One hundred years of African intellectual activism

Naledi Pandor

Address by the South African Minister of Science and Technology at the Archie Mafeye memorial lecture.

It is no accident that the founding leaders of post-colonial African countries - men like Nkrumah, Nyerere, Mandela – were able to articulate ideologies and visions of nationalism that were both political and cultural.

The idea of African Nationalism always contained some notion of cultural affirmation.

Significantly, for African intellectuals the cultural counterpart to African Nationalism was not ethnic identity but a pan-African one: Negritude, or African personality.

African intellectuals looked to anchor nationalism - or in Terence Ranger’s famous term, to find a “usable past” – in its histories and cultures.

Historians set out to tell Africa’s past, not merely to glorify it and its ancient kings and empires, but also to establish the humanity of African people.

And so in the heyday of independence and nation building, it was history that had its own major ‘schools’: those of Ibadan, Dakar and Dar es Salaam being among the best known.

The issues debated were development issues, the paradigms were the overturning of modernisation theory with new theories of underdevelopment and a relentless focus on different types of modes of production.

These were exciting times in the full flush of political independence. The names of scholars who have stood the test of time were Samir Amin, Issa Shivji, Mahmood Mamdani, and Giovanni Arrighi.

But in South Africa, where decolonisation lagged behind the rest of Africa, our intellectual trajectory was different to what took place in the north.

And we were very much more wary of ethnicity, a point which Archie Mafeje made most clear in his much cited 1971 article on ‘tribalism’.

We were able to draw on an intellectual tradition that goes back to the origins of Pan-Africanist thinking with its concern to rid Africa of white imperial domination.

This tradition goes back to the early 1880s when John Tengo Jabavu founded the first secular newspaper, Imvo Zababantusundu in the Eastern Cape. It was continued in the early twentieth century by John Langalibalele Dube (author of the first Zulu language novel), R V. Selope Thema (journalist, editor, historian), Pixley Ka Isaka Seme ( a Columbia and Oxford trained lawyer), and Solomon T Plaatje (linguist, journalist and author) – all of whom were associated with founding of the ANC.

This tradition was continued at Fort Hare, where a small group of academics made important early contributions to the study of African society and culture.

The role Fort Hare played in South Africa’s struggle for liberation, and its influence across the continent, can be ascribed to the convergence of great minds on one campus. The number and profile of leaders that Fort Hare has produced over the years illustrates its reputation as the cradle of African intellectual leadership.

But apart from Fort Hare, where are the South African schools of intellectual activism like the ones in Dakar, Ibadan, and Dar es Salaam?

A little history will help at this point. In 1959 the Extension of University Education Act established separate institutions for black students, it created university apartheid.

At that time South African universities related to the state in a number of different ways that have contributed to the present forms of African intellectual activism.

The first type was the Afrikaans-medium institution with a firm relationship to the apartheid state. Intellectual outputs, teaching and research exemplified a symbiotic link between institutions and various arms of government. These institutions were, in Edward Said’s words, the “proving ground of patriots” and political conformity drove their daily agenda.

The second type was the English-speaking, primarily white institutions. These maintained a relationship with the state at a respectable distance. It is from intellectuals at some of these institutions that debates about the policies of a future democratic South Africa occurred.

The third type was the black university. Historically, black institutions became sites of struggle in the turbulent 70’s and 80’s. Sadly they never fully became the proving ground for intellectual activism. Political struggle consumed much of the time at these institutions and students and staff were unable to find the space for the development and emergence of intellectual excellence.

Our institutions now have political freedom, academic freedom, and intellectual independence.

The issue that arises is: has there been a complementary increase in intellectual activism?

The answer is no, and the reasons for this are many and complex. I cannot possibly identify and address them all.

We have not seen a fundamental curriculum shift that “Africanises” our universities.

We have not witnessed an intellectual reclamation of educational territory from pre-democratic domination.

We have not seen a sustained attempt to suture and bandage the spiritual wounds of apartheid.

Even more peculiar, we have not seen a strong outpouring of patriotic intellectual practice.

When I think about our special needs in this regard, I think about the way in which remarkable individuals in the past have resolved the challenges to ‘mainstreaming’ their concerns. I think about Z.K. Matthews at Fort Hare. I think of Jakes Gerwel at the University of the Western Cape.

To my mind these men and women are organic intellectuals.

In the past they worked in opposition to the cultural hegemony of the day; today they work for the creation of a new national identity.

The space for intellectual activism now exists in our democratic culture. Yet we find that much of current African intellectual activism takes place in the diaspora, mainly in the US.

Today there are over 70 dedicated African Studies centres in the US. Moreover, the US African Studies Association has over 2,500 members, among whom are many women and African Americans. In this network most of the better-known names of the contemporary African diaspora intellectuals have come to rest: Akyeampong, Appiah, Asante, Mamdani, Mudimbe, Nguni, Zeleza, and Soyinke. Our own Nolutshungu, Mafeje, and Magubane are a generation or older than these current trendsetters.

Yet there are real signs of regeneration and renaissance here and in the rest of Africa.

Let me refer to a few signs.

First, new shoots of scholarship at African universities are beginning to grow again; there is an increase in student enrolments, there is investment in buildings and in staff. Despite the poor hand that was dealt to Africa in global trade and the global system in the 1990s, the current commodities boom has brought a new sense of wealth and hope for the future to many African countries.

Second, there are international bodies that are committed to the regeneration of universities in Africa. In particular, the rejuvenated Association of African Universities (AAU) is now able to lobby for universities in a way that was not possible before.

Third, into the vacuum that the run-down universities of Africa left in the 1980s, there emerged scholarly networks like Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa. (OSSREA), SAPES, AAPS, AERC and Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) that became significant sites of research and debate. Out of the vacuum has come a scholarship that leading African intellectuals regard as first-rate.

How can we benefit here in South Africa from the African intellectuals teaching and researching in the diaspora? What steps does government need to take in order to encourage the global circulation of new and old knowledge?

We have policies and programmes in South Africa – our flagship programmes are the SA Research Chairs initiative and our Centres of Excellence initiative - to encourage African research and development in our universities.

We have to make them work for us; we are making them work for us.

Thank you.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

South Asian Personalities & Their Voices

Passage from a poem, ‘Why Should We Sell Our Dreams?’ by Ahmad Faraz:

Our dreams are the dreams of the pure heart,

dreams of word and music,

dreams of doors that wait to be opened,

dreams of voices that are silenced.

I have compiled some great interviews of various personalities who have contributed their reflections socially, culturally, politically and artistically — manifesting a richness of voices that ignite a spark to delve into global issues and to preserve heritage and culture.  I shall keep updating the page as I upload future interviews.   Shaheen Sultan Dhanji

Feryal Ali Gauhar: Pakistani Filmmaker, writer, human rights / animal rights activist, actor, development specialist.She served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. Her most recent book, set in Afghanistan in 2002, is called No Space for Further Burials and an earlier book Scent of Wet Earth in August.

Interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/13/this_is_the_worst_catastrophe_to

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Arundhati Roy: Indian writer and activist. Authored The God of Small Things, Power Politics.

Interviwed by Anjali Kamat on Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/22/arundhati_roy_on_obamas_wars_india

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Shabnam Merali: Canadian Musician – Qawaali & Ghazal singer, Ginan and Qasida reciter, radio-host and poet. She has performed in Canada, Europe, Pakistan, Dubai and Africa. She has produced two ghazal CD’s: Lamhe (under Monsuun Communications), and Chahat.

(Shabnam Merali performs before a live audience. Photo: Courtesy of Shabnam Merali)   From a young age, Shabnam Merali, a performer from Edmonton, Canada, discovered spirituality in music through ginans — a form of Ismaili devotional literature. Reciting permutations of the word Ali, which held a special significance for her, has now become the hallmark of her singing. It permits a feeling of transcendence — a sense of being lost in the music. The theme of transcendence reverberates among many spiritual musicians.   When asked about how she feels during a performance, Merali responds: “Feelings are tremendously difficult to articulate, especially if they are characteristically transcendent.” She says that once she immersed deep in the music, she feels a freedom from her own self. Her identity merges with the collective; the energy of the audience returns through her singing in a progressively intensifying cycle. Merali emphasises that she must believe in the music, be truly devoted to it, in order for her to touch others.

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Vidya Rao: Indian musician, writer and actvist. Authored Heart to Heart: Remembering Nainaji.

AN intimate universe unravelled through the passionate notes of thumri, inseparable from the cadence of lived life: this is what best describes well-known singer Vidya Rao’s recently released book on her guru, the legendary musician Naina Devi (1917-1993). At the core of Heart to Heart: Remembering Nainaji (published by HarperCollins) is a crucial question: as art practitioners, how do women choose to express both the tradition they inherit and what they inscribe into their own voices.

