BlackMan Time

Archive for January, 2005

You may have actually noticed a distinct lack of interest in my thoughts on election in Iraq. It’s not that I am lethargic on the issue or indifferent to the idea in any way, it’s just that I think the whole thing is like a circus with similar entertainment, if not deadly, values.

The reason why I think so is because this election is fundamentally flawed becuase it is illegal. Secondly it is being foisted onto the people by George W. Bush who bombed and killed his way into a position to be able to offer it in the first place.

The election is flawed because apparently under under the Vienna Convention, an occupying force has no right to change composition of occupied territories socially, culturally, educationally or politically. This election was based on the laws laid down by former ‘Viceroy’ American Paul Bremer and is entirely unconstitutional. Bremer personally appointed the overseers for the election.

This is the view of a renowned expert on international law, Sabah Al Mukhtar, the London-based President of the League of Arab Lawyers. What it means in a nutshell is that the election is thus, far from ‘free and fair’ and it may as well be called the Bush Election Part Deux!

Ana-Mo-Lies

And, there are a number of other anamolies which highlight this so-called election as a farce.

Among them the fact that the names of those standing for election were not widely publicised, many names are indeed unknown and little or no manifestos have been published. However, what has been publicised are the names and addresses of all who register to vote, in Iraq and all voting centers abroad. Critics say this an ‘intimidation’ tactic to discourage some voters.

Furthermore who drew up the electoral lists and on what basis were they selected. Many Iraqis abroad who are entitled to vote have not been contacted.

Quite a few key Muslim groups have actually boycotted the elections and not just the Sunnis, which has been widely reported, who have done so. Others like the Iraq National Foundation Conference comprising prominent Shiite, Sunni, Pan-Arabists and Marxists, have also turned their back on the whole process due to the absence of an international body to oversee the proceedings.

In fact when you examine the entire election process, from its conept to implementation you see a similar pattern emerging where equality of opportunity and access has not been guaranteed to all but regardless elections will not stop for no one, not even justice. Yet, all the mainstream press, the purvyeors of propaganda for the powers-that-be are hailing the election as a success!

From this I hope you can now see why my enthusiasm is somewhat dimmed. Maybe when I can actually seem some fair and free election in Iraq, maybe then my enthusiasm will return.

Wonder what they would do for an encore then…

Nobody is saying it so I guess I’ll have to. Nobody is talking about the lineup of the current England cricket: they are all white players!

Why is there such a big silence on that issue when anyone who knows the terrain knows that sport and entertainment are two of the areas Black people are given opportunities to excel at in the UK. By that process of deduction no one can tell me there aren’t enough Black players of the required standard that should be picked for the England team.

The only reason I can think of is probably that the English selectors and players wish it to be so! I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call the English cricketing establishment racist, but I feel they are familiar with that terrirotry.

Take England captain Michael Vaughan, for example. He’s just been drawn up in front of West Indian cricketing great, Clive Lloyed, current match referee in the England vs South African fourth test in Johnnesburg and was disciplined for being “dimissive and rude” towards two Black umpires.

Lloyd fined Vaughan, an all-white Yorkshireman, an estimated £5,500 (BDS$20,700), after unfairly criticising Black umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar who ended a game early due to bad light.

“I would have given him a lesser fine if it were not for that, but I stopped short of banning him for the last Test,” Lloyd told the South African Cape Argus newspaper. “I have respect for the England captain and I expected the same from him.”

It’s probably not surprising that Vaughan apparently showed no respect to the Black umpires. Since he’s become captain of the England team there has been a distinct lack of Black players in the squad! OK, so there is one player of a darker shade than white in the team – I wonder if you could call him a token? – and that is the Asian Mark Buther. Before him was another Asian, one Nasser Hussain (now Sky TV commentator) who was virtually hounded out by the all white establishment.

Vaughan’s old club Yorkshire is very notorious historically for preferring white players over Black ones and they even have a famous Yorkshireman in the form of fiery Fred Trueman whom many regard to have prejudicial views against Black players in the Yorkshire side.

But, I guess the reason why nobody is making any big noise about the absence of Black in the England cricket Union Jack is because they are doing so well without Black players. So, why upset the team! But surely picking players on the basis of their colour can’t surely be cricket, can it?

