who run it?!

both us and uk ambassadors expressed their disgust at russia's vote against the draft of a security resolution council to impose sanctions on zimbabwe's president robert mugabe at the g8 meeting in japan.  there were 15 countries represented in the vote for sanctions, 9 countries voted for the sanctions (belguim, burkina faso, costa rica, croatia, france, italy, panama, uk, united states; 5 countries voted against the sanctions (china, libya, russia, south america, vietnam); 1 country abstained from the vote (indonesia).  because of its position as a permanent council member, russia's vote against sanctions meant a veto of the proposal so their decision to not to vote in favor of the sanctions along with the other members of  g-8 present at the council,  russia received the most criticism and their position in the g8 has been questions to the point where they may be replaced...so who is this infamous g-8?

(from left to right: canadian prime minister stephen harper, uk prime minister tony blair, 

european commission president jose barraso, french president nicholas sarkozy,

 russian president vladimir putin, japanese prime minister shinzo abe, 

german chancellor angela merkel, italian prime minister romano prodi and

 us president george bush

the g-8 is a group of 8 countries and their leaders:  france, germany, italy, britain, japan, canada, russia and the us.  basically, this is the billionaire boys club of world leaders and they get together and meet on how the rest of the world should operate. 

when asked why he decided to vote against the sanctions russian ambassador vitaly churkin said that in this case, sanctions went beyond the un mandate arguing that the conditions in zimbabwe were of no threat to international security.  upon hearing this, it seemed like he was implying that what happened in zimbabwe was of no consequence to the rest of the world, but then south african representative for the african union dumisani kumalo bolstered churkin's reason by saying that sanctions would interfere with existing dialog going on to bring improvements to african countries in both the humanitarian and economic situations.  in addition, the nations who voted against the sanctions never said that they supported mugabe, and some even went on record to call his actions deplorable (at the least), but they don't think that un sanctions are the proper way to being about change.

i agree with that, looking how sanctions have (not) worked in the past, right now they're just a way for the world's "superpowers" to show solidarity and flex their muscle on the rest of the world.  they're lip service used to assuage the reality that there will be nothing done to improve the real problems in zimbabwe.  as we've seen with many other countries; sanctions only make world leaders use more creative ways to further their agendas; oh you want to put us under an arms embargo; well...we'll just begin to develop our own arms industry and in no time we'll be exporting our own semiautomatic weapons.

in addition, i am opposed to the concept of the g8 because they are only going to look seriously at things that help them sustain or even increase their amount of power.  protestors at the meeting in japan from all over the world have offered serious critiques of the g8 to even attempt to address the global food crisis.  the g8 claims to be promoting globalization, but it will surely be for their benefit and at the cost of the rest of the world.

but what does that mean for me, a citizen of one of the most powerful of even the g8 nations?  as stated before, it most likely means i will soon be moving to another country!  people have told me to wait for obama, he'll change things.  i doubt that very highly (c) q-tip. 

word of the day

privation (pry-vay-shun)

noun

1. an act or instance of depriving

2. the state of being deprived of something, especially something required, or desired; destitution; need

song of the day

wanna be there - az

click here to download

too often we're too proud to tell the people we love, that we love them or how much we love them.  in situations like that, the words of this song always play in my head "any love you hold inside, let me see...'cause it won't mean a thing when i leave."  ~az. 

iguess

so, around midnight i drove past the apple store on michigan avenue in chicago to see if anyone was camped out for the release of the 3g iphone and low and behold...there the people were.  now apparently this new iphone is better than the first released version for many reasons; its faster, cheaper, thinner, it has better applications and ITS NEW!  although the g3 iphone will eventually be available in 170 countries, the initial release is limited to 17 countries, so those who get their hands on one will have some serious bragging rights.

so around 5pm i walked past the store again to see if there were still people waiting in line to get the 3g ihpones...

yup...you can't see it in the pic but the line is all the way down the block...

