Friday, January 7, 2011

Dr. Nigger on the Streets of Oakland



Dr. Nigger on the Streets of Oakland


When Oakland folks stop by Marvin X's Academy of da Corner at 14th and Broadway, crossroads of the East Bay, he let's them peruse Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry issue--he was guest editor. The poems people like, they proceed to read aloud. To date, the most oft-read poem is Dr. Nigger by Philadelphia poet/physician Dr. Neal Hall, author of Nigger for Life, 2009.

Dr. Nigger

Dr. Nigger

Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands

Can you save my life
without changing my life

Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue

Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you

Dr. Nigger

Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air

Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart

Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by

Dr. Nigger

save my life
without taking my life

Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands

Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue

Neal Hall, M.D., Copyright 2009


nigger-for-life“…a warrior of the mind … a warrior of the spirit,
an activist, a poet.”

- Cornel West, Ph.D.

Neal Hall, M.D., graduate of Cornell and Harvard, ophthalmologist and poet, has published a critically acclaimed anthology of verse, Nigger For Life, reflecting his painful, later life discovery, that in “unspoken America,” race is the one thing on which he is “first” judged, by which he is “first” measured, “first”, against which his life and accomplishments are metered diminished value, dignity, equality and justice. All of which have everything to do with accessing choice, opportunity, power and freedom in America.

It’s no ordinary muse that has Dr. Hall becoming as much a part of his poetry as his poetry has become a part of him. Rather it’s a deep sense of betrayal combined with a passion for life that shows through. He can’t help but bare his intelligence, his wit and his dreams. His anthology is as confronting as it is illuminating, as disarming as it is thought provoking

Two notable and well respected minds best describe why Nigger For Life is important and timely: Cornel West, Ph.D., (Princeton University) said of the book “…his poetry has the capacity to change ordinary people’s philosophy on social and racial issues”. Beth Richie, Ph.D. (University of Illinois at Chicago) stated the “ … images and issues addressed in Nigger For Life are tremendously important to our [African American] people and the academic field of African American Studies”

Nigger For Life’s candid, gut wrenching clarity gives it it’s tremendous power and impact to provoke both thought and honest dialog regarding race, racism, equality and freedom, not just in America, but throughout the world. The book’s unique ability to open minds, touch hearts and change philosophies of ordinary people is immeasurable.

The body of poetry is extraordinary … meaningful beyond black and white, worthy of – down through the ages – analytical and academic study for their compelling, empowering commentary. Nigger for Life should be read, studied and included amongst the great poetry volumes written.
Nigger For Life can be obtained at: www.surgeonpoet.com

Email: info@NiggerForLifeBook.com

Online Interview at: www.caribbeanbookblog.wordpress.com.

Conversations LIVE! Radio http://conversationslive.blogspot.com





Journal of Pan African Studies is Online


The Journal of Pan African Studies
works to become a beacon of light in the sphere of African world community studies and research, grounded in an interdisciplinary open access scholarly peer-reviewed construct, simultaneously cognizant of the multilingualism of our audience, and the importance of universal access in cyberspace; regardless of geography, economic, social or cultural diversity.

::More Information
::Editorial Board
::Contact The JPAS


::Instructions for submitting a manuscript





CURRENT ISSUE

Volume 4 • Number 2 • 2010

This special issue of The Journal of Pan African Studies is edited by guest editor Marvin X and dedicated to Dingane aka Jose Goncalves, the publisher and editor of the Journal of Black Poetry, which has published some 500 poets.

Groundation

JPAS: Dedicated to Dingane, Jose Goncalves
by Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

The Poets
by Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

Letters to the Editor
[ view PDF ]

Dingane Joe Goncalves, The Journal of Black Poetry & Small Non-Commercial Black Journals
by Rudolph Lewis
[ view PDF ] [ view PDF ]

In My Negritude

Shaggy Flores, Ras Griot, Phavia Kujichagulia, Chinwe Enemchukwu, L. E. Scott, Rodney D. Coates, J. Vern Cromartie, Dike Okoro, Neal E. Hall, Marvin X, Mohja Kahf, Ayodele Nzingha, Askia M. Toure, Michael Simanga, Amiri Baraka, Kalamu ya Salaam, Kola Boof, Louis Reyes, Rivera, Aries Jordan, Ptah Allah El, and Hettie V. Williams
[ view PDF ]

Teaching Diaspora Literature: Muslim American Literature as an Emerging Field
by Mohja Kahf
[ view PDF ]

Mother Earth Responds by Askia Toure
reviewed by Kamaria Muntu
[ view PDF ]

Tainted Soul by T. Ptah Mitchell
reviewed by Zulu King
[ view PDF ]

The Whirlwind

Tracey Owens Patton, devorah major, Anthony Mays, Bruce George, Jeanette Drake, Itibari M. Zulu, Renaldo Manuel Ricketts, Nandi Comer, Al Young, Ghasem Batamuntu, Mona Lisa Saloy, Eugene B. Redmond, Fritz Pointer, Gwendolyn Mitchell, Felix Orisewike Sylvanus, Rudolph Lewis, Kamaria Muntu, Ed Bullins, Mabel Mnensa, Kwan Booth, and Tureeda Mikell
[ view PDF ]

Poetic Mission: A Dialogue on the Role of the Poet and Poetry
by Rudolph Lewis (dialogue team: Marvin X, Jerry Ward, Mary Weems, and C. Leigh McInnis)
[ view PDF ]

The Poetic Mission: Art II: Reviewing a Life, A Calling
by Haki R. Madhubuti
[ view PDF ]