We switched on the TV in the early hours of Saturday morning to catch a bit of tennis on Eurosport and the first image on the screen was Serena Williams, stretched out on the canvas, a doctor hovering over her.

No, she wasn’t dead but she was just dead lousy, crippled with injury in her match with world number one Lindsay Davenport who was leading 4 sets to 1 up to that point.

It wasn’t a particularly interesting moment. The match looked over and the triumphalism in the biased commentators’ voices, irritated me somewhat. I persevered to watch the match but first taking the opportunity to make a cup of cerassie tea: maybe I needed a system clean out!

When I cam back and resettled in front of the box, the match had restarted. Davenport was all over Williams and I, along with the throng of watching Australian specators at the Melbourne ground, kept thinking any moment Serena was going to concede.

Gloomy Prospect

It was clear she was suffering through unsurmountable pain and every shot seemed like it was a great effort. The prospect of her conceding filled me with gloom…

Just as I was settling down to accept the inevitable, Serena found some kind of second wind! The shots she had been trying before and missing, suddenly started going in. OK, her dynamite rocket-speed serves were still running at a reduced speed but her ground strokes made up for it and traces of her old self were coming back.

By the third set she had made a complete transformation to the point where Davenport simply gave up, as far as her body language showed. What elation when Serena won the final game without even losing a set! Who would have thought it possible? Not me!

I thought this was an object lesson in never giving up, even when things are hard and the odds seem impossible to dig deeper because if the will is strong, even when the flesh is weak, you can triumph. But all the headline said was Serena Back To Winning Ways. Typical!

Now, where did I put that tennis racket?

Brace yourself for a double shocker! Are you sitting comfortably? Good! Here goes…

Did you know that the original creator of multi-billion Hollywood movies “The Matrix” and “The Terminator” (both turned into trilogies) is a Black woman by the name of Sophia Stewart? Well, award yourself full points if you did but many, including this writer, has only recently just found out!

This little known story has met a just conclusion, as Sophia Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the past five years, will finally receive her just due from the copyright infringement of her original work!

The lawsuit was settled late last year on October 4, 2004 after a a six-year dispute with Stewart fighting the powerful Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers.

Stewart’s allegations, involving copyright infringement and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow residing.

Damages Recovered

She will now recover damages from the films, The Matrix I, II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels total over US$2.6 billion dollars.

Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing “The Matrix”, which she felt had been based on her manuscript, “The Third Eye,” copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works.

According to court documentation, an FBI investigation discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from the original film, in an attempt to avoid penalties for copyright infringement.

The investigation also stated that “credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers.”

News Blackout

Some fans, are unaware of the case or they question its legitimacy, due to the fact that it has received little to no media coverage.

“The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time Warner. This giant owns 95 percent of the media,” explains Stewart.

“Let me give you a clue as to what they own in the media business: New York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines, People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice, Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks, Newsweek, Village Roadshow…many, many more! They are not going to report on themselves. They have been surpressing my case for years…”

Stewart’s future plans involve a record label already named Popsilk Records and a film production company called “All Eyez On Me,” in reference to God. “I wrote The Third Eye to wake people up, to remind them why God put them here. There’s more to life than money,” said Stewart. “My whole to the world is about God and good and about choice, about spirituality over ‘technocracy’.”

It is great to see a sista get her just rewards. Let’s hope the due respect and recognition follows!

Last night British TV station Channel 4 aired a program titled “Michael Jackson’s Boys” which was heavily promoted and promised new shocking revealations about the King of Pop’s supposedly sexual “relationships” with minors.

The end result, as usual, fizzled out to be just a big bag of hot air. For instance, every single boy they interviewed who had spent some time with Michael Jackson, even in his bed, categorically denied anything indecent, improper or sexual ever happening.

Let’s get this right. The only thing Michael Jackson is guilty of is naivity. It is stupid for a man of 46 to want to share a bed with children in the manner he so innocently loves to do. But that is not a crime: just a lesson in misguidedness.