i suppose that camping out for something you really want is worth it.  honestly though, i can't think of many thing's id camp out for.  maybe because things i'm passionate about aren't generally that popular.  as much of a sneakerhead i am, i couldn't imagine myself camping out to buy a pair.  i already am trying to reconcile my material appetite with my abhorrence for american capitalism, i'll be damned if i wait in line for the latest (fill in "must have" consumer good) and give myself more time to think about it.  

word of the day

ininerant (eye-tin-uhr-uhnt)

adjective

passing or traveling from place to place; wandering

song of the day

the o'jays - livin' for the weekend

click here to download

because it's the weekend!

word of the day

adage (ad-ij)

noun

an old saying which obtained credit by long use; a proverb

song of the day

rock steady - aretha franklin

click here to download

the first time i heard this song was in the movie crooklyn (one of my favorite movies), and its been a favorite of mine ever since.

summertime chi...

so i'm here, in chicago to spend a week...of my summer.  gotta love it.  its gonna be a blast.  so in true david letterman fashion i'm going to give you the top 10 reasons why i love chicago in the summer

10.  the daytime events....hella festivals, live performances, block parties and what not

9.  the cta...even without a whip i can get around pretty well

8.  the shopping...2 words, magnificent mile

7.  the skyline...depending on where you're coming from, it can cover the entire horizon, amazing!

6.  the attractions...that bean is intriguing, then when you add things like the museums and zoos, the fountain and shit, its pretty fun

5.  the night life...i dont really club but whenever i get the inkling to, there are places in the chi that i can go to get my fix

4.  the landscape...maybe its because i got my undergrad degree here in public policy but i can see the city's history and future play out in the building and layout of the different neighborhoods

3.  the lake...weather walking down the "beach" or drivin up lake shore drive, its an awesome compannion

2.  the food....the food here is like nowhere else, the deep dish pizza is just the tip of the iceberg

and the number one reason i love chicago in the summer...

1.  the people...c'mon, people make the world go round and my chi town folks...they're great

memin penguin = lil black sambo?

while in the airport earlier i saw a news report about a wal-mart in houston pulling the famous mexican comic memin penguin from its shelves because of the outrage of some african americans.  apparently they felt that the depiction of memin penguin was eerily similar to the character of lil black sambo...

memin penguin and his mother

lil black sambo and his mammy

i will not pretend to ignore the similarities in the two characters, but from what i've heard, memin's character is actually empowering and his comics are encouraging to some of mexico's poorest by giving children messages about how to deal with poverty, death, being tormented for their dark complexion, abandonment and many other issues.  memin penguin is a staple of mexican comics and was even given a commemorative stamp.  

if memin penguin is as positive as people say it is, that's beautiful but it still doesn't excuse the fact that they are using a depiction based on racist images of black people that were the dominant images in the 1940s when the comic first appeared.  mickey mouse doesn't look the same way he did in 1928.  i would suggest that they update memin so he actually looks like a child and not a monkey.

one surprising thing about the whole situation is how our culture of systemic racism here in the united states is exported to other countries.  whites here in this country created the images of the sambo and the mammy, as well as the stereotypical images of latinos and asians as part of a white racial frame, and now we accept and even perpetuate them within our own communities and we also find examples of them being used in mexico and recall if you can the controversy of the image of the sambo being used to sell products in japan click here to see products.   as a result, we have people of different cultures, who've often never had contact with blacks, who already perceive them as criminals, dirty, uneducated and other negative characteristics.  that's a problem because it destroys attempts at solidarity between black americans and other minority or immigrant groups before we get the chance to acknowledge that we often have the same goals of asserting our humanity and be free from oppression

word of the day

recidivism (rih-sid-uh-viz-uhm)

noun

a tendency to lapse into a previous condition or pattern of behavior; especially a falling back or lapse into prior criminal habits

song of the day

what up man - the cool kids

click here to download

since i'll be in chicago tomorrow i figured the song fitting.  plus i think the production is hella creative

