MF GALAXY

A more interesting question than you might think. Read what Tyee has to say.

"If the violence continued to escalate and it continued to be so dangerous to unarmed humanitarian workers, the UN might not be able to sustain its operations for 2.5 million people requiring life-saving assistance [in Darfur]."

"The most brutal U.S.-backed dictator you've never heard of-- Hissène Habré of Chad --has just been indicted in Belgium on charges of mass murder and torture. His indictment was a decisive breakthrough in a judicial chess game pitting the former central African dictator against a Chadian torture victim who did not give up and a New York 'dictator hunter' at Human Rights Watch." See also: "Ex-Chad Dictator Indicted in Belgium"

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez: "They protect him (Luis Posada Carriles) and besides allege, in a cynical way, that they're protecting him against Venezuela because Venezuela is going to torture him. That's to say, the government of the United States is protecting the number one torturer in the history of Latin America, the Bin Laden of Latin America."

'The G8, the Bank and the Fund have forgotten about the more than 100 other poor countries that urgently need their debts cancelled. For them the deal brings disappointment with perhaps a glimmer of hope of further action following this precedent.' " Christian Aid's new report, 'What About Us: Debt and the Countries the G8 Left Behind', unveils the stark truth about the debt deal which leaves 19 out of every 20 people in the developing world mired in debt." Read Christian Aid's full report here . See also "NGOs Welcome Debt Deal With Caution": "The World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have endorsed a deal to cancel $42.5 billion owed by 18 poor countries , but debt cancellation campaigners have criticised the list of beneficiaries as being 'too small'." Visit Jubilee USA Network for more information on cutting Original World "debt " ( although almost no one ever discuss es the massive debt, ...

All Africa.com writes: "'To the best of their ability, foreign journalists will want to take footage of that starving child in West Africa, that woman ravaged by HIV/Aids in Soweto, the street child in Kenya and the Internally Displaced Persons in Darfur ,' [lamented CEO of the Nation Media Group Wilfred Kiboro], adding that they totally negate the tremendous achievements the continent has registered over the years. " 'Ask why these people treat the entire African continent as just one country . If they hear that people are fighting in one country, they think that the entire continent is at war. If they hear that people are starving, they generalise the whole situation,' said Kiboro. He singled out CNN for giving little airtime on the positive image of Africa, but also blamed the African journalists for lack of objective reporting in regard to the continent. "'The media in Africa has much to be blamed for the current state of affairs vis-à-vis taint...

Check out Brother Xyborg's page, with excellent Malcolm X video and some fascinating clips by other speakers. You don't have to agree with everything, just don't prejudge it. Hotep to Br. Xyborg for putting together this fascinating collection.

This Saturday, athletes from across the Afrikan continent will be competing a race of some of the world’s finest half-marathon runners. Some have already arrived, and the rest will be arriving tomorrow and Friday, from Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. If you’d like to be on-hand to give a great big E-Town welcome to these athletes in preparation of cheering them on this Saturday, please call Mekonnen at 719-8750 or Nyambura 420-6832 for more information . The Marathon starts this Saturday at Hawrelak Park . The Men’s race begins at 11:30 AM , and the women’s at 1:00 PM . Entry to Hawrelak Park is free. You can catch an ETS shuttle from the University bus loop or the University Stadium Parkade. There’ll be celebration with drumming for all all Athletes 6 pm Saturday at the Shaw Conference Centre. For more informatio...

Nigeria, that bastion of ecological purity , economic development benefitting its citizens and democratic dynamism , has deployed naval vessels to protect the oil industry. May the ghost of Ken Saro-Wiwa haunt the Nigerian military and Big Oil forever.

Is ex-leftist Chris Hitchens a " court jester " for the Neo-Cons ? That's what British MP George Galloway says. Hear or watch the two debate by scrolling down and clicking on the sidebar here , and read Juan Cole's analysis of Hitchens' integrity here .

