“The basic cause of most of the trouble in the Congo right now is the intervention of outsiders — the fighting that is going on over the mineral wealth of the Congo and over the strategic position that the Congo represents on the African continent. And in order to justify it, they are doing it at the expense of the Congolese, by trying to make it appear that the people are savages. And I think, as one of the gentlemen mentioned earlier, if there are savages in the Congo, then there are worse savages in Mississippi, Alabama and New York City, and probably some in Washington, D.C., too.” – Malcolm X on radio station WMCA Nov. 28, 1964
Tags:
African unity,
Belgium,
Congo,
England,
France,
Freedom,
Friends of the Congo,
Joseph Desire Mobutu,
Malcolm X,
Moise Tshombe,
Patrice Lumumba,
the United Nations,
the United States
Most successful Black entrepreneurs that I know would never publish themselves in the so-called Black Enterprise Top 100 Black Businesses. To many it is perceived as a “target list” for the IRS, large competitors and others with bad intentions. Allow me to discuss a few of the horror stories that successful Black entrepreneurs have experienced.
Tags:
Army barracks at Ft. Benning,
Batteast Construction,
Black business,
Black Enterprise Top 100 Black Businesses,
Carl Stokes,
Chicago,
Cleveland,
Coleman Young,
Detroit,
Harold Washington,
Harry C. Alford,
L.H. Smith Oil Co.,
Lannie H. Smith,
Madison Construction Management,
Robert Batteast,
the Army Corps of Engineers,
the federal government,
the National Black Chamber of Commerce
Among youth, while only 15 percent of teens (ages 13-19) are African American, they accounted for 73 percent of the new AIDS cases reported in 2004. Comparably shocking, HIV and AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 34.
Where’s Black leadership on this issue? Where’s the Black church?
Tags:
African American women,
AIDS,
America,
bisexual Black men,
Blacks and Latinos in the United States,
Harvard University,
Hillary Clinton,
HIV,
National HIV Testing Day,
Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
sexual choices,
the Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of African Americans on HIV/AIDS
In a letter dated May 22, 2009, Navy representatives announced their intention to dissolve the RAB. This is not the first time the Navy has threatened to take this action. Indeed, whenever a critical impasse has arisen regarding key shipyard cleanup matters, a threat to disband the elected body recognized by Congress as the legitimate organized voice for public comment, dissent and scientific debate has been made.
Tags:
Bret Harte School,
Congress,
DPH Director of Environmental Health Rajiv Bhatia,
DPH regulator Amy Brownell,
Dr. Raymond Tompkins,
Espanola Jackson,
federal Superfund site,
First Lady Michelle Obama,
Libby,
Mahatma Ghandi,
Margaret Mead,
Minister Christopher Muhammad,
Notice of Violation (NOV),
Parcel E landfill,
Patrick Monk,
Proposition G campaign,
publisher Willie Ratcliff,
RAB Community Co-chair Lynne Brown,
Rajiv Bhatia,
Restoration Advisory Board community co-chair Leon Muhammad,
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency,
the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization,
the Base Realignment and Closure Process,
the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD),
the Bayview Hunters Point Health and Environmental Task Force,
the California Department of Public Health,
the Dust Control Plan,
the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Hunters Point Shipyard,
the Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board,
The Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board (RAB),
the Lennar,
The National Contingency Plan,
the National Priorities List,
The Navy,
the San Francisco Bay,
the San Francisco Department of Health,
the toxic dust,
West Oakland
Kambale Musavuli, national spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, in this interview by POCC Minister of Information JR, challenges the people of the U.S. and President Obama to stop the resource wars in the Congo that have killed 6 million people, half of them children, for minerals like the coltan that powers our cell phones and almost everything electronic.