word of the day

coruscate (kor-uh-skayt)

intransitive verb

1.  to give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle

2.  to exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style

song of the day

back @ it again - kenn starr ft. median

click here to download

i had to share this with yall.  kenn starr is dope and most have never heard of him.  his word play  is dope...heres an example. "its a fine line between mediocre and dopeness/ so i chose to record this/ till im in the top 5 like oprah on the forbes list/ till i get my weight up like oprah on a fork lift/ competition get ate up like oprah on some pork ribs" ~kenn starr

toe-MAY-toe...toe-MAH-toe

so for the last few days i've been in mississippi spending time with my family and now while sitting at the airport i see the latest news on the salmonella outbreak connected with tomatoes and it just hit me...i've been eating tomatoes the WHOLE time i've been down here, and never thought anything about it.  wanna know why?! because my grandma grows her own tomatoes!  she also grows her own beans, corn, peppers, and blah blah blah, if i didn't know better id think she had some marijuana growing back there somewhere!  the situation got me to thinking about this food crisis.  

if you do regular grocery shopping i'm sure you've noticed an increase in the price of everything from apples to zucchini.  Some blame the price of oil.  Since its up to 4 times more expensive to transport, the  increased expenses for the farming industry are being passed on to us consumers.  there's also been conversation on how the temperature changes that some are connecting to global warming are causing floods, droughts, hurricanes and other national occurrences that are destroying crops. 

this rising cost crisis is coming at a time when people in countries like india and china, who have previously grown their own food, are now buying it due to the country becoming more "industrialized," and the laws of supply and demand say; consumption goes up, demand goes up...so does the price.

i noticed the increase in eggs from $.89 to $1.19, but the increase isn't going to send me force me to file for chapter 13, but for those in third world countries, the increases has caused rioting.  as we've seen just last month, dictator mugabe has already used this crisis to his advantage by banning all foreign aid scheduled to be sent to zimbabwe leaving millions of his own citizens to die of starvation; all to scare them into voting for him.  his recent reelection is a clear sign of how powerful of a political weapon food is becoming.  dictators the world over  and terrorists/revolutionaries the world over might soon be using food money to finance their activities the same way they used use drug money.

so, as i eat homegrown tomatoes in my grandma's kitchen i can't help but think a few things.

1.  maybe if more of us grew our own fruit and veggies, we could avoid being dependent on the conglomerates that manipulate the prices of our sustenance 

2.  when it's time to slang them fruits and veggies...i can set up shop at grannys!

word of the day

sciolism (sy-uh-liz-uhm)

noun

superficial knowledge; a superficial show of learning

song of the day

friendly skies - missy ft. genuwine 

click here to download

since today i'm flying the friendly skies, the song fits.  if you dont like it whatevaman (whateva-watevea-wateva-wateva)

book review: all about the beat

today was one of those days...when i realize how important my research is.  i know i've spoken on it before.  i've mentioned in previous blogs my disdain with the current body of hip hop scholarship because of its refusal to acknowledge the members of the culture and focus on song lyrics and music video images to understand the culture; after tireless work on my literature review and the interviews, sometimes i ask what's the purpose, then i read john mcwhorter's latest book. 

for those unfamiliar with john mcwhorter and his position on hip hop click here. 

i knew from the title "all about the beat: why hip hop can't save black america" that i wouldn't like the book but i felt the need to read the latest propaganda to know what i'm up against. 

mcwhorter's biggest claim is that hip hop is really neither good or bad but that it's just music.  empty lyrics that don't provide listeners with any solutions to the problems that we face in black america.  to support his claims, mcwhorter carefully picks one line snippets from artists like ranging from young jeezy to the roots to show that they are promoting counterproductive perspectives about how to improve things in black america.  he claims that the hip hop idea is that the white man is the problem and having no respect for authority and being destructive is somehow revolutionary.

through out the book, mcwhorter interprets the meaning of hip hop lines, which are rarely used with the context to pick up the full point that the emcee is trying to make. he quotes black though from the roots' game theory album sayin: 

