Truth - Without Censors

W.A.R Stories: Walter Rodney – a documentary

2010-02-10T00:29:00.004-05:00

A life and death –celebrated
By Antoine Craigwell

On Feb 8, a cold Monday evening, more than 200 people braved the freezing winds blowing off the Hudson River to pack a room at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan’s West Village for the New York premier of the documentary, “W.A. R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney,” which chronicled the life, work, passion, and death on Jun 13, 1980, of the world-renowned Guyanese historian and social activist.

It was from an idea that Clairmont Mali Chung said he had that he was encouraged to traverse the globe, crisscrossing and tracing the routes and places where Rodney lived, and interviewed more than 43 people who knew or in some way were associated with him. Chung, an attorney, who wrote, directed, and co-produced the 90-minute documentary, said that all those who were interviewed recalled Rodney’s life and more importantly, the effect he had on them and on the places where he either visited or lived, including those places where he was rendered persona non grata by governments.

In the film, those who were interviewed included academics, Horace Campbell, Ph.D., professor of African-American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York; Rupert Roopnaraine, Ph.D., principal of the Critchlow Labor College, Georgetown, Guyana; Clive Thomas, Ph.D., professor of Political Science, University of Alaska Southeast; Issa Shivji, Ph.D., professor of Law, University of Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania; the late professor Haroub Othman, Ph.D., University of Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania; and the late Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Rex Nettleford, Ph.D., professor of Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, at Mona, Jamaica. Also included among the list of those interviewed were poets, U.S. poet and playwright Amiri Baraka and Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) member Eusi Kwayana, writers, and activists including, Karen DeSouza and Andaiye, members of the WPA, the political party in Guyana to which Rodney belonged.

The documentary captured the essence of the man - in the people he met, spent time with, who listened to him speak, and shared in his vision for the rights of workers, especially those of the African Diaspora. Many spoke not only of his academic brilliance, referring to his books, which were during his life, and have since become required reading in colleges on subjects of Black history, and placed as part of the canon of Afrocentric and conscious writers such as the late Guyanese Ivan Van Sertima, and Cheikh Anta Diop, but as his widow Patricia Rodney, Ph.D., recalled, his humanness. His daughter, Asha Rodney, spoke of the tenderness and delight he had in his family – being nimble with his hands to build a doll house for his children, and his brother Hubert Rodney, who spoke of his attempts at cricket and his passion for striving to correct the wrongs done, not just to one person, but to a people.

In the film, many pointed to Rodney’s ability to navigate the line between his scholarship and his ability to dance the ska, he was able to hang out with friends, often hosting numerous people where he lived, to meet, to discuss and share thoughts on issues affecting them, and still be disciplined in his work.

The crowd that gathered for the screening, though small in number, was a promise of those expected to turn out to see the documentary at other occasions. The film revealed that whenever Rodney spoke at a meeting and wherever he went, from countries as far flung as Tanzania to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo; from Zimbabwe to Jamaica; from Montreal, Canada to Atlanta, GA in the United States; and to the intersection of Louisa Row and D’Urban streets in Georgetown, Guyana; people gathered to hear him speak of realism, practicality, pragmatism, and to hear him excoriate those who condoned and perpetuated wrong-doing. Undoubtedly, Rodney’s charisma and his grasp of the issues combined with his oratory, held many captive, and not only unnerved those in power, but also earned him their opprobrium and ultimately, his demise.

The documentary, with a few technical glitches, drew on archival material including footage from the Victor Jara Collective “Terror of the Times” and Menelik Shabazz “Time and Judgment,” and news clips from the Walter Rodney Archives, and from Guyanese and Caribbean publications, such as the Guyana Chronicle, The Catholic Standard, The Mirror, Dayclean, The Gleaner of Jamaica, Caribbean Contact, and the Trinidad Guardian. The music, which provided another sense of context was taken from the work of artists including Ras Camo, Rubix and Talib Kweli “Another Millionaire Dies Everyday,” Carl Dawkins “Dr. Rodney,” Lui Lepke “Dem kill Walter Rodney,” and the strains of Frederick Chopin, all fused together to produce a piece of work that truly captured who Rodney was, his impact on the people he met, and the patina of a legend that had begun to form about him in life, and which assumed greater significance for the party and the people with his death.

Following the screening, Chung, Abbyssinian Carto and Gabriehu Aregai, author of “Dangerous Times: The Assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney,” hosted a panel discussion and was assisted from the audience by Nigel Westmaas, Ph.D., assistant professor of Africana Studies, Hamilton College. Westmaas, who was an advisor for the documentary, as he answered questions from the audience, placed Rodney in the context of his time. He pointed out that despite stories to the contrary, Guyana’s history is replete with several successful rebellions, occurring during slavery by slaves as in 1763 Slave Revolt in Berbice, and after slavery, in the 20th century. In response to a question from the audience, Chung said that while he was aware of the presence of the idea for and about Rodney in his consciousness for sometime, he decided in 2006 to bring it to reality, and completed filming in 2008. Carto and Aregai, who appeared in the documentary, each recollected memories of Rodney’s life and the dastardly circumstances of his death. Speaking separately, Carto and Aregai said that combined with the knowledge that some of the principal people who were instrumental in formulating a decision to have Rodney removed, and who are still alive and playing active roles in the political life of Guyana, fills them with unspeakable anger. Carto said that he is so angry with the former prime minister, Hamilton Green, now mayor of Georgetown, that he cannot bring himself to forgive him for the part he is alleged to have played in ordering Rodney’s assassination.

During the film and even after, in the question and answer session, frequent mention was made of Rodney’s authorship, especially “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” “A history of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545 – 1800,” and “Groundings with my brothers.”

Rose October-Edun, a member of the Guyana Cultural Association, commented that as a young woman in Guyana, she was as aware, as were those of her generation, that while many Guyanese were ignorant or unfamiliar with Rodney’s international stature and proficiency, there were people in Guyana, who through the filter of the political domination of the time were only slightly familiar with his work and activities; he was ever more popular abroad than he was at home. She admitted that she was a victim of the deliberate or unconscious channeling by the adults in her life who denied Rodney’s existence and stature, a charge she felt was true for many of her peers and those of subsequent generations; that any information of and about Rodney was purged from the news and from popular discourse. The documentary, she declared, has inspired her to make a project of learning as much as she could about a true revolutionary. Many in the audience called for the educational system in Guyana to embrace and promote Rodney’s books, so that this and future generations could be informed more accurately about their history.

Status Is Everything

2010-01-31T16:10:00.003-05:00

Knowing means better decisions, choices and responsibilities
By Antoine Craigwell

As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and for many young Black men in the city of Newark, NJ, being aware of their HIV status is taking responsibility and making choices, for themselves and for others.

In 2001 the African-American Office of Gay Concerns (AAOGC), an inner city community-based organization was founded by Gary Paul Wright, its current executive director, to address the needs of the Black gay community in Newark, NJ with a slogan, “Status Is Everything.” Using its own tagline, the organization embarked on an ambitious promotional campaign to encourage Black gay men in their early teens to middle 20s to be tested, get to know their HIV status, and be able to make choices in their lives that are more informed.

The “Status Is Everything” campaign blitz, which cost approximately $35,000, was launched with an all day event at the Newark City Hall on Thursday, Feb 4. As a campaign, it would feature images of young Black men on posters placed inside and outside Newark city buses and the city’s Light Rail, on a Washington Street billboard, use social media, and in public service announcements on cable television and in the movie theaters; to encourage other young men to be tested and know their HIV status.

At a conference for African-American men, Wright said, he noticed that there was no organization taking up the cause of fighting for these men, “Status is everything is my brainchild and it is more than the tag line to the organization. It began in my kitchen with my partner and six other friends.”

Funded by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), and from the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control, the effectiveness of the “Status Is Everything” campaign is monitored by a team led by Anne Dey, Ph.D., program development administrator with the HIV Prevention Community Planning Support and Development Initiative of Rutgers University, whose department would be tracking the numbers of young men who go to any one of three testing locations around the city and reporting to the state. The testing locations include St. Michael’s on Central Avenue, UMDNJ Rapid Testing Center, and the NJCRI HIV Counseling and Testing Team.

Unlike other campaigns, this exercise makes use of contemporary technology, including YouTube, Twitter, and FaceBook: someone could text, using his cell phone, to one of the locations and receive instructions to the nearest testing site. If a person does not have access to a cell phone, he could call the number on the posters and receive testing locations and information.

The fact that from start to finish researchers and campaign planners listened to what the target population had to say made the project exciting, Dey said, “When the billboard went up in Washington Street, we got word that someone saw it and went to a testing center to be tested.”

According to Wright, the AAOGC staff waded through streams of data on the numbers of young Black men who are HIV positive, and as a practical project, moved beyond his kitchen. After five focus groups had met and examined the best and most effective manner of reaching the target audience, including messaging, encouraging young men to get tested, and reviewing six competitive bids; contracts were signed in October 2009 with FEMWORKS, LLC, a Newark, NJ-based public relations firm, and Robert Penn Productions, a NYC-based film production company, to develop and promote the “Status Is Everything” campaign, which is scheduled to run until Jun 2010.

Following an evaluation and depending on the responses and effectiveness of the campaign, Wright said, the AAOGC would approach the state and the CDC about continuing it in Newark and expanding it to other cities.

“If there is an increase in the numbers of young men who get tested and we see this through anyone of the modes, it could be replicated in other parts of the state. But, if there is no increase, then we would ask what did we do wrong, where we failed, and it would be lessons learned exercise,” Dey said.

In support of the slogan, “Status Is Everything,” driving the campaign and giving it a reason, a Jun 30, 2009 New Jersey HIV/AIDS Report, (http://www.state.nj.us/health/aids/repa/popgroups/documents/blacknothispanic.pdf) states that as recently as of the middle of last year, Black men who have sex with men (MSM) - an estimated 25,899 - accounted for close to one-fifth, 19.5 percent, or 5,048 of the accumulated reported HIV cases.

As a demonstration and a more comprehensive understanding of the significance of the impact of HIV on the state, the report included those MSMs identified as injection drug users (IDUs), who make up close to 4.46 percent or 1,155 of the overall population. Against the statewide numbers, of an estimated, 11,132 Black men living with HIV, approximately 24 percent or 2,654 are MSM, and 3.43 percent or 381 are MSM-identified IDUs.

Drilling down from the state to the county level, the report stated that of the13, 552 HIV/AIDS cases in Essex County, (http://www.state.nj.us/health/aids/repa/county/documents/essex.pdf), Blacks were 77 percent or 10, 451 of that population, of which 20 percent or 2,714 were MSMs, and 4.52 percent or 613 were categorized as MSM-IDUs. In Essex County, Newark tops a list of cities in the state with more than 100 HIV/AIDS cases with 13,744 cases.

In Newark, (http://www.state.nj.us/health/aids/repa/impactcities/documents/newark.pdf) Blacks were 74.50 percent or 2,537 of the 3,405 people living with HIV. Of the numbers in Newark, the men living with HIV with the highest numbers are those 35 to 44 years old, who make up 25 percent or 840 men, and 38 percent or 1,277, who are between 45 to 54 years of age.

“This is the most professional emerging campaign I’ve seen in a long time and I’ve heard from a lot of clients that they have seen it,” said Dey.

The rise of technology in time of Disaster

2010-01-31T16:03:00.000-05:00

By Antoine Craigwell

About nine minutes after disaster struck, the first Tweet was sent to the outside world, alerting those on the sender’s Tweet list of the devastation.

Red Cross International reported on Wednesday, Jan 13, that as of then, approximately $3 million was raised through people texting “Haiti 90999” since the earthquake and untold amounts of money was donated, also by texting, to “Yele 501501” to the charity headed by Haitian singer Wyclef Jean’s Yele Foundation. In a 24-hour period, the Red Cross raised $1.7 million through text donations.

Contrary to some schools of thought, that social media, including FaceBook and Twitter, and Skype encourage the sharing of an inordinate amount of personal information – though social media detractors do have a point, as it is in some cases used by many subscribers who divulge the minutia of their everyday lives, either as a sign of boredom or of exhibitionism run amok; that it is through the power of this media that at least three major global events were transmitted to the wider world, against other established and traditional forms of communication which had failed, were severely compromised or damaged.

On Nov 24, 2006, when most Americans were sitting down to their traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and when the attackers had laid siege to the hotel in Mumbai, India and were wreaking havoc, journalists, members of the Society of Asian Journalists, who Tweeted, using their allotted 140 characters to send reports and updates of what was happening on the ground.

Last summer, when protests erupted in Tehran, Iran over the results of that country’s general elections, and the government had shut down phone service, blocked Internet access, expelled journalists, threatened its citizenry with arrest and imprisonment for using cell phones to Tweet or to take photographs, that some brave souls in the capital risked their lives to Tweet about the state of affairs. It was through the brave efforts of those who Tweeted about the scale of the protests and the wanton use by the government of the Revolutionary Guard and the basjee to violently suppress all protests, was the world outside of Iran made aware.

Once again, when, at 4:53 pm EST time that the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck, hitting the port city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti and the traditional communications networks had been destroyed, telephone infrastructure leveled, it was through people on the ground with their cell phones who were texting and Tweeting the state of affairs, what they were seeing and experiencing. As with the attacks in Mumbai, the protests in Tehran, and now the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, the first pictures appearing in mainstream media, though blurred, were taken and distributed by cell phones.

Following this explosion of cellular activity, it came as a technological surprise to many when two organizations put abroad that donating money for the relief efforts could be sent by a “text” and the amount would be added to the sender’s cell phone bill. Not forthcoming or asked about is for those making donations over their cell phones, the cell phone companies making a pledge or commitment to donate a portion of their grossly inflated revenues to the Haitian cause, and only later did the cell phone companies agree not to charge taxes and miscellaneous fees normally levied on subscribers.

Haiti : destruction what was – Recreating anew

2010-01-31T15:51:00.000-05:00

Since the earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, there has been a rush by many, including governments to provide aid: in rescue and recovery, and with medical supplies and food. With the announcements, thanks to the prolific media’s presence, especially through CNN and BBC, there has been an outpouring of aid from non-profit organizations, led by the United Nations and the American Red Cross, and the organization founded by the Haitian singer, Wyclef Jean, the Yele Foundation; people from all across the U.S., from all across the world, from as far as Taiwan on the other side of the globe and Israel, of all nations, stepped in to help rescue the Haitian people. It was particularly admirable that a rescue team of 40 from Iceland, a country in the throes of its own economic crises and a bankrupt government, with their specialty in search and rescue, came to help.

Ten days later, while those who had come into the island nation to provide assistance had shifted gears from rescue to recovery, incredibly, people were being pulled from the rubble, alive: images were on the news an 84-year-old woman was rescued as well as a 22-year-old man, beating all the text book odds of a human being unable to survive beyond three days without food or drink. And, through an American perspective, seeing this disaster through the presentations of the media, the Haitian people, with the exception of a few isolated pockets of expressions of frustration and anger at the slow pace of aid reaching them – water, food and medical supplies; there was calm. The people were behaving.

Interestingly, the same media, striving for its oft sought after fair and balanced reporting, as well as showing the planes landing at Toussaint International Airport, spoke of the flights held in holding patterns and diversions, of the towering pallets of food, clothing and temporary shelter, all still cling-foil wrapped on the airport’s apron; also showed interviews with aid personnel who complained of being forced through the absence of materials to sterilize surgical equipment with, of all things, vodka – which they surely would’ve wanted to drink, to help dull the images of death and dismemberment, suffering burnt into their consciences, seared into their memories; of the smell of decaying, decomposing, putrefied human remains, those who had as yet to be found in their crumbled concreted tombs, and those, the estimated 80,000 who were buried in mass graves, unidentified and unaccounted for. The same media, showed images of regions outside of the capital where no one had gone to help: who knows how many may have died entombed in their crumpled homes, buried under their respective prides and joys – their own homes.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake (a force the equivalent to more than 100 mega tones of TNT or several times the force Hiroshima and Nagasaki), which struck at 4:53pm along the fault line, was the crust of the earth going about its business - readjusting, shifting, fitting into place; caught an estimated two million people by surprise, as they went about their business. In truth, the island nation of Haiti was no stranger to disaster. A few years ago, as if the climate, the very weather, which turned azure skies and a turquoise, tranquil warm water sea, a respite from the cold of the north in balmy 85-degree temperature, into a sign that all was not well with the world; the island was slammed by more than one hurricane, natural disasters, which as of the time of the earthquake, the island nation had not quite recovered.

But, for those Haitians who were killed either by falling masonry, died of starvation or from their injuries because no one could get to them or knew they lay in pain, trapped in their homes, the shadow of disaster seemed to be a permanent cloud stuck, hovering over their country; at least for them they were out of their misery, they know nothing anymore. It is those who have survived; those who were trapped, pinned under steel or concrete, tons of it, whose limbs were amputated, to stop the insidious and pervasive march of infection that threatened to join them with their country men and women who had ceased to breathe, who had shuddered in darkness and in silence one last time, and literally didn’t know what hit them; to save their lives. It is those who survived, the major question is: what life for them now?

In the U.S. as in many other so-called first world countries, being in any unable to provide for oneself or family has truly become a curse of this age. Many thousands of Haitians, who just moments before the earthquake, who had survived countless triumphs, were to be brought low, reduced to a life of who knows what. In the U.S. for example, while ostensibly there are resources for the disabled, and a law to protect against discrimination, in a land and among a people easy to marginalize; life for an amputee is hard, often, as in NYC, to wander the city's streets or the subways begging for a handout. For the many able-bodied men and stout women of Haiti who before this devastation held their heads high with pride, what now would be their fate, how would they be viewed, who would have mercy on them, who would forget that an earthquake caused buildings to collapse and in the rubble trapped many, and who would see these amputees as survivors? What does one say to a child, boy or girl, who now is disabled?

The article written by Sir Hilary Beckes, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, and published in the Barbados Advocate, circulating around on the Internet focused on the bigger picture: the sovereignty, nationhood and identity of the Haitian people - aspects of which at the microcosmic level essential for the creation of a home are just as important as for those who died in their improvised tombs, as if they said to the world at large, “this is my house, my castle, my domain and I’ll die in it.” Could it be that those who recently died in this natural disaster waved their fists in the air and dared that Haiti should rise once more and be the nation it once was? Sir Beckles addressed the history of Haiti, from its inception, when Christopher Columbus landed on the island, which he called Hispaniola, to the occupation by the English, Dutch, Spanish, and then by the French, who made the island into a colony and imported slaves to till the soil and to produce for the French government and people. Sir Beckles recounted the nation’s history, reveling in the pride of a people, the first in the New World to achieve independence from France in 1804 and took his readers through the path where that glory was stripped away, taken, to be finally summarized in the words of an American evangelist, Pat Robertson, who suggested in his bigoted view, that the people of Haiti had made a pact with the devil, but who could not see that the devil the Haitian people trusted was someone like he.

Now with the outpouring of support, aid, and assistance, is anyone asking those pertinent questions: would the island nation of Haiti be allowed to rise up to reclaim even a semblance of what it once was? Is the Preval government capable of charting a new course of nationhood, forged in the blood recently spilt and the blood of his country’s ancestors? What would be the fate of all those who are missing limbs, their abilities to provide for their families severely compromised, or who would take care of them? What can anyone say to the young men and women who are maimed by this disaster? Would the heavy American presence, 10,000 troops, act as a guarantee that U.S. companies would get the chance at first dibs at bidding or the best assignments to rebuild?

Was the earthquake indeed necessary for this nation to start over?

