Marian's Blog

Italy can do better than deeply sexist Berlusconi

There are lots of things I admire and love about my other home, Italia. Overall though, the public status of women is not one of them. I haven't yet heard how the voting is going today and tomorrow but I do keep thinking of so many reasons why Silvio Berlusconi does not deserve a third term as prime minister. One need go no further than his attitudes and behaviour toward women, as outlined in Stephen Brown's recent Reuters article, "Berlusconi's sexism chafes as Italian vote looms." Chafe indeed. Here's a man in his 70s who always wears a dark wig and has undergone one or more cosmetic surgeries (facelifts) - in his constant attempt to make himself seem "younger" and (in Black American parlance) to pull women. He's married, by the way.

Brown quotes Berlusconi recently on the campaign trail, "The left has no taste, not even when it comes to women. ... As for our (women candidates) being more beautiful, I say that because in parliament they have no competition."

About Berlusconi, Brown writes: "His women supporters laughed when he called them the "menopause section" at a recent rally and urged them to bake cakes for campaigners [i.e., the candidates, who are vastly male]. His long-suffering wife Veronica, 20 years his junior, got her revenge last year by reprimanding him for lechery in an open letter to a left-leaning newspaper. He publicly apologized."

Exactly what type of leadership does someone with such an outlook offer Italy for the 21st century? Do we really want more of the same: the future turning to the past that is doomed to fail? Italy is an incredible society that deserves and needs to create a new national script; a switch from the 'national political theatre' of the past now grown very, very stale.

Two days after the Brown article, Deepa Babington's came out in Reuters, "Italian women fight to break political barriers." She quotes candidate Marianna Madia ("adopted" daughter of Berlusconi's Democratic Party rival and former mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni). Madia is "a 27-year old economist running for the rival Democratic Party in the parliamentary election": "Every now and then, I sometimes feel we in Italy live in pre-historic times."

The article cites the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranking Italia 67th in the world for the number of women elected to parliament. Italy can do better.

Black Politics with Chris Owens, Saturdays, 11 a.m. eastern

Be sure to check today's radio show, Black Politics with Chris Owens. Starts 11AM U.S. Eastern time Saturdays. Executive Producers are Logan Nakyanzi Pollard and Stephen Davis. Chris composed the show's music. The show's produced in New York City. Listen at Air America via computer if you can't hear it by radio.

'Slaves'? Or 'people'? 17 May Open Source Radio on Slavery

The slavery history discussion on Open Source Radio went really well. Thanks to OSR host Chris Lydon, my fellow guests professors Jill LePore and Simon Schama, and to producers Chelsea and Robin. Our lively discussion opened a lot more doors than we closed, so hopefully we can do this again. This remark from Allison, a listener who refers to an image posted on the OSR site:

"I’m struck by the caption for the photo above: “…where over a million slaves were traded between 1811 and 1873.” I think it would be more impactful to say: “where over a million people were kidnapped and sold into slavery…” Allison continues: “We dehumanize the people by calling them slaves. I don’t believe a person is a slave. I believe other people enslave them. I prefer to put the degrading label on the offenders not the victims." Right on, A.

Marian's Blog does Open Source Radio, tonight

If you can, please join us tonight by tuning in to "Hidden Histories of Slavery" on Open Source Radio. Join us via the Internet. TIME: 19:00 to 20:00 (7-8pm) US East Coast time. "Marian's Blog", so to speak, will be one of OSR's guests, with host Christopher Lydon and the incomparable Dr. Simon Schama of the BBC series, A History of Britain and also Columbia Univ., and Dr. Jill LePore from Harvard. We'll be talking slavery in the USA: the history, the research; the social and political cluelessness and amnesia... which has got to be either a massive collective defense mechanism or else some kind of weird secret weapon. Schama and LePore both have recent books on enslavement. I believe I'm the only guest who's actually spent the past 30 years searching for my own enslaved and free ancestors: those who were enslaved and later freed, the free, the enslavers, and my American Indian ancestors. What a mix - 100% American, I might add. What a conversation. What fun! We're sooo looking forward... Join us!

