BlackMan Time

Archive for March, 2005

The USA is up to its usual dirty tricks. This time (or rather once again) it is working to try and topple the legitimate (and democratic) left-wing government of Venezuela.

Washington’s efforts to discredit the Venezuelan government have increased over the past few weeks. Tactics and strategies applied in prior years attempting to overthrow the Chavez administration through a coup d’etat, an illegal oil industry strike that crippled the Venezuelan economy and a constitutional recall referendum on Chavez’ mandate infused with illegal campaign contributions by the US government to the Venezuelan opposition, all failed miserably.

Chavez is on record as stating openly that he believes the US government is trying to kill him. It is a charge that cannot be taken lightly in view of the fact that the USA’s anti-Cuban/Castro’s stance and Venezuela’s close links with Cuba.

So, it seems that after a brief period of re-evaluation, the Bush administration has recently launched a new strategy intended to isolate and eventually topple the Venezuelan government. The new aggression towards Venezuela is direct, open, public and hostile.

The Bush administration, through its Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and her spokesmen, its Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his spokesmen, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Porter Goss, has made clear that Venezuela is a target for Washington this year.

This time around, the strategy is clear: turn President Chavez into an international pariah in the world media and justify an intervention to save democracy. Even more transparent are the mechanisms utilized to implement the strategy.

War Has Started

The media propaganda war has already began. Since early January 2005, major US publications and television stations, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Fox News Network and CSNBC, to name a few, have published or broadcast well over 60 articles and programs regurgitating State Department accusations that President Chavez presents a “negative force in the region.”

Chavez is described as “a threat to democracy,” a “semi-dictator,” or that the Venezuela government provides refuge and collaborates with “terrorist” groups, such as the Colombian FARC and ELN.

Such accusations are dangerous in today’s world, where the Bush administration is omnipotent to act pre-emptively to “spread liberty” and implement “regime change” where and when it sees fit.

The new strategy applied towards Venezuela represents a major policy shift for the Bush administration. While prior actions were more subtle, clandestine and low profile, the revised plan is confrontational. Washington is now trying to openly intervene in Venezuela to remove Chavez from power, but attempts to excuse such actions by branding Chavez as a dictator and a major threat to US national security.

It remains to be seen how this will actually play out and if the world will be fooled again by the antics of this war-monger and murderer of many millions of innocent Iraqis, Afghan and Muslim people. Right now his gun sights are trained on Venezuela. Tomorrow they could be trained on you.

Oh, the evil that this one man is involved in…

Hurray for Private Beharry, the Black British soldier who’s just won the VC, the highest award for bravery in the field of battle.

It is maybe scenical to ask why is this story getting so much airplay. Is it because it’s the first time it’s been awarded in 20 years? And/or the fact that Pte Beharry is the first living recipient in 40 years?

Or could it possibly be to sprinkle perfume over the British army following the negative news of the abuse its soldier heaped on defenceless Iraqis?

Without doubt Pte Beharry has been honoured for his bravery which nearly killed him.

At one point after a particularly injury, his wife was told that he had a 50-50 chance of living. But, the timing is so close to the conviction of those British soldiers, coincidently also stationed in Germany where Pte Beharry’s Princess of Wales Royal Regiment is also based, that I am able to ponder the possibilities, however far off!

After all we have to look at things from an army perspective to understand why this may be possible: those pictures of British soldiers sexually, emotionally and physically abusing those prisoners have done the British army image no good at all. The Pte Beharry feel good story neutralises that and make the British army white as snow again, if you’ll excuse the expression!

But, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then the British army needs several other ‘feel good’ factor stories to counteract the effect of the negative images generated.

Watch that space!

The people in the nice little picture postcard sea-side town of Padstow in Cornwall, are living in the dark ages. They think there is nothing wrong in going around every Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, blackening up their faces and wearing afro wigs in a celebration they call ‘Darkie Days’.

You can read the story here.

They think that even though they have been doing this for over 100 years, it is their right to do this, regardless whether their festivities are offensive to Black people or others with a genuine sense of equality and normality.

Obviously, they are ignorant but as far as I am aware ignorance is not an excuse for the law. I feel their activity is not only racist but reinforces white people’s view of Black African people.

Even in jolly old England racism is still very much a part and parcel of the thinking and ‘Darkie Days’ type activities where they are allowed to continue, makes a mockery of revellers who say it is harmless activity.

And, don’t think that just because they have made concessions and no longer wear the afro wigs that somehow makes it ok: it does not! But, the law is on their side and the law has decided their activity is not illegal.

No change there then: institutional racism wins again. How could it be any other way in England?

Just in case you missed it, yesterday was International Women’s Day. And I have to say first up big up women everywhere, regardless of nationality, race, class or creed.