Amour of Ancestors

Everett Hoagland, Charles Blackwell, Jacqueline Kibacha, John Reynolds III, Darlene Scott, Jimmy Smith Jr., Sam Hamud, Opal Palmer Adisa, Amy ‘Aimstar’ Andrieux, Lamont b. Steptoe, Avotcja Jiltonilro, Anthony Spires, Benecia Blue, Neil Callender, Tanure Ojaide, Pious Okoro, Tony Medina, Dr. Ja A. Jahannes, Brother Yao, Zayad Muhammad, Nykimbe Broussard, Kilola Maishya, Niyah X, Adrienne N. Wartts, Greg Carr, Darlene Roy, Tantra Zawadi, Ishmael Reed, Quincy Scott Jones, Bob McNeil, Ariel Pierson, Marie Rice, Yvonne Hilton, Bolade Akintolayo, Latasha Diggs, Felton Eaddy, and B. Sharise Moore
[ view PDF ]

Reviews, News, Views

Medical Mythology
by Ramal Lamar
[ view PDF ]

Qaddafy’s Apology for Arab Slavery: A Dialogue Between Poets
by Rudolph Lewis, Sam Hamud, and Kola Boof
[ view PDF ]

Prize and Award: Chinua Achebe and Haki R. Madhubuti
[ view PDF ]

Two Poets in Oakland: Ishmael Reed and Marvin X
by Ishmael Reed and Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

A Pan African Dialogue on Cuba: From Black Bird Press
by Dead Prez, Carlos Moore, Pedro de la Hoz, and North American African Activist, Intellectuals and Artist
[ view PDF ]

Black Arts West Celebrates Amiri Baraka at 75
a photos essay by Kamau Amen-Ra
[ view PDF ]

Amiri Baraka Entertains SF: ‘Lowku’ versus Haiku Revives Fillmore Spirit
by Lee Hubbard and Marvin X
[ view PDF ]


For a print version of Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry issue, contact Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702, 475 pages, $49.95. Your donation supports Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Neo Feudalism or Wage Slavery


Neo Feudalism or Wage Slavery

Ideally, capitalism desires cheap labor and resources in order to increase profits or capital to the maximum. The primary motive is profit, regarding labor as expendable or replaceable since there is an infinite supply of slaves or workers. And it assumed there will be a infinite amount of natural resources to exploit, ultimately at the point of the gun, i.e., obtainable by warfare.

We can use the African slave trade as a recent example of how capitalists kidnapped Africans and through behavior modification or brainwashing enforced by terror, the whip and gun, made them labor from can't see to can't see til eternity without paying them one dime. African land was in turn raped of all natural resources available, gold, diamonds, ivory, and other precious minerals and metals.

The industrial revolution made a minor change from chattel slavery to wage slavery that has persisted to today, of course for some workers wage slavery existed simultaneously with chattel slavery. The end of Reconstruction returned freed Africans to virtual chattel slavery when they became sharecroppers for racist white landowners, after the Africans were tricked out of their promised 40 acres and a mule. Landless yet forced to work the land without little compensation for their labor ultimately drove them Up South in the great migration of the latter 19th century.
Once there, the status of Africans was upgraded only slightly to the status of wage slaves, but never on par with the white workers, and this wage disparity has persisted to today. White labor is more important than black labor, and of course male labor more precious than female labor.

The unions gave workers a degree of improvement in their wages although the capitalist bosses fought tooth and nail to keep wages low, ultimately conspiring with union bosses to trick workers of their new found gains in job security, health insurance and retirement benefits.

The present economic melt down is the grand opportunity for capitalists to again approach chattel slavery in their wage war with workers. Outsourcing enabled the capitalists to destroy American workers, black and white, male and female. If American workers are prepared to enjoy the wage slavery of workers in outsourced countries, then there may be a few jobs for them. We recently heard that India is prepared to outsource jobs to America, at Indian wage slave levels, of course. An American MBA would therefore receive the same salary of his Indian counterpart, $14,000.00 per year rather than the American salary of $140,000.00.

American corporations desire the same wages from American workers if they can get it, if not, they simply out source. Capitalism does not discriminate when it comes to exploitation of labor, i.e., it cares no more about the white worker than the black worker, except in the dumb white worker's racist mind the black has always been in competition with him, this was the great fear of emancipation among white workers.

Today outsourcing is the cause of shrinking jobs in America, but again dumb white workers are blaming immigrant labor, blacks or even China. In the case of China, white workers do not understand American capitalists are in partnerships with Chinese corporations to rip off American jobs.

We have thus reached a point in time wherein the stage is being set for a workers revolution, if only the workers will get it clear in their minds what's really going on, how they are being hoodwinked and bamboozled by the greedy capitalists who have been rewarded for robbery by use of the global financial system through the perennial pyramid scheme banking network guided by the banker's bank The Federal Reserve, in cahoots with Wall Street and the military/corporate/university/prison complex.

Also understand the vital role of the petrochemical and pharmaceutical bandits who poison us with devitalized foods leading us from the dinner table to the hospital to the graveyard wherein we are laid to rest in poverty after a life of wage slavery in the hostile environment of job, home and the general society wherein we were overcome by consumerism or the world of make believe.

The corporations and banks are again flowing with cash after getting reimbursed from their losses in the global sub prime loan scheme/scam. The bosses are receiving mega salaries with mega bonuses, meanwhile the American workers suffer salary decreases, pervasive job insecurity, loss of benefits such as health insurance and retirement.

When will they protest, when will they demand economic justice? Never as long as the media magicians perpetuate the world of make believe and lull them to sleep watching video games, sport and play, i.e., pussy and dick stories and music videos on giant televisions. Let us not leave out fairy tale religiosity at the Ten Per Cent Club called church, the ultimate opiate of the people although they are being drugged from cradle to grave.

The era of jobs for life is over. Corporations desire contract workers at every level to escape the cost of permanent wage slaves. The largely unqualified black worker pool is expendable and eligible for incarceration if it attempts to rebel against its social-economic insecurity through criminality and/or revolution.

Once in the criminal justice system, the unemployed and unemployable black workers suddenly become a commodity, a valuable product of the prison/corporate complex. Rather than provide the blacks with skills to obtain jobs with living wages, they are made wards of the state at the cost of fifty to sixty thousand dollars per inmate per year, providing necessary jobs for white workers, even though many blacks are also employed at the department of corrections.

