small portion of their original territories but face violent resistance from wealthy ranchers and soya and sugar cane plantation owners.

*****

Comment: The killing of Chief Ni'sio Gomes is a tragedy and indicative of the behavior of rich land barons and their agents (including the post-colonial state) who continue to steal and occupy the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.

Not nearly enough global attention is paid to the plight of indigenous peoples inside post-colonial states like Brazil. 

The BBC reports that:

The Guarani are Brazil's largest indigenous minority, with around 46,000 members living in seven states.

Many others live in neighbouring Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina.

The group suffers from a severe shortage of land in Brazil, which has worsened as a boom in agriculture has led farmers and ranchers to extend their holdings.

Indigenous activists say farmers in Mato Grosso do Sul frequently use violence and threats to force them off their ancestral territory, and that the local authorities do little to protect them.

My heart goes out to the Guarani.  May their struggle to survive continue despite the severe odds and unrestrained violence they face.

And, may Chief Ni'sio Gomes find peace among the ancestors while the balance is restored.

See Survival's coverage here. 

Onward!

White South Africans Head for Home

Mail & Guardian
Thomas Donzel
November 20, 2011.

After 10 years in London, the Short family packed their bags and moved back to South Africa, part of what experts say is a growing trend of white expatriates returning home.

"London was very good to us but it was never home," said Julie Short, who met her husband Wallis in the British capital, where their two young daughters were born.

The couple were among the estimated 800 000 white South Africans who moved overseas, mainly to Britain, Australia and New Zealand, between 1991 and 2001, according to census data.

The exodus amounted to about 15% of South Africa's white population. Some fled fearing the often gratuitously violent crime that erupted across the nation during the mid-1990s. Nearly 27 000 people were killed in 1995, the year after Nelson Mandela became president.

Others feared that in the new post-apartheid South Africa, they could be passed over for jobs or business opportunities as the government embarked on a programme of black economic empowerment.

But now the exodus appears to be slowing -- and even reversing.

Census figures show the white population is at 4.5-million, the highest level since 1991.

Read the rest here.

*****

Comment: White emigration from South Africa has always been a matter of quality of life issues (read economic) rather than a matter of political principle.  

If it was the latter most whites would have left during apartheid as a stand against injustice.

According to the article 800 000 whites left in the decade after 1991 when the writing was on the wall and in political terms, things seemed to be improving with the impending end of apartheid.

The emigration number above is an underestimate and is likely to be greater if one considers that many whites held onto dual citizenship status even while they lived here through five decades of apartheid, and more.

Makes me wonder if whites knew/expected that the apartheid bubble would eventually burst.

And, when it did, the usual Afro-pessimistic attitude that grounds white identity became the push-factor.

But whiteness is also mostly a hunter-gatherer identity and it makes sense that whites are returning to South Africa now that their economic fears are greater in the countries where they are immigrants.

F*ck all that sh*t about "home is where the heart is" ... it's all about economics boet.

Even with Affirmative Action and the deplorable crime situation in South Africa, it is better to be here than unemployed in Britain, the US, and soon Australia.

If this trend is about economics, and it is, then don't be too surprised when whites leave (again), when economic things start to sour here in the delusional rainbow.

Right now it is not the sunshine and happy/welcoming niggas that are bringing YT home.  

Naaa boet, it is mostly because it makes more economic sense to be here than in the warmongering (also read declining) West.

And, most of these folks are coming with foreign currency reserves that allow them to live very nicely, and better, in the leafy suburbs of their privileged youth. 

But not all of this must be read as bad for South Africa.  These folks are bringing skills home and cash too (though they will leave most of it overseas just in case - Afro-pessimism never disappears). 

But sh*t is not easy here hey.  Wait till they try to get a job and then try to work in an environment inclined towards colonized dysfunction.

A happy time will not be had by all and I can guarantee that - don't be fooled by all the German cars driving around.  Those folks are on the take inside the grubment.

South Africa is a hurry-up-and-wait country where corruption is the norm and sh*t costs way more than it should and service is non-existent.

Add to that some of the most ignant muthaz (forget all that Ubuntu sh*t) anywhere and you will be, like me, making sure your other passport does not expire.

And I'm not white - and no longer black, or African, according to the new political rules.

Oh I should offer a "welcome home" anyway.  Suckers.  :0)

Onward!