Trained under Girja Shankar Chakravarty, Mushtaq Husain Khan and Rasoolan Bai, Naina Devi adopted and fostered the art of thumri singing at a time when few women from “respectable” families dared take up this art form. Thumri, one of the three major forms of Hindustani classical music, gives equal importance to musical structure and poetic text, vocal techniques and emotive content. It was traditionally performed by courtesan singers for the entertainment of elite patrons. Naina Devi, considered among the most significant names in Hindustani classical music, was also known for her contribution to institution-building, systematising the teaching and learning of the arts in independent India, and her patronage of other artists.

For Vidya Rao, currently a disciple of Shanti Hiranand and Girija Devi, her years of learning with Naina Devi (1986-1993) coincided with extensive research on the performing arts as well as a strong commitment to the women’s movement. All these concerns came together in the search for an appropriate voice with which to write Heart to Heart.

In a conversation with this writer, Vidya Rao, who also works part-time as an editorial consultant with Orient Blackswan publishers, spoke about the fascinating process of eschewing an “all-knowing”, definitive tone for an open-ended narrative that exemplified the essence of a luminous relationship between guru and shishya and simultaneously acknowledged their distinct voices in a journey set against a larger historical backdrop. Excerpts:

It was an extraordinary life spanning almost a century, from Nilina Sen of Calcutta [Kolkata] to Nilina Ripjit Singh of the royal family of Kapurthala to a new identity of Naina Devi.

Hers was an extraordinary life. Few people live in so many different spaces, overcoming so many obstacles, without bitterness or arrogance.

The time I spent with her – a little over a very close eight years – she spoke often of these many aspects of her life. There was her childhood in Calcutta as Nilina Sen, the granddaughter of a significant Brahmo Samaj leader, Keshub Chandra Sen, in a cultured household. Nainaji would narrate how as a five-year-old she would clamber on to the piano stool and have a maid push the pedals that were too far down for her feet, while she played!

Her story of how she met her first guru, Girja Shankar Chakravarty, during one of the all-night mehfils (soiree) regularly organised by her elder brother Sunit at home moved me greatly. Women were not allowed to be present, but an exception was made for the five-year-old. As Girja babu wound up at dawn with a Bhairavi thumri, he teasingly asked the wide-awake Nilina what she had liked the most. She replied, “Your Bhairavi.” He asked her to sing it and she did. Girja babu was charmed; [he] picked her up and said, “This girl will learn from me.” Interestingly, Girja babu also taught a lot of the traditional singers or baijis (courtesans) who were performers.

Unconsciously, perhaps, Nilina had embarked on a journey of music – persuading her uncle to take her, secretly, to the Burra Bazaar area to meet the star performer Angurbala, or persuading her parents to let her watch a naach (dance) performance by a galaxy of tawaifs (courtesans) at a grand reception in strict purdah, in the company of the Begum of Rampur.

She often spoke of how women of middle-class families were allowed to learn music but not to be present at mehfils or perform, except as amateurs. Again, while traditional women singers were strongly disapproved of because of social reform ideas and notions of constructing a perfect Indian musical form and ideal of Indian womanhood, many men used to visit them.

Did her musical journey increase in intensity?

Nilina’s journey came to an abrupt halt with her rather sudden marriage to Ripjit Singh of the Kapurthala royal family, who fell in love with her after hearing her sing during a chance visit to the city and the Sen household. She was 17 and spent the next 17 years moving amidst royalty. She did not learn music and certainly didn’t sing. Nainaji used to talk about this phase a little less or maybe I heard it less, being more interested in other things. Sudden widowhood in 1949 and a life of solitary mourning with four children ultimately made her seek out a new life. She started by singing for All India Radio under the name of Naina Devi.

Why did she change her name?

It was to spare her marital family the embarrassment of having a bahu who sang professionally, in public. But, equally, she mentioned that had she sung as Nilina Ripjit Singh she would not have been taken seriously. At that time and even in my time, if you were not from a family traditionally associated with music you were considered an amateur, singing merely for one’s own pleasure. In 1954, Nainaji shifted to Delhi. Flooded with Partition refugees, the capital of newly independent India was engaged with questions of nation-building. Amidst such ferment, courtesy a chance meeting with Sumitra Charat Ram, Nainaji took over as administrative director of the College of Music and Dance [later Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra].

How did life change for Naina Devi?

She began a new life – or new lives: as an arts administrator; as a student learning from Mushtaq Husain Khan Sahib of the Rampur gharana and later Rasoolan Bai; and as an acclaimed performer.

Nainaji convinced legendary figures such as the senior Dagar bandhu, Mushtaq Husain Khan, Hafiz Ali Khan, Siddheswari Devi and Shambhu Maharaj to be part of the college faculty and live on the premises. She used to mention how at the crack of dawn Shambhu Maharaj would call her saying, “ Bandish yaad aa gayi, aa ke suno” [I just remembered the musical composition; come and listen]. That is exactly what she would do with me too during the time I learnt from her!

It was a way of being, of living in so many spaces simultaneously, without boundaries: her world in Delhi; the world of her gurus and Sufi pir in Bareilly; the Calcutta of Keshub Chandra Sen’s family, the world of her beloved sister Sadhona. Much of this had resonances in my own life.

Was the idea of living through many spaces intriguing?

Yes, but familiar too. This was my own experience of life. What was important for me was the gendered voice in expressive traditions: how women choose to express both the tradition they inherit and what they inscribe into their own voices. Nainaji shared both music and her life story very spontaneously. Writing this wasn’t easy. I couldn’t ever interview her. Sometimes I would ask about something and not get much response. The moment and its spontaneity had gone. What became important to me, though not very consciously at the time, was to find the right voice to write. I knew that what I did not want was to write Nainaji’s definitive biography; as her student I did not have that objectivity. So what form was I to use? The positive thing was that I could look at her life in a way that perhaps not many people are privileged to have done.

It’s interesting that when Nainaji picked up the threads of music she chose the thumri form.

She often told me it happened because in the silent years of her marriage, the music she heard, hidden behind a screen, was the mujra of tawaifs to mark life-cycle and other celebrations. If Nainaji liked the music she would ask the singer to come and meet her afterwards and sing for her. Sometimes Nainaji would write down the words. She would tell me often, “I stored them away somewhere in my memory. I don’t know why I did it, why I called her. There was no chance of my singing.”

Did you ever ask her why she did it?

I tried a few times, but there was a closing up on her part. I realised this was not the way to do it. For me it became a way of dropping a kind of arrogance to know exactly why she did or said anything. It was not possible, or even desirable for me to aspire to a kind of omniscience or even objectivity. I felt that I should be content with my guru saying what she wanted to say and take it forward from there in my own way. That was sufficient. Sometimes writing has to take the structure of music, where much is left unsaid. To recognise that means to express something that is tentative, not consciously sealed off.

When a teacher teaches you something, you repeat it, but it shifts in your repeating. When you grow more experienced you respond to it rather than repeat it. To me the process of writing the book became a part of the way of responding in the learning of music or learning to live.

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Naina Devi, born Nilina Sen, had an eventful and colourful life. What was the texture of this learning relationship?

There was a quality of the tactile. I remember the way she would touch her harmonium and say, “So many great people have played this harmonium, such as Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Begum Akhtar.” Their touch was still there for her to connect with.

Strangely, my first meeting with Nainaji in the late 1970s, much before I started learning from her, involved a harmonium! She was visiting Chennai, where I lived. Having agreed to an impromptu baithak [soiree], Naina Devi needed a harmonium. Her granddaughter, who was my neighbour, asked me if I would mind lending it. It was an honour for me; there was this feeling that the harmonium would carry the blessing of Nainaji’s touch. Later, I recognised that touch in my own fingers. I never ever dreamt that I would learn from her one day.

Do you remember the day you went to ask her if you could learn from her?

It was a late afternoon in 1986. I was quite scared she would refuse. But instead she was most gracious and agreed instantly. Taking out her harmonium, she began my very first lesson with her, saying “ Ye bandish hai ‘More naina….’” [This is the musical composition, ‘ More naina…] So I sang it after her. She said, “ Haan bilkul, tum gaogi, thumri gaogi” [Yes, definitely, you will sing thumri].

Nainaji was very friendly. She laughed a lot. She taught unstintingly, which was unusual for those times. Sometimes, she would start teaching and remember a story, which led to something else, which reminded her of a bandish, which made her remember another story. I would go home with three and a half bandishes and several stories. You could say I had not had a proper class or think of it as a class of another kind. Nainaji may not have uttered a connection between the bandish and the story. It was for me to make that connection.

For instance, she often told me the story of the silver ring her guru Rasoolan Bai had given her to wear. Once, during a performance, the ring snapped into two and fell off. Nainaji said she knew for sure that Rasoolan Bai, who had been ailing, had passed away. Later, she found half the ring in her sari, but the other half had vanished. “ Yeh aadha chandi ka chhalla chhod gayi mere liye” [she left half of her silver ring for me], Nainaji would say. I had to think about what that might mean just as I had to practise the music.

