PLEASE READ AND PREPARE!!!

I have constantly warned of Americas economic decline caused by the rise of third world economies, like China and India, and our (the American worker) loss of comparative advantage under globalization. The truth is that there is not much that can be done change this reality, short of sabotaging the growth and success of the “third world”. However, there is another threatening phenomenon that is simultaneous and will exacerbate economic decline and that is the manifestation of “Peak Oil”.

Peak oil is the theoretical point where supply cannot keep pace with growing demand and hence demand forces up the price of oil inorder to ration or control the limited supply. The resultant is that gas prices will take a radical sustained long-term upward trajectory. Prices may oscillate back and forth by a few cents at the pump, over short periods of time, but the long term trend will be constantly up. Prices may often take one step back, in the short-term, and then take two steps forward in the longer term. Many geologist and Oil experts believe we are near or at the period of peak oil. In any case, this is inevitability as oil reserves are finite non renewable (in the short term) resource.

The question is what are the coming effects of this? Well, it can be catastrophic to our economic system. The first thing it will mean is raising inflation, which will reduce the purchasing power of the already falling dollar. That means a reduction in our standard of living. In order to keep inflation from running out of control, the fed will exercise monetary policy by increasing the fed fund rate, which will then raise interest rates which will constrict the amount of money being lent for investment and expansion, further slowing economic activity. Most ominous, however, will be the impact upon consumer confidence in the direction of the economy, as economics is often a self fulfilling prophecy driven by consumer sentiment, due to consumer consumption constituting 2/3 of GDP.

If this change is abrupt, it could spell disasters for the economy and we should prepare for a depression worst than the great depression of the early 20th century. If the change is gradual or if this nation can successfully gain direct or proxy control over a good percentage of world oil reserves, there are things that we can do to prepare for the new realities of a world without cheap energy. That preparation is in regards to real estate.

Real Estate has been the biggest creator of millionaires in America. Those who can intelligently and accurately speculate on future demand will win the real estate windfall. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that urban sprawl will be one of the first victims of rising fuel prices. Automobiles, numerous highways and cheap oil have combined to create low density metropolitan areas as many people can afford to live long distances from where they work and find culture and entertainment. The rising cost of energy will make such lifestyles a luxury that only the rich can afford.

Smart growth will become the dictate of federal and or State governments. Smart growth is simply a buzzword for promoting population density, as opposed to sprawl. Dense population clusters are much more energy efficient and makes public transit more feasible. As the middle class are no longer able to afford long commutes, they will be driven inwards into the core of metropolitan areas, which generally have the highest job concentration. This will radically reduce the rising transportation cost of a household budget as well as reduce national consumption of energy as street cars, light rail, buses, and subways become more profitable and sustainable from increased population density.

The thing worth noting is who is disproportionately in those core areas today. African Americans are already concentrated in these core areas and are in a future enviable position if we own the land and homes in areas of rising demand. Forward thinking African Americans should not move outward into suburbia, but invest inward going forward. We need to look at our inner city communities not as places to escape from, but to invest into and build into livable viable communities. With increased transportation cost in a sprawled out urban landscape, the demand for suburban living will decline and the suburbs loss will be the central cities gain, as in the past the suburbs gain came at the loss of the central cities.

Also impacting on the declining viability and efficiency of the suburb is decreasing family size due to decreased fertility of American women. Many far out suburbs have communities with large lots, 4 bedrooms, three car garages and other amenities one would need for a large nuclear family. However, demographic trends show a steady decline in family size and the decline of the nuclear family (mother, father, children all living as one). Also, with people living longer and fertility rates dropping, the percentage of the population that are empty nesters (families were the children are grown and moved out) will increase, and they will not need the square footage of the homes they raised their children in. Thus, higher density Condos and Apartments in the core will rise in demand and development.

As African Americans, we can prepare for this changing future by investing and promoting our inner city communities. People will have to become less independent in the future world. We are going to have to family up and share resources and increase our density of living.

MICHIGANS TWIN CITIES = AMERICAS RACIAL MICROCOSM

I one want an example of how the present is the creation of the past, just take a gander at Michigan’s Twin cities of Benton Harbor-St. Joseph. The twin cities are a microcosm of the black white divide in America that started with the enslavement of Africans in America, which has reverberated a double standard of living between blacks and whites ever since.

Often times, people do not get to see the stark contrast between black and white, because they are caught up in the gray area. The fact that some blacks have risen to be on par or to have surpassed most whites, works to shield and blind people to the general truth of the black condition. The black people that most white people know and encounter are the ones who have integrated into their environments of success. Therefore, they see these blacks on par with them and just assume that the playing field has been leveled and that racial inequality is a thing of the past.

Benton Harbor-St. Joseph is a very small community that straddles Lake Michigan. It sits on the I94 corridor about 120 Miles from Detroit and 80 Miles from Chicago. Its likely most famous native is Sinbad the comedian, but the area or county is also where the great boxer Mohammed Ali resides a least on a part time bases. There is nothing extraordinary about the area that straddles the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline….except for the glaring racial divide, which seems pandemic in Michigan.

Benton Harbor is a city populated by the descendants of slaves and the sons and daughters of Sharecroppers who fled the Segregation of the Jim Crow south in search of freedom and opportunity up north….only to find a different form of racism, segregation and repression. Hence, the dichotomy of these twin cities runs much deeper than the cities themselves, as they are simply a window into the soul and history of race in America.

Here are some statistics of the twin cities. Note the glaring differnce in income and home values for the border cities.

St Joseph, MI, population 8,789 , is located in Michigan's Berrien county, about 31.8 miles from South Bend and 57.2 miles from Gary.

White:90%
African American:5%
Asian:2%
Other/Mixed:3%

Household Average Size: 1.99 people
Median Household Income: $ 37,032
Median Value of Homes: $ 102,000

Benton Harbor, MI, population 11,182 , is located in Michigan's Berrien county, about 31.8 miles from South Bend and 58.5 miles from Gary.

