Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon and father of modern South Africa, dies

(CNN) -- Freedom fighter, statesman, moral compass and South Africa's symbol of the struggle against racial oppression.

That was Nelson Mandela, who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid.

He died Thursday night at age 95.

His message of reconciliation, not vengeance, inspired the world after he negotiated a peaceful end to segregation and urged forgiveness for the white government that imprisoned him.

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison," Mandela said after he was freed in 1990.

Mandela, a former president, battled health issues in recent years, including a recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalizations.

Despite rare public appearances, he held a special place in the consciousness of the nation and the world.

"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," South African President Jacob Zuma said. "What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."

His U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, echoed the same sentiment.

"We've lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth," Obama said. "He no longer belongs to us -- he belongs to the ages."

A hero to blacks and whites

Mandela became the nation's conscience as it healed from the scars of apartheid.




Zuma: This is a moment of deepest sorrow





Nelson Mandela in his own words





1990: Mandela released from prison





1994: Mandela takes the oath of office


His defiance of white minority rule and long incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world's attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South African government until 1994.

In his lifetime, he was a man of complexities. He went from a militant freedom fighter, to a prisoner, to a unifying figure, to an elder statesman.

Years after his 1999 retirement from the presidency, Mandela was considered the ideal head of state. He became a yardstick for African leaders, who consistently fell short when measured against him.

Warm, lanky and charismatic in his silk, earth-toned dashikis, he was quick to admit to his shortcomings, endearing him further in a culture in which leaders rarely do.

His steely gaze disarmed opponents. So did his flashy smile.

Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 for transitioning the nation from a system of racial segregation, described their first meeting.

"I had read, of course, everything I could read about him beforehand. I was well-briefed," he said.

"I was impressed, however, by how tall he was. By the ramrod straightness of his stature, and realized that this is a very special man. He had an aura around him. He's truly a very dignified and a very admirable person."

For many South Africans, he was simply Madiba, his traditional clan name. Others affectionately called him Tata, the word for father in his Xhosa tribe.

A nation on edge

Mandela last appeared in public during the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. His absences from the limelight and frequent hospitalizations left the nation on edge, prompting Zuma to reassure citizens every time he fell sick.

"Mandela is woven into the fabric of the country and the world," said Ayo Johnson, director of Viewpoint Africa, which sells content about the continent to media outlets.

When he was around, South Africans had faith that their leaders would live up to the nation's ideals, according to Johnson.

"He was a father figure, elder statesman and global ambassador," Johnson said. "He was the guarantee, almost like an insurance policy, that South Africa's young democracy and its leaders will pursue the nation's best interests."

There are telling nuggets of Mandela's character in the many autobiographies about him.

An unmovable stubbornness. A quick, easy smile. An even quicker frown when accosted with a discussion he wanted no part of.

War averted

Despite chronic political violence before the vote that put him in office in 1994, South Africa avoided a full-fledged civil war in its transition from apartheid to multiparty democracy. The peace was due in large part to the leadership and vision of Mandela and de Klerk.

"We were expected by the world to self-destruct in the bloodiest civil war along racial grounds," Mandela said during a 2004 celebration to mark a decade of democracy in South Africa.

"Not only did we avert such racial conflagration, we created amongst ourselves one of the most exemplary and progressive nonracial and nonsexist democratic orders in the contemporary world."

Mandela represented a new breed of African liberation leaders, breaking from others of his era such as Robert Mugabe by serving one term.

In neighboring Zimbabwe, Mugabe has been president since 1987. A lot of African leaders overstayed their welcomes and remained in office for years, sometimes decades, making Mandela an anomaly.

But he was not always popular in world capitals.

Until 2008, the United States had placed him and other members of the African National Congress on its terror list because of their militant fight against the apartheid regime.

Humble beginnings

Rolihlahla Mandela started his journey in the tiny village of Mvezo, in the hills of the Eastern Cape, where he was born on July 18, 1918. His teacher later named him Nelson as part of a custom to give all schoolchildren Christian names.

His father died when he was 9, and the local tribal chief took him in and educated him.

Mandela attended school in rural Qunu, where he retreated before returning to Johannesburg to be near medical facilities.

He briefly attended University College of Fort Hare but was expelled after taking part in a protest with Oliver Tambo, with whom he later operated the nation's first black law firm.

In subsequent years, he completed a bachelor's degree through correspondence courses and studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He left without graduating in 1948.

Four years before he left the university, he helped form the youth league of the African National Congress, hoping to transform the organization into a more radical movement. He was dissatisfied with the ANC and its old-guard politics.

And so began Mandela's civil disobedience and lifelong commitment to breaking the shackles of segregation in South Africa.

Escalating trouble

In 1956, Mandela and dozens of other political activists were charged with high treason for activities against the government. His trial lasted five years, but he was ultimately acquitted.

Meanwhile, the fight for equality got bloodier.

Four years after his treason charges, police shot 69 unarmed black protesters in Sharpeville township as they demonstrated outside a station. The Sharpeville Massacre was condemned worldwide, and it spurred Mandela to take a more militant tone in the fight against apartheid.

The South African government outlawed the ANC after the massacre, and an angry Mandela went underground to form a new military wing of the organization.

"There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and nonviolence against a government whose reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people," Mandela said during his time on the run.

During that period, he left South Africa and secretly traveled under a fake name. The press nicknamed him "the Black Pimpernel" because of his police evasion tactics.

Militant resistance

The African National Congress heeded calls for stronger action against the apartheid regime, and Mandela helped launch an armed wing to attack government symbols, including post offices and offices.

The armed struggle was a defense mechanism against government violence, he said.

"My people, Africans, are turning to deliberate acts of violence and of force against the government in order to persuade the government, in the only language which this government shows by its own behavior that it understands," Mandela said at the time.

"If there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the government -- ultimately, the dispute between the government and my people will finish up by being settled in violence and by force. "

The campaign of violence against the state resulted in civilian casualties.

A white South African's memories of Mandela

Long imprisonment

In 1962, Mandela secretly received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia. When he returned home later that year, he was arrested and charged with illegal exit of the country and incitement to strike.

Mandela represented himself at the trial and was briefly imprisoned before being returned to court. In 1964, after the famous Rivonia trial, he was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government.

At the trial, instead of testifying, he opted to give a speech that was more than four hours long, and ended with a defiant statement.

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination," he said. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

His next stop was the Robben Island prison, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in detention. He described his early days there as harsh.

"There was a lot of physical abuse, and many of my colleagues went through that humiliation," he said.

One of those colleagues was Khehla Shubane, 57, who was imprisoned in Robben Island during Mandela's last years there. Though they were in different sections of the prison, he said, Mandela was a towering figure.

"He demanded better rights for us all in prison. The right to get more letters, get newspapers, listen to the radio, better food, right to study," Shubane said. "It may not sound like much to the outside world, but when you are in prison, that's all you have."

And Mandela's khaki prison pants, he said, were always crisp and ironed.

"Most of us chaps were lazy, we would hang our clothes out to dry and wear them with creases. We were in a prison, we didn't care. But Mandela, every time I saw him, he looked sharp."

