Prometheus 6 - Africa and the African Diaspora

The exact opposite of neocon intent

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 06:05:23 -0400

Basically, I'm for knowing rather than not knowing. So I start out assuming it's a good thing long term that the Iraq invasion has proven wars of acquisition no longer work. But because of the way it was done, over the next decade or so it will be considered outside the ability of the USofA to exercise influence over great swaths of the planet.

The effect of this on the various American psyches will not be pretty.

Arab League Nations Offer Peacekeeping Troops for Darfur
Associated Press
Monday, October 9, 2006; A18

CAIRO, Oct. 8 -- Arab countries have launched a new effort to push Sudan toward a compromise over U.N. peacekeepers for Darfur, offering to dispatch a force of Arab and Muslim troops to the troubled region, diplomats said Sunday.

The Arab League diplomats said Sudan's president rejected the initial proposal -- as he has all suggestions for a U.N.-affiliated contingent, regardless of the makeup -- but promised to suggest an alternative soon, in a sign that the Arab effort might show more promise than other attempts to stop the humanitarian crisis.

Working vacation

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 05:12:38 -0400

Pssst. Want to create a dynasty?

Bishop Long also said that he is planning a trip to Kenya mid next year with influential African American business men/women to meet with their Kenyan counterparts to develop business partnerships and exchange ideas.

Don't just build businesses. Build infrastructure.

Now Kenya targets African-American tourist markets
By a Correspondent

The Government is targeting the African- American market in an effort to increase the number of tourists from the US. According to the Kenya Tourist Board, the African American market has huge potential with $700 billion worth of economic power.

Mr Morris Dzoro, the minister for tourism and wildlife, recently met Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to target the influential African Americans in the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Reapers of souls

Prometheus 6 — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 11:15:21 -0400

The aim is both to abide by the Constitution's prohibition against a state religion and to ensure that aid recipients don't forgo assistance because they don't share the religion of the provider.
Since medical programs are aimed at the most serious illnesses -- AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis -- the decision whether to seek treatment can determine life or death.

But many of those restrictions were removed by Bush in a little-noticed series of executive orders -- a policy change that cleared the way for religious groups to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in additional government funding. It also helped change the message American aid workers bring to many corners of the world, from emphasizing religious neutrality to touting the healing powers of the Christian God.

Bush brings faith to foreign aid
As funding rises, Christian groups deliver help -- with a message
October 8, 2006
This story is the first of four parts. It was reported and written by Farah Stockman, Michael Kranish, and Peter S. Canellos of the Globe Staff, and Globe correspondent Kevin Baron.

President Bush, shown addressing a conference on faith-based initiatives in March, has said he made changes "on my own." (Doug Mills/ The New York Times)

LAKARTINYA, Kenya -- The herders of this remote mountain village know little about America, but have learned from those who run a US-funded aid program about the American God.

A Christian God.

Continuing the rectification of names

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:58:34 -0400

No matter what is written, the Black Power movement had a visceral impact on Black Americans...self-determination, though under attack to this day, became our default assumption.

Hence Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, another person I want to follow up with.

Black Power's Powerful Legacy
by Peniel E. Joseph, Ph.D.
The Chronicle Review (7/21/06)

Black power represents one of the most enduring and controversial stories of racial tumult, social protest, and political upheaval of our time, complete with a cast of tragic and heroic historical characters: Black Muslims, FBI agents, Martin Luther King Jr., Black Panthers, Carmichael, Lyndon B. Johnson, the New Left, and Fidel Castro all play major and minor parts in the era this movement helped define. Black power's reach was global, spanning continents and crossing oceans, yet its iconic personalities and organizations (some of whom were key civil-rights activists) remain shadowy, almost forgotten figures in spite of their vital role in shaping still-raging debates about race, war, and democracy.
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During my more paranoid moments, things like this remind me of those smallpox-infected blankets that cleared the way for America

Prometheus 6 — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:17:55 -0400

Trafigura says the Ivoirian authorities told it that the local company could do the job safely. If that is true, those officials were recklessly incompetent. In any case, a stronger system of international regulations — backed up by a threat of fines or other penalties — might have forced Trafigura to think twice about whom it was hiring.

I don't believe them. Why? Because the whole process started with an unnecessary lie on Trafigura's part.

This story began in July, when a Greek-owned Panamanian-flagged tanker, leased by Trafigura, stopped in Amsterdam and attempted to unload its waste. That fell through when a Dutch company that had contracted to do the job for $15,000 found far more noxious material in the ship’s hold than it had been led to believe. Completing safe disposal there would instead cost $300,000, plus perhaps as much again in delays.
That sent Trafigura looking for cheaper alternatives. But for a company that had revenues of $28 billion last year, it was not a prohibitive price...

