All the media hype around the $100 million crude oil tanker seajacked by Somalia “pirates” - I just cannot find anything within me to remotely sympathise with the cargo, it’s owner and owners and the crew are just as much victims of exploitation as workers everywhere if not more. Knowing there is a super story to the one being hyped - the other Somali pirates who aren’t actually Somali but those that plunder the seas around Somalia for fish and when they are not doing that they are busy dumping toxic waste into the same seas.

Somebody needs to guard Somali’s water resources, but it certainly isn’t the Americans. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, of the U.S. Navy’s Central Command, patrols the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean - Somalia’s neighborhood. It also bombs Somalis that resist the Ethiopian occupation and targets people the U.S. claims have ties to Al Qaida. But the American fleet does little to interfere with the illegal dumping of radioactive waste in Somali waters or any other crimes against the environment and Somalia’s national treasure and sovereignty.

Via Marian’s blog

Tags:
Somalia
Piracy

As headlines focus on conventions and running mates, the third anniversary of Katrina offers an opportunity to examine the results of disastrous federal, state and local policy on the people of New Orleans. Several organizations have released powerful reports in the past week, examining the current state of the city; while grassroots activists have plans to broadcast their message from the streets. For those who have heard only uplifting stories about the city’s recovery, the facts on the ground offer an urgent reminder of the ongoing disaster.

More than one in three residential addresses – over 70,000 - remain vacant or unoccupied, according to a report by the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. While workers with Brad Pitt’s Make It Right project are working on overdrive to finish the first of their scores of planned houses in the notoriously devastated Lower Ninth Ward, the neighborhood overall ranks far behind other neighborhoods in recovery, with only 11 percent of its pre-Katrina number of households. The same report notes that since the devastation of the city, rents have raised by 46% citywide (much more in some neighborhoods), while many city services remain very limited – for example, only 21% of public transit buses are running.

Race Talk

Tags:
Katrina
New Orleans

*** Oxfamming the word [via No Longer at Ease] from Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina who gave us the wonderful How To Write About Africa.

“Would you like an Oxfam biscuit? Can we fly 103 of you to France to be loved? We can breastfeed you. We can save you from yourself. We can save ourselves from our terrible selves. Help us to Oxfam the whole black world, to make it a better place. We will shut all your industries and build our organic Jeffery Sachs-designed school inside your national parks, where you can commune with nature, grow ecologically friendly crops, trade fairly with eco-tourists and receive visitors from the United Nations every month who will clap when you dance. Instead of sweatshops, we will have Ubuntu shops where you can arrive in biodegradable loincloths to make bone jewellery for caring people who earn $1million a year, live in San Francisco or Cape Town and feel bad about this. In our future world you will have three balanced meals a day. Trust us. You can’t do it yourselves. We have dedicated our lives to you. Come kitties, come to mummy”.

*** White South African blogger, Inside Candy wonders where all the Black bloggers are and wonders if it has anything to do “with access, not enough interest or exposure” - A look at the last census statistics from 2001 should give her some clues although there has been some increase in numbers of Black Middle classes since then and there have been increases in mobile phone ownership and computers.

I realise that this is a potentially loaded question, but where the hell are all the black bloggers hiding? To date, I’ve only met one (I repeat, one) black South African blogger - Obakeng, “The Chief” of ONC Today.

Black Africans (BA) make up 79% of the population v whites (W) at 9%.
BA with higher education - 5% v W 29%
BA with landline or mobile phone -31% v W 95%
BA with own computer 1.8% v W 97%
Unemployment of Black Africans 28% (has risen since 2001) v 4% of whites
Medium annual income of Black Africans 12,000 Rands v 65,400 Rands for whites.

So yes, there are issues of access, cost and time - if it takes you up to 4 hours to get to work and back then blogging is not going to be a priority even if you could afford to have your own computer or access an internet cafe.

Admittedly there are not many but here are some of the blogs by South African POC but I am sure there are many more and as one comment states .

My Realities by the late Busi Sigasa
Loudrastress by Pumla Gqola
Abahlali baseMjondola The Durban Shackdweller Movement
My Haven by Matuba Mahlatjie
Lesbian Rules by Marda Butler
Clement Nyirenda’s Blog World
Township Vibes
SwamiShivapadananda
Lavina Live

*** Speaking of Black bloggers, I am looking for some here in the Britain (recent memories of colonialism leave me choking over the “great” and the “kingdom”). Meanwhile British immigration legislation regresses “ and feeds into the myths and racist assumptions about immigrants living of the state and taking “our jobs. The Labour government plans to introduce more “tests to prove their worth” for anyone wanting to become British fortunately there is resistance from some back benchers.

Ms Smith said migrants from outside the European Economic Area [ Political speak for unwanted especially Muslims] would be encouraged to “move on” through a system that leads to citizenship - or choose ultimately to leave the country.