After 18 years, he was transferred to other prisons, where he experienced better conditions until he was freed in 1990.

Months before his release, he obtained a bachelor's in law in absentia from the University of South Africa.

Mandela's jail: Robben Island

Calls for release

His freedom followed years of an international outcry led by Winnie Mandela, a social worker whom he married in 1958, three months after divorcing his first wife.

Mandela was banned from reading newspapers, but his wife provided a link to the outside world.

She told him of the growing calls for his release and updated him on the fight against apartheid.

World pressure mounted to free Mandela with the imposition of political, economic and sporting sanctions, and the white minority government became more isolated.

In 1988 at age 70, Mandela was hospitalized with tuberculosis, a disease whose effects plagued him until the day he died. He recovered and was sent to a minimum security prison farm, where he was given his own quarters and could receive additional visitors.

Among them, in an unprecedented meeting, was South Africa's president, P.W. Botha.

Change was in the air.

When Botha's successor, de Klerk, took over, he pledged to negotiate an end to apartheid.

South Africa: Following Nelson Mandela

Free at last

On February 11, 1990, Mandela walked out of prison to thunderous applause, his clenched right fist raised above his head.

Still as upright and proud, he would say, as the day he walked into prison nearly three decades earlier.

He reassured ANC supporters that his release was not part of a government deal and informed whites that he intended to work toward reconciliation.

Four years after his release, in South Africa's first multiracial elections, he became the nation's first black president.

"The day he was inducted as president, we stood on the terraces of the Union Building," de Klerk remembered years later. "He took my hand and lifted it up. He put his arm around me, and we showed a unity that resounded through South Africa and the world."

Mandela: Patriarch, legend, family man

Broken marriage, then love

His union to Winnie Mandela, however, did not have such a happy ending. They officially divorced in 1996.

For the two, it was a fiery love story, derailed by his ambition to end apartheid. During his time in prison, Mandela wrote his wife long letters, expressing his guilt at putting political activism before family. Before the separation, Winnie Mandela was implicated in violence, including a conviction for being an accessory to assault in the death of a teenage township activist.

Mandela found love again two years after the divorce.

On his 80th birthday, he married Graca Machel, the widow of former Mozambique president, Samora Machel.

Only three of Mandela's children are still alive. He had 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Symbolic rugby

South Africa's fight for reconciliation was epitomized at the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final in Johannesburg, when it played heavily favored New Zealand.

As the dominant sport of white Afrikaners, rugby was reviled by blacks in South Africa. They often cheered for rivals playing their national team.

Mandela's deft use of the national team to heal South Africa was captured in director Clint Eastwood's 2009 feature film "Invictus," starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the white South African captain of the rugby team.

Before the real-life game, Mandela walked onto the pitch, wearing a green-and-gold South African jersey bearing Pienaar's number on the back.

"I will never forget the goosebumps that stood on my arms when he walked out onto the pitch before the game started," said Rory Steyn, his bodyguard for most of his presidency.

"That crowd, which was almost exclusively white ... started to chant his name. That one act of putting on a No. 6 jersey did more than any other statement in bringing white South Africans and Afrikaners on side with new South Africa."

Share your memories

A promise honored

In 1999, Mandela did not seek a second term as president, keeping his promise to serve only one term. Thabo Mbeki succeeded him in June of the same year.

After leaving the presidency, he retired from active politics, but remained in the public eye, championing causes such as human rights, world peace and the fight against AIDS.

It was a decision born of tragedy: His only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS at age 55 in 2005. Another son, Madiba Thembekile, was killed in a car crash in 1969.

Mandela's 90th birthday party in London's Hyde Park was dedicated to HIV awareness and prevention, and was titled 46664, his prison number on Robben Island.

A resounding voice

Mandela continued to be a voice for developing nations.

He criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the 2003 war against Iraq, and accused the United States of "wanting to plunge the world into a Holocaust."

And as he was acclaimed as the force behind ending apartheid, he made it clear he was only one of many who helped transform South Africa into a democracy.

In 2004, a few weeks before he turned 86, he announced his retirement from public life to spend more time with his loved ones.

"Don't call me, I'll call you," he said as he stepped away from his hectic schedule.

'Like a boy of 15'

But there was a big treat in store for the avid sportsman.

When South Africa was awarded the 2010 football World Cup, Mandela said he felt "like a boy of 15."

In July that year, Mandela beamed and waved at fans during the final of the tournament in Johannesburg's Soccer City. It was his last public appearance.

"I would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries," he said. "The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall."

With him gone, South Africans are left to embody his promise and idealism.

South Africa since apartheid: Boom or bust?

 

CNN's Robyn Curnow, Michael Martinez, Matt Smith and Alanne Orjoux contributed to this report.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

White supremacist takes DNA test, finds out he's part black

[video_embed][/video_embed]
By Matt PearceNovember 12, 2013, 11:39 a.m.




Well, that's awkward: A white supremacist who made headlines worldwide for plotting to take over a town in North Dakota received the results of a DNA test -- and the results say he's 14% black.


And this all happened while cameras were rolling.

Craig Cobb, 61, who has tried to create a white enclave in tiny Leith, N.D., submitted a DNA sample to the "Trisha Goddard" talk show and got the results back during a recent taping.
The UK's Daily Mail newspaper got a copy of the segment of the show, which is nationally syndicated by NBC, and posted video of the moment Goddard read out the results to Cobb in front of a studio audience.

"86% European and," Goddard said, pausing as the audience started to cheer before she continued, "14% sub-Saharan African!"

The audience erupted in cheers and laughs as a grinning Cobb began to protest.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold on, just wait a minute," Cobb said. "This is called 'statistical noise.'"

"Sweetheart, you have a little black in you," Goddard said.

"Listen, I'll tell you this, oil and water don't mix!"

"So, hey," Goddard said while raising, and then moved to fist-bump a reticent Cobb, "Bro!" Cobb declined to fist-bump.

Cobb told the Bismarck Tribune on Monday that he doubted the validity of the test and said he planned to take up to three more DNA tests and publish the results.

“I had no idea, or I wouldn’t have gone and done that, and I still don’t believe it,” Cobb told the Tribune. “I’ll find out with real science and get the whole DNA map."

Cobb's plot to take over Leith might not have been taken so seriously by activists and officials in North Dakota if Leith weren't so small. Cobb, a Leith resident, bought up several properties and invited other supremacists to move to the town. The Tribune reported in late October that three other male supremacists, with two children, were living Cobb's house.

The town had a population of 16 residents as of the 2010 Census, making a political takeover possible with only a handful of new residents -- which Cobb had called for in an announcement made on a supremacist message board in May 2012.

"For starters, we could declare a Mexican illegal invaders and Israeli Mossad/IDF spies no-go zone," Cobb wrote in the announcement, adding that he hoped new residents would always fly at least one "racialist" banner, such as a Nazi flag. "If leftist journalists or antis come and try to make trouble, they just might break one of our local ordinances and would have to be arrested by our town constable. See?"

Cobb's plans have since run awry of anti-supremacy activists across the state and of local health officials who have targeted Cobb's run-down properties for code violations.