In 1965 he was born Laurence Krishna Parker , son of a West Indian immigrant to the United States. He gave himself many names: The Teacher, Blastmaster, Metaphysician. With social worker and DJ Scott LaRock , he co-founded the South Bronx hip hop group BDP--Boogie Down Productions--and began a public life that spawned hip hop’s Stop the Violence movement, cultural theory of hip hop, political consciousness-raising and mystical expression . Most long-time fans of hip hop regard him as one of the music’s finest and most influential emcees ever . That man is KRS-One. Having released at least fourteen full-length albums including the debut Criminal Minded, By All Means Necessary, Edutainment, I Got Next and Keep Right , KRS-One has been a busy man in the history of hip hop music, and with ally Public Enemy helping to usher in the golden age of politically conscious and Africentric hip hop which fed and was fed by the rise of Spike Lee and the breakout of Black movie-making in the United...

Thanks to The Timbuktu Chronicles for this link. "In the waiting area of a large office complex in Accra, Ghana, it's standing room only as citizens with bundles of cash line up to buy shares of a mutual fund that has yielded an average 60 percent annually for the past seven years. They're entrusting their hard-earned cash to a local company called Databank, which invests in stock markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana and Kenya that consistently rank among the world's top growth markets .... "... The Ghana Stock Exchange regu larly tops the list of the world's highest-performing stock markets . Botswana , with its A+ credit rating , boasts one of the highest per capita government savings rates in the world, topped only by Singapore and a handful of other fiscally prudent nations. Cell phones are making phenomenal profits on the continent. Brand-name companies like Coca-Cola, GM, Caterpillar and Citibank have invested in Africa for years and are quite bullis...

TONIGHT ON THE TERRORDOME: Malik Rahim , former member of the Black Panther Party and a former Green Party candidate in the United States, speaks from New Orleans about the lack of government assistance to those devastated by Hurricane Katrina . We'll also hear about the deployment and deputising by American government officials of one of the most feared groups of trained killers on the planet to police New Orleans. In the second half of tonight’s show, we’ll hear all about how you can get involved with an exciting independent media , activism and fair-trade fair and film fest in E-Town , called the North of Nowhere Expo, beginning this Friday. Tune in live here , and archived here .

Check out PE's powerful new single responding to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the disgraceful lack of preventive action and timely response to the storm . The song is free.

"It would have been almost impossible to imagine , during the days and weeks that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 , that we might someday look back on that depressing time with a tinge of nostalgia.... In a strange way, Sept. 11 - despite all the instantaneous proclamations that things would never be the same - represented a final moment of innocence."

"Yahoo! helped send Shi Tao , 37-- a journalist with the business daily Dangdai Shang Ba -- to prison for 10 years , by providing China's state security authorities with details that helped to identify and convict him, the Paris-based international organization Reporters Without Borders announced today. "

For a huge list of suggestions of how you can help survivors of Hurricane Katrina, check out Michael Moore's homepage for this article. Since most of the people affected are American Afrikans , how about donating to community groups directly? Here's a list compiled by Kevin Powell. Doug Ireland writes: "Founded by Quakers in 1917 to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian war victims, the AFSC won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for its work with World War II refugees--especially prisoners liberated from Nazi concentration camps --and its opposition to nuclear weapons. It's still Quaker-run, and its sterling history of agitation and education for peace is matched by its long record, for nearly a century, of effective, on-the-ground service to victims of warand famine, and to the impoverished both here and abroad. (The AFSC also has an extensive LGBT program.) A gift to the AFSC won't be wasted." So you can also help by donating ...

" There’s something stinkier here than the reported conditions in the Superdome sanctuary or the stew of sewage, petrochemicals, dead human and animal corpses swirling atop what used to be a city. It’s the soul of capitalism, swollen with profit-lust like the liver of a goose overfed to produce fois gras. Even as la Ville in its present incarnation expires, its Wal-Marts dying with it, its cops must turn from the task of evacuating the stranded to protecting the property of the well-insured. Such a moral quandary for the power elite. What do you save? A couple black kids on a roof, without food and water, at risk of cholera, or the jewelry counter in a local outlet of the world’s largest retailer? What better reinforces the levees of the sinking system -- displays of compassion, or displays of shoot-to-kill power?"