Interview "Bruno" the movie - what it says to the LGBT community

2009-12-29T13:22:00.000-05:00

2009 OUT Music Awards

2009-12-17T10:02:00.003-05:00

Chaos and Confusion at 2009 OUT Music Awards
Story by Antoine Craigwell,

Chaotic, disorganized and confused were some of the adjectives used to describe the 2009 OUT Music Awards held at New York City’s Webster Hall on Tuesday, Dec 8. Billed as the 19th l OUT Music Awards, an alliance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) recording artists and performers, the awards celebrated the accomplishments of many of the artists and musicians in the community. The list of sponsors included LOGO, MAC cosmetics, Grace Hotels, Peaceman Foundation, and GMAD.
While behind the scenes was a hive of activity, scores of volunteers, and assorted staff and assistants running about trying to pull the show together, the first inkling of the widespread disorganization manifested itself outside the Hall with an officious bouncer determining who could gain entry. On one occasion, when he recognized three people who had somehow forced their way to the front of what was a collapsed line, to the chagrin of those who stood in the cold night air waiting to be admitted; he, feigning familiarity with hugs and simulated kisses, brandished a slim sheaf of papers, on which was written names of people who were VIPs, pretended to look at the list and declared, to no one in particular, that the three people were on the list, then waved them to another gatekeeper who affixed different colored wristbands.
On entry, in the lobby, more confusion reigned: an obviously harried assistant perfunctorily waved media and VIPs to the right and others, a press of people around her, she struggled to determine who had what type of access. And, when asked about VIP passes, the assistant was only too willing to hand over a quantity of the green VIP wrist bands without checking that the person was actually a VIP. In a long slender room, up against a wall, was what appeared to be a hastily constructed step-and-repeat banner, a flimsy strip of red carpet and a cordon, behind which a motley gaggle of photographers strained to hear the name of whoever was announced by an equally harried assistant, their cameras clicking away at anyone who appeared in front of the banner.
Those who appeared on the “red carpet”, after their moment of photographic fame, were ushered into either a larger room or left to fend for themselves. In the larger room, a pre-show was underway, which featured a couple going through the motions of presenting awards. At one point, the duo announcing the award categories, the nominees, opening a large blue envelope, and the winners were shouting, unamplified, to be heard above the din; some time after were given working microphones.
Many of those who walked the “red carpet” were sensibly if tastefully and fashionably attired. Others appeared in various costumes as if, some two months later, the Halloween parade had finally made its way across town from 6th Avenue to 3rd Avenue. One person who had designed and made his costume, as he said, to look like a sea creature, looked more like the main character from the Hans Christian Andersen story of the Snow Queen. Another appeared in an all black skin fitting costume with creations of two other people attached to the central figure with limbs sprouting from every direction; and another, the artist known as Sir Ivan, wore a floor length multicolored cape attached to a body suit which seemed as if he was an incarnation of Liberace.
Before the awards began, an assistant came on stage and made three important announcements: she apologized to the VIPs in the balcony that one of the main sponsors had not come through with the liquor, which meant that they had no bar service. A couple who had given up on being VIPs even though they had paid an estimated $300 a person for their tickets, took up seats on the main floor, which had a bar, and proceeded to get as drunk as they could. The assistant also apologized to the crowd of people who were seated in the first three rows, asked them to give up their seats for the nominees, and informed everyone that the entire show was being filmed live for LOGO.
After a further wait, that seemed to go on forever, the show’s joint hosts, Rodney Chester from Noah’s Arc and Kate Clinton, political humorist, appeared on stage and were followed by performances by Christine Martucci, Toshi Reagon, and an assortment of hip hop performers, one of whom kept indicating to the audience that she wanted more adulation. At one point, there was obviously no coordination when Clinton and Chester were to appear on stage together; she appeared and began speaking, followed later by Chester who emerged from behind a curtain and tried unsuccessfully to laugh off his missed cue.
According to the program, there were 23 categories with an interminable list of 91 nominations. Kevin Aviance was presented with the OUT Music Lifetime Achievement Award, which was followed by other special awards, including Willie Ninja, the OUT Music Icon; Reagon the OUT Music Heritage; and Debra Harry, the OUT Music Pillar award. Dan Martin and Michael Biello, who received the OUT Music Visionary, said that the OUT Music awards began in their living room, and then it was about men singing to men and women singing to women.
One artist who came on stage with about 12 back-up dancers, while performing a number with “voging” undertones, was upstaged by two people – a middle-aged man wearing a fur jacket and a tall man in drag with an upswept blond wig and heels – from the audience who couldn’t contain their need to demonstrate that they knew how to “vogue” and felt the need to march up on to the stage. While their antics elicited hooting, hollering and cheering from the audience, there was no crowd control; the person who may or may not have been security, who grabbed the middle-aged man and pulled him down the stage stairs, was standing around with a drink in his hand.
Despite all this, there were a few bright spots in the evening, one of which featured, Nhojj, who performed his song “Love” and won the Outstanding R&B/Soul award over Kalup Linzy and Robert Anton.
“It’s validation from my community and it’s good to be back,” said Nhojj.
Performance artist, milDRED, who earlier in the year had received OUT Music’s Spirit Award in recognition of her 14 years of service, said, “I came to the awards to give my support because OUT Music supported me and my work.”
Jessie O, an R&B pop recording artist who was a 2006 nominee and who introduced and presented Nhojj with the award, said, “This is a fulfillment of a dream where I could be at a place where my talents and that of others support each other.”
But, the actual award, as described by its designer, 24-year-old Emmanuel Perez, was inspired by his own recent coming out to his parents and family, and since he had not been exposed to the gay world, for him it was exciting and energetic. The CEO of OUT Music, he said, approached him and James Meade, the accomplished architect and photographer, with an idea for a campaign for LGBT artists called “Freedom of Expression”, and from this collaboration, a relationship developed. The entire process, from design to mock-ups, took between two to three weeks and was done as a contribution to the awards program, he added.
“I created a disco ball base for the top and a classy microphone as the award and I’m really proud of it,” Perez said.
There were three after parties, one for men, one for women, and another for extra special VIPs at the Grace Hotel. Yet, at the end, even though reactions were mixed, some enjoyed the evening: it was what they expected and more; to others, it signaled an organizational meltdown and leaves questions about the 20th anniversary.

Greet the Press: A Black gay media

2009-07-07T18:19:00.009-04:00

(Text of presentation made as a panelist for Greet the Press held on Jun 22, 2009 by The Future, at the Brecht Forum in New York City.)

A Black Gay Media – Transitioning from Print to Online:

Newspersons in the Black gay community need to recognize two essential facts: there is a dearth in reliable, accurate and trustworthy news that is specifically geared to the Black gay community, and that this is a growing demographic hungry for news. A Black gay media would find its place and relevance not in the Ball scene, entertainment and the usual gossip, most of which are part of the entertainment factor and found on blogs, but in real news as it actually affects the community, and each and every Black gay man. In recent times I have been drawn to report for GBMNews.com, not only about plays, shows and art galleries, but on issues that directly affect and impact the Black gay community, for example, recently, how many people know that the New York State Black Gay Network, a coalition of Black gay social service organizations throughout the state that provide services to Black gay communities, had filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, how many people know or care what happened to POCC in Brooklyn, or how many people care about an Atlanta-based organization trying to come into NY and step into the space left by the collapse of POCC when that organization seems to be running from some serious issues? Do Black gay men in New York City really care what happens in their community, knowing where they would get the assistance they need, to know which organization is better suited to addressing their needs?

While in the Black gay community there are many who think they can write and want to be writers, as a community there is still a desperate need for writers, people who are seeing their community with a critical eye, and feel the need to make that news available for everyone, to make sure everyone is in the know. There is one caveat to this, however, not everything is news; for a journalist, it is often touch and go to decide what is or isn’t newsworthy.

But while there are up-and-coming writers and many who think they can write, a background in journalism or training in journalism, with some experience in print journalism, is essential to making and achieving that transition from print to the Web.

A New York Times sponsored blogging heads presentation, on Tuesday, Jun 16, in an online discussion on how journalists in the post-print age move from print to online between Michelle Goldberg of The American Prospect and Rachel Lehmann-Haupt of True/Slant, Goldberg said she finds the idea of the writer as entrepreneur as liberating, especially for someone who enjoys writing, mostly books, and in some ways, it means that in relation to “branding” the person, a journalist has to become a hustler, which separates the professional from the amateur. A writer, today, she said is someone who could hustle better to make a living. Lehmann-Haupt suggested that it becomes a popularity game, where every writer would strive to outdo the other, obtaining a broader and larger Internet presence to get an audience and hits which would impact advertising, and which in turn brings in money. These, she said, narrows the scope of any online publication and militates against a writer’s core readership.

Lehmann-Haupt referred to the 1990s when the Internet was considered information overload, and as bad and unhealthy. Goldberg suggested that journalists and the public are on the cusp of a backlash against this information overload, as in the ad from Bing, where the commercial was playing into the sense of information overload and bombardment people are feeling. She added that a lot of people like Twitter, but many journalists ask, do I have to use it and begrudgingly use it and don’t know that they don’t have to if they don’t want to; and if the social arrangements are not working for journalists, perhaps they have to change themselves before trying to change the environment, because it’s the new wave.

What Goldberg or Lehmann-Haupt did not mention in their presentation was the attention to quality in reporting, which establishes and solidifies the journalist’s credibility. How much should a writer sacrifice his or her reporting skills – how to frame a question, do research, objectivity, syntax, grammar, and punctuation for the sake of truncated and abbreviated words, slang with specific meanings, or a more visual society intent on spending no more than one or two minutes reading, and prefer instead to look at a picture or a two minute video clip?

CNN has admitted in its reports from Iran that although they are grateful that there is a surge in citizen journalism, reporting on events there, with foreign correspondents banned or reporting abilities severely restricted by the government, the news organization does not have any way of corroborating or verifying images, both still and video, and Tweets.

A post by Barbara Iverson on Apr 30, 2009 for the Poynter Institute for Journalists’ online product, Poynter Online addressed the issue presented by Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen who recently picked the BBC as the news Web site with the best headlines.

He cited several ways in which the BBC editors, "consistently do an awesome job."
"It's hard enough to write for the Web and meet the guidelines for concise, scannable and objective content. It's even harder to write Web headlines, which must be: short (because people don't read much online); rich in information scent, clearly summarizing the target article; front-loaded with the most important keywords (because users often scan only the beginning of list items); understandable out of context (because headlines often appear without articles, as in search engine results); and predictable, so users know whether they'll like the full article before they click (because people don't return to sites that promise more than they deliver)," he said.

Not only do the BBC headlines represent good usability for users who scan information, their front-loaded, keyword rich, short and contextual headlines are excellent for search engine optimization (SEO).

In recent months, several newspapers across the country have “folded,” pun intended, for good. According to an online commentator, “The Rocky Mountain News is closed. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is now Web only. The foreign bureaus of the Baltimore Sun and Boston Globe have closed. The publishers of the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Tribune have filed for bankruptcy. The Christian Science Monitor folded its print edition and is online only. The Star-Ledger of Newark has cut its staff in half, and Newhouse, Copley, and Media General, news services and aggregators, have eliminated their Washington bureaus. The San Francisco Chronicle is on the brink of closing; if it does, the “City By The Bay” would be a city without a daily newspaper.

The New York Times had to acknowledge change and adapt from traditional print news presentation to digital methods and in a close shave, dodged the “folding” bullet with the infusion of $225 million from Carlos Slim Helu, a second generation Lebanese in Mexico, who has become one of the richest men in the world and one of Mexico’s top oligarchs. In his Jun 1, 2009 article in the New Yorker magazine, Lawrence Wright examined in “Slim’s Time” Slim’s rising influence as a major media player. With this infusion of cash, Slim has become the only person outside the Ochs-Sulzberger family as the largest shareholder. But The Times is in dire straights. It is negotiating selling a portion of it new $600 million headquarters for $225 million and leasing back 21 floors for office space, with an option to buy back those floors in 10 years.

But, even before the current recession struck, the basic sales model for print media began falling apart: Craigslist destroyed the classified-advertising base, department stores consolidated and advertised less, and the Internet made the free distribution of news the norm. So when Slim began to invest heavily in The New York Times, many thought he was crazy. But he saw something in the future of the media, and control or a hand in policy at the Times could ensure that he, unlike Rupert Murdoch who wanted the Wall Street Journal as a trophy, could influence media direction – especially with one of the Times’ latest and costliest investments, its Website.

In the article, Wright speaks with a Times writer and discusses the Times’ transition from traditional print to digital. The writer said that it was the smartest thing the paper did, turning itself into a true national newspapers, with the very best Website.

Although articles on The New York Times Website can jump to several pages, it is considered one of the best examples of the transition from print to online, including a separate global section, accessible from within the national section.
In recent times, too, according to a Poynter Online post by William Sullivan on May 27, “Chicago Tribune Launches New ‘Huffington Post Meets Facebook’ Blog Network,” as a way of reaching into the Web-sphere to retain their relevancy. While many in traditional media have marveled at how Arianna Huffington created a niche with the Huffington Post, I’d suggest that GBMNews.com is approaching that threshold to becoming the same for the Black gay community.

But for many traditional writers, especially those trained in the skills necessary as a journalist, understanding the Web, its reach and impact, and the attention span of readers, become crucial to effective writing for online media; almost everyone today, young, not so young and no longer young have blogs, places where they could write and share their thoughts and experiences, but which cannot supplant journalistic writing.

Traditional writers need to master these 10 basic techniques when thinking of writing for the Web:
1.Write tightly-focused, specific articles that are authoritative and cite trusted sources – your reputation rests on what you write and who you quote;
2.Assume a reader's cursory knowledge of the subject, but explain for the layperson – check accuracy of titles, correct spelling of names. Explain key terms and concepts;
3.Ensure copy is unique, balanced, exclusive, and free of sales pitches or pure opinion – keep “self” out of article;
4.Write in the third-person reportage style and keep personal anecdotes for blogs; remove common speaking style from writing;
5.Proof for spelling and punctuation errors, tired language, general/weak statements, passive sentences, and awkward syntax and sentence construction;
6.Title your article as transparently as possible, reflecting the key search terms/phrases;
7.Get to the point in the lead “lede” paragraph and proceed convincingly from there;
8.Use 50- to 75-word paragraphs, bold subheadings, and bulleted lists for easy reading on screen;
9.Link to up to five related on- and off-site articles, with keyword anchor text organically embedded; and
10.Attach a clear and appropriate color photo, properly credited to the photographer and accurately captioned.

Many writers struggle with being able to separate the way they speak from the expected standards of the written language. Indeed, most writers’ style of writing are suitable for their personal blogs, where no one could find fault with its expression, because it's theirs and administered by them, and which has become the window for creative writing expression. However, for the sake of repetition, for a wider general audience, administered by someone else, there is a greater responsibility to preserve and formalize the written word. I recently had occasion to comment on someone’s writing submission by pointing out that when I write and edit I maintain a certain standard of English expression, regardless of the temptation to dip into the colloquial or vernacular.

Recently, the Root.com and David Wilson’s thegrio.com, claimed to be online media outlets and voices of Blacks, but what about BlackNews.com, which provides news and information about as much happening in the Black community, nationwide? Currently there is AfterElton.com, an online magazine presenting news, reviews and commentary on gay and bisexual men in entertainment and the media for a multi-racial audience, and of course, there’s Gay City News, The Blade and the Washington Blade, each covering the gay community, but only selectively carrying Black gay stories, and mostly if there is something negative. Where is there a positive Black gay online news and information Website, not an aggregator of blogs or an extended blog with so much page scrolling it takes forever to load?

On the issues affecting Black gay men, how informed are we of the mutations in HIV and the advances in medication, how informed are we about the health related issues Black gay men have to deal with, including prostate cancer, diabetes, stress, stroke, cardiac complications and those that are HIV related?

How informed is the Black gay community to make choices about the same-sex marriage bills raging like a brush fire through state legislators and courts. There are several reports that Blacks don’t support same-sex marriage, but what happens when you or your lover is hospitalized and you can’t get in to visit him, or he dies and you are denied the life you shared with him – all his possessions are taken from you? Are you sufficiently informed about what to do?

How informed is the Black gay community of their choices, when they go to a church looking for comfort and a salve for the psychological wounds suffered during the week, except only to hear a pastor ridicule and condemn them for being who they are just as they are made, and to know you could get up and walk out of that building?
How informed is the Black gay community, especially in this economic recession/depression about what to do to find a job, how to prepare, what to do when unemployment insurance is exhausted and no job prospects are on the horizon? What to do when faced with an eviction notice because the rent has not been paid for four months or the mortgage on the condo bought when times were good, instead many may have used the money to go to a club, on a boat ride, to the beach, buy new clothes, or every Friday night cocktails and fried wings for an ever growing circle friends at Chi Chiz, the Black gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in NYC?

How informed is the Black gay community about organizations in the state and city who were appointed stewards of funds and to ensure better attention to the number of issues plaguing Black gay men, but only to discover that the money was misused, and how to call for an accounting if ignorant of the facts?

How does the Black gay community learn when one of their brothers has achieved a great accomplishment and done well, to celebrate with him, or how do they know when a brother no longer walks the Earth and when his family denies him the openness he so craved in life by refusing to let others know or acknowledge his sexual orientation in death?

Where do we learn what is happening in our community? Do we wait for The New York Times, The Daily News, the New York Post, a blurb in Gay City News, on someone’s blog or someone Twittering, to spread a bit of news? How different is that from the housewives who stand gossiping over their fences?

I recognize trends and pay attention to how I am positioned in relation to any. I came across another article that addressed the issue of how journalists and the public could communicate and share information with a new application, Google Wave, which could change that dynamic.
In an article by Will Sullivan, posted online on Jun 4, he mentions the just concluded Google I/O 2009 conference held in San Francisco, where Google announced a revolutionary open source project.
Google Wave is a new open source platform that, at this early stage in its development, is a multimedia hybrid of instant messaging, e-mail, blogging and Wiki technology all in one. These "waves" offer a new experience of real-time collaboration, sharing, conversation and editing between multiple parties.
The new technology has the potential to let newsrooms take better advantage of real-time reporting tools that offer the community and editors functionality to work together on breaking news as it happens. Last November when the violence erupted in Mumbai, India, one person I knew was receiving Tweet reports from people who were there and watching what was happening, and today, with the protests in Iran, journalists all over are communicating and receiving reports using Twitter and Facebook. CNN today called it the “communications revolution” using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to transmit images and text reports of what’s happening on the ground in Tehran. Imagine the power you have as Black gay men, spread out all over this country, to report, send in your images and not only raise consciousness and awareness, but begin to force changes in attitudes, perceptions and policies. Identify a Website and when you see a situation where a Black gay man is being treated badly, humiliated for being gay, or in a church, you hear the pastor speaking derogatorily of same-sex relations, YouTube it, record it with your IPhone, and Tweet it so that the word gets out and people know what’s happening, even if you’re telling your story with 149 characters. Remember the image of the bloodied face of Neda Soltan, Farsi for “divine calling,” the 26-year-old woman who was shot in her heart by government forces while standing looking on at the protests and died on the street in Tehran, and which has now become a potent status symbol, she is now called the “Angel of Tehran,” for the Iranian protests, in Iran and worldwide. Her image was broadcast and transmitted worldwide via YouTube and texts about her demise via Twitter; everyone around the world saw her dying.
One new bit of technology is called the Wave, which Google explained on its blog: "A 'wave' is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
"Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, and gadgets and even feeds from other sources on the Web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content – it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.
"As with Android, Google Chrome and many other Google efforts, we plan to make the code open source as a way to encourage the developer community to get involved. Google Wave is very open and extensible, and we're inviting developers to add all kinds of cool stuff before our public launch. Google Wave has three layers: the product, the platform and the protocol," said Google.
The official launch date hasn't been released yet, but Google said it expects it will be available later this year.
Matt Thompson, a 2008 to 2009 Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow, said he has foreseen and proposed that the potential of iterative, contextual journalism could help provide a richer journalism experience for all involved.
Prospective Black gay journalists, can, while maintaining the basics of responsible, accurate and objective journalism transform and incorporate those concepts and practices into the digital age – online.

In New York - A Black Gay Network

2009-05-28T17:19:00.002-04:00

Text of presentation given as part of a panel for a Town Hall meeting held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on Thursday, May 21, 2009, which was to examine the role and state of the New York Black gay community. Panelists included Nathan “Seven” Scott, a life coach; Manuel Rivera, chair, Consumer Advisory Board, Gay Men’s Health Crisis; Cary Alan Johnson, executive director, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; Gary English, interim executive director, Hew York State Black Gay Network; and Tokes Osubu, executive director, Gay Men of African Descent. The forum was moderated by Traci Gardner.