The capitalists could provide jobs with a living wage to the two million plus inmates, more than it costs to send them to Harvard, Yale and Stanford, but they rather employ slave catchers called police to round them up, often after they have dropped out or pushed out of public schools that Dr. Julia Hare calls holding cells for the departments of correction. Why should Johnny and Johnny Mae be inspired by a curriculum based on white supremacy mythology?

With a great percentage of black men on probation, parole or incarcerated, the destabilization of community is complete, thus neighborhoods ripe for gentrification. And even upon release from incarceration, they are only presented with mostly minimum wage jobs. In the South, many blacks must hold down three minimum wage jobs to make it. The fear of economic insecurity makes them submissive to racist bosses who will fire them at the first instance of organizing for improvements in salary and working conditions, and especially for spreading any semblance of radical consciousness on the job, or in the community for that matter. Even Up South in the north, the blacks work in fear, afraid to purchase literature during their lunch break for fear the boss will discover they have black consciousness.

As the economy continues in meltdown, we see few opportunities for the national advancement of North American Africans. With wages shrinking, jobs disappearing, incarceration increasing, the social-psychology of the hood is reaching the breaking point. Black mental health is deteriorating rapidly. People are trying to figure a way out of the morass.

I recently offered a woman my book How to Jump Out of the Box. She saw the title and said that's what she needs, and her friend too who was with her. Then she saw a quote by Buddha and hesitated to get the book but caught herself, "Oh, I guess it don't matter who said what, if I can get out the box." I nodded.

But how shall we get out of the box? Where do we go from here? What shall we tell our youth searching for a job when there are none? What shall we tell those smart enough to attend college, yet their future is bleak as well, unless they configure a solution in face of the continued desire for virtual slavery by the greater society.


Economic independence is the only solution, not sitting around waiting for the rustication of capitalism that shall not occur without radical structural change in a system that perpetuates greed rather than social concern. Trillions are lost in the foreign wars that benefit none but the military related corporations headed by former generals. And the supreme irony is that America can promise terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere education, jobs and housing if they will only lay down their guns and pledge allegiance to the puppet regimes the US is backing in her so-called war against terrorism, while who can be a greater world terrorist than the USA itself. She is the number one arms merchant of the world, thus she is the greatest purveyor of global violence. According to Nelson Mandela America is the reason there is no peace in the world.

Meanwhile cities are going broke, states as well, not to mention the looming national deficit, including the outstanding loan due China that is growing weary of the American dollar and is trading in her own currency and switching to Euros, for the Chinese are wise enough to know the American king is no more, half naked and soon to be butt naked in the sun.

Imagine Capitalists owing Communists trillions of dollars. How could this be? We've been taught the Communists were imbeciles and Capitalists were the smart guys. But we know the capitalists practice socialism among themselves and push their rotten capitalism on the deaf, dumb and blind masses, the wage slaves who shall never inherit the earth until they bury the capitalists in their own vomit. We doubt they will suddenly decide to share the wealth, so it must be seized from them by mass unity and ultimately this may include violence. Liberty or death! If you seek a better life for yourselves and your children, you must join the revolution. Fanon said revolution is not only the solution to your economic health but your mental health as well. Mao told us the reactionaries shall never put down their butcher knives, they shall never turn into Buddha heads! Sonia Sanchez says resist, resist, resist!
--Marvin X
1/5/11

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Marvin X's Five Hunid Dollar Book



Marvin X's Five Hunid Dollar Book!!!



Marvin X, Oakland's Plato Negro, according to fellow Oakland writer Ishmael Reed, shocked the literary world last year, 2010, when he released The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables of Marvin X at the retail price of one hunid dollars.

People thought he'd lost his mind, but he laughed all the way to the bank. The limited edition sold out. Even now, Marvin doesn't have a personal copy. One brother bought seven copies to give away to friends. Many persons purchased the book on layaway.

Marvin X disdains book stores so his books are not available in stores, mainly at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. The site outside of Rite Aid is his classroom/clinic where he does peer counseling based on his book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan African/13 Step Model. At the Academy he mentors and advises youth and adults. He calls the site a sacred space and no stress zone where people can gather to discuss the myriad problems affecting their lives, especially trauma, unresolved grief and male/female relations.

The author's Black Bird Press is too poor to mass produce his books, so he prints limited editions, sometimes less than a hundred before he goes to another title. According to the Last Poets, Marvin writes a book a month. While on a national book tour in 2009, he wrote a memoir of his friend Eldridge Cleaver in three weeks, posting each chapter daily on his and other blogs.

Last year, 2010, Marvin X became one of the most prolific authors in the world, completing eight titles, including guest editing the poetry issue of the Journal of Pan African Studies, an online journal of the Pan African Diaspora. People can download the journal for free (www.jpanfricanstudies.com).

Since he received no payment for editing the magazine, the Journal editors gave Black Bird Press permission to print a hard copy version. The print version is 475 pages, $49.95.

Yesterday, the print version hit the streets. When people saw the print edition, they exclaimed,
"Ok, Marvin, how much is it, $500.00?" Two people in a row asked the same five hunid dollar question. Now $500.00 sounds better than $50.00, so let me think about, the poet said to himself.

Before he changes his mind and ups the price, we advise loyal readers of his books to rush down to the Academy of da Corner at 14th and Broadway and get your autographed copy. Poetry lovers and persons seeking African consciousness will not be disappointed at the JPAS collection of poetry from around the world.
Bay Area Poets Read from
the Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue



Bay Area poets are represented in the journal: Ishmael Reed, Al Young, Opal Palmer Adisa, devorah major, Ayodele Nzingha, Phavia Kujichagulia, Kwan Booth, Ptah Allah El,Ghasem Batamuntu, Tureeda Mikell, Kilola Maisha, Nykimbe Broussard, Fritz Pointer, J. Vern Cromartie, Renaldo Ricketts, Niya X, Avotcja, Ramal Lamar and Marvin X.