White:5%
African American:92%
Other/Mixed:3%

Household Average Size: 2.91 people
Median Household Income: $ 17,471
Median Value of Homes: $ 38,700

This this is a small town with small town problems? Note that less than two years ago that Benton Harbor had a major riot, due to a police chase by white suburban police that lead to the death of a Black motorist. Also, below I listed some headline news from Benton Harbor from this month.

03/27/2005 09:49 pm
Benton Harbor, MI - A shooting late Saturday night has left three people dead in Benton Harbor as police continue to look for suspects.

A man and a woman were found shot to death in a home on Parker Avenue and an 11-year-old boy found shot in the head died later at a Kalamazoo Hospital.....

03/17/2005 05:59 pm
Benton Harbor, MI - A teenage boy is dead after being shot in the face just blocks away from his home in Benton harbor....Police say at a little before 8:00 PM, 15-year-old Allen Rice was shot in the face just blocks away from his home... These guys around here don't approve of guys that are from out of town and they are always testing them out, and Allen, is not the kind of person to be tested...

03/04/2005
Four-year-old boy found dead inside Benton Harbor home...

03/04/2005
Benton Harbor teens sentenced to prison time for bank robbery

Can we please have a moment of silence.....

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R. I. P.
We can only hope and pray that God and our ancestors are pleased with the work and contribution Mr. Cochran gave to humanity.

One plus One equals Two? not all the time...

There are always studies being done in America about the Liberal and Conservative divide in various areas. A new report in keeping with this tradition is reporting that Colleges are overwhelmingly liberal. The study found that 87% of college’s faculty is Liberal, while 13% of them are conservative. I have always maintained that Liberal dominance in any area is such to the extent that the job itself is Liberal. Being a teacher is one of the most liberal jobs one can have, thus it only serves to reason that most teachers would be Liberal.

When ever the Conservative and Liberal dichotomy is explored and there is an undeniable presence of one over the other, those who look into these things believe it is only natural to conclude that such disparities can only mean that the dominant group is “possibly discriminating” against the other in ways that affect their hiring and promotions. The article states in regards to these matters that;

“Even after factoring in levels of achievement, as measured by published work and organization memberships, "the most likely conclusion" is that "being conservative counts against you,"”

This same song is sung as noted in one of my past op-eds when it comes to the overwhelming number of Liberals in the Media. Conservatives think the natural conclusion is the more Liberals you have reporting the news the higher the possibility and probability that the news is being reported with a bias and one that is more anti-Conservative than neutral or objective.

Such conclusions are dismissed as paranoia, victimhood and various other things when Black men and women point out the fact that the media reporting stories about us is overwhelmingly white, the police in our communities are overwhelmingly white, the places we seek employment are overwhelmingly white and most teachers with their liberal bias are overwhelmingly white, thus the natural conclusion would be that the dominant group is “possibly discriminating” against the other in ways that affect their hiring and promotions and when it comes to policing our communities it is only natural to conclude that the dominant group is policing our community with an anti-Black bias. We do not conclude such based on numbers alone as is done mostly in the cases of Liberal versus Conservative we conclude such based on actual events that are real and continue to happen.

Thus the question is, how is it so easy to see the “possibility of a bias and discrimination” based on numbers alone when the Liberal and Conservative dichotomy is being explored however when the Black and White Dichotomy is being explored and we have the numbers and provide evidence to support what we are saying, it is dismissed? This is more proof of the lack of intellectual honesty coming from white folk in America, they would have us believe one plus one equal two only in cases where one is Conservative and one is Liberal. In cases where one is Black folk and one is white folk, the conclusion to the equation is never two.

Misguided and Uninformed criticisms of Black Leadership!

See a need, fill a need. These are the words of wisdom offered in the recent animated movie Robots by one of the Characters named Bigweld. This simple wisdom should be a mantra we adopt in our response to the many problems we have to deal with in our community. There have been an increasing number of attacks on Black leadership by progressive Black men and women for no other reason than in their eyes there seem to be problems ignored by Black leadership and or Black leadership is doing something they do not like, or feel is necessary although it is in no way detrimental to our rise and is definitely more positive than negative.

I was recently listening to a radio program over the internet and this Brother was speaking on the importance of educating and protecting Black men and women from HIV/AIDS. He believed that HIV/AIDS is one of the most important issues facing Black men and women in America and I am in agreement with him. I was with the brother all the way until he decided he wanted to use his speaking about the importance of HIV/AIDS education to take pop shots at Black Leadership. Brother said he believe this issue was being ignored by Black leadership, specifically Rev. Jessie Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. I could not help but wonder if brother actually did his homework before making these statements or was he speaking from ignorance about Jessie and Al organizations. I have personally heard both men speak on the HIV/AIDS epidemic we are facing here in America and abroad and Al Sharpton raised the subject several times during his Presidential campaign. I visited Jessie Jackson Rainbow Push website and on the front page, there is a link to the HIV/AIDS section of the site that has tons of information including audio and video streams about HIV/AIDS, thus I go back to brother and wonder why would he as one who works on behalf of Black people make statements that are not true or make statements without doing his own research. Brother is not the only one engaging in this kind of behavior, there is another kind of self righteousness among progressive Black men and women trying to one up other progressive Black folk.

The other kind of one upsmenship was the recent barrage of articles that spoke about Tavis Smiley town hall meeting. Several articles were written, not detailing what was said or who said what, they were written with one aim and one purpose, to make it appear as those who gathered at Tavis Smiley event were there to engage in something other than Black brainstorming and responding to questions about our people and problems that Plague our community. What really bothers me about the criticism thrown at the men and women that sat on the panel at this event was that these same Progressive folk who found it necessary to criticize this event do not see the relationship between this yearly event and the weekly events held on CSPAN by white think tanks, that produce information conjured up in their caucuses with the sole purpose of changing and shaping opinions and political thought in this country.

Black intellectuals do not gather enough or as often as they should to produce information and papers that speak to us as a people and the one time they do gather the criticism thrown at them would have you think they do this all the time and not once a year. We need an uncompromising Black answer to the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institute, The Cato Institute, Judicial Watch, the Manhattan Institute and the number of other mostly white think tanks that produce information meant to shape thought in this country. These so-called non-profit organizations continue to put out papers in defense of everything in this country that we oppose and that is detrimental to Black upward mobility. Tavis Smiley yearly event is one of many ways that we can respond to these white think tanks.