Ps. Not sure which of the racial binary will be more pissed-off by this post.  Perhaps both, since neither exist without the sanction and support of the other.  

Ummm no, I am not in a bad mood.  Deconstruction is a critique, no? 

Freda Fries

Image Credit

From Tragedy to Travesty: Drugs Tested on Survivors of Bhopal

The Independent
Nina Lakhani
November 15, 2011.

Secret reports seen by The Independent reveal that drug trials funded by western pharmaceutical firms at the Indian hospital set up for survivors of the Bhopal disaster violated international ethical standards and could have put patients at risk.

Some 14 patients died during the three trials examined by the reports. In one trial, for an antibiotic, five out of seven patients died during the trial or soon after it finished. While there is no suggestion that every death merits compensation, critics say there has been no adequate investigation into whether compensation was appropriate in any of the cases. None has ever been paid.

At least eight other trials were carried out on hundreds of Bhopal gas victims. The Independent has evidence of patients who were unaware that they were taking part in a trial at all. The conduct of the trials has exposed the hospital to furious criticism from activists who say that survivors have been used as guinea pigs without proper informed consent.

Read the rest here.

Also see "Without Consent: How Drug Companies Exploit Indian Guinea Pigs" in the The Independent (November 14, 2011.)

War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia Tries Bush, Blair

PressTV

November 19, 2011.

A War Crimes Tribunal in the Malaysian capital has begun its hearing against George W. Bush and Tony Blair, charging the former officials for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The tribunal will determine whether the former US president and British prime minister committed war crimes and violated international law during the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, Mathaba News Agency reported.

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal is an initiative by Malaysia's former Premier Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposes US-led military adventures in various troubled regions.

The hearing comes after two years of in-depth investigation, including testimonials from Iraqi war victims by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission.

A notification of the trial was served to known addresses of the two, and to the US Embassy and the UK High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on September 19, 2011.

This comes at a time when the Perdana Global Peace Foundation has mounted a war crimes exhibition in the Malaysian capital.

The exhibition put on display gory images of decapitated bodies, to educate the public about the inhumane effects of war.

The exhibition also featured the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq along with life-sized mannequins to show the abuse and torture of prisoners by the US army.

Millions of people have lost their lives in the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan over the past years.

*****

Comment: Bet you wondering why you have not read much about this story in the mainstream corporate press, huh? 

This tribunal is something like the Vietnam war crimes panel by philosophers Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Satre in Sweden and Denmark in 1967. 

If Bush and Blair are found guilt their names will be entered into a “Register of War Criminals”.

The hearings are set to continue for four days.

Next year the same tribunal will hold another hearing that deals with charges for war crimes in Iraq against ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, among others.

It may be symbolic and nothing 'real' may come from these hearings but at the very least there are folks out there who recognize the genocidal murder that Bush and Blair and company launched on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama and Sarkozy should be next. 

Onward!

Remembering Basil D'Oliveira: 1931 - 2011

I have a vague memory of a visit by Basil D’Oliveira to my primary school when I was just a single digit lad.

Few of the kids knew why he was there and even fewer, I would imagine, knew who he was.

Though I must say that I just got off the phone with my boy Cliff and he remembers Mr. D'Oliveira was called "Dolly" and that he handed out autographed photos to the kids at the schools he visited in Kimberley that day when we were about 7 or 8 years old.

In the years after my tender digits I grew to understand that the apartheid system barred him from playing cricket because he was coloured.

He immigrated to Britain where he had an illustrious career even though he was in his 30s and considered past his cricketing prime.

Basil M D'Oliveira

Yesterday I watched South Africa play Australia on the idiot box and felt a little proud of the way our team battled to get back into the second test in Joburg.

There are a few prominent faces of color in our team now even though there is a lot of room for normalizing the code - perhaps even more than rugby.

Mr. D'Oliveira  must have watched the changes in South African cricket over the last decade or more.  I am sure that he must have been proud of the contribution he made to forcing apartheid South Africa out of international cricket from 1968 onwards.

Cricket fans will remember that he was banned from playing cricket in South Africa when England was set to tour in 1968/69.

The apartheid regime told England that if Mr. D'Oliveira was in the team they would not be allowed to tour South Africa.

England refused to back down after a series of negotiations.  The apartheid regime under Prime Minister BJ Voster remained adamant not giving an inch.

