food for thought.
If we can have nuclear weapons, why can’t other countries have them? Why should we be able to wreak havoc on countries who cannot defend themselves against such forces? While I can understand that when launching a nuclear attack, we do not want them to be able to retaliate, why should we want to launch such an attack? What happen to common human decency?
During this week, Pope Benedict XVI will be doing a seven day pilgrimage in a couple of African countries. The primary purpose of his trip is to address the AIDS epidemic in Africa. This is his first papal trip to the continent, and I’m sure it has something to do with the fact the Africa is the fastest growing region for the Roman Catholic Church. Aboard the papal plane, headed for Cameroon, the Pope is quoted as saying, “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” with regard to stopping the spread of AIDS.
This is one issue that I have always had with the Catholic Church. As a child of Ugandan immigrants, and a mother who is deeply Catholic, I was able to see so many contradictions and limitations with the Catholic presence in Africa. The fact of the matter is that I believe that the Catholic church should accept some of the responsibility for the spread of AIDS. The Catholic Church preaches that its members should not use contraceptives, limiting the access of condoms in countries that are highly religious. While I was in undergrad, I did a condom drive on various college campuses across the country in order to take them to Uganda. I was forbidden from conducting the drive on my own college campus because it was a Catholic university. When I transported the condoms to Uganda, I was told to be very careful and hide it within the confines of my luggage.
I think where the Catholic Church goes wrong is that it doesn’t acknowledge the fact that we are all humans, and all is inclusive of the members of the Catholic Church. By suggesting that condoms won’t help to reduce the spread of AIDS is suggesting that people do not sleep around out of wedlock, and we all know that this could not be further from the truth. So I say to Pope Benedict XVI and the rest of the Roman Catholic Church, please step into the 21st century and use your influence to help reduce the spread of AIDS.
Below is the link to a video in which two officers in Seattle are seen beating down a 15 year old African-American female. The video has no audio but it shows that the attack was possibly a result of the young lady kicking her shoe at one of the officers. The video is hard to watch but it is something that we all need to see and be aware of.
This is just another entry in the book of the inJustice system. It seems that at least every month we are presented with a case in which white cops are beating down or killing a black victim. Even if the victims have committed a crime, there is no reason for the cops to physically harm them. Quite frankly I’m sick of it. I’m sick of it happening, I’m sick of cops being acquitted, I’m sick of truly influential people ignoring it or not doing everything in their power to expose it and change it. It is time for President Obama to take time out to address the racial injustices with regard to the justice system. Yes, I know that the economy is in the toilet and that needs to be his main focus, but damn it, everyone in his cabinet isn’t working on the economy and should we all just sit back and wait while the police continue to murder and beat down members of our community? I won’t take away anything that Obama did while he was in Chicago and in the Illinois State Senate, but while he was on the campaign trail and during the first six weeks of his presidency I have not heard so much as a peep from him on the matter. Please send me an audio clip if I’m wrong. So my question is, Mr. President, when will it be a good time to ask you about the racism in the justice system?
Bill Gates is one billionaire whose philanthropy I could never question. In recent years, Gates and his wife Melinda have dedicated their lives and finances to a number of worthy causes, some causes which have never effected them personally. The Gates Foundation provides college scholarships for minorities, money for AIDS research, mosquito nets and other causes affecting developing nations. In this video, Gates, a self-proclaimed optimist (we have something in common), speaks at the 2009 TED conference and poses two questions, “How do you stop a deadly disease that’s spread by mosquitoes?” and “How do you make a teacher great?”. In a mere 18 minutes he manages to touch on the problem, from a variety of angles, and even offers up solutions, some of which are currently in place.
If nothing else, this video confirmed for me why it is that I’m going to London School of Economics in pursuit of a MSc in Development Studies, to become one of the “brilliant people who care[s] and draws other people in.”
I encourage you to take the time to watch the entire video. I promise that it will be worth your time.
TED is an organization that started out in 1984 (what a great year) as a conference to bring together people from the technology, entertainment, and design arenas to share ideas with one another. These ideas have now evolved to include ways to change our global society. The premise is that each year, 50 speakers give an 18 minute speech on their ideas to change the world. On their website, they list the mission of the organization as “Spreading Ideas”, the website goes on to say:
“We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”
I highly encourage you to visit the site and watch some of the videos, they will help to inspire you to change things in your everyday life and hopefully to positively effect the lives of others in your community and beyond. I will periodically post videos from the site and I hope that they will inspire you as much as they have inspired me.
Here we are, two days after President Barack Hussein Obama has been sworn in. the United States has officially elected and installed its first African American President and now the debate is, what does this mean for race relations in America. Too many people are under the impression that Obama’s presence in the white house will change the nature of individual citizens. Let’s all remember that Obama only received 52% of the vote. Over 59 million people voted for John McCain. I am not suggesting that all of those that voted for McCain are racist but I am saying that the election of Barack Obama does not mean as much for race relations as everyone wants to think that it does.
A friend recently shared with me an NPR: National Public Radio broadcast on which they discussed Affirmative Action. The conversation was actually had on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. How fitting. The two major contributors to the discussion are Shanta Driver, chairperson and national spokesperson of By Any Means Necessary, who advocates for affirmative action and John McWhorter, an author and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who is against affirmative action.
McWhorter brings up a valid point of affirmative action needing to be based more on class as opposed to race which I can agree with. I have been saying for years now that the challenges being faced in America are the disparities between the working class and the upper middle class and upper class as opposed to race wars. McWhorter loses me when he states that “there is no documented benefits to diversity.” After he said that, I assumed he was an idiot, or some delusional white washed black man. After some googling, I think I’m correct. No benefit to diversity? Do we really need statistics and official legislation to tell us that diversity is good? The benefit of diversity is tolerance. Imagine if every American had five Muslim friends. Haha. If this was reality, then Americans would be more tolerant of Muslims and would not allow the media to sensationalize them as terrorists.