The package of measures includes:

* Raising visa fees for a special “transitional impact” fund

* More English language testing ahead of nationality

* Requirements to prove integration into communities

* Increasing how long it takes to become British

*** The Zimbabwe elections are due to take place on the 29th March and the big question is how “free and fair” they will be. Sokwanele reports on the recent jeering by crowds as Mugabe celebrated his 84th birthday

While the protestors danced and sang, a helium-filled blimp was raised 100 metres above the bridge with a banner that cast doubt on the integrity of elections due for March 29. “Free and fair or just hot air,” ran the slogan on one side of the balloon while the other called on President Mugabe to, “Have your cake… and beat it!”

*** Larry Pinkney of the Black Commentator continues to be one of the few and in my opinion rational voices in the midst of the Obama bandwagon and the myths of the “change” rhetoric. In Goose Stepping Behind Obama: The Absense of Critical Thinking Pinkney writes:

Resigning one’s self to voting for the so-called “lesser of the two evils” plays right into calculated corporate hands of media manipulations and the disempowering Democrat and Republican Parties. By the same token, euphorically goose-stepping behind the candidacy of Barack Obama, or any other Democrat or Republican, is tantamount to choosing death by hanging as opposed to death by firing squad. This is not exercising a choice. It is dangerous and ridiculous non-choice, especially in America - the so-called bastion of democracy.

Finally, Passing Thoughts by Kameelah reflects on the politics of race, passing, Islam in the US and South Africa

This choice almost immediately flung me into the forever foreigner stages whereby everyone I encountered while living in Washington D.C. to living in Cape Town, South Africa saw me not as Black but as “something else” because of course there are no Black Muslims, only African Muslims and because of course only real Muslims wore full hijab. As I learned, quite interestingly, the hijab had the power to erase elements of indigenous Blackness in favor of a more “authentic” international Blackness associated with African countries like the Sudan,

Tags:
Blogging
Black Britain
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Oxfam + NGO
US Elections

*** Freedom Rider on the “Obama Cult”. What a relief.

They are every where, like pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If you don’t fall asleep and turn into a pod person too, they are out to get you.

I mean Obama supporters of course. If their adoration for cynical nothingness wasn’t so dangerous it would be funny.

*** Kameelah Writes is hyped up on Wax Poetic and Holga cameras and refuses to apologise for her “lack of excitement” over the primaries.

*** One I missed is Mike Tyson’s visit to South Africa and his hope of meeting with Winnie Mandela - WHAT! and Jacob Zuma - no surprise there. Loudrastress publishes a press releases asking people not to welcome Tyson in a country “where 1 in 4 women are beaten by their male partners and 1 in 3 are likely to be raped in their life time”

Last year over 52 000 rapes were recorded in South Africa - of which approximately 20 000 victims were girls under the age of 18. Although these figures are already horrendous, it is widely agreed that they are significantly inaccurate and that the real rate of rape is much higher but unreported.

Given this mantle of violence under which South African women must live, Mike Tyson is a highly insulting choice for a hero, and any suggestion that he has “changed” must be treated with the contempt it deserves: his conversion to Islam whilst serving a prison term for rape some years ago certainly made no noticeable difference to his attitude towards women, and only 3 months ago he was convicted of drug abuse and drunken driving. If newspaper reports are to be believed, it seems Tyson never misses an opportunity to demean and vilify women (see attached quotes). Is this has-been athlete with an on-going penchant for violating women someone South Africans should lionize? Is this a man we should present to South African children as someone to admire and emulate?

*** African Path reports on the merging of Tampax, Always and HERO (an awareness building and fundraising initiative of the UN).

“Working with HERO, the Protecting Futures program brings together the brands’ global resources to help make a positive impact on these young girls by improving access to feminine hygiene products as well as education and health services,” said Michelle Vaeth, Protecting Futures Program Director for P&G. “Through this program, Tampax and Always will help build an infrastructure that – with support from local and national governments - can give children in these communities the chance to reach their full potential.”

*** From Stereohyped’s Daily Dose of BHM on Wilma Rudolph, who despite having polio as a child, became the first American to win three gold medals at the Olympics.

She won a bronze medal in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but it was during hte 1960 Rome Olympics that she broke the record with three gold medals. After retiring from sports, Rudolph became a teacher and sports commentator. She died of brain cancer in 1994.

*** Haitian Justice reminds us there is still no news on Haitian activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who has been missing since 11th August last year. The third annual solidarity with the Haitian people takes place on February 29th. Finally the publication of the book by Peter Hallwood, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment.

*** Sabbah publishes an extract from the “US Campaign to end Israeli Occupation - “$2.55 billion in military aid to Israel”…. One of the comments writes

Bush wont listen.
It doesn’t matter what anyone says. BUSH WONT LISTEN.
As much as most of the world hates OBL, Bush is the same person, only just on the other side.
Until Bush is gone there will be pandering for the Israelis.
After that event, there will be more pandering.
AIPAC controls the US.

The more important question is, if he becomes President, WILL OBAMA LISTEN?

Someone apparently thinks Dr. Maya Angelou is a “ho” because she supports Mrs Clinton and not Mr. Obama. Hmmm. I know this will generate hits for them, but who knows, maybe you can scold them, or tell someone else to scold them, your congressman, for example, could turn into an effective scolder, or blog shutter. Whatever comes to mind. For indeed, truly, this is stupid.