Protest marches: No to Katrina evictions; Bush articles of impeachment

So much going on as February winds down. Your help is needed to support and help pass H.R. 4197: the Hurricane Katrina Recovery, Reclamation, Restoration, Reconstruction and Reunion Act of 2005. Email, snail-mail or call your congressional representatives and ask them to pass HR 4197. What about impeaching George Bush? Get your copy of this book available for $9.95 from Center for Constitutional Rights -featuring four Articles of Impeachment against George Bush. I'm sure his parents will be disappointed, though probably in the American people. Articles of impeachment include: warrantless surveillance, lying to Congress about Iraq, torturing prisoners, and subverting the Separation of Powers. By law US federal separation of powers is legislative, executive and judicial, though lately they seem all jumbled with someone in or near the White House pulling rabbits from a hat. KATRINA PROTESTS: Info from democrats.com and afterdowningstreet.org, "... on March 15, FEMA plans to evict thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina. ... Our federal government is engaged in a campaign to exclude poor and black people from the new version of the city it allowed to be destroyed. On March 14, tens of thousands of Americans will skip work and march from the U.S. Capitol to the White House, and we will not leave until Bush announces a plan for housing and orders an end to evictions. Press Conference: 1-2pm, Rayburn Office Building - Room #2237; Mardi Gras Style March for Justice: 2-3pm start from Capitol South Metro at 2pm to White House; Rally & Protest at White House 3pm- 11:59pm, Lafayette Square Park." Check websites of the protest march for those internally displaced by Katrina, and another to send an email to your voting member of Congress - if you have one (Washington, DC itself and Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, US Samoa, Mariana Islands, etc. HAVE NO voting representation in Congress). Ask your rep to cosponsor House Resolution 635 calling for congressional investigation into grounds for impeachment. Register here for local protests in your area.

European Journalism Centre gets new director

The Maastricht, Netherlands-based European Journalism Centre - the EJC - will get a new director from March 1st. Previous director Raymonde Griswold will be succeeded by a chap called Wilfried Rütten. Check other interesting info on their site.

Frantz Fanon and France's Wretched of the Earth

I'm remembering the brother of a friend of mine from the Maghreb - northern Africa. Yes - Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Algeria and several other countries beyond are in and are part of Africa. My friend's older brother was killed some years ago - murdered it seems - in a small town in France; a town I visited. To my knowledge up to now no one has ever been arrested, let alone tried for this young man's tragic and unnatural death. I don't even have any idea whether French local authorities investigated the circumstances of his death. Last year in 2004, in spite of our collective efforts and dialogue at the 2003 European Social Forum (ESF/FSE) right there in France, in St. Denis and in Paris, there was precious little global recognition of France's history and responsibilities in Haiti during the 2004 bicentennaire - bicentennial - of the entire world's first modern Black republic. In spite of all this I maintain my love of France, though certainly not uncritically. I have lived and worked, struggled, learned and shared in France. Now national authorities have activated a state of emergency - un etat d'urgence - for the first time since Algeria's war of independence against France as European colonial occupier. There's a huge gap of both time and politics from 1955 to now. Yet not nearly enough has changed it seems. Coincidentally, the Bandung Conference in Indonesia also took place in 1955. Two of my blog categories are "Bandung+50" and "Wretched of the Earth?" I was very much influenced in choosing these themes by a person, a Black Frenchman and an historical cousin - another person of African descent from the Americas - named Frantz Fanon. Fanon authored two seminal works of "anti-colonial revolutionary thought, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961), works which have made Fanon a prominent contributor to postcolonial studies." Fanon died of cancer in Washington, DC on 6 Dec. 1961. In 1964, after his death, his third book appeared in English as Toward the African Revolution. Black Skin, White Masks originally was titled, "An Essay for the Disalienation of Blacks." The above quote is from Prof. Deepika Bahri's informative Fanon website. Bahri, from India, is associate prof of English and director of Asian Studies at Emory University in the US. Her site also notes British director Isaac Julien's 1996 film on Fanon - Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask, available from California Newsreel. Read more of this post below...