Bobby Harper, a black resident in Leith, told the Tribune he thought Cobb's DNA results were hilarious.

“I knew there was one other black person in town," Harper told the newspaper. "Is he going to want to kick his own self out of town and discriminate against himself?”

 

Talk about poetic justice!!!


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The teenager who saved a man with an SS tattoo

By Catherine Wynne

BBC News | Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

 

In 1996, a black teenager protected a white man from an angry mob who thought he supported the racist Ku Klux Klan. It was an act of extraordinary courage and kindness - and is still inspiring people today.


Keshia Thomas was 18 when the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist organisation, held a rally in her home town in Michigan.

Liberal, progressive and multicultural, Ann Arbor was an unusual place for the KKK to choose, and hundreds of people gathered to show them they were not welcome.

The atmosphere was tense, but controlled. Police dressed in riot gear and armed with tear gas protected a small group of Klansmen in white robes and conical hoods. Thomas was with a group of anti-KKK demonstrators on the other side of a specially-erected fence.

Then a woman with a megaphone shouted, "There's a Klansman in the crowd."

They turned around to see a white, middle-aged man wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt. He tried to walk away from them, but the protesters, including Thomas, followed, "just to chase him out".
Man being chased by anti-KKK demonstrators

It was unclear whether the man was a Ku Klux Klan supporter, but to the anti-KKK protesters, his clothes and tattoos represented exactly what they had come to resist. The Confederate flag he wore was for them a symbol of hatred and racism, while the SS tattoo on his arm pointed to a belief in white supremacy, or worse.

There were shouts of "Kill the Nazi" and the man began to run - but he was knocked to the ground. A group surrounded him, kicking him and hitting him with the wooden sticks of their placards.


Mob mentality had taken over. "It became barbaric," says Thomas.

"When people are in a crowd they are more likely to do things they would never do as an individual. Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'This isn't right.'"

So the teenager, then still at high school, threw herself on top of a man she did not know and shielded him from the blows.

"When they dropped him to the ground, it felt like two angels had lifted my body up and laid me down."

For Mark Brunner, a student photographer who witnessed the episode, it was who she saved that made Thomas' actions so remarkable.

"She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her," he says. "Who does that in this world?"

Keshia Thomas protecting the man

So what gave Thomas the impetus to help a man whose views it appeared were so different from her own? Her religious beliefs played a part. But her own experience of violence was a factor, too.


"I knew what it was like to be hurt," she says. "The many times that that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me."

The circumstances - which she does not want to describe - were different. "But violence is violence - nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea."

Thomas has never heard from the man she saved, but she did once meet a member of his family. Months later, someone came up to her in a coffee shop and said thanks. "What for?" she asked. "That was my dad," the young man replied.

For Thomas, the fact that the man had a son gave her actions even greater significance - she had potentially prevented further violence.

"For the most part, people who hurt... they come from hurt. It is a cycle. Let's say they had killed him or hurt him really bad. How does the son feel? Does he carry on the violence?"
Keshia Thomas (left) pictured before the rally with friends

Keshia Thomas (left) pictured before the rally with friends


[infopane color="8" icon="0001.png"]

Teri Gunderson

'I am kinder thanks to her'




Teri Gunderson Teri Gunderson, who was bringing up her two adopted mixed-race daughters in Iowa at the time, was so touched by Thomas' story that she kept a copy of her picture - and still looks at it 17 years later. Gunderson even thinks the student made her a better person.



Teri, who now lives in Oaxaca, Mexico, emailed BBC News Magazine about her respect for Keshia Thomas when we published a series about kindness earlier this month: "Her courage so touched me that I keep a copy of the picture and often think of her in situations.



"The voice in my head says something like this, 'If she could protect a man [like that], I can show kindness to this person.' And with that encouragement, I do act with more kindness.  I don't know her, but since then I am more kind."[/infopane]

 



'Keshia's choice was hope'


"That some in Ann Arbor have been heard grumbling that she should have left the man to his fate, only speaks of how far they have drifted from their own humanity. And of the crying need to get it back.

Keshia's choice was to affirm what they have lost.

Keshia's choice was human.

Keshia's choice was hope."

By Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Leonard Pitts Jr. The Miami Herald, 29 June 1996


But she asks herself whether she could be as brave as Thomas. What if one of the hurtful people who had racially abused her girls was in danger, she wonders. "Would I save them, or would I stand there and say, 'You deserved it, you were a jerk.' I just don't know the answer to that, yet. Maybe that is why I am so struck by her."


Brunner and Gunderson both often think of the teenager's actions. But Thomas, now in her 30s and living in Houston, Texas, does not. She prefers to concentrate on what more she can do in future, rather than what she has achieved in the past.

"I don't want to think that this is the best I could ever be. In life you are always striving to do better."

Thomas says she tries to do something to break down racial stereotypes every day. No grand gestures - she thinks that small, regular acts of kindness are more important.

"The biggest thing you can do is just be kind to another human being. It can come down to eye contact, or a smile. It doesn't have to be a huge monumental act."

Looking back at his photos of Thomas pushing back the mob that day in June 1996, Brunner says: "We would all like to be a bit like Keshia, wouldn't we? She didn't think about herself. She just did the right thing."

 

[infopane color="6" icon="0182.png"]I was actually there during the KKK demonstration on the campus of UofM in Ann Arbor. I was in the diag area taking photos when all hell broke loose. I knew some guy got his ass kicked but I never knew the full story until now. I just remember shaking my head wondering why the racist group from Howell, MI decided to march in the most liberal, multi-cultural l town in the Midwest.

 

Keshia showed everyone the beauty of compassion... without expecting anything in return.

 

Hate is such an exhausting emotion yet so easy to hide behind.

 

Love is so effortless yet is unnecessarily feared.[/infopane]

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Caribbean Nations to Seek Reparations

Caribbean Nations to Seek Reparations, Putting Price on Damage of Slavery


By Stephen Castle, The New York Times

For the original article:  Click here

LONDON — In a 2008 biography he wrote of an antislavery campaigner, Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, described the trade in human beings as an indefensible barbarity, “brutal, mercenary and inhumane from its beginning to its end.”






William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said he deeply regretted the slave trade, but in a statement his office dismissed paying reparations.



Fourteen Caribbean countries that once sustained that slave economy now want Mr. Hague to put his money where his mouth is.


Spurred by a sense of injustice that has lingered for two centuries, the countries plan to compile an inventory of the lasting damage they believe they suffered and then demand an apology and reparations from the former colonial powers of Britain, France and the Netherlands.


To present their case, they have hired a firm of London lawyers that this year won compensation from Britain for Kenyans who were tortured under British colonial rule in the 1950s.


Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807, but its legacy remains. In 2006, Tony Blair, then prime minister, expressed his “deep sorrow” over the slave trade; the Dutch social affairs minister, Lodewijk Asscher, made a similar statement in July.


Britain has already paid compensation over the abolition of the slave trade once — but to slave owners, not their victims. Britain transported more than three million Africans across the Atlantic, and the impact of the trade was vast. Historians estimate that, in the Victorian era, between one-fifth and one-sixth of all wealthy Britons derived at least some of their fortunes from the slave economy.


