MF GALAXY

Tonight on THE TERRORDOME: William H. Watkins discusses the thesis of his book on the American education system, The White Architects of Black Education , while author Robin Stone discusses another form of child abuse, as she discusses her book No Secrets, No Lies: How Black Families Can Heal From Sexual Abuse . 6 PM Mountain Time CJSR FM88 www.cjsr.com The White Architects of Black Education In any system, those who control information control everyone. Although some conservatives attack the educational system by claiming that it fails to teach values, it’s actually impossible for education to be free of values. The very act of teaching something confirms that those who teach it consider it valuable. What they really mean is that the values that they want highlighted are not highlighted. But just because ultra-conservatives are unhappy, that doesn’t mean progressives should be happy. Like any social institution, the educational system not only reflects, but is designed to maintain ...

I spoke with Stephen Lewis on Sunday morning about Afrika, AIDS, Western arrogance and Oprah Winfrey. You can hear my conversation with him on The Terrordome (check the link on the left) Wednesday at 6 PM Mountain Time on CJSR FM88 and/or www.cjsr.com . You can also read the text version below. He'll be speaking in E-Town this Monday at noon for free. For info, check here . You can check out the Stephen Lewis Foundation here. Footnote links on Wednesday's Terrordome: Sudanese Slavery Hoax? (scroll down and check on the right). On Live 8: Bob Geldof Praises George Bush Live 8 Short on Africans Live 8 Charity Gigs Not African Enough For Critics The G8, Live 8, and Africa: Taking Hypocrisy to New Levels What rocks is capitalism... yeah, yeah, yeah Talking with Stephen Lewis If international human rights work were George Lucas’s Star Wars , then Stephen Lewis would probably be Obi-Wan Kenobi, a warrior envisaging a better world while witnessing the one he’s in collapsing, a w...

Br. Binyavanga Wainaina writes, "In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country . It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book... so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular. "Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it— because you care. "Taboo subjects: ordinary domestic scenes, love between...

My man Br. Ernest Dickerson ( Juice, Bones, Never Die Alone ) said that a Japanese SF movie called Casshern looks like it cost $150 million but only cost $6 million. Kot-tam , the trailer alone looks like it cost $6 million. Thing aint even come out in North America yet (not on the screens, anyway), but I'm trying to track down a copy. Looks freaking amazing.

The haircut... the nerdiness... the anger... the rules! rules! rules!, the toadying to "superiors" (Bush and Superintendent Chalmers) while attempting to appear strong on his own... the anti-labour agenda... Some folks have a serious hate on for this guy. Me... I figure we just need to organise a whole bunch of Barts and before you know it, we'll... uh... what, go back to endless Liberal arrogance, corporate lackeyism and undercover fusion with American policy (while claiming to do the opposite)? And you can forget about the krypto-conservative Neo-Greens in Canada . Led by a Tory, they're really the Turquoise Party. Kot-tam, kilogram. Check out a much better alternative.

Br. Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes: "In the late 1960s when King denounced the Vietnam war, embraced militant union struggles, and barnstormed around the country blasting wealth and class privilege , the red-baiters and professional King haters branded him a Communist. The Lyndon Johnson White House turned hostile. Corporate and foundation supporters slowly turned off the money spigot .... "In his last installment on King, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 , Taylor Branch tells how King stormed out of a planning meeting for his Poor People's March , in fury at the attacks directed at him by some of his top aides who wanted to scrap the March . The issue of uniting masses of poor people for economic uplift smacked of class war and was too risky and dangerous.... "King's civil rights friends weren't the only ones that took shots at him. Many black ministers joined in the King bash.... [T]he National Baptist Convention in 1961, then (and n...

In 2003, Sudan's ambassador claimed: "There is no slavery is Sudan, period." For a long time I've been horrified by the atrocities committed by the Sudanese government and its proxies, especially in Darfur . I have no doubts that this government is a frequently behaving as an enemy of freedom . So don't misunderstand where this post is going. I'm against forced Islamisation as much as I'm against forced Christianisation, communisation, capitalisation or any other form of coercion. But according to allegations in this CBS report by Dan Rather , the entire "free the enslaved Sudanese" movement is nothing but a racket. To view the CBS documentary , scroll down and look on the right for the report labelled The Sudan Slave Trade . We may be looking at a case where we've got an evil government and misguided or fraudulent "crusaders." You might also want to check out some alternate points of view , including Sudan Update and Escape f...

Ss. Margaret Kimberley writes: "Eu rope and the United States created terrible poverty and instability around the world . So much so, that the people they oppress yearn to live in the oppressor nations in hopes of improving their lives.... "No other group is dissuaded from learning about its ancestry as much as black people are dissuaded. Even groups whose ancestors immigrated voluntarily came from poor countries. Their homelands weren't just poor, they were often oppressive. There would have been no immigration if that were not the case. Yet the New York Times doesn't tell anyone else to forget about identifying with their place of origin. Only black Americans are told to wise up and be grateful for what the system has meted out to them. "Not content to make light of African Americans attempts to connect to Africa, the New York Times had to add the piece de resistance. They had to call Henry Louis Gates .... Gates is definitely shrewd. He has gamed a system...

Check out this audio interview with Richard Morgan , the author of Market Forces, a recent SF novel that combines Oliver Stone's Wall Street with Mad Max. He's also a swell guy. In the interview, Morgan discusses other books of his including Woken Furies. You can read my review of Market Forces here.