FRANTZ FANON, MD (1925-1961):

Native of MARTINIQUE, Caribbean Americas

Hurricane WILMA Roaring toward Yucatan and South Florida

The US national hurricane center - based in Miami - is one of the best places I know to get latest info on hurricanes present and past. Only two days ago I warned weather scientists were tracking a new tropical depression in the Caribbean. I think it was #24 of the season. Now it's been named Wilma. Hurricane Wilma. Between then and today Wilma went from a depression to a tropical storm, and then overnight since yesterday from a Cat. 1 hurricane to the biggest, baddest Category 5 storm in tracking history. Haiti and Jamaica have already been hit. Central America seems about to be. This storm is currently on track to come aground somewhere along Mexico's Yucatan peninsula near Cozumel and over the coming weekend it may consume South Florida. That information and the course of this storm could change, which is why we need to pay attention and share information. If you have details to share about this storm and what's happening currently, please add them here as a comment. Between natural disasters and everything else going on all over this planet, around the world populations most likely to be affected need as many of their own people as possible - children, adults, women as well as men - to have the most appropriate and well-conducted disaster training and preparation that can be made available. I don't know all the parties out there responsible for things like this. But I do believe someone reading this does.

Shirkat Gah women's NGO earthquake relief

Pakistani women's resource centre Shirkat Gah is another NGO involved in earthquake relief and will appreciate your help. They are also associated with the JAC joint committee group mentioned in my last blog entry, and this info is from the same item on the website of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Shirkat Gah is based in Lahore (Pakistan) and the centre coordinator is Ms Farida Shaheed. Ms Shaheed advises that "Gulnar" at Shirkat Gah is the contact person or "focal point" for quake relief and she can answer questions. My advice before contacting them: keep in mind how swamped these folks must be. Gulnar's contact is: gulnar at sgah.org (dot) pk. Shirkat Gah has some good strategic advice on how to collect and send humanitarian assistance funds. This would apply to sending almost any donation. "If you are sending [relief assistance] money to Shirkat Gah, please email Gulnar to inform her of the amount, date and reference number of the remittance, so that we can email you to acknowledge receipt. We will send you updates whenever possible... bank transfer is best, rather than sending bank drafts and international cheques which take too long to clear. It would also be better for one person or group to collect money from friends or family to send in one go, rather send small individual transfers since the bank deducts too much money per transaction. Some Pakistani banks with overseas branch[e]s may agree to transfer the money without bank charges. At least some are doing so in the United Arab Emirates. Shirkat Gah's office in Peshawar is working with others in that area to deliver direct assistance to one particular village. If you want to support that effort, then please inform us." Send contributions to:

Account name: Shirkat Gah Women's Resource Centre
Account No. 3582-050996-001
SWIFT code: SCBLUS33, ABA CHIPS UID 057048
Standard Chartered Bank
1 Evertrust Plaza, Suite 1101 (11th floor)

Jersey City, New Jersey 07302 USA

With instructions for onward telex / swift remittance to:
Standard Chartered Bank
Karachi, Pakistan
Account No. 3582-050996-001 SWIFT CODE: SCBLPKKX
For further credit to:
Shirkat Gah
US$ Account No. 05-5307597-79
Standard Chartered Bank
New Garden Town
Lahore, Pakistan

NGO Sungi - Sending Help to South Asia Quake Survivors

Uh, note to Typepad admin: I have no idea where my earlier draft went but this is the second and final time I'm writing this entry... Obviously 2005 has been a helluva year for natural & "other" disasters. My "other" category includes certain disasters that arguably are largely 'masculine-made' yet which could not be executed without varying levels of indifference, tolerance &/or support from some women. In the Americas right this moment meteorologists are monitoring "tropical depression #24" of the 2005 hurricane season; #24 is potentially another future tropical storm &/or hurricane currently dumping tons of rain on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. I'm checking the Women Living Under Muslim Laws website for a variety of other issues, including their take on sending aid to South Asia quake survivors. (Whether Darfur, Malawi, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guatemala, the Gulf Coast or Kashmir, I prefer to think of people as survivors and not just victims, and those who sadly have not survived are now sheltered in the hand of God.) WLUML's website advises: "... Pakistani human rights organisations in the Joint Action Committee for Citizens Rights (JAC) have banded together for the relief work, with the NGO [nongovernmental (non-profit/non-lucrative) organisation] Sungi in the lead. Sungi has previous experience with relief work since they started with a flood relief programme some decades ago. The organizations in the JAC have long worked with local communities in the region of the earthquake and are thus able to access remote villages through social networks that are not available to the military and large donor organizations. ..." Makes sense to me; so, alongside other options you have, you may want to consider contributing to the JAC combined relief effort directly by sending funds to the Sungi NGO:

Sungi Development Foundation

www.sungi.org
US Dollar account no. 412-2
Branch Code: 0585
MCB Start Branch Abbotabad
Swift Code: MUCBPKKAA

Yeidy Rivero's "Tuning Out Blackness" - Puerto Rican TV, Race, Racism & National Identity

"Donde esta tu abuela" (where is your Grandmother?), mis Latinos... The following book title and its subject remind me of a time when I studied Spanish with a certain international organisation. The teacher used videos intended to depict "Puerto Rican culture" and a "typical" Puerto Rican family. Problem was, not one member of the 'family' cast was Afro Puerto Rican. This is absolutely counter-intuitive to what some of us know about who Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rican communities truly are. Yeidy Rivero's refreshingly related new book is titled Tuning Out Blackness: Race and Nation in the History of Puerto Rican Television. It's published by Duke University Press (North Carolina USA). Rivero is assistant prof in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana (in the quite racist Midwest USA). I will never forget those JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY billboards I used to see in Indiana. And all you italiani who so love Latin culture and music when they come to Italia for a month every summer - while at the same time showing such solidarieta per l'Africa yet only when it's completely disconnected from the African/Black Americas - Italians might learn a few things if they take heed. On the Duke University Press website: "Tuning Out Blackness fills a glaring omission in U.S. and Latin American television studies by looking at the history of Puerto Rican television. In exploring the political and cultural dynamics that have shaped racial representations in Puerto Rico's commercial media from the late 1940s to the 1990s, Yeidy M. Rivero advances critical discussions about race, ethnicity, and the media. She shows that televisual representations of race have belied the racial egalitarianism that allegedly pervades Puerto Rico's national culture. White performers in blackface have often portrayed “blackness” in local television productions, while black actors have been largely excluded. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, archival research, and textual analysis, Rivero considers representations of race in Puerto Rico, taking into account how they are intertwined with the island's status as a U.S. commonwealth, its national culture, and its relationship with Cuba before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the massive influx of Cuban migrants after 1960. She focuses on locally produced radio and television shows, particular television events, and characters that became popular media icons—from performer Ramón Rivero's use of blackface and “black” voice in the 1940s and 1950s to the battle between black actors and television industry officials over racism in the 1970s to the creation, in the 1990s, of the first Puerto Rican situation comedy featuring a black family. As the twentieth century drew to a close, multinational corporations had purchased all of Puerto Rico's stations, and they threatened to wipe out locally produced programs. Tuning Out Blackness not only brings to the forefront the marginalization of non-white citizens in Puerto Rico's media culture; it also raises important questions about the significance of local sites of television production. “This book not only provides a cultural history of 'blackness' in Puerto Rican television, it also locates Puerto Rico as a critical blind spot in both Latin American and U.S. television studies, one that can offer new insights into the televisual representation of race, family, and nation.”-Chon Noriega, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema; “Tuning Out Blackness offers an astute and very well informed analysis of Puerto Rico's unique 'racial' programming, which in turn provides a valuable look at the deep ambivalence at the heart of the country's sense of national identity in the shadow of U.S. ideological and cultural power.”-Juan Flores, author of From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latin Identity. See more reviews here. The book's contents: Acknowledgments; Introduction: Translating Televisual “Blackness”; 1. Caribbean Negritos: Ramon Rivero, Blackface, and Black Voice in Puerto Rico; 2. Bringing the Soul: Afros, Black Empowerment, and the Resurgent Popularity of Blackface; 3. The CubaRican Space Revisited; 4. Mi familia: A Black Puerto Rican Televisual Family; 5. Translating and Representing Blackness; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Financial aid for HBCU students affected by Hurricane Katrina

This information is from the Southern University New Orleans (SUNO) campus website. Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund is offering US$500 emergency scholarships to students affected by Hurricane Katrina who normally attend SUNO, and also to students who are from New Orleans who attend a member school of the Marshall scholarship fund. Click for more info. Also - students from Xavier, Dillard and SUNO are eligible for a $1000 scholarship through the Tom Joyner Foundation. Deadline for this second source is 31 October 2005 - email HBCURelief /at/ blackamericaweb.com - send your full name, the school from which you are transferring, the school you are attending and a phone where you may be reached. Other important financial aid links for students from SUNO's fine website:

Hurricance Katrina Information for Students and Parents

Hurricane Katrina Information for Federal Direct Loan Borrowers

Hurricane Katrina Information for FFEL Borrowers

Katrina heads for New Orleans: Category 5 hurricane

I feel heartsick for New Orleans, along with Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss. and Mobile, Alabama. New Orleans lies 6 to 20 feet below sea level. It resembles a cup or a bowl and is surrounded by water: lakes, the mighty Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico. Now a history-changing category 5 hurricane is on the way. Only three have ever been recorded in the US - in 1935, 1969 and 1992. Now it's been about 12 hours since New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco did a news conference and jointly issued a mandatory order for all in the area to leave. Some people didn't listen while others didn't have the means to get out. So if you are a praying person, please do. And if you meditate, please do that. 

Pow Wow homeboys from Wisconsin

Wisconsin 'homeboys' by MarianDouglas

On the last day of the Smithsonian Indian Museum's DC powwow Sunday we ran into two nice young men from Wisconsin - the Upper Midwest. They said I could take their picture so I did! I told them I'd put the photo on the blog - so here it is. Megwitch, guys. Behave yourselves, and travel well.

The Next Great White News anchor (after Peter Jennings)

How does one describe a system that constantly justifies, congratulates and perpetuates itself? I'm talking about the way in which even today in the 21st century, mainstream media (MSM) still almost invariably pick whitefolks to identify, report and influence (yep!) what's considered, what becomes, and what does not become news. Long before I finished journalism at university, long before I did umpteen internships in newsrooms like WPVI (ABC) in Philly, KSTP (ABC) in St. Paul and WCCO (CBS) in Minneapolis; before I worked (for modest pay) in TV and radio news and public affairs, I admired, learned from and was inspired by Pauline Frederick, a pioneering white female reporter of the 1950s and early 60s. Without exception during the same period there were no national TV journalists of color in the USA. I seriously doubt there were any, either, in Toronto, Canada, where Peter Jennings - also a high school dropout - came from. As a child I thought Pauline Frederick was incredible reporting live from UN headquarters on NBC's original Today show. Frederick always seemed to be on top of what was going on at the UN and elsewhere in the world. She knew how to explain international news, even for certain little kids like me. Yet today, 40-some years later and in spite of repeated findings from all kinds of journalism groups including Unity Journalists of Color and the professional associations of US Latino/Hispanic, American Indian and Black journalists, it seems pretty obvious what US (& other) radio and TV (and print) news still need is even more white journalists of both genders. As reporters, producers, camera persons, anchors, etc., perhaps what the rest of us lack is some kind of magic DNA... I don't know. I've tried for years to figure it out. I recall the time in my TV newsroom on the US-Mexico border in Texas, a "blonde person" and I were the two finalists for hosting a live, daily talk show. The other she, who "just happened" not to be a person of color, was given the job. (Some of us also may have gotten the impression that 'blondeness' was her chief qualification.) Following a relatively short time that included unfortunate episodes of "dead air" between her and her guests on live TV (a television no-no), I finally got my chance. Things overall actually went well considering that questionable earlier rejection. Of course there was the time some smart*** "colleague" of mine booked that decrepit, white supremacist "reverend" who spent the show's 20+ minutes (excluding commercials) telling me his racist beliefs he claimed he took from the Bible. I kid you not. And I didn't even smack him. With no disrespect to my elders, I have to say this guy was so old (and lacked any trace of natural authority) there was no way I could take him seriously. I kind of spent the entire interview going "Oh - really??" Let's just say he was never on that show with me again. But back to the main point. No matter that there are dozens of journalists who hold our own in researching, writing and broadcasting news - and who will never feel the need to enter a tanning salon - yet we seldom seem to be the ones picked for mid- and top-level jobs - and in many cases not even entry-level - whether it's Smalltown or Major Market USA - and, particularly for US journalists of color - definitely not in Peter Jennings' Toronto, Canada (an absurd thought, eh?). There is no "turnabout" in the " fair play" nor in the myth of the "level playing field."

Africa: Sudan visit from Black Bush official Rice; how about Niger & Somalia?