Black folk that write about and speak about Black leadership and what they are not doing can use the wisdom offered in the animated movie Robots. If you believe that an issue is not being raised like it should be raised and you are the host of a radio show, have a weekly article that run in several publications and sit at the head of an organization, it is your duty to put the light on that which you believe is in the dark, See a need, fill a need. Misguided criticism of Black leadership does not help you or bring to light that which you believe is being ignored, it only says to us, that you would rather write an article critical of Black leadership and use your air time on the radio and online to criticize Black leadership about something you have the exposure and means to bring light to. Lastly any criticism of Black folk gathering for a good cause can only be one thing, misguided, the only thing that we should hear after a meeting of Black minds about issues that matter to us is how and when is the information covered at this event going to be disseminated to the masses of our people and when will we be able to get such great Black minds back together to focus on things there was not enough time to cover at this event and pray to God it is not a year from the date of the last event as is the case with Tavis Smiley think tanks.

Keeping the State out of Religion.

America prides itself on the separation of church and state and there is much debate on how much religion should influence the politics of our nation. Some people suggest that interjecting religion into politics corrupts the separation of church and state set by the nation’s founding fathers. However, people never seem to examine the reverse phenomenon of how much religion in America has been corrupted or distorted by the practice of politics and bringing political and economic beliefs into ones interpretation and practice of religion.

The thing about religion is that it is so often open to interpretation. A hundred people can read the same scripture and come up with a hundred different interpretations of it. There is a strong probability that how one interprets the scriptures or what scriptures that they place emphasis on, is greatly determined by ones politics. A conservative and a liberal can worship the same God or religion; pick up the same version of the bible, read the same scripture…yet have completely different strategies or beliefs in regard to dealing with social issues. How can religion be so subjective when Gods intent is objective?

The reason that religion is often distorted is because of the self serving nature of mankind. People find the passages and scriptures that allow them to change the least or that most coincides with their biases and prejudice of others, while ignoring the ones that contradict their biases and practices. For example, many Christians found comfort in passages from the bible that talked about servants being obedient to their masters, during the America era of slavery. They ignored or overrode the other passages that talked about how one treats the least of humanity is how one would treat God. The cannon of scripture is and has always been parsed by religious followers to conform rationalize and continue their mistreatment of other human beings.

If there is a valid reason to separate church from state, then there is an equally valid reason to separate politics, economics and prejudice from religion. We must keep in mind that in this modern era, racism and prejudice being a taboo, that politics has become the Trojan horse for manifesting such attacks. In the past, a southern politician could say “Segregation today, Segregation tomorrow and segregation forever” and point to the target of their hate or disgust without shame. Today, politicians and citizens cannot do this out of fear of being ostracized. Ergo, politics, for many, is the cover needed to exercise ones prejudice without the ostracism and shame that results from their naked ambitions. These same people will then sit up in the pews of Churches and interpret or reinterpret scripture in such a way that allows them to continue their ways under the auspices of religious doctrine.

This country likes to pat itself on the back an awful lot, by judging what we are a specific point in time. The judge of whom and what we are, however, is not measured by a point in time analysis, but rather, the summation of time. This nation was built upon and created by the stealing or conquering of lands from Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans for several centuries. Yet, people still have the audacity to talk about America as a Godly nation, while looking at other nations contemporaneously as evil, which gives us the moral rationalization to invade and reconstruct those places in our image...at least thats the pretext. No one ever stops to think that when this nation was as young as those nations are, that we were just as evil….but slowly and gradually evolved to be less evil to our people via going global and exploitation by proxy against people and resources in other nations.

When I look at America I see a country ripe from the harvest cultivated from centuries of evil and exploitation, as much as anything else. Now that it has created this bountiful harvest, it has released its slaves and ended its genocide against the Indigenous peoples, and now feels free to point the finger at other nations still employing evil to build up the harvest for their elites. Oh how righteous. There is not much moral differnce from employing evil to produce a harvest than there is in willfully consuming the harvest from evil.

If one wants to see the hidden evil in America come out, simply talk about Americas past and watch the demons manifest. Americans want to be “past that”. What this means is that these Christian and God blessed people want to put those memories behind them. They are not as focused on the effects or legacy of the past, just the memory and how it threatens to blow their cover as wolves in sheep clothing. “The bible teaches that we should forgive” and blacks and Native Americans should simply forgive and write off that history, not for the sake of God, but for the sake of white people who want to enjoy the assets from the past without having the burdens of its liabilities born upon them.

I personally get sick of hearing about how great America is. Is true that I would rather live in America that most other places. Yes! But it is also true that I would much rather have lived somewhere else than to live as a black person in this land for most of its colonial and American history. The only reason that this country is what it is today and that I exist here today is due to the evil of racial slavery and the economic motive behind it.

The present cannot be separated from the past, for the present is simply the creation of the past. All this talk about American Democracy, separation of church and state and how America is the model for the world is simply self exaltation that hides the true reality of how this nation arrived at its current station. If America is the template for the world, then every country has a few centuries of slavery, the usurping of native homelands, apartheid and other repressive and oppressive policies and practices to jump start their nation and lead them down the path to prosperity…if we would leave them alone and simply allow them to manifest in our image....as we did.

When religious concerns become more important than your Human rights (Guest Commentary)

Every now and then I come across commentary that says so much that it would be difficult for me to write about that commentary without basically re-stating everything in the commentary. Such was the case when I came across Brother Ras Jahaziel piece entitled “When religious concerns become more important than your Human rights” (from a yet unpublished book). After reading brother piece I e-mailed the brother and asked for his permission to reprint his words on this Blog as a guest commentary because I believe my writing about what he wrote would not do his words justice. Brother responded to my e-mail with these words; “RE-EDUCATION is our urgent business and I am glad that you would want to share the article with your friends. Go right ahead: thus I will post his piece.