Celebrating Release of the Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies





Celebrating Release of the Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies






A reading from the journal is being planned. For more information check Marvin X's blog: www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com or email him: jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

confessions of a wife beater

WHITE SUPREMACY-2 BY MARVIN X

Marvin X Tribute sponsored The Oakland Post, show #1

Marvin X Jet #2.mp4

Obama Must Give A General Amnesty to Prisoners





Obama Must Give General Amnesty to all Prisoners


There has been a long call to free all prisoners unjustly held in American prisons and jails. Ninety per cent were mind altered at the time of their arrest, at least 50% were likely dual diagnosed, i.e., suffer drug abuse and mental illness. The majority are in for petty crimes and if they'd had proper legal representation would serve little or no time at all.

Not only are their crimes petty but should be seen as economic crimes due to poverty and lack of opportunity in a system that is advancing to what must be called neo-feudalism or wage slavery with little permanent employment, no health insurance, no unionism, thus they work at the whim of bosses who earn mega salaries and generous bonuses.

Once incarcerated, they suffer sexual and physical abuse, otherwise known as torture of the worse kind, and this includes inmates of mental wards, juvenile homes, jails and prisons. Those prisoners of conscious are often the most isolated for fear they will infect the population with radical ideology. The death row inmates are usually black and poor again, again, would not be on death row with proper legal representation.

The economic and social cost is astronomical, between fifty and sixty thousand dollars per inmate per year, more than it would cost to send them to Harvard, Yale and Stanford. But incarceration is big business in the era of de-industrialisation or the withering world of work, especially jobs with a living wage. Yet these neo-slaves, i.e., under the US Constitution involuntary servitude is legal, are a valuable commodity in the economic order. Prisons and jails are big business, in many communities the only business. They are now privatized and part of the military/corporate/university complex of institutions that perpetuate the capitalist system of free market exploitation. The incarcerated are of such value that the most powerful union in the state of California is the Correctional Officers Union that obviously has a vital stake in keeping the prison population high so they can maintain their lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. The Union will fight to the death to prevent a general amnesty.

In cahoots with the correctional officers are police departments who must arrest a quota of persons to maintain their jobs and justify their budgets. In some cities the police departments consume the major portion of city funds, to the neglect of schools, libraries and employment projects that would decrease arrests, court costs and incarceration. Many times the police are guilty of planting false evidence, false arrests, engaging in prostitution, drug dealing and money laundering. This behavior by law enforcement is a common feature below the border in Mexico, but is rapidly becoming a feature across the border in the US.

In some cases the police are in conspiracy with developers to destabilize neighborhoods that soon fall to gentrification. All the above applies to Oakland, California. It is a community under siege by police and gangs connected with the police. We suspect half the black on black homicide is police conspired.

A general amnesty must become a top priority of communities, especially with so many men falling victim to the slave catching police. This leads to family disintegration by increasing single family households. It is causing personality deformations in boys and girls who suffer prolong identity crisis since they lack positive male models. A young man attending a drug recovery meeting said, "Man, you might think some of my friends are gay, but they ain't gay, they just never heard a man's voice!"

We must reclaim are people from the dungeons , hellholes and Gulags in America. We cannot continue allowing them to be commodities in the capitalist system, similar to pork, corn, wheat and oil, to be traded on the stock exchange as neo-slaves.

If the last act of Saddam Hussein was a general amnesty, surely President Obama can do the same. It may get him some much needed brownie points for his 2012 election bid. But he must do so because it is the right thing to do. To not do so is economically and socially unsustainable.
--Marvin X
1/4/11

Monday, January 3, 2011

To Kill A Black Bird--Ark, Now Louisiana too



To Kill a Black Bird


Marvin X walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out singing like a black bird and cleaner than white fish!
--James W. Sweeney


We think the Mother Ship might be the cause of the dead black birds and white fish!
--Paul Cobb, Publisher, Oakland Post Newspaper Group

(Newser) – The town of Beebe, Ark., is home to about 4,500 people—and about the same number of dead birds. State wildlife officials went door-to-door today to collect the creatures from rooftops, trees, and yards. Officials estimate that between 4,000 and 5,000 birds—mostly blackbirds—began tumbling from the sky late on New Year's Eve and into the day yesterday. Officials remain stumped.

"It could be weather-related or possibly stress-related," says an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission rep, who added that no physical injuries were spotted on the birds collected so far. "There were some fireworks shot off at midnight and it is possible that the birds were on their roost and stressed so bad that it could have killed them." The birds will be sent to testing facilities in Little Rock and Madison, Wis., tomorrow, reports Reuters.

Dear Group,
Do you agree or believe as the media is now reporting, that this recent Arkansas Jan. 3 massive die-off of thousands of blackbirds and fish was cause by a single lighting bolt; or is there another more credible scientific cause, like the sudden release along the Tecumseh New Madrid fault of poisonous methane gas and/or unknown subterraneous electric magnetic rays the real culprit?
Thanks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thousands of Dead birds & fish in Arkansas - Is this a sign of Coming Tecumseh New Madrid EQ in 2011?
-
Mon Jan 3:
Maybe the Mayans were on to something?
That's surely what students of the famed Mayan 2012 prophecy for the end of the world had to be thinking with the news of recent eerie wildlife die-offs in Arkansas. Just as the calendar nudged a year closer to that fateful date, birds began falling from the sky in Arkansas and a massive fish kill occurred some 125 miles to the west.
Roughly 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a mile of land near Beebe, a small town in northwest Arkansas, and observers spotted the fish kill near the town of Ozark.
<
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110103/ts_yblog_thelookout/massive-bird-fish-kills-in-arkansas-leave-many-scratching-heads
> < http://www.zetatalk.com/science/s57.htm

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

To dream of dead or dying birds, foretells a period of coming disappointments. You will find yourself worrying over problems that are constantly on your mind.

To see a blackbird in your dream, signifies a lack of motivation. You are not utilizing your full potential. Alternatively, it represents jealousy.

To see a flying blackbird in your dream, signifies good fortune.