Already, there is a heavy steam of sordid details surrounding the Jackson child molestation case due to be held next week. Every media has an angle (or three) on it. Rolling Stone’s “The Case Against Jackson” article summarises some pretty “titalationg tidbits including:-

• Jackson had “substantial sexual conduct” with his accuser.
• Jackson reportedly gave his accuser and his brother the nicknames Doo Doo Head and Blowhole.
• Residents who live near the trial's courthouse have rented their properties to reporters at exorbitant rates.
• Jackson's recording contract with Sony Music is ending.

Obviously I do not believe anything that is currently being written about Jackson. I can assure you that if there was anything that the media could unearth about Jackson to prove he was an actual child molester it would have been published or broadcast already.

Race, The First Frontier

As for race being an issue in this is without question. This is why the Jackson defense team have hired the famed Johnny Cochran, who represented OJ Simpson. That Britain (certainly its institutions) is a racist country is confirmed by no other than prime minister Blair himself.

I don’t make people the way they are: I only report on what I have been able to find or hear rumblings about. Michael Jackson is a big selling subject title and there are many interests in that subject so if something, anything, can be dug up about him, it will be dugged.

That documentary was one such excavation. Nothing earth-shattering was found. But the name of the game is not necessarily to find anything because maybe there is nothing to be found! The intention is simply to keep the subject alive in the public’s mind ahead of next week’s Jackson circus trial.

You can expect a big Mardi Gras with every freak media representative competing to see who can create the most ghastly Jacksonesque headline. And I am sure the prosecution will try their best to deliver some juicy one liners and sound bites.
In the end the victor will be the media and the loser will be justice because I expect Jackson will either be found innocent of most if not all charges but people will remember this trial happened.

If this is justice then you can stick it.

Bush is burning out of control at the White House. Anyone got a fire extinguisher?

Like lots of people I watched (part) of the American presidential inauguration on TV yesterday. All the grand pomp, ceremony and razzamatazz that is a hallmark of American showbusiness was evident. I liked the idea of a mulit-faith representation at the ceremonies and see this as a great attempt to unite through religion, at least.

For while Bush, his Republican cronies and supporters enjoy four days of inauguration celebrations culminating on Friday, chaos was unfolding in Iraq where local people are bewildered about the legitimacy of the American-overseered, upcoming January 30 democratic elections there. My mind kept on switching between this image of death, destruction and dishonesy in Iraq to joy, jollification and jocularity in Washington. It was surreal for real!

The actual swearing in bit was the real kicker. Bush always seem to be smirking in these situations and maybe he has a good reason why he gives that impression. For, it’s one thing to place your hand on a Bible in front of millions and swear (for a second time) to faithfully execute the office of president and uphold the Constitution.

But, it’s quite another to do so in an honest manner when many people still haven’t gotten over the fact that Bush actually got into the presidential office dishonestly in the first place!

That’s another story, but I was really tempted to treat Bush’s ‘promise’ to bring about greater democracy in the Middle East with the contempt such fervent (but empty) hopes deserve.

Promises

For now Bush’s outlined his key priorities for the next four years and it is the following two which has me laughing:-

• Win a war on terror against all odds.
• Establish stability and democracy in Iraq.
• Work for freedom and enforce the right to democracy to the other countries around the world too.

I am laughing because this so-called “War on Terrorism” is not one which Bush (nor anyone else for that matter) can ever win. It is a war without end so to promise or give th eimpression that one will win is (another) lesson in deception.

As for enforcing democracy in other parts of the world, that is also a lame duck. I don’t care what anyone says it is not possible to bomb your way to democracy, occupy someone’s home then expect them to respect you at the end. But that is precisely what is happening in Iraq right now but the slant (or ’spin’) may sound different depending on where you are hearing the story.

Freedom is not something anyone can give: it is for you to take and use. If Bush truly wants freedom around the globe he would change his policies so that they didn’t alien people who feel so disenfranchised that taking up arms is their only means of recourse.

Anyway, what I am left with is that Bush will give us four more years of the same bull manure he has given and if anyone (particularly any of the countries on his axis of evil list) should defy or question his judgement, they can expect to be bombed and eliminated.

For all his supposed straight and sticking to his guns talk, I just wished he would just come out and say that, because that is what’s going to happen!