One of the most profound statements in what brother wrote is when he writes that;

“The long feeling of powerlessness, hopelessness, vulnerable dependency, fear, and inferiority, can even shrink the slave's SELF-ESTEEM to the point that he himself would believe that his rights are wrong, and that The Robber's wrong version of rights is correct.

This is what I believe is at the root of the belief system held by Black folk specifically the negro-con that have accepted idea’s and policies conjured up in white think tanks and now repeated in their books, speeches and on their websites. The extent to which the African colonized in America is influenced both mentally and spiritually by our colonizer has determined the extent to which we love ourselves and are willing to fight for ourselves. This can not continue and must not continue. Enjoy and Check out Brother's Web-site.
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WHEN RELIGIOUS CONCERNS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR HUMAN RIGHTS (taken from a yet unpublished book)

CHAPTER ONE: SO BROKEN IN SPIRIT THAT YOU BELIEVE YOUR RIGHTS ARE WRONG

When a people have been robbed of everything, brutalized, dehumanized, and stripped of their fundamental human rights for centuries, they may become so accustomed to the sight of their stifled humanity hanging from the tree of injustice, that it eventually becomes normal, natural, and acceptable.

This is not surprising, because such a history of fear and terrorism has the potential to subdue and domesticate any species, even to the extent that their future generations may be characterized by a weak and broken will, and a docile mentality.

Just like the animal who has similarly undergone CENTURIES OF DOMESTICATION, such people may become so broken and subdued that they would accept the hopelessness of cage-life, and subconsciously see themselves as eternal losers in an irreversible drama.

Everyone who is an inheritor of this history should do a self-check to search for the deep-down belief that the injustice done to Africa is an irreversible drama in which Blacks are eternal losers. Where there is evidence of inaction and indifference towards the cause of Reparations, there is proof that the feeling of being an eternal loser is firmly stamped in one’s psyche.

Afflicted by enforced amnesia which has left only a vague idea of the ordeal that they have gone through, slave-descendants will hardly understand its long-term consequences. They may therefore remain indifferent and apathetic as their rights continue to be made to seem wrong, and lose the confidence to even speak of Reparations, far less agitate for it.

The long feeling of powerlessness, hopelessness, vulnerable dependency, fear, and inferiority, can even shrink the slave's SELF-ESTEEM to the point that he himself would believe that his rights are wrong, and that The Robber's wrong version of rights is correct.

This easily happens when your self-esteem has been beaten down to zero, and The Robber's opinion has the blessing of "the authorities" and the backing of the much feared "law." Against such psychological odds, the idea of Reparations is bound to seem hopeless and ridiculous.

It is inevitable that after so many generations of dehumanization and domestication, a new mind-set would have been formed, for that is what domestication of a species is supposed to achieve....an entirely new docile and controllable mind-set. After such a long period of systematic breaking-in, the brave warrior who would fiercely stand up for his rights would only be found in the museum, and in the dusty pages of some history book, but never on the modern plantation. What would have evolved on the modern plantation is an apathetic Negro who firmly believes that he is an eternal loser beyond hope of ever regaining his stolen inheritance. This sick condition is very much in evidence when religious debate takes precedence over the human rights debate on the modern plantation.

Having been reshaped by the tools of domestication, it is more than likely that the Negro’s head would have swapped places with his belly and genitals, and his dominant passion would be food, fun and sex…or religion. The realization that he has a responsibility to the coming generations to reclaim his stolen inheritance will not dawn on the Negro, because he has been sapped of his self confidence by centuries of terrorism and domestication. He would have developed a narrow short-term view on life that goes no farther than the scramble for crumbs, and in the most crucial of times when his ship is sinking, the Negro would be joking, sporting, overeating, over-screwing or arguing about religion. Rather than take to the battle field in pursuit of his rights, the Negro will furtively seek “a safe place” in the hope that when the battle for his human rights is over, OTHERS will have secured for him a safe inheritance.

Such is the effect of the breaking-in process on the Negro that he is the least concerned about the importance of his own humanity. He has become so accustomed to living without it that to him the term now sounds like an abstract luxury that he cannot afford. If the Negro really knew the long-term implications of his history, he would overstand that the only place where he can discard the idea of Reparations is in the same dustbin where he is unwittingly throwing away his offspring's prospects for a better life complete with their restored humanity.

Most of us who have passed through the loins of this slave-breaking process can see, if we only open our eyes, how it works to this very day, pressuring us to abandon our manhood, pressuring us to abandon our self respect and our nobility, pressuring us to abandon our sense of group solidarity, pressuring us to spy on one another, pressuring us to sell out one another, pressuring us to conform to the pre-designed inferior role of Negro-hood.

What therefore are the consequences for a people who have been broken-in and stripped of their humanity to the point where they have lost all confidence in self?

The consequences are tragic. Loss of trust and confidence in self equals loss of trust and confidence in your mother, your father, your brother, and your race. It also equals loss of trust and confidence in your own God, and ultimately loss of trust and confidence in the cause of justice. It could be said of such people: Their God has been imprisoned.

A BROKEN PEOPLE are never able to muster the ambition, the hunger, the drive, the focus, the commitment, the determination, the self-belief, and the self discipline that it would take to establish their rights on earth. As long as they remain locked down in this spiritual coma, their stay on earth will always be dependent on the permission of those who see themselves as "The Owners." They will always find themselves on election-day having to choose between the Devil and Satan.

If one were to venture into the inner sanctuaries of such people one would see sitting in the centre, an idol of the white slave-master with a dollar bill sign stuck to its forehead while holding in its hand the rod of individualism. In the lap of this idol one will also see the spirit of confusion dressed in the garments of religion. These are the evil entities that prevent cohesion and maintain a permanent state of distraction.

Ras Jahaziel

Does enforcing established law depend on "who" is breaking it?

Throughout history people have committed crimes for various reasons, some of those reasons are the will to survive, the needs to survive, accessibility, resources, products, and the demand for those products, established law and the strength and intelligence of their victims or customers. This does not account for the actions of a sociopath; this only speaks to the crimes of the poor, oppressed and economically deprived men and women.