The series was then canceled and the incident went on to be a turning point in the international sporting boycott of South Africa.

South Africa named Mr. D'Oliveira one of its ten-best cricketers of the century in 2000 even though he never played for South Africa.

Test series between South Africa and England are contested for the "Basil D'Oliveira Trophy" since 2004.

When I think of figures like Mr. D'Oliveira it causes me to wonder about the thousands upon thousands of black/brown South Africans who were denied a chance to follow their dreams because of the color of their skin.

I expect that I am not alone among those who can remember living in a country where skin color even decided the kind of work you could do.

For this reason remembering Mr. D'Oliveira is more than just a single memory of one of crickets finest.

May Basil D'Oliveira rest in peace until that day.

Onward!

Picture Credit

Teacher Arrested for Raping 11 Pupils

News24

November 17, 2011.

Johannesburg - A high school teacher has been arrested for raping 11 pupils in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni, police said on Thursday.

Constable Timothy Masilela said the 46-year-old teacher was arrested on Wednesday afternoon.

He said pupils were being taught about abuse, including sexual abuse, when one of them told the principal that she had been raped by a teacher.

Masilela said more pupils then approached the principal and a case was opened against the teacher.

The Grade 11 teacher would allegedly tell students to stay behind after class so he could help them with their homework.

Masilela said that in some of the cases there were witnesses.

The teacher was expected to appear in the Benoni Magistrate's Court on Thursday.  (SAPA)

*****

Comment: Just another day in sex-abuse-hell by the delusional rainbow.

I do not mean to make light of what happened to these pupils.  The teacher (umm 'educator') should be sent away for a very long time and the students will need support and counseling for even longer.

Over the years I have wondered why we are such a violent country.  Women and girls bear a disproportionate amount of violent abuse as this case illustrates.

Add to that waves of violence against lesbians (corrective rape) and the picture is seriously messed up.

A few years ago my mind may have started to wonder about the connection between misogynist violence and racism.

I am not saying that there is no link because apartheid used violence against women as a tactic of control.

But what then makes us so violent when white folks are not even present?  Are we really just 'victims' of the creation of whiteness?

Hell no is my thinking.  The deviance that describes our violent content is more than that.

Deep beneath the modern era of racist violence lies patriarchal ordering that reduces women and girls to things in the imagination of men.

The violence we are witnessing is more complex than the sh*t white folks (who are not exempt from misogynist violence) created.

It is way deeper than that - and my critique includes those piously-bearded-shortened-pants f*cks who think God ordained them into forever sanctity to force or intimidate Muslim women into patriarchal 'submission'.

And there you were thinking I was only talking about a speared brother and his kraal of belongings, huh?

Patriarchy is a male disease and it is found across the penis divides.  Mine included.

Onward! to the true liberation of all women.

Occupy Seattle

NO MERCY:  Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after 

being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest. 

(Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com, AP)

See "Seattle City Council backs Occupy Seattle", and also "You Can't Evict an Idea Whose Time has Come" by the OWS PR Team.

Onward!

Picture and Caption Credit

Palestinian 'Freedom Riders' Board Settlers' Bus

BBC

November 15, 2011.

Israeli police have detained six Palestinians dubbed West Bank Freedom Riders who boarded a Jerusalem-bound bus used by Jewish settlers. 

The activists say they drew inspiration from 1960s US civil rights demonstrators who campaigned under the same name against segregated buses.

Palestinians from the West Bank are not allowed to cross into Jerusalem without Israeli permission.

Israel says such restrictions are for security reasons.

The group of six protesters gathered at a West Bank bus stop and waited for an Israeli bus to pick them up, then tried to enter Jerusalem, in what appears to be a first.

After being allowed to travel to an Israeli checkpoint at the edge of Jerusalem, the activists were eventually arrested when they refused to leave the bus.

The protesters say that by only serving Jewish settlements and not Palestinian areas in the West Bank, Israeli bus companies discriminate against them.

"These buses and this whole system is discriminatory to Palestinians," said activist Fadi Quran, as he waited at the bus stop.

The West Bank Freedom Riders punched above their weight, drawing a lot of publicity for what was a relatively small event, reports the BBC's Jon Donnison in the West Bank.

The comparison to the Freedom Riders of 1960s America seemed to capture the imagination as dozens of journalists gathered to see the small group board the bus, our correspondent says.

