Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Queen Mother Brunch in Philadelphia







QUEEN MOTHER BRUNCH
SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014



AKWAABA!
WELCOME
!

All are invited to join us for the
Queen Mother Quarterly Brunch
Hosted by The Philadelphia
Asante Abusuas (Families)
  • Delicious Buffet Brunch with Vegetarian & Vegan specialties
  • Get the latest news from Ghana
  • Special features
  • Learn about Asante Abusua (Family System)
At The Philadelphia Asante Chief's Palace
(formerly Agogo Cultural Center)

SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014
11:00am - 2:00PM
2038 S. 5th Street

(5th street and Snyder Avenue)
Cost per person:
$10 for adults
$5 for elders 65+ & children under 12


To RESERVE YOUR SPACE, donate or get information, please contact:
Sister Fatimah Adekola at 215-626-8938 or jayaniyoga@gmail.com


March 2014
22







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Oaktown tribute to Gil Scott Heron, Watts Prophets and Amiri Baraka at Eastside Arts

photo Ras Ceylon

Oaktown paid tribute to the Greats of Black Arts at the Eastside Arts Center last night. Watts Prophet Hum Di, Nadira Lewis, Marvin X and Ayodele Nzinga performed and spoke about the ancestors. Marvin X said, "Remember this about Amiri Baraka, he was a revolutionary, no matter what else he became. When he was into spiritual things, he was revolutionary; when he was a communist, he remained a revolutionary, so let us remember him and continue making revolution."

Black Bird Press News & Review: Black Arts Conference at UC Merced, Feb 28 through March 2, Merced CA

Black Bird Press News & Review: Black Arts Conference at UC Merced, Feb 28 through March 2, Merced CA

Black Bird Press News & Review: Fresno CA writers in the Black Arts Movement

Black Bird Press News & Review: Fresno CA writers in the Black Arts Movement

Black Bird Press News & Review: Marvin X classic: Black History is World History

Black Bird Press News & Review: Marvin X classic: Black History is World History

Monday, February 17, 2014

Corruption in the Motherland, Nigeria: 20 billion dollars in oil money missing



Nigerian politics roiled by missing oil money


The production of oil, discovered in the Niger Delta 40 years ago, is having a devastating effect on Nigeria's largest wetland region.Oil giant Shell gets 10% of its oil from the Niger Delta and is failing to invest in its infrastructure to prevent pollution, says Friends of the Earth in a new report Behind the Shine. Families live among the oil fields, breathing in methane gas and coping with frequent oil leaks in Africa's largest oil exporter.


Africa’s biggest oil producer, Nigeria, is facing questions about where billions of dollars in oil money is going amid suspicions of fraud and it being siphoned off to fund political campaigns.
The issue has been rumbling since September, when the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. of withholding $49.8 billion in oil revenue.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who will step down as central bank chief in the coming months, later revised his figures down to $12 billion, sparking claims of political pressure.
But last week he again claimed that the state-run NNPC owed the central bank money — this time $20 billion from the $67 billion earned from oil between January 2012 and July 2013.
“It is now up to NNPC . . . to produce the proof that the $20 billion unremitted either did not belong to the federation or was legally and constitutionally spent,” he told a parliamentary committee.
Nigeria produces about 2 million barrels of oil per day, and crude exports account for about 80 percent of government revenue.
Government figures indicated it earned some $49 billion in export revenue in 2012, down from $54 billion the previous year.
Some of the funds go into a rainy-day fund, called the Excess Crude Account (ECA), to ensure the government budget is financed in case world oil prices fall sharply.
Last year, as global oil prices held above $100 per barrel, revenue above a benchmark of $79 per barrel set by the government and lawmakers went into the fund.
According to the latest central bank figures, the ECA held $11.5 billion at the end of 2012, but this had dropped to $2.5 billion last month.
The reduction comes at the same time as a decrease in foreign reserves. Last May they stood at $48 billion but are now at about $42.7 billion, according to CBN data.
“It’s unfortunate that the government has indulged in a spending jamboree without any noticeable improvement in the standard of living of the people,” economist Abolaji Odumesi said in Lagos.
“The ECA is meant to protect Nigeria in the event of price shocks, but the purpose for setting the fund aside is now being defeated,” the former banker said. “Those in government are not thinking of tomorrow. They are not bothered about what becomes of the economy if the ECA dries up and there is drop in the international price of crude.”
Nigeria’s influential governors’ forum, led by Rotimi Amaechi of the oil-rich Rivers state, has accused the federal government of unilaterally taking money from the account.
The group even went to court to challenge President Goodluck Jonathan’s withdrawal of $1 billion for a new sovereign wealth fund, set up to invest the savings from the difference in budgeted and actual oil prices.
Suspicions abound that the money has been used to weaken states controlled by the opposition, which has been boosted by the defection of dozens of members from the ruling party.
Amaechi, who switched from Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress last year, has long argued that his state is being shortchanged.
Jonathan has said little on the Rivers situation, but his wife, Patience, who hails from the state, has been accused of publicly criticizing Amaechi over a state program she disliked.
The National Assembly is currently overseeing the divided state legislature, where last May a brawl broke out after five local lawmakers tried to impeach the house’s pro-Amaechi speaker.
For their part, the NNPC and the government say the money has gone to legitimate projects and that oil theft and vandalism have contributed to the reduction in revenues.
There is a consensus that oil theft, or “bunkering,” is a problem in Nigeria. Estimates range up to 150,000 barrels per day being stolen, robbing the treasury of $6 billion a year.
Anti-corruption campaigners allege the money may have been diverted to fund the 2015 election campaign, which looks set to be the closest since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.
“The Jonathan administration is merely siphoning money to prosecute its re-election agenda,” said Debo Adeniran, of the nonpolitical, nonprofit Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders.
“It is absurd that at a period when our oil is sold $30 above the benchmark price, the foreign reserves and excess crude accounts are going down,” he said. “The only explanation for this abnormality is that politicians and officials are stashing money for elections.”
Adeniran praised Sanusi for blowing the whistle on what he called a “monumental fraud” but said it was wrong for the NNPC to have spent the money — regardless of how much was involved.
“The NNPC has been a haven for corruption and inefficiency in this country,” he said. “It does not have the power to spend any money without appropriation.”