 "false media seems to be the [song] everybody finds especially significant.  the message? ' if i can't work to make it, i'll robe and take it' because i am ' a monster y'all done created."

now anyone who has listened to this album has to wonder how mcwhorter has come to this conclusion after hearing the song 'false media'.  the song is about black thought's purpose of rhyming to educate.  the song overall is a critique of how we buy into the things that the media tells us.  well that's what i got from it but maybe i'm wrong.  click here to listen/download the song.  

the rest of the book continues the same way, with mcwhorter making assumptions about the meanings of song lyrics, and then showing how counterproductive those messages are to improving the conditions of blacks in america.  he also speaks about "hip hop scholars" as if they are using the lure of hip hop to further their careers and are grabbing at straws to even make claims that hip hop has any political or revolutionary elements.  

when he's not using rap lyrics to show the emptiness of hip hop's promise to be revolutionary, he's using statistics.  in defense of the claims from many rappers about the problems with employment in the black community, he cites clinton's 1996 welfare reform that put a 5 year limit of time for single mothers receiving welfare benefits.  he claims that as a result of that program, the welfare numbers have dropped 60% and that the former welfare recipients have been finding work in numbers not seen since the 1970s.  

  i have soooo many problems with this approach.

1.  mcwhorter writes in such a tongue in cheek manner that it implies that anyone who doesn't understand and agree with his arguments can't be an educated or rational person. 

2.  his claims that he listens to and actually likes some hip hop seem like an insincere attempt to gain credibility with readers that he is not someone speaking about hip hop who is unfamiliar with it, but after reading only a few pages, it is obvious that he doesn't get it.

3.  he assumes that the interpretations that he gets from the music are the representations that everyone gets; even after he acknowledges that he is not part of the hip hop community.

4.  he takes lyrics out of context to prove his point.  any position i have heard can be supported by SOMEBODY's lyrics, i honestly have the belief that i could look in the jay-z catalog and find a quote for ANY SITUATION (try me if you want and we can see where this goes).

5.  by limiting hip hop to just rap music lyrics, he completely misses the purpose of the culture.  forget the fact that he ignores the majority of the culture's members,  he doesn't even TRY to consider the work that artists do to improve their communities.

6.  not saying that i am in support of our current welfare system; but it seem obvious that if you take people's benefits away after 5 years, the number of those receiving it will dramatically decrease.  that does NOT ignore the problem that many single mothers who are able to find jobs have problems finding living wages, the number of black men with criminal backgrounds that make it almost impossible to find gainful employment.  rappers continue to point out these issues in our community because those like mcwhorter refuse to acknowledge that they exist

7.  for someone who critiques scholars like michael eric dyson for capitalizing on the popularity of hip hop to advance their careers, he has done the same thing; taking the position of those like stanley crouch.  the title is definitely one that will grab your attention while browsing through barnes and noble, and it seems to have been written quite quickly considering he makes reference to other texts written only a year before this book.

8.  hip hop cannot save black america but then again, NOTHING can save black america.  it would be the equivalent to me writing a book entitled "crown of thorns: why christianity can't save black america"  the problems are as diverse as our community is and there is not one simple solution.  i do know that people in my generation who are doctors, engineers, designers, lawyers are products of hip hop so his claims that it has no positive effect on its listeners is simply not true

like i said...it's experiences like this that drive me to do the research that i'm doing but honestly  it's bigger than hip hop (c) dead prez.  my overall purpose is to push for silenced populations to be able to speak in academia instead of being (mis)represented by outside scholars often with their own biases and ulterior motives.  glad this book reminded me of my purpose.

FINAL WORD: don't wast time even reading this book

word of the day

maudlin (maud-lin)

adjective

tearfully or excessively sentimental

song of the day

mind sex - dead prez

click here to download

the most powerful sexual mechanism is ironically the most neglected.  nothing heightens attraction for me more than stimulating conversation