Tags:
Africa and the World,
Black Dot Café,
Blackberry,
cell phones,
coltan,
Congo,
Congo Independence Day,
Flashpoints,
Friends of the Congo,
Kambale Musavuli,
KPFA,
POCC Minister of Information JR,
President Obama,
Rwanda,
Uganda
If enough listeners become subscribers, and vote in the election, it’s possible that “people power” will overcome “money power” and elect an LSB majority that isn’t wedded to the status quo. The Bay Area deserves a KPFA that innovates. For example, isn’t it about time for a program for the Black community, a program for the LGBT community and a program about California’s injustice system? And KPFA workers, paid and unpaid, deserve management that respects them and the listener community.
Tags:
Bay Area,
election,
he Pacifica National Board,
KPFA,
KPFA Local Station Board,
KPFA managers,
Nadra Foster,
police,
the Concerned Listener (CL) faction,
Women’s Magazine,
Youth Radio
Port au Prince, Haiti (Haiti Action.net) – Brazilian soldiers with the U.N. occupation in Haiti (known as MINUSTAH) killed a young man from the neighborhood of Solino immediately after the funeral of Father Gerard Jean Juste June 18 as he was getting ready to board a bus leaving with the cortège headed to the town of Cavaillon, Haiti.
Tags:
Cavaillon,
Denis Fernand of Bel-Air,
Fanmi Lavalas,
Father Jean-Juste,
former President Jean Bertrand Aristide,
former U.S. President Bill Clinton,
Haiti and Latin America,
Miami,
MINUSTAH,
Port au Prince,
Randall White,
the National Palace,
the Prèval government,
The U.N.,
Veye Yo,
“gang” leader Komandan Toutou
This musical tribute to the towering hero of Haiti, Father Gerard Jean-Juste – or Pe Jan Jis in Kreyol – who joined the ancestors May 27, 2009, is sung by Rosemond Jolissaint, the Haitian sensation who won Haiti’s version of American Idol in 2007.
Tags:
Bell Angelot,
Father Gerard Jean-Juste,
Father Gerry,
Fr. Jean-Juste,
Haiti and Latin America,
Margaret Trost,
Pe Jan Jis,
Port au Prince,
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
Rosemond Jolissaint,
Sasha Kramer,
St. Claire,
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL),
Veye Yo,
Wadner Pierre
On other coasts, you could just put on a red, black and green bandana or arm band and be talking to all white people but call your yourself a Black conscious or political rapper. Conscious of what I don’t know, but the Jacka, on his new album “Tear Gas,” shares the knowledge that he has with what revolutionary theoretician Frantz Fanon called “The Wretched of the Earth” instead of thinking that the information that he has makes him more elite, or better than someone else.
Tags:
"Me Against the World",
2Pac,
Add new tag,
Allah,
Bannon,
Cellski,
Cormega,
Devin the Dude,
E-40,
Frantz Fanon,
Freeway,
Lovelle Mixon,
MG,
Oscar Grant,
Paul Wall,
rap,
Rob Lo,
SMC,
tear gas,
the Incredibles,
The Jacka of the Mobb Figgaz,
the Minister of Information JR,
the Mobb Figgaz,
The Wretched of the Earth,
Traxamillion
This historic interview by Minister of Information JR for Block Report Radio with the co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee, Pierre Labossiere, reveals the heart of the saintly liberation theologian and freedom fighter, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, and recalls the life of this extraordinarily popular religious, political and humanitarian leader from the perspective of a close friend who talked with him daily.
“Earth Song,” written and composed by Michael Jackson, who joined the ancestors June 25, 2009, at age 50, is his best known environmentally conscious track, a ballad that incorporates elements of blues, gospel and opera. In 2007 he told Ebony magazine he was “very concerned” about the “international global warming phenomenon.”
Thirty-seven percent of the adults and 20 percent of the kids living in West Oakland have asthma and children living in this community are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for breathing related illness than any other children in California.