It is sad that I am in London and a bigger deal was not made of IWD outside of the usual charity and organisational circles. I know in countries where people actually value the role of women in society, like say the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East, it would have been promoted everywhere and women would feel proud of the recognition.

But, it shouldn’t take a special day to recognise women. In my personal life I can look back and reflect that many of the major breaks that I have had in my life has been given or offered to me by a woman. I have an exhaustive list but wish not to disclose it in this forum. Needless to say I am indebted to women for who I am, where I am going and where I’d like to reach.

First of all, maximum respect for my mother who had the insight to recognise my talent as a writer. This was funny because at the time I had not showed any signs that I wanted to write (I was only around 12!) but she decided that I needed to learn typewriting, so she enrolled me at this private typewriting class held at a big plush hotel in a northern England city.

Amazon Women!

I remembered I was the only male among a group of Amazon and beautiful women who took me to their breasts and made sure I was not lonely! Trust me on this, I really loved that year and going to that class! Consequently I learnt to touch type with 10 fingers from before I was a teenager.

Another woman I have to big up is my Typing teacher at my upper school. When she saw how fast I could type and how keen I was to learn she gave me her personal typewriter, a manual thing on which I could pump out around 60 words a minute with mistakes or around 40 wpm without mistakes. With it I enjoyed writing and typing my own stories, poems and anything that got me to use that machine!

Years later I concluded that it was the action by my mother to send me to typing school which ultimately led to me becoming a journalist! At a time when learning to type as a man was a very rare thing outside of journalism circles, I stood out when others saw how fast I could type without even looking at the keyboards! Opportunities came and because I have the gift for stringing words together and an opinion to back up those words, I won an award for journalism.

The prize was a gold trophy and it was a matter of pride and honour to give my mother that trophy in recognition (and thanks!) for forcing me against my will to attend those classes!

Maybe this is a lesson other parents can learn from: trust your instincts! Or, give your children as much opportunity to discover their hidden talent, even if you don’t know what those talents are, because you are working with ‘raw material’ that has the potential to far outstrip anyone’s expectations.

May all mothers live to be a 1,000 years, with the blessings of Jah, Allah, Selassie and the Almighty God in whatever guise you visualise him in his infinite glory.

Selah.

I have never had a major problem with London Mayor Ken Livingston. From even before the time I was a honours degree university degree student in the 1980s when he was labelled ‘Red Ken’ by sections of the media to ‘Left Loony’ and everything in between, I have always more or less agreed with his outlook on things.

When he was MP for my (Brent East) area, Ken was one of the people we turned to when our local council foisted an unscrupulous property developer on us and he supported and advised us on the campaign to get rid of these beasts. I remember we even visited him at the Houses of Parliament and it was a painless experience that confirmed what I had always thought: Ken Livingston is just flesh, blood and bones, like me!

It made me chuckle with knowing familiarity when the media ‘revealed’ that Ken took public transport to work as if it was the revelation of the century. In fact whenever the media has pilloried and stoned Ken I always ask why and the answer usually indicate that it is those sections of the media I should be sceptical of with their ulterior motives.

This was the case recently when Ken called asked a Jewish reporter whether he was a Nazi concentration camp guard by the vigorous viewpoint he was taking on behalf of his newspaper, but we won’t go too far into that discussion.

Never Trust A Politician

I have also been mindful that Ken is a politician and Bob Marley has been cool enough to warn us never to trust one to grant you a favour as they will always want to control you forever! That hasn’t happened and in any case I have not always agreed with Ken.

I don’t agree with his raising the fares for London Transport, practically every year, nor the congestion charge for motorists, nor supporting calls to castrate Jamaica over its stance on homosexuality which is a crime in that country. His rather nasal voice used to grate a little but even that is no longer a problem as the time for laughing at someone else’s affliction has long since passed.

Maybe what I admire most about the man, regardless what anyone wants to say, is that he speaks his mind. And you always feel you know where you stand with him which for an Englishman is a bloody marvellous considering many are so far up their own…neck in pomposity, hypocrisy and the art of not rocking boats.

Overall, London is probably better off with him as mayor than any of the candidates who also applied for the job. Those who think otherwise have their own agenda to push. Me? I’m just telling it like I see it without any strings attached.

Ken didn’t invite me to write these words and I am not grovelling after anything. But the truth is just that and it is behind that on which I stand.

It is Michael Jackson Pot shot Time folks! Jackson is simply too irresistible a subject to ignore seeing that he is the world’s most successful entertainer, bar none so the entire world and his wife (read: the mainstream white press) have been feeding the masses all the dross and drivel they can handle.