How did you comprehend these stories?

Sometimes, you receive ‘half’ your guru’s learning, either because of your ability or needs, or because what your guru considers worth teaching, or because your guru chooses to do so out of great compassion. It is that missing half that gives you the space and courage to become yourself. This ties up with another issue. Traditionally, women were allowed to teach but were not considered gurus or inscribed in the history of a lineage. They did not tie the formal ganda, or cord, around a student’s wrist.

Nainaji maintained that tradition and never performed gandabandhan. I realised that maybe women gurus (and their students) are actually fortunate, for the ganda they give their students is invisible, it doesn’t tie them down. One could reinterpret this ‘excluding’ of women as powerful – a woman’s strength is to be part of a wider network capable of liberating one into a much larger world of musical families rather than restricting them to a lineage.

AJAY JAIMAN

VIDYA RAO IN conversation about Naina Devi. Her years of learning with Naina Devi coincided with extensive research on the performing arts. In the 1980s, I was deeply into the apparently politically incorrect form of thumri and simultaneously involved in the women’s movement. It seemed to me that in my interactions with Nainaji I was discovering deeper ways of turning oppressive contexts around. Living in two very different spaces, I think I was understanding both music and women in a very different way.

How did Naina Devi speak of this “apparently politically incorrect” form of thumri?

Post-Independence there was a tendency to say that if at all thumri, primarily considered erotic, was performed, it had to be sanitised of the entertaining aspect and given a spiritual garb. A clear-cut religiosity crept in with the lyrics being interpreted as referring to atma-parmatma [the human soul and the divine soul]. If asked, Nainaji too would have interpreted thumri thus. But when she was teaching me, my experience was totally different.

In what manner?

As I understand it, the whole point of thumri is to defy classification, move between extremes: now something which appears close to classical; then the same thing with an inflection to give it a bazaar cadence. The quality of thumri’s very structure is never to permit certainties; it’s quicksilver, fluid moments collapsing boundaries.

Thumri is a sensuous form, not merely because it’s about love but because it brings the materiality of different spaces and different times into the form. In its characteristic quality of never permitting certainties it is spiritual – and so beautifully playful, like the “ chunri ki gat” of veiling and unveiling in Kathak, as if to say the world both is and isn’t; things are both true and not true. Thumri is about the dissolving moment, sensuous and spiritual, but we have to push that understanding, that paradox.

Did Naina Devi ruminate on success, love, performance and life?

She often spoke of love, and people rarely do that. They either sentimentalise it or make a joke of it. All she said was, “You have to love.” Many people interpreted it as romantic love. But speaking of love, a door opens and it might open out to a greater love. A Sufi poem puts it aptly: “In love, I am ripped apart, scattered through the world.” In the practice of music, the self is shattered in a way that it is dispersed through many selves. There is this paradox of being totally dispersed – even not there at all – and totally centred. As with many things in the book, Nainaji didn’t articulate this; it was my experience of thumri, of learning and singing thumri, indeed of living.

Is that how the book should be read?

It is only after I finished writing the book that I realised it is actually about a relationship, between Nainaji and myself; it is about her journey and mine, but also about relationships across space and time, some explored more, some less, everywhere a little open-ended. The only thing that I can say with great surety is that hers was an extraordinary life; that she, and I, loves thumri, and that I love her dearly. This is the only aspect of the book which is not open-ended.

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 Mayank Austen Soofi: Indian writer, photographer and blogger of The Delhi Walla. He has authored, The Delhi Walla Series – four books based on Delhi published by HarperCollins. His website:  www.delhiwalla.com .

(Photo taken at Mr.Soofi’s book launch in Delhi, India)

Mr.Soofi on BBC — http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00m2wxq  

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M.G. Vassanji: born in Nairobi, Kenya and raised in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  M. G. Vassanji is a two-time winner of the Giller award. In his new book Vassanji looks at the reality of modern India and his own ancestry. It’s called A Place Within: Rediscovering India. His award-winning books, which include The Gunny Sack, The Book of Secrets, and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, have been honored for their treatment of migrant Indian communities in East Africa, Europe, and North America, and for their reflections on how complex histories of cultural exchange and conflict affect present generations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0sCN8jz2Rk&feature=related

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G.M.B. Akash: Bangladeshi photographer. He has received over 60 international awards, including National Geographic.

Akash  speaks about his work as a photojournalist documenting those living on the margins of society in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NKb8E5eK1M  

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Raveena Tandon: Indian Actress, human rights activist. Raveena Tandon examines the issue of child labour in India where there is an estimated 20 million working children.

First stop is Parbani, a small town where in 1992, half of all slaughterhouse workers were children aged 6 – 14 years. With the help of SETU and UNICEF, the slaughterhouses are now devoid of child labour. Next is a non-governmental organisation called Bachan Bachao Andolan which not only rescues children from bonded slavery but also empowers the young people it has freed to become ambassadors of the message of freedom. She then joins a group of former child labourers from the Experimental Theatre Foundation. They put up street plays to spread the anti-child labour message in their community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr26Fu_zcuQ&feature=related  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evi1csZf84o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e-LOW5m5Yg&feature=related

Short Documentaries on Social Change / Global Issues

Following documentaries are worth viewing as they address social change, global issues, indigenous culture, globalization, environment, history, rape, earth, war, genocide and humanity.

Click on link to view:

http://bloodinkdiary.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/short-documentaries-on-social-change-global-issues/

The second-ranking House Republican castigated "Occupy Wall Street" protesters on Friday, just as Democrats begin cozying up to the weeks-old demonstrations.

House GOP Leader Eric Cantor decried the protests that started several weeks ago in New York, and have spread to major cities across the country. Cantor said in a speech at the Values Voters Summit in Washington that he is "increasingly concerned" about the "growing mobs" represented at the protests.

Keith Olbermann gives a straightforward reading of the first collective statement of the Occupy Wall Street movement's New York General Assembly

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

This article is in response to a news article that was seeded today by MSNBC regarding a town that drafted a resolution to impreach Presdient Bush.  Yes, I said Presdent Bush who is no longer in office.  Apparently, the MSNBC/NBC/Universal/GE/Comcast conglomerate couldn't be bothered with having its writers report on something recent and felt compelled to dig up a story from 2006.

I'm sure there will be those of you who say that this is the liberal media taking the heat off President Obama by any means necessary and that might be true.  However, I think this incident speaks to the mainstream media's total disdain and disrespect for our intellect and attention span.  I hope that EVERYONE who contributes to Newsvine will take this opportunity to speak up and let MSNBC know that posting old news is unacceptable. 

Are you willing to speak out and send a message that you are not going to be manipulated, distracted or deceived by the mainstream media's tactics?

WE" is a completely free documentary, created (and released) anonymously on the internet.

"WE" is a fast-paced 64 minute documentary that covers the world politics of power, war, corporations, deception and exploitation.

"WE" visualizes the words of Arundhati Roy, specifically her famous Come September speech, where she spoke on such things as the war on terror, corporate globalization, justice and the growing civil unrest.

"WE" is Witty, moving, alarming and quite a lesson in modern history.

"WE" is almost in the style of a music video, featuring the contemporary music of Lush, Curve, Love & Rockets, Boards of Canada, Nine Inch Nails, Dead Can Dance, Amon Tobin, Massive Attack, Totoise, Telepop, Placebo and Faithless. The music serves as wonderful background for the words of Ms. Roy and images of humanity in the world we live all in today.

The media material presented in this production is protected by the FAIR USE CLAUSE of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, which allows for the rebroadcast of copyrighted materials for the purposes of commentary, criticism, and education.

FILM :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHLSDM3FCNA&feature=fvst

Across the world, food riots are taking place. Scientist and activist Vandana Shiva explores whether the future will be one of food wars or food peace. She argues that the creation of food peace demands a major shift in the way food is produced and distributed, and the way in which we manage and use the soil, water and biodiversity, which makes food production possible. 17th Annual Margolis lecture at UC Irvine. [7/2008] [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 14509]

VIDEO:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq6jpkDNxtI&feature=player_embedded#!

In brief opening remarks this morning I brought up the crucial fact that rights are typically not granted, but rather won, by dedicated and informed popular struggle.  That includes the core principle of freedom of speech.  Recognition of this fact should, I think, be taken as a guide when we are considering how we can proceed on many fronts: in countering the current waves of repression worldwide, in carrying forward the gains that have been achieved and that are now under attack, and in the more visionary mode that was suggested by the organizers of the conference, thinking about vistas that lie ahead after that still remote day when proper standards of defense of freedom of speech are established, and once established, observed.
 