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Leo, thanks for inviting me to share and be in such an esteemed company as this panel; where quantifying each of the panelists’ accumulated experience is inappropriate, but on qualitative grounds, I am honored.
When Leo asked me to join this panel, I protested, begging off it, and telling him I’m not qualified to speak on this issue. He assured me that my work as a journalist, following the twists and turns of the Black gay community in New York gives me the credentials.
Since accepting, I have been asking and listening to the responses from different people, including those who are Black and gay, about their thoughts on a Black gay community in New York. The responses have revealed one fact: there is no cohesion, unity or organizational structure. One friend, the executive director of Queens Pride House, in as many words said that in addition to the absence of cohesion among Black gay organizations, the concept of a formation of a network is a bit like window dressing. In comparison, he said, while the White organizations maintain their respective identities, even though they are all biting into the same funding pie, they collaborate on specific agenda items, that means, if one organization has identified a specific issue to address, they contact other organizations to see if there is a similar project underway, and if so, work together; if not, they agree to share the experience.
Cleo Manago, head of the Black Men’s Exchange, to whom I asked the question about cohesion said that he hopes this event does bear innovative, very necessary and transformative fruit for young same-gender-loving, bisexual and gay-identified Brothers. He said that achieving this is likely to be a challenge, since this forum is being held in a White venue, and that it's not inclusive of the different types of Brothers in New York who provide service to these Brothers, and who live in New York City.
He lamented that unfortunately this event was also not promoted in way that is inclusive of diverse homosexual and bisexual Black men at-risk in NYC. The question this forum intends to engage, “the state of agencies and programs serving Brothers” is a national issue, he said, there are almost no viable programs in the nation that affirm, empower or protect our Brothers. It is true there are many agencies run by gay identified Brothers, usually with a gay or HIV positive driven agenda, but he added that if he was here he would have discussed how that this event is housed in a Black-culturally-limiting space and is part of a dysfunctional trend connected to an antiquated worldview that needs to be changed, if the Black gay community is to finally get a new and better result and out come. He said he hopes that there is more examination of the issue of hosting events for the Black gay community in spaces and places culturally and ethnically relevant, warning that if new things aren't done, new things won't happen.
Manago added that as a crucial issue, that of leadership, organization and cohesion, that it is time for a paradigm shift. “Brothers need to be affirmed and restored as Black men. If that don't happen, we can forget it.” The "gay" paradigm has not affirmed and empowered same-gender-loving and bisexual Brothers thus far, and that's a core issue leading to the perpetual state of failure, cultural disorientation, including self-hate, and the health risks our Brothers suffer. They deserve some powerful and affirming leadership, not the same mentality that POCC and similar organizations have or had.
But, one of the main issues I have with Black gay community organizations is the perception of secrecy and the attitude of some of their leaders who give off the impression that they are above everyone else. Again, when I look at the leaders in other community based organizations, there is an easier accessibility and openness. In this age of super-glastnost, or openness and transparency, leaders of our agencies have a duty and a responsibility to be more available to those they serve and represent. Perhaps, bred over the last eight years and recipients of the trickle-down effect, was the mentality of lock-down, secrecy and holding everything close to the chest. When we look at the debacle and scandal surrounding the demise of POCC which was fraught with so much suspicion and innuendo, why has no one come forward before to report to the Black gay community what happened last year and what is the fate of POCC? Why wouldn’t Evelyn Williams, who is supposedly the executive director of an organization that’s winding down, been available or returned any calls for comment on the state of her organization? One would think that organizations, ostensibly those serving the Black gay community, who receive or have received public funds to provide service, purportedly to address the needs of Black gay men, would be willing to let the same people know what’s happening with their organizations and in the community. Black gay men need to realize the power and influence they have for change and to demand accountability.
It is laudable that this forum is held. Last year, Nathan hosted a panel here to look at the state of Black gay New York. Although the panel and the discussion dissembled, it was telling that one member of the audience stood up and said that 20 years ago there were similar forums asking the same questions, but was relieved to know that apathy hadn’t set in, the questioning hadn’t died, but has resurfaced once again. My question is what has happened since that observation was made? Is anything in the work or being planned that we need to know about?
Notwithstanding that any Black gay social service organization is not doing all they can to address needs of the Black gay community, I wonder why is it we still seem to be in the same place? Why is it that we cannot seem to be more unified as a body of people who have a common problem?
It is time we allow old wounds to heal, to stop picking at the scabs. What concrete plans are there to move this body of Black gay men in New York forward? As one person said to me, selected leaders in the Black gay community have been spouting surveys and data on HIV prevalence rates for well on 20 years, but that those numbers are only used to secure funding from federal, state and city governments and they seem to be “spinning their wheels” - going no place.
Germono Toussaint, from whom I enquired as to how he sees the state of Black gay men in New York, said that there are many studies and many reports stating that HIV among black gay men is on the rise, but again they are just studies. He said he thinks that methods have to change because every year the results of a study surprises everyone and a meeting is held to talk about it and people will still have unsafe sex. He added that in his view there is shame in the black community about sexuality in general. It is a discussion that has to happen first. There is also the sense in the gay community, he said, that getting infected and infecting someone is not so serious. There has to be a standard of self-love and self-respect among brothers that would cause them to want to protect themselves because they care about their own well-being; a combination of these would at least begin to change the situation.
Addressing the issue of self, recently, Nathan, Cornelius Jones and some others hosted a forum to look at how Black gay men see themselves, by asking the question: why am I still single. For the past two years, I’ve been working on a project, looking at depression and how it affects Black gay men and Black gay HIV positive men, and which attempts to address at least one part of the issue of how Black gay men see themselves.
This project looks at depression, its debilitating effect on how those who suffer from it see themselves. Toussaint who works with Blur Advertising and is also working on 365-Wellness, which is a project soon to be launched, and which would attempt to promote healthy living everyday. I have also proposed to several contacts and would like to extend it to anyone who is interested in collaborating in a health/mental health forum for Black gay men, in the form of a one-day conference or a workshop, where there would be sessions with medical and mental health professionals to address the specific needs of the Black gay community, and more so for the participants to have direct access to mental health professionals who could begin to address their mental health needs – thereby at least starting the process of retooling a Black gay man’s outlook on life, how he sees himself and what he can do or contribute to his community.
At the state of Black New York forum held last year, it was mentioned how desensitized many Black gay men have become over the issue of HIV. Young people have become inured, complacent and the messages blared from all types of media have lost their sting. Perhaps we could find something of value in this example:
The English government and educators have been trying to address the problem of teen pregnancies by distributing condoms in schools, creating sex education programs for the youngest elementary-school students, and instituting a pilot program to distribute birth-control pills without prescription. The officials have realized that the numbers 50 conceptions per every 1,000 teen girls between ages 15 and 17 in Leicester is rising and is eight times higher than other parts of the country.
The Associated Press published a story yesterday of a YouTube video done by the city of Leicester, 100 miles north of London, England, which simulated a teenage girl giving birth on a soccer field in front of her class mates. The video, taken as if with a cell phone camera, has received more than 250,000 hits since it was published. The video showed a school girl in uniform screaming in agony while jeering children jostle for a close look, while another girl was trying to fend them off and was helping to deliver the baby. The video was captioned, “Not what you expected? Being a teenage parent might not be either.” While the video has drawn criticism, it has received mostly praise. Liz Rodrigo, a public health specialist in Leicester said the local students picked to act in the video were part of a focus group of students who offered suggestions on how to make it. She said the students said they preferred a shocking or funny approach to the video instead of a message that would have been too “preachy,” a word often used to describe current sex education methods.
Could we produce a first, a short video with the same shock effect of two Black teen guys simulating having sex and finding out that they’ve become HIV positive, and by positing it online on YouTube, as a viral, no pun intended, video to send the same message out?

Talk about inclusion and acceptance

2009-05-28T17:16:00.002-04:00

Click on the title above. Here is a YouTube video of a bank ad in Argentina, which describes a change in attitude.

You’ve got the flu or want to avoid getting it:

2009-04-30T20:06:00.003-04:00

Here’s what you do – HIV Positive people, especially, need to take extra precautions

This U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)photograph captured a sneeze in progress, revealing the plume of salivary droplets as they are expelled in a large cone-shaped array from this man's open mouth. The flu virus can spread in this manner and survive long enough on a doorknob or counter top to infect another person. It dramatically illustrates the reason you should cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing to protect others from germ exposure, health officials say. It’s also why you need to wash your hands a lot, on the assumptions others don’t always cover their sneezes.
When U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that people should avoid subways and other confined spaces because of the swine flu sweeping the nation, the country recorded its first swine flu death - a toddler in Houston, TX – which led to the decision by state and federal health officials to ratchet up their alert level, and which prompted the Word Health Organization (WHO) to up their grade to Phase 5, a status just below declaring a full pandemic, has come as a jolt to everyone. This drastic and seemingly draconian action by national and internationally health related agencies should come as no surprise, since many of them were severely criticized for their lack of preparedness and response to two major flu outbreaks in recent memory, Sars and the Avian Flu, both which emphasized the global nature of the spread of any infection and threatened to overwhelm countries’ health infrastructure, revealing how unprepared many were.
But while there are numerous suggestions on what to do, to protect against contracting or passing the virus on, many of those tips in the local media have not included enough detail for adequate protection.
A person could be infected and spread the flu up to a full day before he or she feels symptoms and up to seven days after they are sick.
Many HIV positive people, especially, need to take extra precautions, as someone once said, the general perception is that most people are afraid of contracting HIV from an HIV-positive person, but really, it is the HIV positive person, who with a compromised immune system, is most vulnerable and at risk from the general population. Consequently, a HIV-positive person needs to observe the rules for the general population and take additional precautions, such as staying away from crowded or heavily populated areas, like night clubs, sex clubs, parties, public transport conveyances, and should contact their doctor to enquire as to the best medication. Those with the HIV virus should be aware of the signs of an illness coming on, the beginning scratchiness or dryness in the throat, the feeling of lethargy or extreme tiredness, or headaches. HIV positive people should make it their duty to pay attention to their bodies, as with a compromised immune system, assumption should not be entertained and nothing taken for granted.
According to William Shay, M.D., a Chelsea-based general internist who specializes in HIV treatment, an HIV-positive person who has a fever of 101-degrees or higher and has a cough with any other symptoms, should see their doctor.
So, while waiting for a vaccine, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) optimistically suggest could take six months to be produced and some reports state that even if there is a vaccine there won’t be enough for everyone, and it would be ineffective, because this flu strain is likely to have mutated or people would develop a resistance to it. These five critical tips, widely agreed upon by the WHO, the CDC, and other health experts, are what a person could do to avoid getting sick and, importantly, avoid infecting others.
• Washing hands:
The best thing anyone could do right now to avoid swine flu, experts say, is to wash their hands. It sounds like a stupidly simple response to an overwhelming situation, but almost compulsive hand-washing helps prevent the spread of this respiratory infection. It's the droplets from coughing and sneezing, which coat surfaces and which people touch that spread the infection. The virus gets on hands, and then everything touched is infected.

While washing the hands seems simple, how it is done is important:
• Use warm or hot water if you can;
• Lather up with soap and rub not just your fingers and palms but also under the fingernails, around the wrists and between the fingers for as long as it takes to sing the "Happy Birthday" song twice; and
• Rinse well.
While it is important to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating and after using the bathroom, for whatever the bodily function, it is also important after using a tissue or covering the mouth as with a sneeze or a cough, sick or not, or as with seasonal allergies, which could present similar symptoms to the flu.
A person should think of how often he or she would wash their hands if they worked in a hospital’s emergency or operating room; hands should be washed that often and that thoroughly.

2. Covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing.
"The way you spread influenza is with droplets that come out of your mouth or nose," said Dr. George T. DiFerdinando Jr., a physician, epidemiologist and professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health. He recommends the classic shoulder or crook-of-the elbow sneeze.
"It's a whole lot better for those [droplets] to be on blouse or sleeve than spraying onto surfaces or other people," he said, after which, wash the hands.
While wearing surgical face masks are an option for containing the droplets, they don't keep a person’s hands clean and there is no consensus in the healthcare community on whether or not face masks are advisable for everyday use.
"If the swine flu virus is spreading throughout the community, it would not surprise me if people use face masks to good effect," DiFerdinando said.

3. Staying home.
Someone who is sick should stay home, DiFerdinando said. Try to muster the energy to wash the hands after every tissue use so as not to avoid re-infecting everything touched afterward. This helps to reduce the presence of the virus in the immediate environment, with recovery, and protects household and loved ones.

4. Not touching the face.
While very few people succeed at restraint and control, more people are urged to try to keep their hands away from their face and areas where there are mucous membranes, such as around or close to the eyes, inside the nostrils and mouth, which are direct routes to the bloodstream and which allows the virus to bypass the protective barrier of the skin.
"That's just human nature," DiFerdinando said. "It's not something to moan about. In this circumstance you've got a very strong motivator to keep your hands clean. If you keep washing your hands, you decrease the dose [of flu virus] that you get when you put your hands in your mouth."

5. Avoid sick people
It's a good idea to avoid close contact with other people who are sick, DiFerdinando said, adding: "We won't even see air kisses." The flu virus tends not to float in the air. Instead, once dispersed, the liquid droplets tend to settle on objects that doctors call fomites - things that people touch that can pick up a virus. Examples include coins, hand rails, door knobs, common household and office objects. Smooth objects transmit microbes more than rough or porous ones. So, for instance, coins would allow one to pick up more virus than paper money.
Not surprising to Dr. James Koopman, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, is the number of cases concentrated in one geographic area.
"There is a lot of direct contact and touching of common things when children are in school," Koopman said. "They are in general more susceptible to these things."
Koopman and his colleagues are trying to pin down the relative importance of different routes of transmission, whether by the air or by hand touching, fomite.
"Our work is indicating there can be big differences between something like airborne virus - you may take a small amount in with every breath, but when you get a big goober of someone's cough on your finger and it touches your mucosal membrane - your eye, nose, mouth or somewhere where it can gain access - that could be a much higher dose," Koopman said.
It takes time for a new virus - and the swine flu outbreak is based on a new strain of an H1N1 virus - to adapt to a human’s immune system and survive there long enough to find another organism to infect, Koopman said.
At first, the immune system can handle small doses of virus, such as with airborne transmission, he said. In that case, "maybe the hand-fomite touching spread would be more important than the airborne," he said.
Maybe later, the virus evolves to survive and transmit successfully in smaller doses, or via different routes, he said.
"I personally think this virus has been circulating a bit longer than is recognized at this time," Koopman said.

Bank stoops low: sneaky theft

2009-03-20T15:47:00.001-04:00

Ok, let me explain, because while some may agree with the headline above, others may see it as inflammatory. So, for those who disagree, I leave you to arrive at your own conclusion.
On Friday, Mar 6, I received a check drawn on an out of state bank account for $300. With only $1.35 in my Chase Manhattan Bank account and knowing that my Time Warner Cable would be suspended for non-payment, I was eager for the check to clear. After depositing it the same day I received it in the mail, I left the teller’s window and looked at the deposit receipt, which did not indicate when the entire amount would be available. I was later informed that, even though tellers are supposed to notify customers and have it printed on the receipt when their funds would be completely available, the customers are also, according to Chase, expected to ask when the funds would be available.
The next day, in keeping with a banking regulation was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives back in 2005, $100 was made available. From conversations I’ve had with “back office” Chase employees, including those who have worked at the institution for many years, when a customer deposits a check, usually, normally, the entire amount, because of our electronic age, is available to the bank but held by them and turned over - that is, sold, loaned and “interest-ed,” earned interest for the bank. Banks claim holds and other dubious circumstances to delay making the funds available to customer who are told that their funds would not be available, especially for an out of state check, for four to five business days. For an instate check, funds could be available in two to three business days. Business days do not include Saturday, Sunday or holidays; these are working days, Monday to Friday.
Short on food, I went out the next day $100 empowered and spent $48. Then just as I expected, Time Warner suspended my service. That night, I called in a check payment for $106 to the cable company and my service was restored. Having done this type of payment before, I had an idea or a rough guess of how long the Time Warner check payment would take to clear and I figured that by that time, the out of state check, the $200 balance would also clear and keep me solvent. That didn’t happen and is still in dispute as to when - it came down to a time determination- did the balance clear and the cable check hit my account. Nonetheless, I noticed that Chase hit me with a $25 insufficient funds fee, also called an NSF fee. Still thinking I had funds in my bank account, I treated myself to a $6 McDonald’s breakfast.
That is when it all went down hill. My account was overdrawn and I was in the red for 23 cents. Hurrying to the Chase branch at the corner of Broadway and 165th Street, I spoke with the branch manager, asking her about the $25 fee. Not wanting to have a negative balance, I scrounged up $3 for a deposit, and as I was standing in the line waiting to be restored to good standing, I asked the manager about being charged another $25 because my account was over by .23 cents. She assured me that when the charge hit, she would remove it, because she had the authority to remove NSF fee charges on negative balances less than $3. But then, accepting that I miscalculated, an automatic payment of $19.99 to Verizon also hit my account, which forced my account into a further negative balance of $17. The next day, I deposited $504 and saw my balance reduced to $486, and the next day I deposited another check for $880. This time, when I made the two latter deposits I enquired when they would be available and was told the next day. Confident in my new found wealth, I went shopping for necessities. But on Thursday, when I looked at my statement online, I noticed that there was a $64 NSF fee charged to my account. I hastened once again to the bank and enquired from the manager. She explained that the bank’s policy was that more than an initial NSF charge, $25, was charged at $32, and the $64 charge consisted of $32 for the .23cents and for the negative $17. I proceeded to remind her of the discussion and the assurance she made the previous Friday. After much wrangling and derogatory comments and saying she would have to take the loss at her branch because she made the promise to refund the NSF fee, she reluctantly reversed the charge.
But, what struck me was that without knowing, Chase had not only charged me $32 for a negative .23cents, but that the charge had been automatically increased from $25. The manager, referring me to a thick booklet containing Chase’s policies and procedures in 8-point print, stated that any amounts that go into a negative balance, regardless of how much, even if one cent is charged $25 or $32. When I pointed out that people designed the system which automatically charged customer, she found it difficult to accept that concept, which enabled Chase, under the guise of legality, to gouge its customers. Now, I wonder how many customers, who do not carefully monitor their bank balances or statements, does Chase fleece in such a flagrant manner. There are those who say that what Chase is doing is the fundamental of capitalism, that it is, a bank is in the business of making money. But, isn’t that same philosophy that has caused the financial sector to be in so low, corporate greed?

Gossip and Sensation tied to papers' ad sales

2009-02-19T14:12:00.006-05:00

Here is another dimension to the NY Post cartoon furor. While the NY Post can claim under the First Amendment, freedom of expression and the right of a free press, the cartoon can also be seen as an incitement, provocation or at the very extreme, treasonous, in advertising for the death of the president. And, while that may be so, it would be good to remember also, that of the large numbers who voted for President Obama, there were also a number of people who did not,most of which are based on race. The NY Post, Murdoch and NewsCorp, Murdoch's U.S. news conglomerate, caters to this minority racial element.

Additionally, Murdoch's publications are only concerned with muck-raking and gossip, as is the "tabloid" mentality, not real, true news. Is it possible that in this environment where newspapers are struggling to stay in business, where advertising as the mainstay of newspapers is drying up, that the NY Post's action is designed to increase the numbers of those who would buy and read the paper and the advertisers who would get on board? In fact, a surge in their newspaper and advertising sales from this cartoon, may have singlehandedly resulted in a sharp infusion of money into the papers, may have saved it from cuts.

Think also of the effect of negative publicity, it sells. In today's American sensationalist, gossipy culture negative publicity is better than positive news, why? Because positive news lacks the edge to bring in the advertisers who by aligning themselves with the Post, sends a clear message to the readers about where they stand. Thus, not only looking at the newspapers, but looking at the advertisers; people should take a careful look at those who advertise with the NY Post.

However, even with the advertisers it is cyclical as it is with the newspapers: if the Post didn't print something provocative to generate controversy to have more advertisers buy ads to sell more papers, then many at the Post would probably loose their jobs, and for the advertisers, who would get increased attention from a controversial print publication, take a gamble, but knowing that people would want and need their commodities or services, and they have business that depend on the success of the advertisement, where people would buy the papers, see the ads and go patronize the businesses; means that those businesses can keep their doors open a little longer and keep a few more people employed.

There has to be a way to break those two inter-connnected cycles.

At this turning point in America's history, the mentality of the American people fed up with the petty nastiness and meanness amplified in the Bush eight years, is calling for a new order, a different way, a more mature and less racist and discriminatory, a more embracing and inclusive American culture; that is in keeping with the ideals of the rest of the world.