Well it's about time someone from the US government actually went to Khartoum. And apparently during Sec. Rice's arrival there was some kind of 'scuffle' between Sudanese security and some of her staff, for which the Sudanese foreign minister is said to have apologised. Next she should go west to Niger where so many people and children are starving to death. And she could then travel back east again to Somalia... But sadly she won't. These people never spend more than a few lousy hours in Africa. The MSM news always seem to be reporting some profiling Bush administration official "popping into" Iraq. So why won't they pop on over to Somalia? The way in which US broadcast news media do not report Africa on a regular basis is embarrassing and frightening - and also irresponsible - not to mention pretty idiotic. And in "mainstream" media in the USA you basically never hear the names or anything about the work in and on Africa of Salih Booker and his organisation, or TransAfrica or most anyone else.

The G8, BBC, and "Scotland's Black History"- Ask BBC for CD and Transcripts

Wow; it's been a busy week up North in Scotland. First G8 protesters all over Princess Street in Edinburgh, then the motley group of European, African and Asian MEN in their meetings over at Gleneagles golfing club. It was so apparent women's presence "was not required." The absence of women was a wasted opportunity, particularly when considering who is going to get the real work done. Matter of fact, I never even saw a Black woman's face at the G8 until the end when 2 journalists were allowed to ask questions at the closing news conference. And - of course - no Diaspora Blacks from, say, Pakistan or Mexico, Haiti or Brazil, or the USA -- or even right there in Edinburgh or LONDON(!). Meanwhile this week BBC Radio Scotland has been re-airing Billy Kay's fine radio documentary, Scotland's Black History (SBH). One thought just will not go away: One of Africa's biggest problems is Europe's own history. Most of the same G8 leaders - and the powerful in their societies - continue doing everything to evade and avoid a full telling and accounting of the very same history. I wonder. Tony Blair is a Scot (though it seems to me you wouldn't know it). Was his own family involved with Africa - were his ancestors? Odds are they were because the (globalised) economy that Britain [plus at least four (4) other western European countries] built from capturing, imprisoning, selling and buying African people was huge. Were Tony's ancestors involved in trading African people for cash profit? Or maybe some of them were Scottish abolitionists. We don't even know, do we? It's only fair. These and other answers would clear up a lot of mealy mouthed vagueness. So help us let BBC know that we would like to get copies of SBH. Drop an email - or a kind note to BBC SCOTLAND, THANK THEM for this programme and ask them to make available to the public the audio CD and transcript of "Scotland's Black History." Thanks to readers and again to SBH producer Billy Kay and RADIO SCOTLAND BBC. Send letters/notes to:

SCOTLAND'S BLACK HISTORY

BBC Radio Scotland

Queen Margaret Drive
Glasgow G12 8DG SCOTLAND UK

"Scotland's Black History" on BBC Radio Scotland

Straight up - I want to thank Scottish radio producer Billy Kay for developing his groundbreaking and popular series, Scotland's Black History. You can hear several parts of the 6-part programme here as audio on the Radio Scotland website for a few more days. Part 1 was last Monday night, followed each evening through tonight. UK broadcast time is 19:03, or 7:03pm. Each audio segment is on the Radio Scotland website for a week starting right after each broadcast. Program # 3 aired last night, Thursday July 7; it's about the USA - "The Virginia Slave's Lament." It details Scotland's relations to slaveholding and colonial plantations in the American South. The whole re-broadcast was July 4-8, plus the time the audio is available on the website. "Scotland's Black History" first aired last September-October for Britain's Black History Month (in the UK it's October). More details below.