I also mentioned that the United States and Turkey, though differing in many respects, provide clear and instructive illustrations of the ways in which rights are won and once won, protected.   With regard to the United States, it is commonly believed that the right to freedom of speech and press was guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution over two centuries ago.  That is true only to quite a limited extent, first because of its wording, but more importantly because the law in practice is what the Courts decide - and what the public is willing to defend.   I will return to this tomorrow, but would just like to point out now that it was not until the 1960s that the US courts took a strong stand protecting freedom of speech.  They did so under the pressure of the civil rights movement and other activism over a wide front.  And with the decline of activism, the rights are being eroded, as we heard today, another topic I would like to return to tomorrow.
Continue redaing by the link:

They are the result not of the new, credit-crunch poverty, but of an older deprivation – a marginalisation that is not only economic but also racial in its origins. A volcano does not suddenly erupt without a long period of growing tension deep in the earth. In the same way, riots do not come from nowhere. That pressure has been there a long time.

I have a huge surprise: I've been nominated to be one of a handful of Parade Grand Marshalls in the San Francisco Pride March this year.

YOW! I wanna win so bad. I promise, if I'm a parade marshall I will be so outrageous, and we will have so much fun, that we won't stop talking about it for the rest of lives. Deal!

Would you vote for me?

I just turned 50 recently and I realized that I have never met anyone who was really not a patriotic American in their own way. Whether they were die-hard Republicans, Democrats, or even people so disgusted with politics that they didn't believe in voting, they still love this country in their own unique way.

I believe that in our heart of hearts, we are all "fighting" for a better world, and here in this country that means we are in essence fighting for a better America.

I honor our friends who wear the uniform of service to our nation most of all, though I am not in their ranks. They fight for America's interests in the most difficult, brutal and challenging circumstances imaginable, and often unimaginable for those of us who have never walked in their boots. They often come home keeping the memories of those battles to themselves, locked away in compartments which have a big sign in front of them, "Do Not Enter," and if we ask about what happened, they might sometimes shake their heads or instead make light of it, because that is a place they do not wish to go back to. I knew a fellow who fought in the Korean war who couldn't talk about it. He was one of only 3 guys from his entire platoon who made it back alive.

I also honor civilians who wage their own different battles for the will and the mind of this nation, whose fight is a political endeavor -- it doesn't matter from what perspective, the love of this country, in my opinion, is often the same.

My simple question is, how do you fight for America these days, or do you, any why or why not? What do you think is the "grand battle" of our times and what outcome would you hope to see as a result of your efforts?

It's an open question and all comments are appreciated -- but please be civil.

Thank you!

Needing money, I determined to win a spot on Women's World Christmas stories. WW is the best paying consumer of very short romantic fiction in the market; consequently, they receive hundreds of submissions every month. I had reasoned that a market like the Christmas issue, where they only accepted six stories, would be my best shot. Under the June deadline, I settled down in my backyard spring sun to bring it about.

First, I studied the fiction they had published. The heroine must be good and kind and making the best of any situation she is placed in. Plucky but lonely. Widows are best but a divorcee' will work; however, the trauma must be long past. Ready for love. The men have strong arms, blinding smiles, and incredible eyes; however, the most common attribute of the hero was an affinity for doing dishes. Story after story had men with soap suds up to their elbows. That kind of guy!

At 1,500 words, this was something timed to be read in the laundromat while the reader waits for the washing machine to spin to a halt.

Like most everything I write, I fell in love with the story itself. Formulaic, but still--I found my way in. I am still proud of this story; in fact, an agent was most impressed with this piece over my Oregon Humanities Journal feature article because it was harder to hit. The most important part of publishing this story for me was being able to help people notice the invisible ones—the homeless. I was especially pleased to bring this value into a working class market. During the hard times ahead, perhaps my message has even more meaning. I am all about normalizing and writing everyone's story into the landscape. Women's World obliged me by publishing it in real time, so that it appeared that last week before the year's end.

This was the first story I ever had published. When they notified me that my story was chosen, I was ecstatic. When they sent the check, I felt validated. And rich.

I planned for months how I would send a copy of my Christmas story to all my family and friends in Christmas cards. I bought the cards. I finally had a byline in a national magazine! I rushed to the grocery store on the day of publication and bought a stack of them. (Not a huge investment at a buck a crack at that time.) The story looked good on the page, and I eagerly searched for my byline. My first byline. I found the byline.

There was a stranger's name there.

I emailed the editor who apologized and said that the story went through a five-person editing process, and this had never happened before. It was missed by five editors.

I briefly (and insanely) considered sending the story in my Christmas cards anyway but felt that crossing the stranger's name off and writing in mine lacked the same punch and would only serve to confirm certain suspicions.

Fame is fleeting, but they got my name right on the check.

Wish Upon a Snowflake

"Stacey, you're sure you want to volunteer to work on Christmas Eve?" Asked Beth, the volunteer director of the Second Chance Homeless Shelter.

"Positive!" I said,"Everyone else has family." My only family consisted of an aunt and two cousins living three states away.

"We'll make it up to you after the holidays."

"The way the board talks, there may not be a shelter after the holidays." I reminded her. The shelter was costing more to run than donations were coming in. If the board's goal was not reached during this last week of the year, they would set a closing date.

***

I got to the shelter early on Christmas Eve. Someone had donated a box of secondhand Christmas ornaments, which sat in the corner because no one had donated a tree. I put in a Christmas tape and began to make dinner. At least we could fill the hall with holiday music and the aroma of roast turkey.

By the time I was stirring the gravy, the hall had filled with people. With Christmas music and happy greetings in the air, the room glowed with warmth. The only thing missing, I thought, was a tree. A moment later, my neighbor, Matt Brown, arrived carrying one of the unsold Christmas trees from his lot.

"Here, Stacey!" Matt called out. "We thought we'd bring this over!"

"Thanks, Matt." I laughed and pointed to the center of the room. "It'll look great there."

I watched one of the men come forward to help Matt set up the tree. Tall and muscular, he didn't look familiar to me. When he caught my eye, I felt myself blushing. He had an intelligent face and a great smile.

"Do we have anything to decorate it with?" he asked. I pointed to the box of ornaments. Before long, the stranger had persuaded several families to help him trim the tree.

Albert and Edith, a longtime married couple who always volunteered on Christmas Eve, helped me serve the dinner. The tree-trimmer stood at the end of the line. As I slipped a slice of turkey on his plate, I said, "Thanks so much for helping with the tree."

"I enjoyed it!" he said, his blue eyes sparkling. "My name's John."

"I'm Stacey, " I said, "Welcome to Second Chance."

"Thank you," John said, then added, "I'm wondering. I know why I'm here—but why are you here? Some lucky guy should be waltzing you around a Christmas tree."

I felt my face redden and stammered. "Maybe you aren't the only one down on his luck."

"I'm sorry for prying," He said, softly. "Thanks for being here."

He took his dinner and went to sit by himself. He was no longer smiling. I chided myself. Who am I to feel sorry for myself when I have a place to call home? I filled my plate and joined him.

"John," I said, "I really feel that a person can change their luck or I wouldn't be here."

He looked at me inquiringly. "So, why are you here tonight?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

I looked over the roomful of people enjoying their dinner and said, "It's not only the food or even having a place to sleep that's important. It's also letting people know that they're not invisible."

"Just down on their luck." He said, his dark eyes holding mine, which is why he saw me tear up. "What's wrong?"

"The shelter may have to close."

"Why?"

"Not enough money to run it."

***

I shooed Albert and Edith out the door, telling them I would clean up. John insisted on helping and washed dishes while I dried. Afterwards, he walked me to my car. Outside the world looked like a scene on a Christmas card—fluffy white snowflakes were drifting down and covering the ground. We stood spellbound in the beauty of the moment.

"What do you want for Christmas?" John whispered to me.

I took a deep breath. Closing my eyes, I said, "I want the shelter to stay open." In my heart though, I also wished that I could find the kind of love that Albert and Edith had. John swept the snow off my windshield and waved goodbye.

That next week, the newspaper ran a series of articles about the homeless that dramatized the crisis in funding for shelters. Within days, a benefit dance for the Second Chance Shelter was being organized for the night before New Year's Eve.

All that week, I watched for John, but he never came back.

***

The Last-Chance-for-Second-Chance Benefit Ball was a swirl of color. A 20-foot Christmas tree stood in the center of the room, glittering with light while the band played. The board's goal had been reached within the first hour, and the mood was light as snowflakes.

"Stacey." Beth hailed me from around the tree, "Come meet our hero, Jonathan White, who wrote all those wonderful articles."

I stepped around the tree and came face-to-face with John—clean-shaven and in a suit. While Beth was busy introducing us, John leaned forward and asked, "Would you like to dance?"

"I'd love to, John." I said as he waltzed me away from a surprised Beth.

"So, you saw through me." John said with a smile. "I thought I'd disguised myself pretty well."

"You couldn't disguise your eyes—Jonathan." I felt light as a feather in his strong arms. "You saved the shelter."

"I did it for you."

"For me?"

John's eyes twinkled with the reflected lights from the Christmas tree. "I wanted to make your Christmas wish come true."