Tags:
Alameda County,
Alameda County Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Nate Miley,
asthma,
Breathmobile,
California,
California Assemblyman Jerry Hill,
Clean Air and the Natural Resources Defense Council,
Comprehensive Truck Management Plan,
Disraeli Hives,
Dr. Washington Burns,
Kwan Booth,
Mary Frazier,
Prescott Joseph Center,
Shirley Burnell,
the Asthma Education Center,
the California Air Resources Board,
the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution,
the Oakland Chamber of Commerce,
the Pacific Institute,
the Port of Oakland,
the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles,
the Waterfront Coalition,
the West Oakland Asthma Coalition,
West Oakland,
West Oakland Acorn
The mood was militant, even joyous, as thousands poured out of the Port-au-Prince Cathedral following the funeral of Father Gérard Jean-Juste on June 18. They merged with rara bands which had been circulating in the streets outside the church during the four hours since the service began at 6 a.m. Then about 10 gunshots rang out. People ran and dove for cover. It all lasted about 30 seconds.
Tags:
Adonai Jean-Juste,
Bel Air,
Bishop Serge Miot,
Boston,
Cavaillon,
Cite Soleil,
Father Gerard Jean-Juste,
Fathers André Pierre,
Faubert Pierre,
Haiti and Latin America,
Haiti Liberte,
Kim Ives,
Lavalas,
Lavarice Gaudin,
Martissant,
Montreal,
New York,
Paris,
President Rene Préval,
René Civile,
Solino,
St. Clair's church,
the leader of Veye Yo,
the Port-au-Prince Cathedral,
the Solino slum in the Delmas district,
Ti Charles,
Ti Plas Kazo,
U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH)
Haiti’s largest privately owned TV station, Radio Tele-Ginen, released video footage today that contradicts denials by the U.N. that they only fired shots into the air during the funeral for Catholic priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste on June 18. The footage clearly shows two shots being fired by Brazilian troops from the back of a small pickup truck at crowd level.
Since being held in prison, I have lost nearly two generations of family members, starting with the devastating loss of my mother in January 1976. Grieving alone was hard enough; I also had to endure beatings by prison guards, racial slurs, death threats and psychological torture.
When watching movies we often see the perspective of directors, writers and producers who were not conditioned to see the world and the culture they are filming from the viewpoint of somebody living in it instead of just a spectator. Idris Hassan is one of many emerging female filmmakers who refuse to sit back and just accept someone else’s view of what is happening.
Tags:
"Bay Area Cypher: A Freestyle Documentary",
Black Dot,
Davey D,
Do D.A.T,
female filmmakers,
Fiya Wata,
Idris Hassan,
Ise Lyfe,
Minister of Information JR,
Sinista Z of East Bay Politics,
the Black Dot Artist Collective founder and leader Marcel Diallo,
the Block Report Radio show,
West Oakland,
Wonway Posibul
What if they held an election and nobody came? That is exactly what happened on Sunday, June 21, when Haiti tried to hold run-offs for 12 of 30 Haitian Senate seats. Polling stations around Haiti had even fewer voters than they had on April 19, when Haitians massively boycotted the election’s first round by respecting the Lavalas Family party’s call for “Operation Closed Doors, Empty Streets.” The CEP had disqualified the party, Haiti’s largest, on arbitrary and unjustified technicalities.
Tags:
"Operation Doors Nailed Shut",
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton,
boycotted,
France,
Haïti Liberté reporters,
Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP),
John Joel,
Lavalas Family party,
Lespwa,
Noam Chomsky,
Organization of American States Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza,
the U.K.,
the U.S.,
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
voters,
William Robinson,
writer Claude Ribbé
We often tell our children, “I want you to do better than I did. I want you to make a difference and I want you to be more financially sustained than I am.” My name is Betty McGee and I earned a doctorate in business administration in 2004. The journey for me was five years of hard work, sacrifice and to some degree doubt around my ability to complete the work.
The Minister of Information JR teamed up with http://spot.us on doing a 20 minute audio documentary on the Village Bottom Farms, in West Oakland.
Frisco’s Sellassie is one of the artists in the Bay that helps to keep the independent scene together, with his partner Gina Gallo of Inhouse Talent. They are the architects of the “We All We Got” concert series, which moves around from club to club in San Francisco and features some of the hottest underground talent in the Bay.
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