Al Qaeda, Africa, Diamonds: International News You Probably Never Hear

When I was a full-time journalist my special interest was international news. I'm proud to say I 'got the bug' from broadcast news pioneer, Pauline Frederick [married name Robbins], who covered the UN for NBC (the early Today show) in New York in the 1950s and early 60s. Today (and the past 25 or so years) the meme spreading mindlessly to and from most US television and radio newsrooms is: "Americans are not interested in international news." Our lives and those of others depend on us knowing and understanding what's going on in the world. I'm speculating for just a moment that al Qaeda may [or may not] be linked to the London explosions.  How does al Qaeda - and related entities- finance itself? In spite of events whirling around us daily in the world -- and in spite of the controversial facts of the United States' own global reach - the US remains an out-of-touch and overly insulated society. Sorry to have to say it. But we cannot afford to be, and this must change. This is not about fear and it's not really about further using the US army or other military either; it is about ordinary Americans being fully aware and participating in constructive ways in the world we are part of. We cannot afford to wait for more attacks - anywhere in the world - like these in London, and then as Americans give the briefest and purely self-interested glance at issues and crises going on in other parts of the world.  One question all of us need to consider is: What is the US's foreign policy? - What is our country's long-term foreign policy? There's got to be more to US foreign policy than "fighting" - whether it's terrorism or whatever. And I'm not even going get started about the war in Iraq. What about the various crises and armed conflicts in Africa that we ordinary people ignore? What is the reality of US policies and lack of policies in the conflicts in Africa? Meanwhile, is it true that al Qaeda is funding itself, or has funded itself, through buying, cutting and trading African diamonds from conflict zones?? If it's true then the trail of violence leads across the vast diamond network linking Africa to Antwerp and Belgium, and into the European Union. (FYI: Belgium has a history of 'transparency' versus corruption issues.) Were certain journalists warned off more reporting of these events? Two detailed articles from 2002: Doug Farah's Report Says Africans Harbored Al Qaeda: Terror Assets Hidden In Gem-Buying Spree, in the Washington Post; and Edward Harris in South Africa's Independent online, Al-Qaeda's diamond-studded reign of terror, quoted briefly in the extension below. Douglas Farrah's article has so much information, I just say: read the article.

Ossie Davis. We send love to Ruby Dee. In 1965 he gave eulogy at Malcolm's funeral

"He was a voice for justice - and what a voice it was. Ossie Davis, 87, the actor, writer and social activist who died Friday, had the kind of rich, soulful, sonorous delivery that seemed to arise as much from his conscience as his vocal cords.

But it wasn't just timbre and elocution that made Davis, who starred on Broadway and in movies such as "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and in TV productions such as "Roots: The Next Generations" (1979), famous and beloved. Davis and his wife, actress Ruby Dee, who survives him, seemed always in the center of a political storm. They were blacklisted during the McCarthy era for communist sympathies; they marched and picketed in major civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s. Davis also delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965. And it was Davis who gave voice to the United Negro College Fund mantra, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" in the well-known ad campaign. ..."

Black History Month... Ossie Davis goes home. I didn't know this news when I quoted M.L. King in an earlier blog. - Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Ossie Davis knew alot about not keeping silent. Read the rest of Julia Keller's syndicated article from the Chicago Tribune.

Auschwitz, Porrajmos; Other matters...

So much to write about... but over the weekend I lost two fairly decent blog entries while trying to finish them. Too painful to blog about.

One was about an interview Carlo heard last Saturday morning on the talk show "uomini e profeti" on italian radio 3 (rai), about what was done to European Roma people during WW II. They said in Rom language they call it the Porrajmos - "il divoramento" - the devouring. That's a terribly powerful image.

The Hebrew community in Italy [UCEI.it] has helped the Roma with their project on that history.

I'll deal with the 2nd lost blog later. I intend to come back to them but probably not right now.

I re-discovered the Jamerican (Jamaican-American) actor Frank Silvera when [Rupert Murdoch's] Sky international satellite broadcast the 1955 movie "Killer's Kiss"; that would be a Stanley Kubrick flick.

It's a shame the cool things one never sees or hears of again in the USA. Luckily Silvera is the inspiration for Garland Lee Thompson's respected Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop [fsww.org] based in Harlem (upper Manhattan), New York. It's a place for playwrights, actors, directors, producers, designers & others. FSWW is also involved with the annual National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Aug 1-6, 2005).

From the 1940s/50s till his death in a home accident in 1970 (repairing the sink electric garbage disposal!) Frank Silvera was a major actor - from New York theatre & Joseph Papp's Shakespeare Festival to Hollywood and back. Just check his bio on IMdB.

But then you look at posters from the movies he was in - like "Killer's Kiss" and "Viva Zapata" and more; but you probably won't find him since even he couldn't overcome the marketing ban against Blacks/people of colo(u)r which today has only been modified. Compared to that I wonder what the NY theatre/Broadway documentation is like.

The next few days we'll be busy - & I'll be skiing!! Not sure exactly what time I'll blog (or if I'll blog early) but we shall see.