Mass La. bird deaths puzzle investigators

Hundreds of dead starlings, red-winged blackbirds and brown-headed cowbirds lie along the side of La. 1 near New Roads. The birds were found dead and dying Monday along a half-mile stretch of the road.

  • By KORAN ADDO
  • Advocate Westside bureau
  • Published: Jan 4, 2011 - Page: 1A

LABARRE — Hundreds of dead and dying birds littered a quarter-mile stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish on Monday as motorists drove over and around them.

State biologists are trying to determine what led to the deaths of the estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings on La. 1 just down the road from Pointe Coupee Central High School.

The discovery of the dead birds — some of which were lying face down, clumped in groups, while others were face up with their wings outstretched and rigid legs pointing upward — comes just three days after more than 3,000 blackbirds rained down from the sky in Beebe, Ark.

Necropsies performed Monday on the birds in Arkansas showed the birds suffered internal injuries that formed blood clots leading to their deaths, The Associated Press reported.

In Louisiana, biologists with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries spent part of the day Monday scooping up some of the birds in Pointe Coupee Parish to be sent for testing at labs in Georgia and Wisconsin.

The remaining carcasses were still on the roadway, on the shoulder and in drainage ditches Monday afternoon as some motorists sped past, flattening birds lying in the roadway, while other drivers slowed down to gawk.

State Wildlife Veterinarian Jim LaCour said he planned to drive to Pointe Coupee to pick up some of the bird carcasses to study.

Lab tests could take several weeks to come up with an explanation for the deaths, and LaCour declined to speculate on possible causes; however, he did say massive bird deaths have been known to occur in the state in the past, albeit in smaller numbers.

“Underlying disease, starvation and cold fronts where birds can’t get their body heat up” have caused similar occurrences “in various species over the years,” he said.

LaCour said some of the bird samples will be sent to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Center in Wisconsin for analysis.

USGS spokesman Paul Slota said Monday afternoon he was unaware of the mass deaths in Louisiana, but he expects bird samples taken from the Arkansas occurrence on New Year’s Eve to arrive Tuesday in Wisconsin.

Slota also declined to speculate on a cause for the deaths, but he said a search of USGS records shows there have been 16 events in the past 30 years involving blackbirds where at least 1,000 of the birds have died seemingly all at once.

“These large events do take place,” he said. “It’s not terribly unusual.”



[blackantiwar] More Massive Fish/Bird Die-offs worldwide! Why Now?
...Full View
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From:
nathaniel x vance
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Thousands Of Fish Dead In Spruce Creek
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. -- Thousands of dead fish were floating in Volusia County Tuesday. They were all in Spruce Creek in Port Orange. The fish kill is unusual because it is warm, according to people who live along the creek. Video.
Authorities probe dead fish in Haitian lake
AFP -
Haitian authorities were planning Sunday to ban consumption of fish from a lake on the border with the Dominican Republic where scores of dead fish have been found dead in recent days.
Mysterious killing of 100 tons of fish in coastal Brazil
Brazil: A survey conducted by the Federation of Fishermen's Colony of Paraná, Paranaguá on the coast of the state, indicates that at least 100 tons of fish (sardine, croaker and catfish) have turned up dead since last Thursday off the coast of Parana.
<http://translate. google.com/ translate? js=n&prev= _t&hl=en& ie=UTF-8& layout=2& eotf=1&sl= auto&tl=en& u=http:// www.parana- online.com. br/editoria/ cidades/news/ 502434/?noticia% 3DMORTANDADE% 2BMISTERIOSA% 2BDE%2BPEIXES% 2BNO%2BLITORAL& act=url>
_

Dead Fish Appear In Lincoln Park
LINCOLN PARK, Mich. -- Hundreds of dead fish have been found in a pond in Lincoln Park. When passed onto the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, a representative from the office identified them as gizzard shad, a fish belonging to the herring family.
Large Number Dead Birds in Texas
Jan 5: UPSHUR COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - A large number of dead birds spotted on the Hwy 155 bridge near Ore City is most likely a natural occurrence in the area and not related to the mysterious bird deaths in Arkansas and Louisiana.
Turtle Doves Dropping Dead in Italy
Italy:
THOUSANDS OF BIRDS FALL DEAD
(Argentina, Sur AMERICA)



Sunday, January 2, 2011

Dr. Nathan Hare's Fictive Theory and the Global Village



Dr. Nathan Hare's Fictive Theory and the Global Village


In prognosticating events in 2011, we must employ Dr. Nathan Hare's Fictive theory, i.e., everything the white man says is fiction or a lie until proven to be a fact. Additionally, we must utilize Elijah's thesis that the wisdom of this world is exhausted. And this includes much non-white thinking because it originates from those educated and trained in white supremacy institutions, whether academic, corporate or political, and cultural as well. So we must discount and dismiss the thinking of state intellectuals and/or the colonial elite who are mere imitations of their masters.




photo Gene Hazzard



Wikileaks has given us an inkling of the lies emanating from the Euro-centric white supremacy world. And yes, sadly, our first black President is guilty of joining the tradition of misinformation
to advance Euro-centric world hegemony. We must be highly suspect of any Eurocentric pronouncements and prognostications, for Dr. Hare and Elijah are correct that it is mostly fiction derived from an exhausted mental apparatus, grounded in fictional white supremacy.

The reality is that the West is in decline and the non-white world is ascending to power, this includes the African, Asian, Indigenous (Americas) peoples, especially the BRIC nations, i.e.,
Brazil, Russia, India and China. They are the new boys and girls on the block of the emerging global political/economic order.

We must discount all theories and thinking from the Euro-centric world. The West must be assisted off stage as happened last night with Rock and Roll king Chuck Berry. African proverb says the king may be strong and hearty but he shall not live forever.

We seriously doubt whether the king is strong and hearty for we have written about broken systems originating in broken minds, e.g., the cause and response to the Gulf oil spill, Katrina, the cause and solution to the global economic meltdown. Such irrational behavior is justification to have the guilty placed in the mental ward since they are a danger to themselves and others.