"Interrogation of pro-Syrian [Lebanese] generals named by a top UN investigator as suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri has resumed in Lebanon." Meanwhile, "Facing international pressure over a Lebanese assassination investigation and a possible US snub, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has decided not to attend the world summit at UN headquarters in New York next week."

" Egyptians have voted in the country's first contested presidential election , but charges of fraud and a big boycott rally marred balloting that long-time President Hosni Mubarak portrayed as a major democratic reform."

Al Jazeera reports: "An Israeli human-rights organisation has accused Israeli soldiers of killing innocent Palestinian civilians and lying about it. "...According to B'tselem , 3269 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish settlers since September 2000 . About 1700 or just over half of these are believed to have been civilians, including 654 children." It's the old good news/bad news: good that there are crusading Israelis who give a damn about justice for aboriginal people and will let the chips fall where they may... bad that they have to. I wish that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tibet, Chad, and dozens of other countries had their own version of B'tselem which could operate without fear of reprisal.

The New York Daily News reports: "Like President Bush, the Secretary of State has been on vacation during the Hurricane Katrina crisis, with Rice enjoying her downtime in New York.... On Wednesday night, Secretary Rice was booed by some audience members at Spamalot!, the Monty Python musical at the Shubert, when the lights went up after the performance. "...Rice went shopping at Ferragamo on Fifth Ave. According to the Web site gawker.com , the 50-year-old bought 'several thousand dollars' worth of shoes' at the pricey leather-goods boutique. A fellow shopper shouted, "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!" - presumably referring to Louisiana and Mississippi. " People, people, get a grip! Must we all be " haters "? Why can't people just leave this poor, over-worked woman alone? All she wants to do is make her syrup and bring joy to certain people in the United States. All she wants to do is love her...

According to Billboard , Rapper Kanye West announced during a live-broadcast hurricane-relief event: " 'George Bush doesn't care about Black people' and said America is set up 'to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible.'" He'd begun his remarks by saying, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a Black family, it says they're looting. See a White family, it says they're looking for food." Watch Kanye West's remarks here. See below for details on how to donate to relief efforts.

A pizza will cost you fifteen bucks. A movie will cost you ten. But that same money can help save lives right here in the worst disaster in North America in a decade. Please be generous. Donate to the Red Cross here. More details on other ways to donate here. Meanwhile, check out "The 'black tsunami' sparks fury" and listen to New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin lash out at U.S. officials.

"With the world media focusing on the plight of relocated Israelis, the continued suffering of Palestinians has fallen even more to the wayside." Read my full analysis of the end of Israel's occupation of Gaza --the feature story in the latest Vue Weekly. Also: " Israeli Arabs shot dead are not considered terrorism victims because their killer was Jewish , [Israel's] defence ministry says."

The New York Times writes: "[F]or many African-American leaders , there is a growing outrage that many of those still stuck at the center of this tragedy were people who for generations had been pushed to the margins of society. "The victims, they note, were largely black and poor , those who toiled in the background of the tourist havens, living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed. Without so much as a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time, they found themselves left behind by a failure to plan for their rescue should the dreaded day ever arrive." Democracy Now! headlines: "Scope of Destruction Much Worse Than 9/11" "Top City Official Blasts FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency): 'This Is A National Disgrace'" "No FEMA Officials Reported in Mississippi" "Governor Gives Troops Shoot-to-Kill Orders" Details: "The state of Mississippi is reporting ...

Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam has invited American Africans from the LGBT community to the October 15 Millions More Movement march commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the Million Man March. The Village Voice writes: "From Kanye West to Louis Farrakhan, new signs of gay friendliness among African Americans." Click here for a video interview with Farrakhan on the October 16 commemorative march.

Br. Sean Gonsalves writes, "[T]he Bush administration played right into the hands of Osama bin Laden, who was counting on Bush to attack Iraq after 9-11 to remove a secular Arab regime, open the door for an Islamist stronghold, divide the West, and recruit operatives. Stay the course? I bet Osama hopes we do."