In actual fact, this was less a protest about segregation and more about freedom of movement, he adds.

There are around 500,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlements are illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.

*****

Comment: And some sympathizers contest the reality that Israel is a racist apartheid state.

Though to an extent I would have to agree.  I grew up under apartheid and I think what we had over here was not even close to what Palestinians endure.

Boycott Israel.

Onward!

Washington’s Fake ‘Concern’ About a Possible Israeli Attack on Iran

Dave Lindorff
ThisCantBeHappening!
November 13, 2011.

When it comes to mainstream press reports about a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, it’s time to check the bullshit detector.

Corporate media reports are claiming that the Pentagon and the White House are “worried” or “concerned” that the Israeli government may decide to attack Iran, and that the US is “trying to learn” what Israel’s real intentions are: is there a serious plan to attack or is this all just an effort to blackmail the US into taking stronger measures against Iran?

As CNN put it in a Nov. 4 report:

The United States has become increasingly concerned Israel could be preparing to strike Iran's nuclear program, a senior U.S. military official told CNN on Friday.

The U.S. military and intelligence community in recent weeks have stepped up "watchfulness" of both Iran and Israel, according to the senior U.S. military official and a second military official familiar with the U.S. actions. Asked if the Pentagon was concerned about an attack, the senior military official replied "absolutely." Both officials declined to be identified because of the extreme sensitivity of the matter.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz

Oops! The Bullshit detector just went off.

Missing from all these reports about Washington “concern,” and from statements being leaked by Pentagon and White House “sources,” is any mention of the fact that Israel’s entire air force consists of planes built in and funded by the United States. The F-15s and F-16s and the specially designed F-16I and F-15I, manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Boeing to Israeli Air Force specifications, are the planes that would have the job of delivering bombs to Iranian targets and providing cover against Iranian fighter defenses.

One word from the US and those weapons systems would be grounded. After all, without US spare parts and US financing, Israel’s air force ceases to exist.

So the claim that Washington is “worried” about Israel going it alone in a strike on Iran is, to put it bluntly, a lie.

Now you could get deeper into it and speculate if you like that both the Israeli government and the Obama Administration want to promote media speculation that Israel may be planning an attack, and for the same reason: to allow, or to pressure, Washington to tighten the economic screws on Iran and perhaps to step up covert attacks on Iran. Or alternatively, Washington wants Israel to attack Iran, but wants to be able to claim that the US isn’t behind it.

I tend to lean towards the first theory, because I don’t think that the US really wants the kind of explosion in the Middle East which would surely happen if Israel were to attack Iran. But then, who knows? The Neo-Cons have considerable sway in Washington, and these psychopaths do want such a conflict.

Whatever the truth of what’s going on, let’s at least clear away the Big Lie. With the Israeli Air Force almost totally dependent upon the largesse of the United States, Israel is not going to do anything to Iran that is not 100 percent approved in advance by Washington.

And if such an attack does happen, the US is behind it.

*****

Comment: Absolutely can't agree any more with Dave Lindorff.  The US is drumming up a war with Iran but right now it is just trying to cajole/threaten Tehran into complying with its crap.

It won't work.  Iran won't become the US's b*tch no matter what.

So, we back to where Saddam was when the same game was being played and you know what happened next.

But Iran is not Iraq and Russia has already made it clear that it won't stand for interference with Iran and so has Brazil and China can't be far.

Oh you probably waiting to hear what South Africa might be 'thinking'.  Well who the f*ck knows?

South Africa will most likely go with the flow and where the flow seems more profitable.

South Africa will be anyone's b*tch as UN 1973 proved.  I don't expect that anyone in the government knows sh*t about what is next so don't lose sleep trying to figure what Zuma and company will do.

The best thing is to just expect South Africa to f*ck-up and if they don't it is a surprise bonus.

The sad part is that South Africa is used as if it speaks for all of the continent - it doesn't.

But that brings us back to the treachery that faces Iran - I am worried because you know how f*cking dirty Israel and its b*tch, the US, are.

The future holds more ugly and I am not just talking about Killary Clinton.

Onward!

Iran's Nukes: Old Lies in New Bottles

CommonDreams.org
Eric Margolis
November 12, 2011.

NEW YORK – The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) long awaited, much ballyhooed report on Iran’s nuclear activities has been thunderously greeted here as conclusive evidence that Iran is working on nuclear weapons.