Although you would have to twist a criminologist arm to get him to admit it, most honest criminologist will admit that the kind of crimes committed by poor people is condition driven. This is why city officials know and understand that when unemployment is up, crime is up; there is a direct link between out of work people and crime. When we look over organized crime in America we will see that it all began with a few poor individuals looking to attain the so-called American dream. This can be witnessed in how the mafia came to be in the U.S.; this can be witnessed in the bootlegging of liquor, and in a more modern sense it can be witnessed in the selling of drugs amongst poor Black folk.

In America, it appears that how and where the law is enforced depends on who is breaking it. I will seek to explain this by looking at the criminality of two groups; Black folk and Asians.

It is no secret that Asians have a reputation for being smart and very entrepreneurial but the criminal actions of Asians continue to be rewarded with Billions of dollars each year. I am talking about Asians participation in the making and distribution of counterfeit goods that include but are not limited to purses, clothing, jewelry, music, movies and games. You can go to any swap meet in this country, outdoor or indoor and you will see the counterfeit goods for sell, you can go to plenty of local shops in most major cities and you will see these stores are owned and operated by Asians selling counterfeit goods. The second form of criminal activity Asians are engaging in and is some how escaping the microscope of local law enforcement is Asian women not having the proper certificates to do nails in these Asian run nail shops. Many people do not know, but to do nails one must go to school just as beauticians must go to school.

The same can’t be said of Black law breakers; Take for instance Black women who like Asian women are required to have a certificate to practice their trade, for Black women that trade is braiding hair. All over America, cities and states are coming down hard on Black run Salons about having Black women working braiding hair and not licensed by the city or state. The same can not be said of the Asian run Nail Salons. Many of the Asian women that do nails vocabulary is limited to the work they are doing and they are incapable of holding a conversation at length in English which is further proof that they did not attend a school and get the licensed needed to do nails. And no matter what one says, it is an absolute fact that the counterfeiting of goods and the distribution of those goods by Asians are like the selling and distribution of drugs by poor Black folk. Some will argue the immediate and negative impact of one versus the other and the residual affects of one versus the other which I understand can not be ignored but I am talking about the principle of getting rich from the crimes ones condition allows them to get involved in.

When Poor people engage in illegal activity, they use the means and opportunities available to them to earn money; this is true in America and around the world. However, there is a not so subtle difference in how various people illegal activities are viewed and how law enforcement seeks to end those illegal activities. One would think that when the enforcement of laws produce a high number of prisoners from one particular community when statistics show that the crimes these prisoners are in jail for is committed at the same rate amongst other groups of people that it would be as easy to bring an end to such disparities.

This is not the case when it comes to Black men and women in America, our crimes are seen as more than crime, it is seen as proof of one thing or another about all of us particularly that we are inferior and prone to committing crime, thus victimless crimes committed by us receive almost the same time crimes with victims by others get. When we look at how the states are going after Black women that braid hair versus Asian women that do nails, and when we consider that Asians open up stores selling mostly counterfeit goods only to have their illegal activity rewarded and seen as entrepreneurial we can easily see that enforcing established law is not always about going after law breakers but particular law breakers just ask the brothers arrested for selling bootleg movies on the same street that Asian stores are free to sell their counterfeit goods.

The Wool is still Strong....

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Many people still bark at the idea that the there is only a ten percent difference between Democrats and Republican and that hey use this ten percent difference to create the political climate that brings about all the political shenanigans we witness in local, state and national politics. However when it is all said and done, and politicians leave the national political arena, it is easily seen that these individuals have more in common than they would have us believe. This is best exemplified in Bob Dole recruiting Tom Daschle for a law firm he heads up in Washington D.C.

If you are familiar with these two old foes, you know that they both served in the Senate with Bob Dole the big wig Republican leaving in 1996 to run for President and Tom Daschle the big wig Democrat being defeated by the Republican Party this past election cycle. While in the Senate they were bitter rivals and the biggest supporters of whatever agenda their respective parties was putting forward. So why would Bob Dole recruit a man whom it would appear he had little to nothing in common with ideologically and whom defeat he supported this past election cycle. The answer is as clear as the transparent political system that has men and women in America at odds over the small difference between the two parties whose ultimate goal is the same and that is to uphold the Empire, but do it differently.

The idea behind these two coming together is to have members of both political parties as employees of the “high powered lobbying and law firms” as to help push whatever legislation through congress these lobbyist want by using the contacts these two old rivals have. Daschle having been the Senate Leader for the Democrats has a great relationship with Democrats serving in Congress as do Bob Dole with the Republican. These two men coming together is more proof that it is all a big game at the end of the day and much like we witnessed in Eddie Murphy movie “The Distinguish Gentlemen” when Eddie Murphy was asked what it is that he supports, and then was told if he supports this they have money from this company for him and if he is against it they have money from the other side for him. The wool that is represented by the small difference between the two parties is still holding strong over the eyes of most men and women in America and that is what makes this story both relevant and irrelevant all at the same time.

The Saprano Syndrome

America suffers from the “Tony Saprano” syndrome. Tony Saprano being the mob boss patriarch of an Italian family of 4 in Northern New Jersey, in the HBO series titled “The Sapranos“, for those who do not know. Tony makes his living through racketeering, murder and other crimes, but his wife and children really do not “know” how Tony provides the family their “American dream”, at least not in the earlier episodes that I watched.

The American dream that Tony provides his family is accepted without question. The wife is not ignorant of the fact that there is a “mob” or that the mob is known as a criminal murderous organization, however, she has a vested interest. She is in love with an man and a lifestyle that triggers cognitive dissonance in regards to evidence that her husband is a member of the mob and that the nice home, nice schools, money and wealth she and her family enjoy is the product of crime and the blood of others. That having been said, Tony does work hard.

When one has a beneficial emotional and material vested interest in a condition, one will have an aversion to accepting a reality that threatens it. The matriarch of the Saprano family enjoys the “good life”, the product of Tony being a good provider. She is also a religious person who would or should have a hard time accepting her material lifestyle and her marriage if she were to connect the dots on how it was all made possible. Such a connection of dots would place her righteousness into conflict with her emotional and material selfishness. As long as she chooses not to connect the dots, she can maintain her sense of righteousness as well as her emotional and material assets.

Americans are like the wife of Tony Saprano in that most do not want to connect the dots in regards to how America managed to provide all the status and wealth that we enjoy. Americans want to believe that their status is the product of simply working harder and smarter than others. They do not want to believe or accept that much of the wealth is the product of mob type activity conducted by the government or made legal by the government for some citizens to conduct. Such an acceptance would force a moral dilemma upon a religious proclaiming populous in regards to how they lifted themselves up as the by product of putting others down.

One of the dots that Americans refuse to accept is that the present is the creation of the past. They know full well the history of this nation, the near genocide against the indigenous inhabitants and the centuries of enslavement of Africans. However, they fail to then take the next step and connect that history to the present, ignoring the law of nature that creates a reaction for every action. By not connect the dots of the past to the present, none of the problems of the present can be related to the past and hence no action should be taken in the present that is related to events of the past. Americans can then continue their fantasy love affair with America and its materialism and status, as the wife of Tony Saprano does the same.

Americans also do not want to connect the dots in regards to its past and present foreign activities either. It promotes all of its actions as the leading donor nation providing food, aid and medicine to suffering people in the world. On the other hand, it purposely keeps quiet and classified all the clandestine destabilizing and murderous activates that it has promoted directly or via proxy upon other nations. For example, in Central America during the cold war, 10’s of thousands of innocent civilians were killed as a result of rebels and gorillas that we trained and backed to overthrow communist leaning governments. The same is also true in Africa as the CIA and the State Department had propped up murderous and exploitive dictators as reward for resisting communism. Billions of dollars was lent to these dictators, who put it in Swiss Bank accounts and now the US wants the leaders elected by the people to pay these debts back, placing Africa in peonage.

The citizens of America do not want these dots to be connected. If the government does not connect the dots via confession and declassification of piles on information, the people will not entertain the notion of connecting the dots on their own. The government will never connect the dots because in American democracy the people really do not want the dots connected and forcing the nation into accountability and resposibility. Also, the door for litigation in the international court that could lead to reparations for these damages keeps truths locked and classified. Information will only be declassified when statutes of limitations on responsibility and accountability have been reached. However, even then releasing such information would tarnish the image and reputation of the Nation to the rest of the world.

In light of all this, Americans live in a fantasy state of denial in which they see and define themselves as they want to be seen and defined as opposed to how they actually are. When others come with a mirror or marker to connect the dots, they are immediately attacked with the goal of discrediting the messenger and message. They will say that such people are motivated by hate and jealously. They will attempt to drag these people through the mud for having the audacity to challenge their fantasy and potentially putting their faith and morality to a true test of character. When the chickens do come home to roust and the reaction to the nations negative actions boomerangs back at them, cognitive dissonance will prevent people from seeing that they are their own worst enemy as what goes around comes back around and nations and people will reap what they have sown.

Why do they Hate us? The real question is why more people don’t, who have plenty reasons to.

Why I love Africa...

The BBC is currently soliciting the words of those who have an opinion about Africa in a series they call Why I Love Africa. It is great to read the stories of various men and women on the African Continent and from around the world speak to why they love the birth place of humanity and civilization.

If you have a deep Love for the home of our Ancestors than you should share it with the world by submitting it through the BBC Web Site.

Why I love Africa

Tribulation is nigh!

Americans beware. I most certainly am sounding like an alarmist, but for good reason, given that I believe that the next economic depression is nigh. I think one of the latest signs is the lobbying by banks to reform bankruptcy so that banks and creditors can cease assets as the economic decline is nigh. Currently, consumers can have some of the assets protected by filling for bankruptcy. For anyone who studies history and economics, crashes in economies is almost always related banks slowing the increase in the supply of money and the coming depression will be no different.

Most people do not realize that for banks, money actually does grow on trees. Well, not literally, but banks do have the power to magically “create money”. They accomplish this slight of hand by lending out its deposits. Say that Faheem has put $1000 dollars in Bank A. Then I go to Bank A for a Loan of $900 dollars. Bank A then electronically creates $900 dollars and deposits it in my Account. Where did the $900 dollars come from? Faheem still has his $1000 dollars and I now have $900 dollars and the national money supply has just been increased by $900 dollars, from thin air. Let us also not forget the interest the bank earns on the loan.

It does not end there folks. That $900 dollars ends up eventually as a deposit in another bank, Bank B, after I spend it. Bank B then lends out $810 of that deposit, which eventually is spent and ends up as a deposit in another bank (or the same bank in a different account), Bank D. Bank D then lends out $729…ect. Already, from the original $1000 dollars deposited by Faheem, the banks have created double the amount of money in the economy and it could reach nearly 10 times the amount of the original deposit.

This is the product of the Federal Reserve System that stipulates that banks must always keep a certain percentage of their deposits as liquid cash (I think it has fallen to around 1:10 ratio now). The smaller the percentage of deposits that banks are required to hold, the more money they can lend/create at interest. The money inserted into the economy through bank loans is known as “credit” or “fiat” money. It is not “Real” money, rather, it is money created for the sole purpose of charging interest and creating profit for the banking elites. It does not exist. The proof of that is if everyone who had money deposited in banks all of a sudden decided to withdraw it. The whole banking system would become insolvent, because the amount of money that it has created and lent out far exceeds its actual deposits. The vast majority of “money” in our economy is not real; it is simply “credit money” created by banks to make a profit from the charging of interest. This “fake” money has fueled our economic expansion over the last few decades.

Most people understand that a modern economy needs currency or means of exchanging goods and services, lest we rely on the barter system. Ergo, most people can rationalize the need for the creation of currency and the need for banking. What most people fail to realize is that the Federal Banking System, the Federal Reserve System, is privatized. The government does not own it, but it should. The Government borrows money from the FED…at an interest rate, which is paid back through taxing the people. If the government actually ran its own banking system, it would be a NON PROFIT entity and therefore would not be charging interest on its loans and would not be increasing the money supply through the creation of credit money simply to increase profits. Just think how much money could be saved by borrowing money at Cost. Just think of what consumers could save on Mortgage and auto loans. The current system is tantamount to usury.

The resultant of increasing the money supply is that the currency becomes overvalued and inflation looms ominous in the horizon. Everyone who has read any recent headlines knows that the dollar has been on a slide in the currency market. Speculators who buy and sell currency for profit once held dollars because of its strong value and a strong US economy to that backed it. Now, they are selling off their dollars and purchasing Euros and other currencies and the sell off threatens to drop the dollar even lower. China is the largest holder of US dollars outside of the USA and if they start selling their dollars for Euros, which is a strong possibility, the dollars collapse will send our economy into a tail spin.

That’s not the only problem though. The other problem is that our government has a huge trade deficit and large and rising budget deficit, military quagmires and a world that is embarking upon the end to the era of cheap oil. There are so many variables that point to coming disaster that only the blind cannot see it. When times like this are nigh, world conflict that leads to world wars have also been nigh. Super power and powers must create distractions lest the internal decay lead to an overthrow of the government and the system run by the elites. Wars usually serve this purpose by placing a large number of citizens out of the economy and into some sort of war. The elites figure that it is best to have a disgruntled and antsy populous looking abroad for enemies than internally recognizing that the elites in their own nation is their biggest enemy.


In summation, the threat is born from the fact that the nations money supply is under private for profit control. The creation of money and the insertion of money into the economy should be the role of the government…not private enterprise motivated by profit. The FED attempt to control this by controlling the rates charged for loans. However, this has been circumvented by the gradual and silent lowering of the reserve requirement that banks must keep as cash. The banks have essentially flooded the economy with fake money and then are charging people interest on this money. The whole system is thus ripe for collapse.

I hope that I am wrong but when one looks at the signs, they all point to coming economic correction (collapse) and wars…likely in the next 4 years. Prepare, Plan and Perform for the survival and well being of your families.

89 Million More Africans with HIV/AIDS by 2025

HIV/AIDS in Africa is always in the news, so much so that some people think HIV/AIDS and Africa are synonymous. I once commented that AIDS is a problem in Africa, it is not an African problem. In keeping with contemporary scare tactics about Africa, it was recently reported that by 2025 that over 89million African will have HIV/AIDS. Having been to Africa on two occasions and seeing first hand that what we were told about Africa is mostly lies concocted by white folk, I must say I grimace when I see information in the news saying 89 million Africans will have HIV/AIDS by 2025. To understand why I grimace there are a few things we all should know.

Author Rian Milan stated “AIDS is the most political disease ever” and I must agree, because proving that the a great number of people is not dying from AIDS is not good news it only means that the number of dying has been overestimated but we all should know how these overestimations take place. Whenever we are face to face with projected numbers about anything, we should understand that these number is derived from using a model of some kind to predict an outcome based on what is known. However, in the case of HIV/AIDS in Africa the model being used to project the outcome or outlook of the spread of this disease is being computed using guesses, unverified data and sexual links that do not exist.

To quote from the Article written by Rian Milan;

“Aids in Africa is indeed something of a computer game. When you read that 29.4 million Africans are ‘living with HIV/Aids’, it doesn’t mean that millions of living people have been tested. It means that modellers assume that 29.4 million Africans are linked via enormously complicated mathematical and sexual networks to one of those women who tested HIV positive in those annual pregnancy-clinic surveys. Modellers are the first to admit that this exercise is subject to uncertainties and large margins of error. Larger than expected, in some cases”

To understand this Rian Milan points to instances where overestimations were constantly being reduced based on the model of the computer system being used to compute the number of men and women with HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Epimodel estimated that of the 375,000 deaths in 1999 in Southern Africa, 250,000 were from HIV/AIDS far fewer than what the UN was claiming. After that the modelers used a new model called the ASA 600 that reduced the numbers of deaths to 143,000 for the year 1999. By the time 2001 came around the modelers were using the ASA 2000 that reduced the total number of deaths from HIV/AIDS in calendar year 1999 to 92,000 a far cry from the original estimation of 250,000. This number was later reduced to 65,000 using a totally separate model.

We need to and must understand the numbers being offered to us in regards to the number of men and women with HIV/AIDS and projected to have HIV/AIDS are all computed using pseudo-science, bad statistics and inaccurate information about who has the disease already and the number of people they have and will have sex with.

Another thing we should be mindful of is that the idea that HIV/AIDS is being spread through sexual intercourse is far from the truth. Josie Glausiusz writing for Discover magazine wrote in June of 2003 that the analysis of AIDS transmission in Africa led to the conclusion that only 35% of HIV/AIDS cases are spread through sex. In his piece he points out that;

“A study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, found that 39 percent of HIV-positive, vaccinated infants had uninfected mothers”

“In Zimbabwe, HIV incidence rose by 12 percent per year during the 1990s, even as sexually transmitted diseases sank by 25 percent overall and condom use rose among high-risk groups.”

Is it possible that AIDS is being spread sexually in high numbers year after year by the sexually promiscuous men and women while all other STD’s are sinking? Not likely, which leads to another question, if HIV/AIDS is not being spread sexually than how it is being spread? How can vaccinated Babies be HIV-positive but their mother is not?

We can not forget that HIV/AIDS is being brought into many African nations and villages by “Sugar Daddies”. These are white men who travel throughout Africa paying for sex and promising young women many things if they have sex with them.

In conclusion when you read that 89 million Africans will have HIV/AIDS by 2025, know that this is hyperbole, computer generated lies, generated using bad and inaccurate data and using a model that will be outdated next year. This does not mean HIV/AIDS is not a problem in Africa it simply means we should take a deeper look into the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and how they compute how many people have it and will have it as we work towards helping prevent the spread of it. If this disease is not being spread sexually for the most part and a large portion of the money is being used on sexual education, it means something different must be done.

Army Black recruitment is down by 41%

I do not think it is any secret that poverty is what has been the driven force behind Black men and women joining the Military. Very few Black folk join the Military to defend this country. Black folk have joined the Military specifically the Army in numbers greater than our population percentage for a couple of decades now. This trend has begun to change and a recent report shows that Black folk joining the army has declined since 2000 by 41%. The Marine Corps has seen a drop in Black recruits as well. The Military overall is hindered in their effort to keep track of the racial make up of its recruits based on a government policy that took affect Jan 1, 2003 that gave recruits and all federal workers the option to not identify their race, but the Army has still found a way to track the race of those who enlist. I am not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing but it should definitely be something we think about.