Could this be true? America has a Black president

2009-01-22T13:17:00.000-05:00

There is an emotional catch in my throat as I look and listen to all the commentaries and analyses, historical comparisons to Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, who was spot on when he said the U.S. would have an African-American president in 40 years;and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who suggested a Black president in about 25 years, and contemporary parallels: the economic crises with Bank of America needing money to help them stay afloat; the three automotive industry giants needing money to keep more than half a million employees and subsidiary concerns, two of them forecasting being unable to stay in business come March; the second half of the promised $750 billion appropriated as a financial bailout of the finance sector: people are asking where has the first half gone, has it evaporated? There is no evidence financial institutions have resumed inter-bank lending, that businesses have been getting the advance credit they need to operate and produce, and an average 500,000 homes per month are going into foreclosure, there has been no mortgage renegotiation.
In recent days, there has been no mention of the issue of immigration. It was touching indeed to see his paternal grandmother who traveled from Kenya sharing the dais. Obama himself knew that without the strong support of the Hispanic community, who had grown to despise the Bush administration for the draconian immigration policies and renditions, the Berlin-like wall along the border between Mexico and the U.S.; that he would not have won.
Looking at television close up shots of the faces of people who had gathered on the National Mall, many men and women whose eyes welled with tears, many women their mascara running – haven’t they heard of waterproof mascara, or for many for whom the tears brim over their eye lids, like the waters of Lake Pontchartrain cresting the banks of the levees and inundating the basin below - sliding down their cheeks? Tears which hold not just the salt from their bodies, but the expectations commingled with longing, for all those who are Black in America, who struggled and endured ignominies and humiliations of every kind, yet did not live to see this day, when a Black man is president. The tears flow as many think of those Blacks who still endure slave like conditions, whose lives are inextricably bound to their white counterparts, and who dare not murmur a word or breathe a sigh of discontent or disagreement for fear of a disengagement or termination, which would reduce them to penury.
In a commentary on the eve of the Inauguration on BBC America’s Notes to Obama, national poet Maya Angelou said that she was not presenting a poem, she was presenting ruminations or reflections of what an Obama presidency means to and for her. She said that while the nation needs him, it is he who needs us more.
“We need him, the race needs him, the banks need him, and the economy needs him. He brought to us something we cannot live without, hope. He offers us the chance to have a great president, with whom we can identify, not as a Black president, but a president who would speak for the voiceless, for the poor black, poor white and for the disadvantaged Hispanic person.
I believe he needs us more than we need him. I believe that each of us has to do something more. I believe that we Americans deserve the most we can get. I will work alongside being of use and I will look for you working alongside, being of use ,” she said.
During the Inauguration, when Obama took the oat of office, was there a hint of petty vindictiveness and partisanship, even subtle racism? Could it be that because Obama opposed John Roberts’ confirmation as Chief Justice, that Roberts felt to get back at Obama, to fumbled the words of the oat of office while the world looked on, as if to remind the President that he is still subject to the White establishment? Roberts’ subsequent apologies to the President, even re-administering the oat of office, have only highlighted the shadow of incompetence of the Bush administration, but which with tiny wisps and tendrils are trying to reach out to contaminate the new administration. What a mark on an historic and memorable day. Did anyone see the television close up of Obama’s expression during the fumbling? No doubt if it hadn’t been re-administered, constitutional lawyers would have had a field day on the legitimacy of the President.
As he promised, Obama has issued executive orders closing Guantanamo Bay within a year, which while keeping a campaign promise to the American people and assuaging the Islamic world, opens up other problems: reports suggest that some of the detainees would be brought at imprisoned at Levanworth prisons, which is on U.S. soil and places the detainees under the dictates of the Constitution: is there justification to holding them, how are the rules of evidence applied and exercised, what proof is there of involvement or collusion, except for some of the 250 detainees, who were held on hearsay or suspicion, and what about the Patriot’s Act? He has also ordered troops home within 16 months, and outlawed torture.

Interregnum: the between time

2009-01-22T13:16:00.000-05:00

Obama, should remember only too well the Roman observation: how fickle the populace of Rome - who briefly rejoiced in the victories of Pompeii and before the last sound of praise could be heard in his honor, turned against and reviled him. If he cannot deliver on the promises, like every politician before him, he has made, he would be hounded out of office in infamy. He is a lawyer and like all of his profession, he has over the last several weeks, since the elections, when the campaigning was over and he became starkly aware that his rhetoric had now to become practical, began to cover himself with a disclaimer. Not wanting to seem as though he has stepped away from his promises of change, he has begun to temper the expectations he created in the people of what HE would do. In the later days of the interregnum, he has changed his tune, repeatedly he has cautioned that in the first 100 days of his administration, he may not be able to meet all the expectations people have of him, not that he has created in a people thirsty and desperate for a new American direction, and more importantly, being able to fulfill the promises he made to win; admitting to the possibility of making mistakes and missteps. His electoral victory was a demonstration of who could fool all of the people better; everyone saw through Sen. John McCain’s weak political strategies and rejected his posturing as a continuation of a Republican party steeped in the corrupt machinery born and developed since the Regan presidential era.
Many Black leaders, after the euphoria of the electoral victory and the prospect of a Black president in the White House had worn off, have admitted that he cannot achieve and accomplish all he promised. They recognized that they were fooled, but preferred to abandon their righteous anger of being deceived by one of their own, to celebrating the accomplishment of one of their kind; as opposed to the anger if John McCain would have won. Can anyone imagine what would have been the national reaction if McCain had won, the abject apathy of many Black people – many of whom would have said, “see I could’ve told you the White man would never allow a Black man to get higher,” “Did that Black man, Obama, think he is better than the Whites,” or the disgust and increased disrespect of the wider international community, who laughed at and mocked Americans for reelecting George Bush for a second term, what would they say should McCain have won the elections?
With the vapors of his electoral victory’s honeymoon quickly dissipating under the heat and starkness of the light of people looking for satisfaction, Obama has acknowledged that closing Guantanamo Bay may not be as immediate as he first thought, it would take the better part of the year. Why, this new administration has to find a way to either bring the inmates to a fair trial – grounds which so far are dubious – or to export them to other countries, many of whom the outgoing administration was looking for help, and as recent reports revealed, many stalled on committing to the Bush administration, but have now agreed to accept prisoners; he won’t be able to bring the troops home from Iraq as soon as he had originally planned, because now the Iraqi government has locked the Americans in a contract binding their presence up into 2011, yet some battalions may be withdrawn; there is doubt in Congress, where once he felt he was confident in bipartisan support, about passing his proposed $850 billion economic stimulus package, which has raised fears of at least a $2 trillion budget deficit, which would be visited on the next two generations; but held true to his word he would make torture illegal for the armed services.

Election: hope and change mantra

2009-01-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

As the celebrations from the night, when it was announced that Sen. Barack Obama, by majority of the electoral college and later confirmed by pronouncement by the combined houses of the legislature, had won the elections and was named President-elect, had given way to the stark reality of daylight, in Washington Heights trees lining the streets were festooned with toilet paper hanging from branches as if it was the morning after a festival, presenting a surreal image as if New Years had arrived early on November 5.
In a country steeped in racism, both subtle and overt, what really does an Obama win actually mean for Americans: Native Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Whites? What did his win against a weakened religious conservative political right mean for immigrants, those from Central and South America, from the Caribbean, from Africa, from Asia, minor and major?
Did the White majority in the country say that by electing a Black man as president that they have moved pass the bigotry for which they are known, that they now recognize that Black people are capable of thinking, of governing, of being responsible and are not lazy, lay-abouts, welfare dependents? Is the White establishment now saying that they are willing to take orders from a Black man, consoling themselves by the fact that the president is half Black and half White, and that they had in fact voted for his White half?
As a friend, Clarence Reynolds, a book editor and an English professor at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn said while watching the results come in from across the country that he felt overwhelmed by the experience that here is a Black man becoming president of the United States.
“I’m excited that this will change the psyche, the way people think, the way they see themselves and the way they are perceived. For Black people, this would give them an opportunity to rethink their attitude and a newness of pride in themselves, to at least pull their pants up,” he said.
Since bursting on the national stage at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, his star has continued its meteoric rise. Large crowds have followed him since he declared, speaking to both whites and Blacks, in a statement that single handedly removed the stigma attached to educated Blacks and challenged the perception that only whites are educated – that a Black child reading is not acting white. Obama’s charisma has drawn crowds, from the time of his announcement that he was putting himself forward as a candidate for the presidency in Springfield, IL, to his acceptance speech in Denver, CO and to his gracious victory speech in Grant Park, Chicago, IL on the night of November 4.
Everyone agrees that not only is the country eager and desperate for a change, but a startling phenomena is the perceptible shift in the American attention span: more than 83 million people watched his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention at the Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO, millions watched on their televisions and an estimated 125,000 people crammed into Grant Park to hear his victory speech, which was not as gloating as one would have expected from a contest that celebrated negativity, divisiveness, and attacks ad hominim; but was magnanimous and conciliatory, saying that those who did not vote or support him should know that change has come to America. And, for Americans known for their sensationalist mentality, Obama has not faded into the background of politics as usual. Rather, on Sunday, November 16 an estimated 24 million viewers looked on as he was interviewed by Steve Croft on the CBS Sunday magazine, 60 Minutes. Surprising too, as Gwen Ifill commented in the Newshour on PBS on the following Monday evening, that contrary to the politics as usual where politicians are known to shift or change their messages in the interregnum, after they are elected and sworn in, that Obama has remained true to his campaign messages and reinforced them in intended executive orders: an uncompromising stance on closing the U.S. military base at Guantanamo in Cuba, forbidding torture as a U.S. military practice so as to restore America’s morality on the global stage, and his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Puzzling, however, is why he chose not to attend the global leadership summit held in Washington, D.C. over the weekend of November 14 – 16? As usual there would be speculations, but interestingly enough, none of the main news outlets have ventured to comment on his absence except for brief mentions that he would not be attending. Is it that he wanted to ensure that when he contacts those heads of state that his interaction is free of the blight and the dross of the incumbent, soon to be former president? Was the meeting just simply window dressing, since even in the communiqué produced by the 20 heads of state, no decisions were made until when they meet again in April and by which time Obama would be present? By not attending the G-20 summit, did Obama miss out on an opportunity to meet his major global counterparts, or did he prefer not to seen in George Bush’s embarrassing shadow?
According to Neil Ferguson being interviewed by Matt Frei on BBC World News-America on Monday, November 17, alluding to Obama’s absence from the G-20 summit not being particularly helpful, he said that with the global economy in crisis and with a protracted American transition period, the world needs immediate action and intervention, and everyone was looking to Obama to pick up the reigns of leadership. Ferguson said that Bush’s comments at a speech on Wall Street in New York on Friday, November 14, where he spoke of support for a “free market system” literally sounded a death knell for that system, and suggested that anything Bush touched turns to ashes.
If this was truly a more global village, how many people from around the world would have joined lines, like Americans did on Election Day, to exercise their vote, their democratic right, and perhaps, the fact that they want to vote is a cry from the hearts of those many who long for the winds of democracy to blow in and through their respective countries? But what responsibilities does Obama have to the rest of the world?
No doubt Obama knows that is he bound by the shackles of his race, his paternal ancestry in Kenya, who are looking to him to make changes, as if he is the American representative of Africa in America, of those who in America claim association with him because of his skin color to lift them up not so much with a wave of his hand, but more of doing what he promised, after he himself has witnessed and experienced the suffering, downtrodden state, and systematic disenfranchisement of those like him in America; he has the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, a sword of extraordinary expectations from a nation and a world tired of duplicity and forked-tongue speaking, where promises are made with ulterior motives, brazen as they are revealing that they weren’t made in the best interest of those to whom they were made, and though he has good intentions, he would be beset by a machinery that has been grinding inexorably for more than 20 years, producing in the nation’s capital corruption, deceit, and secrecy. Really, rot at the core. And, as he assumes office, he himself would be stepping into this mire. The hope, a word which he has been trumpeting throughout his campaign, is that he would not be sucked into and be consumed by the god-like or quasi-monarchial status conferred on a president, but rise above it, perhaps hovering over the muck, to effect change, another word in his campaign mantra.

Experiencing a Food Pantry: no pride before food.

2009-01-06T17:56:00.000-05:00

I stood on the uptown platform on Christmas Eve afternoon with two food-laden blue plastic bags waiting for the #1 train to arrive. Two women came toward me, heads bent and with bags hanging from each of their hands, their blue bags encased in upscale shopping bags, hiding the fact that they had just come from one of the city’s food pantries on the Upper West Side, where they were able to get raw packaged and canned food supplies to take home to their families. A thought flashed through my mind, in these days, what is it to be ashamed of if a person has to go to a food pantry for assistance and to augment their food stocks? It is necessary to get food where ever one can, with out too much hassle or cost.
This experience may seem mundane or ordinary to some, and to others, unusual, as it undoubtedly was for me. But when I considered the recent announcement by New York Governor David Patterson that he would make available $1 million to assist food pantries in the state, then the idea of going to a food pantry didn’t seem all together too much of a issue, except it would if I put pride before my stomach.
With economic constraints around the city hitting non-profit organizations, the governor’s announcement may be welcome news to those non-profit organizations with food pantries who have seen a significant drop in donations from individuals, other organizations and corporations; some may complain it’s not enough to provide for the burgeoning number of unemployed or under paid people seeking help with basic food, and some may not be able to accept it, because they no longer have pantries. But I wonder, with hundreds of food pantries in existence and many more organizations starting them as a social response, akin to the era of soup kitchens, but with less overhead and operational commitment; how much out of the $1million would any food pantry statewide receive to effectively stave off people clamoring for help and facing empty shelves? In this experience, I realized, that whether or not a person was employed, accessing the services of a food pantry is not restricted to the unemployed, but is equally available to those whose income makes it necessary for them to find other means of supplementing their food; putting pride or social status aside in the interest of obtaining food, especially if its free.
Rewinding to about an hour and a half before I stood on the uptown subway platform, at about 12:30 pm, I had followed a suggestion from one of my friends and headed downtown to the food pantry to see if I could get help with food. Taking the #1 train from my stop at 168th Street, I disembarked from the downtown #1 train at the 86th Street and Broadway stop, walked west to the corner of West End Avenue to the church of St. Paul and St. Andrew.
I walked resolutely through the misty rain, tiny drops of water falling from an overcast sky, remnants of ice and snow littered the sidewalk. I approached the wrought iron green-painted box like enclosure with steel steps leading down to a basement under the massive concrete structure of the church where a young Latina woman was closing the gate after escorting another woman out. When I enquired about the food pantry, she replied that the pantry was closed for lunch, from noon to 1:00pm and suggested that if I wanted pantry services, I could wait inside the church. A sign connected to the wire meshing detailed the pantry’s hours of operation, Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 12:00, and 1:00pm to 3:00pm.
As I had no umbrella, and my only protection against the December cold and rain was a wool hat and a pea coat, I took the young lady’s advice and sought shelter in the church. When I entered the building through a side door, I felt as if I was suddenly transported to another place: inside the shadows seemed darker and deeper, and the silence noticeable. Where was anyone, I asked myself? Wandering around unhindered, I found myself in the church, proper; I had in fact entered into a vestibule cum office or reception area. The church seemed cavernous, its pews were aligned at a slight angle, not the traditional straight forward looking to the front set-up, but a semblance of a semi-circle, as if embracing the vacant sanctuary ahead. Above in the darker gloom of the church’s barrel vaulted ceiling, the occasional patches of white revealed where the darkened, sooth stained paint had peeled, and over the sanctuary was a large gray banner with black letters speaking to harmony existing between brothers and sisters. The yellow or gold stained glass windows that lined the walls, in three rows at differing heights, all bore similar generic patterns at each level, but which in themselves were devoid of character, except one, which showed a man kneeling before another who was seated throne like, and carried a plate below crediting the family who donated it to the church.
When the time arrived, I ventured out of the church’s warmth and protective gloom into the rain, and walked to the green painted steel steps, descended and through a door, entered into a vast hall. Pausing mid stride, I looked around, oriented myself, my senses attuned, observing, analyzing and processing this new experience. At a table in front of an opening which led to an office, a woman stood there as if guarding the objects on the table, which were a sheet that clients sign and a stack of clip boards with application forms with bank styled chain-attached pens affixed to the metallic clasp. I asked the woman, who struggled to speak and be understood in English, what to do as a first timer to the pantry. She pointed to a sheet of paper, said I had to sign in and then handed me an application on a clip board. The application itself asked questions which included, race, social security number, date of birth, income, employment status, and so on. I thought, the only thing missing from this application is a box to tick off that I was willing to provide a specimen for DNA and that with the social security number and date of birth, as well as name, address and phone number, I may as well be giving away my identity for the sake of food.
After I’d completed the application, writing on the social security line a bold N/A, not applicable, I waited for a short moment and was invited by another Latina woman to sit in a chair in front of a desk, where she proceeded to conduct an interview. Before she began, I was asked to sign my name on another sheet of paper, which she explained was to log the clients seen by a counselor. I never knew what was the purpose of signing my name on the first sheet of paper, perhaps that was also a log to count the number of people who had entered the pantry, and perhaps the two log signings was to see if there were any discrepancies, between the clients who had come to the pantry and those who had actually entered the pantry.
The counselor mentioned that the information on the application was not shared with anyone, but was used by the organization for statistical purposes, to determine the number of clients, and to assist with coordinating the food supply. What became apparent by the end of the interview, was that the counselor simply wanted to verify that the person sitting before her was the same person who filled out the application for assistance. Not once during the interview did she look at the form, but asked questions that were already asked and answered on the form, boxes ticked off and lines written on, such as what was my apartment number, my date of birth and if I had completed college and possessed a four-year degree. Then she asked if I had medical insurance and if not, would I be interested in a hospital offering low rates, at which suggestion I added that I didn’t want another bill. But thought to myself, who was she kidding? A low cost hospital in New York City? I wondered what this organization was getting in return for the hospital referrals.
When she was finished with the interview, she reached over to a side of her desk and selected a plastic badge holder with a blue sheet of paper on which was printed a shopping list, of sorts, where instead of prices, there were points alongside the items. As briefly as possible, the Latina counselor explained what little she knew of the pantry’s food points system, as in what form are the vegetables, canned or loose, and what quantity constitutes how many points, questions she couldn’t answer, but referred me to one of the attendants in the pantry, and told me that I was only able access the pantry’s services once a month. It also occurred to me that there were different color lists for families of different sizes; one woman had a yellow paper list, which allowed her to collect food for her and her family of three, and another had a green papered badge, which allowed her different food allotments.
The actual pantry was a study in independence. This was a pantry unlike others with which I was familiar, where you are handed a plastic shopping bag with food the distributing organization thinks you should have. Here, clients entered a large room containing metallic shelves laden with packaged and canned food, a loose vegetable area, and two large upright glass sliding door cooler, one containing dairy products and the other with various types of meat. On one side of the pantry were glass panels, where anyone in the pantry area could clearly be seen and monitored by the staff from the outside. Based on the plastic badge colored paper shopping list, a client selected what he or she wanted from the shelves.
Being a novice to this experience, one of the pantry’s attendants accompanied and assisted me in choosing items from the list that were on the shelves. When he saw I had understood the system, he left me to continue selecting, but hovered behind me to ensure I had really got the hang of the pantry. Because I was a single man, my shopping list was blue, only allowing food for one person. According to the list, I could only get three cans or three pounds vegetables worth three points; two one pint bags of rice and a box or oats, worth three points; dairy, meat, and fruit, one point each. I was allowed to have pasta, but on a shelf was a single box of spaghetti, which I reached for, but quickly retracted my hand. The box had been opened. The attendant assured me that it was okay, but when he saw my hesitation, he said I didn’t have to take it and that the staff would put the box of opened spaghetti in a plastic bag, tie the top, and place it back on the shelf where someone else would take it. I looked at him in horror, thanked him for his help and turned away.
While I was selecting food items from the shelves, I checked the ingredients of many of the canned foods for mono sodium glutamate, MSG, or other types of preservatives. I was determined to scrutinize each can to ensure that, not because I was getting free food, I had to have unhealthy food. I looked at one can of tomato sauce and noticed that there was a supermarket price label on it. It occurred to me that for many food pantries around the city, when they have reached below their established threshold level of food, donated, they actually go out and buy food from supermarkets to augment their stocks.
When I had completed my selections, I arrived at a long aluminum covered table where two women, dressed in aprons, performed a simulated supermarket check-out, except there was no cash register, moving conveyer belt or card scanner. The older woman who had given me the application at the beginning was there to check me out, looking through my blue bag to ensure that I had taken my blue shopping list allotment, nothing more or less. Noticing that I was new and unfamiliar to the pantry and since it was Christmas Eve, she offered me two additional cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and a box of assorted herbal teas. My foray into the world of food pantries and donated food complete, I left the pantry, climbed the green metal stairs to the street and headed across Broadway to the subway entrance and to wait for the train on the uptown platform.