Yet the issue of apologies — let alone reparations — for the actions of long-dead leaders and generals remains a touchy one all over the globe. Turkey refuses to take particular responsibility for the mass deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, let alone call the event a genocide, as the French Parliament has done. It was not until 1995 that France’s president at the time, Jacques Chirac, apologized for the crimes against the Jews of the Vichy government. The current French president, François Hollande, conceded last year that France’s treatment of Algeria, its former colony, was “brutal and unfair.” But he did not go so far as to apologize.


His predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, offered an aid and debt-cancellation package to Haiti in 2010 while acknowledging the “wounds of colonization.”


In Britain, in 1997, Mr. Blair described the potato famine in Ireland in the late 1840s as “something that still causes pain as we reflect on it today,” but suffering pain is not the same thing as making a formal apology.


For some, such comments do not go far enough, particularly when some European nations, like postwar Germany, have apologized — the former chancellor Willy Brandt went to his knees at the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970 — and paid reparations for Nazi crimes.


Caribbean nations argue that their brutal past continues, to some extent, to enslave them today.


“Our constant search and struggle for development resources is linked directly to the historical inability of our nations to accumulate wealth from the efforts of our peoples during slavery and colonialism,” said Baldwin Spencer, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, in July this year. Reparations, he said, must be directed toward repairing the damage inflicted by slavery and racism.


Martyn Day, the senior partner at Leigh Day, the London law firm acting for the Caribbean countries, said a case could start next year at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a tribunal that adjudicates legal disputes among states.


“What happened in the Caribbean and West Africa was so egregious we feel that bringing a case in the I.C.J. would have a decent chance of success,” Mr. Day said. “The fact that you were subjugating a whole class of people in a massively discriminatory way has no parallel,” he added.


Some Caribbean nations have already begun assessing the lasting damage they suffered, ranging from stunted educational and economic opportunities to dietary and health problems, Mr. Day said.


Critics contend that it makes no sense to try to redress wrongs that reach back through the centuries, and that Caribbean countries already receive compensation through development aid.


The legal terrain is not encouraging. Though several American and British companies have apologized for links to slavery, efforts by descendants of 19th-century African-American slaves to seek reparations from corporations in American courts have so far come to little. And, unlike the successful case made in Britain by Kenyans tortured during the Mau Mau uprising, there are no victims of slavery to present in court.


Even that case was disputed initially by a British government worried that it would expose itself to claims from numerous former colonies. And when he agreed to pay compensation, Mr. Hague insisted this was not a precedent.


Though Parliament abolished the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, the law took years to put into effect. In 1833, Parliament spent £20 million compensating former slave owners — 40 percent of government expenditure that year, according to estimates by Nick Draper of University College, London, who estimates the present-day value at about $21 billion.




Mr. Draper’s work traced recipients of compensation and showed they included ancestors of the authors Graham Greene and George Orwell, as well as a very distant relative of Prime Minister David Cameron.


But the prospects for a modern-day legal case for reparations by victims are far from clear. Roger O’Keefe, deputy director of the Lauterpacht Center for International Law at Cambridge University, said that “there is not the slightest chance that this case will get anywhere,” describing it as “an international legal fantasy.”


He argues that while the Netherlands and Britain have accepted the court’s jurisdiction in advance, Britain excluded disputes relating to events arising before 1974.


“Reparation may be awarded only for what was internationally unlawful when it was done,” Dr. O’Keefe said, “and slavery and the slave trade were not internationally unlawful at the time the colonial powers engaged in them.”


Even lawyers for the Caribbean countries hint that a negotiated settlement, achieved through public and diplomatic pressure, may be their best hope. “We are saying that, ultimately, historical claims have been resolved politically — although I think we will have a good claim in the I.C.J.,” Mr. Day said.


Mr. Hague’s own views add an intriguing dimension. In his biography of Britain’s most famous abolitionist, William Wilberforce, Mr. Hague highlighted many atrocities of slavery, including a case in 1783 involving a slave ship that ran out of drinking water, prompting its captain to throw 133 slaves overboard so he could claim insurance for lost cargo.


In 2007, on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trade, Mr. Hague spoke of his deep regret over “an era in which the sale of men, women and children was carried out lawfully on behalf of this country, and on such a vast scale that it became a large and lucrative commercial enterprise.”


But as foreign secretary, Mr. Hague is opposed to compensation. In a statement, his office said that while Britain “condemns slavery” and is committed to eliminating it where it still exists, “we do not see reparations as the answer.”


The question about Reparation has been going on for decades.  The Japanese were compensation for being put into concentration camps in the U.S.  The Jews were given their own state... out of guilt for what Germany did to them.  In both cases, these people on suffered for a short period of time (and I do not demean their experiences one bit).  Blacks were slaves for hundreds of years.  And even when freed, they were still treated like second class citizens.  Raped, murdered, terrorized... shall I go on?


Someone asked me once about how reparations should be administered if ever awarded.  That is a tough question really.  Money is a simple solution but I would expect more.  It isn't about the money for me.  It's about recognition of the atrocity.  Just like you can never question that the Holocaust happened,  I would want a reminder of the past that can be passed down through generations.  Learning from the past in order to build towards the future.




Saturday, October 19, 2013

BSM XCam

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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

BSM XCam | Slave 10

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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Loyalty

Always question where your loyalties lie.


The people you trust will expect it.


Your greatest enemies will desire it.


And those you treasure the most will without fail... abuse it.


Loyalty is everything in this Lifestyle.  No matter your level of involvement.


Some say loyalty inspires boundless hope.


And well that may be... there is a catch.


True loyalty takes years to build.


And only seconds to destroy.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Just something to think about...

NOTICE:  I'm posting something to ponder since Religion (once again) was brought up in my presence.  The fallout in the wake of dropping undeniable truth in the face of mindless leemings wasn't pretty but I thought I'd share some of the observations I made...

 

[infopane color="1" icon="0101.png"]Have you ever wondered why Renaissance statuary and paintings of Adam and Eve always have them with belly buttons?[/infopane]

 

[infopane color="1" icon="0101.png"]If God tore down the tower of Babel and confounded ancient man's language because he didn't want them to work together to build a tower to the heavens, where was he when we landed on the moon?[/infopane]

 

[infopane color="1" icon="0101.png"]If the soul enters humans at conception, do identical twins share one soul since they are the product of one egg and one sperm; does each get only half; or do souls divide like cells?[/infopane]

 

[infopane color="1" icon="0101.png"]Who the hell were those other people Adam and Eve encountered after they were expelled from Paradise?[/infopane]

 

These are just a few of MANY kernels of knowledge I end up sharing when religious fanatics choose to take a book written by MAN as the end all, be all of human existence.  You would have to be a complete idiot to blindly believe everything somebody else tells you to believe in.  Especially without verifiable facts.  What's the purpose of free will if you have people always trying to deny your right to be who you are?   Because the bible tells you so?  People really can't be that stupid.  Wait, oh yes they can.  Humans think they are above the animal kingdom but forget we are mammals and instinctively desire to be lead.  For those who are not raised to think for themselves,  they become prey to the wolf pack.  Brainwashed to believe and live by a set of rules designed to enslave and control the masses.