I thought about my other Christmas wish—my unspoken one for a love that would last through the years.

"Do you already have plans for New Year's Eve?" he asked.

"Yes," I stammered,. "I'm--"

"--working at the shelter," he finished for me, and we both laughed. "Okay, then that's where we'll spend our first New Year's Eve."

"Our first New Year's Eve?" I caught my breath.

""You never asked me what I wanted for Christmas," he teased. Leaning close to my ear, he confessed, "I wished that I could be the lucky guy who waltzes you around the Christmas tree."

"John," I said, "I don't think we're down on our luck anymore."

Christmas story adapted from original in Womens World magazine.

Article adapted from original from Open Salon

"Getting food aid to remote schools in Bhutan often means taking yaks on an eight-day trek through the Himalayas..."

THE death of 21-year-old Kemberly Jul Luna caused quite an uproar in the activist and leftist circles. Jul was a popular, charming, merry, and yes, beauteous, true-blue scholar ng bayan with multiple talents and interests from the Mindanao State University (MSU). She died a comrade, a member of the New People's Army (NPA), the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), during a days-long battle with the military in Sitio Bulacao in Valencia, Bukidnon last December. Her tragic, principled (or ideological?) death made me ponder on the current state of the communist movement in the Philippines.

"Kimay"

Called "Kimay" by friends, she was a high school valedictorian from Tubod, Surigao del Norte who enrolled in AB English at MSU. True to the calling of her age, she initially lived what the Philippine Daily Inquirer described as "bon vivant lifestyle" marked by late-night parties. Despite, she still managed sustained academic performance and a host of campus cultural activities. Intelligent, active, party-goer, yet socially involved, Kimay was once a leader of the Catholic Center Campus Ministry and member of the Kalimulan cultural dance troupe until she embraced the leftist perspective.

In February 2008, she became an active member of the League of the Filipino Students. Supposedly, that was the time Kimay "shed herself off of all the petty-bourgeois individualism." By the first semester of school year 2008-2009, she was chosen as adhoc chairperson of MSU's opposition party, STAND-IIT.

Came second semester and she did not enroll as she completely turned to a very radical path. According to STAND-IIT spokesperson Mark Jason Tan Cesar, "She wanted to serve the poor and she was very resolute. She told us that she wanted to work with the peasants in the countryside. There was no stopping her."

October of the same year, she bravely took part in uncovering the impact of militarization and indiscriminate aerial bombing of war-torn Tagoranoa village in Poona Piagapo in Lanao. She then engaged in full-time work organizing peasants as she reportedly joined the province-wide KASAMA-Bukidnon organization January of 2009.

Young, Scholar of the Masses, NPA, Dead

In August 2009, she informed friends that she left KASAMA-Bukidnon, saying only that has developed greater love for the peasants with every passing day she lives among them. She became an NPA.

Kemberley was reported missing in mid-December 2009 by human rights group KARAPATAN-Bukidnon Chapter. When her body was found days later, it was already much decomposed and dumped with those of seven other alleged NPAs in the forest of Brgy. Concepcion.

CPP-NPA & 'National Liberation'

Columnist Herman Tiu-Laurel laments and questions Kemberley's death, saying that

"She follows a long line of fallen young warriors over the past five decades which include several of my own friends and comrades. Is this still the right way to fight for national liberation?"

For its part, the Communist Party of the Philippines released a press release saying:

Her martyrdom is extolled as well by the peasant masses whom she intimately lived with and served as a Red fighter and medic of the NPA until her last day... Her life of tireless work and selfless sacrifice for the downtrodden will forever be etched in the hearts of those she loved, worked and died for.

Unholy Mix: CPP and EDSA 2

I'm not exactly endorsing the path July chose to take. I do respect her decision because the depth of her patriotism led her to offer and sacrifice her youthful, promising, beautiful life in pursuit of her conception of 'national liberation.'

However, the organization she embraced, the CPP-NPA, the Communist Party of the Philippines of the present time, to my mind, showed itself too flexible principle-wise when it took part in EDSA II--what a foreign media outfit described as "the opportunist coalition of church, business elite and left....". I expected better from Jose Maria Sison's group, as I remember questioning back then why they would even consider joining forces with those of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former President Fidel Ramos whom then-President Joseph Estrada wanted charged for the Centennial Expo and other corruption scandals.

While I don't subscribe to any form of totalitarianism, whether left or right, or religious, I've harbored respect not only for the personal conviction and sacrifice of its members but, as well, for the underground organization's principles. Back in 1985-86, the Philippine communist movement was chided for its decision not to support or join the EDSA I (original) "People Power" Revolution. The 'culprit' was its strict adherence to its principles such that the movement was unwilling to compromise enough to accommodate the unified opposition led by Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino and Salvador "Doy" Laurel.

Arguably, the CPP-NPA should not have merely stayed at the sidelines during the historic 1986 Edsa 1. Definitely, to my mind, the Philippine Reds should NOT have shifted to opportunist mode during Edsa 2 which aimed for nothing but oust the not-entirely-clean but, nonetheless, relatively patriotic and nationalist Estrada.

By taking part in the ouster of the pro-masa and genuinely elected Erap by coalescing with unquestionably fascist and elite elements, the local communists have indicated their dangerous adoption of what can be seen as counter-revolutionary strategy and anti-populist mind frame at will.

Gloria Arroyo, Part of Joma's Foresight?

Then again, is it possible that the CPP-NPA calculated that a Gloria Arroyo presidency would be more conducive to their goals? Way back before Gloria was able to grab the presidency, she was without question already a fascist, even imperialist agent.

Along with then President Ramos, Senator Arroyo was responsible for Philippines' membership in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO) in 1995. She was also the principal author of what has been called "the most environmentally-hazardous law of the land," Republic Act 7942 or the 1995 Mining Act, which permits foreigners a hundred percent ownership of the country's mines.

Compare Gloria to Estrada, who, despite the latter's agreement to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), nonetheless braved neo-imperialist foreign interests by removing sovereign guarantees on government contracts. Did CPP-NPA leader Joma Sison figure that replacing the rather 'uncouth' but popular and pro-masa Estrada with 'fascist' Gloria Arroyo could speed up their brand of national liberation struggle?

2008 Mindanao War: Gloria, Kimay & Joma

It's been speculated that Arroyo virtually cooked up the October 2008 war in Mindanao to present an excuse to declare Martial Law in the country and extend her term scheduled to end in June 2010. Her administration signed the Memorandum of Agreement-Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) with Muslim rebels while well aware that such dismemberment of the Republic won't be allowed by the Christian community not only in Mindanao but in the capital. According to an October 2008 Malaya editorial, the MOA-AD is an "elaborate charade... [apparently designed] to provoke the MILF into going back to war as what is happening now" after the Supreme Court TROed the agreement.

A few months after seeing first-hand the horrors wrought on Davaoenos by the Mindanao war , Kemberly advanced from full-time peasant organizing to become an NPA. Wonder if Joma Sison foresaw Gloria's Illegitimacy would turn the 2001 power grabber into a devil-may-care megalomaniac, thus inadvertently serving as a hopefully effective NPA recruiting machine?

The last paragraph in the January 8, 2010 CPP press release on Kemberley Jul Luna's death reads:

Let us pay tribute to Kimay by amplifying the call for student, youth and other activists to join the New People's Army. As the people's revolution gears for greater advances, there is a growing need for more youth and students and activists from the other sectors to sign up as Red fighters, combine with the peasants and workers and contribute to carrying out the tasks of people's war with unprecedented vitality.

EDSA II - Part of Jomas Foresight, or Plain Mob Crazy?

It is a fact that the Arroyo administration is credited with the most number of salvagings, desaparecidos, and human rights violations in Philippine history, largely targeting the activists and socialists. Has the Philippine Left been had by Arroyo and Ramos when its members supported the EDSA 2 ouster of Estrada?

Or did Joma, et al. chose to avoid a more progressive administration to advance its "people's war"? I've long harbored the suspicion that why Joma's group went against Erap and took the side of the clearly fascist (or more fascist) Arroyo and Ramos was because Estrada's''bakya' or masa appeal presented a strong competition in winning the masses, whose support they need in order to further their war style towards national liberation.

Of course, I could be wrong. I hope I'm dead wrong.

Then there's the possibility that neither applies for the 2001 Edsa coup. If I remember accurately, broadcaster Korina Sanchez-Roxas commented back in early 2001 as to what could have possibly brought about Edsa 2, saying something like "It's as if a cloud of something descended upon the people who took part in it." It is not entirely impossible that the Edsa II people simply went mob crazy. So crazy they went the side of Centennial-Expo-defensive Eddie, 'Tabako' Eddie....