Hooray! Or rather, who, ray? It seems the only people totally happy about forthcoming ‘democratic’ elections in Iraq on January 30 are the Americans.

The local Iraqis, for whom these elections are being held, couldn’t give a monkeys or much less. These are just some of things happening which makes a mockery (with a capital ‘F’) of the so-called election process:-

• Borders are closed.
• Traveling and driving at nights are banned.
• New terrorist attacks are expected.
• Hundreds of Iraqis have already been killed and many more will also die before the elections.
• Many Iraqi candidates have been forced to withdraw from the election process. Some have been killed.
• People have no place to live in some of the towns like Fellujah.
• Millions were not registered and those who have fear terrorist attacks if they vote.
• The Iraqis outside Iraq will be safe to vote in their respective countries, of course but as for local Iraqi joining the Iraqi election is a formidable ‘task.’

Another problem is that the people do not have any idea about the aim of the elections. There is no security in Iraq and democracy is not the foremost priority for an ordinary Iraqi. The country is under occupation and the election will not put an end to the invasion. The elections will not also end the terrorist attacks, or human rights abuses in prisons and on the streets.

Change Nothing

American forces will continue their policies as they have done since now, and the ‘insurgents’ will possibly increase their attacks. Nothing will be changed in prisons. The Iraqi cities will be bombed by American air planes to catch a couple of ‘insurgents’, and the ‘insurgents’ will continue to put explosives on the crowded streets to kill a few American soldiers. Both sides will play a ‘dirty game’ and the people will pay the cost.

Some of the Shiite Iraqi leaders and Iraqi Kurdish tribal leaders dream about having power after the election. It is predicted that most of the Sunni Iraqis could not vote and would not join the elections, and most of the seats would go to the Shiite and Kurdish parties. Kurds in the north have done anything possible to change demographic balance against Arabs and Turkmens.

The Kurdish tribal leaders forced thousands of Turkish and Arab people to leave the region. The Sunni resistant groups accuse some of the Kurdish and Shiite groups of supporting the American occupation. Under these circumstances the coming Iraqi polls will deepen the differences and gaps between the political, ethnic and religious groups.

It is not difficult to predict that the polls will improve nothing, but worsen the problems. And, the Iraqi peoples do not need an election under fire, but the US needs a constitutional legitimacy and the polls will serve to provide that needed legitimacy.

Why is homosexuality such a hot (desirable) topic among some men?

I was going to say “white men” but in the interest of impartiality I simply said “men.” But, the reality for me is that the only types of homosexuals that I have ever personally known within professional, academic or social circles, are white ones.

I remember when I attended an all-boys grammar school in Yorkshire having to put up with lots of discussion about “bumming” and all that. Being reasonably new into England at that time I didn’t even know what the term “bumming” was.

I later found out that it was basically the act of sodomy and I remember that aggressively offering to “bum” someone was the worse or most severe form of threat one could level at another pupil.

I thought this was strange because back in Jamaica you would just simply t’ump down a guy! And that would’ve been the end of that or maybe it would have developed into a major fight. But never did you threaten to have sex with him as a threat!

Law & Disorde

All these thoughts came back to me as I look at the recent pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqi civilians in the name of maintaining law and order in that country.

Why is it that homosexuality feature so prominently in their armoury of torture weapons? Whether it is getting the Iraqis – very often devout Muslims whose religious beliefs prohibits such practices – to sodomise one another or they themselves doing it, these soldiers seem to have no morals or fear in getting their cheap thrills the homosexual way.

I remember, out of curiousity, watching the British film “Ali G In Da House” which featured a scene around a story line where there was a threat the world would end and these two British men (read white) were shown sodomising each other. The Ali G character then asked why there doing it and what it was like. Their reply was that since the world was going to end they thought they’d try it and it was “very nice, actually…”

Personally, if the world was going to end having homosexual sex would not be the first thing that comes to mind of things that I’d like to do. But, again, it shows the state of mind of certain types of men, British at that, where they seem to have this homosexual agenda on their brains all the time. It doesn’t seem to matter to them whether it’s in private, at work (like those soldiers), in a film or at school, it is all the same to them.

To many people I know, homosexuality is such a big irritation. You could go so far and say it’s a real pain in the a**e…