Both Tehran and a 2007 US combined intelligence assessment deny such claims.

Israeli Submarine that can launch nuclear warheads

There’s little new in this report, and a lot of déjà vu.  We read the old story floating around since 2002 about a mysterious laptop stolen from Iran and passed to US intelligence. It allegedly contains scientific material about explosive compression methods to trigger a nuclear explosion, and designs to shrink nuclear warheads to fit in missile nosecones.

The UN and western powers say this stolen computer’ contents conclusively proves Iran has violated the UN’s non-proliferation treaty, to which Tehran is a signatory. Israel and its American partisans are raising a hue and cry about an impending nuclear attack on the Jewish state by Iran’s “crazy” leaders. Republicans are baying for war against Iran.

The US and UN also claim a Russian scientist who supposedly worked on Iranian nuclear weapons explosive technology defected and revealed all to western intelligence.

But it now transpires that the scientists actually worked in Russia on explosive technology to produce industrial diamonds, not weapons. Remember “Curveball,” the key Iraqi defector whose phony claims were the basis for the US invasion of Iraq? Well, welcome Russian scientist, “Curveballski II.”

Last week, Israel launched a new missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead anywhere in Iran and Pakistan. Israel’s German-supplied submarines lie off Iran’s coast, ready to launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, again claimed last week that Iran was about to deploy nuclear weapons and threatened war. But Israel’s respected former Mossad intelligence chief, Meir Dagan, warned striking Iran would be a “stupid idea.”

In 1992, Natanyahu claimed Iran would have nuclear weapons in 3-5 years. Shimon Peres, now Israel’s president, insisted Iran would have nukes by 1999.

In 1995, the New York Times claimed Iran was only 5 years from nuclear weapons. In 1998, US Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld claimed Iran was fielding a nuclear-armed ICBM that could hit the United States.

And so it has gone, a steady drumbeat of false claims.

This war hysteria comes on the heels of US charges of an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, a claim laughed at by many Mideast experts.

In fact, it’s possible the US FBI mixed up Iranians: the plot’s alleged mastermind may not have been a member of Iran’s elite military forces at all but of the violently anti-Tehran People’s Mujahidin, which Washington still calls a terrorist organization even though it is now in bed with the pro-Israel Republican hard right and Israel.

The IAEA tried to buttress its shaky claims against Iran by insisting, “nine other nations came to the same conclusion about Tehran’s covert nuclear efforts.” We heard the same refrain from Washington over its false claims about Iraq’s non-existent weapons.

In fact, thanks to routine intelligence sharing programs, faked documents about Iraq’s nuclear efforts were fed to other NATO members. Based on such forgeries, some of these nations concluded Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The same process is now happening over Iran’s alleged weapons program.

Washington has worked for the past 20 years to make the UN the “soft” arm of US foreign policy. The US is the UN’s biggest contributor; it pays 25.8% of the costs of the IAEA and has put its own men in positions of influence. Even so, the latest UN reports hedges conclusions with words like “suggests” and “appears.”

If Iran is indeed trying to produce nuclear weapons – and it has good reasons for wanting them - why has it taken so long? Initial work began in the 1970’s under the Shah. Iran sought to buy nuclear technology from Pakistan twenty years ago.

What’s so crazy about all this is that Israel has a very large arsenal of nuclear and bio-warfare weapons while Iran remains under UN nuclear inspection.

The big nuclear powers – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France – are in violation of the 1995 UN nuclear non-proliferation treaty that mandated eliminating all nuclear weapons within five years. Talk about the nuclear pots calling the Iranian kettle black.  © 2011 Eric Margolis

Comment: It is terribly worrying to see how the war machine is fixing its gaze on Iran.

Same old crap.  We been here before.  When will all this war mongering end?

Onward!

F*ck Veterans Day

Mr. Fish: Red Menace

"Veteran’s Day (sic) is not a celebration to honor those who have served in our armed forces; it is a glorification of this country’s ongoing slaughter of defenseless people throughout the world."

Marti and Luke Hiken: Dissident Voice, 11/11.

There is no glory in war and no redeeming need to remember those who served.  Instead, remember the innocents who have been killed - and are being killed - in wars fought over elite interests and greed.

How many of the proud patriots who celebrated Veterans Day yesterday can name one innocent face who was killed yesterday or any day before?