Euro-American thinking is totally inept, incompetent and paralyzed by its addiction to white supremacy in a rapidly ascending non-white world. We must therefore separate ourselves, North American Africans, from such irrationality and unify our thinking with the new world order which is the Afro-Asian, Indigenous people, specifically those in the Americas.

We must not listen seriously to Euro-American thinking on China, rather we invite the Chinese to speak directly with us as a nation of forty million people who have the right to self-determination is all matters. Why do we need information filtered through the Euro-centric prism, especially when we know he speaks with a forked tongue as Dr. Hare and the Indigenous people have taught us? Even Jesus told us there are liars and murderers who abode not in the truth.

As independent people, we must invite the Chinese, Russians, Indians, Brazilians, Venezuelans, Cubans, Africans and others to town hall meetings so we can be informed people. We don't need CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, BBC, Pacifica or Democracy Now to tell us second-hand information. Even though Al Jazerrah is owned by the ruling class in Qatar, at least we get a better perspective than the Euro-centric or Jim Crow Media, the title of Ishmael Reed's latest book.

While we see the Euro-American world in a mental, political and economic crisis, the non-white world is booming. Euro-centric political thinking is bleeding, e.g., no solution in Afghanistan other than more mass murder; certainly no solution in Pakistan, absolutely not in the Israeli/Palestinian crisis; Iran, North Korea. Even when the non-white nations offer solutions, in their arrogance, the West ignores their plans as it did recently when Turkey and Brazil offered a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. As the former president of Brazil told his French counterpart, "You blue-eyed people think you are so damn smart. But you can't solve world problems because you are the cause of them."

In the Middle East, it is Turkey and Iran with some semblance of a democratic tradition, although we know Iran's democratically elected president was overthrown by America. Nevertheless, Iran, despite it's theological madness, will be a regional power. The Arab nations of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states make no pretence about democracy, meanwhile they are American protectorates in collusion with Israel to prolong the suffering of Palestinians and obstructing Shia rule in Iraq. For sure, Shia power is expanding from the Tigress and Euphrates to the Mediterranean.

As per Africa, we are witnessing the slow death of presidents for life regimes. Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast being the present examples of states in the last days of dictatorial rule, although it will be some time before neo-colonialism dies a natural death. A functional African Union is slowly advancing though it is in danger of morphing into a tool of Euro-American imperialism, if not a whore for Chinese economic aggression, trading infrastructure trinkets for precious metals and oil.

We see America using Christian Ethiopian soldiers in her proxy war with Somalia. The Europeans are persistent in their desire to control oil in Nigeria, grabbing gold, diamonds and other precious metals in the Congo and South Africa. The neo-colonial governments are tempted to surrender their sovereignty as in the days of old but democratic forces are on the move with Ghana the leading example. The persistent challenge is socalled tribalism, a psychosocial disease bound in ethnic and religious myth-ritual.

North American Africans must take off our rose or white colored glasses to think and see clearly beyond the box of Euro-centrism, for our addiction to white supremcy is so profound and pervasive we are known as "the other white people." If we refuse to consider Dr. Nathan Hare's fictive theory and Elijah's thesis that the West is exhausted, we shall only find ourselves deeper in the box of Pan Americana. We shall continue wandering in the wilderness, lost and turned out on the way to grandmother's house (the Whispers).

We must exercise critical thinking with special attention to the political economy of our brothers and sisters throughout the non-white global village, especially the BRIC nations, Africa and the Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.

As per the future of the Euro-American West, it shall have no future unless it is able to make radical structural changes in its notion of white supremacy free market capitalism. The greedy accumulation of capital at all costs shall be put in check by the demand of sovereignty and respect of non-white nations.

Minor changes in capitalism will not suffice, such as CSR, i.e., corporate social responsibility. The capitalist baby must be destroyed for the primary notion of profit and growth is anathema to human dignity. Economic value must transcend the growth metric and aspire to the social metric of human development, including living wages. This involves thinking beyond the quarterly reports and pure profit, beyond inducing consumerism, doping people into wanting things they do not need. Such putrid thinking has corrupted the global village. This holiday season one of my students begged his girlfriend not to buy him anything. He has been trying for months to convince her he is not a material man, but so far she has not grasped the concept of the spiritual man and woman who have detoxed and recovered from Euro-centric conspicuous consumption or the world of make believe.

The capitalists must detox and recover from their drunken orgies and short term gains that in the long term cause human and environmental destruction. At the present hour, capitalist business is bad for business. If the genetically altered crops kill pests and insects, why will it not kill man?

North American Africans shall neither advance or progress until they sever the umbilical cord of
dependency on the decadent, hurtful Republican and spineless Democratic parties who represent the very worse political economic thinking deriving from the corporate/military/university complex.

We must envision economic independence through collective economics or do for self, i.e., self determination. Your political economic leaders are derelict in their duties if they cannot present an economic agenda that addresses perennial joblessness in the hood with the concomitant criminalization of millions who are ultimately incarcerated for economic crimes, mostly petty.

Minus a revolution in the capitalist system, there is no alternative to micro loans and entrepreneurship, especially in the face of continued discrimination, outsourcing and wage slavery jobs.
--Marvin X
1/2/11

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Parable of the Bike


Parable of the Bike

One of Plato Negro's students gave him a bike. It was a nice bike, a Schwinn. When Plato Negro rode to his Academy of da Corner and his brother came through, Plato showed him the bike. His brother said, "Nigguh you had to get 70 years old to get a Schwinn bike."

Plato replied, "Yeah, bro, you know we went to the junk yard to make our bikes. Didn't no nigguh have no Schwinn bike in the hood, not hardly. A passenger in a truck stopped at the stoplight heard the conversation and cosigned, "Yeah, couldn't no nigger's afford no Schwinn bike back in da day."

