African Union Condemns IDF Attacks...

Hello - I meant to post this a week ago.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
17 MARCH 2006

(Press Release)

The African Union has learnt with consternation and deep regret of the
recent attack by Israeli Forces on Jericho and its Central Prison, in the West Bank, during which the Secretary-General of the PLFP together with 180 prisoners and other civilians were arrested and three Palestinians were also killed and thirty-five wounded.

The African Union therefore strongly condemns this unwarranted raid,
which is a clear violation of the Agreement reached between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the question of the prisoners. The African Union calls upon the International Community, especially the members of the Quartet to halt the dangerous deterioration of peace and security in the Palestinian Territories and to immediately intervene in order to protect the prisoners taken from Jericho in compliance with the Fourth Geneva Protocol relating to the treatment and protection of civilians under occupation.

The African Union joins the International Community and the UN Security Council in calling on the Government of Israel to respect its obligations under international law and to end its repeated assaults on the Palestinian people, which will only serve to increase tension and incite more violence in the occupied territories and the entire region.

Economics for Dummies

The following is a very funny email fwd. You can find a similar one with some slight variations on: http://bovination.com/cows.jsp and I'm sure other drafts can be found on the web too... DISCLAIMER: *I take no responsibility for the views therein, except for the addition of Eritrea.*

TRADITIONAL ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You retire on the income.

KENYAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You eat both of them. You blame Indians for shortages. You ask the European Union to give another two cows to eat.

INDIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You worship them.

PAKISTAN ECONOMICS You don't have any cows. You claim that the Indian cows belong to you. You ask the US for financial aid, China for military aid, British for Warplanes, Italy for machines, Germany for technology, French for submarines, Switzerland for loans, Russia for drugs Japan for equipment. You buy the cows with all this and claim exploitation by the world.

AMERICAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You profess surprise when the cow drops dead. You put the blame on some nation with cows & naturally that nation will be a danger to mankind. You wage a war to save the world and grab the cows.

MEXICAN ECONOMICS You have two cows Both try to cross to the US One cow drowns The other cow produces for the US

ETHIOPIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows One starves to death. The government takes the other cow and slaughters it Half the meat is fed to the soldiers fighting Eritrea The other half is sold to buy bullets for use on democracy protesters

ERITREAN ECONOMICS - WE DON'T WANT YOUR COWS! We will wait until border demarcation to raise and slaughter our own.

FRENCH ECONOMICS You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

GERMAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You re-engineer them so that they live for 100 years, eat once a month and milk themselves.

BRITISH ECONOMICS You have two cows. They are both mad cows.

ITALIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

SWISS ECONOMICS You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

JAPANESE ECONOMICS You have two cows. You redesign them so that they are 1/10TH the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create cute cartoon cow images called Cowkimon and market them worldwide.

RUSSIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 17 cows. You give up counting and open another bottle of vodka.

CHINESE ECONOMICS You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity and arrest anyone reporting the actual numbers.

SPANISH ECONOMICS You have two cows. You sell them to buy a specially bred Spanish bull. The bull gets killed in a "corrida de toros" in Seville. The "matador" becomes famous and the bull's head ends up in display in some traditional tapas bar in Andalusia for the amusement of tourists.

TAIWANESE ECONOMICS You have two cows. You send a spy to Japan to try copy their high-tech chip milking strategy. It doesn't work so kill the cows and sell all the meat to be eaten at some Taipei night market. You produce thousands of fake Cowkimon merchandise and sell it at the above-mentioned night market.

MALAYSIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You draft the 9th Malaysian Plan with a long-term strategy to turn Malaysia into the leading producer of milk in the region. The Plan gets stuck in bureaucracy going from one Ministry to the other. By the time the Plan reaches government approval, Singapore has managed to buy the cows off the Malaysians and has become the main producer and exporter of milk in the South East Asia region.

NIGERIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows You send an e-mail to all Yahoo! and Hotmail users explaining that you have 10 cows that you've inherited but cannot access. You request an advance fee of 3 cows in order to get the 10 cows and promise a return of 5 cows. It is discovered you never had any cows to start off with.

NEW ZEALAND ECONOMICS You have two cows. Your sheep are jealous.

FINNISH ECONOMICS You have two cows You sell one cow to buy the newest Nokia phone The government takes the other cow in payment for taxes for selling a cow for profit.

CANADIAN ECONOMICS You have two cows You milk one in French, one in English The French one now wishes to split, the English one whines about it

Noise

Right now there is just too much noise around me. I'm just wondering how to find inner peace, the silence and calmness that comes from being part of a greater wonder that's the universe. This is the place where mystery is actually comforting, not a daunting task to unravel, and this humbles you to the point of contentment or sadness.

Instead I'm finding that this world is full of liars and all talk. Yes we talk to express our thoughts but what about the emotions, the muddy things that should be our inspiration. It's all reminding me of that Talib Kweli & Res song - "where do we go, what do we say, what do we do? no where to turn, no where to run and there's nothing new. where do we go for inspiration, it's like pain is our only inspiration."