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Black History and Nigguh Family Mess


This family feud is why we created the Community Archives Project to preserve the archives of prominent persons and common people. For most people, their archives usually end up in the trash, e.g., letters, papers, diaries, notebooks, photos. But often there is a family feud once heirs discover the importance and value of archives. Below, we see the fate of the Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X archives. Although the above persons died poor, their archives are of such high value that family members are enriching lawyers and themselves fighting over ownership. As Dr. Cornel West has noted, "How can we bury the N word when we are still acting like Nigguhs?"--Marvin X, Community Archives Project

Legacy of civil rights leaders source of fights

WASHINGTON — Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter recently walked up to the pulpit of the Atlanta church where her father preached and, in a painful public display, dissociated herself from her brothers.
She accused them of plotting to sell their father’s personal Bible and his Nobel Peace Prize — items she declared “sacred” and worth more than money.
When it comes to fights like this, the Kings are not alone.
Malcolm X’s daughters are suing to block a book deal, signed by one sister, to publish their father’s diary.
Rosa Parks’ valuable mementos, including her Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, have sat in a New York City warehouse for years because of a protracted battle over her estate.
America’s greatest civil rights leaders may belong to the ages, but the fights among family, friends and outsiders over control of their earthly possessions seem never-ending.
Unsavory as they may appear, fights like these are not unique, and are exacerbated by the moral heft of the leaders’ life work, and the fact that their belongings could be worth millions. With each court battle, civil rights historians worry about the negative impact such infighting might have on the legacy of the civil rights movement.
Neither Malcolm X nor King, killed in 1965 and 1968, respectively, left wills, so there are no specifics about what they wanted done with their belongings. The strong widows who built legacies for them and who could enforce peace in the family through matriarchal fiat, also are gone: Betty Shabazz in 1997, Coretta Scott King in 2006.
Not even a long life and careful planning are enough to quell disputes.
Parks, who died in 2005 at age 92, stipulated in her will that her belongings go to a charitable foundation, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development in Detroit. Parks had no children, but her nieces and nephews challenged her will, and this fight has left her valuable possession in limbo for nearly a decade.
King, Parks and Malcolm X were not wealthy people in life, so their families have a right to be concerned about the financial value of their famous relatives’ legacy, said john a. powell, director at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Somebody is going to make money off their names,” powell said. “You just hope people do it with a certain amount of dignity.”
Few would say that’s happened. Many point to the King family’s public feuds as evidence that it has not.
“To be fighting over money and profit is to dishonor everything their father stood for,” said Deborah E. McDowell, director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies and Alice Griffin professor of English at the University of Virginia.
Most families only have to deal with a parent’s estate once. But when the parent in question was a beloved historic figure, there regularly are new issues to address, said lawyers Andrew and Danielle Mayoras, who wrote a book about famous estate battles.
“There can always be a new project that the family is approached with or a new item someone decides to sell,” said Andrew Mayoras, who specializes in probate matters. “So yes, for these families we do think it’s going to keep going on and on, sadly.”
Many American families go through the same thing, said Danielle Mayoras, an estate attorney. “Sometimes they are fighting over the Christmas ornaments instead of diaries that might be very valuable, but oftentimes what we see is that it’s not the value of the item, it’s the sentimental attachment or the emotion that’s involved,” she said.
Martin III, Dexter and Bernice King have fought in court for years, going after their father’s friends and fellow activists in addition to each other. The family has sent numerous cease-and-desist letters to stop various uses of King’s written work and image, and followed up with court action if they weren’t satisfied with the results.
Last year, they sued Andrew Young, a King confidante who helped their father coordinate civil rights efforts throughout the South, over footage of King that shows up in a series produced by Young’s foundation. The King children acted in 2008 to block actor and singer Harry Belafonte from auctioning documents that their parents had given to Belafonte years earlier, leading Belafonte to sue the younger Kings last year in hopes of determining legal ownership.
Young has said the Kings’ lawsuit doesn’t bother him because the question of rightful ownership does need to be sorted out, especially because certain aspects of King’s legacy belong to him, too. Lawyers on both sides of the Belafonte lawsuit did not return telephone calls seeking comment; court papers indicate a settlement is being pursued.
The King heirs even have used the courts to fight each other.
In 2008, Bernice and Martin III sued Dexter, accusing him of acting improperly as head of their father’s estate. The three reached a private settlement in October 2009.
Now they’re back in court again, with Martin III and Dexter suing Bernice over her possession of their father’s Bible and his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal.
Both items are likely to gain value: The 50th anniversary of King’s Nobel Prize is later this year, and King’s personal Bible was used to swear in President Barack Obama during his second inauguration in 2013.
Bernice King refused to turn them over, saying her brothers want to sell them, just as the three of them have sold other items that belonged to their father.
“I take this strong position for my father because Daddy is not here to say himself, ‘My Bible and my medals are never to be sold not to an institution or even a person,’” she said during a news conference this month at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. Her brothers, who run King’s estate, have not responded publicly to their sister’s complaints.
It’s the same for Parks and Malcolm X.
Because of infighting, a trove of Parks memorabilia — unseen writings from a young Parks, mementos from world leaders who honored her, and family artifacts — sits unsold at Guernsey’s auction house in New York, waiting for a buyer.
Guernsey’s can’t sell the material piecemeal because, after much legal wrangling, a judge ordered it sold together. No museum, foundation or private collector has met the $10 million price for the entire collection, said Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s.
Last year, the family of Malcolm X successfully blocked Chicago-based Third World Press from publishing diaries from his pilgrimage to Mecca and his travels across the Middle East and Africa in 1964.
Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, lawyer for Third World Press, said in court papers that the publisher has a signed contract from one of Malcolm X’s six daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, making her siblings’ complaints moot.
The company created by the activists’ children, X Legacy LLC, indicated in court papers that it plans to publish the diaries to coincide with next year’s 50th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination.
___
Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland or contact him at jholland@ap.org