An African Dumping Ground

Globalization brings wealth and opportunity to many people around the world. But to poor slum dwellers in the failing state of Ivory Coast, it has brought horrible sickness and death after hazardous waste, shipped nearly halfway around the world, was stealthily dumped in backyards around Abidjan. This need not and should not have happened.

As reported in Monday’s Times by Lydia Polgreen and Marlise Simons, the waste — a fuming mix of petrochemicals and caustic soda — that started out in the Mediterranean and ended up in Africa could have been safely disposed of earlier in its journey. But Trafigura, the Swiss trading company that leased the tanker, balked at paying European prices. Instead, 85,000 people ended up seeking medical treatment, and at least eight have died.

That was an excellent panel

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:37:44 -0400

"The Black Power Movement: New Scholarship" was enlightening. The participants were Peniel Joseph of SUNY-Stony Brook, Rhonda Y. Williams of Case Western University and Stephen Ward of the University of Michigan.

Peniel has written a book called Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America that looks impressive as hell. Dr. Walter Hill of the National Archives was in the house. He told me Peniel is constructing the paradigm for Black Power scholarship going forward. That's a stronger recommendation than I can even imagine issuing (you gotta recognize the source). His talk was an introduction to the book.

The story so far

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:29:49 -0400

Okay, so I'm at this ASALH convention. It's kind of funny that evryone is walking around wearing these name tag/pouch things...no worse than those "Hi! I'm (write your name)" stickers and does not stain your clothes. But I never wore those either...guess I should get over it.

Yesterday the big thing was the reception to view segments of a DVD titled "Freedom's Song." It's the story of Black History and a very nice piece of work. How nice? They showed the section on the Tulsa race riots, and a survivor of said riots was in the audience...and she said it was good and correct.

Farmers has joined with The Association for the Study of African American Life and History to create a documentary film, Freedom’s Song: 100 years of African-American struggle and triumph, that highlights significant milestones in the history of the African-American experience during the past century. It includes living testimonials designed to put a personal face on the actual historical events featured in the film.

The Freedom’s Song package is free to educators and includes a DVD copy of the film, engaging and thought-provoking lesson plans and an interactive web site that will be continually updated with audio and video content.
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Who gives a fuck, right?

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:52:15 -0400

The company says the waste is tank washings from a gasoline tanker, and as it originated aboard a ship rather than on land Trafigura claims it is exempt from the EU ban....In the Ivory Coast, where riots have broken out and the governing coalition has resigned as a result of the dumping, the final victim might be the country's fragile peace process.

Rich nations put something rotten in Africa
21 September 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.
Debora MacKenzie

What do you get if you dump 400 tonnes of petrochemical sludge into open tips around one of west Africa's largest cities? At least seven deaths and up to 40,000 people complaining of vomiting, rash, breathing difficulties and headache, according to reports from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, where such a shipment was unloaded on 19 August. The main poison seems to have been hydrogen sulphide - rotten egg gas - with lacings of mercaptan, another sulphureous poison.

I'm going to find three good African events to balance this one

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 07:45:10 -0400

I can get lots of African news, but I'm not able to properly judge relative significance...I just know what raises my (sadly provincial) inner eyebrow. Sokari at Black Looks...she's not a daily read due to the aformentioned provinciality but she's a regular read. Partly due to her connection with Pambazuka News, I consider her more authoritative than most.

Darfur Dead Much Higher than Commonly Reported

The number of dead in Darfur should be counted in the hundreds of thousands, not the tens of thousands that are often reported, according to a new appraisal of mortality in Sudan's camps of displaced people. Although the actual number could be well above this lower limit, the study establishes a more realistic floor, its authors say.

The Path From 9/11: Outsourcing intelligence

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:20:06 -0400

US accused of covert operations in Somalia
Emails suggest that the CIA knew of plans by private military companies to breach UN rules
Antony Barnett and Patrick Smith
Sunday September 10, 2006
The Observer

Dramatic evidence that America is involved in illegal mercenary operations in east Africa has emerged in a string of confidential emails seen by The Observer. The leaked communications between US private military companies suggest the CIA had knowledge of the plans to run covert military operations inside Somalia - against UN rulings - and they hint at involvement of British security firms.

The emails, dated June this year, reveal how US firms have been planning undercover missions in support of President Abdullahi Yusuf's transitional federal government - founded with UN backing in 2004 - against the Supreme Islamic Courts Council - a radical Muslim militia which took control of Mogadishu, the country's capital, also in June promising national unity under Sharia law.