Control = POWER

And who holds the POWER, controls the world.  Don't even attempt to argue.  Pick up a history book.  Man created religion.  Man has destroyed any civilization or ideology that they feel threatens that POWER.

 

I believe that if there truly was a God, then he is indeed flawed.  Or the universe's biggest game player.  Why else would you demand worship and dedication while giving humans free will to think and make decisions on their own?

The guy who was the target of my impromptu lesson on common sense looked like he was going to explode so I took pity on him.  I told him that I was spiritual and had grown up in a bi-religious family of Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists.  He didn't get the irony so I asked him some questions.

 

"Isn't God supposed to be all knowing and kind?"

"Yes, he is to all of his children."

"Right... then why would he let bad things happen?"

"... no... he doesn't.... whatever happens to us is because it's God's will...."

"Hard to say that with conviction, isn't it?  You should stop listening to him and start listening to me.  Remember, God sold out his only son to die on a stick."

 

That was pretty much the end of that conversation, debate, or whatever.

 

"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination." ...Mark Twain

Monday, September 30, 2013

Government Shutdown 2013

By Simon Moya-Smith and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News

Government agencies were directed to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown" late Monday as Congress failed to pass a funding bill that would prevent the disruption of some government services.

The Office of Management and Budget, tasked with administering the shutdown, urged Congress "to restore the operation of critical public services and programs" impacted by the failure of the House and Senate to reach an agreement on how to continue funding the government by 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

While the most essential government services will basically continue business as usual, the lack of funding for many others will be a minor headache for some Americans, and a serious concern for others.

In remarks Monday, President Barack Obama said children, seniors, and women would be "hamstrung" if the government were to shut down.

"The shutdown will have a very real impact on real people right away," he said.

The details of a shutdown are left to the executive branch of government and the Office of Management and Budget has so far not provided specific details. But based on past shutdowns — and comments made by the president himself on Monday, here are some guidelines on what could happen:

FEDERAL WORKERS

The president on Monday said that hundreds of thousands of government employees working around the world would see their paychecks delayed by a government stoppage. Hundreds of thousands more will be indefinitely furloughed come midnight Monday if a funding bill is not passed, according to the president.

"What of course will not be furloughed is the bills they'll need to pay, their mortgages their tuition payments, their car notes...They would be hurt greatly and as a consequence all of us would be hurt greatly should Congress choose to shut the people's government down," Obama said. 


The Congressional Budget Office, responsible for calculating the financial impact of proposed legislation, announced it would be "largely shut down" if government is no longer funded. The Merit Systems Protection Board, tasked with overseeing merit promotions for federal employees, announced it would "cease all operations" if no funding agreement is reached.

Most employees of the Environmental Protection Agency and  Futures Trading Commission will also be furloughed, according to the agencies.

 
Larry Downing / Reuters file


A jet departs Washington's Reagan National Airport next to the control tower outside Washington, in February.



AIR TRAVEL

Federal air traffic controllers would likely remain on the job and airport screeners would keep funneling passengers through security checkpoints. Federal inspectors would continue enforcing safety rules.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

The State Department could continue processing foreign applications for visas and U.S. applications for passports, since fees are collected to finance those services. Embassies and consulates overseas would continue to provide services to American citizens.

However, the State Department warned this week that consular operations at home and abroad would only remain open as long as "there are sufficient fees to support operations."

Between 20-30,000 applications for visas went unprocessed each of the 27 days the government was halted in the mid-90s, according to the Congressional Research Service . Nearly 200,000 U.S. applications for passports went unprocessed, causing millions of dollars in losses for U.S. tourism industries and airlines, according to the report.

BENEFIT PAYMENTS

Social Security and Medicare benefits would keep coming, but there could be delays in processing new disability applications. Unemployment benefits would still go out. However, services like replacing lost Social Security cards or receive assistance for disability hearings.
All sides seem to agree on one thing -- a government shutdown may be increasingly likely. The shutdown could impact national parks, international travel and some workers. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

FEDERAL COURTS

Federal courts would continue operating normally for about 10 business days after the start of a shutdown, roughly until the middle of October. If the shutdown continues, the judiciary may have to begin furloughs of employees whose work is not considered essential. But cases would continue to be heard.

The Justice Department announced they will suspend many civil cases, but criminal litigation will continue without interruption.

MAIL

Deliveries would continue as usual because the U.S. Postal Service receives no tax dollars for day-to-day operations. It relies on income from stamps and other postal fees to keep running.

RECREATION
Olivier Hoslet / EPA file


The crew of the old sailing vessel Clipper sails between Manhattan and Libetry Island as the sun sets in New York City, on Sept. 19.



All national parks would likely be closed, as would the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo in Washington. Visitors using overnight campgrounds or other park facilities would be given 48 hours to make alternate arrangements and leave the park. Among the visitor centers that would be closed: the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Alcatraz Island near San Francisco and the Washington Monument. Staffing will be held to "the very minimum to perform essential functions," according to the Department of the Interior, meaning many of its 70,000 employees could be furloughed.

The closing of 368 National Parks Service sites resulted in the loss of an estimated 7 million visitors during the 1995 and 1996 shutdowns, according to a Congressional Research Service report released in August. Closure of national museums and monuments resulted in the loss of an estimated 2 million visitors and millions of dollars of revenue to the surrounding community.

HEALTH

New patients would not be accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, but current patients would continue to receive care. Medical research at the NIH would be disrupted and some studies would be delayed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be severely limited in spotting or investigating disease outbreaks, from flu to that mysterious MERS virus from the Middle East.

FOOD SAFETY

The Food and Drug Administration would handle high-risk recalls and possibly suspend most routine safety inspections. Federal meat inspections would be expected to proceed as usual.

HEAD START

A small number of Head Start programs, about 20 out of 1,600 nationally, would feel the impact right away. The federal Administration for Children and Families says grants expiring about Oct. 1 would not be renewed. Over time more programs would be affected. Several of the Head Start programs that would immediately feel the pinch are in Florida. It's unclear if they would continue serving children.

FOOD ASSISTANCE

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, could shut down. The program provides supplemental food, health care referrals and nutrition education for pregnant women, mothers and their children.
School lunches and breakfasts would continue to be served, and food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, would continue to be distributed. But several smaller feeding programs would not have the money to operate.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said senior nutrition grants, which provides meals for 2.5 million elderly Americans, would not be funded in the event of a shutdown.

TAXES
Shannon Stapleton / Reuters file


A woman walks out of the Internal Revenue Service building in New York in May.



Americans would still have to pay their taxes and file federal tax returns, but the Internal Revenue Service says it would suspend all audits. Got questions? Sorry, the IRS says taxpayer services, including toll-free help lines, would be shut as well.

LOANS

Many low-to-moderate incomes borrowers and first-time homebuyers seeking government-backed mortgages could face delays during the shutdown. The Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees about 30 percent of home mortgages, wouldn't underwrite or approve any new loans during the shutdown. Action on government-backed loans to small businesses would be suspended.