___________

References:

Baguisa, Pedro. Philippine Communist party PKP-1930. http://www.solidnet.org/cgi-bin/agent?meetings/779=communists_experience_with_alliances_and_cooperation_23-25_06_2000_athens/821=philippine_communist_party(pkp-1930)

In Memory of Kemberly "Kimay" Jul Luna: Iskolar ng Bayan and Freedom Fighter (July 23, 1988 - December 15, 2009). Arkibong Bayan Site. 8 Jan. 2010. http://www.arkibongbayan.org/2010/2010-01Jan04-Kimay/kimay.htm

Ofreneo, Rene and Malaluan, Nepomuceno. Threat Economics. 12 Nov. 2007. http://www.uniffors.com/?p=1167#more-1167

Philippines: CBCP should reject Arroyo along with her Mining Law, environmentalists say. http://www.pinoypress.net/2008/02/25/philippines-cbcp-should-reject-arroyo-along-with-her-mining-law-environmentalists-say/

"The road map to war." Malaya. 23 Aug. 2008. http://www.malaya.com.ph/aug23/edit.htm

Tiu-Laurel, Herman. Infowar vs national mental rot." The Daily Tribune. 11 January 2009. http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100111com4.html

Tupas, Jeffrey. "A life of passion for poor remembered." Inquirer.net. 07 Jan. 2010. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20100107-246059/A-life-of-passion-for-poor-remembered

Images:

http://www.arkibongbayan.org/
http://www.bulatlat.com
http://joseangelito-angeles.tripod.com/marcos.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/

I had an appointment at the local DPSS office, I needed some help. Do they even realize what it takes for someone like me to swallow his pride and for ask for help. I ask but I will not beg, I rather sale my ass at the corner then do that. I explained and wrote it that I need emergency help, but the social worker tells me i need some documents and see the D.A. Why in hell do I need to see the D.A. for. So I tell her I can have the documents later today she tells me that there cannon be an appointment that quickly. I get an appointment for Nov 3rd, wow that is emergency aid? I wonder if I have to be dying for them to offer me an aspirin as help. Seriously, what a god damn joke! Discouraged you migtht think, not in the slightest. Today "the system" has lit a fire so big that I could go into space. All you need to do is go to the H.U.D., any government website, probably even the Obama website, ( I would link them but I don't have the patience today) to see all they are doing to help, the billions of dollars for prevention of homelessness in families. Really, for months they have been announcing this, where is the money tied up somewhere. Someone is figuring out how the best way to distribute that money would be. Did not Obama say he did not care as long as the money got out to the people. It is going to be a bunch of fraud, I can already see the headlines.

Never make a decion when you are angry, well this time I have, I will be running for office in one year and not promise change or help or tell you "yes we can," by the way is that not borrowed from "Si se peude," hm. NO! I will not make promises that I know will ultimately be broken. But If I only sleep 5 hours a day, I will, If I have to work during my vacations, I will, If I have to walk the streets to hand out fliers of my forum, I will do just that until my feet get raw, If I have to make deals with corporation, I will not take a god damn cent from them. If I have to cry myself to sleep from exhaustion, I will everyday. I will work for the public in all my abilities and power. I will make the changes that the public helps me make. I will sacrifice time whit the love of my life, Madison to get this system remade, change is not what we need, this country needs a new vision, that off helping the ones who need it, that of Peace and harmony, that of neighbors helping neighbors instead of raising the fences another 5 feet, that of waking up in the morning and taking a deep breath and enjoying it instead of rushing to work. A vision that I don't have, but I iwill have the drive to accomplish it along wiht any body who wants to help.

Jsbach once asked me what my talents were, well I only have one, stubbornness, if I get sometime in my head I accomplish it. Well guess wht has misteriously crammed into my head, public office. Hell, everyone says they want an honest politician, well careful what you ask for. I was completely honest in my DPSS application and I get crap even have to open a child support on Madison's mother, bu if I would have lied said I did not know where she was, that I was already on the streets, was sick, had a pain in my rear, I would have ail,the help I needed. Seriously, I joke. No you will all excuse me, but I have some research to make some gifts I have to put together for all the kids in my little ones school, they have a Halloween parade tomorrow, where I will be all day helping, and a think on what exactly I want to accomplish this coming year because one year from now a new life begins.

Funny joke, me and a friend have been joking arround for about a month that I was going to die this past Sunday, we were off by four days, I new fired up individual was born today, I am sure he is who I am supposed to be. Wish me luck and energy. Oh, I do love my writing so I will be around maybe even more then before,

@!$%# what did I get myself into!

This is an open letter to my fellow American citizens about our government's corruption and disregard of the public.

John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor says he aims to inspire world leaders to ensure that every child receives the nutrition they need to develop their physical and mental potential.

I was glad to see that Rhode Island has become aware of the medical benefits of marijuana. With all the research that as shown so many positive effects of marijuana ( clinical trials.gov. ), there is really no excuse for not legalizing the herb. The argument to keep the use of marijuana illegal has turned into a personal view of the politicians who have been elected to represent and fight for the beliefs of the people.
I have contacted all my state and federal politicians in an attempt to bring the issue of legalization of marijuana to their attention. My e-mail to the President can be found on Newsvine ( Mr. President; What Changed Your Mind? ). I am still waiting for an answer. Sen. Cardin used the classification of Marijuana, by the D.E.A. , as a schedule I drug as his reasoning for not considering legalization. I wrote back to him and asked why marijuana was classified as a schedule I drug, meaning the most dangerous and no medical value at all, while cocaine, opium, amphetamine(dexedrine), Demerol, methamphetamine, Nembutal, PCP, and secobarbitol(seconal) are all schedule II drugs? This tells me, marijuana is considered more dangerous than all of those drugs classified as schedule II. He hasn't gotten back to me yet. As for Sen. Mikulski, she took the stance of her own personal view of the subject of legalization, instead of caring about what the voter wants. As for the Governor, he wouldn't even address the issue. I am sure that might have something to do with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals being in Maryland.
After seeing it done in the 60's, I know, we the people, can change the policies of the three ring circus we call government. It is time for the rest of the country to follow the example of the three states who have legalised medical marijuana use. The revenue from the taxes alone, is something that will only help these states. If you use marijuana or not, let your voice be heard. The demonization of marijuana has been proven to be wrong. Stop letting the government, with a campaign of lies, sit in your living room, and tell you what you can or can not do. We have all seen just how well the government handles the issue of oversight. As I said, you don't have to use to believe in the cause. The medical benefits of marijuana are something I know very well, and I'm sure there are many more people, who are thankful for the herb. Let's let Washington know what we want,and stop letting them tell us what is best for us.

Marilyn French, a writer and feminist activist whose debut novel, "The Women's Room," propelled her into a leading role in the modern feminist movement, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 79 and lived in Manhattan.

The cause was heart failure, said her son, Robert.

With steely views about the treatment of woman and a gift for expressing them on the printed page, Ms. French transformed herself from an academic who quietly bristled at the expectations of married women in the post-World War II era to a leading, if controversial, opinionmaker on gender issues who decried the patriarchal society she saw around her. "My goal in life is to change the entire social and economic structure of Western civilization, to make it a feminist world," she once declared.

Her first and best-known novel, "The Women's Room," released in 1977, traces a submissive housewife's journey of self-discovery following her divorce in the 1950s, describing the lives of Mira Ward and her friends in graduate school at Harvard as they grow into independent women. The book was partly informed by her own experience of leaving an unhappy marriage and helping her daughter deal with the aftermath of being raped. Women all over the world seized on the book, which sold more than 20 million copies and was translated into 20 languages.

Gloria Steinem, a close friend, compared the impact of the book on the discussion surrounding women's rights to the one that Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" had had on racial equality 25 years earlier.

"It was about the lives of women who were supposed to live the lives of their husbands, supposed to marry an identity rather than become one themselves, to live secondary lives," Ms. Steinem said in an interview Sunday. "It expressed the experience of a huge number of women and let them know that they were not alone and not crazy."

When thinking about this topic, the title of an old country song quickly came to mind. It was an old Aaron Tippin song called "You've Got to Stand for Something."

Now, in this song, Tippin is singing about standing up for personal values, not a larger cause. But this sentiment can also be applied to larger causes. But is it enough to just stand for something, or do you have to fight for it? In today's world, you often have to fight for the causes you believe in. I don't mean physically, though I do think that has its place, but through advocacy.

Advocacy is basically where you work on a cause in order to affect some sort of change. These causes are often related to public policy, political, or economic issues, such as consumer protection, education, health care, etc. Advocacy involves raising public awareness and trying to change policies and laws. But advocacy does not necessarily have to be on national issues - they can be local, as well.

Individuals coming together can have a huge impact on their communities. As an example, in North Carolina in 2003, there was an effort to pass a civics education bill in the state. The bill made it through the Senate Education Committee, but got stuck in the Appropriations Committee. A group that was backing this legislation, called The North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, released a study during this time about the lack of civics competence in the state. Through this and a mailing campaign to the state Senators, The Consortium was able to provide enough pressure to get the bill to pass the state legislature.