The US used drones to kill more than 200 innocents in eastern Somalia and Pakistan over the last few days.  And the killing continues even as I write.

All this injustice and hardly a voice among the patriots will call for sanity and humanity!

So f*ck Veterans Day and to hell with supporting the troops.  And, if your ass is black or brown or poor and you are part of the killing machine in any way, forget asking for my support.  You dead to me.

I do not support the troops.

Onward!

Three Funky Fridays

Seeing that it is 11-11-11 today, I am resurrecting the Three Funky Fridays play in memory of the Hevster.

Oh boo boo did I tell you I held my breath and made a wish at 11am and 11 seconds today?

Yes Ma'am that I did and later tonight I will do so again at 11pm and 11 seconds :0)

OK here we go.  One mo' time:

RIP Heavy

I know you not supposed to tell.  But I guess it is OK to say I wished for a "Peaceful Journey".


Onward!


Image Credit

Let's Play Cowboys and Iranians!

This racist poster is said to be of 1979 vintage and it hangs in a restaurant in Katy Texas called Nonmacher's Bar-B-Q.

The poster is supposedly in response to the time when Americans where held hostage in Iran about three decades ago.

Despite calls from folks to remove the poster the owner of the barbecue joint, John Nonmacher, is adamant it is staying up.  He said in part:

"This is still America. If they're not happy here, then they should go back to Iran.  It’s my choice to have it up.  It’s your choice to go where you want to go.  But I’m not going to take it down."

The "they" part in his defiant reaction is in reference to the statement by the Iranian Alliances Across Borders’ (IAAB) who say in part:

The IAAB ... condemn both the violent image portrayed in the poster and its bigotry towards Iranians, as well as indigenous groups. Fundamental American values of tolerance, diversity, and respect for all human beings are not in accordance with the offensive nature displayed by the poster.  We believe that the ideas represented in this incident are detrimental to civil society, especially at a time when democratic dialogue is critical to mitigating political tensions.  We stand in solidarity with communities of color that have and continue to experience this kind of demonization.  We firmly believe that the propagation of such hostile ideas should not exist within any society.

John Nonmacher, being the good-ol-boy from the South that he is, will have no part of this liberal conspiracy to redefine his 'god-given' right to hate and discriminate against who the f*ck he wants to.

It is typical cracka mentality and no doubt served with a side of extra large fries and a Coke.

Just a few decades ago the lynched Iranian could have been a black woman or man.  And a few more decades before that it could have been an Indian man or woman.

Lynching is part of whiteness and this good-ol-boy is just protecting his cultural heritage.  After all, that poster speaks to values that are still under attack even while John Nonmacher sleeps.

So there is work to be done to protect the white way and America.

Iran is the last real bogeyman left on the block.  With the Colonel dispatched it is now necessary to focus on Iran.  Have you been listening to the UN and Israel drum for a strike at Iran?  

John Nonmacher, of course, will not be able to find Israel on a map if his life depended on it.  And the UN most likely means f*ckall to him.

But that should not matter to anyone in his posse who wants to put a cap in the ass of any Iranian standing in the way of his politics and his ribs.

This good-ol-boy is doing it for American values.  And if the Iranian-Americans and their pansy liberal supporters don't like it they can go live in Iran or Iraq or Libya or Afghanistan.

There in those places you will find communists and Islamofacists and other un-American f*cks who want to destroy the constitution and f*ck with Heinz ketchup and its 57 varieties.

In Katy Texas it is OK to be beholden by an image that is racist and violent and even contains the words "Iranians Suck" on a t shirt, because after all ... ain't it the American way?

America.  Love it white or leave.

HEEE HAAAW

Onward!

Picture Credit

Zapiro on Netanyahu

Credit

The Pudgy and Pointy-Shoe Brigade Suspend Their Mouthy Fat Brat

Et tu, Derek? Julius Malema has been suspended from the ANC for sowing division and bringing the party into disrepute, and must vacate his position as the youth league's leader, says the chairperson of the ANC's disciplinary committee, Derek Hanekom. Malema has two weeks to appeal the decision. (Reuters) Read more

Comment: The boy plunder should probably be thinking about accumulating some marketable skills because unemployment looms large for the obese radical wannabe who thought the petit bourgeois ANC was a revolutionary movement.