Plato was hopeful riding the bike would help him lose weight. His friend in D.C. had made him promise to do some bike riding as he does for exercise. When he was last in D.C., his friend, Baba Lumumba, gave him a bike so he could ride through D.C.'s Arboretum, which Plato actually enjoyed.

The Monday after Christmas he rode his bike from Berkeley to downtown Oakland. As he arrived at 14th and Broadway, he saw two of Oakland's finest police officers on their bikes passing the corner. He was familiar with these two black officers who patrol the downtown area and are known to dog the people, especially the young people.

As Plato stopped for the light, he observed the officers get off their bike to question a youth. Plato recognized the youth as one of his best students from the Academy of da Corner. This student had come through recently and seeing the latest book by Plato, picked it up and began reading aloud for all to hear. He is a young man who loves books and has obtained several from Plato. In truth, he is also a weed dealer and Plato knew the police stopped him because he was restricted from the downtown area.

Plato wished he could have assisted his student, especially one of his best students. Plato delayed crossing the street so he could watch the police arrest their usual suspect. He saw his student turn around and put his hands behind his back. They put on the handcuffs. They searched him up and down. And soon came the patrol cars to take him away. Yes, it took two cars to take away one black man.

Plato wished he could intervene, that he could tell the officers to release him to his custody, to allow him in the area only to attend Academy of da Corner. But he knew it would be a dangerous move that might get him arrested, joining his student on the long ride to Santa Rita Jail for New Year's weekend.

Plato knew the drill, a 24 to 48 hour processing time from his arrest to the time he'd enter his cell. During this time he would move from holding cell to holding cell, basically concrete benches and floors, packed with men crowded like sardines on the slave ships, some sleeping with their heads next to the latrine and toilet. The processing was worse than jail itself. At several points one must strip butt naked and show the jailers his asshole, hold his nuts and cough.

Plato didn't want to go through this, even to save his student as we entered the New Year. But it saddened him to see one of his best students in the hands of the slave catchers.

Plato wished he could connect with the retired black judge he heard was looking for him to get a copy of his book Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself, essays on Obama Drama. This was a progressive judge, Horace Wheatley, who used to sentence youth to get their G.E.D., and if they failed they were charged with contempt of court.
--Marvin X
12/28/10

So Much Trouble in the World - BOB MARLEY

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Ishmael Reed Defends Obama Drama





“Defender” Ishmael Reed Goes “On Offense” for Obama

December 21, 2010

By Lee Hubbard, Post Newspaper Group

Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Reed has been called many things in a writing career that has spanned over 40 years. Now the Oakland resident and UC Berkeley professor, author and social commentator of over 20 books, has become “the defender” and gone on the political offensive in his support of President Barack Obama.
Reed, author of the recently published book, Barack Obama and the Jim Crow media: The Return of the Nigger Breakers,” feels the Obama presidency is being sabotaged by both the republican party and right wing critics, but also from the left wing progressives. In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, he wrote that progressives calling for Obama to “Man up” against the republicans are out of step with reality.
‘There has been a massive resistance to President Obama and his policies, just like it was a resistance to desegregation,” said Reed in an interview.
If Obama was to get angry at his critics, he would be portrayed as an “angry black man” or a militant, according to Reed, which would haunt Obama politically. Besides, Reed says Obama is widely popular still amongst black and Hispanic voters.
“Progressives do not understand the changing demographics of America,” said Reed. “They cannot see it, because they are largely talking to themselves, instead of ordinary Americans.”
In explaining Obama’s compromise to extend unemployment benefits and the Bush era tax cuts, Reed said that extending the benefits was something that had to happen for the unemployed, which Obama knows about from working amongst them in the Southside of Chicago when he was a community organizer. Reed said that the whispers of a potential 2012 democratic challenge to Obama from within the Democratic Party, would be “suicidal” and it would ensure the “democrats lose the black vote forever.”
While he has some problems with some of President Obama’s policy stands, he said the incremental change Obama is pushing, is a good thing, which will pay off in the end. He urged former supporters of Obama who have become disappointed or critical to get involved, get informed on the issues and recognize the resistance to President Obama and his policies.
“After Obama got elected, all of the people who supported him went home and left the fight for Obama,” concluded Reed. “He is by himself and we need to support him, for the long fight he is in.”
Next: MarvinX an early Obama Defender.


See Marvin X's Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself, essays on Obama Drama, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2010.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Hanging in Mississippi, Lynching by police up south, get over it, this is America the ugliful

INFO: Blacks doubt death in small Southern town is a suicide--they want answers now

Blacks doubt death in small Southern town is a suicide--they want answers now

By Jesse Muhammad -Staff writer- | Last updated: Dec 16, 2010 - 2:57:58 PM Family, political leaders, activists want further investigation into hanging death of young man

The body of Frederick Jermaine Carter was found hanging from a tree and local authorities ruled the death a suicide. His family and Blacks, however, don't believe the young man took his own life.
(FinalCall.com) - The idea of a so-called post-racial America was widely discussed, debated and even seen as an achievement by some with Barack Obama's inauguration as president of the United States.

For Blacks in Greenwood, Mississippi, the notion that America has gotten beyond race isn't popular today. Many are angry over the recent mysterious hanging death of Frederick Jermaine Carter.

“This is 2010 and we still have Black people hanging from trees? They're saying he hung himself but I have doubt in my mind that he actually did that. That wasn't his character. This wasn't a suicide, this was a homicide,” said Sunflower, Miss., Mayor Michael Pembleton, Jr. to The Final Call.

The body of Mr. Carter, 26, was found Dec. 3 hanging from an oak tree in the predominately White North Greenwood area of Leflore County. The young man lived in neighboring Sunflower County, located several miles away.

Mr. Carter's stepfather told law enforcement that he was working in the area with his stepson when Mr. Carter wandered off.

County Sheriff Ricky Banks reportedly told the media the young man had a “mental condition and a history of wandering off.” He also publicly stated that he saw no signs at the scene pointing towards it being a crime or murder.