McWhorter also argued that a minority not being allowed to attend an Ivy League university is not the end of the world. He claims that his or her quality of life will not be diminished. He uses the example of a minority getting a degree from UC San Diego as opposed to UC Berkley. This coming from a man who attended NYU and Stanford for his post-graduate studies. If it is good enough for him, why is it not good enough for the masses?
This post was not supposed to be all about John McWhorter but after listening to the show, I just got caught up in his ridiculousness. I suppose the question that I pose to readers is, is affirmative action still necessary, and who is it necessary for?
Please take the time to listen to the broadcast. It is about 30 minutes long.
I will never attempt to present myself as an expert on politics, world news, international relations, or anything of the sort. I can merely present my ideas and encourage you to think about things that don’t necessarily involve or affect you, but things that are affecting someone else in the world and if nothing else, you can try to empathize.
When I first drafted this post, missiles were still flying in the middle eastern skies, over Israel and Gaza. As of now, a cease fire has been declared. A good friend of mine who works in the development arena predicted that the cease fire would be declared right before Obama’s inauguration in order to maintain the new relationship. He was right.
I have always been confused as to why no one has ever questioned the US’s unwavering support of Israel. Israel’s name is in every politicians mouth. Even on the campaign trail, many people were afraid that Obama’s election would equal “the death of Israel”. I would go into my conspiracies about the governments sympathy and protection of Israel (cough: Jew’s control most of the assets in the US), but most people would dismiss my thoughts as mere conspiracy.
Up until this war in the middle east started, my annoyance with the protection of Israel was only in passing, but now that they have launched an all out war on their tiny enemy, my annoyance has been brought to the forefront. On the few CNN clips that I have been able to see, the unwavering support of government officials almost made me puke. Some people were quoted as saying that “Israel had to defend itself”, etc, etc. I’m not saying that Hamas is totally innocent but just to be fare, Gaza Strip is a tiny strip of land about 25 miles long and 7.5 miles wide at its widest point for a grand total of 139 square miles, whereas Israel is an incomparable 8,522 square miles. And while size doesn’t matter, one can safely assume that Israel has an excessive amount of military power compared to that of Hamas. As a result I am totally against Israel launching a full out attack on a tiny strip of land where one must have known that most of the fatalities would be that of civilians. After seeing pictures of dead babies and children from the conflict, I threw my hands up and begged the universe to save the innocent people caught in the middle of this political conflict of ideologies.
According to an article on CNN, dated January 14th (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/14/israel.gaza/index.html), the death toll in Gaza has reached 1,010 with another 4,700 have been wounded. On the other hand only thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died in the operation in Gaza and from rocket strikes on southern Israel, according to the Israeli military. More than 100 soldiers have been wounded, most of them not seriously. These numbers show the uneven war that has been waged. A war that would be equivalent to the US launching an attack on Cuba or more precisely, South Africa declaring war on Swaziland.
I hope that if nothing else, Obama is able to help to ease some of the international conflicts, while it won’t be that easy, I’m definitely crossing my fingers and toes.
I included the image below because this solidified the nonsensical nature of it all for me. Sorry about the graphic nature of the photo.
So in case you haven’t heard, a man by the name of Bernard Madoff (pictured above) was arrested, in NYC, on December 12, and charged with securities fraud. To be exact, he is being charged with a crime that has allegedly cost investors US$50 billion. WTF!!!! His actions have resulted in the closing of several charitable foundations, whose assets were held and managed by his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. After posting his US$10 million bail he was released to his home to be under 24 security monitoring. After all is said and done, he only faces 20 years in prison and a US$5 million dollar fine.
Somehow, this doesn’t seem very fair at all. He faces 20 years for ganking US$50 billion from investors but you have some people who go to jail for non-violent drug crimes that are only worth a couple thousand bucks. Since Madoff was arrested in NYC, let’s talk about the Rockefller Drug Laws.
“Under the Rockefeller drug laws, the penalty for selling two ounces (approximately 56 grams) or more of heroin, morphine, “raw or prepared opium,” cocaine, or cannabis, including marijuana (these latter two being included in the statute even though they are not “narcotics” from a chemical standpoint), or possessing four ounces (approximately 113 grams) or more of the same substances, was made the same as that for second-degree murder: a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison” –WIKI of course.
So you mean to tell me that I can become an investment banker and create an elaborate hustle making me a billionaire and I will only get a maximum of 20 years, but if I sell a little bit of marijuana, I get a MIMINIMUM of 15 years to LIFE!!!!! What? I guess ultimately the thing that needs to be learned from this is that drug dealers really need to get an education and take their hustle skills to Wall Street. Bigger payoffs and less consequences. Oh the power of education.
H.I.V. and AIDS
kills blacks, whites, babies, and gays
please, help find a cure.
-jnambowa
www.aidsmap.com
To all of the black folks in California that voted for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, SHAME ON YOU!!!!! (70% of blacks in California voted to ban gay marriage)
How dare you oppress another minority group after the struggles that your ancestors went through for decades and decades. Minorities need to stick together, regardless of what puts you in the category of minority, be it race or sexual orientation. It is funny that as excited as everyone is that we finally have a black president, the folks in California took several steps backwards, as far as the progression towards freedom in this country. The people in California have basically gone against the mantra of this country, Land of the Free! I don’t remember their being an astric in the song, which when you look to the bottom revealed that if you are homosexual, this line does not apply to you.
I am heterosexual and black and I cannot wrap my mind around this ignorance. So if you are someone who opposes gay marriage, please fill in as to your reasons why. Thanks in advance.
Get it together people!!!!
