BlackMan Time

Archive for February, 2005

Just in case you have not been aware of it: there is a food scare of epidemic proportion currently playing out in Britain.

It concerns the discovery of the presence of cancer giving dye Sudan 1 in a quite a number of ingredients used to make ready made meals. Most importantly Sudan 1 is used extensively in those very hot Asian curry dishes that have become Britain’s number one dish above fish and chips.

Yet, for all the dangers it was not the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) who discovered and/or broke the news about the presence of such an alien in its local foodstuff, it was the Italians! But even after it was discovered the British authorities transformed into an ostrich and buried its head into the sand by trying to convince the public that the scare is/was nothing to worry about.

Just like with the BSE (Mad Cow Disease to you mate!), the vibe among the Food Standards Agency was there is no need to panic. According to them tests of Sudan 1 on rats suggested that even huge doses of Sudan 1 produced signs of cancer only after many months. In human terms, roughly speaking, this means that symptoms would only become apparent after 20 years, given massive exposure.

Don’t Panic!

The real problem with the official calls for calm is that they miss the point. It scarcely matters that the risk from Sudan 1 is minimal, or that the cost of product recalls has already topped £100 million.

The fact is that a banned substance found its way into every supermarket, and most of the homes, in Britain. What will be said if the next failure in the food chain, achieved in a like manner, has more lethal effects?

The bottom line is that processed (so-called ‘convenience’) food is not safe to eat and has not been safe for many years. The only reason why this has come to light is not that some vigilant person has discovered it but because someone has slipped up and let the cat out of the bag.

In this kind of environment, where money is more important than health, if manure could be manufactured for a profit and taste good, even that would be sold to the public.

In essence you cannot rely on the authorities to safeguard your interest where food (or maybe anything else) is concerned. The best guard for looking after number one is…you! Best to eat and consume food that is naturally grown (I hate to use the phrase ‘organic’) because then you may know what’s in it. But what do you when you’ve picked a home-grown apple and find a radioactive bug in it?

Gee! Isn’t anything sacred anymore!?

It is rare that I use my space to focus on something which could be interpreted as advertising. In fact it is the first and only time I have done this in BlackMag!

I do it only because there is an acute shortage of good Black books, let alone Black publishers and it is my contribution to facilitate and encourage more publishers to come forward.

We’ll try it and see how it goes…

Have you ever published a book, have a book you want publishing or is generally interested in book publishing? Then you should be talking to Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO, co-founder of the African American Publishers’ Pavilion. Rose is organising Book Expo America 2005 and is currently looking for new participants for the book industry event of the year.

To strengthen his mission to find people, he has issued an open invitation for African American book publishers who meet the criteria to exhibit in AAPP to be held in New York City, June 3-5, 2005. ACGI will be exhibiting during the 2005 BEA at Booth #1233.

According to their release, all interested publishers should mail in their catalogue, the number of titles in their catalogue, number of years in business, and their company’s publishing genre or categories. They should also include their name, company name, address, phone number and email address.

Well, how did I fare?

Reggae superstar would be turning over in his sepulchre to know about the bangarang going on over where his body should rest.

It seems like his widow Rita wants to dig him up out of his born-land ground in St. Ann’s, Jamaica and replant the rootsman’s bones in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia “his spiritual resting place,” Rita said. Understandably, lots of artical Marley lovers and Jamaican citizens are aghast at this idea.

One of the ironic thing about all this is that Fas a Rastaman Bob Marley did not believe in death or funerals. I have heard many an interview with him where he declared, as is the Rasta custom: “Rasta cyaan dead. How Rasta fi dead?”

Yet, for all his personal beliefs and foibles, Marley’s life (and music) spoke volumes and even today 24 years after his passing, that same music has not only stood the test of time, but is even more successful now than when he was around in the flesh.

This, of course, is the style for anyone gifted with creative greatness, commemorated by the mass usually generations after they have passed. A true artist, indeed.

So, why is Rita so insistent on taking him to Africa? The answer (or speculation) change depending on who you talk to and what agenda they have to push.

Poor Concert

Rita organised a series of celebrations in Ethiopia in honour of Bob Marley including a concert on today featuring artists such as Baaba Maal, Youssou N’Dour and Angelique Kidjo. The aim is to raise $1million for poor families in Ethiopia. But what some critics are asking is why travel all the way to Ethiopia to find poor families? What about the poor families in Jamaica, Marley’s backyard?

Others feel Rita has become totally disconnected with reality to the extent where she is using Marley’s legacy to benefit from the celebrity spotlight.

Long time Marley and reggae historian Roger Steffens said: “Bob never expressed any interest to be buried in Ethiopia,” Steffens said. “They (Rita and others) don’t believe that Selassie is God in Ethiopia, and that was the prime motivation behind Marley’s music. The country that created the faith of Rastafari is Jamaica, not Ethiopia.”

Rita Marley who is presently in Ethiopia has now denied the reports that she planned to rebury Marley in Ethiopia. Apparently her words have been “twisted.” However, she “honestly” and “candidly” expressed the fact that Bob, as a Rastaman, loved Ethiopia and she would love to see the day where he is laid to rest in his father’s land, and she has never been secretive about that. But, she added, she has “never ever put out anything saying Bob is going to be exhumed, and returned home, and it is very painful to see something so wonderful is being twisted.”

It’s funny how other people can put words into your mouth though!

We wish Marley a happy 60th birthday, even if events around this date is either not in his, reggae’s or Jamaica’s best interest. Doesn’t it just wanna make you light up a spliff and bu’n dung Babylon, one more time?

By this time tomorrow oil giant Shell will have made £24 million in profit! This is based on their actual earning success for 2004 in which they made a record £9.4 billion in profit.

Shell has pointed out the profits related to the company's operations worldwide, adding that one of the main reasons for the rise was a 30 per cent increase in world prices for crude oil.

Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said the firm's profits would enable significant investment in finding new reserves to meet the current demand for oil. “All oil companies, including ours, make very high profit figures at this moment, but look at what we do with those profits. We have an incredibly high investment level,” he said. “There are very few companies, if any, in the world who can say their forward-look is to invest $15 billion (£8 billion) within a year.”

To me it doesn’t matter what reason Shell or others give to justify this colossal level of earning, I just think it is more than obscene. It is kerosene and I I am agas (aghast) at the amount of their profit.

For them to bring in that record level of money, beating last year’s record profit earning HSBC bank who made £7.7 billion in profit in the previous, it means that Shell must be actually overcharging people for practically everything they do. Either that or they have some of the most brilliant managers, advertising campaigns and predatory practices known to man (or woman).

Whatever it is they can actually afford to reward consumer with some sort of concession or rebate. A drop in the amount they charge for petrol (gas) would be welcome by most drivers, I’m sure.

It also begs the question that if Shell has made this much profit and the government takes a cut of that profit then it stands with good reasons that the government is also laughing all the way to the bank too! While the oil companies, the banks and the government are all making a killing, the poor consumers are making a dying. That’s surely not right. Maybe the consumers should make a killing too: kill their spending with the oil companies and turn the tables around.

Yeah, that should just about do it!