SCIENCE

NASA "will be shut down almost entirely," the president said. Only workers at Mission Control in Houston and elsewhere will keep working to support the International Space station, where two Americans and four others are deployed. The National Weather Service would keep forecasting weather and issuing warnings and the National Hurricane Center would continue to track storms. The scientific work of the U.S. Geological Survey would be halted.

HOMELAND SECURITY

The majority of the Department of Homeland Security's employees are expected to stay on the job, including uniformed agents and officers at the country's borders and ports of entry, members of the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration officers, Secret Service personnel and other law enforcement agents and officers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees would continue to process green card applications. However E-Verify would not be available for businesses to check whether a prospective employee is a documented worker

MILITARY

The president on Monday signed legislation to ensure the military's 1.4 million active duty personnel would still be paid during a shut down.

"If you're serving in harm's way, we're going to make sure you have what you need to succeed in your missions.  Congress has passed, and I am signing into law, legislation to make sure you get your paychecks on time.  And we'll continue working to address any impact this shutdown has on you and your families," Obama said in a video message to American military and their families.

Still, about half of the Defense Department's civilian employees could still be furloughed.

PRISONS

All 116 federal prisons would remain open, and criminal litigation would proceed. Prison guards’ pay may be delayed.

VETERANS SERVICES

Most services offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs will continue because lawmakers approve money one year in advance for the VA's health programs. Veterans would still be able to visit hospitals for inpatient care, get mental health counseling at vet centers or get prescriptions filled at VA health clinics.

"Veterans who have sacrificed for their country will find their support centers unstaffed," Obama said.

Claims workers would still process payments to cover disability and pension benefits. But veterans appealing the denial of disability benefits to the Board of Veterans Appeals would have to wait longer for a decision because the board could not issue any decisions during a shutdown.


Carney said during Monday's briefing that veterans' call centers "will be close immediately" if the government shuts down.

WORK SAFETY

Federal occupational safety and health inspectors would likely stop workplace inspections except in cases of imminent danger.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Unknown

The unknown is always a bit uncomfortable... but what gets you through is the FAITH you put into the direction you have chosen.

Stay the course and you will always find your way.  Or rather,  it finds you.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Black History Series | Barack Obama

President Obama Descends from America’s First Slave


ANCESTRY.COM  |  10/08/2012


We’ve all heard about President Obama’s Irish roots, and we know his father came from Kenya. But a research team from Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, has also concluded that the nation’s 44th president is also the 11th great-grandson of John Punch, the first documented African enslaved for life in American history.

And what’s more, the connection comes through President Obama’s Caucasian mother’s family.

This discovery follows years of research by Ancestry.com genealogists who, using early Virginia records and DNA analysis, linked Obama to John Punch. Punch was an indentured servant in Colonial Virginia who fled to escape servitude in 1640. After he was caught, his punishment was enslavement for life. Punch’s is the first documented case of slavery for life in the colonies, occurring decades before slavery laws were enacted in Virginia.

President Obama is traditionally viewed as an African-American because of his father’s heritage in Kenya. However, while researching his Caucasian mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, Ancestry.com genealogists found her to have African heritage as well. Their interest piqued, the researchers kept digging. DNA analysis helped confirm that Dunham’s ancestors, known as white landowners in Colonial Virginia, actually descended from an African man.  Existing records suggest that this man, John Punch, had children with a white woman who then passed her free status on to their offspring. Some of Punch’s descendants went on to be free, successful land owners in a Virginia entrenched in slavery.

An expert in Southern research and past president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, Elizabeth Shown Mills, performed a third-party review of the research and documentation to verify the findings.

“In reviewing Ancestry.com’s conclusions, I weighed not only the actual findings but also Virginia’s laws and social attitudes when John Punch was living,” said Mills. “A careful consideration of the evidence convinces me that the Y-DNA evidence of African origin is indisputable, and the surviving paper trail points solely to John Punch as the logical candidate. Genealogical research on individuals who lived hundreds of years ago can never definitively prove that one man fathered another, but this research meets the highest standards and can be offered with confidence.”

“Two of the most historically significant African-Americans in the history of our country are amazingly directly related,” says Ancestry.com genealogist Joseph Shumway. “John Punch was more than likely the genesis of legalized slavery in America.  But after centuries of suffering, the Civil War, and decades of civil rights efforts, his 11th great-grandson became the leader of the free world and the ultimate realization of the American Dream.”

More details and additional research on President Obama’s family lineage can be found at www.ancestry.com/obama.

To find out more about Barack Obama, click here.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Black History Series | Vanessa Williams

A year or so ago, I became interested in my family lineage again.  I already knew about one half of my family history but didn't know the complete story of the other half because of the lack of records.  Ancestry.com is one of the few sites that is devoted to helping you find that history.  DNA Analysis is also a very eye opening experience.  The majority of my lineage is from Ghana but the rest was very surprising as I'm sure it was for Vanessa Williams.  In this two part series,  I will share with you fascinating discoveries about two well known Black personalities.

PART 1:  VANESSA WILLIAMS  (America's first black Miss America '84)

[Accomplished singer, actress, author, producer and former model]

 

The following appeared in the Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2013. Written by Jessica P. Ogilvie.

The World within Vanessa Williams
5 QUESTIONS

Most of us are curious about our family lineage. For Vanessa Williams, who recently took part in the show “Who Do You Think You Are” and explored her family’s history, the task was both surprising and informative. Here, she talks about what she learned and how she plans to use that information.

How did you become interested in finding out about your lineage?

I’ve always been interested, but I was introduced to Ancestry.com [one of the websites that help people research their family backgrounds] before I even did a show called “Who Do You Think You Are,” so I signed up as a member to document my own family tree, and my DNA analysis was done as a part of doing the show.

We ended up doing two stories on my father’s side. One of my great-great-grandfathers was a soldier in the Civil War, and the other was born a slave but ended up being an educator and principal, and one of the first black legislators in Tennessee back in 1885. The stories are rich and informative and intriguing, but also as an African American, you don’t always have the luxury to know exactly where your ancestors are from.

What did you find out about your DNA?

My DNA breaks down as follows: I’m 23% from Ghana, 17% from the British Isles, 15% from Cameroon, 12% Finnish, 11% Southern European, 7% Togo, 6% Benin, 5% Senegal and 4% Portuguese.

Now, I can’t wait to go to Ghana and Cameroon and Togo and Senegal — it’s a great opportunity to see why the customs resonate with you. I love to travel and I love to explore, and I have to admit that I was always jealous of people who knew their cultural background. Both my family and myself came out with light eyes, so obviously there is a recessive gene here. Not knowing what that was just made me very curious.

How did it feel to find out about all these different parts of your lineage?

It’s fascinating! The first person I called was my mother, and I sent her my results and copied all my kids so they know where half of their genetic makeup is from. I wish that my father was still alive, because he was a huge history buff and interested in genealogy as well. It allows a greater sense of history for the family and a bit of pride as well.

Why do you think this information is important? Is it just for your own knowledge or to do plan to use it for health purposes as well?