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Marvin X classic: Black History is World History





BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
(c) 1982 by Marvin X

By Marvin X 

Before the Earth was
I was
Before time was
I was
you found me not long ago and
called me Lucy
I was four million years old
I had my tools beside me
I am the first man
call me Adam
I walked the Nile from Congo to Delta
a 4,000 mile jog
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY


I lived in the land of Canaan
before Abraham, before Hebrew was born
I am Canaan, son of Ham
I laugh at Arabs and Jews
fighting over my land
I lived in Saba, Southern Arabia
I played in the Red Sea
dwelled on the Persian Gulf
I left my mark from Babylon to Timbuktu
When Babylon acted a fool, there was me
I was the fool
When Babylon fell, that was me
I fell
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY 

I was the first European
call me Negrito and Grimaldi
I walked along the Mediterranean
from Spain to Greece





 

Oh, Greece!
Why did you kill Socrates?
Why did you give him the poison hemlock?
Who were the gods he introduced
corrupting the youth of Athens?
They were my gods, black gods from Africa
Oh, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
Whose philosophy did you teach
that was Greek to the Greeks?
Pythagoras, where did you learn geometry?
Democritus, where did you study astronomy?
Solon and Lycurgus, where did you study law?
In Egypt, and Egypt is Africa
and Africa is me
I am the burnt face, the blameless Ethiopian
Homer told you about in the Iliad
Homer told you about Ulysses, too,
a story he got from me.
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY






 


I am the first Chinese
China has my eyes
I am the Aboriginal Asian
Look for me in Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand
I am there, even today, black and beautiful
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY 





I used to travel to America
long before Columbus
came to me asking for directions
Americo Vespucci
on his voyage to America
saw me in the Atlantic
returning to Africa
America was my home
Before Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Inca & Olmec
I was here
I came to Peru 20,000 years ago
I founded Mexico City
See my pyramids, see my cabeza colosal
in Vera Cruz and Yucatan
that's me
I am the Mexican
for I am mixed with all men
and all men are mixed with me
I am the most just of men
I am the most peaceful
who loves peace day and night
Sometimes I let tyrants devour me
sometimes people falsely accuse me
sometimes people crucify me
but I am ever returning
I am eternal, I am universal
Africa is my home
Asia is my home
Americas is my home
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY