A Gut Feeling???

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff

I am often astonished at how the U.S. population can be dupped with the help of the mainstream media.  When the Secretary of Homeland Security puts out a statement saying "I have a gut feeling..." the United States will hit by a major terrorist event, he should be questioned, almost interrogated about making such a statement.  Yes the media, repeats this "gut feeling" madness as if its fact.  Why?  What is the purpose of releasing "gut feelings..." as a fact?  It seems to be an actual fact that there are those that do not have our safety at heart.  To carelessly instill fear into the population is not looking out our health at all.  Fear is a harmful emotion.  So what is the purpose of this??  As it often occurs this "gut feeling..." statement will soon turn into a fact.  I will here people at work or on the MARTA train saying something like this; "you know they said that al Qaeda is gonna attack us this summer".  So then, you have the populace parroting your "gut feeling" as if its a hard and fast fact.  We should not be so naive as to believe this "gut feeling" thing so quickly just  because Mr. Chertoff is the Homeland Security Secretary.  A "gut feeling" should not be published in the news, this is talk that should only be shared with his afterwork drinking buddies.  It also shows how irresponsible the press is or as some people may believe it's not irresponisbility but the press working on behalf of the government to keep the people in fear.  Lest we forget all things begin in the mind, thus the title of the latest Stephen Marley cd Mind Control.  There is a battle for your mind, you are constantly bombarded with actions to control your mind.  The casinos know of this power.  The musical notes coming from the slots are tuned on the musical key of E, they fill the air with pure oxygen to keep your mind alert so the body does not recognize that at two AM it should be sleepy, so you want to keep playing or for those of us that aren't big gamblers we wil go and order food at the casino restaurant.  Its control of your mind.  Mind your mind. The wise mind their minds.  As Rachelle Farrelle sings "Is that your thought you're thinking..."  What say you?

How the NFL killed baseball in the minds of Black American children.

Barry Bonds soon to be the homerun leader!

I don't ordinarily speak on sports, for my own reasons, however there are some things to say here as I am noticing what may be a trend to move Black Americans out of the game of baseball.  I must say, there have been times when we hurt ourselves as in the case of baseball.  In April 1974 33% of Black kids played organized baseball, by 2007 only 7% play the game.  First, let me say a bit about Barry Bonds.  I am sick of the white pestilence coming to the ball park to harass Mr. Bonds.  Barry Bonds has NEVER tested positive for using illegal growth horomones, EVER.  Secondly, steroid use will not increase ones ability to hit homeruns, it is timing and bat speed.  So Hank Aaron, it would be a travesty if you are not out on the field to shake Barry's hand on the day he smashes your record of 755 homeruns. 

Now, my thoughts on the game I love.  Baseball was not invented by Abner Doubleday. As usual in that time period white people would take something already in existance, add something on to the existing element and then credit themselves for "discovering" the prexisting element.  Batos was played on the island of Cuba as far back as the 1700's.  The game was played with a "batey" a ball made from resin and leaves.  The "batear" would hit the ball with a rounded tree branch, and run to the first of two bases used in the game.  By 1845 Alexander J. Cartwright founded the Knickerbockers team in New York, (coincedently knickerbockers are the pants worn in the game of baseball, though the players are tending to wear their pants in the line of crickett players of late) the Knickerbockers were the first team ever formed and Cuba was the first land to welcome the game.  Let us not forget that the aboriginals on the Caribbean Islands and the American main land north and south are Black people, and the inventors of Batos.

 In 1974, 33% of Black kids played baseball, by 2007 only 7% play.  In the 1980's the game of basketball was almost dead, I can remember on the West Coast the championship games were being televised as a taped game, 11:30pm at night.  With the advent of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, the loosning of some the rules and the reinstating the dunk, the game got new life, at the same time the NFL was searching for a way to increase attendance and in the long run raise ticket prices.  Along comes Dan Fouts, Don Coryell and the San Diego Chargers and "Air Coryell" to the National Football league.  Dan Fouts had a core of receivers starting with John Jefferson, then Wes Chandler, Charlie Joiner and Kellen Winslow.  Together they amassed 24,000 yards from 1978 to 1983 in the air.  Air Coryell took the game from primarly a running game to a passing game.  This team averaged a whopping 28 points per game, this generated excitment and fueled the change in the game to charge more for game tickets and moved the NFL into the heaven of being "America's game" and pushing "America's greatest pass time" baseball to the side. 

Baseball itself may have fueled the drive for the NFL's glory.  In 1974 when Hank Aaron was breaking the homerun record Lou Brock set the single season stolen base record at 118 and in 1982 Ricky Henderson stole a mighty 130 bases in a single season.  Baseball being affectionatly known as "America's greatest pass time", and the illegitimate belief that Abner Doubleday was the white creator of this game were being usurped by the Blacks playing in the league and this is what I believe sparked the change.

By now the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers were leading the NFL in won games and the quick strike offense.  Then comes Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins playing a similar offense. This set up a need for faster wide receivers and defensive backs to defend against them.  The colleges and universities put on a serious recruiting rush, scouring Black neighborhoods and public schools where the enrollment was primarly Black students to fill the much needed wide receiver/defensive back rolls.  This seemed to place in the minds of the Black youth that football was a way to get out of the "ghetto".  Baseball attendance soon fell off and began to fall into a tail spin suffering the same possible fate as basketball a few years before.  I feel Major League baseball, after the Ricky Henderson's and Vince Colman's of the day no longer filled the seats reached out to do two things. (1)  Put white men back in the game and (2) create a exciting game much as the NFL and the NBA did, taking baseball from small ball, hit and runs/run and hit tactics to the long ball.  Homerun fever. 

Major League baseball knew they would have to slow the game down in order to make white men prominent in the game once again and install the homerun as the highlight rather than the stolen base.  Haiti was the place where baseball's were made, that contract was taken from Haiti and sold to a country in Central America and homeruns increased even rumors of "fixed" baseballs were circulated.    Black kids no longer imagined themselves as basball players and many felt and may feel it is a white man's game.  Young Black boys no longer signed up for little league, and I witnessed many little league fields empty during basball season, this seems to be part of the demise of Black players in the Major Leagues, the interest in baseball is suffering.  The other fact is Major League Baseball does not put efforts into creating excitment in the hearts and minds of "inner city" kids.  Is there a possibility what Gary Sheffield says it true?  As I write this I can say most of the Latin ball players in the Majors are not U.S. born, as this my lend credence to what Mr. Sheffield says that (I paraphrase here) that Black American's are more likely to speak up about inequealities...I think this could be a point as Latin people born and raised here in the U.S. are much more likely to react to situations in pretty much the same way as their Black counterparts, since we often live in the same neighborhoods, go to the same schools and live under the same conditions. 

Unfortunately, many Black Americans do not understand the idea of us being all one Black people, so when they see an Andrew Jones from Curacao, or David Ortiz from the Dominican Republic they do not see themselves.  There are 72 U.S. born Black basball players in the league at this time and 192 non U.S. Born baseball players in the league as of this date.  This may be due in part to a lack of participation of Black Americans but surely not a lack of talent.

Best talent in the leagues right now are Black U.S. born players;  Prince Fielder, first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers.  Homerun King Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and Willie Harris of the Atlanta Braves and Juan Pierre of the Los Angeles Dodgers only to name a few.  These are all outstanding talents and I pray the can bring about a mind change in the Black youth of the U.S. concerning our game of baseball.

Another story of Colonial forced removal.

                 

The Chagos Islands AKA Diego Garcia

You are sitting down enjoying your evening meal when knock a comes on the door.  Its a U.S. soldier holding a weapon at your chest giving you orders to get your family and get out of your house, the house you built, the house you have cared for, the house that contains all the memories of your wife, children and family members.  You are forced out at that moment with nothing but the clothes on your back and the shoes on your feet.  This is the scene in 1838 when the "Indian Removal Act" was put into effect against the Ani Yun Wiya in the Southeast United States, thus began the "Trail on which we cried", you know it as the Trail of Tears. 

Fast forward to 1965, His-story repeats itself.  A U.S. soldier knocks on the door, and tells the people of the house, tells the residents at gun point they have time enough to pack one suit case for each person of the house, they were then herded like cattle on to boats and shipped to Port Louis, Mauritius an Island off the east coast of Africa, east of Madagascar.  Next they tricked many of the Islanders off their homeland and those they could not trick they terrorized.  The military of the U.S. and U.K. rounded up the pet dogs of the people and gassed them to death in front of the men, women and children to place fear in them to get them to leave.  Those that still would not go they literally starved them to death.  From 1965-1973 this new "Trail on which we cried" continued for the Ilois of Diego Garcia.

The colonial powers of the world have moved and removed Black people world wide for their lustful desire for world domination.  It is a domination that will continue as long as we live in a world where white genetic survival is the fear that manifest itself as white supremacy.

On May 24, 2007 the Ilois/Chagossians won in a British court the right to return to their homeland.

Why are Blacks killings Blacks worldwide?

I am astounded by the amount of violence we heap on each other. Last Thursday night around 10:00 pm a 17 year old young man’s life was taken from him. Kyle Moore was gunned down and robbery may have been the motive since his wallet and cell phone are missing. As of this date there are no suspects. On the Field Negro blog, there Mr. Negro is keeping a tally of the killings that have been taking place in the “City of brotherly Love”, at this point there have been 139 killings. How do we explain this? I listened to a local radio talk show today and heard people say Black men and women are angry. Angry about their situation here in the U.S., angry about their situation at home, angry about not earning money. This may or may not be the answer. But, Black people have reasons to be angry, yet I don’t see this as a reason to take your brother’s or sister’s life. Black people are killing each other all over the world from Darfur to Los Angeles. Black people are killing each other with ease and walk away as if they just coughed into the wind, no remorse. Someone killed my nephew just 5 months ago, and it continues even though many of us scream for peace. I have heard people say these killings are due to young men being raised in a one parent household, by the mother and they say a “woman can’t raise a man.” Others have deduced the killings are related to the amount of growth hormones that are used in raising cattle and chickens for human consumption, for the fast food retail chains that feed billions of people across the world. They argue that this is a form of low grade “roid rage” that happens to people that have mis-used steroids, due to the misuse of these growth hormones they have gone into a rage and committed murder.

I am not sure any if these arguments are false. In fact they do hold quite a bit of weight and should be considered when considering how Black people are killing one another.

Yet, I am inclined to add into the gumbo pot of theories that ‘religion’ as practiced today plays quite a bit in the mixture of all the above. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are all practiced by the majority of the world today in one form or the other. It is the belief that a God lives up in heaven or in some other ethereal place that has given license to the would be killers of the world to commit mirder. Over the last 2000 years these forms of worship have been forced on the world population in the past and was accepted later as the social norm. Islam, Christianity and Judaism worship a God that is in no way a part of the worshiper.  This creates a psycology of "He" is greater than me, but "He" is up there and I will pay for my misdeeds later at "judgment."  These religions alse create a misgynistic view point in the population as well, therefore we get statements like "the reason Black boys are going jail in high numbers is because they being raised by women."  We are not doing ourselves any uplift by continuing to practice these people's "religions".  With the advent and acceptance of these religions by us, we have bought into and accepted the rite of death.  Christianity is predicated on the DEATH and resurrection of the Christ. Judaism and Islam have played a large part in the misogynist idealogy concerning women, as well as Christianity playing its part in the demonizing of women.  However, all three have pushed the idea of a God that is seperate and apart from the worshiper.  The belief that you are NOT the God is in opposition to what is taught in Psalms 82-6, has contributed to the cases for the killing of human beings.  I am convinced, that should we believe we are God and this is firmly taught to us as is Christ being raised from the dead, I know there would be much less instances of murder.  If you are taught that you are the God you would create a society equivalent to our great Mayan past, of our great Sudanese, Ethiopian and Kemetan civilizations where murder was rare and abhorred.  When men and women are taught of their Great past, that the Gods came from Her will we see a change and reverence for Mama Ma'at for Ezili Danto for Aida Wedo, Ix Chebel Yax and most of all for mother Earth.  But until we take heed to the words of Boukman "...Throw away the symbol of the god of the whites..." and I say throw away the food of the whites as well, we will continue to perish!

The forceful removal of President Jean-Bertand Aristide of Haiti

This is an excerpt of and interview conducted by Peter Hallward, July 2005 from South Africa, for the London Review of Books:

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Peter Hallward: Dany Toussaint wasn’t willing to talk to me when I was in Port-au-Prince a couple of months ago. It’s intriguing that the people who were clamouring for his arrest while you were still in power were then suddenly quite happy to leave him in peace once he had come out against you in December 2003, and once they themselves were in power. But can you prove that he was working for or with them all along?

Jean-Bertrand Aristide: It won’t be easy to document, I accept that. There’s a proverb in Creole that says twou manti pa fon: ‘lies don’t run very deep.’ Sooner or later the truth will out. There are plenty of things that were happening at the time that only recently have started to come to light.

PH: You mean things like the eventual public admissions, made over the past year or so by the rebel leaders Remissainthe Ravix and Guy Philippe, about the extent of their long-standing collaboration with the Convergence Démocratique, with the Americans?

JBA: Exactly.

PH: Let’s turn now to what happened in February 2004. There are wildly different versions of what happened in the run-up to your expulsion from the country. How much support did Guy Philippe’s rebels really have? And surely there was little chance that they could take the capital itself, in the face of the many thousands of people who were ready to defend it?

JBA: There had been recent attempts at a coup, one in July 2001, with an attack on the police academy, and another a few months later, in December 2001, with an incursion into the national palace. They didn’t succeed, and on both occasions the rebels were forced to flee the city. They only just managed to escape. It wasn’t the police alone who chased them away, it was a combination of the police and the people. So the rebels knew they couldn’t take Port-au-Prince. So they hesitated, on the outskirts, some 40 kilometres away. We had nothing to fear. The balance of forces was in our favour. There are occasions when large groups of people are more powerful than heavy machine-guns and automatic weapons. And Port-au-Prince, a city with so many national and international interests, was different from more isolated places like Saint-Marc or Gonaïves. There was no great insurrection: there was a small group of soldiers, heavily armed, who were able to overwhelm some police stations, kill some policemen and create a certain amount of havoc. The police had run out of ammunition, and were no match for the rebels’ M16s. But the city was a different story. The people were ready, and I wasn’t worried.

Meanwhile, on 29 February a shipment of police munitions that we had bought from South Africa, perfectly legally, was due to arrive in Port-au-Prince. This decided the matter. Already the balance of forces was against the rebels; on top of that, if the police were restored to something like their full operational capacity, then the rebels stood no chance.

PH: So at that point the Americans had no option but to go in and get you themselves, on the night of 28 February?

JBA: That’s right. They knew that in a few more hours, they would lose their opportunity to ‘resolve’ the situation. They grabbed their chance while they had it, and bundled us onto a plane in the middle of the night.

PH: The Americans – Ambassador Foley, Luis Moreno and so on – insist that you begged for their help, that they had to arrange a flight to safety at the last minute. Several reporters backed up their account. On the other hand, speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the American security guards who was on your plane that night told the Washington Post soon after the event that the US story was ‘just bogus’. Your personal security director, Frantz Gabriel, also confirms that you were kidnapped that night by US military personnel. Who are we supposed to believe?

JBA: You’re dealing with a country that was willing and able, in front of the UN and in front of the world at large, to fabricate claims about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They were willing to lie about issues of global importance. It’s hardly surprising that they were able to find a few people to say the things that needed to be said in Haiti, in a small country of no great strategic significance.

PH: They said they couldn’t send peacekeepers to help stabilise the situation, but as soon as you were gone, the troops arrived straightaway.

JBA: The plan was perfectly clear.