I remember my mother told me that when my brother was a baby, they identified some blood issue with him, and they asked her if she had any relatives from Italy because this particular blood characteristic was consistent with someone from Italy. My mother said, “No, no, nothing like that.” Well, now come to find out 45 years later and obviously we have the same genetic makeup that Southern European is 11% of our makeup.

How did your family react to all this information?

They loved it. They really can’t wait to go on our world tour of where we’re from. The biggest surprise was Finland. How did that happen? Who is Finnish? That is definitely going to be one of my trips coming up. It’s all surprising, really interesting and it’s really incredible.

To learn more about Vanessa Williams, click here.

 

I had the same reaction as Vanessa when I found out about other parts of my DNA.  It just goes to show how rich of a history many of us have.  I've always believed that a strong background is the foundation for a powerful future.  But as my grandmother used to say...  it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at.

NEXT:  A revelation about Barack Obama's ancestry.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Juneteenth | A History Lesson

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which, or neither of these version could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln's authority over the rebellious states was in question For whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

General Order Number 3

One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with:

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation. While many lingered to learn of this new employer to employee relationship, many left before these offers were completely off the lips of their former 'masters' - attesting to the varying conditions on the plantations and the realization of freedom. Even with nowhere to go, many felt that leaving the plantation would be their first grasp of freedom. North was a logical destination and for many it represented true freedom, while the desire to reach family members in neighboring states drove the some into Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Settling into these new areas as free men and women brought on new realities and the challenges of establishing a heretofore non-existent status for black people in America. Recounting the memories of that great day in June of 1865 and its festivities would serve as motivation as well as a release from the growing pressures encountered in their new territory. The celebration of June 19th was coined "Juneteenth" and grew with more participation from descendants. The Juneteenth celebration was a time for reassuring each other, for praying and for gathering remaining family members. Juneteenth continued to be highly revered in Texas decades later, with many former slaves and descendants making an annual pilgrimage back to Galveston on this date.

Juneteenth Festivities and Food

A range of activities were provided to entertain the masses, many of which continue in tradition today. Rodeos, fishing, barbecuing and baseball are just a few of the typical Juneteenth activities you may witness today. Juneteenth almost always focused on education and self improvement. Thus, often guest speakers are brought in and the elders are called upon to recount the events of the past. Prayer services were also a major part of these celebrations.

Certain foods became popular and subsequently synonymous with Juneteenth celebrations such as strawberry soda-pop. More traditional and just as popular was the barbecuing, through which Juneteenth participants could share in the spirit and aromas that their ancestors - the newly emancipated African Americans, would have experienced during their ceremonies. Hence, the barbecue pit is often established as the center of attention at Juneteenth celebrations.

Food was abundant because everyone prepared a special dish. Meats such as lamb, pork and beef which not available everyday were brought on this special occasion. A true Juneteenth celebrations left visitors well satisfied and with enough conversation to last until the next.

Dress was also an important element in early Juneteenth customs and is often still taken seriously, particularly by the direct descendants who can make the connection to this tradition's roots. During slavery there were laws on the books in many areas that prohibited or limited the dressing of the enslaved. During the initial days of the emancipation celebrations, there are accounts of former slaves tossing their ragged garments into the creeks and rivers to adorn clothing taken from the plantations belonging to their former 'masters'.

Juneteenth and Society

In the early years, little interest existed outside the African American community in participation in the celebrations. In some cases, there was outwardly exhibited resistance by barring the use of public property for the festivities. Most of the festivities found themselves out in rural areas around rivers and creeks that could provide for additional activities such as fishing, horseback riding and barbecues. Often the church grounds was the site for such activities. Eventually, as African Americans became land owners, land was donated and dedicated for these festivities. One of the earliest documented land purchases in the name of Juneteenth was organized by Rev. Jack Yates. This fund-raising effort yielded $1000 and the purchase of Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas. In Mexia, the local Juneteenth organization purchased Booker T. Washington Park, which had become the Juneteenth celebration site in 1898. There are accounts of Juneteenth activities being interrupted and halted by white landowners demanding that their laborers return to work. However, it seems most allowed their workers the day off and some even made donations of food and money. For decades these annual celebrations flourished, growing continuously with each passing year. In Booker T. Washington Park, as many as 20,000 African Americans once flowed through during the course of a week, making the celebration one of the state’s largest.

Juneteenth Celebrations Decline

Economic and cultural forces provided for a decline in Juneteenth activities and participants beginning in the early 1900’s. Classroom and textbook education in lieu of traditional home and family-taught practices stifled the interest of the youth due to less emphasis and detail on the activities of former slaves. Classroom text books proclaimed Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 as the date signaling the ending of slavery - and little or nothing on the impact of General Granger’s arrival on June 19th.

The Depression forced many people off the farms and into the cities to find work. In these urban environments, employers were less eager to grant leaves to celebrate this date. Thus, unless June 19th fell on a weekend or holiday, there were very few participants available. July 4th was the already established Independence holiday and a rise in patriotism steered more toward this celebration.

Resurgence

The Civil Rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s yielded both positive and negative results for the Juneteenth celebrations. While it pulled many of the African American youth away and into the struggle for racial equality, many linked these struggles to the historical struggles of their ancestors. This was evidenced by student demonstrators involved in the Atlanta civil rights campaign in the early 1960’s, whom wore Juneteenth freedom buttons. Again in 1968, Juneteenth received another strong resurgence through Poor Peoples March to Washington D.C.. Rev. Ralph Abernathy’s call for people of all races, creeds, economic levels and professions to come to Washington to show support for the poor. Many of these attendees returned home and initiated Juneteenth celebrations in areas previously absent of such activity. In fact, two of the largest Juneteenth celebrations founded after this March are now held in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

Texas Blazes the Trail

On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth became an official state holiday through the efforts of Al Edwards, an African American state legislator. The successful passage of this bill marked Juneteenth as the first emancipation celebration granted official state recognition. Edwards has since actively sought to spread the observance of Juneteenth all across America.

Juneteenth In Modern Times

Today, Juneteenth is enjoying a phenomenal growth rate within communities and organizations throughout the country. Institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Henry Ford Museum and others have begun sponsoring Juneteenth-centered activities. In recent years, a number of local and national Juneteenth organizations have arisen to take their place along side older organizations - all with the mission to promote and cultivate knowledge and appreciation of African American history and culture.

Juneteenth today, celebrates African American freedom and achievement, while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures. As it takes on a more national, symbolic and even global perspective, the events of 1865 in Texas are not forgotten, for all of the roots tie back to this fertile soil from which a national day of pride is growing.

The future of Juneteenth looks bright as the number of cities and states creating Juneteenth committees continues to increase. Respect and appreciation for all of our differences grow out of exposure and working together. Getting involved and supporting Juneteenth celebrations creates new bonds of friendship and understanding among us. This indeed, brightens our future - and that is the Spirit of Juneteenth.

 

Courtesy of Juneteenth.com

Friday, May 24, 2013

Reinvent Yourself

One of the secrets to living a healthy, fulfilling life is your ability to change what is not working.  People have excuses for EVERYTHING.  Whether the obstacle is money, time, distance or motivation;  you can change it.  All it takes is for you to decide that you want it bad enough.