Black folk are the least likely to be in support of Bush war in Iraq in comparison to Whites and Latino’s. MSNBC is reporting that a July 2004 study of parents influence on young people of recruiting age found that “Black parents have more say in their child’s career decisions than is the case with white parents.” Also “Black Parents trust the Military less and have more moral objections to military service”. This I find interesting being that Black folk and Black parents in particular are accused of not being involved or guiding our children in the right direction but in this instance we appear to be more involved than white parents which has always been my argument against the bogus argument made by the haters of Black people in regards to personal responsibility and its affect on us versus its affect on others.

Army officials in an effort to make sense of the drop in Black folk joining the Army are saying that an improved economy is the reason behind the drop in Black folk joining the army. This is by far the most bogus explanation given as to why we are not joining the Army as we have in the past. Clearly if the economy was the reason why we are not joining the Army this would have been more obvious under the Clinton Administration that over saw a booming economy more so than Bush have as of yet.

To understand how many of us were actually joining the Army we need to only look at the fact that our recruitment has dropped by 41% and now the percentage at which we are joining the Army is closer to our population percentage of eligible Black folk for military service. The saddest point in all of this is that the poverty that drives so many of us to join the Military has not decreased, but escaping it by joining the Military has been taken off the table as an option by Bush and his war machine, thus Black unemployment will rise and all the things that go along with unemployment will rise. We can thank Bush once more for doing such a fine job.

Hating America may not be so bad after all....

In trying to understand the rationale behind how the President and his minions can conclude that spending billions of dollars a month to secure freedom for Iraqi’s while cutting well over 150 social programs here in the U.S. is the right thing to do, I fixated on the language used in the rationale. The one thing the capitalist racist imperialist seek to do is maintain the order under which they attain their wealth while looking for means to attain more wealth. It is often said that a free Iraq is good for a free America and this rationale also gives support to the Idea that those who attacks and attacked America attack America because of its freedoms. You see there is no difference between the use of the word free in the phrase “a free America” and the use of the word freedom in the phrase “they attack America because of our freedoms”.

A free America means that America is free to do as it pleases as a Capitalist Imperialist and Racist nation and to attack America because of these things is an attack on the Freedom of/in America. Thus Freedom of/in America is defined by Capitalism Imperialism and Racism and an attack on any of these things or a discussion about any of these things being practiced and carried out by America is an Attack on “a free America and the Freedom of America to behave as it does in regards to these things.

This also explains why when discussing these things those on the right and a great majority of whites who benefit from these things say that we are bashing America, or that we hate America. Any opposition to Capitalism, Imperialism and Racism as practiced in America is an attack on Freedom and demonstrates that one hates America. How did this come to be? When did freedom in/of America and a Free America become synonymous with Imperialism, Capitalism and Racism?

In short, these things have always been the definition of the Freedom of/in America and a free America. A cursory glance at history proves this, but it is easily seen today during this war that the rationale behind and the relationship between these things is the determining factor in who is a friend of America and who is an enemy of America. As long as you are helping in America’s imperialist capitalist and Racist cause you are a friend regardless of your own transgression in your nation i.e. Saudi Arabia oppression of women, Current Oppression in China and various hoodlums in South America not to mention Saddams antics of old. The moment a nation or group of people speak out against American Imperialism, the exploitive nature of American capitalism and American Racism or attack a country that is a better friend of America's ambitions to carry out its Capatalist, Imperialist and Racist agenda they are forever banished into the Hating America Crowd because of its Freedoms. So I conclude Hating America may not be a bad thing after all.

Back....

I am finally home and back @ work today, I been on a somewhat vacation, I say somewhat because this was not a vacation I had planned or wanted to take and one I wish I did not need to take. Unfortunately there are some things we have no control over and one of those things is when it is our time there is very little we can do. That time came last month for my Mother, who died at the young tender age of 53. The loss of a parent is not anything one can prepare for or truly comprehend until it actually happens. My mother had been sick for well over a year from various illnesses that are irrelevant to what I am writing in this piece but may be a part of what I write in the future.

My mom was the proud mother of five, four boys and one girl. I being the youngest or as I use to say to her in jest, the end of her quest to have a great child and after four tries she finally did it. This was said in response to constant reference to me being the "baby" and anyone who is the youngest child of their mother knows that to her you never stop being the "baby". My mother struggled with five children, all of whom were born by her twenty second birthday. This did not stop my mother from parenting her children to a point where sometimes her parenting was outright abusive by today's standards but yet so necessary to ensure our safety and development. There are some things my mother instilled in me that to this day are a part of my life and helped me become who I am today.

My mom was part of the first generation in our family living in the north after leaving the south in the 1950's. My mother married only once in her life and I think after that marriage failed she lost all desires to be married again. She was not an educated woman by any means but she managed to educate her children as best she could. She had the unfortunate task of burying two of her sons and we all know that there is not anything worse for a parent than burying one of their children.

My youngest son had the privilege of being under the tutelage of my mom for the past five years and having not met any of my grand parents I wanted him to have that influence in his life. He is too young to fully understand what has happen just yesterday he asked where is Grand-Ma? and I had to explain all over again that she will not be coming home. I am certain he will ask again just as the thought of my mother not being here anymore constantly runs through my mind.

All of those whom I have spoken with that has lost a parent spoke of having the same feelings I had following the death of my mother. We all know death is inevitable and that one day we will die as well, but yet when one whom we love dearly dies we react as if death is not a part of our life cycle albeit the end. I have found in dealing with my mother’s death it is the finiteness of death which causes us the most heartache. There is no coming back; we are left with great memories and no chance to have more memorable moments and having to speak about what my Mother use to say and use to do and love is something I will have to get use to doing.

She is most certainly missed by me and my remaining sibling and our extended family and she will lives on through us.

(I turned comments off for this post and I accept that all who will read this sends their condolences)

Thanks..