Thanksgiving night, Dinner and Subway ride home, thoughts

2009-01-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

My sister, who was visiting from Maryland, and my nephew, who lives in New York City, had invited me to accompany them to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Hall, on the eve of Thanksgiving and after to his house in Rockaway Park, Queens, to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
Though hastily contrived, sometime betwixt the hours of late Thanksgiving eve’s mad and panicked dash to the supermarket, and early the next morning, my sister-in-law, my brother, my younger nephew and his most recent girlfriend, my sister and my older nephew came together to cook for a Thanksgiving dinner that far exceeded any of our expectations. From the turkey, which was baked to a golden brown, stuffing that was so rich my sister complained it was had a trifle too much salt and was too peppery, to the collard greens with ham hocks, candied yams, carrot and ginger soup, good ole Uncle Ben’s wild rice and my nephew’s indomitable mashed Idaho potatoes, made from a box of powered flakes; the boiled corn, the warm spiced clove and cinnamon stick apple cider, and the apple pie with sugarless, but Splenda sweetened ice cream, all washed down with glasses of red or white, heavy in sulphites, Napa Valley wines;lots of conversation and a television stuck on CNN International where there were constant flashes and reminders of the carnage in Mumbai, a world away, all juxtaposed against a backdrop of reggae music, pulsating through speakers at my older nephew’s house.
At the end of this gastronomic gourmandizing, more food than any of us had had occasion to be near in the most recent past, we departed for our respective houses: my brother, sister-in-law, younger nephew and most recent girlfriend to their apartment, my sister staying with my older nephew to head to her house the next morning, my older nephew remaining in his house and retiring to bed, to sleep off the turkey, and I to my apartment.
Getting a lift, I was dropped off at the subway station and after a short, but seemingly interminable wait on the platform, which was surprisingly populated, I boarded a local train to make a connection to an express train at the juncture of Utica and Fulton Streets in Brooklyn. When the A train arrived, Manhattan bound, odd assortments of people embarked and disembarked as the train made its express stops through neighborhoods, yet any given time, there were no more than 16 people sharing the car I occupied.
While sitting on one of the side facing seats, two young men came into the train, one at one of the lower stops in Brooklyn, just before heading through the tunnel under the East River to Manhattan, and the other at another station, also in the riverain bordering stations. Trying to read the latest issue of the New Yorker, I glanced up took notice of them both. One sat opposite me and the other, in one of the forward facing seats across from me. As the train barreled along its tracks the young man sitting facing me reached across to ask a question of the one in the forward facing seat. Not understanding what he was saying, the forward facing passenger looked in my direction and seeing that I was interrupted from my reading by this sudden and unusual activity: speaking to a stranger on the subway, he asked me in Spanish if I understood and spoke the language and to translate what the other young man was saying. Turning to him, I asked him about his problem and he explained that he had just been evicted from the apartment where he was staying and was asking the other young man if he could spare him a dollar to help him get to someplace. Translating the request, the Spanish-only speaking young man replied that he was “broke” and didn’t have money, the begging young man looking crestfallen and disappointed, leaned his head against the glass panel separating him from the doorway and closed his eyes.
Immediately, the thought occurred to me: I’ve written recently about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) homeless youth, and shelters like the Ali Forney Center and the planned True Colors Residence to provide permanent housing, but what to tell a homeless LGBT young person if one encounters one who is in need of shelter. Conscious of the falling temperature outside, the coldness in the air, the realization that this was Thanksgiving night, I was stumped. I racked my mind for what and where to tell this young man he could go for help that would at least provide him with shelter, perhaps a warm place, if only for the night.
The Spanish-only speaking young man asked me where he could get a connection to the Bronx, and as I told him where he could get trains, the D or No. 4, the other young man expressed that he too was heading to the Bronx. He said that he had just moved from Philadelphia to the city to take a job which didn’t work out, his girlfriend had just thrown him out of the apartment, and he was heading to the Bronx, to a family member, with whom he hoped he could stay, at least, for the night.
My mind racing while he told his tale, I could only come up with a suggestion that if his family were unable to accommodate him, he could try calling the city’s help line, 311, and to ask about temporary shelter. The question, however, haunted me: where and what does someone who is either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender do or go if they suddenly found themselves without a place to live?
At Broadway/Nassau Street station, both young men disembarked the train and headed for the No. 4 train. Yet, throughout these dramas, I still was able to read my magazine, until the train arrived at my station stop much further uptown.
When I arrived home, I immediately called my older nephew and my brother, answered by my sister-in-law, to tell them I had arrived safely home. Briefly, with each, we marveled at how we were able to put together a full three-course Thanksgiving meal in a less then 24 hours, reminisced and acknowledged the feeling of family we experienced and shared, how special and reinforcing it was to all of us. As a true journalist, I found the hint of a story and plan on following it, not only to see where it leads, but to provide information for the wider community.

Comment on Plaxico Burress' actions

2008-12-02T15:58:00.001-05:00

http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2008/12/03/sports/football/03burress.html?permid=28#comment28

December 02, 2008 2:19 pm

While Burress' actions are irresponsible and contemptuous, either because of his conferred or assumed "celebrity" status, he is not above the law; whether he had an expired permit from Florida to carry a concealed weapon, which applies to neither New Jersey, where he lives, nor New York, where he was partying. What defies rationale, is if he is going to a club, why did he feel it necessary to "pack heat," and while there is a blame game going on into the comedy of errors, has anyone thought to question the club's promoters and owners about their policies not to allow weapons and firearms into their establishment, what does that mean for their liquor license, and was it because of Burress' status that he, perhaps wasn't searched at the door, denied entry or had his weapon taken for safe keeping?
Also, how stupid could Burress be, at a time when the world and every little Black boy is looking to identify with sorely needed Black role models: the country and world just took a deep breath with the election of Barack Obama, who has become a role model at a time when other Black personalites who were put on pedestals and through their own shortsightedness, for want of a better descriptive, have been depedestaled in disgrace and ignominy. Couldn't Burress see beyond himself and his ego, that his stellar performance on the field to help his team win the Super Bowl made him instantly a role model, with duties and responsibilities to carry and execute and that many people, especially, young Black men and boys would be looking up to him as an example of success?

— Anthony Dexter, Washington Heights

Thanksgiving night, post Dinner and thoughts on Subway ride home

2008-11-29T10:18:00.000-05:00

(New York, NY) My sister, who was visiting from Maryland, and my nephew, who lives in New York City, had invited me to accompany them to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Hall, on the eve of Thanksgiving and after to his house in Rockaway Park, Queens, to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
Though hastily contrived, sometime betwixt the hours of late Thanksgiving eve’s mad and panicked dash to the supermarket, and early the next morning, my sister-in-law, my brother, my younger nephew and his most recent girlfriend, my sister and my older nephew came together to cook for a Thanksgiving dinner far exceeded any of our expectations. From the turkey, which was baked to a golden brown color, stuffing that was so rich my sister complained it was had a trifle too much salt and was too peppery, to the collard greens with ham hocks, candied yams, carrot and ginger soup, good ole Uncle Ben’s wild rice and my nephew’s indomitable mashed Idaho potatoes, the boiled corn, the warm spiced clove and cinnamon stick apple cider, and the apple pie with sugarless, but Splenda sweetened ice cream, all washed down with glasses of red or white, heavy in sulphites, Napa Valley wines, lots of conversation and a television stuck on CNN International where there were constant flashes and reminders of the carnage in Mumbai, a world away, all juxtaposed against a backdrop of reggae music, pulsating through speakers at my older nephew’s house.
At the end of this gastronomic gourmandizing, more food than any of us had had occasion to be near in the most recent past, we departed for our respective houses: my brother, sister-in-law, younger nephew and most recent girlfriend to their apartment, my sister staying with my older nephew to head to her house the next morning, my older nephew remaining in his house and retiring to bed, to sleep off the turkey, and I to my apartment.
I was dropped off at the subway station and after a short, but seemingly interminable wait on the platform, which was surprisingly populated, I boarded a local train to make a connection to an express train at the juncture of Utica and Fulton Streets in Brooklyn. When the A train arrived, Manhattan bound, odd assortments of people embarked and disembarked as the train made its express stops through neighborhoods, yet any given time, there were no more than 16 people sharing the car I occupied.
While sitting on one of the side facing seats, two young men came into the train, one at one of the lower stops in Brooklyn, just before heading through the tunnel under the East River to Manhattan, and the other at another station, also in the riverain bordering stations. Trying to read the latest issue of the New Yorker, I glanced up took notice of them both. One sat opposite me and the other, in one of the forward facing seats across from me. As the train barreled along its tracks the young man sitting facing me reached across to ask a question of the one in the forward facing seat. Not understanding what he was saying, the forward facing passenger looked in my direction and seeing that I was interrupted from my reading by this sudden and unusual activity: speaking to a stranger on the subway, he asked me in Spanish if I understood and spoke the language and to translate what the other young man was saying. Turning to him, I asked him of his problem and he explained that he had just been evicted from the apartment where he was staying and was asking the other young man if he could spare him a dollar to help him get to someplace. Translating the request, the Spanish-only speaking young man replied that he was “broke” and didn’t have money, the begging young man looking crestfallen and disappointed, leaned his head against the glass panel separating him from the doorway and closed his eyes.
Immediately, the thought occurred to me: I’ve written recently about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) homeless youth, and shelters like the Ali Forney Center and the planned True Colors Residence to provide permanent housing, but what to tell a homeless LGBT young person if one encounters one who is in need of shelter. Conscious of the falling temperature outside, the coldness in the air, the realization that this was Thanksgiving night, I was stumped. I racked my mind for what and where to tell this young man of a place he could go that would at least provide him with shelter, perhaps a warm place, if only for the night.
The Spanish-only speaking young man asked me where he could get a connection to the Bronx, and as I told him where he could get trains, the D or No. 4, the other young man expressed that he too was heading to the Bronx. He said that he had just moved from Philadelphia to the city to take a job which didn’t work out, his girlfriend had just thrown him out of the apartment, and he was heading to the Bronx, to a family member, with whom he hoped he could stay, at least, for the night.
My mind racing while he told his tale, I could only come up with a suggestion that if his family were unable to accommodate him, he could try calling the city’s help line, 311, and to ask about temporary shelter. The question, however, haunted me: where and what does someone who is either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender do or go if they suddenly found themselves without a place to live?
At Broadway/Nassau Street station, both young men disembarked the train and headed for the No. 4 train. Yet, throughout these dramas, I still was able to read my magazine, until the train arrived at my station stop much further uptown.
When I arrived home, I immediately called my older nephew and my brother, answered by my sister-in-law, to tell them I had arrived safely home. Briefly, with each, we marveled at how we were able to put together a full three-course Thanksgiving meal in a less then 24 hours, reminisced and acknowledged the feeling of family we experienced and shared, how special and reinforcing it was to all of us. As a true journalist, I found the hint of a story and plan on following it, not only to see where it leads, but to provide information for the wider community.

Interview: After Obama's presentation at the 2008 Unity Convention, Chicago, IL

2008-11-14T14:17:00.000-05:00

http://unity08.ning.com/video/video/show?id=2150311%3AVideo%3A1287

Questions linger 30 years later: The Jonestown Massacre

2008-11-13T18:26:00.000-05:00

This evening, at 9pm EST, CNN is scheduled to show a documentary hosted and presented by Soledad O’Brien, who did Black in America, on the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. Many of us would recall the effect and impact of this event on the national consciousness.
Prior to Jonestown, Guyana's impact on the world's stage was restricted to vague references such as the Dryfus Affair, the 1963-64 race riots, and a few notable personages, such as Sir Shridat Ramphal, who was Secretary General of the Commonwealth and one of Guyana's best scholars and representatives, and the semi-autobiographical novel of E.R. Braithwaite's To Sir With Love.
Guyana, as we who lived through the Prime Minister-ship, Presidential turned dictatorship of L. Forbes S. Burnham era know only too well, was a country by northern hemispherical classification standards a third world underdeveloped country, that was provincial and rural, but to its Caribbean counterparts, because of the fertile land, was considered the bread basket, rated one of the highest in literacy and a steady ship of state. It was anything but bucolic. Rather Guyana was a country caught up and living in a post-colonial ideological confusion: couldn't quite decide how to define its republic self whether as socialist or just simply anti-American and by extension to the British, anti-imperialist.
We who have lived through the evolutions of Guyana's history, despite our present allegiances, are still proud of our heritage - our parents, close friends, the unique amalgams of African, Indian, and Amerindian foods - holding fast to gastronomic maxims such as a person who ate labba and drank creek water was bound to return, our particular lilting sing-song Creolese speech, our conversations that sound like full-scale disagreements as each of us tries to out speak the other, to make our point, and our intelligence, general knowledge and education, which placed many of us at odds with those with whom we work or attend schools; makes us undeniably and identifiably Guyanese. It is a history and heritage we share to the extent that we still shudder at the memory of the 1963-64 race riots, telling ourselves that we would not ever and warning our children, against a repeat; where we cringe at the shame the recent allegations of two of our fellow Guyanese accused of plotting to blow up the John F Kennedy Airport in New York; and we shake our heads in horror at "Fineman's" rampage through the country. We who live afar but still retain contact with our family, friends, or business associates in Guyana shake our heads uncomprehendingly at the economic state of affairs, asking ourselves: how could this be, why are prices so high, how are people making it and surviving, isn't there a government committed to serving the people instead of their own interests, how is it that there is such a bloom and narcotic pervasiveness, which has seemed to become and support a sub-economy? These are some of the questions we ask each other and ourselves.
But have we asked what was behind the deal that Burnham made with the "Reverend" Jim Jones to lease 3,800 acres of virgin land, a turn off from the railroad that plied between Port Kaituma and Arakaka in the Kaituma region, for a commune. As rumors go, which undeniably contains a modicum of truth, Burnham received coveted U.S. dollars for allowing Jim Jones into Guyana. What really was the arrangement that not only gave Jones land in the Northwest region, but a house and land in Prashad Nagar, at the time an affluent section of northeastern Campbelville? Was there an enquiry into why did Guyana have the shame and stain of 918 deaths on its national pride? How was Guyana perceived then and how is it seen now? Guyana's attraction to Jones was, as Burham was reported to have said after the tragedy, "he wanted to use cooperatives as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a commune meshed with that," and that coming to Guyana "would afford black members of the Temple a peaceful place to live."
Every year, there has been some mention of Jonestown, but this year marks 30 years since the murder-suicide happened. We who live in the U.S. have witnessed the holding on to and dredging up of the memories of the past: Pearl Harbor, Jonestown, and September 11; incidentally, only those which were caused by others, and which rekindle memories and make healing and forgetting that much harder. How do we as Guyanese feel about this re-hashing of an event we would rather forget? Isn't healing supposed to involve forgetting and allowing the past to remain in the past? While many of us know that Guyanese, in the main, had no active part in this blot on our country's pride, are we somehow culpable by our passivity?
I could feel the bile rise in me when I listen to O'Brien recount, in a behind the scenes interview of the making of the documentary, the experience of Traci Parks, a survivor of Jonestown, who was 12 years old at the time and who returned to the area for the documentary. Parks, according to O'Brien said that as it was then, so it is now, she is still trying to wash off the oppressive heat, the sweat and the smell of Guyana from her skin. Parks speaks of the darkness and fear she experienced as she fled for her life in the jungle bordering the airstrip. Earlier this week, MSNBC carried a two-hour long presentation of Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre.
While Guyana has come a long way since the events of Nov 18, 1978 on that turn off from the stretch of railroad between Port Kaituma and Arakaka, questions still linger. Just as in the U.S. there were investigations into what happened and who caused September 11, was there ever an enquiry by Guyanese into all that was Jonestown?

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Recapturing the Black Male Image

2008-10-08T00:20:00.000-04:00

This is the text of a speech given at the 3rd annual men’s conference hosted and sponsored by the York College Male Initiative Program on the theme of “Recapturing the Male Image,” held on September 18, 2008 at York College, City University of New York.

The conference was organized by Jonathan Quash, director, York College Male Initiative Program and the Master of Ceremonies was Roger Scotland, president, Southern Queens Park Association. Other speakers were Dennis Rahiim Watson, president, National Black Youth Leadership Council; Alex O. Ellis, author and motivational speaker; and Minister Abdul Hafeez Muhammad, CEO, Center for Self Improvement, and Minister, Mosque No.7, Harlem, NY.

Speech:
Thank you Mr. Quash and Mr. Scotland for affording me the opportunity to speak on and examine what it means to recapture and restore not only the male image, but from a deeper level what it means to be masculine. I’d also like to express my admiration and the honor I feel in sharing a podium with Minister Kevin Mohamed, who leads a religious faith at Masjid No.7, a place I learnt about after reading of one of our most recent African-American leaders, Malcom X, Alex Ellis, whom I met in June when he was honored for his work and commitment to the uplifting of African-Americans as one of The Network Journal’s 2008 40 Under Forty Black Achievers; and to Dallas Lee Bell, who has become a close friend.

Gentlemen, there is reason enough, given the history of struggle and suffering of Black men, not only in the United States, but the world over, for us to sit here to listen to speeches on restoring the Black image and Black masculinity. This is a discussion that is long overdue, not only because many of our leaders have addressed the issue before, but with particular emphasis on the Black man’s journey forward as this century unfolds. With the US and the global economies rapidly spiraling downward, most of us are preoccupied with either preserving our jobs at all costs or doing whatever is necessary to identify solutions to the individual economic crises in our lives. I commend you who are here, because your presence says that you are interested in not only redefinitions of Black masculinity, how you can do so for yourselves.

Gentlemen, while I will attempt to highlight patterns in male behavior and examining those issues intrinsic to masculinity, I am more interested in assisting with advancing discussion of the psychological health of men, at the fundamental level, which impacts on their outlook on life, their attitude, relationships and those factors influencing their behavior, and ultimately what it means to be masculine.

Men have struggled with a multitude of issues, chief of which are challenges to their masculinity from other men, who are competing for the attentions of women and from women, whose fundamental purpose is the continuity of the species. Today men see how women are assuming more direct, up front leadership roles. As Wendy Williams speaking on 107.5 WBLS yesterday afternoon said, that men are intimidated by progressive, strong and intelligent women. In truth, women have always been in charge. Our culture and society, our literature, art, music and our life experiences are replete with examples of women actually in charge. We know of the extraordinary examples of leadership from our mothers, especially our Black mothers, who have juggled, balanced, scrimped, saved and sacrificed for their families to keep the family unit together.

BLACK WOMEN DEFINE BLACK MASCULINITY
Who better to ask about the Black male, than a Black woman?

One of the subjects of conversation at a recent post wedding lunch I attended was about how Black women defined masculinity. One woman said that Black masculinity can be seen in three distinct ways: men accepting themselves, accepting responsibility for their actions and men taking care of their children. But when asked what could Black men do to correct their image, she replied that Black men have been “let off the hook” by Black women who have made excuses for their men. Black men, she added, need to step up and take charge. She admitted that culturally, from the perspective of her parents and grandparents, especially her female lineage, that men have to be taken care of. She added that Black men need to recognize that first and foremost they will never understand women, and that men have to understand and accept that as a species, there is and will always be a tension between the two sexes.

Another woman who has been working with men in social service roles for more than 10 years said that Black men have long term trauma to deal with, which is the combination of past and recent injustices, the lack of education, and absence of mentors and support for other men in leading roles or positions in society. The male ego, she said, is a big part of their problem and it prevents men from being able to receive feedback, support and help, because, many have never been taught to be sensitive to their own emotional needs.

But, I believe that for the Black male, as opposed to any other ethnic grouping, understanding his rather weak or non-existent efforts at finding himself, he has to begin to heal from within.

DEFINITIONS OF MASCULINITY
In Robert Bly’s 1990 book “Iron John” as he examines masculinity, he puts forward succinctly that: “We are living at an important and fruitful moment now, for it is clear to men that the images of adult manhood given by popular culture are worn out; a man can no longer depend on them. By the time a man is thirty-five he knows that the images of the right man, the tough man, the true man which he received in high school do not work in life. Such a man is open to new visions of what a man is or could be.”