Reinventing yourself is easy.  It simply requires doing something outside the box or outside of your normal routine.

How?  Start small...

Take a different route to work...

Say hello to a co-worker or neighbor you normally do not talk to...

Donate a small amount to a charity that matters to you...

Watch a TV program you keep telling yourself you need to see...

Go watch a movie on a day you normally reserve for something else...

...and so on.

 

Easy, right?  Reinventing yourself is simply doing something different to ignite change.

Try it... see the how it makes you feel.  Then do it again... and again... and again.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

9 Strangest Foreign Objects Founds In People's Rectums

I pride myself on being liberal and accepting of most perversions (especially having been the instigator of most of them), there are still things that manage to surprise me.  The awesome capacity of people to lose shit (no pun intended) up their rectums is one of them.

 

Number 9:  Spray Can

This particular individual must have decided their colon needed a bit of a makeover and thought a can of spray paint would do just the job. 

rectum10

 

Number 8:  TWO Objects

Most people who end up going to the hospital with a foreign object stuck in their rectum are quite embarrassed  What's worse than going to the hospital with one object stuck in your bum?.. Going to the hospital with TWO objects stuck in your bum! This person went a little too far while playing with an adult toy and instead of panicking, grabbed the nearest salad tongs in an effort to retrieve the object. Well...the X-ray tells the rest of the story!

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Number 7:  Large Stone Egg

Ever heard of a human laying an egg?..That's because they don't! This person had some trouble passing this large stone egg that they had inserted in their rear. Why you ask?..Pleasure? Curiosity? Maybe someone just called him a "chicken"?

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Number 6:  House Key

After a night of partying in college, the individual stumbled home the next morning only to find they had lost their house key. Mystery solved after going to the doctors for abdominal pain a few days later.

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Number 5:  Ammo

This WWII veteran was self treating his hemorrhoid problem by shoving them back in him using some ammo from his war guns. He was pushing so hard that this one went to far! The doctors asked the patient whether the shell was spent to which he calmly replied that there was "enough ammo packed in that shell to blast Messerschmidt out of the sky!"The bomb squad was called in and enabled the doctors to safely removed the shell. The Hemorrhoids remain.

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Number 4:  Cell Phone

Word on the streets is that if you stick your cell phone in your rectum it acts the same way as a blue-tooth earpiece without having to wear one of those ugly headsets! Simply clinch to answer and hang up. I think this guy will tell you otherwise!

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Number 3: Graduated Cylinder

This is an example of a science experiment gone horribly wrong! This patient came to the hospital with a graduated cylinder stuck deep within. Measuring methane levels perhaps? I don't think they taught that in Chemistry class!

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Number 2: Peanut Butter Jar

This patient came to the hospital presenting signs of the ever so common condition of "peanut BUTTer anus". In other words, he's got a jar a peanut butter stuck in his butt.  That's taking a food obsession one step too far!

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Number 1: Light Bulb

I bet this isn't one the "brightest" ideas this guy has had!

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Redesign Mode

I have decided to take my domain, blacksovereign.com, to another level.  I am currently redesigning the site and is now hosted independently.  I hope to debut the new Metro style look soon (think Windows 8 tiles, etc).

In the meantime, I will maintain my original site on blacksovereign.wordpress.com or blog.blacksovereign.com

I am aiming to merge my blog with my new BSU project (Black Sovereign University).  A membership based site.  I have upcoming projects that I wish to consolidate and this new direction will enable me to do so under one site.

 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Spring Forward

Life is a learning process.  Littered with dead ends, traffic jams and flying debris. Your heart is your Tom Tom or Garmin device.  It helps you make those tough decisions when navigating the many twists and turns the road of Life can lay ahead of you.

Most only use their eyes... but what you see can be deceiving.  There is always two sides (point of view) to everything.

...and, every one.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Infections With 'Nightmare Bacteria' Are On The Rise In U.S. Hospitals - NPR

Federal officials warned Tuesday that an especially dangerous group of superbugs has become a significant health problem in hospitals throughout the United States.

These germs, known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, have become much more common in the last decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the risk they pose to health is becoming evident.

"What's called CRE are nightmare bacteria," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, tells Shots. "They're basically a triple threat."

First of all, they are resistant to virtually all antibiotics, including the ones doctors use as a last-ditch option.

Second, these bugs can transfer their invincibility to other bacteria. "The mechanism of resistance to antibiotics not only works for one bacteria, but can be spread to others," Frieden says.

Third, the bacteria can be deadly. Infection with the bacteria "have a fatality rate as high as 50 percent," Frieden says.

Although the resistant bacteria potentially pose a risk to anyone, people whose immune systems are weaker, such as elderly people, children and people who have other health problems, tend to be most susceptible to infection.

If the drug-resistance starts to spread from bacteria that are usually a problem in hospitals to much more widespread causes of infections, the risk could rise even more. "If it spread to things like E. coli, which is a common urinary tract infection, it would be a very serious problem," Frieden says.

The CDC sounded the alarm because of data that show the proportion of bacteria that have this resistance to many drugs has quadrupled in the last decade or so.

CRE cases were reported by 4 percent of hospitals in 2012, up from about 1 percent from about a decade earlier, according to the report. In long-term care hospitals the situation is even worse — about 18 percent have reported cases, the CDC says.

In addition, the proportion of Enterobacteriaceae bacteria that were resistant increased from 1.2 percent in 2001 to 4.2 percent in 2011, the CDC reported.

"And that's for the whole family." says Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, the CDC's associate director for health care-associated infection-prevention programs. "When we look at one member of this family, a bacteria called Klebsiella, which is the most common type of CRE that we see in the United States, resistance there has gone from about 2 percent to over 10 percent. So a dramatic increase in the frequency with which these organisms are being seen in our hospitals in the United States."

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Brad Spellberg, of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, likens the situation to the Titanic's ill-fated voyage. "We're not talking about an iceberg that's down the line," he says. "The ship has hit the iceberg. We're taking on water. We already have people dying. Not only of CRE, but of untreatable CRE."

So far, these infections are still relatively rare. And they have been seen only in hospitals.

The big fear is that they'll start to move out of hospitals and into the communities around them. "If CRE spreads out of hospitals and into communities, that's when the ship is totally underwater and we all drown," Spellberg says.

To prevent that from happening, the CDC and others are calling on hospitals to contain CRE. "We can nip this in the bud. But it's going to take a lot of effort on the part of hospitals," Frieden says

The first thing hospitals need to do is test patients to see if they have these bugs. "The basic steps are finding patients with CRE and making sure they are isolated so that they don't spread it to others," Frieden says.

That includes common-sense things like keeping them away from other patients and sterilizing everything they come into contact with.

"We know that this can stop outbreaks. It has helped in Florida. It's helped in other countries," Frieden says. "And the good news about this is that it still hasn't spread so widely that we can't stop it."

And doctors have to use antibiotics more carefully to prevent more germs from developing into dangerous superbugs.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/03/05/173526084/infections-with-nightmare-bacteria-are-on-the-rise-in-u-s-hospitals