Mr. Banks said evidence shows Mr. Carter dragged an old frame of a nearby table, leaned it against the trunk of the tree and commenced to tying himself to the tree limb.

FJ_carter12-21-2010_2.jpg
(L)Photos from the scene of the death, show the deceased and the area around where the body was found. (R) Some Blacks say police did not properly mark off the place where the 26-year-old died and may have allowed for contamination of the scene if foul play occurred.
“The frame probably broke, possibly because Carter kicked it out from under himself,” Mr. Banks told reporters.

The preliminary autopsy results by the Leflore County Coroner's Office declared it a suicide.

The deceased man's family and community leaders don't accept the official explanations and are calling for further investigation.

“Because there has been no investigation on the part of the local officials into this as a crime, we're calling on the federal government to conduct an independent investigation. We want the U.S. Justice department to look into this,” attorney Valerie Hicks Powe told The Final Call in a phone interview on Dec. 13.

Ms. Powe, who is based in Birmingham, Ala., is the spokesperson for the victim's family. “A crime scene was never established. They never roped the scene off and this has not been treated as a crime. There is no reason to believe that he would commit suicide. We appreciate attention being brought to this because we need an outcry from the people,” she said.

Funeral services for Mr. Carter were scheduled for Dec. 18 at Ark of The Covenant Church in Moorhead, Miss.

One of the most gruesome lynchings in U.S history took place in Money, Miss., which approximately 10 miles north of Greenwood. In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, shot in the head, his eyes gouged out, and thrown into theTallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire after accusations of whistling a White woman. Two White males were acquitted in the case while the boy's mother held an open casket funeral that made national headlines. It was also a watershed moment for the civil rights movement as the horror the Southern violence and brutality was put before the world.

Unanswered questions and appeals for outside help

Loved one and relatives want answers to questions about the death of Mr. Carter and the story thus far does not ring true, they say.“He didn't have a mental problem. His problem was he tended to not defend himself against others in conflict but he wouldn't kill himself. The family is requesting a second autopsy and want to also have an autopsy done by someone out of the state of Mississippi,” says Mr. Pembleton, who is also a cousin of the victim.

State Senator David Jordan was able to obtain gruesome photos of Mr. Carter's body hanging from the tree. He went to the scene himself and is also skeptical of what is being reported.

miss_tree12-21-2010.jpg
Photos of the tree and location where Frederick Jermaine Carter was found hung in Greenwood, Miss.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions. He reportedly had rope in his pocket but didn't have anything to cut it with? Why wasn't the scene of the crime blocked off? That tree limb is nearly 12 feet high. I'm 6'2 and I can't see how I could maneuver to do that so how could a boy his height hang himself like that?” asks Mr. Jordan, who is also a Greenwood City Councilman.

Mr. Jordan met with the victim's mother, Brenda Carter, when he obtained the photos of her son. “She told me her son loved life too much to take his life. We want another autopsy now,” he said.

Wendol Lee, president of the Memphis-based Operation Help Civil Rights Group, said some 300 residents petitioned his group to get involved because of “paranoia related to the history of lynching.”

“The area where he was found hanging is an area that Black people do not go into according to what residents have told us. Blacks get harassed and stopped by the police in that area so why would this young man go way over there to kill himself? We believe someone took him over there and killed him,” said Mr. Lee, who also works with the National Action Network.

Mr. Lee's group has been on the ground interviewing residents, who he also says do not believe Mr. Carter would take his own life. “He was a good young man who was seen always helping the children,” he added.

On Dec. 9, Mr. Lee's group led a press conference with the family in Greenwood to express dissatisfaction with the investigation and issue his group's call for a national federal probe.

“We know Whites that are in power in Mississippi have never shown favor to Blacks. We're reaching out to Attorney General Eric Holder to order an investigation on the federal level because we're getting conflicting statements from the police,” said Mr. Lee.

Following the press conference, Mr. Lee said they went back to the scene and found what could possibly be “an extra set of footprints. We're leaning towards that this was a killing because everyone we talked to has never seen Frederick in that area before until his body was found,” he noted.

miss_tree12-21-2010_2.jpg
Ground photo of high tree where Frederick's body was found.
“How did he (Mr. Carter) get out there so far? That's a serious question. I'm concerned about the way the knot was tied around his neck. That's a very particular type of knot that you don't see Black people walking around with,” said Larry Muhammad, Nation of Islam representative in Greenville, Miss.

A major protest in Greenwood maybe brewing, according to Mr. Lee. “This is not the old days. You can't just hang Black people today and think nothing is going to happen. If need be, we're going to invite Al Sharpton to get involved. We going to get ready to shake up this town!” vowed Mr. Lee.

Leflore County Supervisor Preston Ratliff is questioning the reported suicide as well. “I have not made many public statements because I'm still waiting for more information but I do think it is strange that he would hang himself in such a remote area. The mere fact that a Black man is found hanging in a White neighborhood is disturbing based on the history of the Delta,” he said.

According to Mr. Ratliff, Leflore County is approximately 65 percent Black and 35 percent White in population. He doesn't deny the racial problems in his area but points out that it's not as bad as it used to be.

“It's better than people think, but we still have a long way to go. I simply want the truth to come out in this hanging. If it is proven that this is the result of foul play, then those who are responsible need to be found,” said Mr. Ratliff.

“What attracted my attention was that it took place in this big field in a White community. I went to the scene and I didn't see any evidence that a struggle took place. The first autopsy says suicide but nobody believes that is the case,” said Dr. Eddie Carthan, who heads Good Samaritan Ecumenical Church in Tchula, Miss.

“I'm striving to look at this objectively. Right now we're not sure and we're still investigating,” he said.

“There is no sign that we could find whatsoever that anyone else was involved. I haven't seen anything to change my mind, and I'm looking really hard,” said Sheriff Banks to the media.

Blacks in the area don't see it the same way. “We can't have a young, Black man hanging and we just go back to business as usual. We can't sit by and let this go (on). People want stuff like this to get swept under the rug,” countered Mr. Jordan.