BlackMan Time

Archive for October, 2006

British Chancellor Gordon Brown has carved out an unenviable reputation for himself. He has become the Taxman!

By day he is probably a really nice mild-mannered man, good father, wit (yeah, right!) raccounteur, Lord and protector of the clan Brown! But, every time he puts on his politician cloak (and dagger?) he transforms into this fiend who loves nothing more than to tax the British public to death.

With a new budget due in March he’s already exercising his mind on introducing the following taxes:-

• Cheap flights
• Chelsea tractor
• Energy consuming producers
• Homes
• Pay-as-you-drive
• Rubbish

Already we’ve been inundated with more taxes in this government than even in a Conservative one. The latest tax suggestion, one that (alleged) arch enemy Tony Blair is touting, is one on the environment ostensibly to stop the further disappearance of the planet through climactic changes. On the surface of it this is a good idea, but since nothing good has ever come out of any tax policians have introduced, I am sceptical.

It is far too easy for Brown, Blair and others, to announce tax hikes and tell us why they are good and/or necessary, usually behind a bucket load of promises and media spin. Later, we watch as these big ideas disappear into thin air, paying more tax and we find ourselves having to earn more just to survive!

As far as I see it Gordon Brown’s taxes are no more than just convenient scams to relieve the public of more money to fund their government. If anyone can show me where I am totaly wrong on this, I’d be glad to eat these words!

Until then, here’s a message for Gordon Brown: stop the tax increases will ya!

Nothing irritates me more than meeting a white person who thinks s/he knows more about being an African (or Black) person, than an African person!

I first consciously experienced this phenomena when I was at uni in the 1980s. Then a skinny, gay white guy professed to know more about being Black than I did. His reason for saying this? Apparently he was raised by a Black family because his own white family had abandoned him.

Over the years I met others, most of whom weren’t as brazen about their superior African knowledge. I met the latest such “African-wiser-than-you” person today. He was a white man whose family has lived for generations in South Africa. He objected to me using the word Black for describing this site.

According to him I’ve accepted the derogatory phrase “Black” that white people had labelled me with. At first I politely replied that when I refer to the term Black I meant people of African descent. White people are not of African descent, I said. They are from European descent. I also said that other (much greater) leaders before me had no problem with the term. I reeled off names like Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, etc.

Rather than accept this in good grace, he continued to lecture me about “all human being originating in Africa so technically speaking he was African!”

At this point I really lost patience with him. Imagine a white man telling me that he is African! It was more than my perception could take, so laced into him with all the gusto I could muster.

I responded that the only reason why white people were in Africa in the first place was to kill, plunder and steal what genuine African people had. They raped and stole Africa of its riches and resources after which a few hundred years later they have the gall to expect modern Africans, like me, to embrace them as if they are native Africans! I was of course speaking about him!

Still, he persisted. I didn’t presume to lecture him about being a white man, so I couldn’t then understand why he was so steadfast in the position he was taking. Maybe he was just winding me up? I couldn’t really tell because he looked like he really believed his own words…

Are you a white person who knows more about being African than an African? Perhaps you are a white person who believe you are just as African as the next African-descended African? Maybe you are an African who has experienced white people like this? Whichever way it is for you, it would be interesting to hear what you think.

Today – or was it last night? – the clocks went back one hour. And, as usual, the entire British Isles is in a quandry over time and this twice annual practice of altering it to suit their purpose. They even give the procedure a fancy name: Daylight Saving or British Summer Time, for when they repeat the process in March.

It got me thinking about something else: this blog section!

Time, is obviously important. Our lives are measured in it. Our days, indeed, are numbered! But how many of us are actually awake to this idea? How many are still sleeping or slumbering, thinking that they’ve still got enough time to ignore time before time catches up with them?

There are a lot I would imagine and I feel it’s time for us to arise!

This is going to be the general tone of this section: I will focus on things that are happening around us that we should be aware of. Feel free to post your comments, critique, praise, suggest or just send general feedback.

Ready when you are!

As usual I’ve been watching many things over the past few weeks but one has ripened to the point where I now am compelled to put pen to paper. Erm, I mean fingers to keyboard and screen!

This particular issue concerns pop singer Madonna and her adoption of David Banda a Malawian child. Here, an immensely wealthy and popular entertainer, already blessed through natural births with two children, decides to adopt a third.

Maybe the thought process was to help the child, a 13 month old boy whose mother died and whose father placed him in an orphanage because he simply couldn’t afford to look after him. Perhaps it is the manifestation of the latest fashion trend: celebrities adopting third world babies. Who knows?

The whole thing just reminds me of when past colonialists went to Africa and brought back the heads of lions, tigers, rhinocerous and even hippos, as trophies of their “successful” time in the “savage” lands.

Of course famous people adopting disadvantaged children has been going on for ages and will no doubt continue in the future. It just seems so neo-colonialistic the way Madonna has done it: no pretence of having previously worked with children, human rights causes or acting as goodwill ambassador to any huge so-called christian type organisations. Like Angelina Jolie, for instance and she’s now on ther third adoption with threat/promise of adopting more!

No, Madonna simply paid her money, a reported £1 million, flew out to Africa, collected her baby sans labour pains or huffing and puffing, then jumped on a chartered plane and was home in time to make the morning news!

Is it me or do you think this is kind of vulgar the way Madonna, no stranger to upsetting public tastes, morals and social etiquette, has done it?

Either way, let’s hope the child doesn’t get hung on a wall in the dining room!