Bly suggests that many of the fairy tales and myths in which we find glorifications of manhood and masculinity, such as Zeus and the Greek pantheon, and the stories of Hans Christian Anderson, have lost their luster, because through our experiences we have seen them to be false, but that representations of positive leadership still do exist, as in the value of King Arthur’s influence as a mentor to young men, forming and strengthening bonds that value and celebrate masculinity, though tied to violence; and from the story of Iron John, of moving from the mother’s realm to the father’s realm. Bly states that he does not want to turn men against women or to return men to the domineering mode that has led to the repression of women and their values for centuries, as a challenge to the women’s movement. He suggests that the male movements and female movements, though related, move on separate timetables; alluding to the psychosocial damage men endured at the start of the Industrial Revolution, a grief which now cannot be ignored.

The dark side of men is clear, says Bly. Man’s mad exploration of earth’s resources, the devaluation and humiliation of women, and the obsession with tribal warfare are undeniable. And, while genetic inheritance contributes to their obsessions, culture and environment, particularly, defective mythologies that ignore the depth of masculine feelings and emotions, assign men a place on a pedestal or in the sky instead of the earth, teach obedience to wrong powers, work to keep men boys, and entangle both men and women in systems of industrial domination that exclude both matriarchy and patriarchy.
THE BLACK TOUGH GUISE
In support of Bly’s position of how under siege Black men were and are, Jackson Katz in his documentary film, Tough Guise, examines the place of men in today’s society, arguing against stereotypes and providing concrete solutions. Katz says that men often wear masks to hide their vulnerability. He suggests that the concept of real men is based on physical strength, the ability to intimidate, being a sexual stud, and being perceived as tough and strong. Any male not measuring or conforming to this narrow box defining manhood, is called a pussy, bitch, soft, girly, queer, wuss, and fag, among many names, which are also used to keep men boxed in, in those definitions. The media, too, has helped to propagate the stereotype that the definition of masculinity is the connection between being a man and being violent.

We learn from our family, friends and from the prevailing media, that men are represented in positions of dominance and control who use masks or guises to hide their insecurities. In Black communities, this is usually strong because there are very few positive images to challenge those masks and as James Baldwin said, when men can no longer love women, they also cease to love or respect or trust each other, which makes their isolation complete. Where it is impossible to have either a lover or a friend, the possibility of genuine human involvement has altogether ceased. When this possibility has ceased, so has the possibility of growth.

Statistical definitions of American masculinity show that 85 percent of all murders are committed by men and the majority of all female murders are women defending themselves from being battered. An estimated two to three million women are battered in their homes every year. It is estimated that one in four men will use violence against women in their lifetimes, 90 percent of serious violence is committed by men, 95 percent of domestic violence is committed by men, 95 percent of all dating violence is committed by teenage men, 85 to 95 percent of child sexual abuse is committed by men, and 99.8 percent of people convicted of rape in prison are men.

But, by calling attention to these problems, one is not anti-male, one is simply focusing attention on the problems plaguing the lives of men and which have been affecting us for millennia. While we acknowledge that women have made strides and progressed significantly, men are responsible for at least 24 percent of all crimes against women, and men on men crime is a staggering 76 percent. There are many men who are walking wounded, walking traumatized by violence acted out on them by other men, from bullying in schools, on the job, or on the block where they live; from their siblings, friends, family members, and notwithstanding in these numbers, thousands of boys are abused annually.

This statistical data show that large numbers of men and boys are inflicting pain and suffering on themselves and others, where most of this violence that is perpetuated is cyclical – at least 81 percent of men who commit domestic violence were either abused themselves as children or witnessed it in their homes. Dr. Jeannine Bookhardt-Murray of Harlem United, a non-profit agency here in New York City, wants the discussion of post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, in adults who were affected by some type of trauma as children, to be increased. She suggests that in children, the effect of trauma, whether it is psychological, physical –witnessing violence or abuse, or sexual abuse; leads to a compete rewiring of that child’s neurological system and as that child grows into adulthood, their particular outlook on life is determined by that traumatic experience – they see life through the filter of whatever was their experience, taking it as normal. She’s pushing for greater treatment for adults who have come to recognize this as a particular problem that can be addressed with talk therapy, to help them realize that the way in which they see life, the choices and the decisions they make are affected by that early experience and it is not a healthy way for them to live. There have been successes in reversing the effects in child growing to adult PTSD sufferers and in adults who have themselves experienced a serious trauma. When I wrote a four part series on domestic violence, I saw the perpetuating effects of childhood abuse and trauma, and the combined attempts by Connecticut’s family and criminal courts to break that cycle.

MASKING
Masking, says psychologist Derek Hopson is that we still react to images of what we believe we are. In relationships we get caught up in presenting an image or a mask. Men want to come across as strong and confident and in control, and really tone down soft emotions. Men would rather appear powerful and capable, but in doing so, not acknowledging the common fears and hurts. Many men put on masks to act tougher and more macho when they are around a lot of people, as if they have something to prove. Little do they know, or perhaps they do know and don’t care, that everyone can see right through them, can see the facade behind which they are hiding. Isn’t that why men don’t cry, or not supposed to cry, much less in public? As Jay-Z says, “I can’t see ‘em comin down my eyes. So, I gotta make the song cry.” Or, as 50 Cent says, “After a while, it’s not acting when you have to suppress your feelings. Everybody has feelings, but there are some people who have trained themselves over time not to be out crying and doing all kinds of shit. Where someone else would cry, we replace those feelings of anxiety and get angry instead.” Many women state that when alone with one person or in an exclusive setting, their man becomes soft, revealing his vulnerability. It is our society and culture, some argue, that cause us to put on masks in order to survive in whatever peer society we are in. A direct result, however, of suiting up in the macho armor is that the person behind it is transformed into someone else who becomes entirely un-recognizeable, even to themselves; they no longer know who they are or are unable to separate the macho persona from the real person. It is in our best interest as individual men, to pull back the curtain, lift the mask and remove the tough armor, to reveal, to see not only what’s happening to the man inside, but to help him heal. Perhaps the aware man is one who is not afraid to let others see him shed tears, even if he’s on national television. Some women actually say they prefer a man who displays his emotions because not only is he in touch with himself, the feminine side, but with someone who is sensitive and can empathize with them.

BONDING -GENETICS
We know that as a species, living in isolation is not only unhealthy, but down right antisocial. As fundamentally social beings, does masking our feelings and emotions affect our inability to commit and bond with another, and is it written in our genes? A recent article in The New York Times “Bonding Gene' Could Help Men Stay Married” by E.J. Mundell that was published in Health Day News, discussed a report issued by Swedish scientists into the male genetic predisposition toward monogamous or “husband material” behavior in men. To understand monogamy, scientists examined differences in the vasopressin 1a gene of male and female voles and discovered that variations in the gene influences activity in the male vole. This made the scientists wonder if it would be the same for men when they looked at the same gene in 552 pairs of male twins. What they discovered was that all of the men were currently in a relationship that had lasted at least five years, and 18 percent of the men had remained unmarried. The men were subjected to psychological tests assessing their ability to bond and commit. They found that men with a certain variant, known as an allele, of the vasopressin 1a gene, called 334, tended to score especially low on a standard psychological test called the Partner Bonding Scale. They were also less likely to be married than men carrying another form of the gene. And carrying two copies of the 334 allele doubled the odds that the men had undergone some sort of marital crisis (for example, the threat of divorce) over the past year.
Dr. John Lucas a clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at New York City’s Weill Cornell Medical College said that the findings made sense, because it's well known that genes help drive much of human behavior, including mate bonding, but the vasopressin 1a gene is likely not the only factor influencing a man's ability to form true and lasting bonds. And, it is unlikely that a single gene is the cause of an inability to maintain monogamous relationships, rather it is likely to be multiple genes that are expressed incompletely and interact with the environment. Lucas pointed out that what psychologists call "temperament"—the individual palette of emotions and behaviors that even babies display—is probably "hard-wired" by our genetics. Temperament, through training and experience, becomes personality, and personality is a complicated situation, because it involves the ability to commit, which men would readily use this single genetic inability as an excuse not to commit to relationships. But as another scientist said, taken together, the effect of the studied gene variant on human pair-bonding behavior is rather small, and it can not, with any real accuracy, be used to predict how someone will behave in a future relationship.
DEPRESSION
From this perspective, of commitment and bonding, the lack or inability to bond, to commit to another or receive acceptance from family, friends and even loved ones, has led to many Black men spiraling downwards into a depressive funk. Some of the signs of a person suffering from depression are withdrawal from friends, family, co-workers; no longer taking pleasure or joy in things or activities they once did, they appear sad, have a pessimistic out look on their lives - see the glass as half empty rather than half full, and in many cases have become secretive – most likely into some type of substance abuse, including drugs and alcohol, have become sex addicts, and are sometimes violent.
According to Terri Williams, who examines depression in Black men and women in her book, Black Pain, Black men who live the reality of the statistics have adopted a “who cares” attitude to guard against the disappointment of dashed hopes and the lack of chances of becoming someone in a culture that at every step says the color of their skin means they are inferior, not worthy, or just nothing. She quotes Erin Texiera of the Associated Press who said that everyday African-American men consciously work to offset stereotypes about them – that they are dangerous, aggressive and angry, smiling a lot, dressing conservatively and speaking with deference: Yes sir, No sir or ma’am, and many are mindful of their bodies, careful not to dart into elevators or stand too close in grocery stores. Williams also quotes Vernon Slaughter, an Atlanta-based entertainment attorney and former music industry executive, who said that his depression was one of the causes of his marriage dissolving and accepted that it was the reason for some of his mistakes in his career. Describing his depression, he said that it was the real reason some people may have thought he behaved unusual at times, even for himself. He admits that is deathly afraid of becoming old and helpless because of what he feels is his chronic pain. He is afraid that his chronic pain and the depression it has caused him will leave him with no one to help take care of him and with very little savings, and that all of his education and professional achievements couldn’t save him from depression and the damage it does.
A depressed Black man doesn’t always look like he’s down in the dumps, instead he could be the most energetic person, on the go all the time. He may be accomplished in many socially acceptable areas – career, family, church, sports and school, or on the flip side, he may be the man who just can’t stop making everything worse for himself and for those around him. A depressed man, especially a Black man, is most afraid of ending up with unbearable feelings and not knowing how to handle or deal with it, which often explains the underlying and unexplored depression that leads to self destructive behavior and actions. How many men do we know who to deal with their emotions resort to intense alcohol use, become so intoxicated that they loose control, beating up their partners, lovers or wives? How many men do we know, or ourselves, who choose avoidance or other activities instead of dealing head on with the feelings welling inside us, confronting what is troubling us, saying that we don’t understand or don’t like something?
In our community, the numbers of Black men dying everyday from heart attacks, alcohol and drug abuse and addiction, from HIV, from violence, and from being incarcerated are not because they chose to live their lives on a destructive path, they have been forced to do so by the society and culture in which they live. But while this can be used as an excuse and a crutch to wallow in self pity, many men are eschewing the pressures of these oppressive factors: selling drugs, dropping out of high school or college, contributing to making babies with women they can’t support, spending most of their best years in prisons or their lives cut short. Added to this litany of woes men have to contend with, they also have to deal with the societal institutions that fail them: poor housing, none or inadequate healthcare, unchecked crime, poor or ineffective education, real and perceived injustices, and welfare programs that are like an addictive drug – hard to shake off.
As Nathaniel Brand said, self acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship with myself. It is against these odds that many men are proving resilient: they are going to school and doing well academically, are embarking on careers, are entering into mature and healthy relationships – whether with each other or with women and are making a decent living: they are building and restoring their lives. Men are stepping up and taking responsibility, not only for their lives, but for their actions and choices – which are more informed.
BLACK GAY MEN AND HIV – THE NUMBERS
In recent months we have seen and heard the statistics of the number of Black men who are HIV positive. While the statistics is helpful for politicians and corporations to get more money for their pet projects, for Black men, it should serve as a clarion call to wake up. In late August, the New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released some startling numbers. According to The New York Times, HIV is spreading in New York City at three times the national rate — an incidence of 72 new infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally. Within New York City, whites were infected at four times the national rate, Hispanics at three times the national rate, and Blacks at almost twice the national rate. Blacks, and men who have sex with other men, are the groups at greatest risk of contracting H.I.V. Men accounted for 76 percent of new H.I.V. infections and women for 25 percent. Blacks made up 46 percent of the newly infected; Hispanics, 32 percent; and whites, 21 percent. Those under age 20 made up four percent of the newly infected; those 20 to 29 years old, 24 percent; those 30 to 39 years old, 29 percent; those 40 to 49 years old, 29 percent; and those 50 and older, 15 percent. Sex between men was the main cause in 50 percent of new infections; high-risk heterosexual sex in 22 percent; intravenous drug use in 8 percent; and unknown or uncertain causes in 18 percent. In the boroughs, Manhattan accounted for 35 percent of new infections; Brooklyn, 26 percent; the Bronx, 19 percent; and Queens, 17 percent. New H.I.V. infections among men under age 30 who have sex with men, 77 percent were Black or Hispanic men, as were 59 percent of new H.I.V. infections among men ages 30 to 50 who have sex with men. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s new infections occurred in people 30 to 50 years old.
I have encountered many teenagers and early 20-year olds who are HIV positive, and many who are in their 40s who have been positive for over 10 years. I have also encountered many young men who have become complacent by the advances in HIV treatment that they prefer to engage in unsafe condom-less sexual practices. But this is not confined to the Black same gender loving community. Yesterday morning I heard on the Steve Harvey Show, again on 107.5 WBLS, Steve Harvey reading a letter from a young woman with a young daughter who described herself as successful and accomplished, and who had met a man online – despite the criticisms, more and more people are turning to online sites to meet potential long term or instant sexual partners. After dating for a few weeks, she and the man had sex. Before going that far, she enquired whether he was HIV negative and he assured her that he was negative. She was apprehensive about not using a condom with him. And, as they continued to see each other, she repeatedly asked him to provide proof of his negative status, which he always avoided or brushed off. Then after a while he stopped returning her calls, responding to her messages, and when she called his job, he became verbally abusive to her. A few months ago she said she went for a HIV test and it came back positive. She was asking Steve Harvey what she should do.
BLACK GAY DEPRESSION
When Dr. David Malebranche was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, in an interview with Keith Boykin, he was asked what more the government should do to address HIV/AIDS. Dr. Malebranche said that there is need to focus more on the social factors to address HIV with two answers to the question.
“One would be the prevention and one would be the treatment. From a prevention standpoint, we need to focus more on the fundamental social causes that are driving the epidemic and things like poverty, mental health, substance abuse, as well as the education aspect, which always has to be a part of it. But I think people are missing some of the bigger issues around finance and mental health. There are still civil rights…issues in front of us both as black men and homosexual men…[but] the barriers we face are more internalized…oppression, disempowerment, low self esteem, discomfort with who we are…those kinds of things,” he said.

We have all, at one time or the other, struggled with these issues: self-esteem, self-confidence, identity, masculinity and sexuality or sexual orientation. Ours is a society that is money conscious, even our illnesses have profit margins. In all the hoopla about HIV and its devastating effects on Black gay men, the increasing numbers of Black women who are infected by Black men, and all the many different pharmaceuticals to treat the disease; prevention means testing, “scripting,” dispensing and the distribution of NYC packaged condoms, and for the many agencies that have become a kind of cottage industry, data collection for reporting means more funding. And, while there is some talk therapy on an as needed basis, not much is being done, as another element in the arsenal of prevention, to address the psychological needs of the Black gay community.

Many of us have seen the pain and suffering in family, friends and co-workers, or have experienced the pain striking at the core of who we are. In sharing in the lives of three close friends, I recognized their pain and I saw that the behavior of Black gay men, their attitudes, their decisions and life choices, and the effect of depression on their outlook toward life - all emanated from damaged psyches. One friend, a father of two, has been in and out of mental institutions as he struggled to get a handle on his depression, which caused him to abuse drugs and engage in unprotected sex. Another friend, a colleague, who has written openly about his depression, is still an unacknowledged alcoholic, who would on occasion, when the stresses of life become too much to bear, would withdraw and be un-communicative from friends and family for extended periods. And, another 25-year old friend, who attempted suicide four times, is already an alcoholic and as a sex addict, engages in unprotected sex.
After hearing the stories of these friends, I became aware that even though a number of books have been published about depression affecting Black people, men and women, Black Pain by Terri Williams and Standing in the Shadows by John Head, nothing, apart from academic papers and essays in medical journals, addressed depression as a mental illness in Black gay men and Black gay HIV Positive men. While the issue of depression, its symptoms, characteristics and treatment is universal, and accepting that ethno-socio-cultural elements are contributors, I recognize that for Black gay men and Black gay HIV positive men, differences do exist at the fundamental level.
Black gay men are still regarded as sexually irresponsible members of society who continue to engage in unsafe and risky sexual behavior; are still considered socially challenged - unable to maintain stable relationships and jobs; and indulge in abuses, whether drugs, alcohol, or sex.
Dr. Alexander Vington, a Brooklyn-based psychiatrist and head of Vaya Institute advocates a radical shift in addressing the pain at the core level of the experience of Black men. Dr. Vington’s program is a fundamental paradigm shift from conventional methods of treatment to more involved self evaluation, awareness and internalized healing, in people all over; with practical applications for Black men who are in pain. With treatment Black gay men and Black gay HIV positive men could live more wholesome, healthy and productive lives – improving themselves and making valuable contributions to their families, friends, relationships and communities. The National Black Psychological Association is one of many organizations where one can find Black psychotherapists who understand the Black experience and who are culturally aware – for African American, Caribbean American and African, to offer counseling to Black men, gay men and HIV positive men, regard less of age. If a person cannot afford the price of a therapist, he should ask about a sliding scale or look up one of the social service agencies, who often have a psychological professional on staff, to begin to address their issues.