Like a grip of South Africans I find the whole episode somewhat funny in a Schadenfreude sort of way.

But I am also worried that with Juju gone our political debates will take a turn for the dull again.

Well there will probably still be the usual comrade-f*cked/raped-someone scandals and the bribery and theft and corruption that defines our post-apartheid moment but truth be said all that sh*t is just so common that hardly anyone cares anymore.

At the very least wee Julius brought an unmistakable ludicrous circus flavor to the usual ridiculous that made sh*t interesting.  And he really pissed white people off!  And scared them too!

Now who will do that for us?

Eish hey, what ever will boy plunder do now that he is of no use to just about anyone in the party of the pudgy and pointy shoe brigade?

And we are not free.

Onward!

Picture and Caption Credit

India Jails 31 Hindus for Life for Killing Muslims

Guardian
November 9, 2011.

A court has sentenced 31 Hindus to life imprisonment for killing dozens of Muslims by setting fire to a building during one of India's worst rounds of communal violence nine years ago.

Judge ST Srivastava acquitted 41 others of murder for lack of evidence.

Those convicted at the Mehsana district court can appeal against the verdict in a higher court.

Since partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan after independence from Britain in 1947, there have been sporadic bouts of violence. The worst recent violence erupted in 2002 in Gujarat state. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed by Hindu mobs after a train fire killed 60 Hindus returning from a pilgrimage. Muslims were blamed for the fire.

During rioting, the suspects set a building on fire in a village in Mehsana district, nearly 25 miles (40km) north of Ahmedabad, the main city of Gujarat. Thirty-three Muslims, including 20 women, who had taken shelter there were burned alive.

Two suspects died during the trial that was expedited by orders from India's top court, the supreme court.

Muslims account for about 14% of India's population of 1.1 billion but lag far behind the Hindu majority in most social indicators, from literacy to household income.

Heavy D Dead at Just 44

Dwight Arrington Myers, the rapper known as Heavy D has died at the too young age of 44.

Regular readers here know the brother was a frequent feature on my Funky Friday posts.

Heavy was a legend and he defined the not-too-heavy rap style that favored positive messages combined with the New Jack Swing and reggae vibe over the tired and contrived thug/gangsta variety.

The self-proclaimed "overweight" lover, who was born in Jamaica, is said to have collapsed outside his Beverly Hills condo yesterday (Tuesday).  He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where he died.

The exact cause of death is unknown but foul play is not suspected.

I will miss Big Hev and his rhymes.  I remember him rapping lyrically on In Living Color and MadTV.

In the 80s Heavy D and the Boyz were a staple at house parties and clubs.  Do you remember jamming to the albums Living Large and Big Tyme?

We Got Our Own Thang

Last Friday night I was cruising through the streets of my hometown after attending a public lecture listening to Heavy and Brandy's remake of Michael Jackson's "Rock With You".

I remember thinking that Heavy made the cut feel new but still very familiar.  I like his call-out to producer Quincy Jones on the cut - it just seems so effortless and unplanned.

His music and presence over a very short career had the effect of positive recall.  You always felt like he was a neighborhood bra - one of your Boyz - who rapped like you remembered.

You probably also remember that he had somewhat of a successful acting career.  I remember seeing him on a couple episodes of Law and Order and Tyler Perry's House of Payne.

And he was a talented actor too.  See him in The Cider House Rules to check out what I mean.  His most recent acting gig is in Tower Heist which is just hitting cinemas about now (well in the US).

It is unlikely that any of the music stores in my dustbin will have copies of his CD Love Opus which was released two months ago, I am on the lookout for it though.

Life is too short boet and often cruelly so.  We need to take stock and pay respects before it is too late.

May Heavy D rest in peace until that day.

In his memory this is one of my most favorite Heavy cuts, Dancin' in the Night:

Do you ever feel like, gettin high?
Do you ever feel like, leavin this world?

Do you ever feel like, you ball by yourself?
Do you ever feel unnecessary?

Don't call me crazy but sometimes I feel like gettin up
and dancin in the middle of the night
I need a way to release myself
from all the pain and the pressures in life

Considered drinkin, but then I started thinkin
I'd probably drown away my life

Gotta do somethin, too many people frontin
You see I need a way to get by

That's why I get high from dancing in the middle of the night.

Onward!

Picture Credit

More Heavy cuts here