Br. John Maxwell writes: " the world has seen what [U.S.] unilateral arrangements can mean, at Abu Ghraib and Gunatanamo Bay , for example, and in the vast gulag archipelago for suspected terrorists now being operated round the world by the United States . "As one of Britian's most eminent judges, Lord Steyn, has said, the US has created a 'law-free zone' where it can commit any crime against anyone without fear of prosecution . Or so Mr Bush's advisers believe ."

"Ever since he was elected in 2001 - and especially since his withdrawal of settlements from the rubbish tip of Gaza last year, a step which would, according to his spokesman, turn any plans for a Palestinian state in the West Bank into 'formaldehyde' - his supporters have tried to turn Sharon into a pragmatist, another Charles de Gaulle. His new party was supposed to be proof of this. "But in reality, Sharon had more in common with the putchist generals of Algeria. He voted against the peace treaty with Egypt in 1979. He voted against a withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 1985. He opposed Israel's participation in the Madrid peace conference in 1991. He opposed the Knesset plenum vote on the Oslo agreement in 1993. He abstained on a vote for peace with Jordan in 1994. He voted against the Hebron agreement in 1997. He condemned the manner of Israel's retreat from Lebanon in 2000. By 2002, he had built 34 new Jewish colonies on Palestinian land. And he was a ...

"...As the CIA later learned, the Iranian who received the download was a double agent . The agent quickly turned the data over to Iranian security officials, and it enabled them to 'roll up' the CIA's network throughout Iran. CIA sources say that several of the Iranian agents were arrested and jailed, while the fates of some of the others is still unknown. "This espionage disaster, of course, was not reported. It left the CIA virtually blind in Iran, unable to provide any significant intelligence on one of the most critical issues facing the US - whether Tehran was about to go nuclear.

Thanks to Doug Ireland for this video. And here's a weird thing: O'Reilly refers to Britain's intelligence agency "M-I-6" as "M-1-6".

The excellent Doug Ireland (see links on the left) writes: "The Islamic Republic of Iran --under the new government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad --is engaged in a major anti-homosexual pogrom targeting gays and gay sex. This campaign includes Internet entrapment, blackmail to force arrested gays to inform on others, torture and executions of those found guilty of engaging in 'homosexual acts.'" And, on a more hopeful note: Cambridge, MA re -elected Mayor Ken Reeves, the first Afrikan mayor in Massachussets and the first Black "out" mayor anywhere in the US . Thanks to Black Electorate.com for both these stories. See also Black Gay Leaders To Hold National Summit.

sondjata wrote in response to my previous posting: "I have issues with this. In the US and elsewhere overweight men and women suffer disproportionately from Hypertension, Diabeties and related illnesses. If reducing ones weight can lead to a healthier life with less doctor visits and less reliance on medication in old(er) age, then that should not be looked at as 'Western' but rather as healthy." Allow me to respond. Obesity is absolutely a health problem , leading among other crises to heart attacks, strokes and diabetes, not to mention a general lowering of quality of life in that obesity limits mobility. As well, the small-minded discriminate against the obese and arbitrarily determine what is considered "overweight." For instance: “The statistics are appalling: According to a 2004 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a study by Yale University predicts that if childhood obesity maintains its current pace, today’s children will suffer heart atta...

"Like many South African women, Bongi Tsuene is worried about her weight. The difference is that Tsuene, featured in a television advertisement promoting a slimming formula, is black. "Experts say more black women like Tsuene are shunning the traditional African reverence for the fuller figure as they adapt to the pressures of post-apartheid South Africa, raising fears they could become vulnerable to eating disorders. "

"Last month I happened to go into the Borders Books store at the Stonecrest mall in Lithonia, Ga., about a half-hour from my house here.... I walked into the 'African-American Literature' section - and what I saw there thoroughly embarrassed and disgusted me. "On shelf after shelf, in bookcase after bookcase, all that I could see was lurid book jackets displaying all forms of brown flesh, usually half-naked and in some erotic pose, often accompanied by guns and other symbols of criminal life . I felt as if I was walking into a pornography shop, except in this case the smut is being produced by and for my people, and it is called 'literature.'"

"The Egyptian government has announced plans to deport over 600 Sudanese migrants , just days after police killed close to 30 unarmed Sudanese on Friday. The killings occurred outside United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Cairo, where the Sudanese had gathered to protest the UN's decision to deny them refugee status. After failing to disperse them with water cannons, police stormed the crowd with clubs and metal sticks. Close to 30 people -- most of them children, elderly, and women - were killed. Another 2,000 people were arrested. Sudanese refugees have waged a bitter three-month protest, alleging racism and mistreatment in Egypt. While many have been granted permission to stay in Egypt, the Sudanese are demanding the UN grant them refugee status so they may emigrate to other countries."

"The Governing Board of Editors of the American Biographical Institute is pleased to announce the prestigious title of Man of the Year 2005 on Prof. Peter U. Nwangwu , Pharm.D., Ph.D. of Midland, Texas. This award is presented to a select number of individuals annually from across the globe that exhibit extraordinary achievement and determination based on American ideals of entrepreneurship and success along with community involvement . Prof. Peter Uchenna Nwangwu was chosen based on his outstanding accomplishments, character, integrity, and the noble example he has set for his peers and entire community."