Sorrow and Relief on West 169th Street

2008-09-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

As the morning sun rose golden, from a night of heavy winds and sweeping rain, over the apartment buildings at the intersection of West 169th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights on Sunday, September 7, 2008, and as it’s rays shone down on the street illuminating the night’s shadows, word quickly spread of the death of 27-year-old Jose Martins, at around 2:30 am, who lived with Carmen Martins, his mother, and his father, at 511 West 169th Street.
According to accounts from family, many friends, neighbors, passersby and curious onlookers, who quickly gathered on the sidewalk outside of apartment number one, Jose was riding his motor cycle southbound on the Henry Hudson Parkway and somewhere in the vicinity of the West 158th Street exit ramp he became involved in an accident and died at the scene. One mourner, who claimed to know the deceased, claimed that at the time of the accident that the young man was drunk.
The claim was corroborated by a childhood friend of the deceased, who lives across the street in 516 West 169th Street. According to him, Jose, keeping in character and further reflection of his personality, was partying at La Caridad Restaurant and Bar, located at the corner of West 168th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. At sometime between 1:45 am and 2:00am, Jose left the restaurant/bar despite the protestations of his friends that he was too intoxicated and high on marijuana to go anyplace. The source said that Jose threatened violence against his friends who were withholding his motorcycle keys and helmet from him, but that faced with his belligerence they gave in. He hopped onto his motorcycle and sped away, followed by some other friends in a car, they proceeded north along Amsterdam to West 179th Street and the Henry Hudson Parkway. Jose, the source said, feeling his usual cockiness and determination, recalled those in the car following him was seen swerving in and out of traffic: cutting in between other speeding cars, and when he swerved one last time, the back wheel of the motorcycle skidded and he went flying, hitting the road head first. It was unclear whether or not he was wearing his helmet, but reports from those who were following in a car and witnessed the entire accident, said he died at the spot.
But the allegation that Jose was drunk is a charge vehemently dismissed by a habitué of the corner of Audubon Avenue and West 169th Street, who has been plying is type of trade, “working the block” for at least 27 years. Commenting on his familiarity with the deceased, the ‘Trader” said, he knew him well, since he was a little boy and had watched him grow up to become a young man. With pale jaundiced eyes welling with tears, and with a hint of irritation, the “Trader” growled that Jose was one young man he knew very well, even being friends with his mother.
“In the past few months, I’ve watched three “brothers” die,” he said. “Just recently, one from West 170th Street died and now here on 169th.”
According to the victim’s childhood friend, who knew him since he was about 9 or 10-years old, although Jose could be pleasant at times, he was prone to exhibiting a violent temper, stubborn and aggressive.
“He was a bad ass,” the source said.
Ironically, the source said, Jose, who was a die-hard fan of Tupac Shakur, died just about an hour before the time, but on the same day as when Tupac died.
Reflecting on his friend’s life, the source said that if Jose had not died the way he did, he would have been shot by any one of close to 30 people who were looking for him. According to the source, Jose plied his trade of selling marijuana on the street, and was known to be a smooth talker, even able to talk his way out of being arrested by the police. A month before his demise, Jose was released from jail after being arrested for possession of narcotics.
His reputation that he wasn’t to be trusted spread and preceded him. The source said that often people from New Jersey would come over to the block to buy “weed,” paying an estimated $1,000 or more for large quantities. Apparently, when approached, Jose would, after collecting the money, assure the unsuspecting buyer that he was going to get the “weed” for them and not return, absconding with the money. Also, known among his close friends, Jose who was not on amicable terms with his parents; his mother, however, often cautioned him to be careful.
When news of his death had spread through the street, an urban memorial was hastily erected on the sidewalk outside the house where his parents lived, a ground floor apartment overlooking the street. The memorial was constructed with several opened cardboard boxes, that once contained bottles of Corona beer, to shield the flames of the many large multi-colored religious votive candles, from the wind; vases of flowers – mostly roses, carnations and baby’s breath; a poster pasted on the building’s wall over the cardboard altar with a drawing of a heart and scrawled in it “We love you;” a photograph of Jose in happier times, a distinct red bandana, a symbol of his Bloods membership, and according to another source, his “Tribe” association, and bottles of Hennessey Cognac.
As the day wore on, people gathered in silence for an impromptu wake. Some sat on garden chairs or stood with folded arms, in front of the memorial and along the chain-link fence guarding a vacant lot next to the apartment building. They were dressed in an assortment of clothes – some in obvious Sunday best, others in regular day clothes, mostly blacks and whites. Men stood to one side, women to another. Occasionally, as the sound of whispered conversations ebbed and flowed, a plaintive wail would erupt, there would be audible sniffling and unashamed wiping of eyes and blowing noses, as someone remembered the young man in conversation with another, or as a family member or friend came forward to offer their condolences to the bereaved parents. The young man’s parents sat either on a folding chair under a tree, which thankfully provided a cooling shade from the burning heat of the progressing sun, or languished in their apartment, one window of which was open and through which could be seen a dark interior, stripped of adornments, decorations, and window curtains. Even the large screen television which is visible from the street and was previously always on, was silent; as if it to was in mourning.
Toward middle of the afternoon, a sizeable crowd, in this predominantly Dominican neighborhood and estimated to be about 150, had taken over the sidewalk; an assortment of cars were double parked on the street, reducing traffic passage to a bottleneck and a narrow one lane gauntlet. A religious minister, occasionally brandishing the thick heft of a Bible in the air, as if calling attention to the strength the tome could offer; intoned prayers, called forth from the crowd hymns and himself sung a hymn in Spanish, ending with a rising crescendo that thundered and reverberated off the surrounding buildings. When the minister had completed his exhortations and silence had once again descended on the crowd, two women weaved through the people bearing trays of light refreshments: some reached forward for the crackers and bologna on a platter, others reached out hands to accept a plastic glass filled with Pepsi. Some of the men, standing in clusters of three or four, occasionally sipped from brown bottles of Coors Light, seemingly purchased and secreted by one man in his car, and only produced as the need arose.
Yet, despite the deliberations on one side, the unofficial business of the street continued unabated, not even out of respect for the outpouring of sorrow on the other side of the street; after all, the sellers had their quotas to meet, their dealers, suppliers and customers to satisfy. With the barest hint of clandestiness, the sellers’ brazenness were undiminished, as demanded by the motley customers sidling up, and stooping down to retrieve an empty plastic Poland Springs water bottle hidden in plain sight on the street, behind the rear wheel of a parked vehicle – fishing into it to extract a small self sealing plastic bag containing the equivalent of $5 worth of marijuana.
Several other young men, daubing hands and fingers across their bleary tear reddened eyes, and looking away as if ashamed to show they had given in to crying, who knew the deceased commented that he was so young to have died.
One young man, dressed in the latest style, sagging jeans, oversized T-shirt and obligatory baseball cap perched on his head, jauntily, passed on the sidewalk with a bag in his hand, approached the makeshift altar and kneeling, lit another votive candle, shielding the flickering flame with his palm and placed it with the others. He paused for a moment as if in silent prayer, then quickly rose and walked back in the direction he had come. Another young man, obviously grieving, but striving hard not to show the depth of his pain, walked up and down the short stretch of sidewalk between the apartment and the corner at Audubon Avenue with a 40-fluid ounce of Corona beer.
Prior to this display of grief and mourning, a most uncommon sight and experience in this section West 169th Street, between Audubon and Amsterdam avenues, the social activities mostly consisted of toilet-papered boisterous celebrations of the Yankees winning a game, or the thumping pulsating sound of the heavy bass of typical Dominican “bachetas” from speakers in someone’s apartment on the occasion of a birthday, christening, or party; or cars pulling up disgorging friends and relatives bearing gifts and boxes of cakes for a private apartment based event.
As the sun set on the opposite end of the street from where it had arisen, its glow gave way to the amber light from a growing cluster of candles at the sidewalk shrine. In a steady stream, people came to pay their respects, murmuring “Lo siento,” “I’m sorry” to the grieving parents.
The source said that on Tuesday, there was a party in the parking lot across from the Ortiz Funeral Home, where the deceased was laid out for a wake. People who were owned money came from as far away as Florida to verify that Jose was indeed dead. A sign written on a torn piece of brown cardboard and pasted on the wall above the makeshift altar/memorial, stated the wake times from 2 to 9pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, the funeral home - Ortiz Funeral Home on West 190th Street, where he would be buried - in Maple Cemetery, in New Jersey.

No April Fool's joke - death on "A" train.

2008-04-07T15:42:00.000-04:00

Before the A train doors had closed, at a little after 9 am Tuesday, April 1, a slew of people had jammed themselves into each and every open space in the cars. Men and women were seated, stood and hung on to overhead or vertical poles, or leaned against closed doors; going to work, for appointments or whatever, were dressed either in business attire or more casually; and, some staring, their eyes glazed over looking into a distance only they could see, lost in their own thoughts planning for the day, or recalling the night just passed; some reading newspapers, catching up on the latest events and happenings in the city, some studying texts which they knew they should have done before, some reading magazines, catalogs, or books, or some just looking at others, either cruising, admiring or mentally criticizing; and some others lost in the music pumping into their ears through ipods and earphones, all on the stretch between the 125th Street station in Harlem and 59th Street or Columbus Circle.
In the press of people was one man, who came aboard the last car of this 10-car train. He was Black, stood between six-feet and six-feet two-inches tall, with an estimated weight of close to 250-pounds. He was dressed in a dark suit and a blue shirt, without a tie. He carried in his hand a black briefcase. This man, who so far is nameless, is forced to assume a John Doe name, stood against the panel of doors opposite the platform. He too, blended into his surroundings and assumed the pose of indifference: just simply minding his own business.
As the train pulled away on the express track from the 125th Street Station in Harlem its wheels clacking and slapping the rails, gaining momentum, the noise reverberating in the car, everyone in this last car settled down to the seven to 10-minute drive, a long straight stretch on the A train, to 59th Street/Columbus Circle.
But, somewhere along the ride, perhaps when the train had passed the 116th Street Station, or as one man later said, it was about the 86th Street Station, that John Doe suddenly and silently crumpled and slid to the floor.
For a split moment, the only sound was the clacking and slapping of the train’s wheels on the rails. Then a flurry of activity erupted. Some people moved away, not wanting to be touched or afraid of and not knowing what was happening; others curious, gravitating to see what had happened; and others trying to get close not only to see what was happening, but what help they could offer.
Someone shouted out asking, “Can anyone do CPR?”
A few others, who had by this time crowded round John Doe were looking, others were feeling his wrists for a pulse, or slapping his face to revive him, thinking he might just simply have fainted. Two other passengers jostled their way to him and felt and listened for a heart beat. In the mean time, a young Hispanic woman came forward. She said she knew how to perform CPR and knelt beside him. She began to perform chest compressions, intending to stimulate his heart, and after a brief hesitation, looking at his open mouth, she placed her lips over his and began, alternating between chest compressions, to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Gravitating to the scene, I suggested that those closest to him undo his belt and the waist of his pants to allow for unrestricted blood flow. John Doe lay on the floor of the train, his head against the door, the normal white of his eyes blood shot and rolled back in their sockets and his mouth open.
After a few minutes’ ministrations of chest compresses and mouth-to-mouth forced breathing, there was a faint hint that he seemed to be struggling to breathe. His tongue lolled pink and directionless, threatening to block his throat and further depriving him of desperately needed air.
I leaned over him and asked him if he could hear me and to blink his eyes if he could. He blinked. I started speaking to him telling him not to worry and that there are people who are here to help him. His mouth was open and it seemed as if he was trying to speak.
During all this, I looked around the confines of the car and saw that while some people were craning their necks to see what was happening, others were jostling for a better view, there were others who remained in their seats, impassively listening to their headsets or reading, oblivious to their surroundings.
One of those attending him asked if someone could go forward, through the train cars, to notify the conductor. I shouted out, “Could someone go through and tell the conductor?” After a few minutes, another person attending John Doe asked if someone had gone to notify the conductor. I shouted out again, my voice rising over the din of the train, and my enquiry was met with a chorus reply from some passengers that someone had gone through to the conductor.
In the meantime, a tall young white man rushed and knelt at John Doe’s side and to relieve the Hispanic woman, took over administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; a white woman, also came forward and she took over and continued with the chest compressions. As they continued their efforts, John Doe’s head lolled to one side.
When the train rolled into the 59th Street Station the doors opened. Many passengers remained inside and those on the platform began to look in to see what had happened. The conductor came into the train speaking into his radio he said to whomever on the other end of his radio that the person in distress was a Black man and promptly declared that the train was out of service.
The man and woman, still continued their ministrations, hoping for some response. A few more minutes elapsed before two police officers arrived. More time passed and more police officers arrived, herding people off the train onto the platform. Then two emergency medical technicians arrived and one of them began using a clear plastic mouth mask to resume mouth-to-mouth. When that wasn’t proving successful, the technician asked a policeman to go for and bring the long board or stretcher. He unzipped his bag and pulled out a defibrillator, stuck the electrodes to John Doe’s chest and sides and waited for it to become charged.
I stood there on the platform watching all that was being done to save a man who clearly had reached beyond saving. I was transfixed by what I had witnessed and with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. A man had died on the A train, and there was nothing I could do to save him. Another A train pulled into the station on the local track and realizing I had to go to work, I embarked on it. As the train pulled away from the station, I strained my eyes to see what I could of John Doe, and as it gathered speed, the closed A train with John Doe lying on the floor on the express track faded, I wondered who would tell his family, his colleagues at his place of work are probably expecting him, he may have had an appointment later that day that he wouldn't attend, but who told them. As the train gathered speed I tried to rationalize my actions: what more could I do for him? There was nothing more I could do for him. I wasn't an expert or a professional. He had medical professionals and the police there with him.

Black sexuality gone public, or not?

2008-03-14T19:22:00.000-04:00

Against a backdrop of acceptance, ambivalence and denial, a social commentary of same-sex relationships in Oprah Winfrey's production of Alice Walker's Color Purple and implied in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, begs for further examination.

The Color Purple, with its run on Broadway ended, attracted not only notable stars to many of its leading roles, but hordes of African-Americans who came to see the performance. To some it reflected suffering and redemption running like a strong river through their lives and to others it was an opportunity to see their favorite stars up close and personal.

At the end of the play, Channel 7, ABC-News Anchor Sade Baderinwa hosted a question and answer session with the cast and audience. Without re-hashing the play, I asked a question about the significance to African-American women of the kiss shared between Celie and Shug Avery, when Shug first came to visit. The response from Zonya Love (appropriate surname?) the leading lady and from Angela Robinson, the actress who played Shug was anything but satisfactory. At best they skirted around the issue and dissembled, referring to the reaction of Robinson's mother coming to see the play and after seeing it made a dismissive comment about the kiss between Celie and Shug.

What piqued my interest and made me sit up was how acceptable the kiss between Ceile and Shug was to everyone in the theater who saw the depth of the relationship between two women shared so openly, with ease and without question, much less a raised eyebrow. I looked around the theater in the dim light to see how people were reacting; everyone's eyes were transfixed, without a blink, on the stage. Faces were set impassively, everyone absorbing what was playing out in front of them.

It is said that art imitates life. If in real life women are having close sexual relations with each other in private and in secret, what about the denials and vitriol against same-sex relations? That long passionate kiss between Celie and Shug should have stirred catcalls and jeers, if this was unacceptable behavior. Is this an accurate reflection of the closeness between women, but is denied, unaccepted, and covered in pretense?

While many women would scoff at a same-sex relationship, between two women, the lack or absence of any type of reaction, averse or accepting, points to a development and an evolution in social awareness: that two women should kiss on stage.

Understandably, the suffering, the pain, and the loneliness Celie experienced when Nettie, her sister, was sent away no doubt left a void in each other's world. She and her sister were companions in suffering whose deep love for each other was forged in the fires of pain and hardship and was the means to a flight of fantasy of their creation to escape from the realities of their lives. But, when Shug came to visit, Celie was so desperate for companionship, her feelings of emptiness in need of fulfillment, and to identify with another woman, gravitated to her. Shug, on the other hand, insecure and with her own low-self esteem issues, was drawn to the appearance of strength and stability, in Celie.

Whether sociologically or psychologically, the kiss could be seen as an expression of a longing and satisfaction and proved to be the bond between Celie and Shug. When Shug eventually left Celie and returned, then left again, Celie at first pined for Shug, but overcame her absence and seemed to be filled with strength and purpose to the point where she didn't need Shug anymore.
But, the Color Purple which began with abuse, poverty, and pain was resolved with forgiveness, care, concern, prosperity and a renewed sense of the family unit that had been tested, battered, stripped, survived, and reconstituted stronger than before.

On the opposite side of this tale is the raw exposure of a dysfunctional family in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Indeed, the actors' selfish agendas and greed only served to heighten their individual sense of expectation, like "cats on a hot tin roof," ready to spring into the air, to escape the heat on the soft exposed skin of their paws. Like the Color Purple, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof in its limited run, attracted some famous actors, James Earl Jones as Big Daddy, Phylicia Rashas as Big Momma, Anika Noni Rose as Maggie, and Terrance Howard as Brick. The characters were all motivated by greed, some form of selfishness or pretense: hoping Big Daddy would die and leave the estate to them, driven to wresting control of another through pregnancy, and yet, others were anxious their secrets be preserved.

As each other’s layers is peeled away, we are left wondering: why did Maggie have sex with Skipper, if she actually did, or was she saying she did just to get a rise[pun] out of Brick? And, what secret is Brick harboring?

Brick is pursued by Maggie, his recent wife, to become a father. In Maggie's mind, a child would not only cement her relationship with Brick but solidify her position in the family and so she and Brick would inherit the estate when Big Daddy dies. With Big Daddy's death from cancer looming, who else would inherit and take over management of the estate? As the story unfolds, Brick's alcoholism is already a problem, but one which is known, tolerated as befitting men who drink, and passed off as normal. But when Big Daddy gets involved and begins to interrogate Brick about his drinking it emerges that Brick's alcoholism is unrelated to him being cheated on by a woman or feeling aggrieved over some slight or insult to his manhood by a woman. Big Daddy, with his crude methods, was able to deduce that Brick's drinking was to hide, escape and deny the relationship that existed between him and Skipper.

Behind his relentless questioning, Big Daddy, in as much as he didn’t get a direct answer from Brick as to whether or not Brick's drinking was tied to the closeness with Skipper and Skipper's death, nonetheless expressed his concerned for Brick's health. What was Brick's relationship with Skipper? We were told they were young men who grew up together and were close friends. How close were they? It is obvious that Brick's drinking, intending to hide his feelings, rather drew attention to them. Brick was undoubtedly caught in his own Catch-22: drinking to hide his feelings over Skipper and Skipper's death and drawing attention to his feelings by his drinking.

What should he do? Come clean and admit to Big Daddy and Momma and to Maggie, that he loved Skipper much closer than two very good friends? Is he to admit to a particular friendship? It is clear, his drinking is a pathetic attempt to hide his grief, longing and desire, not for Maggie, but for Skipper, and like a Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, he is filled with anxiety: he can't stay on the roof - he misses Skipper so much it hurts, so he drinks, but that is drawing attention to his problem; he wants to, but is afraid to say how deeply he is hurting, because if he does, he runs the risk of losing everything.

Journalist wins two awards

2008-03-14T19:03:00.000-04:00

New York, NY (February 2008)—Antoine B. Craigwell, assistant editor with The Network Journal (TNJ), received two awards at the New York Association of Black Journalists (NYABJ) 30^th Annual Awards held at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library.

Craigwell won first place in the Public Affairs category for the “Rikers Replacement Series,” written for the Bronx Times Reporter Newspapers, and was part of an editorial team with TNJ which won second place in another category.

“In a media market dominated by non-African-Americans, I’m aware that many of us have to work twice as hard and to be honored by our professional peers. This award is a testament to a regard for quality,” said Craigwell.

Craigwell's three-part series focused on the response and subsequent actions of community leaders, New York City and New York State politicians, the Department of Corrections (DOC), and the property owner, to the proposed new jail facility at the Oak Point section in the South Bronx. The series highlighted the Bronx Borough President’s attitude change from ambivalence to determined opposition to the jail, the DOC commissioner’s humiliation by community leaders at one of several community meetings, and the concerted objections and promises of in-depth enquiries by City Councilors into the devious methods the DOC used to obtain approval of $375 million for the jail. Craigwell’s reporting has resulted in the indefinite suspension of further action to move the jail project forward.

Gary Anthony Ramsay, NYABJ president, said, “It was a comprehensive piece on a subject no one was speaking about. It was about seeing a submission from an independent news publication that was previously dominated by the Amsterdam News.”

Craigwell also shared an award with TNJ’s team of writers in “Taking Charge of Our Health” in the Science and Health category, for his profile of Dr. Caroline Britton, as one of TNJ's New York’s Top Black Doctors for 2007.

Rosalind McLymont, TNJ’s editor-in-chief, said “It is a good thing when a person could effect change in policy through their writing.” ###

Innovative prostate cancer technology

2008-03-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

HIFU, high intensity focused ultrasound, is prostate cancer technology used to eliminate cancerous cells in the prostate, with comparably lesser side effects, cost and a quicker return to normalcy than other commonly used treatment methods currently available in the U.S.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) 2007 Cancer Facts and Figures says that while incidence rates of prostate cancer are significantly higher in Blacks than in white men and although prostate cancer death rates have been declining nationwide since the early 1990s, mortality among African-Americans still remains more than twice as high as those of white men.
The ACS 2007 Surveillance Research estimates 26,730 new prostate cancer cases in African-Americans in the New York tri-state region and 8.5 percent or 2,270 deaths. The ACS says that though common among men in North America and southern Europe, statistics show that Afro-Caribbean men have the highest prostate cancer incidence rates in the world and advises men with a strong family history to begin screening for it as early as age 45.
As a treatment method, HIFU goes back to the early 1940s through to the 60s when it was used extensively for the treatment of various cancers in women. It is an alternative to already established treatment methods, including: cryotherapy, freezing cancerous cells; radical prostatectomy, prostate removal; external beam radiation, radiation through healthy tissue for six to eight weeks; and internal radiation seeds, permanent implantation of 80 to 100 radioactive seeds in the prostate — all of which have periods of hospitalization, extended recovery, varying percentages of impotence and incontinence (insufficient bladder control), pain and other lower abdominal abnormalities. While avoiding nerves and blood vessels, HIFU focuses a large pulse of high-energy ultrasonic waves on a single location, raising the temperature of cancerous cells to 100 degrees Celsius, and causing the lipids of cell membranes to melt and the proteins in them to denature.
John Rewcastle, Ph.D., of the Radiology Department at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in a comparative review paper says this treatment method is minimally invasive, without any incision— a probe into the rectum— the recovery is less than one week, the impotency rate is 28 percent, and the incontinence rate is lower that other methods. Other forms of prostate cancer treatment leave radiation failures and prostatectomy residuals — rectal injury, blood loss, and cancer cells. After receiving the HIFU treatment, lasting up to three hours, patients are able to return to their regular lives almost immediately, with only two follow-up treatments for about two hours each.
While acknowledging its effectiveness, Brian Stone, M.D., assistant professor of urology at Columbia University Medical Center, cautions, “It is experimental because there are still questions about it.”
Though accepted and practiced in Europe, Canada, South Korea, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Brazil, HIFU is in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Phase III clinical trials, which examines equipment safety and efficacy, and has not been approved for use in the U.S. Current insurance payouts for approved prostatectomy or radiation procedures range between $100,000 to $150,000; a HIFU treatment costs $25,000 when there is a low prostate specific antigen (PSA), the level of antigen found in the blood, and the tumor is localized in the prostate, and $30,000 if the tumor has traveled and has compromised the seminal vesicles, and the PSA is higher than seven. It is not a treatment option for those people whose cancer has metastasized beyond the prostate.
But, Abraham Woods, III, M.D., one of three African-American urological specialists in the country who work with HIFU, says an alternative prostate treatment is predicated on preventing the certain death men face with undiagnosed prostate problems.
“For those who have had conventional forms of treatment and are living lives with impotence and wearing pads against incontinence, the result is psychological damage to their masculinity,” he says

Thoughts on and of the “holiday" season.