Get involved in advocacy, whether it is at the national, state level, or local level. Get involved in advocacy, and make a difference in your own community. Let's make this world a better place, one community at a time.

I wrote this article to spark some courageous thinking and action that will get us out of the manufactured global economic crisis.

Dear Congress

As I practice the words I wish to tell you, I worry my voice might not be heard. My opinions are not the opinions of a professional or a leader. They are merely thoughts I have collected, pro bono, with my half-completed college education by my side. But I practice--perhaps with the hope that you'll respond. But most assuredly it is with the hope that you will act, if only because I am one of the myriad votes wandering your districts.

As you may know, Indiana University is reputed for its party-prone atmosphere. These activities generally lie outside of the administration's control, overseen by the underground network of students channeling illicit substances into the population. In general, administrative action has done little to curb the influence of drugs, especially marijuana--as we saw with the son of President Michael McRobbie--on campus. In fact, this group of students is successfully marketed to by many local businesses in spite of campus, local, state or federal regulations.

In many ways, the Bloomington microcosm is an analogue of the larger United States. Since being made illegal in the 30s, the myth around weed has blossomed and attracted millions of curious youth, including a young Barack Obama. In fact, pot has become a booming business in places like California, where possession is legalized by the state. Some estimates put the potential Federal income from a marijuana tax at almost $2 billion, and the current annual sales of marijuana in the US are estimated at nearly $10 billion. Further, in Indiana, the unit value per pound of marijuana is almost a thousand times the unit value per bushel of grain-corn, Indiana's leading cash crop. Despite current legislation, consumption is expected to grow.

Apart from the economic benefits of legalization, the obvious racial underpinnings to the initial taxation of marijuana remain a stain on our country's history. One result of the 'drug war' has been a continuation of the economic and social segregation of blacks and Latinos. The US prison population, for instance, has burgeoned and is predominated by minorities, many of whom are serving sentences for the possession, sale or trafficking of drugs. In 2006, 4.8 percent of male African-Americans in the US were in jail or prison. In 1993, 0.9 percent of South Africa's black men were incarcerated under apartheid.

Once imprisoned for drug possession, prisoners are exposed to the violence of prison life, often joining a gang to stay alive and using drugs to ease the stress. The Federal Bureau of Prisons launched a substance abuse treatment program in 1989 to combat addiction among the prison population, but a decade later, more than three-quarters of Federal and state prisoners reported using drugs, and around half used regularly prior to their conviction. In 2004, between 40 and 49 percent of state and Federal inmates took part in drug rehabilitation programs offered by the BOP.

In response to spiking drug convictions, Kings County, NY, created the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) program. In operation for nearly sixteen years, DTAP boasts a recidivism rate almost half that of prisons and has reduced incarceration costs around $38 million. As you voted for treatment programs in the past, I hope you'll do the same to pass Federal legislation similar to DTAP. However, voting for treatment options is not enough. The problem of drugs extends beyond treatment and recidivism.

After their release, many prisoners remain loyal to their prison gangs, trafficking harder drugs and committing more crimes, all the while divided by the lines of racial heritage. In addition to bloodying the streets of our cities and towns, this spiral of hatred locks many minority communities into the chains of poverty with young drug addicts unable to seek treatment or rise above their prison records to receive financial aid and educations. In 2004, some 200 thousand students were denied Federal student-aid due to their drug histories. Indiana ranked number-one in the nation in drug-related student-aid rejections.

Growing up in Angola, IN, I saw little evidence of a drug culture. But as I reached high school, it became clear to me that drug use was common, even in our small community. Busts of meth labs became regular news, and in 2007, Indiana was second in the nation in total meth raids. It was normal to hear the scratching and sniffing of drug dogs during a school lockdown drill, all conducted as if the students had no idea why the squad cars had pulled up in front of the building that morning. It became routine to sit through contrived lectures on the harms of drug use, primarily the dangerous 'gateway drugs' like marijuana. Teachers had a difficult time keeping their students' faces straight. We knew which drugs were which. We knew we weren't supposed to use them. And still, I knew very few people in school who had never once used drugs or were scared to.

Ultimately, there is little that can be done to control drug use, least of all keeping drugs illegal. I could continue on to give you the physical, spiritual or historical attributes of herb, but I feel there is no need to separate marijuana from its intoxicant cousins. From the birth of consciousness and thought, humanity has sought ways to toss-off its mortal package and widen again the canyons and canals of thought and imagination; to escape to heaven but still return. Booze, pot, X, coke, 'shrooms, sherm, xanny, meth, each of them gives us the chance to move beyond our perceptions, our worries, our inabilities, our pains, our hatred or our minds, but it is our choice to do so. To deny an element so fundamental to humanity is to deny the humanity of our most fundamental elements. Please, let us stop punishing our citizens for doing what is only natural for them to do.

In closing, I apologize if I make it seem as if you have been pulling the strings all this time. For too long we have disguised patronization as patriotism, and it frustrates me. I have milled and sifted so much information that I can no longer sit still, and I need your help.

While it may appear trite, I am deeply committed to this movement. Beneath the dusty, gray-green exterior of my argument lies a shining nugget of the patriotic fervor that drove our forefathers to shed the blood that paints our Stars and Stripes. But beyond commitment, I need direction. What can we do to galvanize and emphasize the support of the community? Who in power will listen? Where can we make the biggest difference? When will we have enough support to be taken seriously? How do we make the best impression?

Thank you for your time, attention and support. Your service is deeply appreciated.

Sincerely,
One Vote

FTA: "During the course of the year, I've taken on the Attorneys General of two states, the privileged rich, the U.S. Drug war, the DEA, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Obama, the Patriot Act, FISA, the police state, the King County Prosecutor's office, the Seattle Police Department, Dino Rossi, and the Washington Department of Corrections.

If that doesn't sound like your idea of fun, well then, you don't know me very well. :-) "

Well, thought I would take a moment of total boredom and clarify my screen name. I pronounce it "Kye-Yanna." I live in Kentucky, as many of you know. I live in Louisville and right across the Ohio River is Jeffersonville, Clarksville, and New Albany, Indiana. This area has been referred to as "Kentuckiana" since long before I was born. Like many in this area, we have roots on both sides of the river. Both my parents are native born Kentuckians, as is my sister. My mom chose to have me at the hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana but left the hospital and took me home to the West End of Louisville. I still get teased about being the only "Hoosier" in the family.

Louisville has always had a strong culture of identification with parts of the city: West End, East End and South End. The north end is downtown, right on the river so it gets divided between West End and East End. There are also many neighborhoods that maintain a strong identity: Portland (my neighborhood,) Smoketown, Germantown, Old Louisville, Clifton, etc. Portland is in the West End, on the river, just to the west of downtown.

Here's a few bits of Louisville Trivia: Along the west end of Main Street is the largest collection of cast iron front buildings outside of NYC. Old Louisville is the largest Victorian neighborhood in America (over 40 blocks) - and I bet you thought San Francisco had that honor! Louisville's park system (which is phenomenal) was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted - the same park designer that did Central Park in NYC. Looking across the river, you can't miss the Colgate Clock at night. It's neon red and is the second largest clock in the world, behind Big Ben. Moving that clock from it's location would be like moving the Statue of Liberty to San Francisco Bay. Colgate closed down this year. Obviously, the employees were worried primarily about losing their jobs. The rest of us, however, were saying "But...but...but... What about OUR clock?!" Thankfully the Colgate company left us "our" clock. Every year we have "Thunder Over Louisville" to kick off Derby season. Louisville parties for two whole weeks. Thunder Over Louisville is a combination air show and fireworks extravaganza. It is said to be the largest fireworks show in the nation.

Some people may not realize that Louisville has it's own paddle-wheeler boat. The city actually owns it and it is one of our most precious treasures. It is called "The Belle of Louisville." The word "Belle" requires little explanation. So my screen name is the abbreviated version of "Kentuckiana Belle." I chose it because I am so happy to be back home after being gone for over 20 years. I'm proud of my home state and the screen name also recognizes my birth state. My roots in this area run back for generations so I felt it was just perfect for me. My birth name is Deborah Leucretia (that middle name was handed down to first-born daughters for several generations) - I only hear that mouthful when I am in deep sh!t - otherwise my family calls me Debbie and my daddy still calls me by my babyhood nickname of "Ducky" when addressing me directly or "the Duck" when talking to someone about me (as in "Has anyone seen the Duck?") As far as my friends on the Vine go: I love the name Kyana (Kye-Yanna) and many, when given the choice, prefer that. That's fine by me. Debbie is fine by me, too.