Its usual for me to think of emotions as cancerous, something to be expelled from our system but they are not. They indicate where we are spiritually and why. Emotions give us purpose. Plato wrote that "Emotions are the enemy of Reason" but I disagree. They are the impetus to Reason, they are why Reason(s) make sense at all...

I would rather work and live from a place of passion and deep anger, developing Reason through these lenses, than from the monotonous and pretentious vision of intellectual Reason alone.

But since I'm finding out how emotionally detached I can be in my daily life -a relatively new personal revelation- I feel bored with all the Reasons that have until now been my telescope.

I pray to God to give me the ultimate purpose that comes from having a unified perspective. I asked my mother the other day if she thought I was more emotional or intellectual and she couldn't understand the question. She asked, how can your brain work without your heart? And through that I saw the communication problem we were having...we were incommesurable in that second. It is a learned impulse to separate (or at least seem to separate) your mind from your heart but my goal now is to undo that and never look back.

Honouring African Women

Honouring African Women

What does it mean to honour an African woman?

It means to reflect upon her life - a daily testament to her strength.

It means to be inspired by her wisdom and humility.

It means to be amazed by her vision for her family and humanity.

It means to be humbled by her sense of justice.

It means to acknowledge her dignity.

Today I'd like to honour one special African woman in my life and, yes it is cliche, but it is my Mother.

My mother like many African woman left her family at a very young age and as the oldest sibling had to provide for them by working in Arab countries and then in Canada. Her integrity is remarkable because she hasn't undermined her sense of self despite the poverty and early independence she endured. As a mother she is caring, steadfast, pragmatic, critical, loving, loving, loving. She loves us more than she loves herself I believe. I am lucky to have her as an inspiration and everyday in my head is a voice whispering to me, "...if she can do it, you can too..."

The following is a list of African bloggers who will honour an African woman today. Please check it out!
*************
1. Kenyan pundit (kenyanpundit.com)
2. AfroMusing (afromusing.com/blog)
3. Uaridi (http://uaridi2.blogspot.com/)
4. Mad Kenyan Woman (http://madkenyanwoman.blogspot.com/)
5. Rombo ( http://wherehermadnessresides.blogspot.com/)
6. Poi (http://reloadedexperience.blogspot.com/ )
7. Mental (http://www.mentalacrobatics.com/think/)
8. Mama Junkyard (http://www.beginsathome.com/journal/)
9. Mshairi ( http://www.mshairi.com/blog)
10. Fire Pussy - http://firepussy.gnn.tv/
11. Nubian Soul – http://nubiansoul.blogspot.com
12. Molara Wood - http://molarawood.blogspot.com/
13. Zimbabwean Pundit - http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/
14. 007 in Africa - http://007inafrica.blogspot.com/
15. Adefunke - http://adefunke.blogspot.com/
16. Pilgrimage to Self - http://pilgrimagetoself.blogspot.com/
17. Ore - http://orenotes.blogspot.com/
18. Afroblog - http://afrorise.blogspot.com
19. Soul on Ice - http://obifromsouthlondon.blogspot.com
20. ET!Weichegud - http://weichegud.blogspot.com
21. This is Zimbabwe - www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe
22. Journal -http://taureanminx.blogspot.com/
23. Black Looks – http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks
24. Jangbalajugbu Homeland Stories -http://www.edwardpopoola.com/blog/

New York, New York: Marvelous Manhattan. Historic Harlem. Beautiful Brooklyn. *sigh*

This picture was taken in Brooklyn Heights, looking over at the Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn bridge. Look at the beautiful sunset!

Hello, it's been a while since I've posted, almost a month. I have good reason. I will have to post what I've done retroactively but for now, let me just reminisce. I got back from NYC at 11pm last night.

New York how I love thee: let me count the ways!

Ok so on Sunday I was in Brooklyn...damn, that is the BOMB bourough. So unbelievably beautiful. It is so historical, some areas feel old European (ok, colonial) but if you like architecture... it is a sight for sore eyes.

I would walk down the street rhyming old Mos Def lyrics in my head(sheepish smile) like the song "Got" - Black on Both Sides:
chorus-
"some cats really like to, you know, profile and front;
don't get me, don't get me, don't get me don't get get get get get get me"

"you out on the block hustlin on the spot,
GOT this is how you get got
you rollin round town with your system crunk and your window cracked open to profile and front
now i like to have nice things just like you but I'm from Brooklyn
certain things you just don't do -
like high postin when you far from home or
like high postin when you all alone
now this would seem to be clear common sense
but cats be livin off sheer confidence like
f*** that, bit**es be tellin me run that [sic]
but actin invincible just ain't sensible
its 1999 and certain individuals tryin to get robbed on principle..."

i haven't heard that song in forever... then I passed by Marcy projects and was thinking of Jay Z:

"from Marcy to Madison square, to the only think that matters in just a couple of years..."

Have to go now but will update again later...