2007-12-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

I should like to say thanks to those who have sent cards and wishes by e-mail. Ingratitude for obviously well meaning thoughts prompted by the season is far from me. However, I would rather have those wishes throughout the year as we interact and we learn of activities in each other’s lives and support each other.
No doubt parceling off a section of the year allows us to lump all the good wishes and thoughts we have collected for each other into one season. How much more value would we give to one another were we not to recognize each other throughout the year just as we do around this time? For us to “efficiently” function it is important that we compartmentalize, categorize and sort into well-defined periods, putting everything in its right place and time. Would telling someone in March or in August that we love them, care for them and wish them well, and are thinking of them be a cause for chaos and confusion? Would it upset that “balance?” If I bought a gift for you in July, and it’s not your birthday (I will examine this later!) would the gesture, without the trappings of any “holiday season” be understood for what it is, an expression of goodwill?
But the preparations and the hype building to a crescendo since Halloween, is where we pigeonhole and call Christmas. No wonder so many people are so overwhelmed by the demands that they end up in debt which they spend the next 11 months recovering from (hopefully if they get a tax refund by August it would help offset the stress of repayments), become physically and mentally exhausted, and from all the stress placed by expectations, real or imagined, a descent into depression. What’s on our minds: we have to buy cards and stamps (the most inexpensive Hallmark card is .99 cents and US Postage stamps are now .41 cents or .43 cents for the Forever stamps, not to mention the cost for stamps for overseas addresses) and mail them out in time, have to rack our brains to compile a list of people who should be given gifts (there are the obligatory presents to co-workers, boss and immediate family, then to close friends, to acquaintances or associates to whom we want to make an impression or giving a present is strategic for some favor or demand in the future, and finally be guilt-tripped by someone giving us a gift whose value and usefulness is questionable so as to give one in return, but not as inexpensive so perceptively we are not thought of as cheap), go to extraordinary lengths to obtain money (working two or three jobs, taking out loans, “maxing” out credit cards, working long hours for overtime) and spend it shopping for food and those presents, and buying a real pine Christmas tree; can today be very expensive. Not to mention that the process of Christmas tree farming and harvesting, among many of the other demands, including increased electricity consumption for decorations and lights contribute to global warming.
Let us then take a step back from all this and examine known origins of the farce we call Christmas.
Historically, the Christ was born in the month of Nissan, which is as close to a full month before the date established by the Roman Catholic Church of December 25 as the day of his birth. In Roman times, pre-Christian, December 25 was when worshipers of the god Saturn performed a ritual called Saturnalia, which also coincided with the Western European “pagan” practice of celebrating the Winter Solstice, which occurs about that time depending on the rotation of the Earth. December 25 and many other dates in the Julian calendar, such as Easter, were assumed and taken over by Christians to serve their purposes.
With regards to birthdays, what value would we give each other should we concentrate our attentions and efforts on celebrating the day of our birth? Granted, it is the beginning of us taking one step closer to death. For isn’t it that birth is really a step in the direction to death? What stronger relationships would we have if we celebrate the accomplishments, achievements, dreams, hopes, feelings of each other?

Teens and mental illness -

2007-12-06T16:46:00.000-05:00

- A wake up call and a cry for help
by Antoine Craigwell

Another shooting in a public place! When the news broke of a shooting in a shopping mall in Omaha, NE, and when order had been restored to pandemonium and chaos, of people running, screaming and ducking for cover, there were nine fatalities, including the gunman, Robert Hawkins. Images released from the Von Maur shopping mall show 19-year-old Hawkins pointing a rifle, people running and some being wheeled through the doors on stretchers, a final telephone call, and a suicide note have all confirmed he was the lone gunman.

Still emanating from authorities in the city are reports regarding the entire incident continue to replay the repeated sound ‘pop-pop’ of 23 rounds being fired against the backdrop of the voice of a 9-1-1 operator quizzing a caller and of people screaming. Television images showed interviews with frightened and traumatized witnesses, whose recollections of the sequence of events have already become altered— undoubtedly, their respective minds have gone into “lockdown-mode” as protection from the memory.

In the analyses and blame pointing, one correspondent on the scene representing a New York-based news radio station, 1010WINS, said that the question being asked is how did the gunman obtain a rifle? Other reports coming out of the mall area speak of people terrorized, fearful and traumatized. Another reporter said that what is being looked at and the questions now being asked, after looking at the trail of evidence Hawkins has left, is what had happened to cause him to want to commit, not only suicide, but murder as well.

As many psychological experts would attest, the act of suicide, by definition, killing the self, is on moral grounds considered a selfish act, is rather a cry not only for attention but help. What should be clear and obvious to everyone today, is that there are a number of people struggling with a plethora of psychological issues, who have not sought treatment and for whom there could be any number of triggers to make them snap.

No doubt the blame game and finger pointing away from the self, the abdication of responsibility has already begun in Hawkins’ immediate circle of family, relatives, friends and acquaintances, and from city, state and federal officials.

In 2007, so far, there have been one too many occasions of psychologically disturbed or unbalanced young men committing acts of violence against those closest to them, to strangers and ultimately to themselves. These shooters are not confined to any particular racial demographic.

A time line of shootings in the U.S. for 2007, reveal: Jan 3, in Tacoma, Wash., Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot a fellow student in the hallway of Henry Foss High School; Feb 8, Prineville, OR., 18-year old male student committed suicide with a gunshot to his head; Apr 16, in Blacksburg, Va., 23-year old Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 faculty and students and wounding 15 others, then killed himself; Oct 10, in Cleveland, OH., 14-year old Asa H. Coon shot and injured two students and two students before killing himself; and now this week, Hawkins in Omaha, NE., shooting and killing 8 people and himself in a shopping mall.

Some questions that should be asked and which are not being asked or addressed: How are the teenage young men and women, coping with the pressures of life as they struggle to grow to maturity? When it is recognized that teenagers have psychological issues, beyond superficial treatment regimens, what is being done to address their deeper issues? What does it say about the society when many of the young people resort to violence against others and themselves as the only option or way out? What are the pressures put on young men and women by their families, their peers, their schools and their immediate society as a whole?

Reports about Hawkins suggest that he was removed from his family’s home, became a ward of the state after he reportedly threatened his stepmother and was confined to a juvenile detention facility. Was he abused in that facility? He was treated for depression and for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but wasn’t on any medication at the time of the shooting. Why not and who should have been monitoring him and did not?

The irony of divide

2007-11-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

By A.B. Craigwell

New York, NY —Nov 14—Along the spectrum of the African-American community in New York a sharp divide is clearly evident.

On Tuesday night, the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund held their annual fund raising benefit at the Hilton Hotel in New York and presented Russell Simmons with the organization’s philanthropist of the year award. Among those in attendance at this lavish event, were NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and Rusti Staub, former baseball player turned philanthropist and founder of the organization.

The irony of this event is that while the Kheil Coppin’s family were mourning the injustice of his untimely death by police shooting two nights ago in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and a host of questions were being asked about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, Simmons and a plethora of African-Americans, including civil rights activist Benjamin Chavis, Hip-Hop entrepreneur Damon Dash and Jonathan Jackson, son of Jesse Jackson, were in a sense living it up.

It is not suggested that because of Coppin’s death the world should have come to a standstill. What is questioned is the appropriateness of Simmons accepting an award at that time, when instead the Black community should have been rallying around the family, providing support for them and working to get to the bottom of the shooting.

Despite previous and some persisting reports about whether the families do in fact receive help from the Widows Benefit Fund, the organization succeeded in raising over $1 million to provide assistance to police and fire men’s families killed in the line of duty.

A representative of a public relations firm for the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, who was present at the event recalled thinking as she looked around the room how surreal the event was against the backdrop of the shooting. It was, she said, as if nothing was amiss.

Organ Harvesting in China

2007-11-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

While China is in “full-speed-ahead” mode with preparations for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, behind the frenzied building of new facilities, in keeping with the International Olympic Association requirements, and the expected economic boon for the Chinese, there lurks a dark underbelly that is yet to see the light of condemnation by their government and the international community.
About late January to early February this year, a coterie of New York politicians met and had dinner with the Chinese Consul General Liu Biewie. The dinner, attended by NY State Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, representing the 79th Assembly District in the Bronx, said that the Consul General spoke about China’s contribution to the New York State economy and the need for greater bilateral economic relations.
“He [Biewie] bristled at my questioning about the lack of democratic freedoms among the Chinese rural and lower classes. He stated that they have to evolve into the growing economy and basically, that internal Chinese affairs are none of my business,” said Benjamin, referring to the numerous human rights abuses in China.
Benjamin said that he is personally appalled that the Chinese or any civilized government would place such little value on human life.
“Organ harvesting is reprehensible. That government has criminalized spirituality and the universal desire for freedom and democracy. And, too many foreigners are complicit in accepting these organs, no questions asked. The Chinese doctors and journalists who have spoken out are credible. The Chinese fascist dictatorship has made human life a commodity as they have gone to great guns to embrace capital accumulation,” he said.
As an African-American, Benjamin said he recalled the oppression in China, where the Catholic Church is controlled by the CCP, about the one child rule.
“As an elected official, I am sounding the alarm to my colleagues and business leaders. New York State should not be accomplices in the oppression of the Chinese people or the suppression of their rightful yearnings for freedom and democracy,” Benjamin said.
Dr. Wenyi Wang, a surgical pathologist who was trained at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and is an activist against the persecution of Falun Gong members in China, said, “In March 2006, we all heard of organ harvesting. We knew it was going on before because many Falun Gong practitioners have gone missing and we don’t know where they went.”
Dr. Wang said that she had written a report detailing the human rights abuses, including the psychological abuses in clinics. As a member of the group Mental Health Watch, together they found out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) learned the techniques of brainwashing their citizens and anyone with views different from the Party line, from Russia. Those who thought differently, Dr. Wang said, were considered mentally unstable and placed in mental institutions or in labor camps. In these camps or institutions they were forced to change their minds and opinions and if they refused they were injected with high doses of anti-psychotic drugs. Dr. Wang stated that this form of treatment was used as torture in Russia and in the early 1980s the World Psychiatric Association passed a resolution condemning the use of drugs of this nature.
With the persecution of Falun Gong members in China, beginning in July 1999, Dr. Wang said, reports began to emerge of people being given anti-psychotic drugs. She referred to a Wall Street Journal article that mentioned a Falon Gong member dying from an overdose. But what really sparked comments was the release of a report in July 2006 by David Matas and David Kilgour, two Canadians who interviewed several people, including relatives of victims and the wife of a doctor who had performed over 2,000 corneal transplants. The document, The Report Into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China details extensively and graphically, the methods used to obtain organs from people and boasts of how many transplants are being done.
In an April 2007 letter to Dr. Kgosi Letlape, president of the World Medical Association (WPA), based in Pilaneberg, South Africa, Dr. Abraham Halpern, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the New York Medical College recalled a previously sent letter in September 2006 in which he called for the world body to demand from the Chinese government that they allow an investigative team to examine the allegations of physicians in China being involved in the wanton killing of Falun Gong members by removing their body’s organs for sale, and to expel the Chinese Medical Association from their membership.
“Reports are rampant throughout the world that the organ harvesting program in China continues without interruption,” Dr. Halpern wrote, “notwithstanding the denials of the Chinese government and the enactment of a law that went into effect last July to regulate organ transplants in hospitals.”
“It has come to my attention,” Dr. Halpern continued, “that Dr. Chen Zhonghua, the Deputy Committee Director of the Chinese Medical Association, Organ Transplant Division, may actually be involved in these blatantly pernicious violations of the codes of medical ethics of all the countries of the world.”
In his letter, Dr. Halpern cautioned that by the time of the Olympics, diplomats and others waiting to protest against the atrocities would be unable to prevent, halt or save the lives of many innocent people who are killed for their organs just simply because they have beliefs different from the state. Dr. Halpern called for an emergency meeting of the Council of the WPA “to address this problem and act to save many lives.”
In New York City, there are a growing number of African-Americans throughout the five boroughs who have become Falun Gong practitioners. One practitioner, Denise Benson, who is a public information specialist with a state agency, said that at the time she happened onto the practice she was in addictive and abusive situations.
“I’ve been on my job for 27 years and was a functioning addict, and no one knew. But, I wanted to make changes in my life,” she said. Benson said that she was appalled when she found out that Falun Gong members were specifically targeted for their organs and corneas.
As an African-American, she said, “I know that people wonder what I have in common with the practitioners in China. It is simple, it’s our belief in truth, compassion and tolerance.”
While reports are scarce of African-Americans who have benefited from organ transplants originating in China, people need to be aware because as it affects one, it affects all, Benson said.
Another African-American, Agnes Pleasant who lives in Staten Island and has been a Falun Gong practitioner for four years, said, “No one other than Falon Dafa, the other name Falun Gong practitioners are called, seem to have picked up on this. The world seems to be ignoring this fact. Everyone seems to have closed their ears.”
Dr. Wang said that between 2001 and 2003, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were put in secret facilities in Shenyang City in Liaoning Province in Northeast China.
“There are reports,” she said, “that the practitioners had their organs removed by teams of surgeons.”
The report by Matas and Kilgour told of one of the doctors suffered a nervous breakdown after being forced to remove 2,000 corneas from Falun Gong practitioners.
Dr. Wang said that the reason why Falun Gong members are chosen was because of their beliefs and the martial arts practice they perform, an offshoot of the ancient practice of Qi Gong; their lifestyle changes contribute to healthier organs. In the process of organ removal in China, Dr. Wang said, only a minimum amount of anesthesia is used. Usually, she added, in the United States, organ removal is based on donation and every effort is used to preserve the donor’s life. In China, however, she said, after a person’s organs have been removed, the person is cremated. Ancient Chinese custom, she said, insists that the body be buried intact and the practice of organ removal violates those traditions. Dr. Wang said that the normal rate of organ donations in China is usually about three percent, only in the case of brain-dead patients and if they pre-sign a donor card for their organs to be harvested, and is about 10 cases per year. With the high incidence of organ removals, she asks, where are the organs coming from?
The economic laws of demand and supply are employed in this macabre practice. People from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, some European countries and Asian Pacific countries have been to China for transplants. “These people have been told they only have to wait three days to get an organ,” Dr. Wang said.
In a January 2007 article, The Desperate Arrangement printed in Forbes by Richard Morris, details the cost of organs, the places where specialized hospitals have been set up, the lengths people would go to obtain replacement body parts and the body-parts brokers who are reaping a fortune.
Dr. Wang said that with the transplant market being very tight, taking the organs from defenseless and economically disadvantaged people for a profit supports the supply and demand paradigm.
“The enormous profit from organ sales is an allure for the CCP brainwashed medical professionals leading to the systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. There is a special office in China coordinating and controlling organ harvesting, called 610, for June 10, the date when the office was established,” she said.
The 610 Office, she added, has broad sweeping powers and the head of it is Gan Lou, who was appointed byJiang Ze Min former CCP chief.
In the United States, according to the Website for the United Network for Organ Sharing, currently there are 96,400 patients waiting for transplants. As of April 2007, 2,269 transplants were done and of that number, 1,191 were donors. According to data provided on the Website by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, 82,150 liver transplants have been performed between 1988 and 2007. Of that number, 7,259 were African-American. For the same period, 236,496 kidney transplants have been performed and of that 52,924 were for African-Americans. And, of the 41,065 heart transplants that have been done for the same period, between 1988 and 2007, 5,264 African-Americans received hearts.
According to the report by Matas and Kilgour, “there appeared to be only 22 liver transplants centres operating across China before 1999, compared to fully 500 in mid-April 2006. The number of liver transplant operations in all of China appeared to total 135 by 1998, contrasted with more than 4,000 in 2005 alone. For kidneys, the pattern is also significant (3,596 transplants in 1998 and nearly 10,000 in 2005).”
The report continues to suggest that the increase in organ transplants parallel the persecution of Falun Gong and while it does not prove the allegation; they are, however, consistent with the allegations.
Calls to the Chinese Consulate’s office in New York were redirected to the Chief Press Officer, Wenqi Gao, who would not comment, but referred all enquires about organ harvesting to the Chinese government’s Website.

Obama A Friend To Black Gays

2007-11-05T11:37:00.000-05:00

Obama in exclusive interview with Black gay magazine

Obama a friend to gays and lesbians.
By Antoine Craigwell

New York, NY — Oct 24—In a statement of commitment, not only to the Black gay community but as a response to questions about his position on gays, Senator Barack Obama, a 2008 presidential candidate, recently granted an exclusive interview with PULSE, a magazine produced by Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD), a New York-based social service and advocacy agency.
More recently, however, on Oct 23, the Associate Press (AP) reported that there have been calls for Sen. Obama to distance himself from the gospel singer and minister, Donnie McClurkin, who is among several other gospel singers scheduled to perform in a concert in South Carolina this weekend. According to AP, McClurkin has elicited the ire of gays around the country with his views on homosexuality.
Obama, in a response, carried by AP, to the calls, ‘said he believes gays and lesbians are “our brothers and sisters” and should be afforded the same respect, dignity and rights granted all other citizens.’
In the interview with PULSE, Obama addressed issues such as the “Don’t ask Don’t tell” stance about gays in the military; homelessness and violence affecting gay youth; homophobia in the healthcare system; and the elimination of the “F” word (faggot or fag) along with the “N” and “B” words from common usage.
Interviewed by Tokes Osubu, executive director of GMAD, and Robert Crawford, associate publisher for PULSE, Obama said that he fully supports the repeal of the “Don’t ask Don’t tell policy, where the real test for the military is found in its sense of duty, patriotism and willingness to serve. He referred to the 2005 General Accounting Office (GAO) report, which said that the policy has resulted in significant loss of qualified service members for critical occupations and who have important language skills.
“I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces,” said Obama.
He said that while the issue of homelessness and the perpetration of violence against gay youth are at crisis levels, gays and lesbians who make up 3% to 5% of the general population “account for 20% of homeless youth under age 21 in many urban areas.” Obama said that many young men and women face difficulties in their development, including rejection from family and friends, harassment, violence from peers, rejection from adults, HIV risks, and substance abuse.
“I believe we have to do more to ensure that we have adequate resources and support structures to nourish and encourage gay and lesbian youth, as well as all young people,” Obama said. He called attention to the cuts in funding to the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and for funding restoration for the Community Development Block Grant program. “As president,” he said, “ I will fund these programs and ensure that we have adequate funding and support for homeless youth.”
With respect to the homophobia in the healthcare system and the Ryan White Care Act, Obama said, “We must continue to fund this vital program. It is a program that provides access to life-saving treatment and care for over half a million low-income Americans with HIV/AIDS.” He said in his campaign he proposed an affordable universal healthcare plan for all Americans.
“I will create a new national health program that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable healthcare similar to that available to federal employees. No one will be turned away or charged more due to illness, and everyone who needs it will receive a subsidy for their premiums,” Obama said. The creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange, he said, is a way of reforming the private health insurance market so that any American could enroll in participating private plans and provide comprehensive benefits, issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums.
Weighing into and adding another letter to the controversy surrounding the use of the “N” and “B words,” Obama said, “I find the “F word” just as reprehensible as the “N and B words”, it too has no place in a tolerant America.” He said that all Americans have witnessed a coarsening of the culture that everyone has to think about. The entertainment industry has played a role, he said, “but in many ways we have to accept personal responsibility and begin to condemn discriminatory and derogatory insults, wherever they may arise.” ###