It is only right that they should, indeed, play it the way they have been feeling it for ages. It has long been the ‘in-thing’ to knock any successful person, let alone one whose cultural ancestry is African yet he apparently seems to prefer looking Caucasian and acting odd. To add one that has fallen out of favour or ‘risen above their station’ is further complicating what is already a complex issue.

If any of this sounds too much of a slavery connotation for you then you are, of course correct in making that connection! In these matters race is never too far from anything and I won’t bore you with it, in this instance.

Needless to say, peeps like Sky TV are making a big killing out of this MJ thing. While the child molestation hearing continue they got an entire department dedicated strictly to MJ ‘news’. They have even got re-enactments from the court proceedings, played and replayed (on pay per view and on digital TV) for your amusement and/or entertainment.

Pale Imitation

I caught a glimpse of one such episode yesterday and was bemused to see them using a white actress/actor – I can’t make up my mind whether the person was man or woman. Maybe that was the point – to play Jackson. S/he looked terrible.

This photo comparison gleaned on a so-called satirical website compared Jackson not only to a woman (actress Helena Bonham-Carter from her role in Planet of the Apes); but also to an ape. Immediately, images and/or memory of Jackson’s pet chimp Bubbles come to mind and the joke hits home and we all laugh, yes?

Actually, no!

But, it doesn’t matter whether I find it funny or not: those who depend on Michael Jackson’s life for a living will still get paid. The real funny thing is that these people and/or organisations would never see themselves as pimps and pushers. But this is what they are!
The way how they have lay waited and baited Jackson as much as they have done then pushing out the material to the general public who lap it up then come back for more, is nothing more than scandalous. But then again Jackson is far too naive for his own good.

Surely it is not right for anyone to suffer just because they are naive?

Don’t expect to see anytime soon, a leading Black actor like Denzel Washington and say…Angela Bassett pairing up on screen in a romantic interest big budget movie! According to Will Smith such a pairing will not happen because Hollywood studio heads fear that the casting will be a box office disaster.

If anyone should know about box office successes and its formula, it is Will Smith. It is for a very good reason why he is called “Mr. Box Office” with hits like Independence Day, Bad Boys, Men In Black, I Robot, his latest Hitch and more all breaking records all over the place.

So when he revealed to MSNBC that his love interest in Hitch was given to Latina actress Eva Mendes because the suits at Sony Pictures, which released the film, feared the public wouldn’t be comfortable with either a white or black actress, you have to take notice.

Black/White Offends

According to Smith the Hollywood bosses feel having a Black couple would hold no interest to international audiences, while a white/black relationship would have offended moviegoers in the States.

This is just the kind of thing which conspire to keep the Black presence off the screen. “There’s a sort of an accepted myth that if you have two Black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy, that people around the world don’t want to see it,” Smith is quoted as saying in the UK’s “Birmingham Post. “We spend $50-something million making Hitch and the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea of a black actor and a white actress comes up – that’ll work around the world, but it’s a problem in the U.S.”

So there you have it: Eva Mendes was cast because a Black/Latina combo is not considered taboo anywhere, according to the studio, Will says.

That has got to be one of the saddest thing about film making and the Hollywood perspective of things. It is even sadder because the majority of Hollywood is run by powerful Jewish people and something has got to be wrong if practice this “apartheid” inside Hollywood.

Go on, tell me again that colour is not important!

Big respects to British teenage schoolgirl Shabina Begum for defeating authority that tried to suppress her Muslim religion and lifestyle!

Shabina was excluded from the school The school, Denbigh High in Luton, Bedfordshire, for two years but has now refused to return to the school preferring instead an alternative that is more understanding to her needs.

The bright 15-year-old was crucified by her school for wearing her jilbab, the traditional Muslim head-to-toe dress, instead of the school’s uniform. This denied her the “right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs”, according to Shabina in the Appeal Court which found in her favour against the school, Denbigh High in Luton Beds.

What this means in a nutshell is that British (and indeed European schools) can be challenged when they try to deny religious and ethnic groups like Muslims, Rastafarians, Sikhs and any other non Western people the right to represent their cultural or religious practices in a they are comfortable with. It means that Western ways should not be foistered upon even the young by those in so-called authority.

Worse is the feeling that behind this is the thought that there seems to be this worldwide anti-Muslim paranoia and the feeling in some quarters that in the aftermath of 9/11 Muslims should be tightly controlled and demeaned. This verdict kicks that thinking into touch and that cannot be bad thing.

Shabina now has to make up the time missed in school if she is to fulfill her ambition of becoming a doctor or lawyer. With this kind of spark we are sure she will do well, whatever profession she follows.

That’s another one up for youth power!