Many of you have often heard me referring to my parents and may wonder what a 46 year old woman is doing living with her parents. First of all, my parents are a Hell of a lot of fun. The main reason I'm here, however, is that I have no income. I worked as an LPN for about 25 years. I had ever increasing problems with pain and mobility. It was discovered, among other things, that every single disc in my back was collapsed. I've also got something called "piriformis syndrome" in my hips (from adjusting my gait to compensate for the pain in my back) chronic tendonitis of my shoulders (again, due to adjusting my sleep posture to try to relieve my back pain for years), and I have what appears to be a bone chip floating around in one of my hip sockets - likely from one of my many falls over the years. So, the doctors decided I was disabled. SSDI doesn't agree, naturally. Until I win my fight against them, I am penniless and if it weren't for my parents, I'd be homeless too. That hasn't always been the case. I've been very independent my entire adult life. I raised my sons by myself with my own labor and with no help from the government. I guess that is a big part of my bitterness with the bailout. Hand over a trillion dollars to Wall Street but treat me like some kind of shyster con artists when I ask for the SSDI that I paid in to for 30 years and now truly need.

Well, I tracked off on a rant there and did not mean to. In my case, a Kyana is an LPN, a mother, a very proud grandmother (they call me "Mimi"), an animal lover, a genealogy and history nut, a grateful daughter, and often, a royal pain in the a$$. Just trying to work out what my life and purpose for the future is supposed to be. Looking for ways to contribute now that I am no longer a wage earner.

Sorry, here's the actual article link. Boy, you'd think "edit link" would mean that I could actually, you know, edit the link. Not so, Anyway...

If I were to start another group here at Newsvine, it would be an empty one, with only one motto, this:

If anyone is a leftist or a radical, if a man becomes an anarchist, a hipster, some kind of proto-communist, a rebel, a wild reactionary, I don't care what – if he's somebody who's got a sense that the world is wrong and he's more-or-less right, that there are certain lives he feels are true and good and worth something, worth more than the oppressive compromises he sees before him every day, then he feels that the world has got to be changed or it is going to sink into one disaster after another. He may even feel as I do, that we are on the edge of being plague-ridden forever.

Well, if he feels all these things, the thing to do if he wants political action is not to look for organizations which he can join, not to look for long walks he can go on with other picketers, although that's obviously far better than joining passive organizations, but rather it is to devote his life to working subtly, silently, steelfully, against the state.

And there's one best way he can do that. He can join the mass media. He can bore from within. He shouldn't look to form a sect or a cell – he should do it all alone. The moment he starts to form sects and cells, he's beginning to create dissension and counter-espionage agents.

I have been watching a spate of documentaries lately, which seem to share some common elements. The topics have been greed, Enron, greed, the development and crushing of the electric car, greed, America's military wars, greed, America's history in the Middle East, and did I mention greed?

These films prove the adage that reality can be stranger than fiction, and more disturbing as well precisely because they are about events that really happened.

Take, for example, the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (2005), which is based on the book by the same name. Regardless of your prior disposition – most likely negative – toward Enron, this movie will make you more angry and cynical.

I already knew a great deal about Enron, more than enough to make me furious with how the executives of the company manipulated the electric market, deceived the public and manipulated its budgets.

Some of my knowledge came from reading newspapers, while I learned still more by reading News Junkie by Jason Leopold. I will be publishing soon an interview of the author of News Junkie, who describes going from being a drug junkie to doing investigative reporting, including some of the key stories that led to the downfall of the company.

But this movie made me mad as hell, to quote the classic movie Network. It included material I had not heard about before, from skits by company executives about how easy it would be to manipulate its numbers to speeches where an executive encouraged employers to continue investing in the company stocks at the same time the same leaders were privately dumping their own stocks and making millions in profits in the process.

Even more infuriating are tapes of conversations in which Enron traders joke about how rich they are getting by messing with California's electric plants in actions that ultimately led to a phony state energy crisis and rolling blackouts. Put simply the traders would ask managers of power plants to shut down, thus raising the price of electricity

This movie is not about numbers and dollars as much as it is about people, which Movie Mom eloquently describes in a review she wrote about the film.

Unfortunately, the people in the movie are not the only ones who will bend the rules to fit their actions. The movie does an excellent job of using footage which may at first seem totally unrelated, such as film of a skydiver (clue: think the myth of Icarus, who flew to close to the sun).

Even more appropriately the movie includes footage of the famous
Stanley Milgram experiments in which subjects were willing to take actions – specifically shocking someone – because someone appearing to be an authority figure told them to do so. If you are not familiar with the experiments I encourage you to follow this link.

Warning: This movie, not to mention those experiments, will likely increase your blood pressure so medicate yourself appropriately.

Who Killed The Electric Car? (2006) is also fascinating and infuriating though about a topic which has not been documented nearly as much as Enron: the demise of electric vehicles.

The dearth of documentation on the topic of electric vehicles, as well as the multiple suspects about this "death," does not decrease its important. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it does not take a scientist to guess that with the current state of society and the environment the use of electric vehicles should be increasing.

But several factors – well articulated in this fascinating movie – have conspired to make it difficult for consumers to easily get electric cars, with several recent exceptions like the Toyota Prius.

It is too simple to lay all the blame on car companies. While the car company executives come out of this movie looking like greedy, evil bloodsucker vultures, they are not the only ones at fault.

No, also to blame are government officials who caved to pressure – including from car executives – to block or repeal mandates that would encourage the manufacture and purchase of electrical officials.

Consumers are also to blame. While many people say they want to help the environment some of these same consumers blanche at the concept of switching to a car that would require them to charge it at night, apparently seeing this as more of an inconvenience than going to gas stations.

The movie focuses on the electric vehicle EV1 manufactured by General Motors. The cars were leased to some Californians, some hand-picked for being influential, prominent, including actors Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson. These people loved their electric vehicles and praise them at length in the film.

But rather than using this positive word-of-mouth, including Tom Hanks talking about the vehicle on David Letterman's show, the car companies instead later demanded the return of the cars.

The pain of these people losing their now beloved cars is magnified as they learn, through an extraordinary amount of research and vigilance on their part, that the cars have been collected so they can then be destroyed.

The movie leaves the viewer frustrated, with a bitter taste in the mouth that seems eerily reminiscent of motor oil.

This film could easily have been a simple indictment of car companies but the filmmakers instead make the wise option to tell the more complete story, about how others – consumers, government officials, etc. – were also complicit.

Why We Fight (2005) looks at not just the current war but past wars, the deceits by governments, the American relationship with the Middle East and other depressing but important topics.

The most heart-breaking plot arc in the documentary concerns William Sekzer, a Vietnam veteran and retired New York Police Department sergeant, whose son was killed in 9/11.

"Someone had to pay for this. Someone had to pay for 9/11," Sekzer said.

He grew up believing that there are some people who, in his words, "walk on water and the president of the United States is one of them."

So when the president and vice president strongly suggested connections between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, Sekzer made an unusual request. Remembering how names and words were sometimes put on bombs during Vietnam he asked that a message –stating "in loving memory of" his son - be placed on one of the bombs attacking Iraq.

But then Sekzer hears Bush say, on television news, "we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved" in the 9/11 attacks. Sekzer is furious, feeling angry and manipulated. He asks, "What the hell did we go there for?"

"The government exploited my feelings of patriotism, of a deep desire for revenge for what happened to my son," Sekzer said. "But I was so insane with wanting to get even; I was willing to believe anything.

One of the more fascinating aspects of the movie is how prescient former President Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower was about the military. This was particularly striking since he himself had been a military leader.

Eisenhower was quite astute in stating in speeches, most notably in his farewell address, about the alarming growth in size and influence of what he called the "military industry complex." While that term is still used today Eisenhower's warnings have been forgotten by some and surely not heeded by many government officials.

The movie shows some of Eisenhower's children talking about this issue. Most chilling to me was this statement from then-President Eisenhower: "God help this country when somebody sits at this desk who doesn't know as much about the military as I do."

Oh, I'm sure that would NEVER happen. Oh, what's that? Someone in the movie responds to Eisenhower's warnings?

"His words have, unfortunately, come true," Senator John McCain, himself a prisoner of war of Vietnam, said. "He was worried that priorities are set by what benefits corporations as opposed to what benefits the country.

Which brings us, lastly, to The Road to 9/11 (2005), a good, thorough but short documentary about the history of the Middle East. Most interesting to me was the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, the predecessor to Al-Qaeda.

The one-hour program is most notable for the experts given screen time:

While a bit dry at times it's quite educational. If what you know about the Middle East comes via Michael Moore

movies than you should watch this movie so you can get the facts free of his sensationalism and tricky editing.

Ok, that's enough serious reality for a while. I'm going to go watch something more light, like the Oscar-winning picture The Departed. Hmm, ok. That's a bad choice.

I think I'll return that via Netflix and pick something more relaxing, probably Mad Hot Ballroom and the new Neil Young concert movie.

This is your intrepid writer signing off.

Democracy Now interviewed imprisoned journalist Josh Wolf. The feed is long. If you download it and only want to listen to Josh's interview, you can skip ahead about 1/3 through.

Please take the time to listen. Josh's voice has been stifled enough. It's a great interview, informative and true.